Back from the road ...

We've returned home from our trip to Huntsville. We stayed in a little area called the Village of Providence. I don't know if this area is its own little township or simply an upscale area within Huntsville, but either way, it was nice.

The picture below is the fountain in the "town square" of the Providence (hard to imagine I took that picture less than twelve hours ago). The town square consisted of restaurants, an old school barber shop, a gym, and our hotel. Surrounding the town square was a beautiful neighborhood with a paved walking and bicycle path, a community pool and play ground. The homes were all designed to look like old south cottage homes (with new south prices!!!) and small scale plantation style homes. We will stay in Providence whenever we are in the Huntsville area.


As for the show, we had our best seats ever. We essentially had third row with the way the stage was setup. I wish you could have seen her eyes light up when we got to the seats. As if that wasn't exciting enough, everyone was allowed to crowd in around the stage before the show started. As you can see from this photo, Elizabeth was one of the first to move to the stage.

Elizabeth was within arms length of "her man" for the entire concert.


As for me, I remained in my comfortable seat and occasionally made my way to the watering hole to remain hydrated.

Here are a few more nice looking shots of the show. I was impressed with the huge screens that hung behind the band. Throughout the show, the screens were used to project images, live shots of the crowd, videos, etc. In addition, the screens would tilt in and out making the stage seem smaller and more intimate for some songs or larger for other songs.

In this picture the screens are tilted partially inward and are projecting a really cool outerspace vidoe full of colors.

In this picture, the screens are back and projecting live shots of each of the band members.

Of course, I cant forget that Elizabeth also had a first experience with this concert, getting to go backstage before the show for a "meet and greet" with Dierks Bentley. She and a handful of other fan club members were randomly selected for the meet and greet. Here is her photo with Dierks.......

Dierks did a really good job opening the show and warming up the crowd.

Now, I am going to lay down on the couch and take a nap. Have a great day............

Its like a broken record ...

You've probably already read this post before, but here we go again. It's another big weekend for Elizabeth as we head to Huntsville for a ..... guess ...... you know the guys name ...... its a concert event ..... Keith Urban concert.

Yep, its that time of the year again. This time will be a little extra special for her since she won a ticket to a "meet and greet" with the opening band, Dierks Bentley.

Actually, Dierks is probably my favorite country artist, so I will have a little better time than normal with this show.

Since the show is tomorrow, we have endured a one hour fashion show today to determine what she will be wearing tomorrow. I'm not really sure what outfit won, but I know there was some heated conversation between the girls about which outfit looked best, fit best and would be the most comfortable. For me, a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and a hat is all I need. I figure as long as I am covering the important bits and pieces, it will be all good.

We haven't been to Huntsville in a few years, so I am looking forward to the trip. It will also be our first trip in Big E's new car.

Skipping gears, Little Bit is headed for a mission trip this week. I think this will be the last year for her to get to go on this trip though. She is really excited about going. Be sure to ask her about it when you see her next.

One last thought, I celebrated my fifteenth year of working with the same company this past week. It's amazing to me that I have managed fifteen years with the same company (more than one third of my life) especially in my career field. I was honored with a little get together with all of my past / current managers and supervisors (a few stories were told there) and fellow employees. Some of them actually had a few nice things to say about me too!! It made me think that I am truly blessed to be able to work for such a great company (that is why I stay there).

That is about all I have for right now. I will say thanks to everyone who was so generous to Jessica for her graduation. I know that she really appreciates the gifts. I will also say thanks to those who have "raised" me at Alfa, I truly appreciate it.

A few more pictures

Here are a few pictures from our recent past ....

Jessica's Graduation - Pretty awesome day and event. There were 78 young people in her class this year. Afterwards, we had a great dinner at Red Lobster with my parents.



Jessica's Junior/Senior dance - That dress is "far out man!!!!"

Little Bit getting ready for her Junior/Senior dance - Believe it or not, her date was already at the house by this time.

Another Big Weekend ...

First let me say that I apologize to everyone for not keeping this blog up to date. I know that there are only a few individuals that actually check it out daily but I hate that I haven't been up to posting of late. To be honest, I've been a little tired lately.

Maybe it has something to do with the impending end of school year, or that Big E is working till 7:00 every night, or that I have a 3 million dollar computer hardware purchase hanging over my head, or maybe it is the girls and their everyday lives...... regardless, we are busy!

With that, let me hit the highlights of the last couple weeks.

