Don't Shoot!! Or.......rather......DO shoot.

We may have another competitive shooter in the family!
(I was hoping that you'd all be so focused on the gun that you wouldn't see that sock hanging over the kitchen chair. (sigh))

Enter Race .

Race has been stateside for a bit and one of the things that means is that the kids get to pour over tons of his cool gear. (He believes that you can never have too much “kit” in that the way that I believe you can never have too many shoes.)

Race being home also means firearms training……..for me and the kids.

Now, while I am not able to do it blindfolded, what other wife do you know that can disassemble a Glock and put it back together? (Dy, put your hand down….this is my moment.)

But, enough about me, silly. Let’s talk competition shooting. Race began shooting competitively some years ago in the military. He would not be able to legitimately hold his Johnny Bad Ass title without a few state and national wins to his name, now would he?

But a few years ago we were introduced to IPSC. This, my friends is like the shooters nirvana. It is the competition that levels the playing field. I’ve seen a shooter under 16 yrs old, absolutely destroy the competitive time and accuracy of every cop in the group.

By a mile.

Quickness and accuracy. That’s what it’s all about. And of course, that’s what every shooter wants to be better at. Whether you are a professional, a novice, or just a gal hoping to hit the unlucky s.o.b. that tries to harm your loved ones, it’s speed and accuracy that you need. Watch the video, you'll get the idea.

Uh-huh......uh-huh..........How cool was that?
So, anyway Race got bit by that bug. And we followed along. And, oh my, what a wonderful group of people! All walks of life, lots of family members and everyone willing to help out the beginner, (or the cop learning for the first time to MOVE and SHOOT ;-) ). It’s good stuff. This brings me to Jack. He is using a Glock practice gun. An “Inert” It has no firing pin, but everything else is the same. Even has pink practice rounds.





We aren’t ready for the Jr. Olympics yet. But, hey... it’s a start.

Savannah and Herriott

For those of you who don't know, my daughter Savannah has a cat named Herriott. She is a girl cat, but she is named after the author James Herriott. His stories have always been some of Savannah's favorites.

My Sister has been working on getting her photography studio opened up and she thought that some "pet portraits" might be nice to add to her collection. So, naturally, she thought of my girl and her beloved cat! (It is SOOoooo beneficial to have a sister who is a professional photographer!) I absolutely LOVE these images os Savannah. They really show her personality. She has turned into such a beautiful girl, inside and out.
I have to choose from these for an enlargement for our dining room. I have the room decorated with a B & W picture of each of the kids, so the one that I choose will need to be B & W to replace it. The frames are a pretty cherry.

The one below is Savannah's favorite.

I have never seen a pet more devoted to it's owner than Herriott is to Savannah. I swear, if Savannah was out in the ocean, that cat would swim the waves of the sea to reach her.

When did this happen? My little girl is growing up so fast!

SO which one would you choose? I think that I'll get the one Savannah likes for her room. Tough decision.

You can see more of my sister's work here at her website. Thanks again Thom for the awesome photos.

Cheers!

Melissa

ooooo......that hit's the spot!

This is from E. Elliott

Does Prayer Work?

The answer to that depends on one's definition of work. It is necessary to know what a thing is for in order to judge whether it works. It would be senseless, for example, to say that if a screwdriver fails to drive nails into a board it doesn't "work." A screwdriver works very well for driving screws. Often we expect to arrange things according to our whims by praying about them, and when the arrangement fails to materialize we conclude that prayer doesn't work. God wants our willing cooperation in the bringing in of his kingdom. If "Thy kingdom come" is an honest prayer, we will seek to ask for whatever contributes to that end. What, after all is said and done, do you want above all? Is it "Thy will be done"? If so, leave it to Him.
Is it "My will be done"? Don't waste your time and God's by praying. Have it your way.
I am hoping to be back tonight with a few pictures and stories. See you then! Have a wonderful day!
Cheers!
Melissa

It's ball season again.......fill up my flask, please

Baseball is going good for the boys this year, so far. Austin is having a blast for playing for this high school team. He 's playing so well at short stop and his team really looks up to him.As I watch him this year I realized that while I am immensly proud of the baseball skills that he has worked so hard on......what has really impressed me this year is this kids character. It does a mom's heart good to see her son, as one of the stand-outs on a team go out of his way to truly encourage the younger kids whose abilities aren't there yet. (Sigh)....Now THAT'S good stuf.

