wordless wednesday

Take me out to the ballgame!

Last night, we went to a minor league baseball game in Zebulon. The Carolina Mudcats are home to Zebulon and we had tickets to go with our Sunday school class. I have to be honest and say that I was a little worried before we left about how Jackson would do, but he was great. He seemed to have a wonderful time and really enjoyed the french fries. A boy after his mom's own heart! :)

We even got to see a really exciting game... The Mudcats were up against the Braves and they were tied at 0 for the 1st 3 innings but the Braves continued to have an average of a 1 run lead through the middle of the game. Starting the bottom of the 9th, the score was 3-4, Braves. And would you believe it, the Mudcats finally pulled through and got 2 runs. They were VERY close in not getting that second run but the batter hit the ball straight towards the short stop and the ball went right past him and the runner that had previously stole 3rd base, ran home! And the crowd roared! A round of fireworks were shot off.

Friday evenings are special at the stadium because they always do an OUTSTANDING fireworks show after the game. Jackson started out okay with the fireworks but as they continued to have several in a row, he just got a little bit too scared. However, this was expected as it was really the first time he had ever seen them... that close any way.

We had a very enjoyable evening with the group and between the 3 of us. The sport of baseball goes back a long way in my family and I would love to continue the tradition with Jackson. We will definately be back in the near future.

To end things, here is one of the shots I took of Jackson and Wayne.

Slow Fade

I am really not sure why this song has been on my brain so often lately ... but it has. There is so much truth to the words of the song. The words really make me think about the many decisions in my life, good and bad, and how those decisions have made me who I am today.

I guess it "pounds" on my heart even more because I have Jackson now. Although, I do not want to shelter him from EVERY thing (reality has to hit sometime), there are so many things that I want to keep out of his little "bubble". This world has become so much of the devil it is really scary. My prayer is that Wayne and I will raise him to plainly "be careful". Bad decisions are SOOO much easier to make than good ones. We just have to make sure that we are making the decisions that God wants us to make.

Well, I really think I am rambling. I am not sure if this made any sense as I am not sure really what to say. However, here are the words to "Slow Fade" by Casting Crowns.

Be careful little eyes what you see
It's the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings
Be careful little feet where you go
For it's the little feet behind you that are sure to follow

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It's a slow fade, it's a slow fade

Be careful little ears what you hear
When flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near
Be careful little lips what you say
For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day

The journey from your mind to your hands
Is shorter than you're thinking
Be careful if you think you stand
You just might be sinking

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day

Oh be careful little eyes what you see
Oh be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is looking down in love
Oh be careful little eyes what you see

An Accomplishment

And I SOOO wish I had my camera ready...

I am not sure what struck Jackson today, but he was just ready to try this whole walking thing. We walked circles around the house (on the inside of course) and he only held on to one hand! Oh, and he was very stable this time. He has been good about walking holding on with two hands, if I could ever get him to stand up and want to practice. I guess the saying is so true about them doing things when they are good and ready.

However, he was in the crawling position today after we had been practicing and he got to the squatting position. His back was to me and I am so glad it was because I don't think he would have stood at all if he knew that I was looking at him. But, he did. No hands, just stood straight up. All by himself! FINALLY!! For about 4 seconds... I think he could feel the smile on my face beaming through his back! I just wanted to run over and hug him, but I didn't. I let him do his thing and then when he sat back down and saw me, I just told him over and over what a good job that was. Then he kept trying to do it because he got a reaction out of it the first time, but wouldn't let his hands go. We are definately getting there. He walked around at chruch tonight holding one of my fingers and he walked back to the car with me.

I have just decided that he is getting just a bit heavy for me to carry all the time so I hope that the learning process on this whole walking thing goes pretty quickly. We will just have to keep on practicing.

OOOOOHHH FUN!!

I am really liking this website!! So, she also has put storyboard templates on her page! Here is my first...

Like?

This was going to be a "wordless wednesday" post, but I just couldn't go without putting something here. I found a website that provides free actions for Photoshop Elements and I am really excited about it. This picture includes 2 of those actions. It almost looks like the pictures of me when I was Jackson's age. The "vintage" look with the rounded edges. I am really on the fence on if I like the coloring or not, but I thought I would post it anyway for your opinions.

A Secret

Year: 2010

Month: May

Day: 9th

Occasion(s): My 28th Birthday and my 2nd Mother's Day

One memorable gift: Surprise destination trip ... just Mom and me.

