MY DADDY!!!!!

I am doing ok considering the circumstances. I'm hating having to even post about this but I can't not show the world how incredible my daddy was. Below is an just an excerpt from what I wrote about my dad for his memorial. Even using the term memorial just doesn't sound right. And it was a celebration of his life. I won't post it all for fear it would be too lengthy but I think you'll get the picture if you weren't there:

"One of the best things I can think of to say about my dad is that I have always been able to have a close relationship to the Lord b/c of the example my Daddy set for me. I see my dad’s love for me and my brother as my human example of what God’s love for me must be like as my heavenly Father. Daddy might have been quiet and patient but his love was and is unconditional, unselfish and never ceasing; even when we might have taken a step or two away from the right path. I pray to be able to instill this kind of love in my daughters, his grandbabies, for whom he loved with all of his heart. "

"I will miss him more than I could ever express on this paper or to you. A piece of my heart is missing now, But I take comfort that he is holding that piece of my heart waiting on me to meet him again someday with our Lord.
He was and is and will always be my Hero."

My brother added today at the graveside service that although a piece of our hearts may be missing he left his light to fill that spot. Jonathan couldn't have said it better. And it was so completely evident by the number of people who came out to pay their respect to my daddy. I already knew he was amazing but to know so many many other people thought that was a comfort from God you just can not understand.

Things are not ok yet and won't be for a long long time. It's still hard to believe he's gone. We still need your prayers and I just have to say thank you from the depths of my soul for all the thoughts and prayers and little extras all of you have done for my family. You all know who you are and we love you for it.

Just a brief thank you to all who have sent their thoughts and prayers to my family. This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life but I want you all to know that I appreciate and take comfort in all the love that surrounds my Daddy and my family. It is hard to explain how it feels to be so loved but I can tell you it is a blessing. Please continue to have us in your prayers.
My Daddy was and will always be one of the best Fathers and Pappys ever! I always think of him as being my human example of God's love because if anyone on earth had that my Daddy did.
Love to all.

Quick update

I'm not sure what's going on with the "comments" right now. I have been notified by some readers that they wanted to comment but the page would not let them. You may have to hit the comment link twice but please keep trying b/c I do love to read your comments. It makes me happy to know that I may have lightened your day with our quirky family antics!! Love you all.

Punkin' Paintin'

CP was out of school October 13th so we went to her friend Lilly's Pumpkin Painting Party. It was lots of fun and her mommy put in lots and lots of work. There were adorable snacks and tons of decorations for the pumpkins.

Here are Picasso Clara and Rembrandt Keely Strickland making their Pumpkin masterpieces! Notice that Lilly's mommy was even prepared with old T-shirts for the painting part. Smart Mommy!

Here are the girls with their buddy Conner Ball.
This was just a cute picture I got of my Clara after the painting and decorating was done. It was a great time with great friends.

Good ole Abe

I just thought this was interesting and thought provoking for this time of the year:

* You cannot help the poor, by destroying the rich.
* You cannot strengthen the weak, by weakening the strong.
* You cannot bring about prosperity, by discouraging thrift.
* You cannot lift the wage earner up, by pulling the wage payer down.
* You cannot further the brotherhood of man, by inciting class hatred.
* You cannot build character and courage, by taking aw ay men's initiative and independence.
* You cannot help men permanently, by doing for them what they could and should, do for themselves.


Abraham Lincoln

Watch then Read!!!

It started out so innocent. Just a cute video of my girls playing and spraying each other in the driveway. Then it all went south so quickly. Yeah, that was our dog roaming the neighborhood. Call her Kelsey or Houdini but she somehow escaped that day. I'm still not sure how she got past us but she ended up in the driveway of the house you see in the video. So, I ran across the street to get her. Our sweet, dingy dog was just happily visiting the doggies across the street. The other dogs however were not so happy about her unannounced arrival. I had to drag her across the street. She dug in her heels so much I had to pick up her front paws and walk her across the street. Picture it. Funny huh? I'm sooooo glad no one got that on video!!

