Party in the U.S.A.

Last weekend it was a big Party in Florida because I was in town.

This is a group shot from my welcome dinner. Most of Carolyn's friend groups are represented. She is involved in so many organizations and activities that there are plans to vote her homecoming queen next year!


We were asked many times who was older. I think that most of her friends thought I was younger because I am shorter, but I will take it as a compliment.

I got to see some HATTER Softball

Before heading to.......

with these awesome friends. We are already making plans to travel to a game next year.
The Florida/Arkansas game was heart wrenching. We were not so happy with the outcome, but neither were the SEC officials.

One of my favorite moments from the game is when a Florida fan behind us yells, "Since Arkansas has razors on their backs, they need to have their backs waxed!" That one was new to me... and the last time I checked gators did not have smooth backs themselves.


Back in DeLand I explored downtown


where I would not want to face the Chief of Police, Chief Slaughter:

Then we made a little road trip to shop for yard decorations. Too bad I was flying, so I could not make a purchase!



This is Carolyn's dorm. I would spend a lot of time on the porch if I lived there.

This campus just has a Florida feel to me.

Leaving on A Jet Plane

I'm going to Florida later today, and Carolyn has practice so one of her friends is picking me up from the airport. I don't know her friend, so it makes me think of when Martha flew to visit me in Fayetteville a few years ago.

I had class, so Cofer and Nicole graciously agreed to pick Martha up for me although they had never met Martha. The thing is, Martha was only 14 at the time, so she had to be accounted for by the flight attendent. So, not only did Cofer and Nicole drive 30 minutes to pick her up, but they also had to go to the gate and show their ID and sign for my sister.

I guess Martha must be more valuable than me since she had to be signed for...

Habitat for Humanity

I've spent a few Saturdays recently building with Habitat for Humanity. Every time I volunteer I learn some new Skillz....

This is the house at the beginning of the day with the roofing crew getting going:

Siding work on the front of the house:

Moving right along on the roof... sorry, but every picture has a bunch of butts facing me!

We took this picture after we had cut the openings for the window and outlet right the 1st time we tried. What an accomplishment! Anecia is a student at the University of Memphis who was volunteering with their Habitat for Humanity club.

All three of these women have or are getting Habitat houses. This house is Kanita's; she is on the right.

Kanita and I make quite the pair. In not one of our best moments, we set the board we were about to nail up on the top across both of our ladders and simultaneously started to go up the ladders and hit our heads on the board at the same time. Thank goodness we were wearing our hard hats! It was time to call it a day soon after that.

The roof was completed Saturday and the siding is getting there. The dedication is in 2 weeks, and they are going to have extra crews to catch up before then.


While I'm on this posting pictures of houses kick, I have to include this one a few doors down from Kanita's house. I guess it is all the yard decoration that is so interesting...

Hedgemoor

I LOVE these houses and hope you do too!

Cast Away

This past week I have been pet/house sitting for a family at the church I have grown up in. Their house is more centrally located in Memphis, cutting my commute almost in half. These were my roommates for the week, Sydney and Vincent. Sydney was my walking buddy, and Vincent accompanied me every time I used the bathroom...


The house is in a neat area, and right next to the neighborhood where a scene from Cast Away was filmed. I will show more of the cute houses in are in my next post, but I wanted to share a few shots from a scene toward the end of Cast Away and a picture I took of the same house. The family whose house I was keeping watched the scene being filmed, including the fake rain and Helen Hunt drying her hair for each take.

MASH

Last night I worked at Parent's Night Out at church. I was one of the workers with the elementary age kids, who were crazy. I was trying to come up with fun activities that would keep them corralled, so I taught a couple of 5th grade girls how to play MASH. You know, the best fortune telling as far as I was concerned in 4th and 5th grade.

I was tickled as tie-dye wedding dresses and driving school buses and marrying Oprah were predicted. Yes, Oprah. What I did not expect was that the boys got into playing MASH even more than the girls.

Trivia

I listen to FM100 on my way to work each morning. They have some kind of trivia game each morning. For the most part they ask really good questions; not so hard nobody knows the answers, but only like once a week does a contestant get all three right.

I usually get most frustrated with the answers people do not know. Case in point, this morning the final question was "In what city is Grey's Anatomy set?" I couldn't believe the woman got it wrong. It is mornings like this morning that I think I need to call in myself.

For the most part I enjoy learning new things from the trivia. A few days ago I learned what Fergie's real name is. Do you know without looking it up?