Apr - Jun 2005

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April 2005

After a week of being lazy and laying around he house its time to get on my feet and get to moving…  The doc had told me that it would be good to get up and move around due to some stomach issues I had been having, but I don’t think he meant what we were planning.  Today we walked a mile.  It wasn’t too bad, just got a little winded.

This weekend we have Granny duty, and Chelsie and Chase will be with us.  It’s always an interesting time when we stay with Granny, but with Chelsie and Chase this time, no telling how it will turn out.  Mike and I stay with Granny and the kids stay over in my Dad’s house since there is really not enough room for all of us sleeping at Granny’s.  I think Granny had a really good time, because she loves the company, and Chelsie loves to talk and ask questions, so I don’t think Granny ever got bored.  Of course she probably didn’t get her naps in either though.  Mike worked on mowing my Dad’s yard, which really needed the work, the guys did a bit of fishing and played a round of golf on Sunday.  I just kind of relaxed outside in the pretty sunshine, and worked on my tan, and did the cooking for a change!

Since that first walk in the park over a week ago, we have started increasing the length and decreasing the time it takes.  The goal was and will be, after total recoup time, to make 1 mile in 15 minutes.  That would make it a average of 4 miles a hour.  Well I have been pushing it to get to that goal, and just yesterday I made 1.9 miles in 30.36 minutes.  I was pretty proud of myself until today when I started feeling bad and bleeding considerably.  So I call the nurse and she thoroughly chastised me for doing way too much.  So the walking is off limits for a few more weeks.  Man I hate it when I get in trouble, but then I was going to be the one to pay the price.

Yep, we’re at it again, off to Dallas to see Tommy for the weekend.  Since I am off work, we got a bit of a head start.  As soon as Chase got out of school we loaded up and we’re gone.  Even though Tommy is grounded for life, his dad says, I am sure we will all have a good time.  It’s suppose to be pretty and sunshine, so who knows what all we’ll do.  Of course a trip to REI is in order, as usual.

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Today we rose to a beautiful day in Texas…  Once the breakfast was eaten, we stop in some electronic stores to see if we could find a LCD TV that Mike and I have been wanting.  We’ll get one for our bedroom one of these days, its just finding the right one.  Afterwards we head to REI and a bit of shopping at REI like every other trip to Dallas.  Wasn’t much to choose from this go around, Mike got a pair of workout pants, I left empty handed.  It was kind of a disappointment this trip.  Then we are off to Speedzone, it has several different types of go cart tracks, miniature gold, and a gaming arcade.  The guys really got a kick out of the cars.  Tommy couldn’t drive them, but Mike let him ride with him on 2 of the tracks.  After they were done with the cars, Tommy hit the arcade with the last remaining funds available on the Fun Pass card.  Since the guys had their time, is now time for the girls.  We head to Northpark Mall, for some shopping.  Not too impressed, but at least Chelsie got to shop a bit, even though nothing was purchased.  Now its back toward McKinney for some dinner and to the hotel.  The bath tub with hot water seemed to help with my sore back, but the time to relax was just what I needed.

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Today we had picked up some sandwiches and are planning a little picnic in the park.  The wind was blowing pretty hard and you had to keep your hands on everything that wasn’t tied down to the table, or it was going to blow off.  Afterwards, the kids road a peddle boat while Mike and I took a walk around the park.  Once we make it all the way around the loop of the park, the kids were done and it is time to go.  Tommy has to go back home and we have to head back to Lonoke.  It has been another trip where the kids didn’t kill one another, so that is always an accomplishment.  This will probably be the last trip to Dallas till the fall, since Tommy will be coming home for the summer soon.  But that is not to say there won’t be anymore road trips…  as a matter of fact, we will be heading to Destin next weekend, so check it out.

