Cookout at our house

Mom and Larry Jr. chillin'!









This is Mike and Tanya. They moved to Georgia from California...Mike is Sonny's (Mike's mother's brother) son and they are great!












Here Mike is cooking...WHICH he does soooooo well!










Here Britt is with Silker (Mike's mom).










I love this picture...it's Wil with the newest addition to the family, Porter.

Cook-out at our house...

More pics of the cookout...this is Lauren and Alex, my neice and nephew!




This is Michael with Deanna and Devon, who is Mike's cousins daughter...














This is Britt holding another of Mike's cousins son.












This is Court with Devon, her sister Paige and Deanna.



This is Mike's mom with her all her brother's except one and her sister, Wil.

Art's party...

It was also Harold's 60th birthday, so we had cake and ice cream!


What a ham!

This is Danny's son, RJ.













I love this picture!!!

Party at Art's..more

Here are more pics at the pool party!

Spring is Springing...

FINALLY I am updating this blog. It's not that I didn't want to, but I needed something to put on here besides..."went to work"..."hauled kids everywhere"..."went back to work"...you get it.

I actually have alot of new news for ya! First, we have another addition to our family and a loss. Michael bought Ashley a puppy! His name is Boomer because Michael makes things go "BOOM" on his job.









He's a beagle and WIDE OPEN all the time. Buddy and Cujo can't stand him!



As for our loss, I found a new home for the bird. Yes, Cosmo has left the coup. He was Courtney's bird, but she agreed that he would be happier at another home. He was the perfect bird, but we seldom had the time for him that he deserved and his new home is perfect for him.
More news...Brittany has bought a truck! It's SOOOO cute and she loves it!

She had "G.R.I.T.S." added after she bought it. Kenny...I KNOW you don't know what that stands for...and it ain't for our regional food either...it stand for, "Girls raised in the South"! I LOVE it!
She is SO proud and works hard to pay for it.

Ashley has been driving the convertable, but wants to trade IT in for an SUV, so we will be trading in the next few weeks.

The van behind the convertible is ours too, we traded in our old van for this. It's a Kia and we LOVE IT!
Our back yard looks like a car lot.

And lastly...our Azalea's are fixing to bloom! This is a shot towards our BACK, back yard. Our back yard is divided into what's mowed and what ain't. This is what ain't, but is being worked on as you can see by the wheel barrow full of tree limbs back there. (Click on the picture and you can make it bigger)


It goes down to a third part of the back, back yard...which contains blackberrys and other of nature's bounty...it actually needs bush hogging, but we ain't got one, so we let nature have it!! hee hee


That's all our news for the moment.

Fat Tuesday.

HAPPY FAT TUESDAY EVERYONE! Courtney went to school today with a neck full of beads. I told her her neck was gonna cramp up with all that bling on! hee hee

Well, I'm off work today...WOOT WOOT! WHICH means I have to make a Sam's haul, wash the dogs, figure out what to feed everyone for supper, since two of them have to be at work at 4:30pm, and call my Mama. There.

OH...Alex's birthday party was last Saturday, so Dad took pictures. I WOULD have taken pics, but I had just got off work, went home and grabbed his present (a goldfish) and prayed it would slosh out of the tank before I got there. I have to admit, I have some cute nephew/nieces.
The chair in the background here was Larry Jr.s when he was little. He got everything when he was little. I didn't get anything. sniff sniff....hee hee
This is Mom with one of Alex's little friend-gurls. She was SOOOOOOO friggin' CUTE!


The girls are all doing great...just exTREMEly busy. BUT, as my Grandma Sprouse used to say..."Busy hands are happy hands"....OH, and this one too..."Idle hands are the devils workshop". These girls should have some pretty happy, penecostal hands! HAAAAAAAAA

BYE-
Joan

Long weekend!!!

FINALLY a weekend off where I don't have to go anywhere, work, haul, clean or place on restriction!!! Yeee-HAWWW

We are having a good weekend..as all should be! This is my weekend off and I'm also off tomorrow. To say that your off, while working in a hospital is WONderful. Monday's are usually your busiest day as are Fridays.

