‘Fro Me to You--- Queen for a Year

This week’s installment of Kristen’s Sincerely ‘Fro Me to You carnival is a last minute decision.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, completely beyond my control, I have postponed my planned photo classic.

As some of you may know, my college buddies and I have declared flashback-photo “war” on one another over on facebook.  What began as an innocent 40 year old’s reflective photo montage, has turned into a battle of middle-aged women vying for the imaginary Best Flashback Photo Award!

Anyhoo, the newest “war” upload has provided today's  ‘frotastic photo jewel,  provided by none other than my BFF Teresa.  To whom I am still sucking up to after my declaration of “war" post which revealed three of us in some sort of wallpaper wardrobe fiasco.  That photo alone would fit the requirements of today’s theme. 

*sorry ADD moment*    On with today’s photo:

One of my favorite memories from college is playing intramural field hockey.  Nothing like girl’s at a women’s college taking out their frustrations on a field wielding wooden sticks and chasing a hard plastic ball.  Oh yea, I must not leave out the cute plaid skirts. 

I think it was my senior year that I was nominated as Captain of the senior team.  Which probably doesn’t mean a whole lot to you, but for me, it lead me to my one and only official coronation! 

As the Captain of the “Hockey Day” winning team, may I Sincerely present ‘Fro Me to You, my crowning achievement as “Hockey Day Queen of 1988”

 

 

*elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist* 

*snort*

*giggle*

If you liked this, you can find more over at Kristen’s place….go, look, laugh…..and come back next week for more.

 

Wordless Wednesday

Wrapping Up

This is our last full week of the Summer of 2008. As usual, time has flown by for the kids who are not ready to get back in the classroom. However, the parents think the break has drug on long enough!

The school supplies have been bought, the class rosters are up and now we sit and wait for August 7th to arrive! The anticipation for me might be like the Princess’ for the release of High School Musical 3.

We’ve had a great summer with a few fun trips. But part of the summer fun has not involved leaving our house.

The kids are 26 months apart and I often refer to them as “partners in crime”. I’m not sure how it is in other households with boy/girl siblings, but mine spend an decent amount of time playing nicely together. Now, don’t get me wrong, they have their moments of “he’s touching me” or “she’s messed my things up”. But for the most part they have a lot of fun together.

This summer has been one spend the night party after the next. No, not with other kids. In each other’s room. It looked something like this:

And this morning I found them like this:

I’ve missed a couple of great photo opportunities. Like when the Polly Pockets were allowed to play in the newly built Lego structures. Or the lining up of ALL their stuffed animals across both bunk beds.

I am going to cherish these moments for as long as I can. Because who knows how long this will last. I pray a lifetime!

*Gasp*

Technically this post should be saved for my usual fun Thursday post, but due to lack of creativity today I am posting it now. Besides, I have PLENTY of photos for Thursdays.

For those of you hip, like me, who have a facebook account, imagine my surprise when I logged into today to find that a couple of my dear college friends had uploaded photos from our college days. This is clearly why “older” people should not have scanners, much less know how to use them.

To set the stage for what you are about to see:

• I attended college from 1986-1990 – so remember it was STILL the 80’s, and the decade rules
• I attended Judson College, a Baptist women’s college here in Alabama
• During my sophomore year, the college celebrated its 150th year—otherwise known as the Sesquicentennial—or as we all referred to it as the ses-QUIIII-centennial
• I studied a fair amount, despite high popularity and a paparazzi following because I was a geek, a chemistry and biology geek

This photo is of me and my friend Jules. We are wearing our required Sesquicentennial dress. My sticker reads that I am a “hostess”, I don’t think it said with the mostess. *shrug* Perhaps you find it odd that we are taking our photo with our anatomy lab guide. I do too. Can’t remember why?

This photo is of me and my science peeps. We must have been studying for some huge exam. It’s probably the only photo of my thighs that I am willing to share with you on the Internet. Wow, what 20 years, 2 kids and the “death” of a thyroid can do to a woman. *sigh*

Now, for the piece de resistance. The middle gal is the infamous Teresa of Livin’ the Wood Life, also known as Miss Juson 1989. This photo is just too much: too much 80’s and certainly too much print fabric! On the bright side we all looked happy despite our obvious fashion errors.

