So We Were Thinking About Getting A Pool In The Backyard...

Yesterday (Sunday), the last day of June, we got a rainstorm that dumped somewhere between 3 and 6 inches of rain in about 2 hours.  I knew it was raining hard when I looked out the kitchen window and it looked as if someone was standing on my back porch with hose.  Upon closer inspection, it wasn't a hose but so much water was coming down the gutter that water was shooting out of one of the seams like a hose. I returned to doing what everyone does best on a Sunday - resting my eyes.  As the rain began to stop, I got up and looked outside towards the back of the property and this is what I saw:

The canal on our property line had overflowed its banks and our yard was taking on water.  Since the thunder had stopped, I got Aubrey and Wyatt ready and we went out on a mission to investigate what was happening and to survey any damage.  Okay, actually I got them ready so they could play in all the water.  Before, we played in all the water in our yard we walked around the block to investigate the canal and see the flooding.  Here's a couple of photos and a video from our adventure:

From Bridge on W 2nd S Street - Looking down back of property line  -Our house is to the right

Canal going beneath Central Avenue between Bethany and Presbyterian Church

White Water Rafting In Summerville

After we went around the block with Aubrey and Wyatt splashing water every chance they got, we went to the play set and they had some fun.

 

I am sure you are sitting there laughing and wondering where is Ansleigh?  This adventure was a little to much for her.  There was too much water and it was deeper than the bathtub.  There will be other adventures for her to participate in...

I was surprised at how short of a window, we had to play.  About 20 minutes after we were playing the water was pretty much gone.

The kids had a great time and we were glad they got to have some unexpected, unplanned fun. 

13 Annual Pinehurst Golf Weekend - 2013 Edition

Before, I get to the golf.  I wanted to give LA a big shout out for being an awesome wife and mother by taking care of our kids while I went out of town.  I cut the trip a day short because it was Father's Day on Sunday.  I didn't want to not be home to celebrate with LA and the kids.

We left Thursday evening and our navigator (Mike) gave our pilot (Tim) the full weather report before we left.  Mike has not been North of mile marker 189 since our trip last year to Pinehurst - that's another long story.  Tim wasn't worried about the weather as much as if the "Hot and Now" sign was going to be on when we got to Florence.  That's what I like a man with his priorities in order.  The "Hot and Now" light wasn't on when we got there but they had some fresh ones that were still warm.  We eventually drove through the teeth of the storm somewhere in NC and met up with the rest of the group at a sports bar to catch the last quarter of the NBA finals.  We knew where the sports bar was but when the lights on the outside are off and all you see as you pass the entrance was a few flickering tv screens it made it a little harder to find.  We soon found out the lights were off because the power was off due to the storm and had been off since around 6:30pm.  We also learned that the power was also out at the condos.  When we got to the condos around 11:30 the power was still off.  The good news was that the storm had cooled off the temps by about 20 degrees and while not a meat locker it was bearable. We figured that the power would come on at some point during the night.  We figured wrong.  The power didn't come back on until around 7:00am.  The biggest tragedy was after the power came back on the cable tv didn't.  Want to talk about roughing it for a few days.  Try keeping your TV off for two days...We felt like  we were going through detox and were trying to use our phones to keep up to date on the US Open and Sportscenter.  Most of rual NC doesn't have enough G's for your smartphone to work at the speed you are used to in the greater Charleston area.  I am pretty sure Fred Flintstone was  hammering out the news we were attempting to get.  Anyway, enough about the tragic life we lead when we don't have power and our smartphones aren't so smart...the good news is we survived and were able to play golf (something that didn't require power) which is what we came to do.

This was our 13th year and we are down to Alex as being the only person to make all 13 years.  Which makes sense because he organizes the event every year.

We played our typical first round at Tobacco Road which is much nicer on Friday than on Sunday.  I still love this course.  It is difficult but for whatever reason I typically play my best round of the weekend there.

Tobacco Road

• 87th Golf Digest Public Links Courses 2013-2014
• 23rd Best Golf Course in NC
• Our Life Top Ten Golf Courses I've Played
• Home to the best Bar-B-Que Sandwich - I was actually looking forward to the sandwich as much as the course.

You can read some other facts about the course from last years post here.

Here's a link to an overview of the course.  At the bottom it has a Google Earth flyover all the holes (I attempted put the flyover embedded in the blog but it changed the backgroud color and caused the post not to meet my standards of what I want to deliver to my readers).  It is not the greatest clarity and difficult to get the true feel of the elevation changes but different (something I had never seen done before and that's what we are about at Our Life - cutting edge technology).

I am sure you just dying to know what I shot - 90 with a big fat 9 on number 18. I was pleased with the round except of number 18.   I had 85 in the sights and let a terrible sand wedge from 90 yards out. I wish I had that shot back - Leroy hit one to about 15 feet - typical. I am filing a petition with the PGA to let me and Leroy on the tour. 

