praying for aaron...

for all my prayer warriors out there... please say an extra little prayer for my cousin aaron (pictured here with my nannie and mr mark a few years ago)...

Aaron is my mom's youngest brother kevin's son... Kevin was my mom's "first child"... he was 5 when my parents got married... to tell you the large age difference... she practically raised him... all that to say my mom is his rock... who he calls whenever he needs ANYTHING! And she certainly got that call at 2:30 am Sunday morning... kevin called in a panic to tell my mom he needed her... Aaron (his son... who is 18 years old... will be a senior this year) had been mugged, robbed, and stabbed and was on his way to uab hospital and his conditions were unknown at the time. One of those stories... bad things happen to good people... he had taken his older brother to a club in southside to drop him off to meet his friends and he was leaving to go home and on his way to his car 2 guys mugged and stabbed him. Thankfully he was close enough to his car to get in and lock him self in the car... he then pulled away going the wrong way on a one way street and praise JESUS a cop pulled right out in front of him... Aaron told him he had been mugged and stabbed... and the police called for help. He was transported to UAB and had surgery a few hours later... the stab womb is in his stomach/side... they had to do exploratory surgery to find exactly what was going on and he ended up with about a 3 inch stab womb and a 8 inch surgery scar... they did find out that it did knick his stomach and an artery... thankfully they were able to repair both and he is on the long road to recovery. We went to visit him tonight in the hospital... they are keeping him sedated due to the pain...so he was in and out and only said a few words... however he was able to get up and walk the hall for the first time today... and they are slowly removing tubes, reducing meds, and he will hopefully get some real food soon! He has a precious girlfriend who has not left his side and is taken such good care of him... along with his dad and other family and friends... young kids sure do come and support their friends... just when i was there I saw about 10 young kids coming to visit and check on him. I can tell you one thing... spend a few minutes in the halls or waiting room of UAB hospital and it will make you mighty thankful for your healthy children and family members... i am sure that the momma's and daddy's spending countless hours in the hospital hoping and praying for their son or daughter to be healthy again would give anything to have a smart mouth sassy 5 year old or a busy energetic 7 year old to "deal with".... hug those babies a little tighter and give them an extra kiss! :)

Our family appreciates your prayers!

boys, boys, and more boys...

we have been busy little baseballers... we started our area tournament in Leeds last Friday night and I think this is turning into the worlds longest baseball tournament... at the start of the tournament they introduced all the players and coaches... go chelsea! jackson and will planning the game out play by play...we played odenville friday night and won... then the rain came and our game was canceled on saturday... that was not good... so we played sunday against calera for the fourth time... i am SICK of playing calera... and it did not make it any better that we got our brains beat out... they came for blood b.c we have beat them twice and they wanted to beat us BAD... and they did!!! it was hard day and a long ride home... we had monday off so we practiced... we needed it... and then we played montevallo tonight... it was rough at first... i was sick to my stomach... i was scared we were going to loose... and we would not make it to state... but we shaped up and played baseball and WON... thank goodness... so we will advance to the state tournament! we are still playing and are hoping to keep winning... we would LOVE nothing more than to see calera again in the area championship game AGAIN for the 5th time!!!! wish us luck!

On a lighter note we celebrated father's day with the best daddy in the whole wide world saturday night with a steak dinner at Lone Star... it was good... and i am one lucky girl to have this awesome daddy and these two cuties are lucky as well to have him as the best granddaddy too!sunday we did not get to do a whole lot of celebrating... we went to church and lunch then to the baseball park and i am sure this daddy could think of 258,478 things he would have wanted instead of getting a big ole butt whoopin' from calera... but oh well... you take what you get!baseball win or lose... these two are super lucky to have this man for a daddy... he rocks! he has a son that idolizes his every move and a baby girl who thinks he hung the moon... and i think he is pretty special too! He also runs a pretty fun Daddy Day Care... only a daddy and two wild indians could come up with this little water contraption... and of course b.c it is game day... did you know that slippin' slidin' is ok b.c you are "working" on sliding in to bases... bending the rules... maybe??? Although we are having a blast this summer... we/I am learning to be "tuff" and this little guy it teaching me all about it... he has the best attitude and works so hard but.... baseball is hard for a mommy... you can't wear your feelings on your shoulders... coaches expect a lot... even from a 7 year old... they yell at your child when he gives less than they expect...or perhaps if they are not playing to their potential.. and it make you sad... he strikes out... it's hard to watch... he gets benched for making errors... its a hard lesson to learn... he wants approval from coaches... he doesn't always get it... he wants encouragement from someone other than you... he doesn't always get it... he is a kid... he is seven... he thinks baseball is fun... i am glad he still does... i hope he always will... i wish him the best... he is a great baseball player... many tell us... we are humble... we think he is average... i love watching him play and i have a long life of coaches in my future... i hope this mommy's heart can take it!

