A Year in the Life

This is going to be a friendly reminder from Ms. Manners, and I'm getting ready to drop some knowledge, so get ready.  Hey um darlin', I hate to tell you but I can see through your skirt. My momma always told me to NEVER leave my house without a slip on under my skirt no matter the length.  Can I tell you how many women I see with no slip on?  A lot, and as soon as the light/sun hits your skirt I can see straight through it. Yuck...even if you have the body of a supermodel not all of us want to see what you have.  If you don't have a slip, please go get one.  You can get them anywhere.  TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ross, SteinMart or you can go to any department store.  Slips are different from spanks, so even if you wear spanks you need a slip too.  :) This has been a message from you local friendly Ms. Manners. Celebrating Life! ~ashley

We live very close to the high school my children attend.  And because we live so close, when they are underclassmen, they walk to school. (unless it's raining or really cold)  It builds character & they can say their parents made them walk to school, uphill, both ways. We walk to all the high school games, the PTO open house, and any other function we need to attend at the school.  One of the cool things is the path we walk.  In the dark it is a little hard to traverse with 5 inch heels, but during the day it's beautiful.  This was just me stopping to smell the roses, and enjoy the view.  Celebrating Life! ~ashley

There is never a dull moment at the high school.  There are a ton of activities going on in the fall.  I needed to go up and take a picture of one of Hop's friends for a yearbook ad, and I was laughing at the busyness of it all. The football team was taking up the entire field with a practice in full pads. The middle school cross country team was running the track.  The high school team was running the streets I think. The band was on the baseball field practicing the halftime show.  Shout out to Lauren, Anslee, and Allison. It was me dodging kids all over the place.  I loved it!  Sometimes being busy isn't a bad thing. Celebrating Life! ~ashley There were groups like this one all over the field... The band stretching The middle school XC team The Rockette Dance team getting ready to practice The Majorettes The flag team practicing in the background you can see the percussion section

OK, so I'm so far behind in my blogging that I don't know if I can catch up on the missing 2 weeks of my life.  I've decided to move forward & not look back.  Life seriously gets in the way of my postings.  :) There have been so many things to happen that I'm going to try to get them all up, but it may take me a few days. Sorry for me being a slacker...it's been a rough month as I get acclimated to the kiddos starting back to school! Celebrating Life! ~ashley

The fam First of all  yes, my camera is ready to go at all times.  Hi, I'm Ashley & I'm a stalker with my camera.  They say admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery.  Well, I don't plan on recovering anytime soon, so all my children and their friends just need to get over it.  ;)  Second, I hope that once I'm dead my children can look back at all the pictures, have a good laugh at my expense, and be so happy I stalked them even when they didn't want me to. 15 National Merit Semifinalist At today's pep rally the school announced the students who made National Merit Semifinalist.  Hop was one of the 15 from our high school.  Yes, I am very proud of his academic achievements.  He has worked very hard and has had wonderful teachers to guide and inspire him.  It was a very happy moment for us to celebrate with him.   Thank for the wave Will D. Just in case you don't know about National Me...

I know I've blogged about this before...NATZ.  It stands for 'in a tizzy'.  This is so me right now. I just don't know if I'm going to survive this fall.  I get tired just looking at my calendar, and I there is a long way to go.  The one thing that does happen when things are crazy is that time also flies.  I don't want time to fly, I want it to creep. I know I am going to survive because there are thousands of other moms who have, but I think I just want to climb into my bed and sleep.  I guess I'll sleep when either all my kids leave home or when I'm dead. Until then, I'm going to try to hold onto each day & enjoy the craziness of it! Celebrating life! ~ashley

Our sweet Maggie I hate dealing with death.  I don't care who or what it is, it's just heartbreaking.  The older I'm becoming the more it hurts.  I've become a watering pot & will cry at the slightest provocation.  It's terrible.  The children just roll their eyes and shake their heads...most of the time. Today was a very hard day.  Our sweet lab, Maggie, died at home this morning.  It was truly heartbreaking.  She was our first family pet.  She came into our family July 31, 1999, The day before Hoppy turned 5, and Harry was 2 1/2.  They loved that little puppy.  They would run around in the yard with her and she would chase them around.  They loved her and she loved them.  Mags was a great dog.  Never once did she bite or even growl at a child.  She had her ears, tail and skin pulled enough to want to hurt someone, but she never did.  All she ever wanted was to be loved. When I woke up I ...

Like most Americans, I will carry 9/11/01 in my heart until I die.  It's been ingrained into my very being.  It's shaped the way I think about things today.  There are so many images that flash through my head when I think about today. I was listening to the radio when I heard one of the twin towers was on fire.  I called Hopson to get him to turn on the tv, as I looked up, I saw the second plane slam into the second tower.  I remember thinking 'what on God's green earth is going on'?  Has someone lost their mind?  Then we hear about the Pentagon & then the plane that went down in the field.  It was pandemonium.  Planes were grounded, people were on tv with pictures of loved ones who they couldn't get hold of, NYC was a mess.  Our country was a mess. Images I remember from that day that are burned into my very being are: people jumping from the burning towers rather than being burned alive, it was horrifying; people hol...

What?  Who's lighting candles, and why in the world are you lighting them Fabio?  There are things my kids show me on YouTube that just scare me.  Most of the time I don't know how they find them, they just do.  They're teenagers, what do you expect.  On a side note, this is why you have to know what you're children are watching and listening to.  In this case, I know where Hop saw this YouTube video.  I want to thank Mrs. Brock, Hop & Harry's eighth grade English teacher.  She showed them crazy stuff & they haven't forgotten any of it. Mrs. Brock showed them some crazy Fabio video of a song he recorded and made a video for.  Ew!  Fabio does nothing for me.  I don't like muscles that are that big & hair that is longer than mine.  I do think Ryan Lochte is gorgeous...sorry, rabbit trail. Look, someone lit some candles! Hop decided that it would be funny to line up a ton of candles to spell out HC,...

