Monday, September 27, 2010

Homemade Popcorn

This past January, Rebecca did her final Science Fair project on Popcorn (click here if you want to see my blog on it as a refresher!) She tested different types of popcorn.

In her research, she read that you can grow your own popcorn, as simply as planting a kernel of popcorn in the ground. She asked my Mom if she might do that for her when they planted their garden this summer.

My mom, Nonie, agreed and took home some Orville Redenbacher kernels to plant. She planted them this summer, although she did a little research on her own and decided to plant the popping corn in a separate location than her regular corn.

Fast forward a couple of months and here I sit, blogging while eating a yummy bowl of popcorn...homegrown that is! Thanks to my Mom & Dad for allowing us this experiment, plus a few pictures to enhance my blog!!!

Here is Mom & Dad's garden. Isn't it beautiful? You will see a partial row of corn on the far right of the picture about half way up. You can see it's in a different location that the rest of the corn in the garden.

After the corn was picked and shucked, it had to dry out for a few weeks. This laid in my Mom's bonus room for a while!

When Nonie delivered the popcorn to us, she had put it in this great jar with a "From the Kitchen of Nonie" sticker on it.

Nonie had come up here prior to the corn being ready and brought Rebecca and ear of the corn so she could see what it looked like while it dried. So this was our ear.

The kids were so excited about popping it. Here they are!

As you can see, we're enjoying it. We've popped it in the popcorn popper and in the microwave. Very yummy.

So a special thanks goes out to Pops & Nonie for helping us with this fun project. We love you!!

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Robertson County Fair

Well, it's Fair time again in Tennessee and despite our extremely busy schedule, we were able to squeeze it in one evening after Rebecca's volleyball match. (Just for fun, click here to see my blog from last year's trip to the fair - Fair Blog)

We met the Locke's there again, however it was a bit different this year. After one kiddie ride with Julianna, the boys ran into a few girls from the youth group and headed off with them. Then the Locke's kept running into people they knew and Julianna kept pulling us on to the next ride, so at least for me, it was the Julianna show. She LOVED all the rides - even rode some big people ones. She was so funny.

I did my best to get some pictures with my little camera, so here they are!

First ride of the night....

Before the ride began, the Locke kids showed up and jumped in the strawberry with them.

We ran into these girls from church and the guys decided it would be more fun to ride rides with them than their parents and sisters.....go figure!

Julianna got a little daring on one of her rides - ha!

I know it's hard to see but up near the top on the far left, you will see Brandi (in purple shirt), then a small space and me next to her - that's Julianna in that small space. Christian HATED this ride but Julianna absolutely loved it. It was so much fun with her!

Ran across the boys and took their picture with Kayla! (Mimi - this is the Scrambler!!!)

Julianna rode this with Ms. Brandi last year, so they got to ride it together again this year!

Julianna & Daddy on the bumper cars

Morgan, Rebecca, Christian & me on a ride I can't remember it's name!

Julianna and Mr. Chris having a little fun while the big kids ride a ride.

Rebecca & Morgan on the Ferris Wheel

Christian & Michael

Julianna's first ride on the Ferris Wheel

With Mom

Chris & Brandi waiting on the rest of us on the Ferris Wheel

My beautiful Julianna

We rode the Carousel together while the big kids rode another big ride (that she was too short for).

Slowing down..... waiting on one last ride!

Rebecca & Katie - we went on one last ride together and were waiting for Christian in that thing behind us!

On our way out, we ordered one order of Fried Oreos and a Fried Snickers.

Matthew shared one bite of his Fried Snickers with me - man, it was good!!


This video is so funny (& short) - sorry about my cackling, but you probably will too!!!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Brentwood Soccer Tournament

It's a quite unusual for us to have back to back tournament weekends, especially so early in the soccer season. But the weekend after we went to Kennesaw, Georgia, we played in the Brentwood Tournament.

I missed the first game due to a PEO Officers Training meeting, however I was kept up via texts and was sad to learn that we'd lost our first game. Matthew said we just did not play well and that we could and should have beaten that team.

