Another One

Ok, so I have another book to add to my list of "Why do I torture myself?" books. I've been reading The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle for a week or two now because a group of Midway people (some teachers, some moms, etc.) do a book club and I thought it would be fun, and this was the book they chose. It's also the One Read for Columbia through the Daniel Boone Library. Anyway, so I bought it, and I've been reading it. It's confronting the issue of illegal immigration, which pretty much has everyone in an uproar right now (although, what doesn't have people in an uproar, it's 2 weeks before Election Day). It follows two couples, one upper class white couple with everything they could want and one illegal Mexican couple with nothing, camping in a canyon trying to save up enough money for an apartment. Anyway, I read it, and from about the moment I started it, I knew it was going to be just like the John Steinbeck books I get sucked into and then wonder why I even bother, since I mostly want to throw myself off the nearest cliff once I'm done with them. And this was about the same as reading The Pearl, the poor couple get bad break after bad break, are constantly on the brink of being killed, deported, or something of that nature. The only difference is the white couple also has major issues... so there's really no happy ending at all. Every time something good happens, and life is looking up, especially for the Mexican couple, they get robbed, hit by a car, raped, or run out of their "house" (and I use that term loosely) by a forest fire. Seriously, as soon as something good happens, something even worse happens: someone gives them a free turkey on Thanksgiving, and they start a forest fire that nearly kills them (and a lot of other people) while trying to cook it. It gets a little redundant. The book itself is good, the writing is excellent, I feel for the characters, and understand the pertinence and reality of the situation, but I am reminded (again) of my reasons for sticking to kids books. At least it will make interesting discussion at the book club meeting, I'm interested to hear what everyone else thinks! 

We Are The Champions!!!

Well, the experts all said it would be over in 5 or 6 games... and it was. Just not with the outcome they predicted! And this guy had a lot to do with it! I love this guy! We were so excited when he was named MVP... but my favorite part was listening to him giggle when the Chevrolet guy was giving him the new car! Anyway, it was an awesome game, an awesome series, and an awesome post-season to be a Cards fan! First year in the new stadium, too... SWEET!

Happy Halloween

I got a forward of a bunch of dog costumes this week, and I couldn't resist putting this one up here just for Jessica's friend, Julie! Without her I wouldn't have a clue what an IG even was... and I certainly wouldn't have the lovely mental image of what happened right after this picture was taken. Which, in my head, goes something like this... camera flash goes off, dog is gone, bolting around the yard like a giant sausage with the tootsie roll costume bouncing around and eventually just peeling off from sheer wind force as the dog tears around the yard in a state of bliss... but that's just in my head... what do you see? :)

Happy Birthday!

Geez, what's with October and birthdays?! Anyway... can't ignore that today is, in fact, my sweet baby brother Char-Char's 20th birthday! Hard to believe there's only one of us left a teenager! Love you, Charlie! 

Tim's (Belated) Birthday

Well, we finally made it down to Springfield to celebrate Tim's birthday this weekend, and we had a great, relaxing trip! We mae our way down on Friday, and stopped and ate at Culver's at the Lake. We'd been wanting to for a long time, and finally just decided we would... it was awesome! They have great burgers, and the fresh frozen custard like Andy's. Saturday we headed to the city, and spent most of the day there. Tim and Josh tried on some fantastic hats, and we ate, rode, and shopped our way around the park. I was just excited to have Connie there so I didn't have to be the one dragging everyone into the Christmas store! But I was still the last one out, go figure! We left the park early (for us), and headed back to Springfield for a little Cardinals World Series action! Mom made us spaghetti, and it was great, and we sat around and watched a fantastic first game of the World Series! Sunday morning we got up, went to church, and then headed to Zio's for lunch. Talk about great Italian food! All in all we had a great time visiting and enjoy everyone's company! Happy (late) birthday, Tim! :) 

Funny Pictures

I was doing some cleaning a couple of weekends ago, and found some truly horrific pictures from years ago... so, naturally, I had to scan them in and post them, may as well make the humiliation public! :) Anyway, these are two pictures, one from July 1990, and one from much more recent, I think from about 3 or 4 years ago (I don't know, it was whenever Jessica was getting engaged, because that's why she's not in the picture, she was off on her cruise). A little background... the 1990 one was taken on the bank of Grandma and Grandpa Price's pond, I assume we had just been fishing. As for why Jessica is holding Charlie upside down... well, that's just what you do to little brothers. I particularly like the maniacal grin on Jessica's face... and, of course, the lovely and stylish acid-washed denim short overalls... a classic style statement! Then again, I have a worm in my hand, so you judge who is worse off! :)