how to make a custom header...

Here you go directions how to make a custom blog header using Powerpoint (i know all you blog tech savvy people are gasping for air b.c i did not use photoshop or whatever else yall use... sorry to complex for me! :)) Step 1: Open up a blank powerpoint slide... (there might be some text boxes on the one you open if so just click on the box, right click on the box and click cut... it will go away)... it should look like this... Step 2: Chooseing a Background... i found mine by googleing polka dot backgrounds... just google whatever style background you want... there are tons to choose from... my scene looked like this... right click and "copy" the background square that you want... you can choose a solid background by choosing the design tab;far right background styles; click on format background; the click on colors and choose one... if you don't see on you like... click on more colors and you have more... still don't see one you like... click custom and make your own! Step 3: Covering your slide with your background: Once you have chosen your background copy and paste it into the slide... then make it a little bigger not too big or it will be distorted... then copy and paste it about 10 times until you fill up your whole slide... make sure to line up your design so you want see a bunch of squares... meaning put the pink polka dot onto of a pink polka dot... it is ok if it does off the slide it will still work...it should look like this once you are done... see mine went off the page at the bottom... still worksStep 4: Making shapes for picture... to make the square and circle behind my pictures i used the insert tab, then click on shapes... a long box will drop down and you can pick from any of those shapes...Step 5: making the shape a color.... double click on the shape, then click shape fill to change the color of the shape... remember you can click on more color fill if you don't like any of those colors... click on shape outline to make the outline of the shape the same or different colorStep 5: Inserting your pictures... i download my pictures in picasa, export them to a folder, them go to that folder find the picture you want... right click on it and copy the picture... then click on the slide or inside the shape and then click paste to paste it into it... it may be too big that is ok... just move the corners in to resize it... i would not use the outside line too much b.c you will distort the picture...Step 6: adding your picture to your shape or slide... i download my pictures in to picasa, then i export them into a folder, then i copy the picture from that folder (right click on picture and copy... then paste it into the slide)... more than likely your picture will be big... just resize it using the corners... i would not resize it using the side b.c that will distort the picture... you can rotate your picture by using the green dot up above the picture...Step 7: Adding Text: To add text (title; working under pictures, saying etc...) click on the insert tab, choose text box, then click on the slide to place it where you would like it... resize the text box by pulling the corners outStep 8: Changing Font and Color: Once you have typed you words, highlight them and then click on the font drop down box and choose the font of your choice, you can also change the color as well by click on the arrow right beside the letter A in the font box and choose your colors... remember you can choose from more colors if you don't see the color you need Bonus points: if you want to make your picture a circle... click on format... last tab at the top, click on picture shape and then you can choose your picture shape... you can change the size on the far right where it says crop... be careful changing the size too much it will look distorted... Once you have your header just like you like it.... it is ok if it takes you a few hours mine did... this is THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP!!!!!! When you go to save it... click save as... the name it in the file name.... then under file name there is a box that says save as type.... YOU MUST SAVE IT AS A JPEG.... jpeg file interchange format should be the extact wording.... if you don't do this is will not format correctly and will not post in your blog right... How to add it to your blog... click on add a gadget, then click on picture, make sure image from your computer has a black dot by it, click the browse button and go find your saved image... more than likely it will be under my documents.... make sure shrink to fit is check too... it should load up into a little square... them click save and there you have it! (if you already have a header make sure you delete that first)

Hope this helps.... can't wait to see some cute new headers! Email me with your questions and yes if you want me to do it for your i will... :) wink wink!

a lazy sunday at the lake...