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Well today we on a road trip again… this time to Fort Walton/Destin Florida, to meet up with some friends we met on our honeymoon cruise.  They were one of the couples at our dinner table, they are from Ohio.  The weather is supposed to be cool, a lot cooler then it was at home when we left, mid 80’s.  I think it is supposed to be in the mid 70’s there.  Maybe our presence there will make it warmer.  Yeah right!  We left home at 2:20pm, hopefully we will get in before midnight…

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We missed 12:00, but not buy much, 12:30 actually.  Got checked in and unloaded the car, and went straight to the beach.  You know how it is, you just gotta go take a look at the ocean and beach as soon as you get there.  After a very short stay here, because it was a bit too cool and windy for me to handle, the company was wonderful being there again with Mike but the weather left a little to be desired.  Hit the sack and in no time it was up and out for breakfast.  You know something interesting… we like Waffle House food, but because it’s always so smoky at those restaurants we never go.  Well the one we decided to go to anyway in Destin was a non smoking establishment.  I think there is some ordinance or something about smoking in that area.  Whatever it is, that worked for us!  After that we stop off at a few shops, and then we are off to our friend’s condo.  Jeff and Cheryl are a couple, from Ohio, that sat at the same dinner table with us on our cruise.  So since they were going to be in Florida we took the opportunity to hook up with them and spend some R & R time on the beach.  Any excuse for another adventure, right?  We all head back to our condo, since our room was more convenient to the beach then their 10^th floor room at their condo.  Today on the beach at Fort Walton kicks a major 4 person volleyball tournament.  My sister used to play in it for several years in a row.  She has since retired from playing volleyball.  The folks she used to play with I knew had to be there so we went in search of some familiar faces to me… I don’t know how many nets there were, I would have to say somewhere in the range of 75 or so.  So you can only imagine how hard it would be to try and find a select few in that crowd.  But I did find them and I would have loved to have had a camera to record there reactions when they saw me.  It has been several years since I have seen these people, and especially to introduce to them as my husband…  I also saw my sister’s ex-husband, and complete and total shock was all I can say about his reaction.  After a quick chat and several hugs, we went back to join our other friends down the beach.  Earlier in the day Mike had boiled some shrimp and we chat enjoying the shrimp and beach, while throwing the shrimp peels to the hovering seagulls above use.  I think we ticked some people off for feeding them, cause they shortly afterwards packed up and left.  I think they said something about the seagulls dropping stuff on them.  Oh well… sorry if we offended anyone!  After several hours in the sun, it was time to head back to the room and get cleaned up for dinner.  Tonight we will be eating at Fudpucker’s in Destin.  I had never been there before, the food was good and the company was great.  At the time, who would have known that the two people that had the same thing for dinner would later be sick in the middle of the night.  Cheryl and I had eaten popcorn shrimp, and we both we hugging the toilet in the wee hours of the night.  It could have been a coincidence, guess we’ll never know.  Jeff did say he was going to call Fudpucker’s and make them aware of it.

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Today since we had gotten a little more sun then expected, we are going to pick up Jeff and Cheryl and go to lunch and do some shopping at the Sun Destin Outlet Mall.  We didn’t know until after we were on our way that Cheryl was suffering from one of her major migraines and wouldn’t be able to join us.  Jeff came along anyway and we had a lunch at this place called Rum Runners, which is located in one of those retirement golf communities, didn’t get the name.  The community was way to fancy for our blood, but the lunch was good as we watched the NFL Draft.  Mike and I were curious to find out where the Arkansas Razorback, Matt Jones, was going to go.  He went the first round, 21^st I believe, to Jacksonville FL.  After lunch we spend the next few hours at the outlet mall.  There were way too many shops to be able to hit them all, so we just went to the important ones, Nike, Reebock, Ralph Lauren, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and Big Dog, just to name a few.  Afterwards we drop off Jeff and then off to the grocery store, for some last minute items, for our dinner at our place with our friends.  Back at the room we get the groceries put away, a crab meat dip in the fridge, then we are back on the beach for find my old volleyball buddies.  We watched a few nets of play, but never find my friends, until we are back at the condo and we Susan, one of my sisters old friends, yelling at me and she said that they would be playing at center court the next morning.  We will plan on checking that out.  Well we are back at the condo now and getting ready for our dinner guests.  I can’t wait because my lunch from several hours before, has long wore off.  They arrive and the steaks and potatoes are on.  There are some people playing Bocce Ball, don’t know the spelling, and they were quite entertaining while Mike grills the steaks.  However, that little grill was not putting out enough heat to keep me warm, so I went back inside to the couch.  With dinner done, Mike wanted to show our guests some of our pictures and the website, while I cleaned up the dinner dishes.  Its now time to say good night, and hopefully see ya soon to our friends, for tomorrow we all pack up to go home.  Thanks for a great time this weekend, Jeff and Cheryl.  We hope you have a safe trip home.

