Happy Easter and once again...Catching up

Well, it's me again being a slacker about blogging. I try, I really do, but there is so much going on around here that I just don't make time to blog. Ashleigh moved to North Carolina 2 weeks ago and that has been a huge adjustment around here. We miss her like crazy but I know she is going to do really well there. She is living with my parents, it started out with my brother but with his work schedule she just wasn't ready to stay over night by herself. So much for "I'm 19 and I can do what I want" she is just not ready to grow up yet. So she is living with Mom and Dad, looking for a job and signing up for a summer class at the community college. I talk to her everyday and she really was homesick at first but she is getting better.
A friend of mine got a puppy and Ashleigh brought him to the house a couple nights before she left. His name is Gizmo and he really is sweet.




The cat wasn't sure what to make of this dog that was smaller than him. He kept checking him out.

The puppy kept chewing on Rusty's ears and his chin.

We went to church with my mother in law today, for Easter, and then everyone went to her house for dinner. It was a really nice time and it was great to see everyone.

This is my great-nephew, Mason, isn't he the absolute cutest?! He's 2 and already he loves that football.
He was also really excited about the easter egg hunt.
Blake and Mason are good friends, Blake loves to play with him.
My mother in law has a fish pond in her front yard and the kids love to try to find the fish. Blake was trying to keep Mason from taking a header into the water.

You've met Mason, now here is Mason's parents, Michael and Misty. Michael was in a horrible accident 6 years ago and we weren't really sure if he was going to make it or not. He was in a moving van in a parking garage and the garage fell on the truck crushing the cab. He broke his neck and was on a ventilator. Now 6 years later he's married (she was dating him when he had the accident) and has this beautiful little boy. God sure is good.
My nephew Jacob and my sister in law Bev. She is also Michael's mom.
One of my other nephew's R.J. Notice the tie? It's the Redskins, this whole family is a family of fans.

My niece Kelly and her boyfriend David. She is Michael and Jacob's sister. Kelly is 2 years younger than I am which is kind of weird that she is Rusty's niece but my sister in law is 12 years older than Rusty's brother. I've mentioned that before and I do need to tell you that story.

Jacob again and his girlfriend Sherry. I have more picture of other people, other than Bev's family but they didn't load for some reason. Oh, well, we had a nice day, we really missed Ashleigh and it didn't seem the same without her. We didn't make it to sunrise service like we had planned, Rusty did something to his back over the weekend and I wasn't sure he was going to make it out of bed for regular services. He helped cook 400 chicken halfs and I don't know how much beef for a church that was selling it to raise money for relay for life. Good cause but he's paying for it now. Hell getting old, isn't it. Oh, by the way, I had mentioned going back to church in another post, we did and loved it. We already know so many people there and Blake has so many friends that go there, I really missed going today but we will be there next Sunday. It's a wonderful loving church and it's a very active church also. I grew up in an active church and I've missed that.

I promise to try and keep more on top of this, please bear with me and don't give up on me.

Good night.

One Tree HIll

Do we have any One Tree Hill fans out there? For those who don't know it is a show on the WB. (well it used to be the WB, then they changed the name of the channel) Anyway, this show is filmed in Wilmington, NC, where Ashleigh has just moved. You can go to the movie studio and tour the set, which of course we've done. Ashleigh has also been on the set for Dawson's Creek. Actually, what they called Dawson's Creek and where alot of filming was done was right around the corner from my parent's first house they lived in there. My brother's fiance (oh yeah, those that know him he got engaged over the weekend, we are so excited and happy for them) is a professor at UNCW and One Tree Hill will be filming at the college on Thursday in Denise's (the fiance) hall and Ashleigh is going to get to go there and watch them film. She is so excited and as she put it "I think I might pee my pants I'm so excited." ha ha They do alot of movies in that area, more than I think anyone really realizes, more than I realized. It's nothing to see a street closed and cameras everyone. My Mom and my brother have seen quite a few tv/movie stars around town. I'm always on the lookout when we are down there, you never know who you might see and John Travolta owns a home there. You never know, you just never know.

Baseball, Church and Blake

As I mentioned before we are gearing up for baseball. Blake has his first practice this coming Saturday and he's very excited. He went to a baseball clinic last Thursday and Friday and had a blast. The youth pastor at the church we have visited does a baseball clinic and a football clinic for anyone who wants to attend. He does it for free out of the goodness of his heart. He also coaches football with Rusty. On Friday evening, after the bseball clinic, he witnessed to the kids. All 3of my children asked Jesus into their heart when they were about 8 or 9, except Blake, he was seven and had alot of questions. The thing is, he completely understood all of it. When he came home Friday night he was very excited because they were given New Testaments. He loves the Bible, I mean really loves the Bible. He will sit down for hours and read it. He has a children's Adventure Bible that is wonderful. But when he came through the door, he ran over to me and said "I have a very important question to ask you." I told him to go ahead and ask and he said "Is asking Jesus into my heart the same thing as being saved?" I told him yes it is and he had this total complete look of relief on his face. He said "I thought so, but I wanted to make sure because I don't want to go into the lake of fire." He had such a fire lit in his soul and that is all he talked about all weekend. He was also very concerned over what was worse, hell or the lake of fire, so we had quite a few conversations about that and then he would get his Bible and look everything up. We haven't been to church in a while and though we keep talking about how we need to get back to it, we haven't gone. On Sunday afternoon he looked and me and said "We really need to go to church." So guess what? We will be in church on Sunday. Who knows, we might have a future preacher on our hands. Who knew...

Alive and Kicking

Uh, yeah, well, I am still here. Is anyone out there still checking in with me to see if I've actually posted anything? I know I've been bad about doing this but I do have an excuse. Well, it's a good excuse, I think. Ashleigh is moving and we've been busy trying to make plans and get things done for her here and there. She is moving to N.C. to live with my brother. I know, I know she's not moving out on her own but it's kind of like being on her own. She won't be living with parents or grandparents. So she will kind of be on her own but will still have someone that checks up on her. College? That's another story all in it's own. She didn't do so well her first semester so she decided to take a break. I'm not really sure what that means except there has been alot of sleeping in late and not doing much of anything going on with her. She said she is going to start back with college in the fall, ok, there went that money right down the prverbial drain. But at least she is saying she wants to go back. I don't think she realized how much she was going to have to work, nothing like skating through high school. But hopefully she is back on the right track and this will be a good move for her.

We've all been sick off and on with this stupid flu or whatever it is that has been going around. Believe me that hasn't been any fun either.

Baseball is getting ready to start up around here and Blake can't wait. He has his first practice next Saturday. Rusty went to a football clinic with the other board members and some of the coaches this weekend and had a great time. As you know, around here it's football all the time even during baseball season.
Other than these few things there hasn't been much going on around here.

I will leave you with this little "Heard around our house"..

Blake(coming out of the bathroom) "Mom, smell my hand."
Me "No, I am not smelling your hand, did you wash your hands?"
Blake "Yes, I washed my hands, smell my hand."
Me "No"
Blake "Mom, please it smells good."
Me "It does smell good, what did you do?"
Blake "I spilled shampoo on it"
Me "What were you doing with the shampoo?"
Blake "Smelling it, I spilled it on my hand by accident."
You never know what to expect at our house.

Have a great night.