CONGRATULATIONS VALDOSTA!!!!

ESPN'S TITLETOWN USA!!!!
Watch ESPN's SportsCenter tonight at 6 pm!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEIGH AND LAURIE!

Laurie and Jessica at Christmas

Leigh at Christmas last year

All the grandaughters with Nana-Christmas 2007

28???

That's right...28 years ago today I began a great adventure! I have written several times about my neices and nephew but today is the day it all began. Laura Renee Walker was born in Lubbock, TX 28 years ago. The first problem with this is I can't even remember being 28, yet I still feel like I am 28 on somedays (not so much on the other days!). Mom, Dad, Karen and I drove to Texas and stayed with some cousins will we were waiting for that first grandchild! Finally, we were able to head to Lubbock! We thought that had to have been the cutest baby every born...she was so much cuter than the other newborns in the nursery! We couldn't wait for her to get home! We had shopped and shopped and everything we found was cuter than the last and we had to have it! After she got home, we would pick an outfit on her and take a picture. When all the new outfits had been photographed, Karen and I headed to back to the mall for more outfits. That began a long history of new clothes for all of the "grandkids" as they came along. And you can't one for the baby and not buy for the other kids, so 6 kids later, I wish I knew how much I had spent on kids clothes! I still have a had time walking through the baby clothes and Jessica is 7!

Back to Laurie-she has been a joy in our family from the beginning. She was a great big sister as the girls grew up and continues that today. She wants to be sure that her sisters and her parents have everything! She loves being around family and has some great friends. She gets long well with everyone, the young and the old! She can tell you EVERYTHING about Tennessee atheletics-football and basketball especially! Laurie, Louise and Leigh have had the joy of living in the same cities-just about their lives-when one moved-that's were the others wanted to be! So they have a very strong bond! The old saying is so true with these girls..."I can say anything I want about my sisters, but don't you say anything bad about them!" Laurie will even defend her sisters to their husbands or boyfriend-so you better take care of those 2 if you don't want Laurie on your back!!!!

She is one of the most loving, giving people I have ever met and I wish, again, that I was in AL to share your big day!!! Hope it is a GREAT one and that you are blessed with MANY,MANY more!!!! I love you-Gin-Gin

23 Years Ago Today...

I vividly remember the day! Don and Jamie (my brother and sister-in-law) were having their 3rd and final child. We had not found out if it was a boy or girl so we were all excited. Karen and I wanted Don to have a boy SO bad! We just thought that he needed a boy, after having 2 girls--every man needs a boy, don't they? Well. after waiting, out comes Don from the delivery room--guess what? Another Girl!!! I think Karen and I were disappointed but Don came out of that room pushing that girl like God didn't even make boys!!! Needless to say, Karen and I got over the boy issue quickly and life has not been the same since Donna Leigh came into our world. She is slightly spoiled (aren't we all?) but she is a great girl! She always makes you feel good when you are around her, even if she doesn't! She is a great daughter, sister, granddaughter,neice, cousin and friend.

I wish I was in Montgomery to share her birthday with her today! But since that is not possible, I'll just send my love, Leigh---you are a special young lady and I hope you have a great day and a wonderful life!!! Love, Gin-Gin

PS She is an avid Tennessee Fan!!!!!!!!

Mystery Solved!

After much speculation, and several offers to "rat out" the guilty parties, the mystery was solved this morning at church. Several had come by and made comments (no confession!) but the truth came out just before worship was to begin and a picture of our house, in all its glory, appeared on the screen in front of the auditorium. Needless to say, our youth group was VERY proud. It seems that the youth group was having a "lock-in" at the GCS gym and needed something to do. I am so thankful that we could assist these fine young people in this endevor!!!!

Most all the TP is cleaned up, except for a few strands in the trees that the rain will just have to was out!! It is such an honor to be loved in this way! :)

In the Still of the Night...

