Hitting The Road

Normally when we make the trek up to Tennessee to see my brother we take I-75 straight up the gut through Georgia and drive like maniacs to avoid the endless boredom that is that highway. There really is nothing to see except for some really crazy religious billboards.  Surprisingly that isn't always enough to keep me interested.  So this time we decided to take the route that went through Alabama and up I-65 straight to Chris' house.  And what do you get with that little trip?  Well, you get.....

The Christmas Tree farm in Havana, Fl that had the absolute cutest little perfect pine trees you ever saw in your life.  Acres of them!  They looked fake they were so perfect.

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Acres of giant pecan trees that made me want to jump from the car and have a picnic right then and there.  And then immediately fill my trunk with a TON of pecans so I could eat them the rest of my life.  Pecan is definitely my number one nut.  Followed closely by Luke as the second.

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Havana is also home to a tiny little restaurant that looked like a mobile home and it was called:

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Because you know how much rednecks love Hobbits.

Then we hit Alabama and our first stop was at a restaurant called Baumhowers in Montgomery.  It was started by some sort of famous Alabama linebacker and was kind of like a more southern version of a sports bar.  It is home to the famous "Hot Bama Brown" sandwich, which of course I had to order.  

It is deep fried turkey on bread, with mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, tomatoes, bacon and Parmesan cheese.  It was not half bad.  The menu claimed it was one of "100 Alabama sandwiches you need to eat before you die."  ONE HUNDRED SANDWICHES?  IN ALABAMA?  I can't even name 100 sandwiches ever!  I was puzzled by this accolade. 

Here is Luke taking a picture of me and the 'Bama way before I was ready.  Our waitress was eternally slow, so we had to forgo the fried banana pudding and get back on the road.  Curse you, Tina!

I love this picture too.  Here is Cindy protesting our "No mac and cheese as a main dish at a restaurant" policy.

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Sorry, but I am not paying $5 for something that doesn't have meat and costs 25 cents to make. But guess what, I didn't even pay $5 for the chicken fingers because it was Wednesday at that restaurant which meant that the kids eat free.  My mad savings skills follow me wherever I go!!!

After lunch we plugged in the coordinates for the Birmingham, AL temple into the GPS and were led straight to a big field of nothing.  I was a little tired of being lead astray when it comes to temples! See "Oklahoma City Temple Debacle of 2012" for reference.  However, we drove through a neighborhood and tried to regroup and then, there it was! The Spirit gives better directions.  

This now makes the 14th temple we have visited with the kids. I never get tired of it :)

The temple was having its yearly summer maintenance and was closed at the time, but the parking lot was full of workers and their trucks.  Who else would you expect the Church to hire?

 Our next big sight to behold was this giant Saturn rocket in Huntsville, AL.  I believe this was the Saturn 45 rocket.  Davina, I hope you just face-palmed.  That was for you.

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And finally, we did get to see this fine sign in a field somewhere after that....

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Well, it's true.  And no one wants to get hacked up by a scythe.  To be continued....

I'm baaaaaack!

Took a summer road trip up to Tennessee for a week, but we are home now and I will soon be torturing you with vacation photos you don't really care about.  Whoo-hoo!  In the mean time, I am off to work to type medical notes all day.  Can I just say that acromiolclavicular and meniscectomy are two of my favorite words right now?  I guess me and Vandy-Bri are going to have some things in common after all...

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

TOP TEN NAMES FOR THE ROYAL BABY

10.  Smokey
9. Hagrid
8. Floyd
7. Jefferson Ling Ling del Bosque
6. Urkel
5. Hamburglar
4. Buck
3. Raykwan
2. David Beckham
1. Fonzie


It's all in vain however, William gave away the real name months ago....

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Who Else Loves This One?

Show Offs

Fun Fact About Cindy

She loves the game Stratego.  Never heard of it?  I am not surprised.  It's one of those random strategy games of the Sweeney boys' childhood.  They never played games that were based on fun, but rather only those based on war, armies and world domination- something I cannot relate to in the slightest.  But after days of begging, I finally caved and battled Cindy in an epic duel. She destroyed me.  (And yes, I really was trying :)

Fun Fact About Luke

He sleeps with his eyes open.  Creepiness level: Infinity. 

(He denies that he does this and even when I showed him this pictorial evidence he told me he was "just peeking" when I took the picture.  Ha! I took this in the dark at midnight. Twice. Sorry, Luke you just have a hidden talent.  One you even hide from yourself.)