Can you guess where? Well, if you can't, here are a few hints...I bet you still don't have any idea, do you? Those of you who already know, just shhhh...That wasn't much more help, was it?

Am I at least allowing you to get a little warmer with your guesses or are you still freezing cold?

Does this look familiar to anyone at all? I bet you've guessed it now!! And, if you haven't... um... keeping comments to myself.

But, that's right, we went to San Fransisco! You ask, "How did she keep it a secret for so long?" Well, you see, I love to be surprised. And when Mom offered the trip to me in February or March, I was so excited about the unknown that I didn't want to know. I will tell you that SF was not at the top of my list for places to go, but I am so glad I went and would go back if I had the chance.

So, how/when did she tell me where we were going. That's kind of the funny part. We were in the airport having our luggage checked and she asked the lady a question to make sure that our luggage would follow us all the way to our final destination because we didn't have a direct flight. The lady's response: "Yes, the luggage will follow you to San Fransisco". Mom and I just looked at each other and smiled. I am not sure when she would have told me, but that didn't matter any more.

After leaving the luggage lady, we were on the way to security and mom told me that the reason why she chose San Fransisco was because that was her mother's favorite city and she had never been there before. She wanted to go and visit and see what it was like and what better way to do that than to go with her daughter. I almost started to cry, so I jokingly asked her to stop talking. I just wanted to be excited about the trip! For those of you that do not know, my mother's mom ("Grammy") passed away in February of 2008. She was 80 years old. Infact, she had just celebrated her 80th birthday on February 5th of that year (and passed on the 20th). She was a wonderful lady and a very special Mom and Grandmother to four children and eleven grandchildren. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be sharing this experience with my mom.

We only where in San Fransisco for a weekend but it was jammed packed with sight-seeing and tours. Mom loves to do those kinds of things because you learn so much more about the, um, "behind the scenes" stuff about the big cities. Especially when you have a good tour guide.

We visited the Golden Gate BridgeAte at Boudin Bakery each morning for breakfast, rode a double decker bus for a tour and got just a wee bit burnt after we only talked about putting sunscreen on, took a tour of Alcatraz...Saw the production "Wicked" with a dear friend of mine that lives near the area, saw the most expensive home in San Fransisco -- which is owned by Danielle Steele, toured downtown twice but saw different things each time, had a wonderful veiw of Lombard Street but my camera just wouldn't take a good picture of it, rode a cable car, and to wrap up the tours, we were able to view these famous "Ladies"...
Now, those were just some quick highlights from our trip. This posting would be way too long to detail EVERYTHING we saw and did. However, here are some things that I noticed while we were there and walking around.

1) The homeless don't lie: While walking the streets of SF, you will find that there are many homeless people asking for money. However, you should take note of their signs that request money. "No need to lie, it's for weed" or "No need to lie, its for beer".

2) Seafood smells make me nauseous: We stayed at Fisherman's Wharf and walked near the water quite a bit. There are several seafood resturants in a row on the main drag there and oh, my golly... do they stink!! Ewwe.

3) Danielle Steele is really rich: So I mentioned previously that we saw the most expensive home in downtown SF. I really shouldn't say that I saw the home because there is a HUGEMONGOUS hedge on the property borders that block the home, but I was able to see the top of it. So, she purchased that home for a whopping $30 million and the tour guide told us that before the market crash, the home was valued at $60 million!

4) The homeless (and others) will do some interesting stuff to earn money: I saw a man sitting on a crate holding a large tree limb/bush in front of him. There were a few picture takers behind him. He was facing on coming walkers and every so often he would shove his limb out a little bit and say "BOO!" and scare the day lights out of the people coming by. It was quite entertaining. Maybe it was because he didn't scare me... the first time I saw him do it, I was on the side of the photographers and I knew what he was doing when I came back by. I beleive the girl in front of me just about fell off the curb. It was quite histerical.

5) The Golden Gate Bridge: Is painted yearly and it takes 365 days to paint. Just as the painters are finishing the last stroke at the end of the bridge they turn right back around and begin again. Can we say, "job security"? However, if you go to visit the bridge make sure you go at the right time of the year because if you don't, fog will cloud your view of the bridge even as you drive on it.

So, again, I had a marvelous time and will cherish the memories of this trip forever. Thank you Mom for planning such a trip and maybe, just maybe, we can do something like this again?!?! :)