P-P-P-Pregnant!!

July 5, 2007 by Leave a Comment

That’s right. Shawna is pregnant. We wanted to wait to make it public because we’ve already experienced the loss of having a miscarriage and we’re only about 6 weeks in to this pregnancy so we’re kinda excited, kinda nervous. However, we announced it to the family yesterday so the secret is out, especially with my sister (Lisa) who can’t keep a secret like this – she is part of the mouth of the south club. I had everyone worried when I started acting like I was taking a new job and moving even farther away, and then I told them I was pulling their leg – that the truth is Shawna is pregnant. It didn’t work when I tried it again on Lisa because I wasn’t as nervously convincing and because I tried adding details to the false story that made it unrealistic – like we were moving to San Diego.

Anyway, we’re still in the early stages but Shawna is pregnant, so please pray for her and baby’s health and for my own sanity as I’m naturally happy but overwhelmed by the responsibility of expecting a third child in the family.

Filed Under: Family, Relationships

Growing Up as Kids

June 7, 2007 by Leave a Comment

I just read my pastor’s blog for today and just had to share it. I’m only a few years younger than Perry, ok maybe about 6 years younger, but I still remember what it was like to grow up. This lighthearted email he shares is sooo true.

We recently had an incident here in Anderson where a 3 year old opened the car door while it was going down the street. She got hit and killed. After a lot of thought I pretty pissed about this because the mom doesn’t even have a drivers license. But it wasn’t a matter of whether or not she can drive.

Part of me wants to blame the mother for not having the kid in a car seat, but I’ve been guilty of sneaking a trip to the store without my kids in a seat. So part of me wants to blame the mother for not being smart enough to use the child locks her vehicle was equipped with. But that thought got me thinking…… WAIT A MINUTE… When I was a kid we didn’t have car seats or child-lock. I sat in the front seat of all my dad’s chevy pick-ups through the years and I don’t even remember being made to wear a seatbelt. About the closest thing you could get to child-lock was to lock the door and screw off the little knob so kids couldn’t unlock it (my dad never did this but I saw other people who did).

When I was talking to my friend Lenny, who he and his wife Tathie raise their kids very freely if you will – the way our generation was raised, he used a term I’d like to borrow right now. He said something like “I guess when we were raised it was SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.” I don’t know if our childhood was as extreme as ‘survival’ of the fittest but we sure as heck didn’t grow up dumber than dirt with a remote in one hand, a game controller in the other, a 24oz soda between our knees, and a bag of chips on the coffee table.

Anyway, back to Perry’s post. Maybe I’ll write one of my own about this another day, but what Perry shares here is fun and frustrating to read – if you have kids. It is quite humorous but serious at the same time. What happened to letting kids be kids and learn some things along the way???

Filed Under: Family

Little House on the Prarie

June 1, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Don’t ask me how it relates, but my friend Shane got me thinking after he posted this. It got me thinking a lot about the things we give priority in our day and time. From time to time I think about what it would have been like to live in the old days. I’m talking “Little House on the Prarie” times when all you had time to focus on was raising farm animals, crops, and keeping the log cabin in good shape. And that was living the American dream back then. They were enjoying a life of freedom. I’m so guilty of getting things out of order the way we live in todays society. I think I could have been a better husband and father in the LHOP (Little House on Prarie) days. There are too many distractions and messed up ‘priorities’ now. It isn’t enough to just recognize them any more either because it is a tremendous battle to fight off all the forces (people and their mentalities and loud opinions) who want to make you feel stupid for not living by the standards our society has put in place.

We think we need 500 channels on TV. I personally have refused to pay for it so far. We have the most basic cable you can get but we’re debating whether or not to add on to it so the kids can have Nick and Disney or something. What did the LHOP kids do without TV? They learned to read and write and their dad told them stories and taught them how to do stuff. He probably read the bible to them too. Imagine doing that instead of watching American Idol.

We think we need cell phones. This has changed in just the past 20 years or so. Now I wouldn’t even be employed if I didn’t have that blasted cell phone. But imagine calling up LHOP dad on his mobile phone (or sending him a text message) while he’s in the field. Wouldn’t happen. There was either the good faith and expectation that he would be home at a certain time or they knew where to find him and took their happy ass out there to get him. Emergencies were true emergencies back then. A man could get some work done cause he wasn’t getting distracted all day long. They didn’t eat if he didn’t get his work done.