What a night! Jessica went to sleep so well last night and Kenny and I started watching the Braves. Needless to say, by 10:30 we were both asleep on each couch. So he woke me up and we went to bed. Around 4:45, I heard Jessica. She was "talking" and seemed to be in and out of sleep for the next 20 min or so. At a few minutes after 5, I got up and went to check on her. I layed down in her bed with her and she went back to sleep, off and on, until I finally could take no more. I got up around 6:20 and headed straight for the coffee pot. I started the coffee and decided to go and get dressed while it was brewing. As I walked by the front door, I looked outside...and what to my wondering eyes should appear but---

We had been "rolled and forked"! For those of you, unlike Kenny and myself, who are unfamiliar with this activity. You take ROLLS of toilet paper and begin to "wrap" them about a friend's home! Let me just say, the ones responsible for this, and the press time, they are still at-large-did a fantatic job. Trees where wrapped, scrubs were wrapped, the wreath on the front door was wrapped and they even tied a bow around the front door knob!!! We have, ourselves, been involved in these teen-age pranks so all we could do was laugh and begin the clean up process. Let me say---it's more fun to roll than to clean! By the way, to be forked means that they also took plactic forks and stuck them into the yard!!!

I immediately told Kenny to get up and come look at our front (and both side) yard. My pictures didn't turn out real well because they were taken at 6:30-before we started cleaning up. Kenny wanted to wait but a rain shower like we have been having would have been disasterous!!! At least these are not pictures of Jess in the pool :) Have a good day!

Vacationing!!??

As you should be able to tell from the slideshow, Jessica is loving the pool. It's a good thing, because Kenny keeps reminding me that this is our vacation...this year, last year, next year-and so on, and so on...you get the picture! Usually Jess is in the pool for several hours a day, any way! At least an hour or so during the morning or early afternoon and then again after dinner with her Daddy. That seems to be her favorite time, but I have to say, she likes swimming with Mom, too!

Kenny's Mom and Dad returned safely from Alaska Monday afternoon and Laurie touched-down in the USA yesterday! I haven't heard from her since she was sitting on the runway in Chicago last night at 10:00. I am assuming she and Jamie made it to Montgomery and are sound asleep right now.

I'll try to get some pictures besides of us in the pool but since that is where we are spending the summer, you may be out of luck. And speaking of the summer, where has it gone. School supplies are out in Wal-Mart, Halloween things are out in Michael's--why can't we just enjoy one season without rushing the next!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS...in July!

July 4th week-end!

HAPPY FOURTH!

Hope everyone had a great day, yesterday. We had a very quiet, very relaxing day! It was so nice. Jessica and I "hit the pool" around 9, thinking it might rain any minute. Needless to say it never did! Kristen and Samantha came over and swam for awhile and at a BBQ sandwich with us. Kenny went to Sonny's for the BBQ, what a great guy...I didn't have to get out of the pool. Around 1, Jessica and I came in for what I thought was going to be a nap-NOT HAPPENING! The girls left and Kenny finished up some yard work. Around 2, Jess and I went back out to the pool and swam for about an hour with Kenny. After drying off and cleaning up, I started getting dinner ready. It was just Kenny, Jess and me and actually when we ate, Jessica had decided it was time for a nap, exhausted from 5 hours of sun, I guess! We had an All-American dinner-Hot dogs on the grill, corn on the cob, baked beans and blackberry cobbler for dessert. I have to say, even though I made it, the cobbler was the hit of the night. After Jess got up and ate we went across the street to watch the Braves ( we don't get PTV with out satelite :( ). Around 9 we came home and Jess went to bed and Kenny and I crashed in our room, listening to the end to the ballgame and hearing the fireworks outside.

It's not a real exciting day to tell about but one that we really enjoyed. It is rare for Kenny to have a day off when he doesn't feel like he has to work at home all day long.

We did take a few minutes to be thankful for our country and the freedom we have and to pray for out family that is out of the USA. Hopefully, over the next week to 10 days we will have everyone back at home and safe. Please say a prayer for Kenny's Mom and Dad who will be traveling home from Alaska on Monday. Also Laurie, who will be returning from the Phillippians on Tuesday and my parents, brother, cousin and Heather who all will be traveling home the following week.

Happy July to you all!!!!