Harry & his friends forking Haley's yard The Harry Edition... I love homecoming.  It's just a fun time of year.  The anticipation of finding out who the boys are going to be asking is a fun part of it for me.  I will try to get them to tell me as soon as they figure out who they want to ask, but mostly they don't tell me.  And yes, I am a mom that makes my children go even if they are being wishy washy about it.  They have always had fun, and sometimes it's not just about them.  There are a lot of girls out there who want to go and never get asked.  I know when Elizabeth is in high school I'm going to want her to have a date.  There was a rumor going around our high school that 'freshman don't go to homecoming' that I heard for the first time when Hop was a freshman.  Because I'm an alumni of the school, I informed him that was a lie & he better find a date because he was going.  Why parents would listen to rumors is b...

This is posting is short & sweet and is about me having an epic fail.  Wow...wow, wow, wow. I decided I was going to be a nice wife & while Hopson was sitting at the computer doing some work I would swoop in & give him a kiss.  I know kids, it's gross, but hey how do you think you got here? Anyway...I go to give him a kiss and POW!  I get bonked in the head.  We headbutted each other.  Yeah, like I said...fail!  Please tell me I get at least a few sweet wife points for trying.  Some much for me being spontaneous.  They say, no good deed goes unpunished; I'm starting to believe them.  :)  We did better the second time after we stopped laughing & my head stopped hurting.  He got his peck on the lips & we had a good laugh at my expense. :) Celebrating Life & Successful Kisses! ~ashley   

OK y'all, I have to admit it, I'm a total slacker!  Things have been ramped up since September started & by the time I find my way to my computer I'm exhausted & so I am now over a week behind on my postings.  No, this is not an excuse, it's me apologizing for not writing. I'm going to be making all of the postings up for the past week over the next 3 days!!!  I know you're excited.  I just need some quiet time in front of my computer without my phone ringing or someone needing me or thinking that the homework they need to do on the computer is more important.  (that last part is a joke by the way, their homework is very important.)  The children have to jockey for computer time ever night, it's so fun to watch...not! So here's the posting for the 5th, so now I only have 8 more to go!  LOL.  I've got some good ones, I hope, they're just all stuck in limbo aka my head. Celebrating my CraZy Life!!! ~ashley

I really need a wife or full time secretary to keep up with my schedule.  I came dangerously close to forgetting to make Henry's birthday snack for school tomorrow.  Now, I know some of you are laughing and saying that it's no big deal, but to the child who was forgotten, it's a huge deal. I usually make a huge cookie cake and write Happy Birthday with all the children's names on it.  It's easy & fun & everyone wants to eat their own name.  Don't you remember calling your own name on your birthday cake?  To make matters a little worse, we still haven't had Henry's birthday party.  Every time we've tried to have it, all his friends have been out of town.  :(  It's a real bummer.  So, we're going to do something for one of the high school football games.  The guys can go down after the game & have their pictures made with the varsity guys.  Hopefully they'll t...

This is a short posting.  And I'm not really blogging about it, so really this is just a figment of your imagination.  I'm so glad I have crazy kids.  They do and say weird stuff & it just makes me happy.  It shows they have some charisma, and that they can laugh at themselves.  They all learned this fairly quickly because if they do something quirky in this house, we will laugh at you.  Every once in a while they would start to get upset & we would reign them in & point out how hilarious the situation is.  I have to say it helped. In Friday's pep rally a certain child in this family dressed up.  This child was absolutely hilarious.  This child went around all day yelling 'roll tide' at friends and teachers.  We are not Alabama fans, so you can imagine how he said it.  (if you need a hint, think of the most redneck fan you know & multiply it by about 10.)  Yes, I am so proud.  He's a zany kid,...

Tyler, Will, Will, Hop, Dave, & Kalvin Hannah, Abbey, Lauren & Alex As I have mentioned about 100 times, football season has begun...finally!  But, I didn't really talk about the football game Friday.  Of course the goal for all teams is to make it to state, but I know I haven't wanted it this badly since my brother, Cotton, was a senior.  Every parent of a senior wants their child to win state.  To have the feeling of knowing you're the best, and there is no one better. Cheerleaders & The Go REBELS guys Friday the Rebels began the road to state finals with a 'W'.  The first of the fifteen.  We played a great rival, the Homewood Patriots.  (I found out the Homewood band is going to be playing the presidential inaguration in January.  Congrats to the Patriot band!  Wow!!!)  Tyler, Will, Will, Hop, David & Kalvin It's so fun to be a part of each game: the students who come out and support the te...

High School Football game won: Check Big TV out to watch a day of college football:  Check Snacks for said games:  Check Lake:  Check We took Hopson's parents and niece and nephew to the lake today so they could experience the redneck Rivera.  (Lake Martin)  I think they had fun.  It's a very laid back place.  It's not fancy, but it's our place that we've made 8 years worth of memories with our family.  That means it's one of the greatest places on earth.  Our kiddos have learned a lot of things at the lake:  problem solving, hard work, relaxing, facing your fears, working as a team, and relaxing.  Yes, I did mean to put relaxing twice. Hopson and I are old school and have made all of our children learn how to water ski.  Most people wake board or surf now, so there aren't too many people who ski anymore, but it's fun to be able to do something not everyone can do.  The...