Happy Birthday Tanner!!

Yeah, I know, it was yesterday, but we celebrated it today after we got back from the Fair! We did have cupcakes yesterday (or they did rather, I hate sweets)... I took cupcakes to Tanner's class as well, which I guess they ate during their lunch period...

Tanner wanted a hamster for his birthday, so here he is with it... Not sure how that will work out, but Tanner LOVES it!

He wanted a bike as well, not sure why, since the bike he has is not really all that old, but, that's what he wanted...

About to sing Happy Birthday and dive into the cake...

Eight years old! They grow up quick!

Carolyn ordered some Bionicle stuff for him off of Ebay, but it has not arrived yet, so Tanner is anxiously awaiting the mail delivery on Monday... :)

The Rest of the Fair Pics...

Still not sure why it won't let me load more than a few at a time...

The birthday boy!

Taylor would not ride any of the rides the guys did, so either Carolyn or I had to take her to ride the kiddy rides, which she enjoyed immensely...

We all rode the Carousel, although the boys were like, yuck! Taylor LOVES it!

Tanner rode a few of the kid rides with Taylor, although it was kind of funny hearing him tell Chance and Nate that the only reason he rode those 'stupid' rides was because I told him to... :)

North Georgia State Fair...

So today we made our annual trek to the Fair (of course it's not really a trek, since we drove)... The kids wanted to take one of their new friends who moved in recently behind us, so we took Nate as well. For some reason, we didn't take nearly as many pictures as we normally do, of course we were only there for about 3 hours anyway... These types of affairs suck the money right out of your wallet... Anyway, here are some of the pics we did take:

Taylor giving one of the games a shot...

For some reason, no one would ride this except Nate and I...

Waiting to get off this ride...

Chance and Nate before the ride started...

Nate giving it a shot...

41 Days...

It's too bad that the vast majority of Americans are as stupid as they are... It's already a circus... Wait until after the November elections... It will get much worse... This is why I could never run for office, these people are harping on things some of these people did when they were in high school...

The nasty politics have just begun, and trust me, they will get MUCH worse as the 41 days dwindle down... So the Dems may gain control of the House or the Senate, the nasty stuff you see right now, forget it, it will get MUCH worse for the race to the White House in 08...

Fascinating to watch, but the American people are so freaking stupid, these crooks in DC, if they have the right PR machine and the right ad agency, can do whatever they want... Who has the most money???

Nauseating...

Vehicles...

So here's a question... Do you do your own vehicle repairs? I don't normally, but my wife's van has a busted hose, and it's not one of those hoses right in the front that is easy to get to... So I sit here and think to myself, do I go buy the eight dollar hose and attempt to do it myself, or do I take it somewhere and possibly get 'stuck' with a several hundred dollar bill??

I HATE doing car repairs with a passion!! I also HATE getting screwed by mechanics! Ahh... The dilemma continues... I guess I'll decide in the morning...

I think they intentionally put parts, like hoses, in hard to access areas, just so people will take it in rather than spend the 10 minutes to just replace it themselves with a readily availabe eight dollar part, that requires little more work than loosening a clamp on each end and replacing it... I'm sure I'll end up taking it in, but I am toying with the idea of doing it myself...

Loss...

Hard to deal with I know... Yet how many of us have lost anyone? The only person that I really knew who I've lost is Grandpa Woods. My neighbor lost her husband one month, her son the next... I can barely fathom how she feels... Sure, I can have my son cut her grass, I can have my kids take her trash down on garbage day, but do I really know how she feels? No. Although having talked to her multiple times, she is actually happy they are in Heaven. She is just irritated that she has to remain here...

Life... We all have one, it's how we live it. I've gone to Baptist churches my whole life, I've seen them get split in two for the stupidest reasons, I've seen them get divided over the most ridiculous things... Mind boggling...

I've been going to a Methodist church for the past two months, I used to dread going to church, now I find that I can't wait until Sunday comes around so I CAN go to church, and to be honest, I have not yet, after almost two months, found ANYTHING I disagree with... The people are awesome, the music is great, the message is always right up my alley...

Of course my wife is amazed that I would ever step foot in a Methodist church, but I'm so happy there. I have never been happy in a Baptist church. Not sure where this is heading, just rambling here, but wow...

I was talking to my neighbor this evening, and I was telling her how much I loved the church, she told me, "I guess us Methodist are good for something"... She was right, they got me back in church, which is where my kids need to be...

