A Stanford Tradition Continues-Carter's 1st T-Ball Game

Saturday, March 14 may go down in history! That was the day that Carter Stanford began playing baseball (T-ball). Little did we know that we would be the starting pitcher (the position his daddy played throughout his baseball years) and he was also the lead off batter. We were so proud of the way he played. He hustled and gave it his all and the best part of all is that he had a GREAT time. He was so cute playing. The cutest thing he did was while he was playing pitcher, a ball was hit that went all the way into left field. Carter took off from pitcher's mound and ran all the way out to left field to get the ball. Believe it or not, he was the first one to get to the ball even though there were a lot of kids out that direction. He just gave it all he had.

Carter had a huge fan base to cheer him on. MeeMee, Paw Paw, Uncle B, Aunt B, Ryleigh, Elizabeth, Randall and me were all there to watch a new era begin. Ryan had scheduled a bass tournament in advance of the baseball schedule of which he had paid a lot of money to enter. So much to Ryan's disappointment, he was not there.

I wish I had a dollar for all the days that Randall and I have spent at the ballpark with our boys throughout their baseball careers. Now we begin again. How fun!!!!

Are there any RV Parks in Fairhope and Spanish Fort that we could call Home?

Friday, March 13 Randall and I have been doing a lot of cruching numbers and investigating into all that we will need to do to make our dream of extensive travel in our RV come to a reality. We have looked at it from all angles trying to see the best and quickest way to do this.

One thing that we have considered is going ahead and buying our 5th Wheel now. If we did this, we considered renting our house out and moving into an RV park while we still work. We can save more money by doing this. The problem is, there are really no great RV parks in Mobile. I have always wanted to live in Baldwin County. So we decided to ride to some of the parks over there and see what they looked like.

First we went to the new campground at the Blakely State Park in Spanish Fort. It was very woodsy and would be nice to stay at for a while. But I don't think it is a park that I would want to live in.

I also found a park on line in Fairhope that looked nice. So we checked it out as well. It was just O.K. The one big draw back was that it was almost to Point Clear and this would be quite the ride back and forth to work everyday. I would go from a 10 minute drive to work to about an hour drive or maybe more depending on traffic. Not very appealing.

So for now, this doesn't seem to be feasible. For right now, the plan is to save as much as we can. Randall says that it will take 10 years of saving before we will have enough to make it all work. 10 years seems like an eternity! Once again, I leave this in God's hand and we will do it if it is in His will and in His timing. For now it's fun to plan and dream!

Mardi Gras Weekend Camping Trip-Gulf Shores-Feb. 2009

Randall, Camp, and I left last Friday morning heading to the Gulf Breeze RV Resort to spend the long Mardi Gras weekend. After eating lunch in Foley at Ruby Tuesday, we arrived at the campground around 1:30. Set up was easy enough. Soon after setting up, I met our neighbors on each side of us. George and his wife, from Wisconsin were on one side of us and Jim, Lavonne amd Little Bit Lutz from North Dakota were on the other. One of the great things about camping in this particular campground at this time of year is that there are so many snowbirds there living anywhere from 2 to 6 months. There just seems to be something super special about these people. They are all incredibly friendly and just a joy to get to know.

This camping trip was not the greatest due to the fact that I had to go to the urgent care clinic on Sunday after I just kept feeling worse and worse. I never really ever felt good after having the flu the week before, but kept thinking I would eventually feel better as time went on. Well, I felt worse instead of better and I suspected that I had developed pneumonia. Sure enough, after spending 4 hours at the clinic and getting chest x-rays, it was determined that my flu had turned into pneumonia. The doctor put me on 4 medications. Not a great condition to have when you are trying to vacation!

In spite of all of this, we still had a good time. We went to the daytime parade in Foley on Saturday. Man, is this parade crowd different from the crowd in Mobile. This crowd consisted mainly of retired snowbirds and local older people. Only a few children were in the crowd. We ate dinner one night at Live Bait in Orange Beach and then walked right outside the restaurant to watch a parade on the main street. We ate at Hazel's one morning for breakfast and at the Mexican restaurant in Foley one other night.

We made the decision to leave our RV in storage there at the campgrounds. It is cheaper there than it is here in Mobile and Gulf Shores is probably the only place we will be camping this Summer. For $10, they will pull our RV out and have it sitting on our camp site when we get there. Nice! I look forward to feeling better the next time we go. There was a lot more I would have liked to have done, but just didn't feel up to it. I felt really sorry for Randall, because it is no fun vacationing with a sick person!