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Today I went back to the Doc for my final visit for release to go back to work… man did I want him to tell me to stay off for a few more weeks, but that didn’t happen.  So now it’s a couple more days off then back to reality next week.  Boy do I dread going back to work.  I have been very busy with so many other things like this website that there hasn’t been too much time to be lazy.  Granted I did laze around the days right after my surgery, but not too many.  I think Mike will miss the company at the office every day, but he won’t miss it near as much as I will!  Since I am no longer restricted, today we also started back at the gym, even though we have been doing some walking, it is time to get some of these muscles back in shape, and hopefully a bunch of pounds off.

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May 2005

Off today to Memphis, for some ribs at the Rendezvous, then to Bealle Street for the Memphis in May activities.  I have never been to either so this should be interesting.  Mike had brought me to Bealle Street last year, but it wasn’t during any sort of festivities.  We check into our motel, change clothes, then we are off to Bealle Street.  We park then take a stroll down the street.  There are quite a few people out, and the nights still early.  After a stop at Wet Willies, for a frozen drink for, we walk to the Rendezvous expecting a long wait for dinner.  Much to our surprise, we are seated immediately, order our ribs, and are served our dinner in less then 30 minutes.  Man that was fast.  Mike had figured we would probably have to wait for an hour or more for a table, especially since it was a Friday night at 6:30 in the evening.  Oh well… I’m not complaining, that would give us more time on Bealle Street.  The crowd on Bealle never got big, as we stopped in and listened to some of the outdoor entertainers perform.  The one that brought the most attention was a guy buy the name of Richie Johnson, who played guitar and the drums at the same time.  Now that’s what I call multi-tasking!  See our entertainment links for his website.  Well called it quits on Bealle for the night, tomorrow we will buy tickets to the upcoming Kenny Chesney concert in July for us and the kids, then we will visit Bealle Street once again.

Today is Mother’s day and Tommy is not with me, but I know he is looking forward to being together in a few weeks for the summer.  He called today, after church, which was a real shocker… he never calls.  We go take flowers to Granny and visit with her for a bit before we had to leave for lunch.  I may not have my son with me for Mother’s Day but I get to celebrate with Mike’s side of the family.  We are eating Mother’s Day Brunch at the Peabody with Mom, Dad, Vicki, Wally, Kristen and Austin.  This is the second year I have been with them.  Last year was the day after we got engaged, so you can say it was also an anniversary of a sort.  After lunch and drop by to give Mom her present, we are off to run some errands and stop by Children’s Hospital to check on Lorraine Root, who had surgery the week before.  Much to our surprise she had checked out several days prior.  Lorraine has been in a coma for the last 20 months or so.  She was in a car accident that has left her in this condition.  Her mother reports daily in her journal on the internet about Lorraine’s progress and lately her lack of.  You can read Lorraine’s story but going to “Our Friends” link on the sidebar.  Later we spend the rest of the day, me working on the webpage and Mike napping!

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Today is a very sad day… Lorraine, who I wrote about in my last entry, passed away this morning with her family by her side.  It has been a long and hard journey for Lorraine and especially her mother Terri, and of course the rest of the family.  After Lorraine’s accident Terri gave up her law practice to help with her daughter’s care and rehab.  Today Lorraine is in a better place where there is no pain, but for her family the pain continues.  Please pray for Lorraine’s family.

Today begins a busy weekend, from horses to shrimp to horses again and then baseball.  Tonight we are out at the farm to take care of Granny’s dinner and see if we can help out on some last minute details for the horse show that starts tomorrow.  There will be 48 competitors with their horses, who will compete in Dressage, Cross Country Jumping and Stadium Jumping.  Once we arrive, after a few minor things, everything else seemed to be in place.  Tomorrow will bring a hectic day to say the least.  At least my Dad has some help with the event for last few years, the Rackensack Pony Club, comes out and organizes the show and does what ever is required to get this thing underway.  Without their help my Dad would not be able to continue having this event every year.

