I've been bitten!

I've been contemplating a new camera for a few months now. I think the photography bug has bitten me! Sooo, I finally took a deep breath and decided to purchase this Canon digital SLR. I was extremely nervous buying this at first----bigger purchases make me crazy! BUT--after my sweet hubby encouraged me to just do it, I did!!

My camera arrived yesterday, a day earlier than I anticipated, and I'm a giddy little school girl!! Actually, truth be told, I've never been more intimidated by an inanimate object in my life! Hopefully I can figure this thing out! I'll be sharing some new pics soon!

music ponderings

I write this at the risk of sounding, ahem, old.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about music. I love it--all (well most) genres. It's a huge motivator for me. I blast my radio or CD's when the kids aren't in the car, and even when they are. I think my recent music pondering began when we took our most recent road trip to SC. Before we left, I burned a CD from my iTunes collection. It ROCKS!! Turns out, my boys think so too. So much so, that they "rock out" to the CD daily and haven't listened much to "Lukey and Charlie" music (consisting of Hide 'Em Your Heart CD's, Veggie Tales, etc) since we've been back from our trip.

Now Chad likes music as well, but he doesn't pay attention to the words. I'm not sure how. The words tell the story of the song--in my humble opinion. Well, Luke must take after me. He pays close attention to the words of songs and suddenly I'm answering all kinds of questions about the song lyrics on the road trip CD. Here's an example. . .the song I Will Rise by Chris Tomlin has the lyrics. . .

And I will rise
when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise, on eagle's wings
Before my God
fall on my knees,
and rise...
I will rise

Luke proceeds to ask me, "Mommy, why will he rise?" I tell him when Jesus comes back, all those who love Him and believe Him will go to heaven with Him. If we love and believe Him, we will too. Lukes thinks about it and says, "I think it will be great to go to heaven, but I don't want to stay there. I want us to still live in our house!" More questions arose, but it was really cute. It was also hard for him to understand and slightly difficult to explain.

But, then we move into secular music and I start having to answer different kinds of questions. Another example is from Taylor Swift's song, Love Story. Some of the lyrics are. . .

That you were Romeo
You were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you please don't go

Luke asks, "Mommy, why is the daddy telling someone to stay away?" I wonder, Hmmmmm, do I go into the whole Romeo and Juliet story? No. So, I try to put it simply and lightheartedly. I tell him the daddy was grumpy and thought that the boy might hurt Juliet's feelings. I also tell him that he stops being grumpy, becomes happy again and lets the boy stay with Juliet, because if you know the song, and listen to lyrics, then you know that the dad changes his mind and lets Romeo marry Juliet.

I could go on and give you examples of questions from every song, but you would be bored, or maybe you already are.

Point is, I'm feeling the need to be cautious about what we expose our children too. We are big fans of KLOVE, a national Christian radio station. However, I still love my pop/80's, 90,'s today/rock music. I think it's good to expose my children to a variety of music, and I'm actually enjoying answering some of these questions. But, they are too young for some of the stuff on the radio. Heck, I might be too young too---or maybe too old? Yikes!

I have, still, more thoughts.

My parents favor music of "their" time. Sure, they occasionally know current songs. However, my Dad would choose to listen to the Grateful Dead over anything current. Why is that? When do you stop listening to what's current? Did they stop listening to the radio when my sister and I were younger to shield us from the junk on the radio then or because we listened to so many "kids" tapes and they forgot about current music? I wonder if I will ever just stop listening to the radio or paying attention to what's on now. When my boys are older, will I prefer to just listen to U2, Journey, Dave Matthews because that is just better than what's current in the future or because I won't know what's been on the radio due to my boys' CD's?

How many of you are still with me?

Great. Thanks. Just had to get those questions out of my head.

let's play ball!

Hey Luke! Do you mind if I borrow these for a minute?

Let's see. How does this work?

I sure hope my big brother is watching me. He will be so proud!

Okay! This is so much fun!

Or, maybe I should just work on pitching first.

Family fun on the Fourth!

Earlier this year, my sister decided we all needed to take a family trip to our lake house in South Carolina. I'm so glad she did, because we had a blast! Everyday included boat rides, swimming, tubing, eating, reading, playing, exploring and more boat rides and swimming. Luke did NOT want to come back home and just today told me he wants to live in South Carolina at the lake. I don't blame him!! He had people entertaining him for every second of the day and did more swimming than I ever thought he could. He loved the boat rides and even declared he wants a real boat and not a toy boat for his 8th birthday (umm, because he thinks he can drive one then??).

Charlie was getting over a cold for the first part of the trip, but half way through he really started enjoying himself too. He was a little jealous though when he had to stay on the boat with Mimi, while his Mommy, Daddy, brother and Grandpa all went swimming and tubing. One of his favorite parts of the trip, was trying to climb the stairs to Mimi and Grandpa's waterfall out front. He loved watching the waterfall and I think, just wanted to get in it!

My sister brought her boyfriend, Kevin, for the weekend of the 4th. It was nice (maybe crazy) of them to want to spend some of their vacation time with our kiddos. We all had fun hanging out together, playing games, eating all of the delicious food my sister cooked and chillin'! Luke was able to see his first 4th of July fireworks show! My parents, Mary and Kevin and Luke and I all got on the boat, joined some friends and headed to see the fireworks. It was like tailgaiting, except with boats. We tied our boats to others and people brought food and drinks and watched the 45 minute display. They were spectacular and it was so much fun. Luke loved how the fireworks were right over our heads and pretended to be knocked down by the loud bangs! Charlie was a little too young to stay up for the show this year, so Daddy was kind enough (he knows I LOVE fireworks) to stay back with him. We're hoping next time they can join us too!

Chad and I celebrated our 9th anniversary during our week in South Carolina too! My parents watched the kiddos over night while we drove to Asheville, NC to the Grove Park Inn. We did this last year as well and it did not disappoint. We had a lovely afternoon at the spa/pool with massages and time to relax before a delicious dinner! It was such a treat and a very special way to celebrate!

There's just so much to tell about our trip and no way I can I do it all here. Mimi and Grandpa, thank you so much!! We had an awesome time and love you SOOO much!

Happy 4th of July!

Proud to be an American!

Mary and Kevin--awww how cute!

My sis, Mom and me!

Luke and Grandpa driving the boat!

Daddy takes Lukey for a ride!

Mimi and Charlie waving from the boat!

A little bit of showboating!! Chad and I loved tubing together!

I'm not a fan of showing off my backside, but I thought this was a fun pic of us jumping off the boat and a great way to "end" the post!

we're back!

We're back from our wonderful lake vacation in South Carolina. I still have tons of things to get done. . .laundry, phone calls, errands, mail sorting, etc. But, I wanted to greet you with some "blooper shots" of our trip. If you watch American Idol, you know they start the show with all of the wannabees or rejects, or whatever you want to call those people, who, bless their hearts, cannot sing at all!! Well, these pictures were some attempts at the "perfect" family pics over the past week and they reminded me of the beginning of American Idol. Umm, they didn't work out, but they left us laughing. And, in case you've been on the edge of your seats waiting for me to post again (because I know you all are), I'll get to the good pics and stories soon! We had such a fun time and I can't wait to share!

Check out the boy's faces!!

Awww, poor thing!

Again, check the boys out. You think they were done attempting the perfect shot??