What Happened to My Blog Posts?

It just seems that after the holidays, life seems to slow down a great deal. There was so much happening that I wanted to remember that it seemed I wanted to post all the time. Since Christmas, not a lot has happened. The month of January, Randall and I went hunting every chance we got. The last two weeks of hunting season we hunted a great deal. I took off Wed. and Thursday. So we hunted a lot that last weekend especially. We didn't kill anything this year, but had a great time trying. I am so glad that I am sharing the love of hunting with my husband. It's another thing that we can do together that brings us even closer together.

Not a lot has happened in the month of February other than I have had the worst case of flu that I think I have had in my whole life. Brandon and Brittany came back with Colorado with it and I evidently caught it from them when we picked them up at the airport. It knocked me down for the count! I am feeling stronger little by little. I look forward to having all of my strength back again soon!

We as a family and operating a family business are dealing with the economic recession. Azalea City is really struggling (as so many businesses are) to keep enough business to pay payroll and keep everything going. I am so glad that I do not have to worry about this because I know that whatever happens, God will take care of us. We may not have all of our wants, but God promises us He will always meet our needs.

Randall and I are leaving in the morning to go to Gulf Shores to the campground (Gulf Breeze RV Resort) for the Mardi Gras weekend. I am off already tomorrow (Friday) and then this Tuesday (for Mardi Gras). So we are going to spend our time relaxing at the beach. We will not be able to spend any money, but it will be nice just to go and sit outside and grill out at the RV. Really looking forward to that.

Light of the Village at the Art Museum

What a great time we had today taking the Light of the Village kids to see "Illuminating the Word" art display at the Mobile Museum of Art. The kids, for the most part, really seemed to enjoy the exhibit. We took a DVD out to the school last week which explained what they were seeing. I think this really helped them to enjoy what they were seeing. Afterwards, we brought everyone back to Dayspring so that they could watch some of the inauguration of President Obama. We actully missed the actual inauguration, but we saw some of the interviews that were done afterwards. After we served them lunch, we took them to the Shack where they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They especially enjoyed the rock climbing wall and playing pool. Everyone was so appreciative and so well behaved. I was so proud of them. These kids have to overcome so many difficult situations in their lives and do not get to enjoy a lot of things. It was such a blessing to be able to share a little of what God has given Dayspring with them.

I will be getting off tomorrow at 12:00 and then be off on Thursday as well. We plan to go to Bladon Springs on Thursday morning and get in some hunting on Thurs., Fri., & Sat. Tomorrow afternoon, we plan to go downtown to get our passports for our cruise that we will be going on in May.

January 1-14, 2009

14 days to catch up on! Man, was it tough to go back to work after having been off so long for the holidays! I can't remember a Christmas season that I enjoyed more than this one. We had such a great Christmas with Carter and Ryleigh getting so excited about all that was going on and then our New Year's was one to be remembered spending it with great friends.

Things are still a little slow around the office while we wait for God to send us a senior pastor. Sometimes it seems like we are just treading water while we wait. I know I need to be thankful for a little down time right now because I am sure that when the new pastor comes, it will be full steam ahead!

Last weekend, Randall and I went hunting. On Friday, I saw a big buck that had a weird rack of 2 on one side and a short cow horn on the other. After the buck left the patch, 6 doe entered throughout the rest of the afternoon and were still in the patch when I got ready to leave. Mike shot at a 6 point on #5, but evidently missed him. We looked for blood for a long time on Friday night and then went back the next morning to look some more and never found any. Mike was sick! Randall sat in a tree stand on Friday, but saw nothing at all.

With all the activity on Friday, we went to the fields on Saturday afternoon with high expectations. We saw absolutely NOTHING!...NOTHING! You can never figure it out! Randall, Ryan, and Carter are going hunting this weekend. It is supposed to be record breaking cold, so the deer should certainly be up and moving around. I hope they get something. I have a women's ministry retreat at the Gulf this weekend so I will not be able to go:(

These next three weekends are the best all year for hunting. Now Is The Time!!!!

New Year's 2009 with Friends in Bladon

Some of our dearest friends brought the 2009 New Year in with us by coming to our camp in Bladon Springs on New Years Day. They stayed with us Thursday night, Friday night and we all went home Saturday afternoon. We throughly enjoyed the time that we all spent together. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends. The slideshow on my blog is also pictures of this wonderful weekend. Tom and Linda Peak, Wayne and Valerie Boatman, Doug Baggett, and Morris and Julie were all there. It was a great start to 2009!