‘Jihad’ car commercial upsets U.S. Muslims

Who freaking cares?

Article...

They don't seem to give a damn when someone gets their head cut off, why people would give a damn about this, I don't know...

It's amazing the politcal correctness in this country, and it will be our downfall if it keeps up...

Ever Made a Movie??

My kids are getting into it, and I was just wondering if anyone had a favorite editing program once the film was transferred from the digital camera to the PC...

Deleted...

You know, it's gone, all it did was allow a certain person to just continually distort and blast, so her platform is gone...

Clinton goes off...

Are you kidding me??

Clinton goes off...

Umm.. Didn't Sudan offer Osama bin Laden's head to him on a silver platter? Yeah, they did, I'll find the link and post it later...

These people are going crazy because they 'thought' that the Dems would just swoop into power in the November elections... Well, you have to actually have a stand on something for that to happen... I guess it could, but I doubt it will... The Democratic party today is the classic example of a group of idiots who could care less about the American people, and they spew their hatred of Bush, that is all they care about... You CANNOT run this Great Country when your only platform is that you HATE the President...

Problem with America...

According to a recent Washington Post poll, the percentage of Americans who don't know what year the 9/11 attacks occurred is 30%, the percentage of people who don't know what day and month the 9/11 attacks occurred, ready? 5%!

The first thing that needs to be done, is go ahead and round up the 5% and ban them from voting in ANY election every again! I can almost, but just barely, see where the 30% could forget the year, well, no I can't... Not sure if their right to vote should be taken away, but how could anyone not know that as much as it is talked about??

Everyone I have ever talked to about 9/11 not only knows what they were doing, but can describe in explicit detail pretty much their whole day's activities...

Wow!!

Hugo Chavez...

What an idiot... I see people jumping on both sides of it though...

Senator Harkin defends the remarks...

Pelosi calls Chavez a thug...

RANGEL: AN ATTACK ON BUSH IS AN ATTACK ON ALL AMERICANS...

I find it all rather comical myself, two crazed lunatics, Chavez and that quack from Iran... I think they get their rocks off by seeming to 'challenge' the only Superpower there is... You know though, when you live in a cave with goats, and think that just because you 'watch and listen' to the American media that you actually 'understand' the American people? Lunacy...

I think what that idiot Chavez didn't realize is that, even if some of the people coming out against his remarks are Bush haters themselves, and could very well be doing it for political reasons, of course they LIKELY are, I don't know that anyone in Washington does anything without a political agenda, but at the end of the day, Amercians can say whatever they want about our President, but for a third world socialist dictator to come onto American soil and blast the President?? Yeah, that's going to sit well with the average American...

I've not heard of anyone call for a boycott yet of Citgo, but I have heard an awful lot of people saying they won't ever go there again, I myself haven't been to a Citgo since that moron took office... We'll see what, if any, affect it has both on Citgo and the elections in November...

I do think this will be an interesting election though...

It kind of reminds me of that idiot Osama bin Laden when he came out with that ridiculous speech just prior to the Presidential election... These people are so stupid, the only reason George W. Bush is the President is likely BECAUSE of bin Laden's speech...

Invention Quest...

So... Got an idea for a new office product? It could be worth $25K...

Staples Invention Quest...

Entrepreneur's...

It's amazing how many ideas that people come up with and they actually turn out to be successful... So if you are tired of working for the man, crank up the creativity...

http://www.lunchology.com/index2.asp

Who would think that would be a good idea? They made nearly $200K last year though...

http://www.grandmapants.com/

Chance used to have a pair of pants like this, this company made over a half a million last year selling them...

http://www.threadless.com/

T-Shirts... Just when you think the whole t-shirt market is tapped out, this company made over $6 million last year and expect to triple that number this year...

https://www.chickbait.com/index.html

Umm... Fishing lures for jewelry?? May not work everywhere, but it would likely work where I live... :)

http://www.junkboys.net/

Certainly not a new idea, but a LOT of people have started successful businesses removing people's unwanted junk...

http://www.camptrucking.com/

Huh?? Who would have thought? Revenue between $1.4 and $2.3 million??

Ideas are endless... Just need the old entrepreneurial bug I guess...

Camping Part V...

I can't believe it keeps cutting me off, whatever...

