Beijing 2008

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!!

Really, I do. I love the sport of it. Swimming, diving, gymnastics, track and field, gosh I could go on and on. I love the story pieces that the networks show about the athletes. I love a good story, you gotta know them to love them.

Our church is doing a Olympic theme for the sermons, and each SS class is praying for individual athletes. A funny side note on that...I was not in SS when they came around and explained what they wanted each class to do, because I was filling in for the teacher who was making the announcement. So that meant that I had to get the low down from my boys. So this was the conversation on the way home from church on Sunday.

Me: How was class today guys?

Boys: Fine

Jake: Ms Linda came around and wants our class to sponsor a christian athlete during the Olympics.

Me: really Jake, that is so cool

Jake: Yeah, I picked....(at this point he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a tiny slip of paper)...I picked Bryan Clay

Jared: Hey, I didn't get to pick someone. How come I didn't get to have one?

Me: I have no idea Jared?

Jake: I was the one sitting at the end of the table so I pulled the name out of the basket. But he is mine, cause I picked him.

Me: What does he compete in?

Jake: track and Field

Me: What do they want you to do while he is competing?

Jake: I don't know, they just want us to SPONSOR him Mom, we don't have to do anything.

Me: Well, maybe you could pray for him, and follow him online?

Jake: Whatever, I am just going to sponsor him. This is my guy.

Then later that day, he was cleaning his room and he came and asked for some tape. I questioned him because we had just painted his room I REALLY did not want tape on the walls. He assured me he wouldn't put it on the walls and away he went.

That night, he came to me and showed me his chap stick(he is an addict, really he is, he has it with him AT ALL TIMES, he even sleeps with it in his waistband of his pj bottoms)
He held it up proudly to show me. It was now covered with not only an obscene amount of DUCK TAPE but also the little slip of paper that had Bryan Clays name on it. You can read about him here. (He is in the Got Milk ad on the right with the track shoes around his neck.)

That was so Jake, not even really sure what "sponsor" means but knowing it meant something important. Important enough for the beloved chap stick, it might as well have been duck taped to his heart.

Touched by Grace, and Ashley

Sometimes, I take grace for granted. I take a lot for granted, actually. Today I followed a link from another blog to hear the story of Ashley. You need to find a quiet corner, and listen. It is about 45 minutes long, and is told by Pastor Louie Giglio, who has seemed to sneak into my life over the past few months through various avenues.

Really, if you have been captured by grace, or if you need to be, this is for you.

The message is under the Home Free/Even Me series and it is titled Fruitcake and Ice Cream. You can find it here.

Be Blessed.

Snip Snip!!!

I have always said that hair is just hair. You can color it, curl it or cut it, and it is still just hair. That is one reason why my DH and I have really never cared how our kids wore their hair. We have done the long thing and the short thing, the mohawk, the pink thing and the blonde thing. As long as it can be cleaned up for church or a night out, I am game.





That being said, Jared's hair has gotten REALLY long. With football coming up, he thought it was time for a trim. He is thinking about doing the mohawk look again, so this is the inbetween cut. I only wish I would have taken a pic of the hair that was on the bathroom floor.





Just for the record, he does not wear his hair in a pony tail, I was just showing him how long it had gotten.

Saying Goodbye

After a weeklong visit, the CaliFamily has left the building. We hugged and cried and took some pics. Here they are...

This is me and my LITTLE brother, he's got about 5 inches on me and I have 15 years on him.

This is the MS grandkids and the CaliFamily.

This is what it looks like when they try to leave.

Blinded by the Light

Remember the other day when I said I could see the light at the end of the tunnel? Well here is proof.

First, late into the night my family came to the rescue...paint, paint, paint.


Then a little comic relief form KC.

Then a little painting love from my girl Shawna. Remember the jealousy post? Well, she was the one who had my back. This night however, she had my paint brush. She painted away.


After all that hard work, the pros got to work laying the floor. That is James and Raymond in the back...working hard laying my NEW FLOORS!!!



Of course, we needed a little more comedy to make fun of the stress we have lived in the past 8 months. So here is my man, pretending to lay my floors. He could have done it, really he could have. We could have, and I really wanted to, but timing was not on our side.



Now, if I could just get the table cleaned off again, then the pictures hung back on the walls, then the walls need touching up, and then the bar needs to be tiled, and somewhere along the line the bookcases need to get out of The Beezoos room. Where did the light go? Really, it was here a moment ago. I am sure of it.

Where did you come from?

I have a favorite widget. It is on the live traffic feed at the bottom right of this blog. If you click on the "Watch in Real Time" at the bottom of the feed box it shows you all the hits on your page.

While most of mine are direct hits, meaning that the viewer either typed in my web address or clicked on a link that directed them here....I do occasionally get some really crazy random hits.
When someone Google's something, it could lead them here.

So I thought I would share some of the random searches that landed people here at www.alwayslaughingoutloud.blogspot.com

My top two from this week are:

"My son has realy loud gas"

and

"Quirky Sandwich containers"

The REALLY fun thing is that these people actually clicked on my page hoping maybe to find what they were looking for.

I am so sorry to disappoint....but then again maybe I had just what they were looking for.

Still Under Construction

Here are some updated photos of the destruction...I mean construction.


This is the view from the side door entry. That cutout was a window prior to us owning the house, when this area was a carport, not part of the living room. It has always been kind of an awkward area....that is until KC and went crazy with the sledge hammer.


This is the NEW opening.


This is the NEW bar area.

The contractor is here right now finishing the drywall. He is busy sanding...which is quite possibly the worst job ever and the messiest. After a quick clean up, the new floors will go down and then it will be time to touch up the paint.

Surely the end is near.