"Daytona Here I Come!! - January 25, 2008"

Wooooooo Hooooooo!!!! Bobby and I are going to the 50th running of the Daytona 500! I can't wait - we'll be in the garage area all morning on Saturday before the Busch Race and it's gonna be a blast!

My buddies from Schrader Racing won't get to be there, but we'll still have fun at the races.

Well, gotta go now, but remember that I love you all and have a great weekend!

"We're Off to Lakeland - November 2, 2007"

Well, ended up having to work for a little while tonight so I was late getting my cooking done, but I'm finally through. I'm headed to the sack for a little shut eye and then hope that we'll be heading out by 9:00 AM for Florida.

I'm excited and a little sad - this is the last race of the season and I'm actually going to miss the mad rush to get everything done and hit the road..... but at least I have Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up - they're always a mad rush at trying to get everything done!

Have a great weekend - I know I will! Say a little prayer for a safe trip for Bobby, Becca and I and we'll see you when we get home -

"One More Race This Season - October 22, 2007"

Well, we made it to South Georgia and back, safe and sound. Bobby and Becca both got to go and we had a wonderful time. Bobby worked with Justin Wakefield to learn how to spot for Dusty, just in case he ever needs a backup spotter. Becca and I taught Justin's wife, Jennifer, to score and she did a great job. Becca scored for Chase Pistone and Jennifer scored for Jeff Fultz. The race was pretty exciting. Dusty had problems getting the car set up and had to get into the race on a provisional - causing him to have to start 35th. He ended up having a great race and finished 13th. Because of that he was awarded the Hard Charger award for the race, so not a bad night overall....

We have one more race in Lakeland, FL in two weeks and then will be off for several months. I'll miss it, but it will give me time to rest up for next season and regroup. Then off we go again, and I'll be a happy happy camper!!!

Our 25th Anniversary

We have the sweetest daughter - Becca and one of our best friends planned a party for our 25th wedding anniversary at "Agatha's Murder Mystery Dinner Theater".  I knew she was up to something, just wasn't sure what.

When we headed toward town and the directions put us into a parking deck that showed "Agatha's", then I knew that was where we were going.  What I didn't know was that 14 of our friends and family were also there waiting for us.  When I rounded the corner into the theater area, they were all standing up cheering for us.  It was awesome!  Becca was so excited because she had pulled off the surprise!

Bobby and I both had speaking parts in the performance and everyone else got to participate also.  It was so much fun and I have to admit that I almost got to the point of being tired of laughing!

Poor Steve was on the end of the table and kept being used as a resting place for "boobs"!  He'll hate me for posting this picture, but it was so funny I couldn't help myself!  The other picture is of my daughter-in-law, Jennifer and my sister-in-law, Anita singing with their group.

Can't wait to see what they'll do for our 50th (that is if we live that long!)!

My Aunt Eula

Before I married Bobby, I was married to another man named Steve. The marriage only lasted for a little over 3 years and was a learning experience for me. I don’t regret it, I just wish that I had waited a while longer before getting married.

After Bobby and I married, when I found out that I was pregnant, Bobby told me that he wanted a little boy. We already had a daughter (April – by Bobby’s first wife). If it was a boy, Bobby wanted to know whether or not I would mind if we named him Robert Steven (Bobby, his Dad and Brother-in-law are all named Robert). I really didn’t mind so when the time came and it was a boy, we named him Robert Steven. Bobby was so proud, he said he’d always dreamed of having a little boy named Steve and he was tickled to death.

When we finally got Steve out of the house and started showing him off to other family members, we took him to see my Dad’s sister, Eula. I loved Aunt Eula dearly, she was as country as they come and somewhere along the road of life she had lost a card or two out of her deck. When we told her what Steve’s name was, she got so mad at us. She was appalled that we would name our son after my first husband. How dare we?!? We tried to explain to her that this was not the case, that Bobby had always wanted a son named Steve, but she didn’t believe us. Through the years, she would fuss at us over and over for what we did to Steve and I truly believe that she went to her grave thinking that we had named him after my first husband! God love her, this story still makes me laugh when I think of it!

We all have family members like Aunt Eula, but just think of how boring life would be without them! Remember them fondly and with love, because you know they’ve made you smile more than once. And just think, you come from the same gene pool!

A family to be proud of!

Back in May, my son and some of his friends hosted a "white trash bash". It was like a costume party (well, for most of us anyway) in the middle of the year.