The Day After Thursday

I've been listening to this at decibel crushing levels for a week.  It's Friday.  And I'm heading to the pool. And that makes me happy :)

Name That Bug

I mentioned the other day on Facebook that I actually used the Internet for something other than cats, memes, or cat memes.  Or Facebook.  Or posting cat memes on Facebook.  And here is what I was researching...

We get these caterpillars everywhere in Florida and I always wanted to know what they were called.  I give you, "The Halloween Eyebrow" Caterpillar!

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Ok, just kidding.  But that is what they look like to me and usually what I call them.  But no, they are actually called Oleander Caterpillars because they decimate Oleander plants.  Very true because my Dad had huge oleanders in his backyard for years and these things would completely destroy them.  Turns out that these guys can eat Oleanders without dying, unlike most anything else because Oleanders are very poisonous.  Apparently if a bird eats these caterpillars, they die.  So pretty much birds are ZERO help if you get an infestation. Now this is all good and fascinating (not really) but here is where it gets GOOD....

Oleander Caterpillars turn into THESE guys!!

This is the Polka Dot Wasp Moth and I see these things everywhere too, and so did you hear me?! This is a MOTH, and not a giant wasp that is trying to sting me and send me to the ER.  Plus also, this makes me feel really bad for how many of these I have stepped on thinking they were hornets. But isn't the Internet wonderful?  I can now add this guy to the list of Florida bugs I am not afraid of.  Both of them are A-OK with me :)

YW Camp (In Convenient Meme Form)

First off, I just have to acknowledge that I know I have been doing A LOT of memes lately. I know it. I get it.  Jacob, I will return to more personal writing in the following days, however, this post is not completely without merit as it does let me appropriately journal what I did at Young Women's Camp last week.  And seeing as how I did make each of these memes completely myself, it's not just gratuitous plagiarism and grumpy cats.


This year I was called to be the YCL leader at camp which was a Wizard of Oz theme called "There's No Place Like Home."  I oversaw a group of 14 girls, ages 16-18 and they really were a great bunch of girls.  I got to know them over the past month and especially at camp last week and I completely enjoyed being able to hang around with them.  In fact, they were so good that the ones sharing my cabin were complaining about being kept up too late!  I am having NASA look into the fact that my cabin was possibly some sort of alternate universe that bends the fabric of the time space continuum.  (Been watching a little too much Deep Space Nine apparently).  I'm still not sure what was going on, but when the other leaders complained about being up all night, I just crossed my arms and said:

True story.



And here I am as "The Most Interesting Camper In the World."

And it wasn't just bug repellent, really, it was pretty much anything I needed. Ever. Bug spray, phone, flashlight, hair tie, a pen, a jellyfish, my spoon- yep, I needed it all.  And I forgot it all.  (And I forgot how to spell when I made that meme. Sigh...) 

There were a lot of times when things got moved up, pushed back or taken off the schedule completely, but that is what camp is all about!  Sweating to death! I mean, being flexible!




One thing that did stay on schedule was the crafts!

We made Wizard of Oz Jenga block keychains, paracord bracelets and braided headbands.  

Here is Cindy modeling my hard work, which really was just for her :)

And is it just me or.....

Mostly because the YCLs forced me to be the host of "The Oz Factor" and make a giant goofball out of myself.   But in the end, I guess it wasn't so bad.  Any skit where you can make fun of Kanye West is pretty okay with me.

Here is kind of a picture of me crowning Dorothy as the winner of The Oz Factor:

(thanks to Allie for letting me steal this pic)

I may have been shy about doing my skit, but I was much better at camp songs.  

And to think it only took me four years to get it right....  I tried to find this on YouTube but I can't find a version that does the lap slapping motions.  Blasphemy! I thought everything in the whole wide world was on the Internet?

On the last morning of camp, our camp director woke up all the girls at 4:30am (with a siren, no less) and had them all board buses that would take them to a secret location.  The chartered buses she hired just happened to be "Disney Cruise Line" buses, so when the girls shuffled out to the buses a few of them got REALLY excited.  Well played, Sister Kemple. Well played.

No, we didn't go to Disney, but heading out to Melbourne beach for a sunrise testimony meeting while sitting in the sand and hearing the waves crash was a very close second choice.  Truly an amazing sight.  So beautiful and we even got to stay and play for a few hours afterward.  Thanks to Allie Bailey for again letting me lurk her Facebook and steal these photos:

Of course I couldn't let the week go by without reminding the girls (constantly) how good they had it out there at the church ranch- what with their uppity running water and first world toilets...

