The Weiner is LEAH

Congrats to Leah. She is the Winner of the 100th blog game. Leah please email your address for your grand prize. I really wanted the winner to post a picture of what they won once they got it but I guess since you are cameraless then I will have to post the picture myself after you get the prize.

Just for fairness I want you to know that I wrote all the names on pieces of paper, put them in a box, and let Noah pick the 'weiner' hee hee. Kelsea was a witness as to there was no cheating involved.

Thanks for reading the blog. I will start posting more again for I have exciting stuff going on all the time.

love ya
echoeve

The most terrible picture ever!!

This is the worst picture of me I think I have ever seen in my whole life. I realize some of you would not know it was me, then again I think I am the only one surprise by how yucky I look. Lynsey put this on her blog. Thank alot Lynsey. If I would have had this picture when I did the 13 reasons it sucks to be fat I would have put it there.

Have a great weekend yall, and don't forget to sign up for the giveaway.

Christopher and School

School is really tough for Christopher. Chris and I went to a meeting today to find out about getting some extra help for him. I am so pleased with all the things our school has to offer. I just know that Christopher is in the right place. I am so excited for him to have a plan in place.

I am so glad that I have a follower as well.


I am going tonight to talk about how I do the family vacation books, and how that helps bring our family together. I hope all goes well. I am sure it will be a ton of fun. Wish yall could be present. I will type up a blog about it.

love yall

100th post

Well this is my 100th post. I have really come to enjoy my blog. I also like to look at everyone else's blog. I am not good at leaving comments and I am really going to work on that.





In honor of my 100th post I would like to do a giveaway. So, I thought and thought what can little oh me giveaway that anyone would want.




The answer is 'it's a mystery gift'

Just know that it will not be chocolate, because chocolate is to hard to ship this time of year. Now at Christmas time I will look into Sarris being a giveaway, but as for now it is not candy.

These first 100 posts were alot of fun. I have talked about my children, my family, my friends, and vacations. I have complained about my husband, and I have said good things about my husband. I saw three concerts.
I have cried alot and laughed even more. I really enjoyed getting to know others, but more that anything I like to keep in touch with my family and friends.

This contest is open to everyone all you have to do is answer the following question in the comment section 'What was your favorite post?'. You cannot enter more than once. If you do not have a blog and you want to enter you can post as Anonymous and leave your name. I will leave the contest open until Sunday September 14, 2008 midnight eastern time.

Love yall and I cannot wait to hear from yall.
Echoeve

The Shack

On the back of this book it says:

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

Now for what I think of this book. I thought the book was WONDERFUL. At the very beginning I was like whatever. but then he gets to the 'shack'. The shack was when the magic started. Still even the beginning of the shack part I was feeling like I can't really believe this. Remember the book isn't asking you to believe the story. You need to feel the story. You need to reflect on what it is saying. It asks you to think about how you veiw this world, and your place in this crazy life. I don't want to ruin this by telling you excatly what was in the book, but just know that for me it was totally worth my time.

*****Stay tuned for my 100th post giveaway. It will be next and it will be good!*****

Fun Fabulous Factual Friday (Radio Edition)

I love the Radio. I listen to the radio online at work because we are in middle of the basement and get no reception.
On with the story.


John, Dave, Bubba, Shelly, or some similar combination ruled Pittsburgh mornings for the better part of 10 years.

Some memories about Bubba:

Steelers playing the Seahawks this week:

The B morning show once had Bubba rub his rear end on the midfield logo on the air to bring the Steelers good luck for Sunday.

The Steelers then lost to the Seahawks that Sunday, and "Bubba's Unlucky Butt" was coined.

So they sent him to Cleveland where he snuck/trespassed into their stadium one morning to have him rub his butt on anything that said Browns while chanting "CLEVELAND SUCKS!"... while the entire Browns team was within earshot, practicing on the field. Good times.

I can still remember Bubba swimming across the river when it was freezing cold out. The rest of the show watched from their nice, warm studios that used to sit on top of Mount Washington; I always looked forward to Halloween and the morning show staying over night at a haunted place with Mr. Charles (psychic) and Bubba ALWAYS becoming possessed with a spirit.


We lived on top of a mountain with a lot of trees. So, when we were at home we couldn’t pick up B94 all the time. However, every morning we would get on the bus at 6:30am and listen to B94 all the way to school. We would get to school at 7:15am. Then after school we would listen to B94 from 2:30 pm until we got off the bus just before 4:00pm.
(Yes I know it is a long time on the bus, but we had to stop and pick up the elementary)

The first couple of times I went from Georgia to Pennsylvania to visit I knew I was getting close when I could pick up B94 on the radio. Then on one of our trips home I turned on B94 when I knew we were close enough and ….. it was gone. Just gone. I remember being really upset about it. I needed to find out what happened. The answer was nothing happened it was just gone. It was sad.

