We just got home from spending 10 days with our family down in Bama. I can say with complete sincerity that it was a fun, fulfilling, trip.

Were there melt-downs? Yes, especially me, okay. I was the one with the melt downs.

Was it insanely hot? No, actually.

Did the children fight? Some.

Did we get stuck in traffic? Yes, in the expected places. Why do we ever drive through Atlanta?

But also…

There were breakthroughs!

#1. John David is officially ready for kindergarten.

John David went down a water slide at Water World about 35 times, not even exaggerating, proving that maybe, just maybe he’s bigger than I realize. He can surely handle kindergarten.

#2. I got to watch my mom in action in all her super-executive glory. I’m so proud of her. 

Watching her manage her career reminded me that maybe I’d do better at my own job if I treated it more responsibly.

Did you know that in the census records of the 1800s, they listed each person in a household by name, job, and various other statistics? Each grown woman in a household was not listed as a “stay at home mom” or “unemployed.” They were listed as “keeping house.”

“Keeping house” sounds so much more accurate to me than “stay at home mom.” Children are in the house, so they are part of the house you are keeping, right?

I should treat this more like my job. There should be to-do lists, a sense of job satisfaction, and an alarm clock. During the summer I almost never set my alarm.

#3. Three times a day is how often you should water tomato plants in southern Alabama.

I learned this from watching my dad tend his always thriving tomato garden. His vines go from the porch all the way past the porch ceiling, and he uses no poison at all.

Yes, the tomatoes were delicious.

Maybe, just maybe I can have a garden like that too someday. Someday. Not today.

#4. Back to School Shopping

If school starts tomorrow, everyone will have something to wear.

That mannequin I stripped down because it was wearing my son’s size of deeply discounted Under Armor shirt will be just fine. Yes, I accidentally knocked him over and kicked him under a rack (the mannequin, that is), but I put him back on his pedestal as quickly and clumsily as I possibly could, so I’m quite sure he’s fine.

#5. “Doing nothing always leads to the very best something.” (Pooh Bear)

….Our hilarious trip to the movies…

Mom and I took the boys to see Christopher Robin, as I am a huge Pooh Bear fan. It was a sweet movie, but sharing it with my children was the funniest part.

There was the son who bought himself an over-priced Icee with his own money, drank 3 refills, and then held his tummy and groaned for the next hour.

The same son “whispered” across all 3 brothers to me during the movie, “Pssst Mom!….Pssssssssst Mom!!!… Mom!!!  This movie is boring.”

It was not. If he hadn’t kept getting up for refills and of course the restroom, he’d have found the movie to be very funny and heart-warming.

Then as the movie ended and we exited the theatre, I found the same son’s wallet left under one of the theatre seats. You’re welcome, dear son.

Oh, but that’s not all.

I shuffled past a sticky floor and stray popcorn kernels to find 2 pairs of flip-flops, belonging to my 2 youngest sons.

“Ewwwww! Really, boys, no one takes off their shoes at a movie theatre. Gross.”

But my whining couldn’t change the past. I helped John David back into his shoes and walked him out, assuming Daniel was right behind me.

I have no idea what took Daniel so long, but I ended up waiting quite a while for him to collect his shoes and catch up with us out in the hallway. A very patient and tickled movie theatre worker stood there holding the door for our seemingly never-ending family.

As I stood there, several boys asked me for Icees, while John David jumped up and down in front of me saying over and over again, “Hey Mom! hey Mom! Mom! You said if I be good…Mom, you said if I beed good. If I beed good you said…”

Something about buying him candy…which I most certainly did not say, no matter how good he “beed”, I had not promised that.

As John David continued to jump and talk, Daniel finally made it to the doorway and the laughing movie theatre worker, where he proceeded to stop, kneel down in the floor with one flip-flop on and one flip-flop off, and wipe his shoe down with the bottom of his t-shirt. Because you see, while Daniel may not be too clean to take his shoes off, he will certainly not tolerate anything sticky touching his skin.

