So much to blog, so little time.

Let's start off in the category of "It's all fun and games till someone shoots their eye out." This would be my eye - bruised all along the lid with the distinct mark of a pellet from an air soft gun.

I had been the instigator of an earlier shoot out in the kitchen and it seems that there were some guys looking to shoot me. Go figure. Fire upon some un-armed me who were elbow deep in seasoning for ribs and they get a little testy. I did let them wash up and we had some duels, but I came out ahead in that battle too by ducking down behind the ice machine and working my way around the serving tables. Oh, I was masterful. It was a study in warfare that Patton would have been proud of.

Later, I saw the guys coming, looking like a poster for the movie Tombstone - loaded for bear. I, feeling like the bear they were loaded for, quickly stood back to back with Sherie, who was "brave" enough to try to shield me.

I had just mentioned that it was stupid for me to be "hiding" behind her when I needed a large tree to be hiding behind when BAM, a totally random shot hit inside my glasses and ricocheted into my eyelid. These guns are notoriously inaccurate, and they were not shooting at her head any more than they were shooting at the back of mine. Anyway, thanking God today that my eye was shut. And remember folks, wear those safety glasses! Mine - were on top of my head at the time. Moving right along now....

The Battle at the OK Corral took place at our women's retreat for church. I was shot by one of our pastors, who is definitely a man, but was up there cooking dinner for us. He shall remain nameless because 1) he felt really bad about it and 2) he gave me extra ribs for dinner :)














I love going to this retreat because even if it's just for one night, we cram so much fun into that day (and night.) We went to bed around 4 this morning. The women leave their worries and inhibitions behind and just do some amazing, crazy things.

Here are a few pictures of some of the tasks that had to be performed from the Bucket of Doom - Andi and the other preggo women doing a bit of the Hokey Pokey, Heidi, leading the Chicken Dance. All of these things were done as part of the games that Sherie and I come up with. Sherie is in the pink shirt, doing her own version of clucking behind Heidi.

After our evening service, Tammy and I made our debut as "Adventure Girls" and the ladies will learn more about what Adventure Girl is all about in the coming months. I recieved many compliments on my purple cape and blue mask. Maybe we should market Adventure Girl costumes - something to ponder.

I had a good mail day, receiving a jar of Patricia's homegrown, home-made grape jelly. I can't wait to try that!

When we came home this evening, Nana and Pappaw came over to celebrate Carly's 9th birthday. We haven't seen Nana for awhile because my step-brother, Chad has been getting ready to be deployed to Iraq and she has been with him as much as possible. He turned 22 last week and is now gone for 18 months.

Nana brought a quilt she had made for Sophie's first birthday and Sophie showed her appreciation by immediately snuggling on it for a nap.

Carly's birthday is actually next week, but we celebrated today. Her favorite gift was a set of American Girl books. She has just recently started reading those and is really enjoying them. Every day it seems as if Carly gets a little bit more grown up looking. She is starting to want to be around me a bit more and play less with the boys. I might have me a momma's girl after all.

Jacob went to his class party today. His teachers throw the greatest parties for kids. Today's consisted, in part, of getting into a pool filled with cooked spaghetti, raw eggs and oatmeal and putting on a suit of clothes that was buried under the muck. Of course kids LOVE this kind of stuff. Another thing they did was to have an egg toss where one kid had a colander on his head to catch the eggs. Jacob came home with eggs dried in his ears and many, many other places. It was gross - he loved it all.

We leave for vacation in a few hours. It is our first family vacation with Bill - ever. I'm sure we are going to have a good time as we have a lot of things planned to do.

Wes is the goodwill ambassador of our family. He has made a sign to give TO the motel. He loves to give his artwork away. I'm taking everything valuable with me, but our material possessions will be taken care of as well by our house-sitter.

Larry was kind enough to lend me a laptop computer, so hopefully I can blog from our trip and see what Sophie is up to as well. I think the longest I have gone without seeing her since she was born would be about 48 hours - if that, so this is going to be tough. Andi's last day of work was Thursday, so I know they are going to enjoy this week together. And next week - I'm gonna spend some time just snuggling that baby girl.