Facebook. etc.

Well, I was informed by my friend at church that many of our mutual friends from Sunday School had Facebook accounts (not to mention my little sis) so I decided to join. Let me tell you, there's a lot of people out there in Facebook world. I must say I still enjoying blogging and looking at friends' blogs better than Facebook but it's a good way to find old friends out there in cyberspace world that you've lost track of. The advantage of Facebook over MySpace is that you people have to invite you to be their "friends" before you can look at their page. The con to this is that you can't snoop and look at people lives that you're just curious about but don't really want to commit to, but I know it is much better this way. It's amazing how many high school kids from our church have asked me to be their "friend" that don't even really know me. I discussed this with Melissa S. and we just thought the more friends the better the kids look no matter if it's an old lady with 2 kids. However, I know if they are asking me to be their friend on their site it means they have nothing to hide from an adult on their page which is quite refreshing to me and I'm sure to their parents as well. There's no doubt that if I had a pre-teen/teen and they were computer literate that I would also have an account on all of these types of websites and make sure my child made me a friend so I could make sure they were on the up and up. I feel it is vitally important for parents these days to keep up with technology and keep track of their kids web usage as well. There's too much danger out there not to. So, I guess Meredith and Alli better watch out for Mama as they get older!

I don't really have any recent pictures from this week. Meredith has had a couple of friends come over to play and we've gone to other friends' houses to hang out so it was a nice week. Here's some pictures of Meredith in gymnastics from the Spring.

I went to Little Rock for the day yesterday for a state PTA convention which was interesting. I can really see some areas that our little school can improve in as far as communication and getting parent involvement which is exciting. Now, if I'm just ready to put the work into it. It's easy to get ideas but difficult to actually put them to use, isn't it?

Anelise accepted to Duke!

I know some of you have been praying for my friend Chairee's baby girl, Anelise. Well, I have great news. They are on their way to Duke tomorrow for her life saving thymus gland transplant. Hallelujah! Please continue to keep them in your prayers for they have a long journey ahead of them. For those of you who don't know, Anelise was born on April 4 with DeGeorge Syndrome which is a very rare disease in which she was born with no thymus glands, which means she has no immune system. The only place in the world that does the thymus gland transplant is Duke University in North Carolina. I'll keep you posted.

Fourth of July at Aunt Nancy's & Uncle Jimmy's

Here's a slide show of pictures I took during our 4th of July celebration.  I hope you enjoy!  I believe if you just click on the slideshow you can look at the pictures bigger.  If you would like any copies of these pictures, please let me know and I'll e-mail them to you.

American Girl Movie

On Friday mid-day me, the girls, my mom, Aunt Staci, Aunt Carrie and Carlee all headed to the movie theatre to catch the American Girl movie.  I was just excited to be able to see a G rated movie that wasn't animated.  It was a really cute movie and Meredith especially enjoyed it.  I did think it was a little slow in the beginning so it didn't hold Alli's interest too well, but hey, she's just 3 so I knew what to expect.  However, Aunt Carrie's stash of candy helped keep her interest until it picked up a little in the second half of the movie.  I really thought it was important for our family to support this movie so the big movie companies would, hopefully, continue to put out movies such as this.  The movie was set in the Depression and it is from a 10 year old girl's viewpoint of the era.  The excitement comes when Kit (the 10 year old girl) must solve the mystery of who is stole her mother's money.  I would encourage anyone with girls about 4 or 5 years up to go see it!  

Welcome Harriet the Mouse, I mean Hamster!

I made a quick jaunt to Broken Arrow on Wednesday to celebrate Independence Day with my family this year and we came back Friday night after the fireworks festivities.  On Wednesday me and the girls were introduced to Aunt Staci's new pet, Harriet the Hamster.  We've come a long way from feeding the mice to the snakes at the Nature Center to petting one.  I think Staci surprised my parents last week with her new pet as well.  She is very cute and sweet and doesn't have the mousey tail (aren't you glad Melisa Y?).  She has a very pink plastic cage and likes to bury herself in her bedding in her igloo house.  The girls were thrilled with the little thing and I was scared for its little life while the girls fought over holding her.  She did survive and I think spent most of the time hiding while we were there.  I'll post some picture from our 4th of July in the next post.

