Last week: Cheatah Girls and the Circus

We got free tickets to see the Cheetah Girls One World Concert last Wednesday. Thank you Uncle Sam. If you can't tell poor Livvie was sick. Priceless moment: Haley's face as she watched the first opening band, 535. They were horrible and if my batteries had not been dieing I would have taken her picture because she was absolutely unimpressed - as were we all. The second band, The Clique Girls, were much much better.

And here they are!!!! Not that you can tell in either of these photos, but . . . Cool thing is we were watching the Disney channel on Sunday night and they had clips from the concert. They said that Austin was their first stop, so even though that was on Wednesday - we are sure they filmed the commercial in Austin and not in another city : )

Not much better I'm afraid.

Then on Friday we took the kids to the Karem Shriners Circus. Yeah, it was not Ringling Brothers, but we got discount tickets too. I was able to get more pictures but they were still pretty blurry. I took this one because Rebekah had waited in the line to ride the elephant (a very long line). Then found out it was $7 per 30 second ride. We had told the kids that they would have to use their own money for things because we had the Rockdale Fair this weekend. She wouldn't do it. So this is her consolation prize. A picture with the elephant, sort of.

The older boys enjoyed the show also. You'll notice the scantly clathed beauty on the elephant. All of the performers were dress as such. The boys could not understand why they did not have any circus animals, no elephants or dogs (which was all they had, but that is beside the point).

What have we been up to?

I saw this idea in a Better Homes and Gardens, only they used real pumpkins. It is to hot here in Texas to use real pumpkins, they rot. So I came up with the idea of plastic pumpkins, I thought it looked cute.

This is my entire front porch.

For Justin's communication Merit Badge he had to conduct a Court of Honor. This was held in the middle of September. I really wanted to get his merit badges on his sash (which I've had for several years now). You'll notice Alex does not have his sash, that is because it took FOREVER to do Justins. I swore that I would never do another one - I've calmed down since then :)

Alex got his Life Scout Rank, along with a pile of merit badges. He had 3 campouts and 2 merit badge fairs that he was receiving badges for. And yes, Alex did finally get a hair cut.

Mark got his Scout and his Tenderfoot Rank along with his first merit badge, fingerprinting.

You might be a redneck if . . .

Brigade Ball

Friday, John had a Brigade Ball. I found out last Friday that we were going. Everyone has pointed out the fact that they don't understand why we thought we could get away with not going considering he is the First Sgt. At any rate I had a week to prepare. Trying to find a modest dress, is a trick in and of itself. Thanks to Katie who loaned me her dress for the evening it was a much easier task. (Never mind that I spent two hours in JcPenney's). I did feel a little under dressed, but I think that it is mostly the fact that I was dressed compared to some of the women there. Oh well!!! We enjoyed ourselves in spite of the fact. John of course, looks dashing in uniform.

I like Johns smile in the second photo better, but I look like I'm in pain - no idea why. Maybe it is because I'm in front of the camera instead of behind : )

Gas

This is what the pumps looked like yesterday. Unfortunate for me is that I too was completely out of gas. I've been borrowing my sister-in-laws truck as our car has perished and we are trying to bide our time until John leaves for Iraq. I had filled up my gas tank completely Thursday evening before the hurricane had actually hit. Yesterday, I went to College Station. I knew that I would need gas before coming home and thought that I would get gas there. While I was in College Station I realized that the usual places I get gas did not carry diesel. I had one more stop to make in Milano and knew that there was a gas station there that would carry diesel and I THOUGHT that it would be less busy. Not to mention the fact that I had passed vehicle after vehicle after vehicle carrying 5 gallon gas tanks.

The gas meter was registering just before empty when I turned into the feed store and it started chugging a little bit. Uh-oh. But it started right up and carried me the two blocks to get to the gas station. As I pulled in, it started chugging again. Phwew, at least I'm in the parking lot. There was someone on both sides of the tank and I picked the one that looked like the best option. I turned off the truck while waiting. It barely lurched into place as I pulled up. As I'm getting out of the truck a lady came around the corner with those nifty yellow bags. "We are all out of diesel."

"Are you kidding, so am I." I called dad to rescue me (they had just filled the tractor with diesel and had to go fill up the tank again (hopefully in Cameron, but possibly in Rockdale?)) About 40 minutes later, another lady came out to remove the nifty bag off of the diesel. Yippee!!!! Better yet - Dad hadn't even left Cameron!!!!!

"I knew if I waited long enough someone would deliver some diesel."

Luckily it was a nice day to wait : )

Ike

I wanted to thank everyone who called concerning our safety as Ike was heading our way. Luckily we are far enough away that things would not be as severe as they were in Houston. Since we were on the outer edge, by the time it took the turn east (thanks to the cold front) that we got the perfect amount of rain and the wind was not terrible either. A few gusts that had us raising our eyebrows, but considering we live in a single wide tin hut, those eyebrows get raised more in a passing thunderstorm.

Congratulations Max, Stephanie and Noah

Max (John's brother) and Stephanie were married Friday afternoon. Max has known Stephanie for a long time, but they started dating about 2 years ago. So it feels like Stephanie and Noah have been with the family for a long time. But now it is official. Welcome to the family!!!!!!