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This morning we arrive at the show around 9:30am, and it has been going on for a couple of hours.  Today we are going to try and take as many pictures as possible to publish on the website, that way all the competitors will be able to see themselves in photos.  The first division had already finished when we showed up at the Dressage ring.  Dressage is a way to so the discipline in a horse and the control the rider has of his horse.  My mother use to say that watching Dressage was like watching cement set.  Its not the most exciting of portion of the event, but it does have a huge affect on the final outcome at the end of the day.  Cross Country is next and we got pictures of all the different levels of competitors.  Taking action shots of horses jumping jumps takes some talent, so timing is a HUGE thing and maybe we will getting down better next show.  Cross Country is the endurance phase of the competition.  Riders guide their horses over several sturdy non moveable objects, which they have to accomplish without going over a specified time limit.  Next phase is Stadium Jumping.  Not sure why they still call it Stadium Jumping, cause generally they are not in a “stadium”, more like and open field.  These jumps are moveable objects, where every hit of a pole, if knocked down, costs you points.  This too is a timed event, that shows that the horse is still sound, hasn’t gained any injuries during the cross country phase.  All of times this can be a make or break portion of the competition.  In other words a lot of times it can be a tie breaker.  One pole dropped can cost you a blue ribbon.  We were only able to take pictures of the Training Division, the upper level at this event, due to another function to attend.  All these pictures from the horse trials are in the photo directory.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, we are on our way to the “Jansen’s Crew Cajun Shrimp Boil”.  This is put on by the Engineering Department at Dassault Falcon Jet.  Every year we have this function in conjunction with the companies Golf tournament, where our vendors come in a play along with employees of Falcon Jet.  Some of the money we get from the Shrimp Boil, we take and purchase Christmas presents for children that wouldn’t normally get a Christmas. 

Once the Shrimp and Corn was consumed, we picked up Allen who was batching it today, Judy was off playing Buncho, whatever the heck that is…  Anyway after we picked him up we went to Willy D’s, you know the place and enjoyed the musical talents of Mike Hosch and Susan Erwin.  Tonight it was all them, the other player called in sick or something so they were going to playing from around 7:30 to 1:00 Sunday morning.  Because of this Mike decides to give up his stretch of sobriety, which we help contribute too.  I don’t know how they did in the wee hours of the morning, but they did an excellent job as usual while we were there.  Check out the pictures we took during the show.

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After church and getting Granny set for her lunch, we went over to see how the rest of the show was going on.  While standing in the office talking to the organizer of the event, in walked a fellow employee much to my surprise.  Natalie’s daughter was competing today.  I’ll have to find out how she did.  After that we were on the road back home to change and then pick up Chelsie and Chase.  We are going to the Travelers game.  Once arriving at the game, there was an auto-cross race going on.  Needless to say, Chase had to check it out while we went on into the game.  I think we stayed till about the 7 inning, does anyone every really watch the games anyway.  I was too busy watching the people and enjoying the sunshine.  Maybe this year we’ll make to a game more then once!

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Today was Lorraine’s Memorial Service, I was unable to attend, due to the work thing…  Mike and Chelsie went, and as I understand it, it was not the normal one expects to see.  Since I was not there I can only tell about what I have heard and read in the newspaper.  Yes there were two different articles in Arkansas section of the Newspaper.  A slideshow was presented of Lorraine from birth to her High School days all prior to her accident.  After the service attendees let blue balloons loose outside the church.  Apparently it was a sky of blue on blue…  Blue was her favorite color.  Continue to pray for her family…

Yes we are at it again… we were suppose to be going to New Orleans with our friends Allen and Judy, but her mom became ill and was taken to the hospital, so they had to cancel.  Since we had been to New Orleans not long ago, we decided to cancel that and head down to the beach and do some diving.  Mike got his new gear a few weeks ago and though he has tried it out in the swimming pool, he is itching to try it in the ocean. 

