By Popular Demand

It is 4:36 AM and I thought I would blog one more time before I die. I have been awake for 3 hours tossing and turning and praying for relief from the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head. Allergy season officially began for me sometime between early afternoon and 1 AM. I just took some Tylenol Nightime medicine, so I figure nightime for me should last until at least 9 am (assuming my kids cooperate - not likely, but a girl can dream, right?)

Anyway, today is our anniversary. We only dated for 6 months before we got married, but apparently we weren't as crazy as some people thought, because here we are nine years and 2 kids later and we still love each other and we are having lots of fun. The time has flown by. Our honeymoon was spent here. Our first anniversary was spent here. On our second anniversary I came home from the hospital with Lake. Tonight, our ninth anniversary, will be spent at the ball field praying that our little short stop will not let any balls get by him. I would write a loving tribute to my man on this blog, but he is so busy he would never get to read it -so I will just tell him in person if you don't mind. Next year will be #10........ten years is a long time.....I am thinking a return trip to the site of our honeymoon is in order, what do ya think? (I would post wedding pics, but I didn't have the old Easy Share then so how can I post pics if they aren't on a digital camera? -No, really someone tell me--Enquiring minds want to know).

Here is a side shot of my husband of nine years looking at one of Lake's b-day cards. He is also holding our ancient Sony Handycam - see our love of all things photography just never ends.

Here's my little short stop #12 catching a grounder.

So, several of you (well only 2 but who's counting?) asked to see pics of me on the new scooter. It wasn't difficult to take this shot since I have been riding it for 3 days straight. This is not an actual action shot, because my 7 yr old is not very adept at using the camera yet (to be honest, neither is his mother - all you people who own Nikons with the long thing on the front - keep quiet). As you can see I finally semi-fixed my Easy Share problem - who knew one had to upgrade software from time to time?

Since I was already posting a picture, I thought I would just go ahead and bore you to tears. This is a picture of my youngest. We are so proud of how he has learned to dress himself. I came into the kitchen the other morning to find him sitting at the table with his shorts on his head. All I can say is "Really, people, he gets this stuff from his daddy".

Here is a picture of the Birthday boy opening the scooter that mom has taken possession of. The look of joy is because he had not yet learned that his mother would not only take his scooter, but that she would race him with it and win. Is it wrong of me not to let my kids win all the time? The older the kids get, the more fun I have with their toys.

And finally, when did it become mandatory that siblings get gifts for their brother's birthdays? I am 35 and have yet to receive one gift for my sister's birthday. Ya hear that mom and daddy? Never one gift! In 35 years!!!

If I failed to mention it before, my father has been in Honduras on a medical mission trip. He is on staff here as Director of Stewardship. He has always been interested in medicine so this trip is a fun one for him. He will be coming home this weekend. Also, my niece and nephew will be leaving today around 2 pm to go on a mission trip to Nicaragua. They are so excited and so are we. Pray that this trip changes their lives and that they get to see hundreds come to Christ. Who knows, this trip might be the catalyst that leads them into full time missions.

While they are gone, my sister and her husband will be going on their first ever "no kid" beach trip. While I am somewhat jealous (in a Godly way of course), they deserve it and I hope they have a great time with no incidences of sunburn or jellyfish stings (Lisa, you know the remedy for jellyfish stings- stay out of the water!).

Well, hubs alarm should be going off any minute - time for me to go to bed.