Somehow we managed to collect our little crew and walk to the car. They all brightened when I told them we were headed to the Circle K for the 79 CENT Icees that are exactly the same as the $6.75 movie ones.

Another life lesson well learned, as the kid who bought the expensive Icee sat in the backseat and clutched his stomach and moaned. Ah, but those are the lessons you learn the best, right?

Oh yeah and…

#6. Alan and I succeeded in getting Nonna as hooked on the Jeopardy app as we are.

You gotta download it. I’m telling you. Hours of educational fun await.

It was a delight to see everyone that we got to see!! Thank you all for taking time to hang with us!!

The post The Bama Vacation & One Hot Mess of a Movie Trip appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

White House made of Lego bricks, Legoland, California

Happy 4th of July, friends!

There’s this one DIY/home decorating blog that I love, even though this blogger’s home looks the polar opposite of mine. Seriously. She has 4 kids, and yet she decorates in white.

And yet it looks beautiful. Her blog is Tidbits-Cam.com,  and if you want to be inspired by photos of sheer beauty (who doesn’t?), give her a visit.

Today on her blog, she is showcasing inspiring patriotic images, and I liked it so much I decided to do my own version of that post.

So I give you 25 photos of America the Beautiful.

Since we’ve lived all over the U.S. of A., we have seen first hand just how gorgeous our country is, and I wanted to share that here today.

All photos are my own, except for a few that Aunt Janet provided.

Lego Mount Rushmore, Legoland, California

Go ahead and get that song in your head. “Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. For purple mountains majesties…”

near Yosemite, California

Half Dome, Yosemite, California

Yosemite, California

a day at the ballpark

White House, 2012

Alabama

Sea to shining sea…I don’t actually remember which ocean this is.

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA

Look closely. Many of those rocks are actually sea lions laying on rocks. Monterey Bay, California

Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria, Virginia

One of my all time favorites. Not only was he making snow angels, but you can see all the places he’d already walked, just like the way the Family Circus comics show foot-paths traveled by Billy. So cute!

Climbing trees are a bonafide part of childhood.

Poppies!

Carmel Valley, California, photo by Janet

Carmel Valley, California, photo by Janet

Monterey, California, photo by Janet

youth, photo by Amy Driscoll

on the road again

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Cliff Dwellers, Colorado

Disney World, Florida

Alabama

Billy Graham’s “The Cove” in North Carolina, photo credit The Cove

I count it one of my greatest blessing to have lived in so many different parts of this country. It truly is America, the beautiful.

Happy 4th of July to you all!

The post 25 Inspiring Photos of America the Beautiful for July 4th appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

One last basketball game with friends

The movers came and boxed us up.

Day 1: I promise our children do not normally consume sodas and play video games all day. Remember this was a manly trip…which really just means that I was not there, so don’t blame me. 😉

California: Do you see the train going into the tunnel? Look closely.

hangin’ with friends

There was an Avengers thing-a-majig going on there,.

And Caleb’s turn

Next Stop: North Rim of the Grand Canyon!!

Before the trip they thought the Grand Canyon was worth skipping. Ha! They get it now.

And on the road again…

I love these window landscape shots. The Southwest is uniquely beautiful.

This one made me laugh. Bless their hearts. Buy them some sunglasses!!

Once you finish chuckling over their eye covers, check out the FOUR CORNERS behind them: You can be in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado all at the same time.

I’m thinking this is probably Colorado. I wasn’t there, and Alan’s outside building a trampoline, so I can’t ask him. Poor Alan. So glad I’m not the one with the big muscles that builds things.

Mesa Verde National Park

As I mentioned before, we learned about these Anasazi cliff-dwellers in school this year, so what a perfectly timed field trip.

When do I get to go see this because I want to too!

This part would have been my favorite!

On the road again, just can’t wait to get back on the road again….

Next Stop: Oklahoma City

It just might’ve been his best birthday ever. And no, we’ve never been Braves fans, but I thought it went along with the whole becoming Southern thing. He approved. He also loved his bat bag and baseball cards.