Jack is playing 1st base and pitching. He's really found his bat this year and he's sending them to the fence.

But He's pitching.

And that's why I need a flask of strong drink.

Don't get me wrong. He's doing a great job. And he loves it.

But I am a nervous wreck.

I want to stand and run away. I want to shake someone(just anyone) by the shoulders really hard. I want to stand and shriek, "THAT"S MY BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

But not Jack. He's cool as can be. And to show his ultimate coolness, every so often he reaches up adjusts his cap and then turns and spits on the mound. (A lot of the boys at this age adjust their CUP on the mound after each pitch instead of their CAP and I can tell you that the latter is much cooler).

Have I ever told you that we have an umpire for Jack's age group that only has one eye? Yep, it's true. We have a one eyed umpire. (Could I MAKE this stuff up?)


And no, he's not very good. at all.

One time there was this adorable little boy on the mound pitching. The handsome little guy went through his wind up and let the ball fly. The one eyed ump called the pitch a ball.

It was at this precise moment that everyone heard the little boy's well dressed, and usually poised mother yell from the stands, "C'MON UMP!! TRY WATCH'N IT WITH YOUR *GOOD* EYE!!!!" .................. and then she sat down, saying "that was a strike"......but in a much smaller voice now.

Honestly, what kind of mother would yell such a thing????? (*blush*)

( But in my own defense it WAS a strike)

So.......I'm dustin' off the ole flask and fillin' her up.

Let's PLAY BALL!!!

Cheers!

Melissa

P.S. Huge HUGE thanks to my sister Thomasina for taking the awesome photos. I can hardly wait to show y'all the one's she just did of Savannah!!

Yeah, Yeah.....I know.......

Making some big changes on the old homeschool front around here, so I've been up to my eyeballs in schedules and curricula. Race is gone, so all the baseball stuff has still got me on the run as well.

It's busy, man........REAL busy.

SO busy, in fact that today at 2:15.........our scheduled departure time......found me opening up the running dishwasher to retrieve the washing, crock- pot innards. With my purse slung over my arm and my big sunglasses aready on my face, I was ripping the skin off of the chicken thighs like some sort of deranged Food Network wannabe. It was really disturbing. And gross.

But, on the bright side, within 4 minutes I had de-skinned a pack of chicken thighs, dumped them into the crockpot and then dumped in tomatoes, jalapenos, black beans,mushrooms, onions , salt, pepper and red wine. I even remembered to turn it on!! Back in the door at 6:00 and wa-lah! I added brown rice, steamed broccoli, and baked multi-grain rolls. So.......ya know....all craziness aside............Yay Me. Super mom slammin the good food on the table.

Now......onto stranger things.

O.K.- On this message board that I frequent, there were some posts about modest swimwear. Now, typically this is a pretty well balanced board. The topic of modesty ran on for awhile and several people thought that they.....the mothers as well as their daughters.....should wear modest swimwear so as not to cause the male population to falter. Here are the swim suits in question:

First of all....I say.......... NO WORRIES. Mission Accomplished.


Secondly, Someone please keep a life preserver within reach in case either of these gals accidently falls off that diving board. Seriously.........HOW could you SWIM in that????

HOW??? You'd sink like a rock. Or be tangled like some poor dolphin in a fishermans net.

Save your $$ and swim in your clothes. You'll attract less attention and it'd be cheaper.

Hey, how about this one?



What the hell is that??? What's that you see out there Sylvia?


I think I'm gonna go with something from Athleta. Different strokes, I guess.

And at almost 39, if I can make men think of anything other than gouging their eyes out......... Well then, good on me.

Cheers!

Well...that was quick!

Crabtree Falls Virginia

I can't believe that it's Sunday already!!

Well, we had a super busy week, but the weekend made it all worth-while. We went camping again. We had such an amazing time! We went to a spot that Race and I have been going to since we first began dating in college. And it is still just as great as it was back then!

It always amazes me how the term "camping" means so many different things to so many different people. I thought that I would show you how we camp. We've been camping this way since before Austin was born and the only thing that's really changed is the quality of our gear and how much food we bring with us!!