  

Fish Market

Well, I've gotten a little lazy since we made the trip home on Saturday so I haven't posted in a few days.  So, I'll write about the last day in Gulf Shores/Orange Beach.  Basically, Michael and the girls hung out at the beach and we went to a pizza joint for lunch that was located at "The Wharf."  This is a neat place that a giant ferris wheel and shopping area.  The girls received their "Build-a-Bears" they were promised by their daddy if they were good (we're not above bribery).  

We then saw "Wall-E" at the movie theatre there and it was cute.  There was no real scary parts in the movie which was great for Meredith.  Basically it was a political type movie that made fun of humans and how they trash the earth and a cleaning robot that was left on earth to clean up the trash falls for a modern robot sent to earth to check out if life can be sustained there again.  You see, all of the humans have been shipped to outerspace on a cruise like spaceship due to the clutter.  The humans that live on the aircraft cannot walk and are all fat due to the fact that all they do is sit in their flying seats and watch their individual tv screens and talk to friends, play games, etc.  You get the drift.  It was a cute movie but I think Michael got a little bored with it.  I found it more entertaining though then some of the Strawberry Shortcake movies that I have sat through if that makes you feel any better. 

Following the movie we then headed back to the condo for a couple of hours before Michael sent Hannah and I to pick up some fresh steamed red shrimp "royal reds" at what I thought was just a restaurant that only did take out.  Well, when Hannah and I walked in the joint I discovered it was really a fish market and the smell was pretty strong (Hannah was gagging if that gives you any indication).  Oh yeah, did I mention that we were the only gals there that were unaccompanied and they didn't take credit cards.  Okay, if you know me, I rarely carry much cash so I had to write a check.  Am I the only one that feels weird writing a check for anything other than paying bills?  I always feel like they think I'm writing a hot check so after waiting in line in a fish market/bait place that stunk with a bunch of men I had to order a bunch of ugly red shrimp and write a check.  Oh yeah, did I mention there was a tip jar by the cash register that everyone was leaving tips in, but of course, I couldn't because, as I mentioned before, I had no cash.  So, as we waited for our shrimp to be steamed I realized I forgot to purchase cocktail sauce so when it was ready I had the opportunity to write another large check for $3.27 for cocktail sauce.  (at least that time he didn't ask for id).  So, Hannah and I then drove back to the condo with the windows open to let the air in to hide the smell.  The good news is that the shrimp were really good and Hannah was brave enough to shell and eat a steamed shrimp for the first time in her life.

Water Park and attempted pictures

Well, yesterday we went to the waterpark and attempted some family pictures on the beach. I guess I kind of feel about waterparks the way Michael feels about zoos so were even. However, we actually ended up having a lot of fun at the ole Waterville park. Unfortunately Alli wasn't quite tall enough to go on the big waterslides but she still had fun going on the smaller ones and in the two kiddie pools they had. Meredith had a blast on the big waterslides and the small ones and she was much braver then I expected. Hannah went on her first roller coaster ride in the amusement park side of the place and she seemed to have a blast as well. I liked the fact that most of the big water slides let you ride down on two or three person rafts so several of us could ride together. It was so fun to hear Meredith just cackling (sp?) on the way down. We didn't brave bringing the camera though due to fear of it getting broken or stolen so you'll just have to take my word for it. However, Michael woke up sore this morning and my neck hurts so I guess were just not as young as what we used to be.

We then came home and cleaned up and headed to the beach to attempt pictures in the standard khaki and white. I guess those colors are so popular due to their clean look but seeing so many people out on the beach at sunset in those colors just makes me want to show up in all black just to be different. I also have a lot more wardrobe choices in black which is also an advantage. It's like a giant khaki and white cult shows up and you are interchangeable with anyone's family that's there at the beach. It's pretty humorous. But, are we about to really go against the fad? No way, we just show up dressed like the rest of them.

After the beach pictures, Hannah is kind enough to watch the girls for us while Michael and I go to dinner at the "Original Oyster House" and it was fantastic! I thought it was by far the best seafood we've had since our arrival. Anyway, I would encourage anyone coming this direction to definitely make a stop there. I would suggest going late (like we did) or very early to avoid the long wait. When we arrived back at the condo Hannah had put both of the girls to bed and asleep and it was so nice! Thanks Hannah!