Seven Lakes

Seven Lakes was home to our Saturday round of golf. We had played this course before but it wasn't until arriving that I remembered the course and some of the layout. It is 180 degrees from Tobacco Road (which in all honesty, every course is 180 degrees from Tobacco Road). The course should be called "The Bridges of Madison County" (go to their home page - www.sevenlakescountryclub.com and watch the pictures rotate) because they have a couple of bridges with covers on them. It is a traditional layout with lots of elevated greens and all the greens are pretty small. Not as much margin for error as Tobacco Road offers and this course has out of bounds (the white stakes - stoke and distance penalty) that Tobacco Road doesn't have. You will need to keep it in the fairway and your approach shots are a premium if you want to score. If you are a NASCAR golfer, always hitting it left (hook), you might not like the course as much. The majority of the holes are straight or dogleg rights.  It has received a couple of accolades:

• Sandhills Golf Association Course of the Year 2010, 2011, 2012 
• Golf Digest "plan your travel around it" I am not sure I would plan my travel around it but if you looking for a place to play and have some time in your golf schedule then check it out.

I shot a disappointing 91 with a blow up on 3 holes on the backside to ruin a decent round (triple, double, double).  I was happy that I was able to recover and not let those three holes lead to six bad holes.

Sidebar: We played an additional nine holes (late afternoon, 3:30 or so) as two man teams which is always interesting and since we had 10, we went off as a foursome and sixsome. We are amateurs in our golf game but understand golf course etiquette. If a group caught us we were going to let them play through..no big deal or so we thought. While teeing off on number 4,a par four, a twosome caught us and while they were on the green we told them to go ahead and tee off when they were ready, we would be watching for them. So knucklehead one and two tee off and then both hit terrible second shots.  Instead of playing the hole out they decided to pick up and not finish the hole (I guess the gallery was too much for them).  While passing the green they made a couple of comments about us playing as six and us needing to split into two groups because there were lots of other people behind them...we were nice and said okay (knowing we weren't going to split up). After all six of us, reached the green and putted, who was still on the next hole green.  Our sixsome caught their twosome.  We then teed off on the par 3 when another twosome (father and son) approached the box. We allowed them to hit and they decided to pickup also and not putt (I don't think we are think intimidating). They thanked us and we continued on our marry way.  No one else caught us, evidently knucklehead one and two didn't know what they were talking about.  After we finished teeing off on number 11(first picture on their home page), as we were exiting one of the bridges of madison county we are greeted by a grumpy old man who power stops his cart just before t-boning one of our carts.  He then proceeds to lay into us about playing as a sixsome, holding up other golfers, not letting anyone play through (then how did they get ahead of us) and that we were cursing at knucklehead one and two.  It seems knucklehead one and two had called in to report us and was arriving to save the day (seven holes later).  He continued his rant and told us that this was a private course (more on that in a minute after I finish the story). We proceeded to tell grumpy old man that it didn't go down like knucklehead one and two described and we did not curse at them and told him the whole story...He called the club and was able to verify with the father and son that we were the most polite southern gentlemen they had ever encountered on the golf course. Grumpy Old Man then all of a sudden became our friend and he wanted to know about the knucklehead one and two. We described them as older men, "how old" he asked and we said late 50s and he then gave us the one finger salute, followed by "that's how old I am, assholes" (which he said laughing). He departed and we finished up our last hole which was 11 because you get two extra holes since the course layout doesn't take you back to the clubhouse after nine. So grumpy old man called Seven Lakes a private course which I disagreed. If it was private, we would not be playing on it. You can't take money to play the course from a bunch of traveling golf vagabonds and call yourself a private course. If you want to be private then raise your membership dues and don't allow non members to play without members. Until then you are a public course, if you want a fancy name call yourself -semi-private.

Our Sunday Round was scheduled for The National but I elected not to participate as mentioned earlier. I hope we get to go back there. It looks outstanding. I am waiting on the review from a couple of guys that played it.

Here a quick review on the dining for the weekend:

• Stop in at Tobacco Road and get a BBQ sandwich 
• Friday night we went to The Bell Tree Tavern  - the service was good and the food was pretty good about what you would expect.  It's not five star but you don't go there for 5 star dining.

Based on my frequency of playing golf, I should store the clubs until around October.

Real Quickly:  I wanted to share two highlights from the US Open.  It is Shawn Stefani's Hole In One.  Take a look at it in case you missed it:

The other is Carl Pettersson's attempt to hit his ball in the fairway, when this happens:

I wanted to share both of these because both of the are improbable.

(From Huffington Post) Stefani's 1 was the first-ever ace in a U.S. Open played at Merion, per Doug Shedloskiof Golf World. According to USGA historian Mike Trostel, it was also the 43rd known ace in U.S. Open history, via Doug Ferguson of The Associated Press.

A typical golfer have odds of 1 in 12,500 to hit a hole in one (guess I haven't played 12,500 rounds yet), for a professional golfer the odds are 1 in 2,500.  I am putting the odds of Shawn Stefani's even greater because it was the US Open and how it happened because let's be honest, he didn't mean to hit it there.  The fact it hit so far from the hole (not even on the green and went in is unbelievable to me).  I bet he would struggle to chip in or make a putt from where his ball hit.  