They went to an OKC Dodgers (minor league baseball) game. Caleb is crazy for baseball this year.

It was a double-header, so Alan even got them a hotel where they could watch the game from their hotel room. Nice!

Well, iHop is a close second. Mmmm

Oh yeah, and Alan also took them to Pops, a soda pop factory/store. (Thanks for all the ideas, Greg!) They brought back a cooler full of sodas too. I might as well go ahead and schedule their dental appointments. No, it hasn’t been a full 6 months, but there was this trip.

On to Arkansas…

By this point, Alan was speeding the trip along, so they just whipped right through Arkansas, and on to Tennessee:

We were all intrigued to see what this giant pyramid was, and it turned out to be a BASS PRO SHOPS!! Haha!

And no trip to Bammer is complete without a visit to Bryant-Denny. (That’s the University of Alabama football stadium, for all you non-southerners or non football fans.)

They had to shield their eyes from the glitter of all those national championship trophies. hehe Roll Tide!

And finally, they arrived and reunited with Mom and little brothers!

We enjoyed being together for a couple of days, all of us as a family in our new house. But our work is not done. Alan, Joshua, and Caleb are over at my parents’ house, helping them move, and Joshua and Caleb are going to stay for the rest of the week. They are super excited because the Wii died in the fire, so Grandaddy has promised to buy an x-box for their house.

Happy Summer, y’all!!

The post Cross-Country Road Trip 2016: Cali to Bama in a Pick-Up Truck appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

That’s me, wearing my Bama team spirit on Daniel’s actual birthday because 1. I hate hospital gowns. and 2. Roll Tide!

Today is the big Alabama versus Auburn game. Most of you know what a big deal that is in my home state.

But our boys? They just don’t get it yet. Even Joshua and Caleb haven’t lived in the state of Alabama, for more than a couple of months, since they were in diapers.

Daniel, in an Auburn helmet…Bless him.

Last year, I mentioned on Facebook that I’m super excited that Joshua finally dropped the, “I’m a Virginia Tech fan,” bit and embraced Bama ball.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.  Then one of my college friends pointed out that my job was not done. Huh? Not done?  She said it wasn’t done because my children barely know who Auburn is, and by their age, they should already detest all things blue and orange.

Hilarious. Love you, Elizabeth.  “Oh, that’s right,” I thought, “I sort of forgot about that intense rivalry part, and how my boys are missing out on that action.”

So this year I decided to work on that, as I DO want them to be proper Alabama boys, even if they never get to live in the Yellowhammer state. Isn’t it funny how competitive we fans can be?  It’s all so funny, because we as fans have nothing to do with whether our team wins or loses. And yet, I love it.

At the beginning of this season, as we DVR’d the first Alabama game, I marched myself downstairs to prep the boys….

“Hey, boys, are ya’ll ready for the game?”

They nonchalantly responded, “Huh? Oh, Alabama football. Yeah, okay.”

Sigh. “Come on, boys! We love Bama football games. We’re the best. We’re always winning. This is fun!”

They stared back blankly.

“But you know who we hate??”

They scrunched their eyebrows, highly confused. What is Mom saying? Hate is supposed to be a bad word, right?

Then Joshua spoke up, “Ohhh. I know. You’re talking about that team. Like Au- something, with the logo where the U crosses the A.”

Light dawned on Caleb, “Oh, yeah, I know that too. But do we have to watch the ball game, or can we just go jump on the trampoline?”

“Yeah, but..”

……Then from upstairs I hear my wise and kind husband, “April! Can you come up here, please?”

Busted. I’m pretty sure I know what this is about.

Drat.

I walk into our room, and Alan shakes his head, “April, I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to teach the boys to hate Auburn. That’s not going to do them any good. We don’t want to teach them to hate anything or anybody. Besides, we have good friends and family that are Auburn fans, and I just don’t think that’s right for you to teach them hatred of anything. You can tell them that Auburn is our arch rival, but you CANNOT use the word ‘hate.’ That is just a really bad idea.”