There were rules of attendance - no mixed drinks - beer only (and only certain types were allowed); you had to dress up; no tables to eat at, you had to eat out of your lap; corn toss, horseshoes, beer pong and flip cup were the only games allowed and if you brought wine, it had to come out of a box. If you didn't have a tattoo, one would be provided.

It was an absolute blast! I of course, was in hog heaven since there were hundred's of "Kodak" moments. And believe me, I took full advantage of that fact!

Most of the people in attendance were friends of Steve's from school, so it was fun to see them all. Hope you like our family portraits.

And of course, the evening would not have been complete without trying to fill up the fence with beer cans..... after all, it was a "White Trash Bash"!!

I live with a bunch of comedians!

For mother's day this year, the kids came over and we had a cookout.  April, Steve, his wife Jennifer, Becca and her boyfriend Shane and Bobby and I were all there.  The only one missing was my Granddaughter, Ashley.  We had a wonderful time and I really enjoyed getting to be with all of them.

Whenever we get together for family events, I try to take a group photograph before everyone heads home.  Well, this night was no different.....  after taking several shots, and finally getting all the puppies in the picture, I decided to take one more just for good measure.

Seems like the kids had another idea in mind..... they decided to jump out of the picture, leaving just Jennifer and Shane with Bobby and I.   Well.....  I got the last laugh!  They had forgotten that I have a wide-angle lense on my camera.  You can see the results! 

What a bunch of comedians!  At least life is never dull with them!

Meet the Family - Steve

Steve was the first child I gave birth to and so I really didn’t know what to expect. Of course, everyone gives you advice and tells you all the things that happened to them while they were pregnant. Somehow or another though, they must not have had the same experiences I did because no one ever mentioned the things that happened to me.

The night before Steve was born I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that my water had broken. I wasn’t having any pain so I decided to take a shower before I woke Bobby up. Well, he must have been sleeping on pins and needles because the minute I stepped into the shower he came into the bathroom wanting to know what was going on. As soon as I got dressed we headed to the hospital.

They checked me in, did a little test and then told me that my water had not broken. Then they proceeded to tell me that my beautiful little baby had kicked my bladder and had caused me to go to the bathroom. (Not a great feeling when they tell you that you just made a trip to the hospital for wetting the bed!). I was scheduled to be induced the next day anyway so rather than send me home and make me come back the next day, our doctor decided to go ahead and induce my labor while I was there.

I had planned on having an epidural so that I could be awake for the birth but not in any pain. After they gave me the medicine to start labor but before the pain got too bad, they gave me the epidural. Well, it was great and blocked the pain really well….. on one side of my body that is. It turned out that I had what they called a “window” and that the epidural had gone to one side. They gave me a booster shot thinking that it would numb the other side. It did, but in the process it numbed me so much that I could not feel a thing from my waist down.

When they came in to take me to the delivery room one of the nurses asked me to just pick up my bottom and help them get me onto the gurney. I laughed at her and then said “Pick it up??? I don’t even know where it is!” After a few minutes of pushing, pulling and yanking, they finally got me onto the gurney (think about those people who try to get a beached whale back into the water – it was a little like that!).

We finally made it into the delivery room and right before Steve was born, they went through a shift change. Talk about loosing your dignity. There’s nothing like laying on the delivery table exposed to God and everybody and then they all leave and a whole new shift comes in…. if it hadn’t been so funny, I probably would have cried. We did have 2 of the nurses that stayed with us through the whole delivery. All in all it was a great experience, we laughed and told jokes and then laughed a little more.

My dad had been wanting a little girl since I had told him I was pregnant and had even brought a little pink sleeper to the hospital for his baby “granddaughter”. After Steve was born, Bobby went to the waiting room to tell everybody that we had a boy and he said that Daddy’s chin dropped for just a moment and then he jumped up and celebrated with everyone else. No man loved his grandson more than my Daddy loved Steve. Up to the day he died, Steve was his buddy and the joy of his life.

Steve is all grown up and married now and has turned out to be a fine young man. He makes us very proud. This story will probably embarrass him to death but it’s still funny no matter how you look at it.

Meet the Family - April

April’s mother, Joy was Bobby’s first wife and was also a friend of mine. When she and Bobby started dating, she came into our circle of friends instead of Bobby leaving, so we all became friends.