I am asking our staff statistician and all around numbers guru - Jeremy to get to work on the odds of what happened to Carl Pettersson.  I have seen and witnessed balls hitting each other on the green, unusual yes, normal no and I even have seen balls from players playing the same hole hit each other in the fairway.  However, I have never seen a ball from another hole hit another ball AND I have never seen a player already starting his downswing at the ball and it be hit by another ball from a different fairway.    What boggles my mind on this is that there is so much fairway (Carl's fairway and the entire fairway the other guy missed) available for the ball to go and it directly hits another ball.  Now add in the odds that someone has actually started the process of hitting one of the balls. I guess since it happened, it can happen again.  I am unscientifically putting the odds at 1 in 2,000,000.  I'll let you know what Jeremy comes up with...stay tuned   

10,000 Reasons

Another song that has been in KC's heavy rotation is 10,000 Reason by Matt Redman.  It a song that finds it's scriptural basis in Psalm 103.  In an interview with Worship Leader, Matt gives a glimpse into the meaning of the song:

I’ve always loved Psalm 103 and how the writer lists all of these brilliant reasons why his heart is full of worship for God: he heals our diseases, redeems our lives from the pit, crowns us with love and compassion, etc. So in the verses of this song we try and make a little list of our own—noting of course that we’re hardly even scratching the surface of God’s worth—there are “10,000 Reasons” for our hearts to find. With anyone or anything else, that would be an outrageous overstatement. With Jesus, it is a huge understatement. The point behind the song is this: if you wake up one morning and you cannot think of a reason to bring God some kind of offering of thanks or praise, then you can be sure there’s something wrong at your end of the pipeline, and not his. We live beneath an unceasing flow of goodness, kindness, greatness, and holiness, and every day we’re given reason after reason why Jesus is so completely and utterly worthy of our highest and best devotion.

The song and Psalm reminder to me to open my eyes each day and see all the reasons that I have to be thankful and no matter what situation I am in that God should be glorified/worshiped in my words and actions.  My love for Him should be like His for me - unending.

The lyrics are as follows:

Bless the Lord, O my soul

O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before

O my soul

I worship Your holy name

The sun comes up; it's a new day dawning
It's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I worship Your holy name

You're rich in love and You're slow to anger
Your name is great and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing
10,000 reasons for my heart to find

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I worship Your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
10,000 years and then forever more

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before

O my soul

I worship Your holy name

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before

O my soul

I worship Your holy name

I worship Your holy name

I worship Your holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I worship Your holy name
I worship Your holy name
I worship Your holy name

How He Love Me

When I posted last September about the old hymn "Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing", my thought was that I would continue to do that but as you realize that didn't happen and a bunch of other posts didn't happen.

A song that has been in high rotation with KC recently is David Crowder Band's cover of - How He Loves. The first time I ever saw or even heard of David Crowder Band was with LA at a Third Day concert where they were opening up.  He walked out with his hair, beard and glasses and I honestly thought "what do we have here".  I left mildly interested in his music after the concert and over the years have come to really like DCB.

The DCB lyrics for "How He Loves" are the following:

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If his grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

As I mentioned earlier the song was actually written and performed by independent artist - John Mark McMillan.  DCB actually changed with permission the original lyric "sloppy wet kiss" to "unforeseen kiss" in the 2nd verse.  I didn't know much about the song but I found this video about the events that lead to John Mark McMillan to write the song:

How He Loves : A Song Story from john mark mcmillan on Vimeo.

From the video:  After hearing of his friends death in the automobile accident, the next day, McMillan wrote How He Loves as a tribute to Coffey and out of a need "to have some sort of conversation with God" where he could speak to his frustrations and emotions over his best friend's death.

According to McMillan, the love that he's singing about in How He Loves is not a pretty, "Hollywood hot-pink" love. It is a kind of love that is willing to love even when things are difficult and messy. He says, "This song isn't a celebration of weakness and anger. It's a celebration of a God who would want to hang with us through those things, who would want to be a part of our lives through those things, and, despite who we are, He would want to be a part of us, our community, and our family."

David Crowder Band's version

DC was interviewed by Kevin Davis about the song (entire interview here...The beauty about this song is that it comes from such a desperate place that it should almost be isolated, but somehow, this song seems like a guttural response...that in your painful moments you can still see the great love of God. For me, that is one of the most beautiful aspects of Christianity.

Don't Call It A Comback

Much like LL Cool J's famous opening lines to "Momma Said Knock You Out", Don't Call It A Comeback / I Been Here For Years, this isn't a comeback, I've been doing this for 5 years.  Everybody needs a break...I don't get paid for this and I am not a super blogger like my buddy, Greg over at I'm Just Sayin. He hasn't missed a daily post in a very long time.  I have submitted his name for inclusion in the Blogging Hall of Fame under the category of Blogging's Cal Ripken, Jr.  I could blame having a third child on my lack of blogging but he has 3 kids.  My only saving grace is that he works for the state and I work for private enterprise.  He should start a time management series because I know how much time it takes to blog and that's most of the reasons I haven't been is because I haven't made/found the time.