Sigh. “Okay.  Fine. Sorry. It wasn’t that I was….I was just… I mean they don’t really know about….oh, I’ll go fix it.”

“Boys! We don’t really hate Auburn…not really, but we DO want to beat them in football, but they’re not bad. I mean they’re okay…..But we don’t hate anybody, okay? Hate is bad.”

“Okay, Mom. Can we have a snack?”

me, wearing some Big Al, in 2000.

Now, just for the record I don’t really believe a word of that nicey/sweetie stuff I told the kids. TODAY is the DAY, and I HOPE we SMASH Auburn to bits. They are an obnoxious speed bump on our way to National Championship. And it never matters who has the better team–you just never know what’s going to happen at the Iron Bowl.

I got my Bachelor of Science degree from Alabama, and I will be loyal forever.  ROLL TIDE!!

The post The Iron Bowl: No Hatred Allowed Here appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

We recently took a road trip to Georgia, and I had a great time snapping photos of beautiful old Georgia and Alabama homes. The South is a beautiful place. Believe it or not, we are not as backward down here as you may think.

Having lived in places all over the country, from the west coast to the east coast, and several places in between, it amazes me the misconceptions people have of the South. I have loved every place that I’ve lived, and now I want to share a little more about this great place where I’m from: the deep, deep South. It is a beautiful place, full of wonderful people. Yes, we do love our tea cold and sweet, we may over use the phrase “Bless your heart”, and our accents are thick–some thicker than others. What’s great about Southerners is that we truly do practice ‘southern hospitality.’ We do smile and nod at folks that we pass. I love how friendly everyone is down here.

We don’t eat as much fried chicken as people seem to think.  We do love fried okra or fried green tomatoes, though!! Most of us don’t have fried chicken any more often than anyone else. It comes in a bucket from KFC. I’ve never made it myself, to be honest with you.  I DO; however, know how to make a mean pot of collards or turnip greens–delicious and nutritious–fried okra, black-eye peas, butter beans, chicken and dumplin’s, and corn bread!!  We grow delicious vegetables down here, with our long growing season. Oh, and I do love to make homemade biscuits, and regular milk makes almost as good of biscuits as buttermilk. I never have any buttermilk in my fridge, so that’s what I use. I do wish I knew how to make a delicious pecan pie. We have pecans in abundance. Those are the true delicacies of the South.

Most of us do not live in one of these lovely, old homes. Actually, no one in my family lives in a house that’s more than 60 years old. The thing is that I just love this old style and wanted to share it with all of you.

Just to reiterate: we do not all live in big, beautiful southern mansions, nor do we all live in trailer parks. We are also not all named things like “Jim Bob” and “Ella May.” 😉 I don’t know anyone by those names. However, we do have cotton and peanut fields in abundance. Also, I don’t know of anyone at all, other than Franklin D. Roosevelt, that married their cousin. Oh! And Ashley and Melony Wilkes! What do you mean they were a fictional couple!?

Now that we have all that straightened out….

Sit back and enjoy these little snapshots of the dear, beautiful South.

Ok. That’s just an old barn, but I like seeing these old barns.

I love, love, love the wrap around front porch!!

Every place has a story. I’d be so interested to know this one.

I never thought of these tree farms until I married Alan, and his family does this whole tree farm thing. If you think you’re just driving through miles of untended wild forrest, think again. Very often that is very purposefully tended forests. They sell the wood and then grow more trees. It makes good sense, considering that this area is naturally forested.

Many cities have these murals, usually significant to the history of that town.

a beautiful county courthouse in Georgia

 ahhh

I love how this downtown area of Barnesville, Georgia is re-purposing old storefronts. It was once Barnesville Buggies. Now it’s Verizon Wireless. I’m so happy they left the old business name up there.

Lake Eufaula

You never appreciate how green, green, green it is down here until you visit the American Southwest!

…….And I saved my favorites for last. I took all of these in Alabama:

First Baptist Church

Kudzu…it is not a native plant, and it takes over everything.

