This week on...

Okay, so I know a new sixteen and pregnant comes on tonight, but I have been meaning to comment on the episode from last week involving Eric and Samantha, two teens living in Texas. She proclaims herself as the "good girl" who used to smirk and whisper when pregnant girls walked by in the lunchroom.( note: there weren't pregnant GIRLS like as in plural... in my high school, there might have been one or two, but I don't think I ever remember there being two at the same time) Anyway, lo and behold, this "good girl" gets preggo. They seem as mature as two teens can be, much more than some of the other couples on the show, so that was a plus. My real issue with this episode was with Eric's mom. The girls parents(who are divorced, but still happily co-parenting) forbid them to see one another when they started having sex at fifteen, like any responsible parents would do. Well, that's where Eric's mother comes in. She said that she just couldn't stand to see her son so heartbroken, so she allowed the two to sneak around and do what hormonal teens do...and we all know what happened next...Samantha is pregnant.

Well, the kids beg their parents to kiss and make up but Eric's mom continues to have attitude about the whole situation like it isn't all her fault. Hello, you aided and abetted a teenage girl to go against the wishes of her parents(who were actually doing their job) to see her boyfriend on the sly. The very least you could've done was chaperone their visits. Obviously you chose not to do that and now sweet little innocent Samantha is in the family way.
Maybe you should lose the attitude and own up to the fact that this is atleast partially your fault. Geez, what is wrong with people these days? I guess for some people, having a child doesn't automatically cause you to mature, even when that child is now a teenager and capable of producing children of their own.

Well done.

Cena con Dora y Diego

A few weeks ago we had a spring break adventure to the Mcwane Center to meet Dora and Diego for dinner!

We picked the "Big" boys (as we have started referring to Huett and Sam to distinguish between them and just "the boys" which includes Charlie) up from pre-school and headed to the "Big City"!


Don't they look like big boys? I got these t-shirts at Wal-mart for three dollars! Can you say bargain shopper! This is one instance in which I am a little grateful to have sons. When I was a kid, older than them, of course, I would NEVER have worn something from Wal-Mart. Serious business, I didn't' even want to be seen in the clothes section for fear that someone might think that I was actually looking for clothes! Oh the SHAME!!

(looking back now, isn't that ridiculous! What a snob, I guess Coach Tate and Mrs. Reeser were right...shout out to Crystal who remembers those days)




Trash-head and Ava Tolbs went with us!



My newest niece also went, along with her parents and her big sister Teagan! She hasn't gotten to get out with us much yet, so we were glad to see her make it!

Chad and Teagan! Teagan was so excited, yet I think she was a little freaked out by Dora and Diego.

The scavenger hunt has begun! Gentlemen, start your magnifying glasses!

(I love this picture)

Also note their compass rings so they could determine their coordinates inside the Mcwane Center!

Huett loves to play on the computer and that was no different while we waited in line for dinner!

Flashbacks from the classic movie "Big", anyone?

The giant lite-brite was pretty cool, too

Sam was hard at work at the "styrofoam factory" or whatever you want to call it!

Teagan was his trusty assistant! Always there to lend a hand at the rotating belt of styrofoam loaves!

Huett was in the mist tornado-making machine...it's pretty cool, too!

But the real fun began when Mikey took to the weather machine!!

Undertaker, You're Gonna burn in Hell!!! haha

This is what I get to wake up next to everyday...don't be jealous!

They had this cool thing where you can stand in front of the green screen like a newsman and move around with the picture on the screen. This was Chad, playing on the drums. It was pretty funny and I think this was the hardest we laughed all night!

Here, after much begging for uncle Chad to get off the toys, the kids had their chance!

This is the captured image of big sis trish holding Taiden for the FIRST time... can you believe that. Taiden is two and a half months old!Some aunt she is... I'm kidding!!

Ava, the paleontologist. She was excavating for a dinosaur bone!

Sam was too, they crack me up in these goggles. Hilarious!

Teagan in the amazing shrinking room!

WATER FIGHT!

By this point, the boys were starting to get tired, as evidenced by their glazed over stares!

At this stop, you put these very fashionable head bands on and it measures your brain waves. Supposedly whoever is the most relaxed will send their ball into their opponents goal. Sam was tired and throwing a fit because he was losing so Trisha was trying hard to make her brain activity go up and she was shaking her head and talking really fast and it was pretty funny! It worked, and Sam finally won!

I wish I had a video of Trisha trying to let him win. It was so funny!

Ava got all nervous and giggly and wouldn't sit on the bench by herself.