These were just three of the retro photos that had me gasping for air earlier tonight and there were several more! War has been declared and I’m sure there will be a Guinness record of photo finding and scanning going on this week.

Have no fear, I am poised and scanner ready ladies. Be afraid, be very afraid!

Mamma Mia

Last night I enjoyed a much needed Girl's Night Out (GNO). After a great dinner filled with gab and laughter, several of us went to see the summer hit Mamma Mia.

This is the Broadway play brought to the big screen, starring Meryl Streep. The cast also includes the still handsome Pierce Brosnan, whom I have "loved" since Remington Steele back in the 80's. My only "beef" with the movie producers, why in the world did you let handsome Pierce sing. I mean would a dub-over with a Jonas brother's voice have been too much??? I had to turn my head every time he sang. It made me sad.

The setting of the movie is on a remote Greek island, which scores BIG points with the Greek GRITS hostess. Big points. Although the reality is, old Greek ladies probably wouldn't dance down the street to "Dancing Queen".

The musical outbursts were ABBA songs and it almost had me dancing in the aisles folks. Which would have resulted in popcorn being tossed, so I refrained with the help of my GNO peeps.

So, ladies (and poor husbands who get dragged along) if you are looking for a very fun movie that's filled with dancing and singing to ABBA....this would definitely be the one. Declare it GNO and go!

I give it two thumbs up and am buying the sound track.

‘Fro Me to You-- Peek A Boo

I can testify this week’s photo has never made it into the pages of any scrapbook. This week I’ve decided to roll all of my siblings under the ‘Fro Me to You Bus. Sorry y’all, you knew it would happen.

This photo is circa 1978 when we lived in Irondale, Alabama.

I’m not sure what the first thing YOU notice is, but I notice my brother’s fly wide open, which appears intentional on his part. I mean were these pants made like this, were they ripped, was if for convenience?? I guess we'll never know.

There seems to be an awful lot of plaid going on in the photo. And if you are a faithful fan of me and this meme, you will remember my plaid post! I'm sure I had some cute little plaid number on under that awful itchy, fluffy-around-the-neck coat. How I hated that coat.

You will also notice my little sister’s missing front teeth. Those came out early in life, I believe from some sort of tricycle accident.

There seems to be a knee sock theme also. And it appears as though, I *might* be wearing some sort of geriatric shoe?! Go ahead, take a peek down there between my brother and sister. Yep, you see 'em, did SAS make shoes back in 1978? I guess so.

Now head on over to Kristen's for more Thursday 'Fro fun. If you haven't joined in the fun, you should.

Wordless Wednesday

They call him Flipper, Flipper

Most of us may know the world’s most famous dolphin by that name; however, the Princess hoped to see “Flippy” on our 2 hour dolphin cruise in Perdido Bay.

As we boarded the “Cold Mil 2” for the 4pm Hotter-Than-Blue-Blazes dolphin cruise, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I had already been overcharged for the Daisani water I had to purchase because I didn’t know we could bring our own cooler. Yes, I paid $1.75 for a bottle of water. Then aboard the boat there was a cooler with can drinks. Guess how much they were. Yes, ONE dollar! Now, I sure better get my $12/person worth of viewing some dolphins!

As we headed out into the bay, we almost immediately saw a couple of dolphins. They allowed us to watch them dive a couple of times, then left the area. Just enough viewing to demand want more. Again, I need to get my money’s worth, Skipper.

After riding for about 20 minutes, we slowed down and met up with the second boat that left the dock. There were a few more dolphins spotted and now we were going to “encourage them to play”. Whatever it takes, Skipper, do your stuff. They aligned the boats with a couple of boat widths between us. They then “gunned it” creating a wake between the boats. Guess what?

Jackpot! That was almost worth my $12/person investment.

We continued onto the very end of the bay and made a couple more attempts of the super secret dolphin wake.

BINGO! They fell for it again, and this time I had the camera on video:

Did you see that?! Two jumped at one time. No way! As you can hear, we turned into instant tourists with all the “oooohhhhhh” “aahhhh” “yay”!

We definitely got our money’s worth! Thank you, Skipper and Flipper!

got crabs?

