The Quest has the last laugh

My new car died at OMMS today.  Thanks to Kelly Buckner and Mr. Sellers for helping me out.  I did call OnStar and decided not to wait on them and get help at the school.  It was comical.  Ended up having to take it to Pelham Drivers Way and get a new battery.  Drivers Way paid for it and was very apologetic.  My Quest was probably saying, "I told you, you shouldn't have left me for another car."

What happens in the Quest stays in the Quest

We traded in our 2004 Nissan Quest yesterday.  I got an used Buick Enclave.  I am a very techy girl but I was definitely in a time wrap as far as my Quest was concerned.  I was in heaven with the whole navigation concept and OnStar.  The only issue I have is my southern accent and OnStar voice calling understanding me, but in my defense On Star couldn't understand my friend Sallie either.  Trading in our van got me thinking about the memories we had in that van.

• Bought it the month before Lewis was born
• Roughly150 trips to Mississippi and back
• Brought Lewis home from the hospital
• Went to Disney 2 times with an extra special visit to Disney Car care- here we had the experience of riding in a pleasure van with velour seats with no seat belts and the guy was from Arkansas and drove like a bat out of hell
• Went to Dallas
• Went to Cooperstown, NY
• Went to Atlanta for Braves games
• Played Praise Baby for Lewis about 100 times
• Took us to Jacksonville, FL to the Gator Bowl
• Took us to the beach about 25 times
• I once had 4 tickle me Elmos in the back and swiped a parked car at the Summit, they started giggling went I hit him, freaked me out
• The Quest is where 2 of Clara's boyfriends when she was 4 planned to both marry her and assigned certain days for each
• Where I cried when I found out Lewis was going to have another surgery on his feet
• Where I heard so many precious conversations between Rob and his friends, boys love to talk in the car
• It was made in my hometown Canton, MS
• It was thrown up in many times
• It was where I would let Crazy Clara slept in the garage after CASA so she would take a nap (she would fall asleep on the way home)
• One winter Lewis, Sallie and I must have listened to Life is Highway about 50 times
• Where I received so much good news on my cell phone over the years
• One time Sallie's elderly cat Bubba got in my van and I didn't know it until I heard the meow
• One time a cat (I think Sugar) climbed in the front seat and peed on the mat, in the cat's defense I did leave the door open for 15 minutes ( I was on the phone and forgot about it)
• The van that some bag boys said was cool, I don't really know if that was a sincere compliment
• Many trips to Inverness pool
• Inspired Tommy and Sallie to get their own Quest (but it had all the cooler features, nav etc) (Sallie probably could write her own memories of the van)
• Took our dog, Mary, to be put to sleep
• Went to Ozark AL to get our new puppy
• Went to the Prince concert in style with Pam
• It spent about a week at Rickwood Radio
• All these adventures and experiences and my Quest never let me down, just a few hiccups 

Thanks for the memories my friend.

God's children in Uganda

Last Sunday the 17th we got to meet our friends adoptive children for the first time.  They live in Uganda.  We met them on Skype and it was amazing. skype with Uganda My friend, Amiee, has a blog detailing the story so far ourraysofhope.blogspot.com.   Before Amiee and Todd's kids got there we talked with some kids who live in a children's home in Uganda http://www.sozochildren.org.
It is a beautiful story of two young  men following God's commands.  This past week I have been consumed with thinking about these children.  We have met a man named, Saka Joel, who runs a school there and serves 200-300 children everyday.  Most of these children are orphans.  Their parents have died of AIDS, of other illness or have abandoned them.  I asked Joel if there was a child who was there who was interested in being adopted.  Joel said there were many.  He told me about a girl who was 7 named Brenda, I decided to send her some funds to help her and her grandmother.  I asked Joel about her health too.  Joel sent me a sad note back saying Brenda has the "sickness", both of her parents had died of AIDS.  She wrote me the most beautiful notes below:

 I really was feeling God might want us to adopt a child from Uganda.  I didn't know how I would feel about a child with AIDS but ......  To make a very long story short, we are not adopting.  We looked and prayed about a two year old that needed a family.  She really had my heart but we had to look at things realistically too.

Greetings
Here is the little girl scovia, she is 2 years old, mother died and she stays with Dad in that small 8 by 6 room shack. We are considering moving her to our home because she is in a real bad situation.
She needs to get on a better diet and this will help in her development. She is two years but has delayed to walk because she was malnourished
Otherwise she is a happy girl and seeing her smile makes you forget what she is going through
Blessing


--
Pastor Wilfred Blair Rugumba
P.O.Box 16559
Kampala, Uganda.
256772985959
256702985959
www.mercychildcare.org
www.lighttheworlchurch.org
 



I did realize that I am naturally a risk taker and I had forgotten that about myself.  I am not sure what God wants to do with that, but I intend to embrace it when it comes my way.  Uganda has more orphans than any other country.  There are so many children who would love to be supported or adopted.  Grandmothers are willingly giving up their grandchildren to make sure that they have a safe and healthy home.  Below is a terrific blog that can give you more information:
blog about a Brentwood Tennesse girl who adopted Ugandan children
I guess God's plan for me to help Amiee and Todd with their new blessings, I will be privileged.  Her daughter, Joan, is deaf and 6 years old.  Lewis is just obsessing about who is older him or Joan.  Dereck is her little brother who is 4.  I can't wait to meet them. 