Dad sent me some pictures of a singing he and Mom went to, and all I can say is CHECK OUT THE HAIR!

I can hear Dad now telling me to behave. Check this out!

BAA-HAAA!













This picture made my day! hee hee...can you just iMAGine what she looks like when she first wakes up!!!! tee-hee Tammy Faye Jr.!
Actually, I should say that her picture is cropped off a bigger picture..she just kinda stood out!

Here are more pictures taken during this very eventful event!


That's Mom sitting with Frankie (R) and Frankie's sister (L).

Now, THIS picture is Dad,,,without his glasses thanks to cataract surgery..don't the other guy sitting there look just THRILLED! Hold your mouse over the picture and click...that will make it bigger...












This is Mom getting Dottie Rambo's autograph. Dottie is infamous in the Southern Gospel world, both for her singing, but more for her song writing. Courtney does a couple of her songs. She truely is one of the best.



Mom and Dad also went to Fletcher's baptism. Fletcher is Gina's fiance. I believe they are getting married in July. They attend Simpsonville First Baptist. I wanted to go, but, as usual when something happens I want to go to, I had to work that weekend.
I have a better picture of Fletcher and Gina in November's blog. Look to the right of this page and you will see months listed...click on November.

I hope everyone is doing fine...I PROMISE to take some picture this weekend of...something! Dad is showing me up!

Joan

Friday night and I ain't got no carrrrrr-

Well, Mike is working a hockey game, Britt and Ash are at work also, so it's me, Court and the boys. I would take Court somewhere, but I ain't gotta ride! AND I ain't got nowheres to go...I'm sure Courtney could find somewhere tho!

Well, I would say I had an eventful day, but I believe Dad's was MORE eventful! He had his very first EVER colonoscopy! HAAAAAAAA Let's just say he spent MANY an hour SITTING yesterday preping for this morning. hee hee Of course, Mom spoiled him rotten by buying him a robe, juices, home-made broth etc...sniff sniff. He was pitiful! HAAAAAAAAAA
OH, the only new pictures I have are....

Michael sent ashley a disc with pictures on them from some kinda training he went thru and she wanted me to post a couple on here.

Ashley had her hair dyed dark brown WHICH she hates and will be returning to her true high-lighted self shortly.

And that's Michael again training. They seem to do alot of that!

I don't have one single picture of Britt or Court. NOT because they don't take any of each other, but they take pics with their cell phones and the picture is too tiny to add here. I haven't taken any pictures of them since Christmas! Britt's man-less now, so she's home alot. Court is man-less too! hee hee

Well, I guess I'll go and see how Dad's butt's doing! hee hee I guess I'll ask how he's doing too!

I'm working 12's all weekend, so don't expect any more posts from moi till Mon. or Tues when I'm off again-

Bye-

Joan

What a month...

I can't believe it's been forEVER since I posted last! We have all been so busy, I haven't even really sat down at the computer hardly any.
Let's see what's up with us....
Britt and Ashley are working 3-4 evenings a week at Brixx (yuppy, yankee pizza place...yick).
OH...Britt dumped Justin...the guy in the pictures taken over the holidays. They are still friends, and we think he's very nice.
Ashley and Michael are still "going out" even tho they ain't "gone" out anywhere because he ain't here! He's at Camp Lejeune. OH...Ashley was chosen over many to co-op at the Sheriff's Office starting in August. As you have read, she loves law enforcement (I know, VERY hard to imagine) and she is thrilled and very proud to have been selected. She wants to be the Chief Frisker! Apparently, she really excelled during that part of her class! hee hee She wants to work in homicide. As her Mother, I think she will choose another path within law enforcement once she gets out in the field.

Courtney was invited to go to Furman Univ. this weekend to attend a studio class with 4 other students. She will sing two songs, one italian opera and the other, an american folk song. She will be critiqued by her peers and instructors. She is very honored and excited, as are we.

Mike and I just work. And haul teenagers. We just try to maintain.