I forgot more good stuff to blog about that will ever make it in this post.  I think I might try for the record of longest blog post but wouldn't a long blog post just be a short story?  Maybe by the end of this I will be an short story author looking for a publisher.  The only place to start is what I can remember first and go from there.  This will be random out of sequential order so hold on for the ride.

• It was pointed out to be that for the past 13 months that my heading has been incorrect and that Ansleigh didn't have an animal to take care of.  The curse of number 3.  I have corrected the heading and she is now evidently officially part of my family.  It seemed pretty real the past 13 months for LA and I.  As far as the animals, who ends up  feeding and taking care of these animals?  Me but I  understand she needed one so she has gotten a frog (the availability of animals for blogs is short supply these days - appears to be over hunting by super bloggers).  Welcome to the family Ansleigh..

• I do feel like I need to finish up my last post from September of 2012 regarding Clemson after losing on the road at Florida State before moving forward.  Clemson did something they weren't able to accomplish in previous years - beat the teams they were supposed to beat at home and on the road.  They accomplished the task and entered the last game of the year against the SC Gamecocks and lost a 4th in a row them.  Disappointing to say the least but not the last time we will ever play them and it wasn't the final piece that started the end of the world.  Series like these between rivals have ebbs and flows right now they are holding us under the water but still letting us surface for air (occasionally)...eventually, somehow we will get the upper hand back and the world will again be right...hopefully before a five peat happens or it might really be the beginning of the end of times.

• Here's a little preview for 2013 Clemson football - The season opens with the renewal of a rivalry with UGA.  UGA is probably the only team that doesn't just have it's rival game in week 12 (and let's be honest in most years the engineers from GT aren't much of a challenge).  They have at least 5 and some (mainly their opponents) would say 7 rivalry games (Clemson, SC, TN, LSU, FL, Auburn, GaTech).  They have 6 every year. I guess that is what can happen when you are land locked and everyone hates you.  It's not going to be a cupcake in 2013 with Ellington and Hopkins gone but if we get on a role early (which means surviving UGA and NC State) and having FSU at home, it could be a special season heading into the 12th week against our rival - SC on the road.  Lot of hope in the last sentence because it's June and not August 31 at 8:00pm.  By the way it's only 85 days until Clemson takes the field.  Here's a video from Clemson Athletics to get you ready: 

• There are bathroom rules for guys and they apply for all guys even if they are related.  For over a month, I have tried understand what I witnessed but I can't.  I am baffled.  While at Arby's on Main Street in Summerville, I needed to wash off Ansleigh's pacifier and walked to the Men's bathroom.  Upon opening the unlocked door, I took one step in expecting to see it empty (the obvious clue was the door being unlocked) and see 3 grown men (no kids) in an open bathroom - a square with a sink, urinal and toilet.  I immediately backed up and shut the door and thought to myself "Awkward!  Why are 3 men in essentially a single person bathroom?"  There was plenty of room for 3  but there are no dividers/walls -  everything is in the open.  It is a clear violation of bathrooms with multiple toliets but no dividers, only one should enter and lock the door.  For example, if there was only a sink and toilet, you don't invite others in while you are washing your hands or leave the door unlocked.  I can not think of an exception to a bathroom with a lockable door and no dividers.  The only close exception I can find to this rule is large stadiums that have troughs but even then an entire different set of rules apply.  Come on guys, learn the rules.  Here's a beginners test - click here.  I am looking for the advanced test required by the above example.

• A big shout out to faithful reader and followers, Danny and Jennifer who are expecting twins.  Our Life is super excited for them and anxiously awaiting the news of boys, girls or a combination.  I've got all my money on two girls.  An yet another couple with the potential to beat our record to 3 children.  

• Speaking about kids and parents - There will be an entire post forthcoming about baby stuff for expecting parents and new parents with Our Life product recommendations.  We might not be perfect but we have almost 5 years of being in the trenches.

• If you want to see your kids teachers panic, walk into your kids room and ask to pick them up and they look around and realize they aren't there.  You can let them off the hook when you realize what day it is and that the other parent has already picked them up.  

