Pipe 1 - Car 0

I had to share this because it was too funny! Working at ACIPCO we've seen some crazy stuff and heard about some crazy stuff, but WOW!! Make sure you notice the indentation of the pipe into the hood of the car.

This is the email we received from a customer in Texas (including pics):

Subject: Pipe 1 - Car 0

Looks like American Ductile makes some solid pipe after all… This girl was typing a text message on her phone when she met some 30” DI pipe off the ROW on Custer Road in McKinney. The pipe didn’t even have a single bit of chipped black paint on it or any evidence of a knick. (the girl and her boyfriend were not hurt in the accident, just wounded prides…).

LAISSEZ LE BON TEMPS ROULER!

That's right!! Laissez le bon temps rouler is French for, "LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!" And this weekend is going to be the epitome of this classic New Orleans saying. In case you've missed it, this weekend is the 2009 Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil! Thanks to Craneworks for giving us weekend tickets, because I will finally, finally, finally get to see 311. Not to mention Saving Abel & Shinedown. I'm very excited.

Josh has drill this Friday, Saturday & Sunday. So I suppose Saturday will be spent working & playing outside with Brady. I know there's something I'm supposed to be doing this weekend, but I can't for the life of me remember what that thing is! Oh, I did promise to share pictures of the gravel & Josh's new storage building...so here ya go:

BIG NEWS!! We're officially taking a family vacation to Gulf Shores this June! We leave in 4 weeks & 5 days. I can't wait!!! We'll be celebrating Josh's birthday at the beach...and it's a good thing because this may actually BE his birthday present this year!!

Apr. 30th 2009-
The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. and if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-Ronald Reagan

Sittin' around the campfire

Yes, we did it...we went camping. And I'm happy to say that I actually had a VERY good time! We went to Lake Guntersville and it was beautiful. I only stayed one night because like I've said earlier, I need a/c and a fluffy bed. But ANYWAY... Thursday, we packed up and drove out there. After we set up camp the kids just played and rode on their bikes and we all went to the edge of the lake. We grilled burgers and roasted marshmellows (a camping staple). Then we eventually laid down, and wow, neither Josh or myself got any sleep. I was almost prepared to stay the 2nd night since I was enjoying myself so much, but after trying to sleep on the ground in the cold I realized it just wasn't for me. Then Friday morning we took the kids to the beach and let them play in the water and fly their kites. We walked several trails and ate lunch. After all this it was time for Braden & myself to go home. I was utterly exhausted and of course Braden slept the whole way home, so to keep myself awake & alert I had to SCREAM SING most of the way home. I know, it's lame, but it works!

Saturday, I met with my Sassy Scrappers at Gardendale Church of God and scrapbooked for a few hours. I have recently bought scrapbooking photo frames so I tried to do two pages - one for Braden & one for Kendall. I'll take a pic of some of my more recent pages that I've finished so I can share them with everyone. I have to say, I love scrapbooking. I feel like one day it will be a legacy of sorts that I can pass down. Braden can show my grandchildren, and my grandchildren can show my great grandchildren, until the pages are worn and frayed and I'm no longer apart of this earth. Sharing Braden's childhood with them through my eyes is something I won't necessarily always remember or even be here to do myself. This is the least that I could do. AND IT'S JUST FUN, for me anyway. I wish I had something similiar from my great & great-great grandparents. It'd be awesome to read and see things that they experienced while they watched their babies grow up. Of course, not having affordable photography, spending 18 hrs a day plowing fields, and very little education didn't leave much of an opportunity to keep scrapbooks or journals. Anyway!! I'm rambling, so here's some pictures!

Apr. 20th 2009-
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States when men were free.
-Ronald Reagan

A Bunny came to visit

Well, it's Easter Sunday. The day that we should celebrate the ultimate sacrifice that Christ paid for us, and sometimes we get wrapped up in the Easter bunny, pretty dresses, making it to church and family functions. Hopefully we all found sometime to be thankful and reflect today, because THANK GOD that Christ died on that cross and He paid the price for us. hmmmm, it makes me feel peaceful just thinking about it.

About our Easter Sunday. The kids got a bunch of candy & bubbles, kites, toys, etc. I'll just show you pics because I don't even want to have to try and remember it all. Braden ate enough chocolate today to be in a chocolate coma, luckily that wasn't the case though. We did NOT go to church today. I know that sounds bad, but you know how there are those Christians that only go to church on Easter...I'm the opposite. I WANT to go, but I just can't handle the huge, huge crowds. Especially at our church! First Baptist Gardendale has a gazillion people on any given Sunday, but on Easter I think the entire population of central Alabama descends on this church. Anyway, so we went to my Aunt Patsy's house in Springville. My aunt's Patsy, Rita & Kim are sort of the Three Musketeers of aunts. They are always together. I love them dearly, and they are so much fun to be around. We ate and let the kids search for Easter eggs. It was Braden, Kendall, Brooklyn & Autumn. Brooklyn cracks me up, because she is such a Swafford girl. A few of the plastic eggs had a little bit of money in them and she was going around shaking eggs and if they had money she'd grab them, otherwise they got thrown back down. HAHA! Brady didn't care, he was more excited about the candy in some of the others. Lets hope that lasts. Kendall got the big prize. She found $5 in one of her eggs! They never did this stuff when we were kids!!