We are approaching the end of the school year. For Jessica, high school is over. In fact, we went to the graduation ceremony today. I will try to post pictures of the big event tomorrow. The other two finish mid-week.

As you can imagine this was a big day at our house (and for the other 77 kids that graduated from ACA today). The ceremony was at 2:30 today. We had two rows of family show up for the event (almost 35 people between her Mom and Dad's family). I really appreciate everyone that made it out for the ceremony. For those that didn't make it, Jessica understands why and appreciates your thoughts and prayers.

Speaking of Jessica, she will be attending Faulkner University this fall. Faulkner is a local faith based university that is located next to the high school she is graduating from today. Jessica was awarded a "commuter scholarship", which covers half of the cost of her four year degree as long as she doesn't live on campus. This is such a benefit to both Jessica and us.

I still cant believe that our oldest will be going to college next year!!

For graduation, we purchased a new HP laptop for Jessica. Our hope is that she can make it through college with this computer.

As a true geek, I spent a little over twelve hours preparing the laptop for her. Maybe that is why I haven't been posting any blogs lately? As I was preparing her laptop, I got to thinking about what I was doing.

Rather than tearing off into a political tirade, let me say that protection is "nothing more than a tax on the innocent". I wish I could take credit for the statement or even remember who said it first. The bottom line is that regardless of what you are talking about; cars, homes, computers, or even our lives, protection is the price we pay for those that don't value those items like we do.

I will try to get a few pictures up tomorrow. Until then, have a great weekend.

When it rains it pours and pours and pours

What a week of rain, or has it been two or three weeks now. Regardless, the ground decided it can't handle any more rain so the flooding began this morning. We are supposed to get a break tomorrow with more rain to follow.

Take a look at this link to one of the local news channels photo website of the flooding around town ...

http://www.wsfa.videos.vmixcore.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=4040241&collection_id=6783

Sadly, there has already been one confirmed death related to the flooding.

A couple of Photos for the Impatient Ones

OK, for all of you that have asked, here are a couple of photos of the girls from yesterday.

This one is Jessica with her date. They went out to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival gardens for their pre-banquet photos. Jessica's dress is a straight out of the 60's go-go dancer pattern with a really low cut back. She looked very nice in her dress.



Here is Jessica and Mara with Big E at the garden again. Check out the "this is the last picture, right?" smile on Jessica's face. I think this was around picture 200 between Jay's parents and Jessica's duel set of parents.

Here is Little Bit with her date. She is wearing a fairly standard style dress that took way more than standard tailoring to fit her extremely thin frame. She also looked stunning in the dress.

We took this picture at the house. They were headed out of town to a small community for their pictures. We didn't go out for the picture session, but I hope to get some photos soon. Also of note is that this is thirty minutes after the poor fellow arrived at the house.

All in all, I think the girls had a good time. Both are complaining about being tired today. I guess they can't hang with the big dogs yet. Of course, I find that to be a good thing since they are my kids!!!!!

I hope to return in the coming weeks with more pictures. Until next time, have a great week.....

Estrogen ....

Ughhh ... its an estrogen weekend!!!!

The two oldest girls have their "junior / senior banquets" tomorrow (code for prom night). So, tonight is all about getting their finger and toe nails done. Tomorrow will be an entire day of trying on their dresses, complaining about weight gain/loss since they purchased the dresses, hair problems, pictures and little fellows coming to our house to get our girls for their big night out.

UGHHHHH .... I'm going to say this one straight out for everyone to understand ... it will be a beer night tomorrow.

UNTIL ... they are gone!!!!

Then it is just Big E and I. I think we might have to go out for our own little prom night. You know what I mean, dinner and dancing with me and the wifeeee!!!! Whoo-hooo!!!!! Of course, we are broke so it will be more like pizza and a rental movie (we're old so that will be awesome too).

I'll try to get a few pictures of the girls getting ready, all "dolled up" and maybe a picture or two of me reminding the boys that I don't mind going back to prison. That will be my favorite part of the night. Actually, I am really looking forward to sitting those young men down and having the short discussion about long beatings and pain.

Little Elizabeth is now interrupting me to say that her little man can't handle the fatherly discussion. So, we might get a picture of a pair of wet pants, that would be awesome!!!!! She thinks she is going to edit this one before it is published, but that ain't going to .f.dfsd.g.g .... happen. She is grabbing the keyboard, have a ff great weekend