Community Easter Egg Hunt

This photo made it into the newspaper.
My little egg hunter!

We were blessed to have a church from Montgomery come down and host a huge easter egg hunt for the children of Enterprise. The boys had a blast. Dylan decided he was too big to hunt eggs, but had a blast at the inflatable batting cage. The picture of him actually made it to the newspaper and was published as an 8x10 color pic. His teacher hung it in his classroom and made him feel like a star. Riley had more fun running around and didn't seem to care about hunting eggs. He didn't even get one (even though he ran right past them). Being Riley's style he decided to leave the eggs for someone else. He came back skipping and said "mom, I didn't even get one egg and I don't even care because I had fun and that is what counts". A little girl from school felt sorry for him and shared her eggs with him.

Quarterly Update

okay....for all of you that have been asking....here it finally is. I apologize for not keeping this website up to date.....but it honestly isn't at the top of my priority list right now. I appreciate all of you who have emailed asking for the update. Let me just say that all is well here in southern Alabama. We have successfully finished out the school year and are enjoying our summer break. Taylor finished 9th grade and will be transitioning over to the high school (which is now actually the community college since we no longer have a high school here). He will be attending school for the next 2 years at the college and will hopefully be in the new high school building for his senior year. He had a great school year and was inducted into the National Honor Society for his grades. He also received an award at the Basketball Banquet for having the highest GPA amongst the basketball players. We are quite proud of his academic achievement. Dylan finished the 3rd grade and had the highest score out of the entire 3rd grade on the DIBELS test. He also received awards for All A's in Conduct all year, A/B Honor roll the entire year and for being the Student Government Representative for the 3rd grade. Riley finished kindergarten and was awarded for "Outstanding Academic Achievement", All A's in Conduct the entire year and also for being the Student Government Representative for his kindergarten class. Jeff also just graduated for the Advance Course and is eager to get back into the aircraft and start flying again. During his course he received word that his orders to Korea have been postponed until January of 2008. That gives him a few more months here at Rucker before he heads overseas.
Immediately after his course, Jeff headed to St Louis and loaded up my mom (and her dogs) and brought them down to Alabama. Mom is all settled into her new house and baking in the heat of the south. I told her one thing to keep in mind....."you never hear of anyone retiring and moving North"....so she must have made the right decision. Well enough rambling....let me get some pictures posted and get off this computer to start dinner for my hungry crew. We love ya'll and hope to hear from you soon!

A brief summary of the loss

President Bush surveys the damage in Enterprise

236 Homes totally destroyed

121 Homes with major damage

140 Homes with minor damage

99 Affected properties

5 of the 8 teens killed were from Ft Rucker families

more tornado photos

This is the actual tornado that came through E-town. It was HUGE!!!
My friend Karen lived here.
A view of the high school from the air.

A view of one of the neighborhoods in Enteprise.

more tornado photos

What is left of the gymnasium.....this is where Taylor has 6th period everyday. One hour later and he would have been there! Yikes!
A view of the school from the parking lot
This van was just dropped in the middle of the field
A view of the neighborhood surrounding the school

Tornado rocks E-town

These steps are where I pick Taylor up every day from football.

School parking lot Another view of the parking lot
This is Taylor's weight lifting room (or what was the weight lifting room...it is not gone)

Another photo!

What a day in Enterprise....there were lots of tears & lots of prayers....the tornado hit Taylor's school (where Dylan & Riley were sitting inside with Taylor) and continued on up the road to the high school. We are all heart broken by the devastation...please pray for our town!

Sports Banquet

The Enterprise Jr High school acknowledged all of their athletes with the annual Sports Banquet. Here are a few snapshots of Taylor/Morgan and some friends at the awards ceremony/dance.

The Sleepover

Here are a few snapshots of the sleepover. It was all the talk when the boys returned to school on Monday and Taylor said kids were coming up to him asking him to please invite them to his next sleepover. Of course, there was plenty of football being played.....

Taylor Birthday

For Taylor's 15th birthday, he invited some friends from the football team over to spend the night. The boys had a blast playing video games, eating pizza, sitting around the fire, and hanging out (with the "hot" girls that live 2 houses over). On Saturday we took Taylor an Morgan down to Mikata for his birthday dinner. The sang Happy Birthday in Japanese and brought him out a pineapple boat for his birthday.

Destin Beach/ Jan 07

It is so nice to be able to hang out on the beach in January! The water was too cold to swim obviously...but the kids had a great time just playing in the sand and getting their feet wet in the water!

Christmas 05

Christmas 2006

Taylor - 14

Dylan - 9

Riley - 6

Bass Pro Shop

Riley at the Bass Pro Shop down in Destin, Fl. We took the kids (the boys & Morgan) down to Desting to do a little shopping and spend some time on the beach. It is so nice being close to the beach and having warm weather just about all year round. I do miss Alaska still, but I'll admit...I am loving it in the south.

Game Night

Just a quick snapshot of a night of playing pit with some friends. We all went down to Chili's for dinner and then back to our house for a game of pit with Tim/Kim Waters and Rodney Dean.

Enterprise Wildcats Freshmen Basketball Team

Here is a photo of the Wildcat's Freshmen Basketball Team.....Taylor is #40 (and taller than the coach...ha ha). The coach works with me over at Pinedale Elementary as the PE Teacher so lucky him...he has all 3 of my boys! It is so hard to believe that Taylor is a freshmen.....just turned 15 on Feb. 10th....and oh yeah....he has his permit and is driving now....I can tell you all kinds of funny stories with that already...but I am just working on the updates for now!

Go Wildcats!!!!!!