We think we need nice cars. I can’t say I’ve done too bad in this area either, but I think about LHOP days and they had one carriage. I bet that carriage wasn’t costing much – in payments or maintenance. Maintenance is where I’ve been getting bit with the nice car thing. If the LHOP dad (I don’t remember the characters’ names) had to pay as much to maintain his horse as I have lately to maintain my car, he probably would have shot the horse.

We think we need vacation. Vacation back in the day was probably the equivalent to a carriage ride to town to visit the general store and if you were lucky you could afford to have a beer and stay in the town hotel overnight rather than get back to the farm before dark. Now days we haven’t gone on vacation unless we’re gone at least a week to somewhere more than 200 miles away where we will probably have to spend about a month’s income to ‘enjoy’ it. We slave to make money, neglecting family, so we can afford ‘vacation’.

I think I could go on and on. Share some ideas with me of other things we could compare now to then – way back in the LHOP days. House, entertainment, eating out, internet…. What other ‘necessities’ do we have that the LHOP folks would have been amazed by? And if it annoys you that I can’t remember the characters’ names feel free to remind me.

Filed Under: Family, Money

Prom Redefined

May 25, 2007 by Leave a Comment

If you live in upstate SC you know who I’m talking about when I say “Hawk & Tom”. They are the morning radio show on B93.7 and I personally think they are hilarious. I don’t get to listen to them very often but when I do I’m always humored. Anyway, several weeks ago they hosted their first ever Hawk & Tom Prom. Shawna and I went with several friends. It was a blast.

Once again I have been slack with the camera but I bummed a couple of pics of some friends.

Below is a picture of the whole bunch of us at dinner (except for Ken – he got cut off on the left side) I’ll try to name everybody but I’m afraid I might have forgotten one couples names. From the guy front and center. I think he is Chad and I think his wife’s name is Amanda (I hope I’m not getting that wrong). Then moving around the table there is Chase & Crystal, Chris & Elizabeth, Lenny & Tathie at the far end, Me & Shawna of course, then Orion and Kim, and part of Ken and Christy. 

Dinner was excellent – great food and a lot of fun. Forgot the name of that place in Greenville where we ate but it was probably the best steak I’ve had in a while. Our server was a good sport too cause we were having a lot of fun and including him in the fun. We were having so much fun at the restaurant I didn’t want to leave there.

Special thanks to Orion and his special hook-up for getting everyone in our group tickets. And special thanks to Kim for giving me these pics. I want the pics off Chris’s camera but after the post about his birthday he might be afraid to give them to me. Here’s the beautiful couple Orion and Kim:

And I couldn’t post about this without including a picture of me and my gorgeous wife Shawna. Unfortunately her shoes and purse didn’t make it in to any of the pictures but she was extremely proud of her dress and stuff. I was just glad she was happy. As for me – that’s my high school tux except with pants that fit cause I’m a little, ok a lot, bigger below the chest and above the knees now.


My wife is so HOT! Uhhh, yeahh. Let’s just say I was the ladies man that night. Those Hawk & Tom characters knew what they were talking about when they said this prom would be better than your high school proms. I think dancing is better after marriage. Being allowed to legally partake of a drink probably helped a bit too. But one of the greatest benefits of prom after marriage is getting to go home with your date and we’ll just leave it at that. I will say it sucks to be a high school punk hoping to get what he should wait for cause it just ain’t as good as when you’re married.
This is another unforgettable moment because prom has been redefined for me. It used to be a part misery part shame experience because I don’t remember anything good about it from high school. But now it is an unforgettable moment with my wonderful wife and all our wonderful friends. Prom Redefined.

Filed Under: Family, Misc, Relationships, Stories

Michael’s Stores

May 19, 2007 by Leave a Comment

My daughter impresses me from time to time with her memory of stores and shopping. She is only 3 yrs old so I don’t expect her to have a working knowledge of Wal-Mart or Super Target, but she does. We pass a store and she knows what it is. We say we’re going somewhere and she knows what to expect. It is usually common stores she remembers and recognizes, but she recently said “we’re going to Michael’s”. I couldn’t believe she knew what Michael’s is.

To test what she perceives about these stores I started asking her what they have at some of the ones I’ve heard her call by name. For the record I asked her about Target and she corrected me and said “it’s Super Target daddy” because we just got back from Orlando where they have one. Anderson is not good enough for Skyler now because we only have the regular Target.