For whatever reason, she would only sit with Diego, and she doesn't even watch that cartoon...go figure.

Huett and Sam climbed right up and posed for the pictures! They are just getting so big.

It was a lot of fun and we would definitely do it again. It was our first "special event" at The McWane Center and I can't wait for the next one!

textual abuse

Everyone pause for one second whilst I hoist myself onto my soapbox.

I don't know how many of you watch sixteen and pregnant...I know my Mother-in-law does(shout out to Regina), so she'll know what I'm talking about, but I'll fill the rest of you in. This is a show that details the lives of girls who get pregnant at sixteen, and how they, their families, and their boyfriends deal with the emotional stress that it entails.

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Well, a few weeks ago, the episode was about a girl named Chelsea. She lives with her dad, who seems to be financially stable and very supportive. She was a cheerleader, lots of friends, you know, normal high-school stuff. So basically, she gets pregnant by her boyfriend and at first, he kinda seems supportive, but insanely jealous. Like he got really mad b/c she went to a party, one he TOO had plans to attend, but was all mad(like really mad) because she arrived before he did, even though he NEVER asked her to go with him! When the baby was born, she was in the hospital for several days( he only visited once). When the mom finally brought the baby home, (without his help, I might add), he got all mad because she wouldn't leave the baby at home to go "partying"! He said, and I quote, "Can't your mom just watch her?!?" And in a moment of surprise maturity, Chelsea told him, It's not that she WON'T watch her,it's that I DON'T want to leave her yet! At this point, the score is something like Chelsea 3 Adam-1!

Well, just to prove a point, he takes it even further.

The baby is now a few months old, and really cute, I might add, and Chelsea calls Adam to ask him if he cares to see the baby. Just like every other time she asks him this, he gets all pissed off and says that this is all she ever talks about(Of course it is you idiot, she is LIVING with the baby like a responsible adult, and when you have a newborn, that is ALL you can think about!!!) Anyway, he follows up by sending this cruel, mean, indespicable text:


I mean, even I teared up on this one! The behavior of the majority of the young men on these shows is abhorrent! As the mother of three young sons, I pray pray PRAY that we are never in this situation, but if it comes, I would hope that they would handle it with a little more class and integrity than these guys.
In a sign of genius, for once, MTV has made an extreme point not to glamorize teen pregnancy. I have watched this show for two seasons and only ONE couple seemed even remotely capable of co-parenting(Catelynn and Tyler for those of you who watch), and they were the very ones who gave their baby girl up for adoption in a true selfless act, which, I might add, had a whole other world of emotional stress of it's own.
MTV has also coined this type of abuse "Textual abuse" and went on to warn the dangers of such negative behavior(that is another pat on the back MTV)

What, you say, is my point?
Well, I was on a blog about MTV shows, just surfin' the web like I do, when I came upon a poll that asks your opinion of the text Adam sent to Chelsea: Here it is verbatim(I copied and pasted)


Adam's text to Chelsea was:
Intentionally cruel. He doesn't deserve compassion.

6%
An immature slip. Kind of understandable considering the pressure he was under.

94%


WHHHHAAAAA??
This must be some kind of mistake, right? Surely our teens, who I am presuming were the majority of the voters(I doubt their target audience was a twenty-six year old married nurse with 3 kids), are smart enough to know that this behavior is unacceptable under ANY amount of stress, no matter how big or small!
Either that, or Adam's family hit up the website like crazy to skew the results!
I am just appalled at the fact that our teens would vote so overwhelmingly that this kind of thing was OK?!?
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Whose with me?
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I was all upset about healthcare, and now THIS!

spring is almost sprung

Never have I ever been so stir-crazy and ready for spring to arrive.

At the first sign of Spring we headed out to the park on an adventure.

I think I was just as excited as the kids were!

First, we headed down the big hill from the park to the walking trail.
I have a tendency to forget just how steep this hill is until I'm actually in the middle of it.

Mikey headed down first needless to say, he was faster than I am.

No, this is not a picture of my husband vandalizing the local scenery with our sons name...

he has a habit of that...

Sam kept jumping the ditches!

Hiding from Aunt Trish behind the recently vandalized rock.

Huett and Ava were racing...Huett won!

Here they are with their newly acquired walking sticks. I told them that every good adventure needs a walking stick!

The ducks were out and about! There was only one swan. Is that normal?

In a moment of insanity, Mikey agreed to let Huett and Sam cross the rock wall. Huett did it all by himself but Sam needed a little help. That water is disgusting but we all would've been in it if one of them had fell. I used to cross it all the time when I was little and I survived but I still don't like to see them doing it.