Autumn - my cousin's little girl


Brooklynn - my littlest cousin (aka; the princess)


Well, next week is Ken's spring break so Josh and I will be taking off work Thursday & Friday. Our plans are to go camping. Lord help us. I'm just enough of a city girl that I like a fluffy mattress and central heat & air (see one of my original posts; on Thanksgiving I was thankful for said items). Yeah, well, Josh wanted to camp two nights. I don't see that happening. There will be more to come on this I'm sure. In the meantime, pray for rain on Friday night so that I don't get talked into a 2nd night!!

Pictures I Promised

I didn't have the rockstar pic on the computer here at home any more, but I didn't want to disappoint. I love this silly pic of Brady when he was almost 6 months old. Makes me ALMOST get baby fever. It doesn't help that Josh and I randomly throw out baby names at each other. Funny thing, we always agree quickly on boy names, but girl names we end up with an "ok" list a mile long. Man, oh man, some of his girl names are terrible. ::heehee::


Kendall's pageant dress. She's so grown up looking! I know it's hard to believe, but she's 5 ft & 100 lbs. She's the size of a 14 or 15 year old!! It's crazy, I know. Of course, knowing that she's turning 11 this year should make Josh feel old. If it doesn't, then I'll remind him until he does. Haha!Apr. 12th 2009-
Are you willing to say to God that He can have whatever He wants? Do you believe that wholehearted commitment to Him is more important than any other thing or person in your life? Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made?
-Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

Making Family Time

Well folks…another busy week has started and I’ve yet to report the happenings from last weekend. Friday, April 3rd my friend Terri finally married her sweetheart Shane. They had the ceremony at the courthouse on Friday and then Saturday there was a reception in Jasper. I am very, very happy for both of them.

I keep forgetting to share pictures of Kendall from her pageant, Braden when he’s pretending to be a rockstar, and of course Josh is so very proud of the work he’s done on our driveway so I’ll have to be sure to post some pics of that in the next day or two also.

Of course, right now we’re all aflutter with the excitement of Easter. We will have Kendall this weekend and Brady can’t wait! He’s been almost two weeks without sissy and he misses her something AWFUL when she’s gone. Lucky for us next week is her spring break so we’ll get to keep Ken all week long. I think Josh & I will both take vacation days next week to spend extra time with her. We will be spending some time this Saturday with our friends KB & Jay and their little boy Ben (aka; Brady’s best friend). I think we’ve planned to dye Easter eggs Saturday so I’ll share that experience with everyone next week.

And I wanted to share a picture of the deck that I want Josh to build me. Help me talk him into it! Haha!! I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe holiday! Happy Easter!!!!
Apr. 8th 2009-
Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there.
-Clarence W. Hall

In Hog Heaven

It was yet another weekend that we weren’t able to sit still long. On Friday Josh got 27 tons of red rock delivered for our driveway. That is something we’re still working on, and probably won’t completely finish for another week or so. More importantly though, Friday night we decided to visit some of Josh’s friends that live in Arley, AL. (Winston Co.) and join them for the Chitlin’ festival (aka; chitterlings) they hold there at Meeks High School. (In case you don't know, chitlins are deep fried, well cleaned, pig intestines.) We thought that we lived WAY out there, but his friends live in the middle of NO WHERE. We had fun though, and of course we always make our poor little Braden endure all kinds of new & strange foods, so he tried some chitlins. He wasn’t that crazy about them. Too bad I couldn’t have gotten a picture of the faces he was making.

Saturday was Kendall’s pageant. Unfortunately, Braden & I didn’t get to make it. Josh said that she did really well. I’ll have to share pics of her in her pageant dress when I get them. Braden & I went to the Playhouse Disney Live show with my friend/neighbor Lindsey, and her little girl Madison. They both LOVED it. And Braden was so enthralled that I’m positive that he’ll definitely cherish the trip we’re planning next year to Walt Disney World. It’s going to be great. We got the free tickets to the Playhouse Disney show because apparently Lindsey’s mom has really good luck winning things on the radio. I told her that it’s funny that her mom wins radio contests, and my mom always wins door prizes. Hmm, maybe Lindsey & I should get our moms together. There’s no telling what we could win if we did!

Josh has drill this weekend, so I guess that Brady and I will have to find something to get into, not sure yet what it will be. And I suppose we’ll have to dye Easter eggs the day or two before Easter since we won’t have Kendall until then. I did find some really cute ideas for egg dying though…check it out HERE: http://www.scrapbook.com/blog/view/148025.html

Apr. 1st 2009-
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm
– Winston Churchill