So here’s the list of what they have at these stores according to Skyler:

Wal-Mart – food & toys

Super Target – Mickey Mouse stuff & buggies (that’s southern for shopping cart)

Bloom – medicine & ice cream

Bi-Lo – fruit snacks

NewSpring (threw this in there for my own curiosity of what she would say) – toys & playhouse

Chick Fil A – playground

McDonald’s – food & playground (scary she noted the food at McDonald’s but not at Chick Fil A)

Gas Station – gas & snacks

Ross – dresses (at least Shawna is showing Skyler how to shop smart)

Michael’s – stickers

Thought this was interesting. Corporations are marketing to kids I assure you. I wonder if my little survey would be worth anything to some of these companies so they can see what the kids are really capturing from their efforts. I bet Michael’s didn’t know stickers were so important. Shawna is on her way there at this very moment to get some crafts supplies and buy some stickers.

Filed Under: Business, Family

Disneyworld – 10 Takeaways.

May 15, 2007 by Leave a Comment

I want to share some pictures and memories from our recent vacation by doing a bit of a 10-list. So here it goes. In no particular order – The 10 things I took away from my week long vacation in Orlando, FL.

1. Kids can swim all day, really – all day. The house we rented, which was a great deal just before peak season, had a pool. This was great because we got plenty of relaxing and/or playing time at the convenience of our back door. And it was screened in so there weren’t any bugs – or gators…


2. Dreams do come true. It is a good thing I had on sunglasses while we were standing there watching this show because I was crying. It was an emotional moment. We had just entered the park, the kids were so excited, this dramatic show started up, they were singing about dreams come true, and I realized I was living a dream having this opportunity to take my kids to Disneyworld. Something my family could never afford to do when I was growing up (the first time I went to Disney was as about 14 and it was with our church youth group – not the same as going when you’re a child).
3. I am a good daddy no matter what that voice in my head keeps telling me. I held Skyler a lot of the time – and tolerated her 21 yr old attitude in a 3 yr old body (it’s mini-Shawna – and, huh, umm, huh, I love it sooo much. This is how I joke and provoke more attitude – lol). I also had to teach Devin multiple times that he is both an awesome crazy cool superhero no fear conquerer of the world and then turn around and teach him constraint and when it’s right or wrong to get mad and hit. Don’t mess with Skyler – that’s when Devin has my ok to open his little can on somebody, and he does. Bless Gauge’s little heart (our nephew and Devin’s best friend/cousin). For some reason the kids were spitting. After multiple scoldings, a spanking, and a very serious talk, Devin decided he was going to stop spitting and warn Gauge that if he spit on Skyler again he was going to unleash hell on him. Ok I used my own words there – he told him he would “have to hit him”. Anyway, this trip was all about family time so I enjoyed spending time with the kids – lots of stories I could write about for days…
4. Disney is the world’s best at marketing to kids and every church in America should require their childrens ministers to visit Disney once a year for creative learning, because call it what you want but lack of creativity and marketing sense is how churches have missed entire generations of people when they were young. I can’t even begin to describe the experience Disney has created. Pictures can’t even describe it. All this stuff is man-made. Amazing!
5. Peter Pan looks gay. Well, a lot of Disney characters look gay. Come to think of it there were quite a few really gay people at Disney – employees and guests. Maybe it’s all the make-up. Quite interesting but I’m not going there right now – I’m talking vacation. Let’s just think of gay for it’s happy meaning. These people are smiling and the kids love them cause they’re heroes. Look at these people. This was the highlight of the trip for Skyler – seeing the princesses.
6. I actually like Mickey & Minnie, Goofy and Donald.

