Reminiscing thanks to a 5 year old

Something cute Michele said to me today as I was cleaning and re-organizing my work space which is my office that gets bug bombed about every week, here in the 100 year old basement. Good thing it is concrete and not cinders...That is totally not a real sentence but that is the best I can do right now. LOL. I have several pictures of my sisters and my Mom and Dad in my "office" and Michele and Sydney and Chase love to look at them and imagine their mom and aunts "young" and looking young I guess. Anyway, I have a picture of Karen and I when we took a trip out east with absolutely no plans, we had not a clue where we would end up or where we were headed, not to mention sleep. We were in our early 20's and we just had THE BEST trip ever!!!! We went to a dive motel and asked for a room in Ocean City, MD. They told us there were no vacancies. We were our sweet selves and told them that was OK and were on our way out the door when they told us to wait a minute. We did. They had one room left and asked if the ocean front view was OK, Heck yeah!!!!! It was a really icky room, but clean and cheap from what I remember. I think they wanted us to have the room because they knew it wouldn't get trashed.There was a radio station at an outside beach bar that we went to and they were asking trivia questions about different things. One was how many colors and what are they in a roll of life-savers...no one knew...except Karen...she knew there were 5 because Mom loved the white ones, those were her favorite. She won a prize. Lots of prizes were won between Karen and Karla. What were the names of the 3 sisters in Petticoat Junction? Do ya know??? I knew that one, that was my very favorite show when I was little...Billy Jo,
Bobby Jo, and Betty Jo. We took a picture of us before our pitcher(s) and one after. OMG. Hysterical!!!!!!OK...back to Michele. She sees a picture of Karen and I at the beach and we are hugging eachother and Michele says..."Mom, that picture was taken when you were best sisters...you wanna know how I know that Momma?, cuz you were huggin' that's right huh? I told her she is right. That made me smile.

1st day of school

This summer has been different for us in the Jenkins household. We got back about 10:00 pm Sunday night, we left Gulf Shores at 8:00 am and made a total of 3 stops for about 45-50 min. the entire day. The kiddo's were troopers and were very good during the trip, I was proud of them...
We got home and left everything in the van and crashed (slept) when we got in the door. It rained all day Monday and Tuesday we went to WSC to help Karen unload some Carhartt Boxes. Today the kids started school and both of them and I were not ready for them to go back. We got all the supplies in their backpacks yesterday and today they woke up early and headed off for their first day. We walked as is our tradition and Michele and I walked back by ourselves. As we were walking back I told her that next year I will be walking back all by myself and I will be sad, she looked up at me and said, "nuh-huh..." I told that I would and I will be very sad and will probably cry, she laughed. What she didn't realize was that just thinking about that made me have tears in my eyes...but that is a year away and I am gonna enjoy her while I can.

More Alabama pictures

Here are some pictures of Fort Morgan, it is an old military fort on the peninsula that was used in the late 1800's to the early 1900's. There is also one of us on the beach in the early evening for some fun pictures of us with our bandana's on our heads.

The last Ha-Rahhhhh!

We had so much fun on our trip to Gulf Shores, AL. It is beautiful down there. But can we say HOT! It was crazy hot down there. The heat index was 110 for 3-4 days and really, there was no breeze unless you were down on the beach, and even the water was warm. We spent most of our time on the beach or in the bath water temp pools. The kids seemed to prefer the pools, they could see the bottom and could predict the depth. But they played in the sand and the salt water too. A couple of nights we went sand crabbing and that was fun, trying to catch those critters. They are FAST! We went sight-seeing too, to the Naval Museum in Pensecola, FL and to the USS Alabama Battleship and Fort Morgan. It was educational as well as fun and HOT!!! Too hot to really enjoy. But here are a few shots I took of every thing.

Oops!

Darn it!!!!!! My last post had 2 of the same picture and I have not a clue how to fix it...


A few weeks back was the West Side Clothing's Annual Sidewalk Sale. It takes weeks to prepare and it is only one day, but you can still go there and get the great deals after the sale, just not 1st picking's. Anyway, All of the cousins get together and wreak havoc while we try to work around them. Ah, the price you pay with a family owned business. Dad and Karen came up with the brilliant idea that the kids could sell frisbee's. The catch was that they could keep the money only if they stayed at the table. If you get up and leave...no money!!!! Well, they each earned $3 and were so proud of themselves. I think we have some entrepenuers in our midst.

Summer's End Part II

Here are the pictures that I wanted to post earlier...Will have tons more, in the next few weeks. We will be headed to Gulf Shores, AL and I can't wait for those beach shots!

Summer's End

Wow, how sad it is that summer is just about a memory! In ways it has gone by so fast, as usual, but then it has gone terribly slow. We have had the unfortunate happen to our family this summer. Joe got hurt while putting up traffic signals, or those huge, gigantic street lights back in June...He was at the base and somehow the thing toppled over on top of him and he got knocked to the ground...went to ER, though not the hospital, the workers ER or whatever and had X-Rays and the like and found nothing broken...weeks later he had tingling fingers and his neck is weak. He was on light duty work for 3 weeks then totally lost his job!!!! Needless to say, we were stunned! I don't work outside the home, we have 3 kids under 7 and we have no extra income!!!! Crazy! Somehow, though, we seem to try to look at it in a positive light. It is hard at times. He has been home for over a month, and is going nuts. Us too. The kids like seeing their dad at home more often, he just is not used to being around us. Ha!

Anyway, I have been busy with pictures of Seniors and of course I had to get Michele's 5th year pictures in between. She is such a joy! Her little antics always make me laugh, I find myself smiling at her, or at the thought of her, she has always had that effect on me, even as a baby. So here are her latest photo's that she was very cooperative about! She has her moments when she has not an interest of the camera in her face, but this day was all about her, and she loved being with me and my camera...Enjoy.