Coaching X-Country is getting harder and harder in some ways. First of all, getting down in the mud is not the same as it used to be. Mud? Yes mud. We do a mud run every year. It just so happened it was that time of year this week. Yes we got down and dirty. The funny thing is the girls really get into it while the boys are running away afraid to get dirty. Some of the boys finally came around with the lure of pictures being taken after the fact. At one point I looked at the big puddle...

It's really easy to look at an obese person and see right away a person with no discipline and no self control. How about a drunk who staggers though town after hitting the bars every weekend? But how many of us are walking around with secret addictions that are not so easily seen? We know what they are. While we point the fingers at those whose addictions are plain to see, we make excuses for ourselves thinking we're ok because nobody knows or needs to know what we struggle with. I...

I have a question. From time to time I hear disparaging remarks made about Jerry Falwell and Pat Robinson and usually they are lumped together. My question is why? What exactly is your beef with these two? I'm not a big fan of Pat Robinson, but I do admire Falwell and what he has done in Lynchburg, VA. I've not seen them personally together nor have I ever heard Falwell talk of Robinson nor invite him to his College to speak. Is it because they are so outspoken or as "religio...

I can't believe we only have one more day in July. Then we are in August!! Urggghhhh Where did the summer go? Why is it going soooo fast? I remember as a kid the summers lasted....well......forever. They dragged on endlessly so much so I couldn't wait till school started back up because I got so bored. Now I'm trying to hang on, digging my heels in trying to keep summer from slipping away without having at least some fun. So this weekend after a busy spring and early summer we had ...

Last Friday Aly's 14 year old sister Abby was in a bad jet ski accident. Aly called us, hysterical ,asking us to pray for Abby. Aly was very scared she might lose her sister. Abby fell off the jet ski as someone else was driving and hit the motor with her backside. At first they thought she was ok but then she turned very white and they called the ambulance. She ended up getting airlifted to a hospital in Wisconsin because they thought she may have internal injuries or bleeding. Aly ...

Well I've written about most of the happenings this past week involving my middle son's graduation from VMI in VA. Now comes the rest of the story only this involves my youngest son David. Some of you know David from his blogging time here on JU. He has since moved away from that, being much too busy with college life and work plus trying to keep Aly smiling (which is not a hard thing to do). He and Aly came to most of the events planned for the grads and their parents. At one po...

I have too much stuff! I've had two full weekends of garage sale and still have too much stuff. Alot has gone out, but I keep finding more and more stuff to fill those empty places. I don't know what we are going to do if I don't sell all this stuff. I can see that I've got an addiction to sweaters. I have a ton of sweaters. I'm taking quite a few of my favorites but still have way too many. It's embarrasing to look at all these clothes and think about how they all belong to j...

A few updates on the latest in my life lately to tie up some earlier threads right here on good ol' JU. First and I'm thrilled to report this: Amanda called today to tell me that Ethan is sleeping a whopping 13 hours a night now ever since she got home. She puts him down at about 7 pm and he's sleeping all the way till 8 am. He's a much happier baby she said. Yes, the little experiement worked for all the nay sayers out there!!! When he went home, the first night he slept his fi...

We are moving. We are packing up and heading south. We should arrive in the Villages, Florida sometime in November. Florida is probably the last place we'd ever expected to be and in Golf Cart Land no less. And we don't even golf!!! Today was a sad day. Today was the day we told the church the news. Lots of crying from the pulpit to the back row. Everyone was stunned. You could have heard a pin drop. I heard a few very audible "oh no's" from the back and it nearly broke my heart...

I love a parade. Isn't that an old song? Gah! Forget that......after the Y.M.C.A. background revelation, not sure I want to know. Anyhow July 4th means parades. Of course I marched in our local parade, not content to just sit by the side of the road....gotta be in the action. Gotta show that patriotism. Today I was dressed up as a coach with a group that dressed up in sports clothing. My husband wore his old football Jersey from HS. His name etched in big letters on the back to...

Theft. It's been a long time since we've been touched by this violent act. I still remember how violated we felt at the time. Tonight my son called from KY. His house had been robbed. He got the call from one of his two roommates. He was calling me on the way to his house. I love the way he calls when something affects him. Mom is the first one he calls. Anyhow it looks like one of his roommates got hit hard, but Bobby had nothing stolen. He has a very nice big upstairs ...

I've just been told I'm over qualified. Hahahahah I don't think I've been told that before. I guess for one reason, I'm not very good at losing checks. Working with checks is one part of my job. I do lots of reconciliations and am also in charge of the billing. We did our son David's tax return. He had three tax returns to do since he's working out of state. The State sent us a letter saying while they received his return, they did not receive his check. Well he sent one. In fac...

As I sit here this am looking outside I can tell it's going to be a beut of a day. The sunfilled backyard is calling my name. I think today might be a great day to work outside. Today we were promised an 80 degree day. YES!!! Outside of this past week we've not had an over 70 degree day since last October. How sad is that? There are still pockets of snow here and there. I have a massive amount under the basketball hoop. All the low shady areas are still snow covered but not for...

I'm not sure why but I did another stupid thing this week. That makes two in one week!! Gah!!!! This time I swallowed Peroxide by mistake. Yup. Didn't taste so hot either. Actually it had a burning effect on my throat as it went down. Then my stomach didn't feel so hot a few minutes later that lasted for an hour or so. Actually I felt kind of sick. Pretty nasty stuff. What happened was...... I was told by my Oral Surgeon friend to rinse twice a day with a mixture of Peroxide a...

Ok, it's Spring......well sort of. We just got an eight inch or so dumping of snow last night. The electricity went off during our favorite show, "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" An answer was about to be revealed that I knew for a change. Some of those questions are unbelieveable. Anyhow, the electiricity didn't come back on until today at 11 am. So, we dragged out the candles, lanterns and oil lamps for the second time in about a week. Thank goodness for all my water fille...