7. Devin is going to be my Extreme Sports child – fearless climbing, crazy in water, can’t wait to get him on snow skis one day. Skyler doesn’t know what it means yet but she is a daddy’s girl.
8. Rainforest Cafe is a great experience, but don’t go unless you can handle eating in the jungle with a bunch of wild animals and rain storms. They have the largest mound of nachos I’ve ever tried to eat – couldn’t finish it.
9. These guys have crabs…I mean they ate crabs at Joe’s Crab Shack (This is Hal, David, and Kyle – most people would call them in-laws or out-laws – but not us – we’re all family). Why didn’t I get crab? I didn’t go on vacation to work so hard just to get a sliver of meat out of a bottom feeder – so I ate some of David’s…
This Elvis pic is in here because Shawna has a pathetic liking of how “pretty” he was in his younger days. How ironic that we saw him at Joe’s because among a lot of things he probably had crabs too… I’m just jealous cause I ain’t so purty. The caption says “Joe’s crab shack has got me all shook up!!” – yeah, in the pants crabby.
10. Here are some random pics of all of the family who went on the trip. Our family (Me, Shawna, Devin, Skyler), Shawna’s sister, Lenae, and her husband David and boys Gauge and Gavin, Shawna’s mom & dad (Hal & Grace) and her brother Kyle. Here’s some random pics:
This is David & Lenae – Shawna’s sister. David looks like a huge scary mafia hit-man, but really he’s a big teddy bear of a lovable guy – at least to the family. If I weren’t part of the family I would leave him alone.
This is baby Gavin – David and Lenae’s 8 month hoss. I didn’t get him in any of the other pictures with the kids so here he is pimpin. It ain’t easy.
This is just a good picture so I wanted to put it on here. Skyler loves her aunt Nae-Nae. Aren’t they beautiful. If you’re reading this Nae there’s your one compliment for the year. Don’t get too used to it.
Another big reason for this trip that I haven’t mentioned is that it was Hal & Grace’s 40th wedding anniversary. So we did a sand ceremony. The white sand represents Hal & Grace and all the other colors represent their children and their families. I guess a sand thingy like this is sentimental. Mine and Shawna’s family is represented by the purple sand.
Here is a picture of all of us together. Thanks to the nice lady who took our picture.
Here’s Shawna and I – we’re so in love… My wife is sooo beautiful!!!
This is the best vacation we’ve have had since our honeymoon (last year in San Diego is a close second but it was too short a trip), but now I’m looking forward to Shawna and I having a vacation for just the two of us. Heck, we’ll take a weekend getaway.
Filed Under: Family, Relationships

Disneyworld!

May 10, 2007 by Leave a Comment

We just got back from Disneyworld!!! It was a very exciting time. If you didn’t know that’s where we were I apologize. I deliberately didn’t say anything about it online for obvious security reasons – even though we had a house-sitter.

Devin and Skyler are 4 and 3 and their cousin Gauge is 5. Let me tell you they had a blast. Here is their picture at Animal Kingdom with Mickey (left to right is Gauge, Skyler, Devin, and of course Mickey in back).

We went to Magic Kingdom one day and Animal Kingdom another day. I think they all liked Magic Kingdom the best (especially Skyler because that is where the princesses were and she can never get enough of them), but Devin seemed to like the Animal Kingdom better than Skyler and Gauge. I think he’s going to be an adventurous wild at heart outdoorsman and extreme sports kinda dude.
I’ve got a ton of stories to tell from the trip that I will have to start putting into writing but for now I couldn’t wait to say we had a blast. We’re back. Glad to be home. Buried in email, regular mail, and other catching up. Can’t wait to share so much more. Stories and pics to come.

Filed Under: Family

Easter 2007

April 9, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Great Easter Weekend. Here are the highlights.
  • My family came to town. We spent some good time together. Dad helped me fix the dryer. We ate, went to church, etc… Lenny hung out w/ my family Friday night. That was fun. Tathie, his wife, should have been there.
  • Our church had 10,700 in attendance this weekend – www.newspring.cc. Amazing. I think my family is amazed all over again each time they come.
  • We had an Easter egg hunt and cook-out with Chris & Elizabeth Cashion’s family. It was a blast. Randy took us through some trails on their land. We were on a trailer behind his jeep and there was mud. Key word being “behind”, “jeep, and “mud”. Yeah, we got filthy. Shawna thought she would be real cool and duck her head under a blanket. Well she had to bend over to get her head under there which put her butt in the line of fire. When the ride was over it looked like she had pooped her pants – really bad.

Good times, good times.