“Big wheels keep on turnin’. Carry me home to see my kin. Singing songs about the southland. I miss Alabamy once again…”

I will miss you, sweet home, as we move to this next chapter in our lives. It’s been fun!!

For more photos from our travels, check out these posts:

Tour Jerusalem in Pictures: The Via Dolorosa

California: The Beautiful Part. No more desert photos, I promise.

The post Roadside Photographer: Beautiful Old Homes of the South appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

It has been a pleasure to see my little boys having a true “Alabama summer” this year.

They’ve always spent a couple of weeks per summer here, but this year, when it’s all said and done, they will have spent one week shy of two full months!!

The funny thing is that our version of an Alabama summer looks a whole lot different than what a “Yankee” may envision. Now I mean no ill-will towards our friends from other regions. I love my Yankee friends. However,  the fact remains that we have lived all over the country, and we have noticed a great multitude of misconceptions about “The South.”

One might be tempted to think that an “Alabama summer” means that my boys have been spending all day out in the country, doing things like “mudding”, fishing, playing bare–foot, swimming in a “crick”, catching fire-flies, and shooting rabbits.

Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but we don’t actually have a farm or even live in the country.  

(It would be so cool if we did, though!!) Both sets of our grandparents live in very average American neighborhoods.  Alan is from a classic southern small town. My parents live in a small city.

-“Mudding” is more of a teenage activity, which I have never participated in. I believe it’s where you drive a pick-up truck down a muddy dirt road.

-Fishing would have been great, but it just didn’t happen this year–not yet, anyway.

-Playing bare-foot:  YES!!  We did do that–every single day, myself included.

-swimming in a ‘crick’–that’s what we call a creek– I did that a few times as a kid, but my children have yet to experience it. I’m sorry, boys. One day!! Instead, Mom took them to Water World, where a sudden summer storm came up, soooo we’re going to try again tomorrow!

-Catching fire flies:  We don’t really have those at my parents’ house. Alan’s parents’ house has tons, so maybe we will do that next week.

–Shooting rabbits:  Seriously? They are 1, 3, 7, and 8. They rarely even shoot water guns. However, I am okay with them giving hunting a try when they are older.

What makes our summer great is that the boys get to spend endless hours of quality time with their grandparents. 

Family time is so extremely important. They also get to have a break from the pressures of school and extracurricular activities. I get a break from the pressures too! Plus, we leave here with freshly renewed Southern accents. 😉

Basically, an Alabama summer isn’t much different than a summer anywhere else in the U.S., EXCEPT that it is insanely hot: wet, sticky, suffocatingly hot. If you want to enjoy the outdoors, water actually has to be involved.

So here’s what our Alabama summer REALLY looks like:

He tends to have a very serious expression for photos.

This is “Fun Land”, which I mentioned in my previous post: Glitter, Fun Land and Life in Limbo.  This is the brain child of Joshua and Caleb. They confiscated Granddaddy’s sprinkler, and all of our summer entertainment problems were solved. This has provided DAYS of fun.

He did the slip-and-slide a couple of times, but he needs one or two more years before he’s ready for Fun Land.

Yesterday, the boys collected toys, called it armor, weapons, and helmets, and had a great time running around the house as knights. The most hilarious part was listening to them. I hear this from another room:

Joshua: (whack)

Caleb: Nope! Try it again!

Joshua: (whack) (whack)

Caleb: Nope! I didn’t even feel anything. This helmet is amazing. Hit me again!!!

a few hours later….

Joshua: oooooowwwwwww!!!  ow ow ow ow!!!

Caleb: (whack)

Joshua: Owww!  Stop it! You hit too hard!

Caleb: But you said….

I walked in to find Joshua rubbing his arm, holding a flimsy paperback book.

Me: Joshua, a paperback book will never work for armor.

Joshua: It isn’t armor. It’s a shield!

Me: Well, that will never work. You need something hard and plastic.

Joshua: *still smarting* yeah…..

Dan, Joshua, and I went to eat at Joshua’s favorite restaurant: Olive Garden.