The Brooky gets bit

I have started couponing again.  I use this awesome site southernsavers.com.  She lists all the sales at the area stores and tells you what coupons to use.  She has links to online coupons that you can print, all you have to do is turn over all your information, subject yourself to spam and the coupon is yours. Unless the company decides they have given away too many 50 cent coupons.  I don't really understand why the companies want you to work so hard for a coupon.  Then the coupon lady advises you don't clip your coupons, just save them in a folder and she will tell you when to use it according to what is on sale.

I had my first rude cashier at Publix with all my coupons.  I saved 82 dollars but I still spent $200.  She was put out when I asked her if I could put my coupons up there by her while I unloaded my groceries.  Walgreens was wonderful, as usual, they love to see you save money with coupons.  Heck Ms Lou keeps coupons in a box in case you need some.  CVS was fine and helpful.  Rite Aid really ticked me off.  The clerk was complaining very loudly about couponers way before I checked out.  She said "I think these couponers are starting to use illegal coupons ??I am going to check each items and be sure they match before I check them out."  She was true to her word, she treated me like I was shoplifting or something.  She laid all the items out and read each coupon.  I thought that was what the computers were for.  She also told me three times that these blink eye drops would qualify for a $7 rebate,  She was wrong, they didn't....I realized I am not a rebate girl unless it prints out at the register.  Cash flow is often motivation for couponing so paying more and then getting it back doesn't make sense for me.

I also realized that I could waste all kinds of money on toiletries, I am a sucker for them.  Heck I bought Burt's Bees lotion for $7 because I could save $2.  So when I spend $70 with coupons at Rite Aid I think I am missing the point.  So I will be better next week.

Lewis got the Wipeout Wii game for Christmas and it has created another obsession.  Lewis is in the living room now watching Winter Wipeout that he taped (I am a girl of the 80's) for the third time.  He laughs every time, so hard.  I love it.

Rob had wrestling this weekend but didn't get to actually get to wrestle.  He is a great teammate though, seriously sometimes I am more proud of that fact than I am of him winning a match. The coachs do a great job of letting as many kids as possible wrestle.  Our team is twice as large as most squads so it is hard to spread it around.   He will get to wrestle next weekend though.  Wrestling has really grown on me though, I think it is a great sport.  It encourages strength, teamwork and stamina.  Rob says it is harder than football but he loves it.  It doesn't matter if you are little, there is someone your size to wrestle you. You learn to wear a singlet (male unitard) and be proud of it.   You also learn to fight for your life (or at least not to get pinned), not being overly dramatic but I would probably give up after about 10 seconds.  It is like one of the moms said, they are doing all the things you taught them not to do on the preschool playground.  Some kid from Bumpus Middle School bit a kid from Mountain Brook last night, needless to say that did not go over well.  The Bumpus kid claimed he had in his mouthpiece in and couldn't have done it.  The proof was on the singlet, there were bite marks in the singlet.  This is what it looks like:

I might have mentioned this before but 7 boys that wrestle are also in the show choir with Rob. We have our own Oak Mountain Glee.   Showchoir season is next, we will see what that is all about, can't wait!!

Annabelle playing soccer

The best Mississippi State game I have ever seen, and I've seen a bunch

That is our friend Manny running the flag

Two great links from the Jacksonville paper

A thoughtful and humble young man-story about our quarterback

The picture of all heart

I didn't know Admiral Ackbar and the Jawas were going to be here!!

This morning we got up and went back to the downtown area.  I happened to walk in a store first where all the clothes were $20.00.  It was owned by a foreign (I think a Baltic country) couple and she told me if I bought stuff that cost more than $20, I was paying too much.  I got 6 shirts for $125.  They were things like you would find in Charming Charlie's.  Some I would never wear but the things I did get I loved.  Clara and I spent about 45 minutes in there.  I went to ask the lady a question, and I heard her tell her husband, "That display looks like sh--" He said, " You think it looks like sh--?"  She said "Yes sh--"  They were hilarious.  She gave me a pair of earrings and Clara a bracelet.  Great experience.

Then we wandered around some more and found a store where everything was $10.  She had all accessories, I had to buy a few things..... We then went to eat lunch and then headed to the parade.  It was interesting, it was the longest parade I had ever gone to and the most random.  You can tell from the pictures below.
We then went to the Riverwalk to eat pizza.  Brian had to wait in line for 30 minutes to get a table, but everywhere was packed.  We then drove over to where the New Year's Eve party for MSU fans was.  It was a mad house.  It was all outside and the restaurant said they had no idea that there would be that kind of turnout.  What?  You could probably count on all the MSU fans coming because what else did we have to do?  So we wandered around looking for people we knew.  It was kind of weird seeing so many vaguely familar faces but not remembering their names.  It would have been fun if we had planned to meet a big group of folks but we didn't.  The line of the food, beer and potties were loooooong, it kind of reminded me of the Bon Jovi concert.  We decided to leave about 9:30, my kids learned the lesson that New Years Eve is the most overrated holiday.

This was a plus sized princess

Bobby Bowden

The randomness of this parade, right up my alley!!!