Just Had to Post

We went to my friend Mandy's house yesterday to let the girls play together (she has three 8, 6, and 1 1/2) We went to Chic-fil-a for lunch (because the girls could still play) and Mandy and I got to catch up!! YAY! It was long overdue, we were together for about 4 hours and we probably could have caught up for another 8... not that it has really been that long (we do keep in touch) we just always have other distractions. I made sure I took my camera because I had come across a picture of Abby, Emma, and Alex when Emma and Alex were babies... so I wanted to take another picture of them now... about 5 years later. The funnier pictures probably would have been me and Mandy Then and Now. We have been friends since 5th or 6th grade...(that would be approximately 22 years! WOW!! Now that is a friend!) Maybe I will try to at least search for a then picture of us to post... that might be funny... What do you think, Mandy??
So here are our girls THEN:

And NOW:
(When I finally remembered to take out my camera Sarah was taking a nap... she is a cutie patootie, too!... Don't we have cute kids?)

You Got a Friend

WoW! it has been a while. We have not done A LOT lately, but what we have done... I have not brough my camera with us. So, here is a picture from a play date that Alex had the other day. We have been going to the pool A LOT and I was really sorta tired of it, and had plenty of things that I could do at home... so, I asked Alex if she wanted me to see if CB could come over and play? Having a friend over helps me and it is great for her. I called her mom to see if she could come over, and it was great timing for her mom as well. they were leaving to go out of town the next day and she needed to get some things done before they left. I can really appreciate having some time to do things without a 5 year old around (as much as I love her!!) and it is now so much easier to have friends over... she is finally at an age that I dont feel like I have to constantly watch her every move. They played outside in our kiddie pool, and inside played school, and then practiced for a performance. they "wrote" these songs and sang for me several times, and then for CB's mom when she came to pick her up. i have a video of it, too that I want to post... but I have to get jody to show me how to download it onto the computer. i will try to post it later, it is really cute. So here is a picture from the show (Corey and Erin please do not judge... I realize this is NOT a good picture, but it is the only one that I got! and I wanted to post something from the day!)

"Summer, Summer, Summertime"

We made our first trip of the summer to the lake weekend before last. Alex and I left Friday evening... it had been a long week for us being the last week of school, so I wanted to get there Friday rather than Saturday morning. Alex and I took the two dogs, and left Jody and Jordan behind. BTW!!! Can't believe I have not done a whole blog on this alone... BUT... Jordan finally got his driver's license!! YEAH!!! Jody just has one little thing to do to the SUBE and he will be able to drive it... Woo-HOO! Anyway, Jody had to take Jordan to the airport for him to go to his mom's for the summer. Jordan left late Saturday, so Jody did not get to come until Sunday morning and was really only going to stay for the day, but he rode his motorcycle and there were thunderstorms all around the area on sunday evening, so he decided to stay until Monday morning. Mom and Lexi and Attie all came on Saturday morning. When mom got there on Saturday, she, Alex and I all went to the lake while dad piddled with something that was wrong with the circuit at the barn. We had fun laying out and eating our lunch on the pier. Mom and I decided that we needed to do something to repair some weather damage around one of the windows at the house, so we went to Anniston and bought the materials to do it while dad and Alex rode four wheelers (Alex is getting really good). Mom left Sunday afternoon before all of the storms hit... Jody left pretty early Monday morning, and Alex and Dad and I went to the Hub for breakfast. Then I had been wanting to go visit the dam for a while, and Alex had begun to ask quesions about how the lake got there and we decided after breakfast to go and do some driving around and looking at some things that we had not seen in a while... like the dam. Here are ome pictures of our little adventure ( R.L. Harris Dam)
(R. L. Harris Dam a little closer)
(warning signs on the dam... I want to go back when they actually open the gates... I think it would be pretty cool to see all of the water coming through)
(The Tallapoosa River looking the opposite direction of the dam.)

After we left the dam... we decided to do some riding around and Dad wanted to see what had happened to this little development that they were advertising as a "restricted" community... and I laughed as we went through, because I thought that was a silly way to describe a neighborhood. Well as it turns out I guess the few houses in this non-water community took the term restricted pretty seriously.

(First we had a deer cross our path.... that was pretty cool)

Then we drove to what apparently was a dead end into a driveway... and here is what greeting us... several nice signs!

(This truck was sitting kinda up an embankment to the side of the road... I thought it was sorta funny at first... but then the more you study the situation, you realize these people are pretty serious about the "restrictiveness" of thier neighborhood.)

(Yes... that is the sign on the back of the truck)(look closely in the tree and I guess that we were videotaped as we drove up to the property... I actually did not notice this while we were there, I just saw it in the pictures as I was cropping for the blog)(And yes... even though these people are going to kill us... they are apparently believers in keeping the ten commandments in the courts... Go Figure!)
(And if you dare to venture on to the drive, which by the way does not look much different than the street itself, you will be greeted with even more signs)(DON'T WORRY... WE WERE'NT!!)