sunday after church we headed down to the lake for the first time all year... i can't believe it is mid june and we have only been once... we are usually going a lot more than that but we have been busy playing baseball... jackson did not have a game or practice sunday so we decided it would be a good day to head to the lake!

this little guy gave the idea 2 thumbs up...

he skied... he got up on the 2nd try :)

brylee rode the rocket... she tried to ski but could not get up we will keep working on it with her... i know she will get it soon...

this little man drove us around the lake

and they both rode the rocket together...

we enjoyed watching them ski and ride the rocket; we also enjoyed hanging out and floating in the water... the water felt great and the weather was nice and HOT! on a different note.... what do you think about the changes to the blog?? i was pretty impressed with myself actually... i really want to "pay" someone to do it for me but it is kind of pricey for what it is and i get tired of stuff so fast so i decided to just do it myself... i think it turned out cute and it was really easy too! :)

XLR8 Camp

Last week our church had an XLR8 (pronounced accelerate) camp. It is a Christian sports camp ran by a group of collage people that work for Infinity Sports Camp. They travel around all summer conducting Biblical based sports camps all over the United States. Jackson has been waiting since last year to go (you can't go until you complete 1st grade) and loved every minute of it. He could telling you all about "serving " and all about all the counselors. It was a long hot week b/c the camp was from 9 to 4 and he was outside most of the days. He choose 2 sports... flag football and baseball (shocker). Daddy helped as well so Brylee went to the "child care camp" and played with all her friends... she loved it too! I "high jacked" all the pictures from the churches facebook page. Fun times! This week they are headed to VBS at the church which is affiliated with the school brylee went to this year! She is excited to introduce her brother to all her friends and have him go to "school" with her! Working hard to keep "daddy day care" busy... so we want loose his mind! :)

District 12 All Star Tournament...

This weekend we had the District 12 All Star Tournament in Jemison. We played in a tournament with jemison, shelby county, vincent, montavallo, and calera... in the HEAT!

These little guys fought hard... all decked out in all their new gear and uniform this little guy hit a lot of singles, doubles, and a few triples...

ran those bases like his "feet were on fire"

played third base and stopped a lot of balls, threw someone out at first, (which is a long throw for a 7 yr old) and made several tags at third to get guys out...

and celebrated many wins along the way... they beat vincent thursday night, calera friday night and vincent again on saturday...

he earned himself a distict 12 all star medalthat he is mighty proud of :)

and his team won them a big ole trohpy...and he has one proud daddy (and a mommy and a gogo and grandaddy too)

These guys played hard and fought hard in the HEAT to win all their ball games... they never had to play in the losers bracket... they were the only team in the tournament that did not loose a game. We are very proud of our little guys! Because they finished in the top 4 in our district our team now advances to the area tournament and hopefully we will place in the top 3 in that tournament so we can make it to state! Wish us luck next week/weekend! :) Go Chelsea!

National Doughnut Day!

Who knew there was a National Doughnut Day? Well last Friday was the day and Krispy Kreme was giving away free doughnuts to each person... well richard just so happen to mention that when we were playing putt putt which in turn made me crave them and of course i did not have to twist anyones arms to go get some! And of course we could not just come out with 4... we had to buy a dozen for later too! I LOVE me some doughnuts!!!

Tree Top Fun!

Last Friday night GoGo and Grandaddy ask Jackson were he wanted to go after his baseball game... they told him he could go anywhere he wanted to go... so naturally he chose this place The kids have been wanting to go there since it opened a few weeks ago and needless to say they had a blast! :) They played in the HUGE tree house...they played the games and brylee played deal or no deal and picked the case with 75 tickets in it... she was so excited...jackson played laser tag and enjoyed that as well... i think he would have more fun if he played with his buddies as opposed to kids he did not know... but he still had fun...Then they rode go carts... always a crowd pleaser... and these little cars will fly... they were way faster than the ones at the beach according to jackson... :) then we all played putt putt golf... with 6 people playing the game was a little long but they still enjoyed it... brylee is such a girl and so clueless when it come to sports... check out her putt putt stylejackson also did mini bowling while brylee spent her tickets at the "junk counter"! :)we had a great time and that place is so much fun with TONS of stuff to do... i know we will be going back soon!