Filed Under: Family, Misc

March Birthdays

March 27, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Ok, I had no idea how many friends/family birthdays there are in March. For about the past year I’ve taken a much greater interest in knowing what everybody’s birthday is because I want to be able to stay in touch and because I care and want everybody to know they’re being thought of on their b-day. I knew there were a few b-days in March. But man, it seems like every day I’ve been either sending one of those e-cards everybody gets from us or I’ve been going to birthday parties. It’s great. Now that we’re almost at the end of the month I can’t even remember who all’s birthday has been this month.
HOWEVER, there is one I never have any trouble remembering. SHAWNA’S!!! If it isn’t easy enough to remember just because she is my wonderful wife, it is even more memorable because she normally reminds everyone with a daily countdown about a month ahead of time. She is much bigger on b-days that I have ever been. I really try to make it a special time for her. Here’s what she might remember about this year:
  • Allergies – Shawna is having a very difficult time with the pollen right now. If you see her and she seems a little out of it – she’s probably on allergy drugs. Please understand.
  • The visit to the chiropractor – Yes, Shawna is having trouble with her back. I’m no expert but even I can tell from the x-ray her back just ain’t right (that’s southern for “like, really messed up”). Luckily we were referred to a good doctor who is putting Shawna on a 16 week plan, the damage isn’t as bad as it could be, and we’re very optimistic that everything will be ok. But everyone pray.
  • The chiropractor bill – It isn’t free. Shawna offered to give me her birthday money to help pay for it but of course I’m not going to accept that. I’ll just take it out of funds we had designated for something else that I can replace in the next few months. But still, neither of us will forget we just had to get the bill on her birthday. Bad timing Doc.
  • Dance class – Just cause it’s your birthday doesn’t mean you get a break from being a mom – well except for what relief I can offer. Shawna’s b-day just happened to be the same day as Skyler’s dance class and it was Shawna’s turn to take both Skyler and her friend Olivia (she swaps turns with one of the other moms sometimes). What’s better is I got to go this time too – to be with Shawna on her birthday.
  • Chick Fil A “birthday party” – We told our kids we were going to Chick Fil A for momma’s b-day and they thought it was going to be like a b-day party they would have. They couldn’t understand why there weren’t cake and presents. It was funny. (She got presents in case you’re wondering, and ChickFilA isn’t the only b-day celebration – it was about the 3rd and it isn’t the last).
  • The cake – after Chick Fil A we of course had to go get a birthday cake, so we went to Publix (in the back of my mind I wanted to test the commercial about how great their cake service is). The kids didn’t really know what it should say so we just decided on “Happy Birthday Momma.” Well that wasn’t good enough for me so I had the guy add “Hot” before momma. He had to ask if I was serious and I told him absolutely. The funny thing is Shawna was standing there. The cake guy will probably remember Shawna’s birthday too – or at least the strange couple who is still so happy and in love even after 6 years of marriage and two kids – he may have never seen anyone like that before. Anyway, Publix cake commercial is true.
  • The garden tub bath – I ran a hot bath for Shawna in our large garden jacuzzi tub thingy that we rarely use (it has to be cleaned before each use because it is so infrequent – so I wasn’t just turning the water on). She really enjoyed the alone time (I didn’t get in there with her like I normally would) and it felt good and helped her back…
  • The foot massage – yep, I did this too – while she was on the phone with everybody in our family who called back to back for about 2 hours straight to say Happy Birthday.

Ok, no more about our mushy stuff. The celebrating isn’t over til we go to Shawna’s favorite restaurant in beautiful downtown Greenville, and I’m making those plans now.

Filed Under: Family, Relationships

Kids & Proper Anatomy Terminology

March 13, 2007 by Leave a Comment

The other night Shawna and I had date night so we had a babysitter for Devin & Skyler. Our regular babysitter was busy so we had to call in a babysitter we haven’t used in a while. The kids love Samantha and it was funny to hear the stories when we got home of how things have changed since the last time they were all together.

Samantha does a great job making our kids mind just as we would. A lot of sitters let the kids have whatever they want and give in to their little manipulative ways, but Samantha has experience from all the time she has spent with her small siblings.

If you know my kids you know that they have their moments where it’s all about attitude (comes from their mother). Well since the kids weren’t getting their way like they are used to with the other sitter the proceeded to tell her with the attitude in their tone, “Next time you come you have to be nice to us.”

There were other funny stories from Samantha. One was about Skyler asking a lot of questions about the handicapped person she observed at the mall (another people watcher in the making). She referred to the lady who was sitting in a chair with wheels on it and she looked dead. Somehow Samantha explained to her that the person wasn’t blessed with strong legs and they aren’t dead – their brain just isn’t working. We’ll have to fix this one later when Skyler is big enough to understand, but for now that confused her enough to change the subject.

The most hilarious story was Samantha’s shock to hear Devin’s knowledge of proper anatomy terminology. She was helping him take a bath and didn’t know what word to use to get him to wash his private area. So she said “don’t forget to wash your winkie.” To which Devin quickly responded, “It’s not my winkie. It’s my penis. But sometimes my daddy calls it pecker.” Then he proceeded to laugh at himself. That is hilarious!

If you’re thinking we’re freaks – shut up – I mean be quiet (our kids know both shut up and be quiet but we teach them be quiet is more polite). I’m not so naive as to think my kid isn’t going to hear all types of slang from somebody. I’d rather him learn it from me and know that it isn’t proper and it isn’t the end of the world if somebody says it. I’m wondering when it will be the right time to teach my kids what cuss words are – before your brat or the TV teaches it to them inapropriately…

Anyway, I’m getting on another soapbox and didn’t want to – the story was funny. I think I’ll go help Skyler work on her terminology. A certain word is still sounding like “majama” instead of, well… you figure it out.

Filed Under: Family
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