Sorry, I do realize the title of my post is a bit questionable but most appropriate to the topic at hand. I guess I’ll be getting a few extra hits on my blog site courtesy of Google searches.

Today I am going to highlight Lego-Man’s favorite activity from our trip to the beach. And tomorrow we’ll highlight the Princess’ favorite activity…..hint, it involves a boat and looking for dolphins.

Apparently when I was young and went to the beach, the daily festivities were pretty much over when the sun went down. However, there is more to the beach after the sun goes down than my folks wanted me to know about. And it does not require a chaperone, just a flashlight and a bucket. My sister and nephews got to visit for a couple of days and participated in the fun.

Looking for the little crab critters

Got a small one

Our “deadliest catch”

The Crab Boss

If you’ve never participated in this after dark fun, the rules are simple:

1. Use flashlight to locate the crab critters
2. Chase the critters down
3. Put critter in sand bucket, because you can
4. WATCH OUT FOR PRE-DUG HOLES IN SAND (maybe that should be #1)
5. Look in everyone else’s bucket along the way
6. Ceremonial release of critters before leaving the beach. Usually a simultaneous “BE FREE” is shouted.
7. Beg to go back again tomorrow night.

Dolphin cruise

Look what we're doing!

Sincerely ‘Fro Me to You—Bikini Style

In honor of me being at the beach this week, I have pulled out an oldie and a goodie.

This is probably the last time I was seen wearing a bikini. People who have seen me at the beach this week, you should say thank you. I at least have sense enough to keep it covered, unlike some folks. A protruding abdomen is cute on a 6 year old, but not on a 56 year old. Words to live by people.

I would be the hot babe on left wearing the floral ruffly ‘kini. Is that purple and orange?! And that would be my twin sister in the highly fashionable faux zebra print. How about the inflatable pool is just screaming the ‘70’s!!

For more ‘Fro Me to You fun, click on over to Kristen’s place at We are THAT Family, it IS "'Frotastic"!

Bringing the SEC to the beach....

If you've seen this or this, then you'll understand why I did this:


And I'm quite sure BooMama reads my blog, of course she does, I mean why wouldn't she. Right?

So, this post is for you BooMama.... heroine of all bloggers. WOOT!

Checking in from THE BEACH

Oh, did I forget to mention that I AM AT THE BEACH?! What’s that you couldn’t read that small print. I said,

I AM AT THE BEACH!

Ok, now that we got that straight.

I am just checking in and thought I would share a few photos of our first couple of days here AT THE BEACH!

Monday was basically a wash out thanks to Mother Nature. But we didn’t let it dampen our whole day, we can thank shopping at Wal-Mart for putting the nail in that coffin.

My mom said if I didn’t have anything nice to say to keep my mouth shut….so I will end the Wal-Mart discussion right here and now. Just suffice it to say we got the groceries back to the BEACH HOUSE right before the melted ice-cream leaked out of the container. Oops, I think I said too much. Sorry, Mom.

Ok, now for what you came for, photos of my kids AT THE BEACH!

Of course, after a long day AT THE BEACH, I dressed the Coppertone kids and me up in the usual beach photo attire. Khaki for the lower half and white for the top half. Who do you suppose came up with the official beach photo attire?! *shrug* But the ensemble works well for great beach photos. Without further ado:

Guess who else came on the BEACH trip?!

NO, not Anna Grace. Somehow the old American Girl doll, Bitty Baby, got priority. We also brought her babysitter:

We are certainly missing the other member of our family, the dear hubby. We know God has called him to another place this week and we miss him a lot—especially daddy’s little girl, who gets away with nothing with mom!

Thank y’all for stopping by to see my post from THE BEACH.

Please take a moment and click on over to check on my husband’s mission trip blog from Brazil. Leave them a comment if you wish. Remember to keep them all in your prayers as they serve the Lord this week and for travel safety as they return home on Sunday. God bless.

Get outta here

I want to stand and shout that I have won a blogging award from my blog buddy Jennifer over at the Dust Bunny Hostage.

First I'd like to thank my dear friend, Teresa, who got me started doing this blog thing. She's super duper and I love her bunches. And I would like to honor her with giving her this award also, because SHE truly deserves it.