We played again on Saturday evening and won the game 1-0 literally scoring the only goal with left than 7 minutes left in the game. That game allowed us to play in the Semi-final game on Sunday morning rather than the consolation round.

I didn't need to miss two Sunday mornings in a row, so Christian rode with some friends on the soccer team and we were at church, receiving texts on the status of the game. We were down by one, then we tied it up - then we stayed tied and went into overtime and won by a single goal in overtime. (Remember I'm receiving these texts during church but based on the outcome of this game depended on if we headed to Brentwood after church or not).

So we loaded up, ate our sandwiches in the car and drove down there in time for the Championship game. We were down 0-1 at half and the coaches pulled a good coach/bad coach "come to Jesus" talk with the boys, who then came out and scored 3 in the second half, leading us to victory and the Championship. We were so proud of them, especially since we have played in this Brentwood tournament many times over the years of soccer and have never made it to the semi-final games. So this was a huge win for us, not to mention Back to Back Champion weekends!!!

Hilarious picture!


Christian receiving his Championship medal

Our Boys - way to go!


Having a little fun

Saturday, September 11, 2010

How does your garden grow?

My sweet daughter, Julianna gave me a beautiful little flower for Mother's Day (see below)...



And miraculously, I haven't killed it....

Not only have I not killed it, it looks great - see? Same flower as above - guess what I found out??? Flowers need WATER!! Who'd have thought, huh???
Julianna is very proud of this flower - so am I!!

Soccer Tournament in Kennesaw, Georgia

Our soccer team usually only travels out of town once a season at the end of the season. This season, our coach signed us up to play in a tournament in Kennesaw, Georgia in August. Coach John's job is with Xara, a soccer company and Xara was sponsoring this tournament, so since he had to be there anyway, he thought he'd bring his team and support their tournament.

Due to conflicts in the family schedule, I took Christian to Georgia and Matthew stayed home with the girls. We decided to leave on Saturday morning so we could save a little money and only stay in the hotel one night. Good thing, considering our routine oil changed turned into $600 worth of repairs on Friday!!!

Our boys played extremely well and won the tournament. We were just thrilled. You never know how you're going to do in a tournament, especially out of town when you've never played these teams before. It was a fun weekend and a great start to a new soccer season.





Christian & Mark doing a "short corner" together

Our team - the White House 98 Boys Revolution!



One of the fields we played at was about 30 minutes from my college friend Kim's house. So she and her oldest daughter, Lauren (who is a competitive soccer player also) came to watch Christian play and visit with me. It was great to see them and Christian even scored a goal they got to see. Thanks Kim & Lauren for fighting the traffic to come see us!

Lauren, Kim, Katie & Christian

Friday, September 10, 2010

Volleyball Playday in Franklin

Rebecca tried out and made the Greenbrier Middle School volleyball team this past June. They had a 3 day camp in mid-July followed by 5 days a week practice. She was thrilled to be one of the few 6th graders that made the teams, especially since she is the smallest & the youngest.

Coach Clark is a great coach - non-nonsense and tough, but man, she's great. We had an all day long volleyball "play day" in Franklin in early August. We played back to back games, alternating the "A team" (varsity) and the "B team" (Jr varsity) from 9am to 5pm. It was a long day but it was a great opportunity for the girls to get some real match experience before the season began.


Coach Clark talks to the team before the first match

Rebecca is number 20

Rebecca gets ready to serve (she is the only one on the team allowed to serve underhand).

Going for the ball

Coach gives Rebecca some tips on the bench

I'm not sure what she's doing but I thought this was a good action photo!!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

First Day of School

First day of School
First year Julianna gets in these pictures - she's attending a Preschool 3 days a week and her first day was the big kids first day...
Don't let this cute first picture fool you....

My three beautiful children

Rebecca - 6th grade (new to the middle school) - 11 years old

Christian - 7th grade - 12 years old

Christian & Rebecca

Julianna - preschool - 4 1/2 years old...
What's up??

I don't want my picture taken - I don't remember how to smile....

Mom pulled one of the bag when she said she could get her picture taken with her new backpack

Man, sometimes I can just wring her cute little neck....

Okay - there is her good 1st day of school picture.

...and of course the ballerina picture!!!