was fun to see.Here's Reece and Logan and some of our friends with Joy the elephant (or it may be Ladybird the elephant, I'm sorry, I don't know the difference!) After the zoo we had a picnic and then headed to Paula's to go swimming. Reece has perfected his flip off the diving board. Here he is doing it at Nadine's last week.
He has done that flip probably 50 times since last Monday!! I, of course, was a nervous wreck the first time he did it! Here is everyone at Paula's pool.
We got to take Madison S. with us for the day, so it was fun to have another girl in the van!! She is a real trooper, putting up with the Brown Boys and all their ya-yaing all day long. We had fun with Katelyn and Luke and Madison L. and Keaton (it was their pool) and Tegan. This summer has been much busier than last summer when Harry was just a butter bean and we stayed in out of the heat most of the time!
Thursday we had biscuits for breakfast at Kids Planet. I love doing that. It's cooler and there aren't as many kids there earlier in the day. We met the Allings (actually we met 4 of the Allings: 
Missy, Brayden, Cade and Toby and Duston) and had a great time. Here is Cade in the bunny peek out and Harry in the swing...I have a picture of Garett and Logan in the same swing at the same age. If I get ambitious, I'll find all 3 picture and post them together one day. I'll have to search the archives! 
Afterwards, we got to go visit Beba for a few minutes before she had to go to an appointment. The Boys' "cousins" were there-TJ and Meredith's 2 children/dogs, Rusty and Sadie. I'll have to get a picture of the Boys with them...they are all too cute together, if you can get them to be still!
Fridays are my new favorite day. Why, you ask? Because I get to have 5 Boys with me on Fridays (well, on Saturday and Sunday too!)! Rhett is working just 4 days a week and so our weekend starts on Thursday night!! Yea! We love having an extra day to be together and get things done so there's more time for fun on the real weekend!
Saturday Rhett and I had a date night! It's a wonderful surprise when you have FABULOUS friends that actually ASK if they can keep your children! ALL 4 of your children! AT THE SAME TIME!! That's what the Batemans did on Saturday. Yes, it took 3 cars to get everyone to dinner, but we SO appreciate the effort and time that they took to spend with our Boys. I love that they make our children mind and try to instill respectful behavior in our Boys. It's wonderful! When we got back to the house, Reece and Garett were playing wii with Greg, Logan was jumping 
on the best pillow ever with Kent and Harry was eating up attention from Debbie and "Uncle Steve" as Logan has named him! Look at this pillow! That pillow that Logan is jumping onto is gigantic! He was worn out and asleep before we eve hit 290!! He LOVES jumping on it! I know for a fact that Kent was worn out from so much playing!! Here is a picture of Steve helping Harry walk-we don't allow too much of that :o) and a picture of the Boys and the Batemans. They have become such great friends to all of us and I hope that I can raise my Brown Boys in the awesome way that Debbie and Steve have raised the Bateman Boys.
Sunday night we got to do something special! Our friend Carla (who is Missy Tucker's sister and Richie's sister in law) asked if Richie and Rhett wanted to get a group together and sing at the church her family recently joined. They said yes and so Steven Somers, Mark Sears, Kent, Carla, Richie and Rhett rehearsed just one time last week and sang Sunday night at Heritage Baptist Church near downtown Greenville. It was amazing! I SO wish I had taken my camera and taken pictures and video, but God was definitely present! I have NEVER felt my heart so full as I did that night with everyone worshiping so freely. The guy that ran the sound board for the church, Chris, sang "Friend of God" with the group and tore it up (as Rhett said :o) ). Greg was there running the slides and Ted and Chad came to support the band too. I think it always makes Rhett more comfortable when Ted's around :o). This church's purpose is to minister to the homeless that live nearby and they do it SO well. Missy told us about bible school that they held last week and how they fed between 2-300 children dinner Monday-Friday nights. The band ROCKED and everyone that was there was blessed. No doubt. There were a few supporters there from Freedom (around 15-I think), but next time I will invite more. The things this church is doing is amazing. They are living for God and blessing others in ways I have only hoped to do.