• We took the kids (w/out Ansleigh, crazy yes, stupid no...I would have had to hire a Sherpa to carry one of the kids...humans have limitations and carrying one kid at Disney is difficult enough and 2 would be impossible for an average man like me) to Disney World/Animal Kingdom in February for 3 days (we should have planned for at least 2 more days).  We stayed at Art of Animation in the Cars building.   Wyatt and Aubrey loved the room and we  had a suite that had plenty of room for all of us.  We saw ALL the princesses, had two character breakfasts - The Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and Chef Mickey.  For food selection the winner is The Crystal Palace not even close.  For characters the winner is Chef Mickey by a nose.  We had a princess character dinner at the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.  We rode all the rides the kids were big enough to ride thought we accomplished as much as we could have including pushing our kids well past there bedtimes and waking them up early - stayed for Magic Hours until 11pm and had them up at 6:30 to make a character breakfast.  We all survived and are looking forward to our next trip in a couple of years before Ansleigh turns 3 (she's free until then).  A couple of observations:
• If you are standing in line to have a picture taken with the princesses and you are over the age of 18 (actually the age is 15), you might want to pinch yourself or your family needs to have an intervention.  These are not real princesses, they don't live in a castle and a prince didn't rescue them.  This whole place is a KIDS fantasy world.  All these princesses drive to work in a car (not a chariot or on a horse) with similar clothes to yours and they change clothes and dress up as princesses to make KIDS dreams come true.  When their eight hours are over they change and go to a home just like you to a house.    
• We rode Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster multiple times with our hands waving in the air (like we just don't care - couldn't resist).
• The kids favorite ride by far (although multiple rides were similar) was Aladdin's Magic Carpets.  We shut the park down one night on that ride and closed the night out the next night on that ride.  
• My personal favorite was the Buzz Lightyear Ride.  
• I am not going to reinvent the wheel - Here are 12 lessons for Disney by Clay Travis - He is right on track here.
• He also ranked the princesses so I didn't have to and get in trouble with my wife (who will always be my Queen).  I don't know if I am in total agreement but it's a pretty good job.
• I am sure we could have saved $$$ by staying off property, brought food, and hundreds of other ways but it was nice being on the property and having a card to swipe for all our meals and snacks that was prepaid.  We felt like we were cheating the system as we ate dinner and got snacks and drinks, swiped the card and it said amount due $0.  It wasn't but it still felt good and I didn't have a huge credit card bill to face 30 days after the trip.  The bus transportation worked out great and we seldom had to wait more than 5-10 minutes for our bus.
• My suggestion for those planning a Disney trip - go in the Jan/Feb or Oct/Early Nov and avoid any holidays during those months.  Plan on 5 days, you need it.  I would recommend a Saturday, Sunday or Monday arrival this will help avoid peak crowds on the weekends.  Even what Disney call a light day can be a busy day by my standards (yes, I have standards (shocking, I know) and lines over 30 minutes for kids under 7 is unbearable).

• How do I explain this?  Remember in movie Dumb and Dumber when Harry and Lloyd pickup the "stranded" motorist and ask him if he wants to hear the  most annoying sound in the world - Here's the video:


• Compare Lloyd's to Ansleigh's most annoying sound in the world: 

• Sounds similar...how long could just you and her be in a car (or house) with her making that noise before you drop her off at the grandparents or friends  (see below for which friend) house?  

• At what age does pool water temperature become a factor in deciding to swim or watch from the edge?  Evidently it is sometime after 4.  Aubrey could swim in ice cubes and not complain and Wyatt didn't like it last year but flipped a switch this year and it doesn't bother him.  And a further puzzling question is what's the difference in the temp of bath water and swimming water?  You get the bath water a degree one way or the other and all you hear are chattering teeth saying "It's too cold" or screams of "too hot, too hot". 

• For Halloween, the kids dressed up as the 3 little pigs.  They were super cute and got lots of candy.

• Aubrey, Wyatt and Ansleigh got a playset for Christmas and they are enjoying in along with their friends.

• So Aubrey and Wyatt have stock that I didn't know they purchased (or even knew that they knew what stock was).  They evidently own Johnson and Johnson because of the number of Band-Aid's we go through.  I am pretty sure they would cover their entire body in them if we let them.  I instituted a new rule recently.  They can not come running to me or LA about any boo boo, scratch, cut...etc and ask for a Band-Aid UNLESS there is blood (red stuff) running from the boo boo, scratch, cut...etc.  If you own J&J I would sell.  I would suggest then buying Proctor and Gamble because there is no way to describe the amount of paper towels and toilet paper we use.  

• How good of friends do you have?  It really pretty easy to find out once you have kids.
• Will they take your child to the restroom?
• No - your just acquaintances
• Do they qualify 1 or 2 with each child before taking them?
• Yes  - Do you really want a friend that doesn't unconditionally love your children? - just let them be acquaintances
• If child says number 1 but while in the restroom, says "gotta go number 2, also"?
• They run out the bathroom to get you - a sleepover at their house probably isn't a good idea
• Takes care of the situation - Friend for life, they will do anything for you.  Don't screw it up with them.
• Aubrey recently looked up at a friend of ours while on the potty after going number 1 and sneaking a number 2 in on them, unrolled and folded some toilet paper and said "I went number 2, your going to have to wipe me, I can't do that."  They took care of the situation and actually laughed about it when telling me.

• Ansleigh has been and continues to be one of our most active kids.  She has potential to be busier than Aubrey (not sure she is Ellis Cate busy, but she might be up for the challenge).  A friend was recently over and asked if she needed to watch Ansleigh or could she play on her own.  We assured her she would be fine playing by herself and with Wyatt and Aubrey, I'll check on her every so often.  After a few minutes or so we started looking for Ansleigh and she wasn't anywhere downstairs.  We assured our guests not to panic, this happens all the time she is only 13 months, its not like she can drive a car.  She had sneaked upstairs and was playing.  Maybe, you might want to keep an eye on her for us.
• The first time Ansleigh ever climbed up the stairs, she was downstairs (of course) Parent A was downstairs with her and Parent B was upstairs reading a story and putting the kids to bed.  In the middle of the story Parent B, hears a noise and dismisses it.  Parent B hears another noise and looks at the end of the bed and Ansleigh is staring at them with a big smile.  Parent B inquires Parent A where Ansleigh is.  Parent A assures Parent B that she is downstairs with them. Parent B asks Parent A if they can see Ansleigh.  Parent A replies "No".  Parent B say "that's because she is staring at me upstairs".  In about 3 minutes she had eluded Parent A and made it upstairs without a fear in this world.     