Then I'd like to thank all my readers, all 6 of you have made this blog what it is today.

And last but certainly not least, I'd like to thank Jennifer for believing in me enough to entrust me with this undeserved award.

I'd like to pass this award on to a few more people:

Cindy over at Still His Girl, because she is genuine and totally makes me laugh!

Leigh at Bloggeritaville, a new place I visit and enjoy!

And lastly I present it to, Beachy Mimi, even though I just found out she received it from DramaMama. Mimi is the mother of Queen B, both of whom I read daily because these ladies bring the F-U-N to the blogging table!!

So, ladies, if you visit, claim your prize and pass the blog love on.

It’s great to be from Alabama

I received this from a friend the other day and thought some of you might enjoy it:

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED FROM BEING IN ALABAMA

Possums sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air.

There are 5,000 types of snakes on earth and 4,998 live in Alabama.

There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Alabama plus a couple no one's seen before.

If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites.

Onced and Twiced are words.

It is not a shopping cart; it is a buggy.

People actually grow and eat okra.

'Fixinto' is one word.

There is no such thing as 'lunch.' There is only dinner and then there is supper.

Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar!

Backards and forwards means 'I know everything about you.'

You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH them.

You measure distance in minutes.

For directions, it's down yonder, over yonder.

Sometimes you have to switch from 'heat' to 'A/C' in the same day.

'Fix' is a verb. Example: 'I'm fixing to go to the store.'

All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal.

You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

You know what a 'DAWG' is.

You carry jumper cables in your car . . . for your OWN car.

There are only own four spices: salt, pepper, Tabasco and ketchup.

The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and sports.

The first day of deer season is a state holiday.

100 degrees Fahrenheit “a little warm”

We have four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, still Summer and Christmas.

Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite past time known as 'goin' Wal-martin' or off to 'Wally World'

A cool snap (below 70 degrees) is good pinto-bean & cornbread weather.

A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola or pop . . . it's a Coke, regardless of brand or flavor. Example: 'What kinda coke you want?'

Fried catfish is the other white meat.

We don't need no stinking driver's Ed . . . if our mama says we can drive, we can drive.

Free Fun

We love to have a good time at the GRITS household, but we especially enjoy it when it’s free. There’s just something about free, these days, that adds some fun.

Last week, we took a little “field trip” to a local park that has a fabulous water fountain built specifically for free water fun. I’m sure it was built to make the park aesthetically pleasing, but that’s not why we go.

When we arrived, I laid the law down…. 30 minutes of play and not a minute more! It was almost noon and I think our pediatrician would probably frown upon children playing in a fountain without sunscreen in the blazing hot sun. I knew I was forgetting something.

For the whole thirty minutes, I don’t think they ever stood still.

Here’s why I’m glad I had the camera with me. Our thirty minutes were just about up when I look up to see the Princess sitting like this:

And what do you think she is telling her neighbor? Yes,you guessed it. Out of her sweet little Princess mouth she tells the little boy next to her, “LOOK, I am peeing.”

I’m not sure I’ve ever been prouder. Or not.

Then I look over at Lego-Man, who is sitting a few kids away. Guess what?!

He was peeing too.

Yep, our thirty minutes was definitely up.

Headed South

While the hubby is serving the Lord in Brazil, the kids and I are headed to the beach in South Alabama. It’s a huge sacrifice, I know, but someone had to do it. Here am I, Lord, send me.

See y’all soon.

The Great Commission

Jesus spoke these words to His disciples after the resurrection:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19

Today, my hubby will be leading a team of 38 on a week long medical and evangelical mission trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The team will be providing minor medical care, but more importantly, sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the Brazilian people.

Please lift the mission team up in your prayers as they travel and serve the Lord by following the “Great Commission.”

I am including the link to their travel blog (which pressures the hubby to keep it up). Please bookmark the site and visit throughout the next week. Feel free to share it with your friends.

Comments are more than welcome. Let the team know you are praying for them. I would greatly appreciate it and I KNOW they would too.

http://calvaryrio.wordpress.com/

‘Fro Me to You: The Snowy South

In honor of the oppressing summer heat we experience here down in the South, I bring to you this week a South Alabama Winter Wonderland.

