CSS Hunley

Has anyone ever heard of the CSS Hunley? I hadn't either. It was a submarine that was used in the Civil War. You read that right-the Civil War. It's insane to think there was a submarine used in the Civil War. It was 8 men-7 "rowers" and a captain. The whole submarine was about 48' tall, 42" wide. It was insanely cramped.
The submarine was actually successful, it sunk one ship, but that same night it sunk itself-no one knows why. It wasn't found and raised until the early 2000's. All the men were still inside (well, their remains, obviously). It is still under water in a scientists lab, so we got to see it, but could not take pictures. These are the mock up's they had outside. One more insteresting fact was that there was not another successful submarine for more than 50 years after the Hunley.
This is actually the Hunley's precursor, but it was not successful as a submarine.
And that's your history lesson for today.

Boone Hall Plantation

On Monday, mom, mammaw, Abby, and I went to Boone Hall platation. It was very pretty. It is one of the oldest plantations around this area. These are some of the oldest slave houses still standing. They are made out of bricks that were made on this platation. This is the marsh behind the plantation. It used to be one of the only ways to actually get to the plantation.
This is actually the fourth house on grounds. The first one was burned in a fire, the second was destroyed by a hurricane. When the owners bought the plantation, they decided they didn't like the "look" of the third house. It didn't look "historic" enough, so she tore down the third house, and built the one that is standing today. It was built in the 1930's. It was very pretty, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

These oak trees are over 250 years old. The son of the original owner (Boone) planted these trees. It has been used in several movies.


This is one of the trees that was planted.

Vacation Pictures...finally

"Halelujah, we're finally here!!!" We got to Charleston at 12:30, but couldn't get into our house until 4:00, so we stopped at Bubba Gump Shrimp factory to have lunch. I think the kids were just excited to be out of the car!
In our lovely pool

The rest of the story...

So I was kind of disappointed that no one posted a comment asking about my $.50 streetwalker look...
Every year at school if we have someone retiring, the teachers make up a song and dance routine to send them out on a high note. We perform in front of the kids and parents on the last day of school during the awards assembly. We pull the retiring teacher down front and do a huge send off. This year our wonderful P.E. teacher of 30 years was retiring. His favorite singer is Tina Turner (have no clue why) so we decided to do a Tina song as his send off.
As you can see in the picure, I got roped in to being Tina. Not really sure how-first it was going to be Kristen, then it was going to be Lori, and then before I know it, it was me!!! They told me I could act the best, but then made fun of me for being the "whitest" Tina Turner they had ever seen. The other teachers all wore black capris, a brightly colored shirt, high heels, and a sparkly head piece (if you look, you can kind of see one of the teachers in the background of the picture) It was a very interesting dance (albeit appropriate for the kids). Hey, at least Dudley enjoyed it.
The song was as follows (sung to the tune of Proud Mary):
Left a good job in Stamping Ground
Working for the team every night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worrying bout the way things might have been

Dudley keeps on turnin'
Dudley keeps on burnin'

And he's passing, dribbling,
Shooting to retirement

If you come down to the gym
Bet you're gonna find some kids who can play
You don't have to worry, if you've got no game
The kids on the court are happy to play

Dudley keeps on turnin'
Dudley keeps on burnin'
(repeat chorus a billion times)

And now you know-the rest of the story.

We're back!!!

After a long, exhausting, fun, relaxing week, we are back home. I love vacation, but it feels so good to sleep in your own bed again. I will upload picutres soon, but in the meantime, here's a few funny stories to start out:

We had just gotten to the welcome center and were inside getting brochures and tickets and stuff. Of course, everyone had to use the restroom too. We went to the restroom and were all washing our hands. Abby was drying hers and then walked over to the trash can to throw her paper towel away. There was an older lady standing in front of the trash can, and Abby says, "Excuse me. You need to move now so I can throw this away." Of course, we all busted out laughing and after a good laugh we proceeded to tell her that saying, "Excuse me" was enough.

Every day when we went to get in the swimming pool, Abby asked "Are we on bacation?" or "When are we going on bacation?" When we finally took her to the beach, she said, "Yeah...bacation!" She knows that the beach is called the beach, but apparently we hadn't really been on a vacation until we went to the beach.

Inquiring minds

Very few people know about this story. Since we're going on vacation, I'm going to post the pictures, let you wonder for a week, and then I'll publish the story when I get back. ENJOY!

Birthday party

The birthday party

Abby is three and Caleb is one. Where did the time go? The kids loved their birthday party this year and got spoiled with love and gifts by all our friends and family. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends.

The kids got a "my first trampoline" from grandma and granddad. They LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. It's supposed to go outside, but it hasn't quite made it yet because they won't get out of it long enough for us to move it... :) Abby opening a present from Aunt Laura.
Alyce and Benjamin have been such wonderful friends to Abby. They look like triplets (only with abby being a little smaller). I hope they continue to be good friends for a long time to come.

Caleb's just happy to be here. :)

I'm a big kid now...

The better to see you with, My dear...
The better to hear you with, my dear The better to eat you with, my dear!
The better to clean you with, my dear (okay, I added this one...)

Picture Pages, Picture Pages.......

Occasionaly they can be good for the camera.......

Other times they just have to be themselves.