Five Friday Thoughts...

It's Friday, y'all!  I decided to do a li'l "brain dumping" as some of my bloggy friends call it. 

I bought my 2012 planner on Wednesday.  Yes, I know it's still August, but I am already finding myself needing to write things down for January and February.  The planner I have fallen in love with is a 17-month version running Aug '11 - Dec '12.  Therefore, we are now in the first month of next year's book!  I just love taking a break and going week-by-week writing down birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  The experience is all the more joyful when I'm using a brand new pen...I'm just sayin'...

When I came home yesterday evening I found this (below) hanging on my front door:

I mean, what joy!  The sweetest li'l note and new sharpie highlighters?  I'm still doing my happy dance.  I have mentioned before how involved I am with my local Relay For Life of the American Cancer Society.  If you feel the need to be charitable, there are plenty of options.  In today's world, we do not have to look far at all to count our blessings.  My family's health is at the top of my blessings list.  The Relay For Life event itself is such a moving way to actually see the fruits of your labor.  You see cancer survivors of all ages come together during the opening ceremonies and later a darkened stadium is illuminated by candles in memoriam of cancer victims; it all makes you realize how widespread the disease is.  Cancer needs you.  Cancer needs me.  Cancer will not overcome!  If you want to learn more about Relay For Life, or find a Relay closest to you, please go here.

Seriously, there is no good way to transition to this next topic, but if I'd led with it, I may have lost you by now.  It has been well documented here, here, and here that the Morris family loves to observe nature's inhabitants from the comfort of our own home.  By the way, Goldie the red Betta Fish is still kickin' it after over a year, and Sami our "pet" dove came back this spring / summer for her 2nd season on our porch.  Here is our latest visitor:

Bobby has been calling him a banana spider.  However, in researching for this post, I found out he is actually a golden silk orb-weaver and he could just as likely be a she.  Wanna learn more?  Go here.  Like most rational adults, I want to take this down immediately.  But as (s)he has built a web outside my kitchen window, the Morris kids have really enjoyed its industrious nature and love to watch it make daily repairs to its web.  We even watched it eat a captured bug recently.  Weird?  Probably.

Peeps, Rob's 5th birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I am feeling really nostalgic as to how quickly he is maturing into a wonderful boy rather than a worrisom tot.  Just yesterday afternoon, he was running down the street to his friend Micah's house and I started thinking, "When did he get old enough to (with permission) just take off down the street?" 

Last but not least, see that lady in the yellow shirt?  She's one of my neighbors, Ms. Ruby.  She is the sweetest older lady and I happen to know that she has a full time job, yet still tends to her flower beds.  She told me once she just loves to have pretty flowers at her home. 

Way to go, Ms. Ruby.  Don't you wish the whole street tended to their yards as well as you do?

To take a walk on the wild side, I'm headed over to Kat's place at Living Like The Kings and linking up to her Friday Five series.  Stop by and check out her 5 awesome iPhone photo apps...then just try to restrain yourself from downloading them all!

Merry Christmas Helena!

This past weekend was the Helena (AL) Christmas parade and the kiddos and I joined my mother, Kristy, and Josh to enjoy the festivities.  It wasn't as cold as it looks in the pictures.  But it was overcast and wintry.  Guess that's good "Christmas" weather. 

This was Caroline's first Christmas parade.  Since we didn't do any parades last year, this could very well be the first Christmas parade Rob remembers.  Both children loved their time.

When I uploaded this picture onto my computer, I had Caroline in my lap.  She immediately started making the "Ahhhhh" noise that she was making during the shot.  She's such a camera ham!

 Rob took this picture himself.  Can'tcha tell?

This is how Rob wanted to enjoy the parade.  And rock on, Mom!  It takes some strength and bone density to be able to oblige!  I helped her out by lending my shoulders too.

See?  Of course, he was quite heavy, so it's apparent I did not know I was being photographed.  I guess I'm only sharing this picture so you'll believe I didn't leave him on my mom's shoulders the whole time.  You're welcome.