• So since I last posted, I turned another year older (wiser)...definitely just older.  I am another year closer to AARP membership and being the envy of all my younger friends...joke now but don't expect to tag along in my savings (you need vitamins at a discount (especially you, Danny)).  Here's a couple of things:
• 50 isn't in the neighborhood, it's right around the corner
• I just found out the other day that my best days are not ahead of me....well at least for another 14 years.  Evidently from 50 -60 is just 10 years of survival.  If you make it out of those years healthy then you can look forward to the best days of your life.  I guess 50 is the end of  your bodies warranty and if you survive to 60 you get your bonus years.

• If they want to solve the male pattern baldness problem, then start investigating why at older men (including myself) can grow hair in new places as thick as a new lawn.  It can be that hard to figure out why those place lie dormant for 40+ years and they start growing like wildfire and then apply the findings to a man's head.  I've got some friends that would love to have their hair back.

• So as a parent you often find yourself in a situation with your kids that puts you in a bind.  At their current age they should not be saying or doing certain things and your correct them but it is while your are trying not to bust out laughing or telling yourself they really are correct - should I celebrate it with them or correct them..when in doubt correct them.  
• Aubrey did a number 2 and looked up at me and said "Look at that turd".  How do you respond to that?  She is 100% correct and while keeping as straight as face as possible, I correct her and told her we don't say that word (and under my breath continued "at your age").  I will go on the record and tell you that I am sure she has heard and then repeated many things from LA and I that are not appropriate for her age but that is not one of them.   

• We have had a few things happen in the last few months health wise with the kids that I will get you up to speed on:    
• It all started after BASH one evening while Aubrey was picking up the Rogers and Horres kids.  While taking a bath (thank goodness it was a bath night), LA and I noticed something different about Aubrey.  Our parent and later Grandmother diagnosis was that she had a hernia.  We had the diagnosis confirmed by her primary doctor and later with a pediatric surgeon.  After contacting our insurance and giving the names of the responsible parties to them (Horres, Rogers and Bethany UMC), we went ahead and scheduled the surgery.  Actually, they were not at fault and probably assisted in finding something that needed to be corrected - thanks Horres, and Rogers.  Aubrey was born with an inguinal hernia.  She had to have surgery to repair it and it was done as an outpatient at the best lowcountry hospital for kids - MUSC.  The entire pre/post op staff,surgical team were awesome and treated Aubrey like a princess and made the whole process easy.  She was a rockstar and had no fear (probably because of our super parenting preparing her for the procedure).  LA and I were hoping she would be down a few days but it ended up only being about 1/2 a day before she was back to normal.  I am pretty sure that same surgery on me would have knocked me out for a week and I would have still been complaining months later.  Aubrey has strict instructions not to pick up the Horres or Rogers kids anymore.



Before - This isn't so bad - playing with Barbies and watching  TV in bed.






After - What did you do to me?

• Ansleigh loves cords and has been constantly pulling them and playing with them every second she can before we stop her.  She learned a hard lesson at day care when she pulled the cord of the bottle warmer and it along with the warm water fell on her head.  She had some minor burns and we had her treated at MUSC - once again excellent care.  She has recovered nicely and there was no permanent damage from the burns.  (We don't own a daycare center either, sorry Danny and Jenn.)
• Ansleigh is now rocking the cutest pair of pink glasses made.  She has Strabismus which sounds terrible but is the medical term for "crossed eyes".  It turns out that she is more farsighted than most kids her age and she is crossing her eyes attempting to focus on objects.  Hopefully the glasses will correct this problem and by age 8-12 maybe grow out of it.  The transition to the glasses was as easy as the doctors told us.  We were expecting her to be constantly taking them off but she has done great.

• My nephew, Carter got married to his best friend Katie Parks in November in Savannah, GA and Wyatt and Aubrey were the flower girl and ring bearer for the wedding.  They did awesome.  Carter and KP are now living outside the ATL and we are super excited for them and all that life has in store for them.  Aubrey and Wyatt had a blast at the reception.  Especially dancing machine, Aubrey.  The aftermath looked something like this before we left the parking lot of the reception. 