Update

Okay...we haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Sorry to all of those who have emailed me asking for the update! I just haven't made the time to sit down and work on this. I really should be up doing laundry now....but to please all you demanding friends who are harassing me about updating the blog....I am sitting here working on it now! Just kidding...you all know I really love ya!!!
Ok....not much new here in LA (Lower Alabama). School...Sports...Church....Work...you all know the routine by now! Let me go find some pics and I will give you a brief update!
By the way.....somehow I deleted all the digital photos off my camera card (which had about 3 months of photos on it) which is one big reason I haven't been on here to update. But...I will include what I have left. I learned a big lesson.....and promise you that won't happen again.
now...off to find the pics for ya'll.
MMwwwahhhh!! Love ya'll!

What a Turkey!

Just wanted to share a personal achievement that I achieved this past weekend. As many of you know, I started running back in January of this year. I started out by running 1/4 of a mile and walking the rest until I had completed 4 miles. I slowly increased my distance by 1/4 of a mile each week and by summer time I was running 4 miles five to seven days a week. I continued this pace up until I had my surgery in July. Then I had a major set back as I couldn't do any excercise for a full 6 weeks. After that I had to slowly build my running back up. My goal was to run a 5k to start with and then set a higher goal after accomplishing a 5k. Well, Saturday I got my opportunity to run my first 5k Turkey Trot run.....and much to my amazement I came in First Place for my age category. I was extremely shocked. Thanks to my wonderful coach....who pushed me harder than I have ever ran before. I received a nice trophy and was excited to take it to school today and share it will all my kids to try to motivate them. I am looking forward to my next run on December 2 when I will be running the Jingle Bell run with a few of my friends.

Go Raiders!

Riley's football team finally finished out their season. He was blessed to have a wonderful coach, Garrett Griffin, who also happens to be the PTO President at our school and the husband of one of my co-workers. The Raiders were undefeated the entire season and went on to win the City Championship without losing a single game. We celebrated with a pizza party at Pizza Hut were the boys received their trophies and awards. I will post the newspaper a little later!

Congratulations to the Raider team and a big Thanks to the wonderful coaches! Way to go guys! We are very proud of you all!

Go Wildcats!

Just wanted to share Taylor's good news! Taylor found out Friday that he made the Enterprise Wildcats 9th grade basketball team. He was very excited and proud to have made the team and rightfully so. They had 53 boys try out for the team and they only selected 20 of those boys. Congratulations Taylor...we are so proud of you!!!

What a week!

Wow...hard to believe how fast this week has flown by! Just a quick update on the Mouser gang. Football and soccer are officially over for Taylor.....but now it is on to basketball. We actually had one free night this week (where two football games and a soccer game got cancelled due to weather) and we almost didn't know what to do with ourselves. It was so strange to have a weeknight at home with nothing scheduled. We enjoyed a family dinner and watched the Cardinals play some ball. Riley's football team is doing really well and they are undefeated at this point. We have a big game on Tuesday against the Cowboys and they are the other undefeated team so it should be a fun game to watch. Dylan is finishing up with soccer, but he now got selected to play on the Ft Rucker All Star team. He was very excited about being chosen and can't wait to play in the tournaments. He is hoping they make it all the way up to state level. He has been going with me to the track right after school to do some running and then he works on some moves with the soccer ball while I finish up. I have been dealing with Staph infection this week. It actually started on Saturday with what I thought was a spider bite, but then it consistently spread each day. Yesterday I went to the doctor and he did a swab test to confirm that it was indeed staph infection. I acquired it from one of my co-workers at school and we are hoping that it doesn't start an epidemic at our school.
Now for the laughs of the week! Kids are definitely the greatest gift from God and they sure can make life so much fun. Monday, Riley's teacher called me aside and said "I just have to tell you this. We were working on our words today and one of our new words was HOT. Riley raised his hand and said I know what that means. Girls are hot! She said well what does hot mean, Riley? He said I am not sure, but I know girls are hot and boys aren't. His little friend Levi raised his hand and said I know. It means they are cute because my girlfriend is hot."
Oh yeah...another good one from Riley. Friday Taylor's girlfriend Morgan was at the house. They were playing Xbox with Riley in the room and Taylor tried to sneak a kiss in on Morgan. Riley (fulfilling his job as little brother) loudly proclaims..."UH...Excuse me....do you two not see me sitting here???"
And...the laugh of the week from Dylan. Remember the guys all went to Wild Adventures this weekend. Well in packing to come back home Jeff put some of their clothes into Dylan's backpack. Well Tueday morning I was in the teacher's work room and Dylan stopped in to see me. He said "oh mom...I forgot to tell you....when I was on the bus yesterday I found a pair of dad's underwear in my backpack. So I decided to be Captain Underpants and put dad's underwear on and tied my red hoodie around my neck like a cape and then walked around the school like that". I said "Dylan...those underwear were probably dirty." He said, "no they weren't". I replied..."how do you know that?". He says...."because I smelled them mom". I was rolling on the floor laughing and of course the principal and vice principal had to walk up and hear the whole story. What a boy thing to do!!!!!!
Well enough for now....I hope you got a few chuckles....I have a few more good stories from this week....but the Cardinals are playing ball so I am going to get off this computer and go check out the game.

Boys weekend out

I guess you had to be there for this one.....I have no clue!!!

The boys.....representin'

Best Buds!

"I'm a little teapot"

AAAHHHH....whaatt'sss upppp.....Mmmrrr. Jjjjeeeffff!!!!!

This past weekend the boys had a guys weekend out. Jeff and Tim took all the boys to Valdosta, GA for a trip to Wild Adventures. Of course, any guys weekend out wouldn't be complete without a meal at Hooters. While the guys were away, I got quite a few small projects completed around the house and hosted a girls night out at my house on Saturday evening. We had so much fun that we decided to do it again on Nov. 4th and make it a sleepover this time.