The other picture is from when the church was making a photo directory, and we went to get family pictures taken (sans Jessica, but I don't think she was missing us). We thought it'd be fun to get one of the siblings, but we just couldn't stop laughing long enough for the photographer to snap the picture. Naturally, it was all Charlie's fault! So the guy got so fed up that he took this one instead. Which I actually like better then the serious, posed ones we did (eventually) get taken. Anyway, finding these pictures just made me smile and laugh, and reminded me of how much I enjoy my siblings (most of the time, of course)! Love you all!

WoooHooo!

After a very thrilling last inning, the CARDS ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!!! YAY!!! Josh and I were watching, and as soon as that last strike was caught and called, we went a little crazy (much to Truman's displeasure, as he raced up the stairs with a tail 4 time its normal size). Lots of naysayers after the Cards less then stellar finish to the regular season, but all I have to say is...

Na-na, nananana... you can finish the rest of the Looten Fight Song yourself, I'm headed to bed!

Birthday Party

Just pictures from Ruth's birthday party! She had stromboli (always a favorite) and red velvet cake. Luckily, this year the cake was less, well, dense than last year's, which hit the plate with a resounding "thwack." Anyway, she cleaned up on presents, but Nala thinks she got the best present of all: shiny curling ribbon! We all had a great time; love you, Ruthie! 

Lock-In, Part I

The Sleepers... Ok, so we had this lock-in as a prize for the kids for selling raffle tickets (in addition to the leg shaving, which is in the next entry down!) so we decided to make it all about them. We didn't give them a lights-out time, and we gave them all the food they could handle. We had 22 kids, and it seemed like they had a great time. We played games, ate, played soccer, played video games, did the DDR (Dance Dance Revolution), just your typical lock-in stuff, after the Hickman/Rockbridge football game. I headed for bed upstairs in a pew at about 4 am... about in the middle of the pack. But, since there was no bedtime, most kids just slept where they fell, and by morning the church basement looked like a homeless shelter. Check out the pictures below... Josh stayed up all night with them, except for the brief nap he took on his hand. Brandon (Paul Bunyan) was the last one to fall asleep, and he slept in the chair. Charlie crawled under a table because he wanted to sleep on the floor (it was cool) but not in the middle of a room. He was so asleep that when I dropped the full jug of SunnyD on the table above his head from about 6 inches, he didn't even stir. Then just about every Sunday School room had a random assortment of kids sleeping on (or under) the table. It was quite entertaining, but I doubt we'll be doing an "No Bedtime" lock-in again... at least not for a long while! Read the next few entries for more stories about what the kids did when they were awake!

Lock-In, Part II

Alright, here are more pictures of the Lock-In! At the top right, you can see Josh sporting a lovely Tennessee Titans scarf while pushing Greg to the Hickman/Rockbridge "Providence Bowl." And that was about the best thing that happened the whole night for us HHS fans... they lost 48 to 0, and I'm impressed it was only 48! It was not pretty! So that was definitely not the best part of the Lock-In...

The Little Debbie Snack Relay, however, was flippin' sweet, as my husband is fond of saying lately. Basically, they had to race down the aisle at the church, grab a Little Debbie snack out of a bag, eat it, and run back. The first team to get through all of their snacks won. The picture is of Brandon (aka Paul Bunyan) going head to head with Kelly... Kelly, as you can probably guess, did not stand a chance! But it was a lot of fun, and I think we got most of the ground up LD snack pieces out of the carpet! Good thing the janitor came after we left on Sunday!

Another major highlight during the lock-in was the Grand Leg Shaving! The youth chose, as part of the Fish Fry, their prize for selling raffle tickets would be to shave the boys' legs. They had to raise $500 for Josh's, and $200 each for Charlie and James... they raised over $1000, so all the boys had to do it! It was pretty entertaining... My favorite is the contrast between Josh's legs when he was done shaving just one... he had some pretty bad wookie hair. It was also pretty hilarious watching the boys... James and Josh kind of hammed it up, while Charlie pulled his chair behind them and was heard to be mumbling "I hate you guys..." under his breath.. don't know who he could have been talking about... hmmm, something to ponder. Needless to say it is quite humorous to listen to them talk about how funny their pant legs feel now... and it hasn't even started to grow out yet! Ahhh, what they sacrifice in the name of youth ministry!