Being there Sunday night got me thinking. I have been helping the preschool kids (Freedom Kids) at church sponsor a food drive for Greer Community Ministries. Well, when I went to drop off the food that was brought this last Sunday, I saw a sign that talked about the "Clothes Closet". I met the Executive Director, Randy Kemp, and he showed me the "closet". After the food drive (which by the way, we are collecting peanut butter, canned tomatoes, canned pasta, beef stew and boxed macaroni and cheese, because that is what they are asking for), I am going to have a clothing drive for children's clothes so the parent's can go "school shopping" before school starts. I'm on a mission. I'll have more info on all this later. Also while I was there at Greer Community Ministries, I signed up to be a Meals on Wheels Volunteer. I had wanted to do this earlier, but called another county and was told that they needed more of a commitment, not substitutes, like I want to be for now. It's just hard with the Boys out of school to commit long term. SO...I met Linda, and she was more than eager for me to be a sub!! The Boys and I begin on Friday. I will let you know how it goes. I'm excited for the older Boys to be a part of this as they will be taking the food to the doors with me. It's time we gave more back as a family. Laying by the pool eating bon bons and playing at the park is fun, but I want to make a difference. I want my Boys to want to make a difference. So, here's a recap of the last paragraph:
1. When we go back to Heritage Baptist Church, come with us.
2. Bring peanut butter, canned tomatoes, canned pasta, beef stew and boxed macaroni and cheese to me at the Freedom Kids Table on Sunday (or send me money and I'll go shopping for you and take it to Greer Community Ministries!).
3. Start going through your children's clothes and save them for the Clothing Drive I will be having soon. They also desperately need men's smaller sized dress pants. If you have any of those, hold on to them, I'll take those to them too.
4. Think about how YOU can make a difference in your community. Let me know what you are doing to teach your children how to give back some of the blessings they receive everyday.
As I end today, I have two pictures that I want to share only because I like them and want them to be preserved forever in my blog.
Here are my Boys. We went to have a family picture done last week and I took this while we were waiting. Everyone got to wear their favorite shirt so we do not match at all in the picture and we actually had a little bit of pattern overload, but I don't c
are. Garett won't always want to wear Hawaiian shirts so I wanted him to wear what he wanted now! This picture of Bug and I is one of my favorites! His smile is genuine and full and just like wearing his shirt, he won't always let me kiss him so I have to document it when I can!!
I named this post Hootie, Hootie and have gotten to the end and haven't even explained it. I've written so much, what's another line or 3 or 20?! 16 years ago I met Lynnette Roddy (she was Lynnette Smith at the time!) when we were roommates at Anderson College. One day, for some reason, she said Hootie, Hootie! It stuck. We use it as an exclamation when we are excited...about anything! Rhett talked about something during worship a couple of weeks ago and when everyone clapped, I hootie, hootied. We do something great at the park and hootie, hootie! It's great! Anyway, we go by the old Apalache Mill like 2o times a week and when we do, we go by the Apalache Lake Dam. Here is a picture of it.
Usually, there is water spilling all the way across, not just at the end like it is here. Maybe it's because we need rain, maybe they have it blocked on the other side, either way, it's low right now. But even though it's low, we still have to HOOTIE, HOOTIE! EVERY time we go by it. If the kids are asleep when we go by at night, Rhett and I hootie hootie quietly. If I'm on the phone, in the car by myself (a rare occurrence!) I take the phone away from my mouth and hootie hootie. We love to hootie hootie. I wanted to share that. I want my children to read this years from now and remember that one of our family traditions is to hootie hootie. I don't ever want them to loose their Hootie Ability. If we move away and don't see Apalache Lake Dam anymore, I still want them to have hootie hootie moments in life. Don't forget that Boys. Always remember to Hootie, Hootie! And pass it on to your children too, so you can tall them the story of how when you were little, you tried not to miss the Hootie Hootie times.
Okay, so since I've been blogging for 2 hours now. It's time to end. I know it's long today, but I won't apologize, because you can leave at any time!
Make it a GREAT DAY and remember to HOOTIE, HOOTIE when the notion hits you!!
Until Next Time, I'm Fondly Yours,
Jeanne
Queen of the Brown Hootie Hootiers!
1 comment:
Hootie! Hootie!
Mark
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