Here are a couple of quick videos of the day.  By the way, I took these using my iPhone and I keep forgetting I'm supposed to turn the phone sideways to better film something.  So please forgive the black sidebars.

Please remember to keep Christ in Christmas!  Merry Christmas from the Morris family.  There'll be more merry to come.

The Great Outdoors...

Ever get in the what-do-we-do-today rut?  Well, the Morris family does.  So on this day we shook the cabin fever by heading out to the great outdoors.  We visited Oak Mountain State Park.  Noteworthy to mention it's the state's largest park and even more noteworthy to mention we got in F-R-E-E thanks to a coupon book we bought as a fundraiser recently.  That sucker has paid for itself many times over!

First stop was the Alabama Wildlife Rescue Center. 

 

They advertise having rescued wildlife on display so that we the peeps can see the amazing work being done to keep wildlife wild and free.  Let's take a look:

That's Rob, Mikayla, and Madison checking out the owls.  Pretty cool stuff...Rob couldn't pull himself away!

There were birds' nests to view...

...and two live snakes.  Ugh!

That's about enough of the wildlife...let's go out into the wild!

"C'mom," says Madison to Mikayla.  "I'll hold your hand."

"Nah, I'll go first," decided Mikayla.

We went on a little (100 degree) hike.  Matt wanted to take control by getting the proper instructions/directions...

...which was a good thing, because I was busy forcing family photo ops on the Morrises:

It was so hot, but we really did have "different" fun!  We walked, laughed, and sweat off about 5 pounds each!

Don'tcha just love, love, lurve this picture of Caroline? 

To say that Oak Mountain has a beach is like saying Gatlinburg has Olympic-quality ski slopes...sure there's a sand, which qualifies as a beach.  There is a lake that has cooled off and refreshed many people.  We planned to go have a picnic evening dinner at the beach area.  But this area is just very simple and make-shift.  One would almost say it's not even memorable.  One would only say that if one missed seeing this:

or this:

Well, that just about ended the day's outing.  I mean, we can now say "We have seen it all," agree???

Once more just for giggles:

All joking aside, this was actually a fun day.  We sweat like fattened hogs in this good ol' southern humidity, but it got us out of the house and together for some Great Outdoors.  'Bye until the next outing!

Hometown Fun: Helena

A few weeks ago, Kelly's Korner encouraged us to show her/blog to the world a little ditty about our Hometowns.  I admit, I didn't have a lot to say.  That is no indication of a lackluster hometown; on the contrary, it's because I do not explore Helena, AL very much.  We have a sleepless, pseudo-celebrity who keeps us informed of most goings-on.  I am a regular reader of his blog...I have one park/library/tee-ball field that I became very familiar with this Spring.  The end.  Yup, that's all, folks.  Most of the time, my social calendar takes me to neighboring communities of Pelham, McCalla, Calera, unincorporated Shelby County, etc.  So today, when Rob and I found ourselves without plans (my fault more than anything else) I decided we were going to have an adventure and try something new...here goes.

I took the kiddos down to Helena Amphitheater and Buck Creek.  I have seen the activities and goings on from aforementioned blog and by driving across Hwy 261 daily and not paying attention to the road looking down at the visitors.  First thing: let's touch the water...

Hey, is that my nephew and Rob/Caroline's cousin up there on top of the waterfall?  Yep, it is...

 

Speaking of Caroline, let's try to take a shot of her...

Okay, she's simply NOT going to look at me.  Moving on.  Rob's having a blast but Caroline, well, not so much...

 

Hey, a playground!!!  Oh, and a stage area, too! The city uses this stage to host big hometown names like Bo Bice and local talent winners from various competitions.  They also show movies on summertime Friday nights.

 

We went back to the water which flows around to the rear of the park.  Hey, there's Hunter and co. again!

Oops, I guess Rob had more fun than Caroline did.  Oh well, maybe next summer!

So, that's just about it for Helena Amphitheater.  They do have various activities throughout the spring, summer, and early fall.  Next time I hear of something there, I will be much more likely to attend.  How about you?