• As I mentioned earlier, we have kicked off the spring/summer swimming season and Aubrey is doing great swimming without her puddle jumper and jumping off the diving board and doing cannonballs (with her puddle jumper).  Wyatt was slower to adapt but is now back jumping off the diving board like last year.  He is self teaching himself water safety and has learned that he sinks like a rock without his puddle jumper on (ok not like a rock, but on his tippy toes he can barely keep his mouth and nose above the water - think Chinese water torture.  
• Parenting Lesson - When you turn around and see your child without his puddle jumper on but holding onto a noodle and staying above the water don't shout his name in a way that he knows he is in trouble.  Evidently that is the trigger to let go of the noodle and start the Chinese water torture.
• Parenting Lesson 2 - When attempting to be dad of the year and throw your daughter higher and farther than ever before remember physics class - what goes up must come down.  Aubrey currently has the best belly flop for 2013.  I will keep you posted if anyone beats her (pretty sure it won't happen).  After she leaves your hands, as my friend Tim says "there are somethings that have been set in motion, that you can stop" - it's a bad feeling, happens in slow motion and there nothing you can do but be there to pick them up and remember that was a bad idea for the next time.

• Ansleigh completed the trifecta this year by being baby Jesus in lastyears Living Christmas Story at church.  Looks like it will someone else's job to be pregnant Mary and Joseph and Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus.  The good thing this year was LA lasted the entire shift and we didn't have to get a stand-in Mary or plastic baby Jesus.  

• Wyatt had a train themed birthday party this year for his 3rd birthday.  He had lots of family and friends over and got a bike and helmet along with a bunch of other great gifts.  He loved his helmet but a friend of LA's passed down a baseball helmet and that has now become his "bicycle helmet".  

I am 3!

Not his new bike - but his "new" bicycle helmet

• Speaking of birthday's, Ansleigh had her 1st birthday with lots of family and she was a mess pot most of the day and didn't want anything to do with her cake at her party.  However, she did pretty good on her actual birthday with a cupcake - Wyatt got the assist on blowing on the candle (he made sure Aubrey didn't get to help - the little stinker).

• Here's a picture of 1, 2, and 3 playing in the kitchen making dinner.

• Here's number 3 helping mommy in the kitchen or waiting for the crumbs to fall:

• Ansleigh took her first steps on her birthday at day care and followed up at home with a few wobbly steps  at home (who needs to walk when you can crawl as fast as she can?)  She has also mastered the difficult one leg walk, knee drag).  She isn't too interested (translation - lazy) in walking (why should she - mom and dad carry me or I crawl everywhere I need to go).  

• My friend Greg at I'm Just Sayin' just completed in May the 421 top books that he has read and he ranked the 66 books of the Bible.  He also included a top 5 list from select readers.  I am impressed with his list because I could barely come up with 5 and most of them were from high school or college.  If he had done a list of books I started and fell asleep, I would have not had any problems.  I now have a list of books to read.  Now I just have to get started without falling asleep.

• LATE BREAKING NEWS:  In case you missed Sportscenter, on Tuesday evening at the Gahagan Sports Complex in Summerville, SC something almost unbelievable happened - I hit two home runs and made all three outs in the inning.  Let me set the stage for you.  In the first inning, I hit an in-the-park home run which being 46 is a story in itself but not unbelievable (it has happened in the past and had already happened earlier in the season).  In the second inning, I came to the plate with a man on first, no outs.  The pitcher was throwing his best stuff (as evidenced by me batting again in the 2nd inning) and I waited on my pitch (the second pitch, which is shocking because I typically don't take a lot of pitches.  I have never seen a softball pitcher throw a ball that I could not hit..ha!ha!).  I hit a long fly ball to left center and it kept going and going, the PA announcer was saying back, back, back, it's out of here, home run, a two run shot for #17.  As I approached first base, my teammates were laughing and the umpire said end of inning.  You see in the league rules they have a rule on the number of home runs allowed in each game and we reached the limit of 2 in the first inning.  I knew we had reached our limit but let's be honest, shocking I know but I don't exactly have home run power.  I have toothpicks for arms.  As a matter of fact, I don't even remember ever hitting the fence in my baseball or softball career.  My only weapon was speed.  It took 46 years for me to hit my first and probably my last home run and it didn't even count.  I take that back it counted for 3 outs.  I am probably the only person with 1 career home run that didn't put runs on the board.  I have been called to the league office for performance enhancing drug testing.  I personally would check the ball or the bat.  ESPN sports science called this morning to do a story on how someone my size could possibly hit a home run and I actually declined because you see I told my wife about my awesome/epic evening when I got home and she laughed about the events and then said "You probably hit it out because of the extra weight you are carrying" - end of story.

• As you can see by the countdown clock at top of this blog, The 3rd annual Hootie and The Blowfish/Babypalooza end of summer concert is confirmed and preparations are already underway.  The only real question is who is having babies as a result of this event?  We are plus 2  already (Danny and Jenn) and we are over 80 days out.  One minute your singing "Only want to be with you" and 9 months later your having babies.  HBF are the single largest reason for the lowcountry population explosion - check the facts.

• So the constant question we are asked is "What's life with 3 like?"  The better question is "What is life without 3 like?" (it is so quite, LA and I almost don't remember how to act - for example, getting ready to go somewhere is 2 hours of work with all 5 of us, just LA and I 45 minutes).  We sure don't have it down pat but life with 3 hasn't been a horror story.  I would say number 3 learns to cry a little bit longer but gets spoiled more than 1 or 2.  You loose a little fight with each child on the what seemed like major battles with the other kids.  You surrender the little battles to get quite time, sleep...etc.  Things that didn't seem like a big deal with 1 and 2.  