Everyone LOVED hearing my stories of what YW Camp really ought to be :)  

And now I will share with you my proudest moment at camp:

So as I was cleaning out my cabin the last day, I saw the most ginormous spider in the world near my bed.  It was hideous.  It was thick and scary and it looked like it never missed a day at the gym.  I ran out of the cabin and there was Brother Appel, the elderly service missionary that lives at the camp.  I asked if he would do me the honor of killing the spider and he was quick to accept.  I left him alone in the cabin to do his nefarious duty, and all I could hear was the sound of a broom smashing on the ground, over and over and over and over and over again.  Then he yelled, "Head's up!" and the spider body came flying out the door and into the grass.  He hit it a few times more, then bent down, looked really confused and said, "I don't think that's a real spider.  Usually they break up on you after a few hits, but that thing ain't movin.'  And so, yes, I had made him kill a plastic spider that was obviously left behind by some prankster loving ward.  Not cool.  Scary, but not cool.

And finally, like drawing back the curtain on the great and powerful Oz himself, I now reveal to you the truth of camp:

Kids Text The Darndest Things

Monday night while I was at camp, I texted back and forth with Cindy.  Here is the transcript of some of the exchange we had.  For reference, I took a bunch of really pretty journals to camp with me to give to my YCLs as gifts at the end of camp.  And of course, Cindy had her eye on one in case there were extra.


Me                                                                                                   

Cindy

So how is it going?

                              Hey guess who it is yup its cindy it was the best day ever we got 24 doughnuts at krispy kream but just the glazed lets keep texting

(long response time because I was busy 

for a minute or two)

what about 24 doughnuts what do you think about that?

wow, did you EAT 24 doughnuts?

I ate two donuts

                                                     I miss you in the middel of the night i will draw a mustash on luke in sharpee too

                                                Let me tell you this house is a mess we only unloaded the dishwasher today

                                                                  we also went to chik fl a and me and luke got caffeine free diet coke

You guys party when I am not there!!!

Do you have that extra butterfly jurnel thats blue

I don't know if I will have extras or not but I will try

I wish I were home with you!

                                                                  You would be playing hungry hippos if you were right now or watching dad study and lift waights

Who won HH?

Me luke failed

So lukes day was the tablet and digging for gold Lol

Oh wow.

I know right

My day was wizerds of waverly place

NOOOOOO!!!!

Yes mo ha ha ha ha!

Did you have a good dinner?

We didnt have diner yet please bring me the jurnel

I don't know if I have enough left over

                                                          How many jurnels are there? and how meny girls are there? Boom do the math.

When can i have my own phone until i can spell missippi

i got to go text tomarrow? Bye mom

If you are ever bored and next a smile, text with Cindy.  It will amuse you and help her practice her spelling, which obviously needs a lot of work. Oy.

A Luke Quickie

The other day Luke was watching AFV on Netflix.  There was a video of a guy who was riding a bicycle down a rickety dock and trying to go off a very skinny and poorly made ramp and into the lake at the end.  I am sure you know how the video ended.  After the guy totally wiped out and slid off the dock, Luke says quietly to himself, "Well that was a dumb thing to do because he could get eaten by a shark."  Sharks are apparently one of the greatest threats we face, because according to Luke, they are everywhere.

There's No Place Like Home

Camp is over and it's good to be home :)

10 NSA Memes You Need To See

And by "you" I mean, the NSA.  Because they are reading this with you!

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How I Spent My Fourth of July

9:32 am

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So I tried to go buy some fireworks.

12:22pm

Stump Lake was too expensive...

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12.55pm

This place was fresh out of M-80s...

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1:15pm

Three-finger Eddie didn't take debit....

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1:18pm

And this place got cleaned out by greedy little pugs.

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2:11 pm

I decided to research little known facts about the bald Eagle.

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3:48pm

I decided to paint my nails.

I'm no Connie Gashler, but I think they turned out okay.


4:51pm
We decided to go to the Flying Tigers baseball game.

Here we are enjoying temporary sunshine.

But then it rained. Boo!

 Wait, more sunshine! YAY

More rain :(  Playing hand slaps under the shelter while the storm passed.

Sunshine again! Quick, eat some ice cream!

 After the last rain cell, the umps gather for the final call....

8:05pm

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9:15pm
The fireworks still went off!

(Not actual image of Tiger Stadium.)

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9:18pm

And to the guy sitting a row down and over from me...

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