This morning we got up fairly early and went to the beach.  Later we will be doing a little diving, but we decide to walk out on the pier and check it out and where we need to go for our dive.  While we were on the pier we some alot  of fish, several very large barracudas, a giant stingray of some sort and a 8 or 9 foot Hammerhead Shark.  I freaked alittle, the guys fishing said that they would only take a limb or too... such comedians.  Anyway, we head back to car and gear up, and take off for the water.  There was suppose to be some rubble from the old pier that was destroyed years back that we were going to dive on today.  However, because of the hurricane that hit Pensacola so bad in the fall of 2004, the rubble was no longer.  There were some remains of the uprights that we found, but now much else, and no shark, now that was a good thing.  After about 40 minutes of down time, we're back to the car and take the gear off and pack it up.  Once that chore was done we grab our chairs and head back to the beach for some sun and people watching.  Next its time for lunch now... we eat at "Crabs We Got-Em"

Today we are diving with Lloyd Oubre and Sea Scout Charters.  There are just 3 divers today and the crew, which makes for a very comfortable trip.   I like small groups compared to the cattle boats with so many people you can't gear up or spread out after the dive.  We headed out to dive on some wrecks, this first stop was suppose to be a freighter, but there were too many fisherman around it that Lloyd thought it best to go somewhere else.  Once at our first site, Mike and I gear up and are the first in the pool as some dive boats call it.  The wreck was in several pieces, which part was the radio tower that had been attached to the vessel until the last hurricane tore it off.  There were a couple of areas where, if we had a flashlight, we would have liked to enter and check out, but without a light there was no since in even attempting.  The dive wasn't too long, Mike and I both sucked too much air, but the dive was around 87ft and totaled around 30 minutes total.  The visibility wasn't wonderful, maybe 25ft, but anything is better then diving in the local lakes.  There we quite a bit of sea life around the wreck and once the dive was over and everyone was on board we found out that the others had had a visit with a good sized sea turtle that makes this wreck its home.  Off to the next site and site is quite a bit shallower which is generally the rule in diving, you do your deepest first and then go progressively shallower with you following dives.  Anyway we were around 50ft for this one and around 30 minutes again, we have definitely have to work on our air conservation...  This wreck as I understand it was 3 ships sunk together, but the way it turned out it seemed as there were just several piles of debris scattered.  This viz wasn't as good on this dive so we didn't get too far from the anchor.  Another great dive and once again we missed out.  The other divers saw a reef shark on the dive that we missed out on...  On the way back to the marina, we had a couple of interesting encounters... Lloyd stopped the boat a few times for some oceanography lessons, one being a Portugese Man of War, which when encountered can cause severe reaction difficulty in breathing and possibly cardiac arrest.  I had heard about them but never had seen one, that float on top of the water, and occurs most commonly in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific and Indian oceans, and the northern Atlantic Gulf Stream, although found in warm seas throughout the world.  Once on our way, we see a couple of spots where there Giant Sea Turtles, one by itself then the next time we saw two together.  They were huge, we figure probably 6-7ft across.  We couldn't get real close but we got close enough to snap a couple of pics.  We also had a lesson in this "stuff" that was floating on top of the water...  it too was in the gulf stream and Lloyd says it just floats, traveling around.  Anyway he grabbed some of it and showed us how there are little fish and other some critters live there.  He said most of the time he can find small shrimp in it as well.  Our little oceanography lessons were pretty cool...  couldn't have gotten that on one of those cattle dive boats.  Back at the marina we unload the boat, load the car, say goodbye to our new friends from Sea Scout Charter and hit the road back for home.  We will definitely be visiting Sea Scout again.

After work today I head home for a couple of hours and wait till time to pick up Tommy at the airport.  Mike, Chelsie, Chase and Denbeigh too, had gone up earlier in the day to set up the rest of the camp that we didn't get setup the night before.  Its raining in Lonoke, sure do need it but hope it doesn't mess with our weekend.  I arrive at the airport and as usual flights coming from Dallas are generally late arriving.  Once off the plane we grab his luggage, which is always an interesting experience, since I don't know what his luggage looks like, and sometimes he doesn't quite remember either, then we are on the road to the lake.  It took us a little over and hour and a half to get there, but we were there in plenty of time for Chelsie to show Tommy how to roast marshmallow and make smores.  Poor kid had never slept in a tent or even roasted a marshmallow.  Now that is a sheltered life!  After that we all settle in for the night for tomorrow we will be on the lake diving, swimming and enjoying the sunshine, hopefully!