During her pregnancy with April, Joy was diagnosed with toxemia, which is also known as preeclampsia or pregnancy induced high blood pressure. It causes you to retain water and lots of other nasty symptoms. It can cause major complications if not treated. Joy was advised to drink lots of water, not to eat salt and to stay away from junk foods. Unfortunately, she didn’t heed what the doctor said and constantly ate junk foods, especially frozen pizzas.

Bobby, Joy, Bobby’s sister Anita, her boyfriend and several other people went to Daytona for the 4th of July. Joy was about 6 months along and her doctor advised her that she should not go but she went anyway. While there she started to retain fluids and by the time they got home, she was very sick. The doctor put her into the hospital saying that she needed to deliver the baby or she would die.

Bobby and Joy were told that if Joy delivered naturally, then her body would expel most of the toxins she had built up but they gave the baby very little chance of surviving. If Joy had to have a cesarean section, then there was a possibility that Joy and the baby would not make it. Joy was induced to try and make her deliver the baby naturally, but it began to put too much of a strain on her and the baby and so they decided that the doctor would perform a cesarean. Because of this, there was very little strain put on April and she managed to survive against the odds.

April was 1 lb. and 11 ounces when she was born and breathed on her own from the beginning. All they did was give her a little oxygen. She lost a little weight but then started to gradually gain weight daily. April was the first baby to ever come home from Northside Hospital before she weighed 5 lbs. She weighed about 4 and a half pounds, but had been healthy from the day she was born so they decided that there was no need to keep her.

April was so small that she would fit in the palm of Bobby’s hand and her head could go all the way into a small styrofoam coffee cup. Due to the fact that she missed her last 3 months of development in the womb, she was a little slow learning to walk, talk and to learn some of the other skills that come naturally, but other than that, she had no problems.

Today she is a happy healthy adult with a daughter of her own.

Meet the Family - The Husband

My husband, Bobby, and I met in the summer of 1966 when we were both working for VBS (Vacation Bible School) at our church - Lakewood Heights Baptist Church in south Atlanta. Bobby's mother was the church secretary, my mother's sister Eloise was the head of the Women's Misson Union (WMU) and her husband, Uncle Hamp, was the chairman of the deacons. Our roots run deep in the Baptist church and it has always been a big part of our lives.

My first real encounter with Bobby was when the youth went on a retreat to the Cherokee Mountains to see the play "Unto These Hills". I hardly knew anybody on the retreat because I had just started going to Lakewood Heights with my aunt, uncle and cousins. I was friends with Bobby's sister, Anita and ended up in her room for the retreat.

When we first loaded the Greyhound bus that would take us to the mountains, the only seat left was the very last one at the back of the bus in front of the bathroom. If you've ever ridden on a Greyhound, then you know that this is the shortest seat on the whole bus because of the bathroom. Well, wouldn't you just know that the last person to get on the bus would be the tallest one too. You guessed it, it was Bobby and the only seat left was beside me.

I was very shy back then and the thoughts of a guy sitting with me was just scaring me to death. He sat down and of course, had nowhere to put his legs because they were so long. One leg went into the aisle and the other onto my half of the floor. Of course, being shy, this meant that I had to scrunch up into the corner of the seat so that his leg would not touch mine and I rode all the way to Cherokee this way. I was so thankful for the bathroom break so I could stretch my legs out that I was beside myself.

All through the trip it seemed as if fate kept throwing us together (not to mention the fact that all the kids were pairing up and Bobby seemed to get stuck with me - sort of...). It might not have been too bad except that his sister was my friend and as it turned out - we were staying in the room being chaperoned by Bobby's mom and weren't able to escape after curfew (as if I would EVER do anything like that!).

All in all it wasn't a bad trip, but if I could have cut Bobby's legs off at the knees for the ride up and back, I think it would have been better!

Through the years, it seemed as if Bobby was always there for the major things that happened in my life. He would take me to special events like my Senior Prom when I didn't have a date (his girlfriend lived in Tennessee and could not always come to Atlanta for school and church events). We were part of a close group of friends that were always together and have remained friends to this day.

Family and friends alike tried to get us to date, but by pushing us harder they only managed to push us apart. For that I thank them because I firmly believe that had we married after high school, we would never have made it. God knew his plans for us and I'm glad we both had the experience of living a life without each other because it only made our lives together stronger.

Remember to tell the ones you love that you love them and tell them often, you never know when you may not get another chance to say "I Love You" . . . . . .