These photos were taken in February of 1973 when I was almost 5 years old. Just for the record, we do get occasional snow here in God’s country; however, these photos were taken in South Alabama where snow is purty durn rare.

I’m sure this is my first attempt ever at a snow angel.

Nice hat, Mom.

A Southern snowmobile

I hope these photos bring you cool thoughts and a smile on your face as we endure the heat of the summer. For more summer fun, click on over to Kristen’s for the weekly Sincerely ‘Fro Me to You carnival.

**Warning** Empty bladder before clicking....you might regret it if you don't.

Lessons in Obedience

I’m afraid my quest for “Mother of the Year” came to a screeching halt when I made one simple request of my children.

Instead of an afternoon of this:

I insisted on 30 minutes of this:

In all fairness, Lego-Man knows the drill. He understands:

1.) In order to keep Mom happy, he must follow instructions with no questions asked.

2.) There will be no Wii time unless he puts in his 30 minutes of reading time.

This is my son, the firstborn-- very structure oriented and strongly desires pleasing mom and dad. He who rarely puts up a fight, unless it involves red meat. Not to say he is perfect, he just knows what to do to keep peace.

However, the Princess must put on some sort of dramatical presentation in opposition to Mom’s seemingly simple request. (insert crying while face down on bed here) “I don’t want to read” “waaaaaaaa”. Now, in all fairness I can’t blame the child, I despise extracurricular reading. But this is not about me.

Meet the second born. She came into this world very laid back, always dramatic and complete with her own agenda (which does not include reading time).

It is SO amazing to me that two children from the same parents, raised in the same house, in the same environment can have two totally different responses to one simple request. No, I am not just figuring this out after 9 years of motherhood. But it just wows me every time something like this comes up.

So, I’ve tried to curb responses like this in the future with an obedience intervention. Beginning with a little phrase I heard my entire childhood from my mother.

“Obedience is doing what you are told to do, when you are told to do it, with the right heart attitude”

(Insert brief lecture on explaining exactly what this means, for the bazillionth time.)

My intervention concluded with a review of our favorite parenting Bible verse:

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” Ephesians 6:1

Words to live by people and children!

Whirlwind Weekend—Part II

Ok, when I last left you we all were sleeping in the hotel room and I forgot to make mention of this little jewel on our wall:

Hello Mr. CEO of Hampton Inn, you will be getting a memo about this soon. Thank you.

Praise the Lord the time on the clock when we all began stirring was somewhere around 8:00am. I actually heard Lego-Man up at his usual time (6am) but he went back to sleep.

After enjoying our “On the House Hot Breakfast” we were off, headed to the World of Coca-Cola. Since we are a Coca-Cola family and all about heritage here, we thought it would be good for the kids to know where their favorite beverage came from. You know, history.

We enjoyed looking at all kinds of Coke memorabilia:

We also enjoyed a 4-D movie. They called it 4-D because the chairs we sat in actually moved.

One of my favorite displays was this one:

It is dedicated to the disastrous decision by some idiot who thought it would be a great idea back in 1985 to change the formula of Coca-Cola. Anyone else remember life before Coke was labeled Coca-Cola Classic? Or anyone remember the terrible taste of New Coke? I most certainly do.

Next stop….the tasting room! 64 Coca-Cola products from all over the world for us to sample. The GRITS family was up for the challenge, but I think the only one who tried them all was the hubby. Some of them, the name didn’t even sound enticing…. “Lemon Bitters”. Another interesting find, a drink from Israel was in the Africa station. *shrug*

Before leaving we all got a souvenir bottle of Coke. Because we all know there is nothing better than cold Coca-cola from a bottle!

We ended our trip with the traditional stop by the world’s longest drive-in, The Varsity. Nothing better for the ride home than a Frosted Orange drink….. similar to an Orange Julius for those of you who remember those.

In Birmingham, we had to pick up the hubby’s car at his part-time job. So the kids got to take a closer look at Dad’s work ride:

We certainly couldn’t exclude “Anna Grace” from the fun. After all she was the reason we took this whirlwind trip!

Sure we could have ordered her from a catalog, but what fun would that have been. Then I wouldn’t have had anything to blog about.