George did most of the work, well, that's the way it looks in this picture anyway.

Ashley and Matthew were my only two helping this time. Oh and Doug of course.

swings cont

this is blake getting the bug spray for everyone.
this is the instrument of torture that they used to dig holes. It tortured Jason and George! They dug many holes until they could finally get 2 deep enough!

Swings for Evette

September 13th was Evette and Jason's wedding aniversary. We went to camp to work on a project that we started this summer at camp. We planted flowers under two trees then. This time it was to put up two swings.
The swings were donated by a friend of Jason's. Blake was willing to help, see him and the shovel and all the dirt!

Here Blake is helping water the plants. Most survived the summer!

volleyball team

This is the team posing for one of our favorite umpires, George!

this is what they really look like!

steph serving, her friend leah in front of her.

I hope this one went over!

No matter what, steph always smiles and encourages her fellow team mates.

she is probably trying to tell her sister to stop already with the camera

stephanie and volleyball

Stephanie is the only child I have playing sports now. She plays volleyball, mostly for fun, but she is very good. I am keep score for the team so I get to spend more time with her than she probably likes. But I get to know her team mates and the coach and other parents better this way. Anyway, you should see us all cheering for her at the games. We had Amber yelling, "that's my sister", Sydney yelling, "that's my cousin", and Blake yelling "Stephy number one".

my birthday

This birthday felt like the longest one ever.
The day before (6th) one of doug's cousins from Iowa came to town, Theresa, with her husband Lester. We took them to the wild horse for a small taste of Nashville, They loved it!
We took a small tour of 2nd avenue, and I think they wanna come back for a longer visit!


Her sister Julie arrived at 3am with the car they had purchased on ebay, with her husband Matthew.
Andrew pretending it's his car, Matthew (julie's matthew) hugging him.
So the next morning (my bd) we had a small family reunion. Only my oldest 3 had ever met this branch of the family and that was 18 years ago! Ashley cooked breakfast for us all! Julie gave me a card that played "she's a brick house". So I started the day feeling not so old and fat!
After Church we went out to eat at a local Chinese buffet. Both my brother-in-laws, (Jason) even went with us. Neither enjoyed it or really wanted to be there. After all the Titans were kicking off. But I am grateful for the effort.


When we got back home my dad and brother Joe were here. Renee had made me a surprise gift, a chair she had custom painted and recovered the seat. It is really beautiful. My mom had baked a gooey butter cake, a family favorite. I'd requested Jason A's mom bake me a carrot cake, so even with a broken knee she had done that for me. So we had cake and ice cream.

Later that night our good friends and adopted family, the armstrongs, came over to teach us the art of fondue. Stephanie had bought me a fondue pot 2 years ago for christmas that has never been used. So we had steak, chicken, shrimp, cheese with bread and apples n veggies, white and dark chocolate with lots of fruit.
We didn't get pictures during their visit, Jeff, Celia, Austin and Caroline, thanks for coming! Amber also invited her "boy toy", Adam. Yes she calls him that in his presence. You all would really have liked it if I had a picture of him! He's kinda cute. I hope he doesn't read this..Amber knows he's cute, she referred to him in the beginning as "that hot guy". Best part, he helped clean up! Took out trash, wiped off the table, cleared off the table. I didn't know guys still did that without being beaten and nagged!
Anyway, it was a great day in many ways. The absence of Evette was felt greatly. She made each birthday in this large family special by making us talk about the birthday person and any memories we had about that person. We didn't do it this year.
To explain a picture or two, I asked, and Amber reluctantly gave me a foot massage! It was great.
Andrew is so funny, this is his, what do you want Stephanie? face. They were admiring the Mercedes Theresa bought on ebay.

This is Matthew's face when he thinks Andrew is really going to drive! (He's 13.)This is blake, wearing Brette's dress. The other girls were trying on prom dresses and he had to dress up as well. My chair from Renee is in the background.