At the Laser Show, the kids love it!! Yes, I know that Chance's shirt is filthy, what can you do? He is an active child!! :)

Back from the Laser Show, fire is started, kids are roasting marshmallows...

The kids were 'telling ghost stories'... They are so funny...

I did not bring an alarm clock, this was my wake up call... I did wake up about 5:00AM, but went back to sleep... About 7:20, I heard (an unmistakable sound of a tree coming down) that is a sound that can hardly be replicated... Unless you have lived in the city all your life... I heard it start to come down, IMMEDIATELY woke up, climbed out of the tent, then heard it crash... Along with most of the other campers... Wow! It fell about 200 feet from our camp site... You want a wake up call, that will do it...

You can look at the tree and tell it is rotten, the roots were done, this tree fell literally about 200 feet away from our tent...

You know, I don't even really like camping, I would rather stay in a hotel... So we have packed the 'gear' away, not sure if we will use it again or not, we'll see... We did have a good time, but camping is not really for me... We'll use a hotel next time... :)

Camping Part IV...

Scroll down to part I, for some reason, I can only post so many photos, then it will let me post no more...

Enjoying our dinner... :)

Tanner and Chance loved this tree, they climbed it all night... Taylor begged me to 'help' her climb it, but I kept telling her that if you want to climb a tree you have to be able to do it yourself, because all I need is to 'help' one of my children up into a tree then have them fall out of it...

We got our fire ready for when we got back from the Laser Show... The funny thing is, we didn't even leave for the Laser Show until about 8:15, and our 'neighbors' started their fire before we even left... When we got back, I lighted our fire, and we had a fire going within minutes, while they were still struggling to get theirs going, and we were gone for an hour and a half... Must be that whole cabin thing, I would bet that any of my siblings could start a fire as quickly... :)

Uggh... Won't let me load any more pics... Look for post V...

Camping Part III...

Not sure why it won't let me post all this in one post, but it won't...

When you come down the mountain, if you rode the Swiss cable car up, your vehicle is about a mile away... :) There is a sign that tells you that the train arrives every 30 - 50 minutes... Luckily, it arrived like 5 minutes after we got down... When Uncle Duane, Tammy, etc were here, we actually walked down the tracks back to our vehicle... We waited this time though...

Finally got back to where we started... Got some of the homemade icecream along the way, I didn't really want any, but Chance 'thought' he did, but then decided he didn't, so I ate part of it before throwing it away... :) (Yeah, it was $5 a cone, wish he had decided before I bought it... :)

Back at the campground, the kids were dying to go swimming, so I took them... Of course the ONLY person who thought to bring a swim suit was me... So the boys had to swim in their shorts, Taylor in her clothes, they had fun though... I put one foot in the water and it was WAY too cold for me, so I sat and watched them swim...

Back from swimming, ready to grill out for dinner...

Grilling dinner, we had burgers, hot dogs and shishkibobs... It was great actually...

Uggh... On to post IV... How do you get so many photos on one post Daniel?? It will NOT let me... Oh well...

Camping Part II...

Not sure why, but it will NOT let me upload anymore photos, so here is round two...

At the top, ready to head down the mountain...

Ditto... The trek down is 1.4 miles...

Pausing to take a pic, I think these were used when they were carving the mountain...

There are many 'photo ops' on the way down, the boys seemed to like this one...

Chance and Tanner decided to climb one of the trees on the way down...

Taylor wanted to climb the tree, but could not get up into it... She wanted me to give her a 'boost', but I kept telling her, if you want to climb trees, you have to be able to get up into the tree by yourself... She didn't like the answer, but accepted it... :)

Camping Season...

So now that the weather is getting cooler at night, we decided to finally officially 'break' in our new camping gear we got last Christmas (which we have only used in the backyard one night)... So off to Stone Mountain Park we went...

Getting our stuff out of the van at our campsite... You would have thought we were going to be stranded in the wilderness for a few weeks, when it was actually only ONE night... :)

I told the kids to go start gathering firewood while I got the tent setup...

It's kind of a pain setting the tent up, but it has to be done... :)

Tent is setup, camp site is ready, kids have all claimed their 'spots' in the tent...

Of course once the camp site was prepared, what's the first thing to do when you go to Stone Mountain Park? Climb the mountain of course, but we chose to ride the Swiss cable car to the top instead and just walk down... :) Picture of the carving on the way up...

The Sobol Award...

Another $100,000 up for grabs...

www.sobolaward.com