Then today as I was clicking on my internet radio I decided that if it was gone where did Bubba go? I mean he was the funniest, and sometimes I need a lot of funny.
So Hello Google. And guess what. B94 is back. Well its alittle different but for the most part it is back and they are on the internet.

http://b94.com/The-B94-Morning-Show-with-Buck-Head-and-Bubba/1476970

Buckhead and Bubba from 7am – 10am. I am looking forward to listening.
I see a new day is dawning. Hee Hee


Most of the time I listen to Bob and Sheri in the morning, and they are okay. However, sometimes you just need something different, and sometimes I like to listen to really new popular music.

Anyway, another of my favorites is from Charolette, NC. They are on from 10-2pm

http://candyandpotter.1079thelink.com/index.cfm?

I love Candy and Potter. I think they are so funny. They do a phone scam everyday at Noon. If nothing else you must tune in for that. Or you could just click on this link to listen

Hair Loss Phone Scam

Or
Telemarketing Phone Scam

http://candyandpotter.1079thelink.com/archive/audio.cfm;jsessionid=a630ce23d0228edfa2cc1a3f23306c5d1161


I thought the Phone Scams were so funny that when they sold a CD of them at Christmas time to raise money for charity I bought two of them. I gave one to Leah before she left and I still have the other.

By the way I am coming up on my 100th post. I want to give a give away. Stay tuned.

13 things 'Why it sucks being fat'

As you know I had lap band surgery on May 29, 2008. I went to see my Dr. yesterday and to weigh in. I have lost another 8lbs, for a total of 34 lbs.

I realize that I still have 195 lbs. to go, but I still feel like I deserve a pat on the back.
For those of you who do not think this is great Do you have any idea what 34 pounds is?

34 lbs of cocaine has a street value costs over 1 million dollars

A bag of 5000 wheat pennies weighs 34 lbs

Huggies Mega Pull-Up Training Pants fit boys with weight between 18 and 34 lbs.

I think you get the picture now.

This brings me to a post I have been meaning to write for sometime now.

13 things ‘Why it sucks to be fat’

1.) I hate to wait in line at the Amuzement Park to only find out when I get to the ride I won’t fit.

2.) I don’t like when we go to a restaurant and I don’t know if I will fit in the booth, I always ask for a table but some places don’t have tables, or they don’t have a lot of tables.

3.) I get frustrated when I come out of a place of business and a car as parked to close to my car and I can’t open the door wide enough to get in. I know this happens to others, but the frustrating part is me going in on the passenger side, and trying to climb over to the driver’s side. This is not a pretty picture.

4.) I just want to be able to buy clothes from a regular store. Nothing fancy. I would be happy to go into Wal-Mart or Kmart or JC Penney’s or any store for the matter.

5.) I worry when we go to the movies or concerts. I worry that not only will I be taking up the little bit of room I have, but that I am hanging over on to my friends room, or worst yet taking up a complete strangers room who is not very nice.

6.) I fret over airplanes. First of all I know going in that the seat belt will not fit and I will have to ask for an extension. I don’t ask for one because listen if the plane is in enough trouble to actually throw me around in the plane we are not going to survive anyway. I also think that the seats on the plane are so small. I know that I am taking up some of the other person’s space.

7.) Meeting new people makes me feel strange at times. I mean I know what they are thinking. They are thinking oh my how did she let herself get like that.

8.) People think that they are helping by trying to tell me how to loose the weight. I mean seriously I have been on every diet. My theory is if you really want to know how to loose weight ask a fat person they have tried it all.

9.) I just don’t feel good about myself. I mean my husband has never made me feel bad about all the weight I have put on. (thank goodness) But I am a smart girl. If I don’t like the way it looks, or feels than I know he cannot like the way it looks, or feels.

10.) We had a thing happen this weekend where a kid was mean to my children. I asked him to take me to his parents. He said no and started to walk away. I said come here right now. He said no. I started to walk towards him and he started running. Do I look like a person who can or would run. No. I just want to keep up with my kids or someone else’s when I have to.

11.) I want to wear the right size shoe. My feet had actually gotten fatter. I can really tell now that I am down 34 pounds because my sandal is starting to come off of my foot when I walk.

12.) If I ever fell down, or fell out of a raft while river rafting, or had to pull myself out of a burning car, or anything like that I want to know that 1 someone could get me 2 I could help myself 3 that later on in some break room some one would not start to tell a story that went something like ‘did you see that fat women this morning…..’