I am up this morning cooking bacon and pancakes for the gang.  Afterwards Mike and I head to the boat to do some cleaning, then back to the campsite to gather stuff up to go out on the boat later.  Mom and Dad show up and after lunch we head to the boat.  All loaded up and we're off.  Mike and I are going to dive while Tommy plays in the water.  We find a spot that has a bank of rocks and the rule is what you see on the shore is generally what is under the water.  Once in the water we descend and surprisingly the visibility is quite good, we figure around 20-25ft in places.  The surroundings are very interesting and we leisurely cruise around for about 30-45 minutes.  At around 15ft that is lots of fish, huge bass, and some fish we don't even know what they are.  At around 20 it gets REALLY cold...  so we didn't stay at that depth too long.  Back on board and head back to the marina.  I love diving, however dealing with the gear after a dive is really a pain in the you know what.  Back at the camp we begin to cook dinner, grilled chicken, pan fried potatoes and grilled corn on the cob.  Of course Tommy had to have his smores...  After mom and dad leave, and we get dinner cleaned up, Mike and I go for a walk to try and work off some of this dinner.  When we get back Tommy is already in is sleeping bag and then we get ready for bed ourselves. 

We wake this morning to cloudy skies and windy conditions.  We have our breakfast and once cleaned up Mike and I head for the boat.  Not a surprise the lake is very rough so unless it clears we will not be going out on the boat today.  Of course for the kids the day was spent napping, not Tommy of course, and being bored...  Then we pulled out the laptop and let Tommy watch some movies.  I think he watch 4 that day.  Mike and I took several walks throughout the day.  Our friends Allan and Judy showed up around dinner time, and spent a few hours hanging out at the campsite then we took them out for a boat ride that evening.  The wind was still blowing, but it still was a nice time.  Once back, Tommy was already asleep, let's hope tomorrow's weather is a little more cooperative.

Well the weather did not cooperate.  It cloudy and cool again with blowing wind.  It was probably for the best, cause Chelsie was sick, so after breakfast we packed up camp, which took a couple of hours, covered the boat and headed for home.  Tommy and I stopped by the farm so he could see his Granny and Gramps.  When we got home, Chelsie and Chase were gone to have dinner with their mom's family.  Which actually was probably for the best, cause we had to unload all three vehicles and get to work on unpacking and cleaning.  I think most of us had a good time, and we look forward to the next camping outing in June.

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June 2005

Today we are at the lake with Mike's sister and family.  With their Wave Runner in tow...  the kids always have fun playing on that thing, and once again Chase acts as Chauffeur...  but then I think he likes it, getting to make all those kids happy and seeing them have fun.  Either that or he is a gluten for punishment.  I just kicked back and relaxed on my new little water float, and got a bit too much sun, but not as bad as Chelsie.  Since she is red-headed she burned pretty easy, and was sick afterwards, but I think it might have given her a wake up call.  Chase too was pretty red and hurting the next day.  Tommy had a great time, getting to play with some kids his age in the water.  Usually its just Mike and I when we go and we can't keep him entertained like the other kids do.  Returning home, we had some tired puppy's, so Tommy was pretty easy getting him to go to bed...

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We are at the lake again, after church we packed up and he that way...  Today we are going to dive, with Wendy and Jerry along with us.  The dive wasn't too bad, it was a site that Mike and I had been to before, but it was worth re-visiting.  I think Wendy and Jerry liked it pretty well, and it gave Jerry some more time getting use to new gear and all.  After we dove, I took Tommy down a couple of feet in the real shallow water, and he took to breathing off the regulator like a fish...  if he would only listen and mind better, we would get him his junior certification, which would require him to dive with a parent or instructor as I understand it.  But he still has a long way to go till that happens... 