Well, I'm now off to pick up prescriptions and take them to the hospital pharmacy, get my hair cut, get the van washed, pick up Courtney from school, cook supper and THEN...take Brittany out practice driving, console Ashley more about her choice in hair color...she got her hair done yesterday...she returned her hair to it's original color. Dark Brown. OH MY GOSH. what a shock! She HATES it. I told her it makes her look smarter. WRONG thing to say. NOT what I should have said. So, we have ALL been consoling her.
It didn't help matters any when Courtney told her, "NOW you know how I FEEL, being dark headed." WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN? I'm dark headed, it ain't ever bothered me any!? WHO knows. I give up.
bye.

Woodruff, SC Friday night

We went to Woodruff, SC last night for Courtney to sing a couple with a local country band. The band was pretty good and Courtney enjoyed herself. These pictures a terrible. Ii was dark inside and the flash didn't seem to help any.






She didn't have alot of room to move around, so she stayed behind the podium.




Her showing us our investment...her braces!













Britt and Ash were WORKING! Yip-EEEE. My kind of night.

This wekend, we plan on taking the Christmas tree down-FINALLY. We haven't been home to do anything, so this is the weekend. Laundry included. Heck...I may just cook something!!!!! (I'm sure one of the girls will capture THAT moment!)

Joan and Herd

2006

Here we are into 2006. Only 257 days left until Christmas! It will take me that long to recover from this Christmas.

Yesterday, New Year's Day, was the first year we weren't all together..sniff sniff. Britt and Ash had to work from 10am till 4:30pm. Mike had to be in at work at 5pm for hockey. Next year they are taking off from wherever they may be working. I heard whatever you are doing on New Year's Day, you will do they whole year. Maybe they will be employed the whole year! OH HAPPY DAY!

So, the rest of us ate.







and ate...


and Courtney was loving being the only child for a while....




and then we ate somemore. I was going to bring a plate home to take to lunch today, but our shower is leaking somewhere and I needed Mike to look at it before he went to work, so I had to run back home to show him, and I never made it back over to get my plate!











We hope everyone had a good day and will have a safe, happy year this year.

Joan and Herd

Snowboarding in Sugar Mountain, NC

What a terrific week!!! We had the best Christmas and our holidays ended on a ski slope! Actually, it ended with dinner at Mike's parents house, but that's for tomorrow's blog!

We took a trip to North Carolina on Friday and spent the day there. Mike worked and couldn't go, but I, along with Britt and her boyfriend Justin, Ashley and her boyfriend Michael, Courtney, their cousins Beth and Deanna, and more cousins, Dee and his wife Robin and his daughter Savannah went in two vehicles. I had the van load of teenagers and have never laughed so much!

We left home at 5am and stopped at the Waffle House for breakfast. I know my girls hadn't seen a sunrise in years, so this was all new to them! hee hee








This is Michael and Ashley trying on their goggles in the van...








Court didn't ski much and mostly checked out boys...










Ash and Michael did pretty good. They snowboarded all the way down the mountain several times...

More pics....

That's Court on the left, Britt, Justin behind her and Deanna beside her. We were waiting for everyone to ski/snowboard down the mountain so I could capture the moment!




Here is the city of Linville, NC. It was so pretty there and I want a cabin up on the mountain. No TV's or phones (xcept my cell). Yup.

Britt just couldn't get the hang of what the snowboard was supposed to do!!



Britt snowboarded 3 feet. Total. I don't think snow is her forte.


That's Britt on the far right sitting with the pink cap. You can click on the picture to make it bigger.

Ash and Michael on the ski lift. I wish I could have been up top to take their picture falling OFF the ski lift! HAAAAAAA





Well, these are some of the better pictures. We had a wonderful Christmas week and it ended wonderfully. Now, it's back to reality. I have to work 12 hours tomorrow, Mike and the girls will be home cleaning out the van and taking down the Christmas tree and Mike needs to caulk around the bathtub. Michael went back to Camp LeJeune and Justin will be working.

Hope everyone had a good week and I hope to talk to everyone soon-
Joan