This is a really special place for us up at Crabtree Falls. Isn't it beautiful? And the river is teeming with trout!

This is how we camp:

The first thing that we do is choose a place to camp. This is always scary. We don't do campgrounds much, so we do the off-road camping thing. Race always picks out the spot and then eases my precious-life-sustaining suburban down steep ravines and over gigantic river rocks that make me constantly spew helpful comments like, "Are you sure that we can get back in here?" and "Do you think that we can get back outta here?" and the even lesser appreciated, "Oh CRAP! what are you doing? You're going to kill us all!!"

But after this little excercise, we arrive safely to our campsite. Time to unload and set up. Now, one of the best things that Race ever did was to buy each of the kids their own, private, one-man tents and show them how to put them up, take them down, and care for them. It makes camp set up a snap!

Here, you can see Jack heading to the river with his net to scoop up bountiful treasures. He is walking past Austin and Savannah's tents already set up...off to themselves, mind you...so that they can blast the ipod over A's speakers. (Ahhhhhhhhhhh.......camping with TEENS) Luckily we all share pretty much the same tastes in music.....so....ROCK On!Here you see Austin running away from his embarrassing, camera-slinging mother. The indignity of it all.

Anyway this also shows what camp looks like after it's set up. The wood has been gathered by the slave children, ready for burning in the fire pit to your left. The ginormous appetites of the slave children that we bring along force us to use the fire pit and the little grill simultaneously, for cooking. The orange tent belongs to Race and myself. We LOVE this tent!! But more on that later.

Jack set his tent up right beside us for safety and crowd control reasons. Then Savannah and Jackson headed to the river for a swim, while Austin got the fire started in the pit.And can you blame them? How fun does that look? Wading out through the rapids like that!

A shot of boyhood bliss. (sigh)Isn't this just a beautiful spot?? We really LOVE it up here.

Tune in tomorrow for more of the hot topics and how-to's of tent camping.....including " What's a Cat Hole?" and "Why does my mate keep crawling on me?"

Cheers!

Melissa

Camping and Kayaking

SO, we've been trying to fit in a little outdoorsy stuff. Don't get me wrong- what with school, baseball, martial arts, art class and the upcoming vocal instruction....we've still got a lot going on. But if you've been reading here for any time at all, you'll know that this family CRAVES to be outside. Race and Austin went kayaking the other day. Jack had ball practice that morning, so while Race had Jack at practice Austin got the kayaks loaded, strapped down and all the pfd's and paddles in the suburban. When race and Jack got back, we headed out. And as I was kayak taxi, I got the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the "put in" and "take out".

Below, Race and Austin get their kayaks ready to hit the water.



The water was high from all the rain that we've had lately.That, coupled with the small water fall just above where they put in, made the water foamy that day.The skies were threatening rain, but the guys decided to take their cell phones and head out anyway. After seeing the guys off, Savannah and Jack and I ran a few errands and then headed back home. late in the afternoon, Race called to tell me what the ETA was for them at the pick-up point. So we headed out to pick em' up. It is really a beautiful area, teeming with water birds of all types as well as the occasional muskrat. We love just hanging out here waiting for the kayakers to come around the bend.Eventually, we saw them coming around the corner. The rain had started, but not much more than a drizzle. From put in to take out it's about 15 miles. There are a few rapids, but nothing huge. With the water level up, they made it in a few hours. Right up onto land!And of course, this presents a perfect opportunity for the little brother in the group to try out his own kayaking skills.
We've also been camping. Minus Austin, however. He was at a "MODGNIK" retreat with the church youth group. Have you ever heard of "MODGNIK"? It's "KINGDOM" spelled backwards.And as far as I can tell it's a bunch of church youthgroups that get together and they participate in things like rock climbing, tackeling a huge ropes course, swimmimg, and of course the obligatory singing at times. Austin could do without that last part.....but he had an awesome time none the less. So the rest of us went camping. We had a blast, but unfortunately Jack had my camera the whole time. When Jack has the camera, he takes pictures of Savannah mostly. That's because she HATES it. I mean she HATES to have Jack take her picture. So most of the pictures look like this: This was right before she knocked Jack in the head and the camera fell out of his hand.He also likes to take a lot of pictures of Scout:
He also, looks less than thrilled to have his photo taken.



