What's this you ask? Well, it was a rainy Memorial day weekend in the 'Ham so we decided to drive over to Gadsden and go to Noccalula Falls Park. We had great fun riding the train around the park seeing the Pioneer village, the petting zoo, and of course the waterfalls. The falls were rushing over the rocks because of all the rain lately. We got to see most things but it did start raining on us toward the end and we had to make a run for it. The whole time Ryan kept asking "can we spend the night and come back tomorrow?" He wanted to go climbing on the rocks and crawl through "Fat man's squeeze." Around the animal habitat there were chickens and roosters roaming around and the boys liked chasing them. There were also some kind of ring tailed lemur/raccoon looking animals that we couldn't figure out what they were because the sign had been taken down. It's been bugging us all day. We also went to eat lunch at Top of the River. It's suppose to be a great local restaurant on the river. We did get a great seat on the river but ugghh....the restaurant and food were not so great. Just don't know what all the hype is. This is actually our third time there and this was the worst. The building had to have had water damage or something because it stunk to high heaven. Anyway, we enjoyed feeding the fish and ducks off the pier. Ryan actually loved the place, minus the smell. So the day was a great day of family time and makin memories! So wish these days could last longer! Now boys are in bed and snoring. They played hard. Loved it!

Demolition...

So, you know we have our house up for sale right? Well, a few days ago Ryan discovered a leak. He actually yelled "hey what's the waterfall?" So of course, panic strikes. It wasn't quite a waterfall but it was quite wet. In fact the entire sub-floor of the shower was soaked. Our house is under a complimentary home warranty because its on the market, so we hoped we might just get lucky. Well, of course after a $60 service call later we found out we were not lucky. It was a leaky shower pan. The plumber said it must have been leaking for years and was probably deteriorated because years ago the contractors didn't use a shower liner.

So the demolition begins. We found it in gross condition! Yes it was mush but not only that...we had active termites feasting away. It just keeps getting better and better! We have a termite bond and they had treated our house a year ago...well, guess who had to come back?! We also found a little surprise still in our walls left from the contstruction crew. It was a bottle of Schlitz. Yes, only the finest for our house! Maybe since that is what the workers were drinking that is why our shower leaked... Anyway, we have some dear friends who are gonna help out in replacing the entire shower. This is SO not a project we had planned on doing before selling the house. Our neighbor who is a plumber estimated it would cost $4000 to replace. So those dear friends who will help us do it ourselves just became worth a whole lot more to us! Maybe it will just help the house sell better. Here are a few gross pictures! Glad it is out of the house now!
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These are the "friendly" termites.

Soccer season comes to an end

Some of these photos in the slideshow are repeats, but I wanted to share with other friends too. I've got to find a slideshow that holds more than 30 photos and allows music without a charge. I'm so cheap. Anyway we had a fabulous time in soccer this season and a wonderful team party today at Coach Keith's house. Thanks everyone for a great year!

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God is our Provider!

Well, its been a couple of weeks since the storms came through and snapped our tree in our backyard. We were stunned because we so don't have the money right now to pay for a tree to be removed from a place we are trying to sell. The first quotes were $650, $500 and then finally we had an offer of $450. So we prayed that God would provide and He did! I had miscalculated the checkbook and found $125 to our favor. (gotta love it) Then the very next week Scott got an extra $200 on his paycheck, and a dear friend had sent me a $25 check a few weeks ago as a late baby present (or as she put it just extra money for us to put on the electric bill or however we need it most.) Well we put all these things together and believed it was the way God was helping us pay for the tree. Scott scheduled the appointment and when he asked if the guy would just cut it down and cut it up for us and let us haul it away the guy said sure that he would do it for $350....well, go back and total those amounts....$350! God is our Provider and he rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Thank you God! And the tree comes down.... They brought in a bobcat to help tie off the tree and pull it down. It was great when it came to moving the big logs too. The boys loved every minute. We popped popcorn and it was better than watching a movie. This stump was cut in half and the rest of the tree was chopped up for firewood. So glad all that is over!

Soccer Season

We've had a great first year of soccer. It has actually kept his attention. And that is no small task. We've also had a great coach! He is so patient with the kids and is so encouraging. He's just what we needed and Ryan has shown such improvement over the season. In the beginning, he just ran after following the group, but now he is really getting the hang of it and starting to get competitive. He scored his first goal last Friday and a total of 2 that game. The next morning he scored 2 more. Then the following Tuesday night there were only 3 players that showed up for our team, so he got to play the entire game. He scored another goal and I was so proud of the way he hussled. He really has improved on the way he gets in there and runs after it! Our final tournament and awards ceremony is coming up on Saturday so stay tuned for more pictures!

Just a random day at the park

Trying to sell our house is a lot of work!

We've had our house on the market for 3 months now and we are starting to get frustrated. We want it to sell like yesterday! I'm really just getting tired of having to keep it clean with two small boys constantly coming behind me and messing it up again. Over the weekend there were some pretty bad storms that came through and wrecked havoc on our yard so Sunday we knew we would have to get out and clean it up. Well, Sunday morning when we got up we saw that one of our huge hickory trees had snapped and fallen onto two other trees. If those trees wouldn't have been there it would have hit the house for sure. At first we were thankful but now that we found out the insurance company won't cover it unless it had hit the house we are a bit disappointed. We really don't have $500 to remove the tree right now. So we are waiting to see how God will provide for us! He is our provider afterall.
Now the bright side of all this cleaning and yardwork: great photo opportunities! Enjoy!

2010 Easter Fun!

Easter is such a fun holiday. Ryan is starting to remember past holidays much more vividly. He knows that I've been reusing his Easter basket each year so I had to say the Easter bunny fills his basket when he gets to our house. Oh, the deception. Why do we do this to our kids?

We also had an Easter party at our Sunday School teacher's house and it was such a great time. They live a little out of town on a gorgeous property next to a field with cows. Aiden particularly loved the cows. As we were sitting having a picnic Scott and I were just commenting on how gorgeous everything was. Since we've been trying to sell our house Ryan has overheard us talking a lot about different properties we might buy, so I think he thought that's what were doing here, because the next thing he said was "this is a great place. It has a big play set and we could put our pool right there in the middle..." He pointed to the front lawn and I think he was ready to move right in! Scott and I laughed and just agreed that it would be a great place to live but we were just visiting.

Coloring Easter Eggs with friends

Coloring and hiding eggs is so much more fun with friends. It's a bit hard sometimes to pack everything up to go to a park especially when you are trying to fit in nap times and friend's nap times so we just invited our friends to our house and had a picnic in the back yard after coloring eggs. We finished the day off with an egg hunt. Lots of fun!

Ryan's prayer time

Ryan's prayers always bless my heart. I know God smiles. Tonight he prayed the following:
"Lord, we love all the people in the world, especially those who don't know God and the Bible. And God, when I grow up I might become a missionary. Amen." So I told him that was a wonderful thing to pray and I asked him if he knew what a missionary is. He said, "it's someone who tells people about God and that he loves them." I said "That's right, and that would be a wonderful thing to be when you grow up." He said, yeah, or I could be a Karate Ninja!

I did all I could to not laugh. I just kissed him and said "I love you and good night."