13.) I just really want to be comfortable in my own skin. I want the way I think I look, feel, and act to match what I see in the mirror.

I know that loosing weight will not bring world peace, or make me complete. I just think that it is a piece in my puzzle that I would like to change.

Labor Day Weekend at the R Ranch

Well as you know we were asked to go to the R Ranch with are good friends the Wallace's for Labor Day weekend. It was a really nice place. It took about 6 hrs to get there. The mountains where beautiful. The ranch is a very family friendly place. There are alot of activities, and alot of children.

We stayed in the Rainbow Cabins. We were at cabin number 807.

For those of you that wanted to see my new van here is a picture. We had the hitch put on the back and so Chris was able to carry more of our stuff.

This is the side view of the cabin. It was very small but at the same time it was just big enough.

This is the frontal view. It had a really nice fire ring, but we didn't use it because it was to hot outside. It also had a picnic table on the front porch. On the second day security said we couldn't had the towels on the front porch. They didn't give a reason we just had to take them down.

This is a picture of what the loft looked like from the bottom floor. It was really shiny. It was very nice.



This is the kitchen. It only had a 2 burner stove top, a dorm fridge, and a small sink. We brought the rest of what we needed except we had to borrow a knife, and a big spoon. Kim was also nice enough and picked my stuff up at WalMart. I know I said the cabin was small but we loved it. You really knew you were in the mountains. It was a great rustic feeling. No TV, No Phone, Nothing but family friends and relaxing. I loved it.

We went over to Robbie and Kim's campsite and the kids played in the creek. Noah comes back and says Mama I need 11 cents so I can buy a crab. I said Noah you don't need to buy a crab you can catch one. He was so excited. I guess some of the children were trying to sell their treasures from the creek.






Bethany wasn't to sure about getting in the creek. She can be such a city girl.

Christopher on the other hand can't get enough of the creek. Noah and Christopher love anything that is wet, muddy, or gross.

Once she got in she said it was kinda good.

I do not know why, but Christopher, and Noah think that rocks are treasures. They wanted to bring them home.

This is a horrible picture of me. However, I think that you should know that this picture really shows to sides of myself. One side is I love to play activity director for my family and I am check out the activity flyer. Second, I love the Nintendo DS. I love love love the Zelda game. I can't get enough of it. My goal was to keep Christopher busy so I could play his DS. It worked most of the time. On Sunday night the DS needed charged. So after everyone went to bed I sat out in the van from 11pm until 1:55am playing the DS. Yes it was dark, and yes I have watched to many scary movies in my life because I was really afraid. When I decided to get out of the van and go into the cabin I was really running. I kept thinking that something was lurking and it was going to get me. Of course nothing was there and everything was fine, but that didn't stop me from being afraid.

We got up at 8:15 am on Monday and we had everything and everyone packed and ready to go by 9:00am. I think that is a record for us. We went to a really great breakfast place called Danny's Fine Dinning. The dinning wasn't really 'fine' it was more of what I call 'down home'. The food was awesome. Noah wanted 2 pancakes and 1 egg. I told him he could have 1 pancake and 1 egg. Bethany got 2 pancakes. Well Noah finished his whole breakfast. Bethany didn't finish all of hers. So, Noah went over and slid his plate in front of himself and said 'Now watch how I break this down.' He than finished all of her pancakes. (I think she had a whole pancake left.) I just don't know how he didn't get sick.

On the way home we stopped at the Bass Pro Shop. I think it was larger than any Bass Pro Shop. It was bigger than our WalMart. WOW. My husband was in hog heaven. I got him a pair of camo Crocs, a beach towel with a deer on it, and he bought this lovely outfit.

Doesn't he look like something off of a Scooby Doo cartoon.

I think he should go as a tree for Halloween.




Now a couple of things about the Ranch. We loved it. I am just not sure if we love it enough to become owners. I mean when would we drive 6 hrs just for the weekend. Then again Chris really loves to hunt in the mountains. Maybe if we went like 4 times a year and he went up there to hunt 2 times a year. I don't know. Maybe we will just be invited as guests again.

The Book "Kirkland Family Vacation 2008"

The book is finished. I am so excited. I cannot hardly wait. I hope it doesn't take long to arrive.

As most of you know who really read my blog. We went on a family vacation to the Outer Banks this summer with the Kirkland Family. It was great fun. I posted about it in June for anyone who would like to read about it. However, if you are not the reading type or you would like to know more please check out our book.
http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDFgxaOGLNq0bgJkAz1E


Is not that the coolest thing. I think it is a great book. I think the pictures are wonderful, and the captions are very cute and funny. I know you will love it just take time to look at it.