Man, it's been a while since I blogged......
It's crazy around here~~especially for Grace. She is trying to finish her Summer Reading for her AP courses and is currently at running camp. It's the cross country team at a lake house. They run about 3 times a day. If you get a chance say a prayer for her and Makenzie  because I 'm sure she and Makenzie are getting tired. They are the only two freshmen there. Then when they get back they have volleyball camp and 2 a days.....while cross country is still going on. It's going to be crazy! I am truly thankful she has a friend like Makienzie to go through it with. Both are Christian girls and lift each other up.

JoGail and I hvae been going ot VBS at night this week. She hurt my feelings when she came home and said that her favorite parts or the mission stories and Bible stories. Then I realized she has her priorities straight.....mine were a little querky! She has such a love for learning about the Bible. She is looking forward to Church camp next week. She loves going to Fish camp. She is helping me with some of the baking for snacks tomorrow-we're baking cookies to turn into pennant cookies.

Coy is busy finalizing the budget, personnel~~ everything he has to for the upcoming school year. I get spoiled in the summer being able to go visit him and give him little breaks. We took the girls to see Harry Potter and Winnie the Pooh last weekend. They were both good movies. It was so fun listening to the girls giggle in Winnie the pooh. Of course Grace came home and dug out the book to reread Winnie the Pooh.

I got 'the letter' (actually it was acute poem this year) announcing my return to school date. I' mready to see everyone but not have the stress! Lots of loose ends to tie up from last spring, so we will hit hte ground running, so to speak!

The girls and I were able to go visit some kinfolk in Louisiana. We saw TAC, Joey, MawMaw, Toot, Dino, Baby Joy, Mr. Miller. We took TAC and Joey out to eat at he Mongolian Grill. That wsa interesting (first time we had been to one). Then we cruised the mall for awhile....Got to play and hold Baby Joy....such is a sweet baby. Of course we s[pent time with MawMaw and Toot. Maw Maw is doing pretty well. The thing that amazed me this trip was her attitude. Doesn't bother her that someone has to tell her to pretty much do everything. She just does it. Equally amazing is how much Toot and Dino do for her. Our family is VERY BLESSED to have Toot and Dino be willing and able to take on such a rsponsibility. Thank you!

This is JoGail, MawMaw and Grace......

Vacation 2011

We're home!!!!! We had a great vacation but of course are glad to be back! We started off headed to Ft Walton Beach when Coy got in from his conference in Austin. We made it to Jackson, MS the first night! We chose to eat at Sonny's BBQ (chose it form an app). The service was quick. JoGail made her salad and didn't even get to take a bite before her meal was served! It was really good and had a great smoky flavor. All four of us sleeping in one room was an adjustment. Those who don't snore talk in their sleep or flop around all night. The next day we ventured up to Tuscaloosa to see the tornado damage. It was unbelievable! Like on house is perfect but he next one may have a car through it. It was a good reminder to be thankful. We travelled some back roads to Florida, stopping at Fat Girls BBQ for lunch. We just saw this one on the side of the road and stopped. Coy and I knew it would be good when we saw the cook. And let me tell ya she can cook! I had the best fried squash and field peas I have had in a long time! Coy said the BBQ was also awesome. We also saw a Piggly Wiggly!This was one of our favorite places to eat on the trip. We made it to Ft Walton that afternoon and we wandered around the beach. We had had supper at hte Old Steam Bay Restaurant. Most fo the food was steamed. Grace tried the steamed oysters, but said she would rather stick with the raw ones (YUCK).JoGail ordered a child's plate of something and ate all the leftovers off everyone else's plates! I had grilled fresh pineapple and shrimp and it was good. The next day we hit the beach. all. day. long. There wasn't hardly anyone there, so it was very peaceful. I think this is the day my family realized that I truly meant to sleep and read on vacation this year! We picked Pandora's steak house for supper that night from the app. We were not disappointed again. I knew the steaks were good because both Coy and Grace didn't even put A1 sauce on their steaks. We tried Fried Blue Crab Claws and were hooked. Those things are awesome! Our waiter said they were so good because they were fresh and have never been frozen. Regardless of why, there were awesome and fun to eat. We also tried some FRESH key lime pie, too..Grace was so surprised she liked it!  Some where in here we visited the Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin AFB. That was interesting. Coy loved that. The next morning we found algae (we think) all over the beach. It was the texture of wet tissue paper and very green. We didn't get in the gulf much that day. It was everywhere. We played goofy golf that afternoon, visited an Army/Navy store and washed clothes that afternoon. We ate at a local cafe, the Seaside cafe that evening and enjoyed that. We followed it with baskin and robbins which the girls had never tried. The next day was beach day again. Somehow the algae was ALL gone. Coy and the girls (I was sleeping) saw lots of dolphins playing just watching from the beach. The beach was so clean. White sands and emerald green water. By now more people were getting there, but we still managed to boogie board and stay in the water most of the day! JoGail announced that when she grows up she wants to live in Ft Walton Beach and be a lifeguard...even though we didn't see any lifeguards there.....The next day we left and ventured to Baton Rouge, via New Orleans. Grace had travelled there once this summer already with the youth group. No one else can remember going there. Well, let me tell ya. New Orleans is just one LONG bridge after another. You just never really get off the bridges! By the way, this is where Grace has wanted to live when she grows up for a long time, so we will see. If we can just get her to quit calling beignets 'bayonnets' we will be ok! We stopped in Gonzales at an outlet mall and got some great deals on some back to school clothes fro the girls. They are getting sooo close to the same size. It's amazing because their body types are so different at this point! We got the see Death Valley and where Braden will pitch. (Braden's a Eustace kid who signed with LSU as a pitcher.) It was kind of neat. Then this morning we got on up and came on in. We picked Crawdaddy's kitchen to stop at for lunch from the app again. And again we were not disappointed. Awesome cajun food. The girls tried fried alligator tails and absolutely loved them. The stuffed shrimp wasn't bad either!!!  Again JoGail ate a little of everything off everyone else's plate! IT was a good trip, full of good memories and lots of laughter and that's what counts! (Oh and the fact that we didn't get a phone saying someone had done doughnuts on the turf football field made it a great, too!)


~Laurie