My little Mechanics

This is how I found my twinlings the other day. I knew they were in the garage but I didn't know they were actually doing "garage" work. I asked them what they were doing and they just simply replied, "we are workin on the Barbie Jeep!" Maggie was cleaning it and Gracie was actually scooting herself up under it to "work" on it. Notice Daddy's tools that they confiscated from one of the tool boxes. And did you notice that they just happen to have on their Fairy dresses? Gracie even has on her "lovely" red Dorothy shoes. Yeah, we are raising them to be REALLLLLLY well rounded. Fairy wings and ratchet sets go together don't they?

So, one day you might just find yourself pulling up to G&M Auto Center if their careers in Law or Medicine don't work out!! ;)

PS- Please over look the nastiness you might see in our garage. I'd like to say it's not always that way but well that might be lying so I'll just plead the 5th!!

Billy Graham's Prayer

Yes, Yes I know that we fired our OC today. Don't know what to think about it yet. Time will tell, however, I received the following prayer in an email today and in light of the current state of our nation and the most important upcoming election, I feel this might take a little precedence over college football no matter how much I love my Auburn University. Please take a moment to read.


"It'd be hard to sum it up better that this. If the oncoming Presidential election
doesn't need some sore knees and quality prayers then you may be living on another planet!!!!

Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation-THIS GUY SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THIS COUNTRY!
'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free Amen!
'Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called 'One nation under God.'If possible, please pass this prayer on to your friends. 'If you don't stand for something, you will fall for everything.' One Nation Under God. "

The Witch

Oh you thought this one was going to be about Halloween or something didn't you?
Well guess again. The other night Clara Paige was lying on the couch with me watching some long over due Disney Channel (kidding) and she was wiggling around like crazy. I asked her what her problem was and she told me, "Mommy, I have a witch."
"A What?" I ask
"You know I have a witch in my hiney!"
With a severe confused look on my face (well and somewhat amused) she continues, "You know the kind where your panties go up your Hiney."
Light bulb goes off in my head and laughter ensues!
"YOU MEAN A WEDGIE?"
CP says, "Oh Yeah, That's what it's called!"
We both laughed and giggled. Oh these are some of my favorite moments with my girls.

It is October, however, so beware all ye for the dreaded HINEY WITCH!!!!!!

I wanna be like Mike....

I really do want to one day have the conviction and faith that this man does. To those of you that do not know him, his name is Mike Waldrop. He is one of the most influential people that I have ever been lucky enough to have in my life. He was my youth minister when I was a teenager and was my boss when I was a student at Auburn. I even babysat his beautiful children when I was at AU. He ranks right up there with my parents and my husband and kids when it comes to being special to me. He wasn't just a youth minister, he was the best youth minister! Anyway, the day of the AU/LSU game Mike was given a chance for a new happy ending in his life and me and my family couldn't be more happy for him and his new bride, Rene. Mike works at the university and Rene is a big LSU fan. Cute huh? The reception was at the Quad center and it was a tailgating reception. Ever been to one of those? Me either but I have now and it was great!!

The cute couple!! Mike and Rene.
My girlies enjoying the awesome food.
Me, Mike and my girls!

There is a cute story to this also. This is a story straight from Mike so I hope I don't mess it up. Coach Tubberville just happens to go to the church that Mike goes to (& I went to) in Auburn. Mike also works in admissions (also were I worked once upon a time) so coach and Mike know each other. So, Coach comes up to them in church one day and Rene asks him what time the LSU game is. He tells her that it's the prime time game. And Rene and Mike are happy b/c it won't interfere w/ the wedding and reception times. When they tell coach this he scrunches up his face and says to them, "Are you crazy?" Because who would get married on the AU/LSU game day!? I had thought that too but let me tell you, it seemed to have gone wonderful and will always be such a special memory for them and us all. I'm so glad I had my camera with me.

Thanks Mike for being such a wonderful example to me always through everything. We love you and your new wifey. She seems to be a sweetheart and is blessed to have you in her life.

Love you, Shelly!!

That's not your camper Either....

Ok so I'm a week behind still. What else is new?