I know you are probably getting tired of hearing about our lake adventures, but here is another one.  This weekend we are camping up at Shiloh again, this time with Wendy and Jerry and his kids...  Mike, Chelsie and Tommy drive up a little earlier in the Suburban with Chase to follow.  Me on the other hand and to stick around at work.  One of us has to work for a living...  As I make my way up toward the lake, and Mike calls on the cell telling me that Chase has had a blow out and to look for him on the side of the road.  Apparently Chase took off while leaving Lonoke and got a little lost on the way, which separated him from Mike...  So here I have to come to his rescue.  Now he owes me big time, cause since installing his speaker boxes behind his seat, he doesn't have any room for tools, therefore he needed my jack and tools to change the tire.  Well as it turns out, of course foreign car lug wrenches don't work on american made trucks.  His dad told me to have him flag someone down that would have one of those 4-way tools...  well if it hadn't been for me, he would have still been sitting there.  I finally got a female state trooper to stop and luckily her husband was following and helped out Chase with the tools and getting the tire changed.  I should have made him wave somebody down...  Anyway we got on the road again thanks to the officer and her husband and finally made it to the campsite.  Once there we had to set the tent up and all the other little chores, then Wendy showed up with her camper and Jerry's kids, the it was quiet no more, for the rest of the weekend.  Well at least for the waking hours...  Tomorrow should turn out to be interesting...

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Well we are up this morning, getting breakfast ready and gathering our things to go out on the boat.  Today we are planning on finding a cove somewhere where the kids can swim and we can do some diving.  It will be tag team diving, leaving one set of adults on board to watch the rug rats...  Mike and I are in first, and the visibility starts out pretty good, but as you go deeper it gets quite murky.  At about 22ft it gets really cold as well, so we decided to stay above that depth.  After being down for a while we surfaced and made our way over to our anchor line, which was caught up in something down below.  Prior to our initial decent we had tried to move the boat, and couldn't get the anchor up to move it.  So once we start our decent down the anchor line we realized that we were wrapped in a tree the further down, at around 47ft, the anchor was wrapped up in an old trot line.  Thanks to my snips that are attached to my BC, I have a knife, but the snips are easier to use and get too, I was able to cut ourselves loose and bring up the anchor out of the tree.  If we hadn't been divers, guess that anchor would be sitting on the bottom of the lake, and we would be out looking to purchase a new one.  With gear off, we head to another spot for Wendy & Jerry to dive.  There are some rocks cliff, just across from the narrow, that Mike and I have talked about diving on sometime.  Well today Wendy and Jerry will try them out, and yes Mike too...  He sweet talked me into letting him go on in while I stayed and watched the kids...  I think he got the better deal.  He said the dive was great and that he found a yellow ski boat sunk at that location.  It figures it was a good dive since I wasn't able to go down, guess we'll have to hit that one again.  After the dive we head back to the marina, and the campsite for dinner...  and of course a cold one or two.

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Today we are just going to chill out on the lake, if that is possible with 3 little kids...  So no diving.  Once we get out into the open water, we strap the inner tube onto the wave runner, to pull the kids, instead of wasting so much gas with the boat.  Jerry decides that he's going to pull Chase first, with Hayleigh on behind as a spotter.  Well that didn't work, cause once they turned over it was no getting back on.  If you've ever turned over a wave runner you know how they are, you have to be real lucky or little to be able to climb back on those things once you been dumped.  So instead its going to be Mike with Tommy spotting from behind.  It was a pretty good show, especially when Chase flipped over... of course he says the wave did it.  Tommy and Brock were next with Tommy screaming slow down and Brock yelling speed up the whole time.  They went airborne once and after that Brock was yelling slow down.  Then Hayleigh got on and road for a while.  After that, the tube never went out again.  The kids spent the rest of the afternoon, jumping off the boat and climbing up the ladder.  That got real old, but then, I was out on my float so I didn't have to deal with that too much.  Just the arguing that went on for several hours.  Well its time to head back to the campground and back up and go home.  On the way back, Tommy road with me on the wave runner, running through the wake of the party barge most of the way...  Tommy likes it when we go a little airborne, not much, but just a little.  Back at camp its always a chore and a little depressing to have to tear it all down and back it up, but we made it through another weekend adventure, unscathed... back home safe and some what sound!

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