What's been going on here!

If it weren't for nagging prodding relatives, you know who you are, then this blog would not be updated today. I am shamed into rejoining the world of blogging, since my long hiatus from this time consuming endeavor. Blogging wouldn't be so bad if I didn't take so long to do it. What inevitably happens is, I do my update and then check on all my blogging friends. That's what takes so long. Before you know it, the day has flown by, the laundry and dishes have piled up and then hubs comes home from work, looks around and says..."So, what have you been doing all day?"  "Paperwork", I say and smile.

The kids are growing and busy. We spent this past weekend at a Cub Scout Pinewood Derby, All City Band rehersals(and a lunch break with friends) followed by a swim meet.  The pace never slows down and we all enjoy it like that.  Nite all!

Yawn and Stretch

After a bit of a blogging rest, I am crawling out of the cave where I've been hybernating. We have been passing around a cold germ since Christmas and I am still under the weather. Hopefully, I will be the last casualty of this bug. For more exciting family fun go visit my other blog, Including Jack.

Where Dreams come True

After a long sabbatical, it's good to be back online and back home. As you can see we've had a summer vacation, and I might add, it was magnificent. We wound our way through the south, stopping at one of the nicest beaches I've ever been too (Destin, Fl), on our way to none other than the very place where "Dreams come true"...DISNEY WORLD. The destination of all summer vacation destinations.

I was surprised at how easy the drive went, compared to road trips with my family when I was a kid. Back in the olden days we didn't have CD players, Nintendo DS, and cell phones to keep us entertained and connected with our friends while we were away. My daughter was content in the backseat snuggled up with her pillow and cell phone, happily texting away with her friends about nothing in particular. The boys entertained themselves with movies and games and hubs and I spent our time going back and forth over which road to take...darn GPS things...it created more controversy than an old fashioned map, but that's another story. What short cut to take and where the best restaurant was located all faded away, once we reached the Magic Kingdom.

Disney World

Testing 123

Hello Bloggy Friends.

I am sorry to say I am still having technical difficulties. I hope to be back online soon.

Until then please talk amongst yourselves.

More Exciting than Cake?

What could be more exciting that chocolate birthday cake? Getting reconnected! I've been without an Internet connection since the big storm. Maybe it was a coincidence, but my Internet connection has not worked since that night. Thanks to hard work from Hubs, I'm back on line. Hurray. Many exciting events have occurred since I last blogged. I've been to swim meets, birthday parties, Volleyball victories and witnessed tween age mini dramas play out right before my eyes. It's good to be back.

The Beverly Hillbillies

Much to the delight of the community, our little town is sitting upon a 20 year reserve of natural gas. It has never been drilled before, because the price of natural gas has not been high enough to warrant getting to this reserve. This reserve has been hard to get to because of the shale that has to be cracked to get down to the gas, plus they have to do horizontal drilling which is a fairly new/costly technology.

Every weekend I see gas folks walking the neighborhood, trying to get people to lease their mineral rights and give them access to the gas under their property. At the same time homeowner associations are banding together to try to negotiate better lease agreements between neighborhoods and the big gas companies that have come to town to court homeowners. There is strength in numbers. The media has begun to talk about these activities, and one comment this morning was"our part of the country will not see a recession because the gas reserve is our own little stimulus package".

The people who own the land where a drill site is located and people with large pieces of property, will fair pretty well. I just don't know how much income this will actually generate for a homeowner. Nevertheless, if it were a little warmer, I'd invite the neighbors over to have a BBQ to celebrate our good fortune and we'd all take a dip in the cement pond.

"Jumping Up and Down Screaming" Wonderful

I don't know about you, but I can fill up an SD card with pictures in no time at all. Digital photos are better than sliced bread in my opinion. The reason I think it's so great is because I admire the technology and ingenuity behind uploading pictures and hurling them across time and space in the blink of an eye, to grandparents and friends near and far. The ease and speed with which that is done is very appealing. As I transferred my pictures from my camera to the computer today, I marveled at the speed with which all of our family activities were cataloged and preserved for who knows how long (hopefully longer that the time we own this computer, thankful for backups). I did pause to reflect on the nagging feeling that time was passing quickly. No other time do I feel that reminder, that time marches by, more strongly than when I look at pictures. If I took all of my digital pictures and scrolled through them from front to back, I could probably view all of them in an hour or two, and in that hour, I could watch the kids grow up before my eyes. A scary thought, but it only reminds me to make the most out of the day that God has given me.

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

On that note, I would like to share with you the gladness we have enjoyed this past week...

My daughters joy of a personal best in the 200 IM at the swim meet, and my son's joy that the swim meet was over.

The joy of being silly at school in a lip sync contest.

The joy of a family wedding...

and realizing that you won't die if you have to dress up in a suit and tie.

The joy of knowing that chocolate cake awaits you, and that there will be plenty of leftovers, because what you see here is only the grooms cake!

The joy of getting "hard to get" tickets to the most exciting concert of your life and getting "jumping up and down screaming" crazy with your cousin (thank goodness for earplugs).

May God bless you and your family with a "jumping up and down screaming" wonderful week like he has given us.