• LA and I have decided to pull the plug on number 4 and are going to leave that up to the Horres, Wright's or Woods.  It was a tough decision but we have been blessed so much with 3 healthy kids and I am not the youngest blogger out there.  If I could walk up and pick up number 4 at 2 years old, I might would consider it.  I know there are ways that can happen but right now we are going to focus on loving and teaching the 3 we have.  It seems like a full time job plus overtime.  If God leads us in a new direction later, we will follow.     

Countdown

COUNTDOWN TIMER WIDGET

8:00 AM, Thursday, June 6, 2013 Set your alarms and get ready...

WEEKEND REVIEW AND OTHER THOUGHTS

FRIDAY NIGHT / FAMILY NIGHT
We watched The Prince and The Frog with the kids on Friday night.  It was  a little scarier than I expected for the kids but they didn't have any ill effects from it.  It was fun to all be together on the sofa.  LA ended up the Aubrey and Wyatt and I had Ansleigh.  Wyatt didn't quite make it to the end.  If you ask Aubrey about it she will tell you about the frogs, the alligators trying to get the frogs, the men trying to get the frogs and the scary people in the house.

SATURDAY
We played a fishing game, Disney Princess card games and Candyland as I prepared for a College Football Saturday.  (Just and FYI 15 year from now when Aubrey and Wyatt are reading this blog - you did not beat me and Ansleigh at Disney Princess Dominoes or Candyland.  I was nice let you win.)

CLEMSON vs FSU

• Not much to say here...Saw this one coming after less than steller defensive weeks against AU, BS, FU...We had a chance...FSU is good and will get better, the year is still early not sure they are national championship good but they are back.  The defense is good but we put 37 on them in their house and walked out a loser that should never happen.
• We have resumed our making opposing players look like Heisman candidates
• Saturday we highlighted - EJ Manual
• Stats of the game 
• FSU - 667 yard of total offense
• FSU - EJ Manual - 380 yards passing / 102 yards rushing
• Defense is as bad/worse as last year (ranking out of 125 FBS eligible teams)
• 95 in nation total defense (85 last year)
• Giving up 443 yards per game
• 103 in nation rush defense - 207 per game
• 111 in nation yards per rush
• I was disappointed in Manual for sliding at the end of the game and for FSU for taking their foot off our throat and kneeling at the end.  They needed to go Spurier on us - our job is to stop us regardless of the time left or score.
• We have the offensive weapons to play anybody, we have defense to stop a pee wee football team
• In other news, The Chad has taken over the defensive coordinator position.

I used to have a handheld led football game as a kid.  This was when Madden was coaching the Raiders, long before Madden 2013.  It was something I would play long into the night and it was became not if you could score but how fast and how many points you could score.  As with most early video games there was a pattern and once you figured out the pattern scoring wasn't a problem.  It was just how long it was going to take.  Saturday night felt the same way and it was eerily similar to the WVU debacle in The Orange Bowl in January.  Here's my issues - tackling is horrible.  I am too the point of asking them to stop trying to tackle anyone individually, just grab  a leg, jump on the back and slow them down so someone else can help - this also assumes you can get close enough to jump on...at times this is a problem.  The quarterback run can't stop it.  Regardless of the type of coverage zone/m2m, if you don't know where the ball is your beat - turn your head around.  Keeping the play in front of you is fine except when it's 3rd down and they are constantly catching the ball at the 1st down marker or beyond in front of you.  You must be close enough to tackle them and even better make a play on the ball.  I am beginning to think open tryouts, might fine some hidden talent walking the hallways.  Can't be any worse...and don't tell me they are young.  I know they are but tackling isn't something they just learned.

Going forward we should be favored in all our games except against the boys from Columbia.  We have a lot of work between now and November 24th.  This is the hard part of our schedule - beating the teams we are supposed to beat. 

TICKETGATE

I have seen the dash cam video and read the reports of Dabo's speeding ticket.  My observation of the video is the following:

• The officer would give his mother a ticket but he had a little bit of a heart and  reduced the charges on the ticket - speeding ticket instead of reckless driving
• The officer is a gamecock fan pissed off at the world because he works in Clemson County aka Pickens County.
• Dabo deserved the ticket.  He isn't above the law.  He only a football coach.  
• Dabo got out of the car and approached the car to file a missing person's report on the 11 players on defense.
• Dabo has paid the ticket and written a letter apologizing.
• Why was Dabo driving?
• Dabo makes avg 1.95M over 6 years.
• He makes enough to hire an entourage to drive him anywhere he wants to go.  
• He could hire 39 of me or 1 Greg H
• If someone in the entourage is driving, it's a non issue...just make them disappear (I think they call it terminate, extinguish). 
• His brother in law was in the car - let him drive and this is a non issue; pay the ticket for him and his insurance increase or just say screw it, it's your brother in law.
• The officer lost his job for posting the incident report on a sports website.  I hate that for him but nothing good has ever come of an officer giving a ticket to a football coach or politician and then making a big deal about it.  I am sure it started with a phone call to a friend - guess who I just gave a ticket.