Mikey was instructing him and they were doing very well.
Look at the concentration on their faces.

Ava did it too. She was as brave as the boys were.

Huett wanted to do it over and over but my nerves couldn't take it!

Trisha and Ava, wilderness women!

We kept trying to get the ducks to come close to us, but they just weren't into it!

Thank goodness no one fell in and we were able to obey the sign!

What a pretty picture!

Mikey was helping Ava cross the monkey bars. This is as close to a daughter as he'll get and I think he makes the most of it!

Uncle Mike (that's what Ava calls him) steals a kiss!

Now we've had a stretch of cold weather again,

but I say

bring on Spring!

Nana's 80th Birthday Party

Martha Hodgson Huett turned eighty years old on Sunday, March 14th 2010!

To celebrate, her sons, daughter-in-laws, and grandchildren threw her an eightieth birthday bash!

A dear friend of the family, Rhonda Willis, did the catering pro bono, which we are forever grateful for!
She was also responsible for the beautiful flowers and assorted decorations.

The cake, which was my favorite part of the night, was made by a friend of Rhonda, who also made my wedding cake, and it was delicious!

We've been planning the party for quite some time now. Nana has been beside herself with excitement looking forward to the big day!

Before the party I went around to make pictures of all the decorations. Her cake was so perfect for her, and it matched the "spring" theme perfectly!

She received a lot of heartfelt cards and notes! She's a well-known and well-loved woman.

This was the place setting at the center table!

This is one of the floral arrangements that were placed on each of the round tables!

There were well over one-hundred and fifty people there!

Nana has touched a lot of lives in her eighty years!

Don't the colors look so happy and inviting! I'm loving the spring accents!

Here is a picture of Sam and his big cousin Hannah

When we pulled up at the party Mikey said, "Is that Hannah? She looks like a grown woman?", and he was right. She did look grown even though I think she's only thirteen!

Trisha and Ava and Archer were obviously in attendance! Isn't Archer just becoming such a little man?

He's ready for Easter in this big-boy outfit!

Dad and Teagan were excited to be there!

Huett and Ava (and Sam and Teagan) ran wild most of the party. Hopefully they didn't disrupt the party too bad, and Nana didn't seem to mind. Since she was the guest of honor, her opinion is what mattered most, right?

Here's a close up of her beautiful cake!

This was the cheese/crackers/ dips table

Meatballs, chicken fingers, sausage balls and pasta salad!

Sandwiches and FRUIT! Yummy beautiful fruit fresh from the Farmer's Market!

It was so vibrant that it deserved a close up!

Nana was actually dancing a little dance while we sang Happy Birthday, and she went on to give a short mini-sermon on life and how to live it!

She is the oldest of seven brothers and sisters who are all still alive and thriving!

(I hope we tapped into their gene pool...I definitely got the facial profile, but I digress)

Nana has traveled to every continent except for Antarctica (duh!) and Australia. She has been on numerous mission trips all over the world! She even went so far as to smuggle Bibles across the border into a communist country that will remain unnamed! Brave huh?

She raised four wonderful sons who have gone on to provide her with twelve grandchildren and ten great grandchildren(if my math is correct). Her "seed" as she refers to it when she prays for us all everyday, can be found all over Alabama, up north to New York City, all the way to Africa(My Uncle Mark and his wife Leah are missionaries there for the next year and a half).

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I can't think of one person that has come even remotely close to our family that doesn't have a funny story or inspiring memory that includes Nana!

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She went on a blind date with my Grandfather, and he gave her a false name..."Jimmy"(his real name was Clarence). She followed "Jimmy" all the way to California on a Greyhound bus and as far as we all know, they were together ever since!

(she also went on The Price is Right and won cleaning supplies all those years ago)

I can remember having to talk her out of riding the skycoaster with me in Panama City when I was in high school(Thanks April for reminding me!)

Anyway,

She prayed for my grandfather everyday until he became a Christian right before he passed away, and she had us all right there along side her!

She has done more in the years since she retired than most people will do in a lifetime and she hasn't slowed down much since then either!

I know just how blessed we all are to have such a strong, Christian matriarch to look up to, and I continue to keep doing just that!

Happy Eightieth Birthday...and here's to forty more**

**Nana always tells us that she will live to be one-hundred and twenty because that is what God has limited us to here on Earth!

Who knows, she may do just that!

What a Birthday party that will be!

Until then...