Here, he has captured his mother, showing the more "serious" side of camping. But still managing to capture both dogs and his own tent in the background.

And the fire. He always takes pictures of the fire.
So, that's what's been going on here.

Cheers!

Melissa

hairy monkey arms.......

Remember when I told you about my gaw-ge-ous dress that I got for the wedding? Beautiful, right? I LOVE it. I would wear this dress everyday if I could.

But you know, a special occasion like this wedding doesn't come along every day, so it requires a gal to do a little more "polishing" than usual, ya know? The nails and the pedicure are really just the begining.

Let's talk hair removal, gals.

Forgive me for being candid for a moment, but lets face it ladies, I am dangerously close to 40 years old and hair removal has become of paramount importance. I do it like it was a full time job. The waxing, tweezing, shaving... at various times,I hit it all. I log in some serious hours.I have a schedule. (Incidently, all you just-turned-30's.....write it down. You heard it here first.)

So here's the thing:
The dress is arm-bearing.
Now, I think that we can all agree that nothing says, "I'm a freak-hermit with no life", like hairy, monkey arms protruding from a lovely silk dress. Nevermind that the hair is blonde (thank-you Lord)...it still looks like a boy I sat next to in 5th grade. I used to stare disgustingly at his bushy, blonde haired arms during reading group. Ew.

I digress.

I was running short on time. We were frantically cleaning up from Easter,unpacking the kids from Mom and dads, unpacking Race from his trip, and PACKING for Florida the next day. So I figured I'd take a short cut on the arm hair. Just before I got into the shower I spread my arms with Neet. Nice and thick. 3 minutes go by.
Ouch......is it supposed to be painful???
Oh well, many hair removal methods are painful, so....no biggie.
I step into the shower.
OUCH! Damn it. That HURTS! I don't think it's supposed to hurt like that.

When I get out of the shower, I gingerly dry my arms and as I examine them I see that they are indeed, hair free. Unfortunately, they are also completely covered from shoulder-to-wrist in painful blisters and large red splotches!

Race looks at me incredulously. He's speechless.

I dress myself, trying hard not to cry out as the sleeves of my shirt rest on my raw, red appendages.

The Wedding is day after tomorrow.
Ah..yes....nothing says "I'm a strung out, needle-using drug addict" like blistered, raw, splotchy arms protruding from a lovely,silk dress.

I wimper to myself while slathering on aloe and hoping for the best.

While driving my 1/2 the next day, I had to hold my arms in a certain position on the steering wheel and keep the air on full blast, blowing on my arms in order to keep them from bursting into flames. Jack, of course wanted to know, "MOM! WHat HAPPENED to your ARMS!!?" The answer probably didn't move me very far up the intellectual ladder for him.

That night, in the hotel,I examined the damage again. Well, the blistering looked better, but unfortunately the rest of my arm looked as if I had been in a really bad skateboarding accident. That's right: Road Rash. I slathered the aloe on, once again. It was on so thick that my arms were green and slimy.

So there I was, in some nameless hotel room with my slimy, green arms laying motionlessly on the outside of the covers for the entire night.......I must not be touched. My wings of flame could not bear it.

The next morning Race got us up early to get on the road. I was less than sunny in my disposition that morning, and I let him know about it on several occasions. As I sat in the passengers seat, he returned from checking us out. He opened my door and handed me some coffee as he tried to divert his eyes from my hideous stumps. "Thank-you for the coffee" I said coldly. "What do you want me to do?" I asked. "Nothing, babe. You don't have to do anything" He said speaking in a voice like you would use for the mentally deranged. "You don't have to do anything, just sit there and look hot like you always do", he cooed. He stepped back and grabbed the edge of the door to close it and added, "And don't speak for the rest of the trip". And he closed the door. *grin*

The Wonderful Magical Aloe Vera saved my life.

By the time of the wedding, the pain was completely gone, and the road rash not very noticable. Of course had anyone stroked my arm, it would have felt like heavy grade sandpaper, but....you know....no one did. And after a few drinks I didn't even remember about my awful monkey arms.

So I don't know what the moral of this story is. Can you think of one?
Don't rush hair removal?.......... Is that a moral?

Do you ever wonder if he's just hideously ugly??

CHEERS!!!

Melissa