I do wish I had a picture for this one but well, I was asleep. Last weekend while we were in Auburn camping/tailgating we apparently had a semi-intruder during Saturday night. As I was told, Chuck (our RV neighbor) was up in the middle of the night for unknown reasons (insomnia maybe) and he was outside smoking. It was pitch black and he was just sitting there minding his own business when an extremely inebriated guy comes stumbling up puts his cell phone on Chuck's table and proceeds to try to open Chuck's camper door and go in. Chuck (who is hilarious anyway) yells at him, "Hey dude, that's not your camper." So he stumbles around and says "sorry." THEN he just walks over to ours and tries to come in our door. Thank goodness the door was locked!! Chuck yells at him again, "HEY DUDE that's not your camper EITHER!!" So he staggers around and out of our camp site to who knows where. Hope he made it home at some point. Needless to say, he left his cell phone on Chuck's table. Wonder if he ever got it back???? Probably not!
Lesson for the day - if you just have to get drunk be sure you know where your own camper is!!

Welcome to another rendition of the Hicks Family Auburn Experience. Should you wish to abort your mission please move on to another blog quickly because the spirit of Auburn may actually catch you and you will be affected and become a LIFER. Don't believe me?? Just ask my Husband!!!

Aren't they just the cutest future AUburn cheerleaders you've ever seen? Even some of the crazy tailgating LSU fans/students we had to walk by during the day oohed and aahed at my precious girls.
Ok so we didn't win but we gave it a heck of a try. Are there weaknesses? Yup! Could we have done better? Yup! Was the kicking game a little less than desired? Yup! Was I still proud of the effort and improvement against a tough team in contrast from the prior week? Yup you betcha! Will I still be PROUD to be an AUburn Tiger if we lose again (God forbid)? ALWAYS!
We spent another wonderful weekend tailgating in the Hicks' RV on the loveliest village for the Auburn/LSU football game (for you non SEC-ers out there). As you can see we took the girlies with us and although it was an exhausting time, we had so much fun that we are heading out for the TN game again on Friday. I was so thrilled to see the excitement on my girls faces as they soaked up the sights and sounds of being around all the Auburn hooplah and meeting new friends. It was AUsome!

WAR EAGLE!!! They say it with pride and love the fight song. There are so many stories from the weekend I can't begin to tell them all to you. I have decided to keep a few for separate blogs to come because I think they warrant their own space, so stay turned for those.

One of the girls favorite things to do while we were there was to ride our Blue with Orange flames Golf Cart while playing the Fight song. People would wave and my girls just ate it up. Sorry I didn't get a picture of it for you.

Here's a sweet picture of Nana and her Gracie in what looks to be a pretty serious conversation. They must have been discussing the game plan for the night's game or SEC standings or something like that. I doubt it but man what a cute picture. This picture was at the Quad center but that's for another blog on another day.
Also, Ms. Linda and Mr. James (not pictured) came to tail gate with us on Saturday. They are very dear family friends that just happen to live in good ole Auburn. We were so happy that they were a part of our AU game day! I do hope they enjoyed it because we did! My girls love them so very much!! Mom an Dad kept the girls for us at the RV while we went to the game and then spent the night with James and Linda. Thanks Mom & Dad for coming and staying with our babies. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed your Game Day with us! I love being with my Family and Auburn is one of the biggest families I have so it was a bonus that my parents were there too!! Don't get it? Just ask an AU fan.

Here's a picture of the walk to the stadium. I have not seen this many people in Auburn for a game in a very, very long time. I mean we always have sell outs and all but it was people, people, people and crazy everywhere we were. After the game we needed more gas for the HUGE generator Alex brought so he went out like 2 hours after the game. He said getting out was easy but it took him forever to get back because all the roads were blocked with traffic still trying to get out of town. It was after midnight before he got back.
So it's not the best picture in the world but this was the gorgeous Auburn sunset we got to see as the sun set over our beloved Jordan Hare Stadium. I didn't get any great shots of the game but our seats are just too high for that. HOWEVER, if you just didn't get enough AU then you can head on over to the Bowling Family blog for some great game shots and intellectual commentary.

Hang in there and I promise I'll get this AUBURN stuff out of my system. Well, maybe not but the next blogs will be stories of our adventures and not so much Love Auburn or Bust from me. However, I just can't help it, it just pours out of our veins. Have you figured that out yet?

Also, Thanks Aunt Joy for the very sweet comment you left on a previous blog. It's very touching when a huge Bama fan puts down their shaker to show some love to family!! Love ya!!

Love to all and Have a great day everyone!!!