I took them to Adventureland.

We played arcade games, rode go carts, bumper boats, played golf, and ate hot dogs and Dippin’ Dots. At the end of the evening, as we sat in a booth, eating our Dippin’ Dots, Joshua brought tears to my eyes. He said, “Well, this was really fun, coming here, with you.  Thank you for bringing us here, Mom.”

*instant happy tears in my eyes*

Caleb chimed in, “Yeah, thank you for bringing us here.”

Daniel echoed, “Yeah. Tank you bringing here, Mommy.”

🙂 Pure happiness!

Last night was not too hot at all. It was probably 75 degrees–the perfect weather for putt-putt.

Wishing you all a very happy, bare-foot, summer!! We will miss you so much, Nana and Granddaddy!!!Psssssst!  Don’t forget to give me a vote for Top Military Blog 2014 at Voiceboks.com! Voting ends July 31st.

The post A Real Alabama Summer in Pictures appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

JD’s first move— He seems to be having a pretty good time.

 Today Alan and I kissed our children good-bye and set back out–alone this time–on our big cross-country road trip.

It’s really been fun so far.

 Over the last few days I have gotten to visit both sides of our families, swim in the backyard pool with my two oldest boys, celebrate JD’s first birthday, visit a Pioneer Museum in Alabama, and even revisit the University of Alabama campus, where Alan and I got our undergraduate degrees!

Whew!

Seriously, one of the ‘funnest’ (totally SHOULD be a word) things I have done this whole summer is swim in the wading pool with Joshua and Caleb. I highly recommend it. If you haven’t swam with your kids this year, you have just got to go do it, even if it’s only a wading pool!!

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Photo Highlights:

I love it when they look all sweet and brotherly like this.

This is why you don’t let your husband pick out your baby’s birthday cake.

Just for the record, if I had the whole ‘baby parenting’ thing to go back and do over again, this is the ONE big tradition I would IGNORE.

Giving a one-year-old nasty sugar-laden RED birthday cake and letting them just go for it….this idea could not have come from any mother ever. Horrible idea. If I were to have any more babies, they would learn the beauty of a nice birthday bag of gummy fruit snacks–delicious and clean.

Yep. He did all the messy-baby-lovers proud. Even after the bath that followed this immediately, I still found some stray red icing–in his ear. Terrible idea. Seriously.

*********

And the road trip resumes! We made it through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas today.

We are now on the western side of the Mississippi River! More photos to come in the next post.

For today, I’m going to focus on the Pioneer Museum that we visited in Alabama.

Alan and I love history stuff. I have throughly enjoyed researching my ancestry and reading history books. 1796, a Thomas Jefferson biography, an Andrew Jackson biography, The Mayflower, Rose Kennedy’s autobiography, and Ronald Reagan’s autobiography are a few of my favorites.

Therefore, this side trip was perfect for us.

Do you see the tall loblolly pine tree behind the triangular sign? That is the ‘moon tree’, grown from seeds that traveled to the moon on Apollo 14.

Beautiful. Alabama is beautiful.

This place had a collection of around 20 carriages and buggies. Love!

I have an ancestor listed on this plaque!!  So cool!

 I’ve always loved American history, but I got into the genealogy thing on accident!

A few summers ago, the two oldest boys were spending a couple of weeks in Alabama with their grandparents. I was kid-free, so I took a couple of days to just explore D.C. on my own. It was heavenly.  While I was out, I happened upon the 1st Annual Genealogy Conference at the National Archives building. It was free, so I just went right in, attended a couple of classes, and brought home a whole bunch of information. Then I got to work!

 I rarely get to do any research now. Okay. Actually, I never do any research now, but I do miss it. One day!!

******

This was an especially exciting day because we also got to visit our old stomping ground: The University of Alabama. The thing is, I have a whole lot to share about that too, so it will just have to wait until tomorrow!

Visit this link for our UA pics and stories!!

Denny Chimes

The post Cross Country Road Trip of a Lifetime: First Stop: Alabama appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.