Look-Alikes?

The other day we were watching GAC (I actually got to change the channel away from The Disney Channel for 5 minutes!!!), and Luke Bryan's video for Rain is a Good Thing was on. Bubba came into the room and saw Luke Bryan on the screen and said "That's my Daddy!"

Yes, it's been a while since Bubba has seen The Farmer, but, really, there is no reason for him to be thinking that Luke Bryan is his father other than a slight resemblance...

What do you think?


Luke Bryan:

The Farmer:

The Farmer doesn't think he looks at all like Luke Bryan; he thinks he's much better looking (oh, that guy!) -- but he did say that at least Luke Bryan puts out some good country songs!

Prayer Request

Today at 2 am our time, and 2 pm their time, my dad arrived in China for his first mission trip.

I meant to post this in time for y'all to pray for him on his flight over there, but I never got the chance yesterday.

Daddy will be in China for about two weeks travelling all over the country and teaching English to children, which is really kind of funny, because when he gets to talking to some of the guys on the farm, I wouldn't call what they are speaking English. ;-)

He and one other man from our church are with a group from another church in town. The other man from our church went about a week earlier, so Daddy went over there with a group of people he doesn't know. He was a little nervous about the actual trip, the food, and being in a country where the people aren't free like we are here in America.

Anyway, I know that he will do great on this mission trip, but I would love it if y'all could keep him in your prayers until he gets back on the 28th.

Thanks!!

Never A Dull Moment

I think that I have mentioned that the kids and I are living at my in-law's beach house this summer. What I may not have mentioned is that their beach house isn't the come in with your feet sandy and sit out the couch with a wet bathing suit kind of beach house. Instead, it is the brand new, all-white furniture kind of beach house.

The Farmer didn't want us to live here because he didn't want the kids to mess anything up; he knows that our kids are kids, and that they don't exactly live like neat little adults. But, we sold our house and needed a place to bunk for the summer, and, as we are moving back to his farm and I work around the clock here in the summer, this will be a recurring summertime problem, so here we are.

And, honestly, no matter how fabulous this house is or how beautiful the view is, after this summer, I am with The Farmer -- next summer we will be looking for another place to live, because my stress level has been maxed out after the responsibility of living in someone else's brand-new house.

Why? Well...

We had been here for maybe a week, and we were coming home after church one Sunday. We stopped to get some sandwiches for lunch, and then we were going to spend some time on the beach. The Farmer called to find out where we were because there was an alarm going off at the house saying that the house was on fire!! All the way back out to the house -- a 20 minute drive from where we were -- my legs were jello because I just knew that I had left on my flat iron and burned my in-law's beach house down to the ground.

We got out to the house to find two fire trucks and half the neighborhood in front of the house. I left the kids in the car in the middle of the street and ran up to the nearest fireman to ask him if the house was on fire. Luckily it was just a false alarm, but the alarms were still going off. It took forever for me to get the alarm off as three fully-suited firemen and a neighbor stood around watching me.

And it took forever to get my heart rate back to normal.

We have also had a case of MRSA this summer. Our nanny and her daughter -- I am not sure which one had it first -- had it and passed it on to Bubba. Poor Bubba got a huge, nasty infected toe, and I had to spend many nights after I got home from the packing house (at midnight!) disinfecting the house. Neither of the girls ever got it, so I think that I have managed to kill all of the germs around the house. I just hope it's not lurking around here somewhere -- that stuff is nasty!

Bubba slept with me one night and wet the bed, and, of course, it went through the mattress pad and soaked the brand-new mattress. Luckily, the nanny found some kind of wonderful stuff that got the smell out of the mattress.

We have also learned the magic of the Magic Eraser.

The knob came off the cabinet in my bathroom.

I could keep going, but it is too stressful.

It's one thing when it's your own house; it's totally another when it's someone else's. So, basically, I have spent my summer working, worrying, stressing, and cleaning.

And I live on the beach in a beautiful house with a beautiful view...it doesn't make any sense!

God Bless America, Land That I Love!

Happy Fourth (er, Eighth!) of July!

For the first time since we have known each other, The Farmer and I had two days off together over the fourth! Being farmers who harvest during the summer months, we are usually very busy during our nation's birthday, so this was a great treat for us.

We spent our whole weekend on the water.

Saturday morning I took the two younger kids to a birthday party, and that afternoon The Farmer and I spent some kid-free time on the beach during nap time. That evening LP and The Minister. and their daughter, Lily, came over, and we all went to a big Fourth of July party.

Sunday we had more friends over for a day at the beach, and our friend, Jen, brought out a wonderful brunch spread complete with great, festive drinks for the grown-ups. That afternoon Sassy began a love affair with water skiing. She was too scared to try to ski last year, but after watching people go all afternoon Sunday (including her mommy), she decided that she wanted to go -- and she popped right up! Now, the ski that she and Miss Priss go on is more like a sled in the front and skis in the back, but the point is that she went behind the boat -- we'll work on the whole getting up and balancing on two separate skis thing later. And she hasn't stopped asking to go again ever since she went. She loved it.

Our weekend was rounded out by church that evening, then we came home and grilled out, again with LP,The Minister, and Lily, and then watched the fireworks from our backyard. As I mentioned earlier, I am usually working on the fourth, so I cannot tell you when the last time was that I saw fireworks. This year we got to see several different fireworks shows from the backyard, and it was so fun to see them all.

It was really a fun, festive fourth!

And I took nary a picture (and I could just kick myself for not having the camera when Sassy went skiing, but I didn't want to run inside and miss her in action, but the neighbor, Nancy, did get some pictures)...maybe next year!