The New Year begins in January

Just a strange month, with not a lot of big adventures, but many small ones scattered throughout.  A few pictures of Sam's new home in Montgomery, staying with Kirk and Lily Moore.   One day his blog can detail the fun adventures in this house, but I will leave that to his memories.   But I will relay his fun first day of work when he showed up and realized his first day of work was the next day.   But it worked out as he needed his Social Security card, so Magan and Belle were able to meet him at Peach Park to deliver the card, and eat some ice cream.   I think Sam and Noel are busy already doing some apartment shopping in the area preparing for their first home together.   

Some random memories include Noel turning 20, and Belle and Ruby excited to get an invitation.   The Columbiana 5K was to be our first race with most of the family in the race, but waking up to thunder and lightning, and finally a tree across the road, our crew with Amanda decided to just do the 5K at Jacks for breakfast after picking up our race packets.   Cash ate my chewing gum from a pack of 1987 topps I bought this month.   That was a horrible pack of cards with 5 managers in it.   I mean that is the worst pack ever.  Ruby and I went to Jeremiah's ice cream on the very last day in business in Chelsea.   Even tho it often smelled like sewage, it was my favorite and did not make me sick like most ice cream places...which probably helped the kids like it more because I would go often.   There was a Secret Santa celebration at our house, where Magan found out that Marilyn was her Santa, while she was santa for Julie Bookout.   

What did we do while Magan was on her Ladie's trip?   Kaley spent the night with Ruby on the first night.   Me and Belle decided to play a game of scrabble and realized we are both horrible spellers.   She won.   I took Belle to the 2nd in Charles bookstore on the last day, but Ruby did not want to go.   She told me "You have books with Belle, you have Chuck E Cheese with me".   I had alot of Daddy Belle time as Ruby had an AHG spend the night party that weekend also.   She and I ate a hibachi dinner one night and ate at MELT another day.   I loved having these moments with her to just sit and chat about Show Choir and how she is doing in school.   She is so talented and smart, and just a natural leader, and fun having her open up a bit and share with me all she is doing.   Also on the first day while Magan was away, we went to a show choir competition at Vestavia, and I will not forget asking the girls what they wanted to eat on the way home...I started mentioning BBQ places, and when I got to JimNNicks, they just made crazy noises that made me know we had to go there.   And fun being with these silly girls that thought it was hilarious that our mama was not there for the nachos.   "Nacho mama".   I don't know...it was funny.   We watched "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" together, and me and Belle watched "Our Town".   Maybe belle did not see me sobbing in "Our Town".   

I found a gem of a book at a thrift store, and paid 37 cents for it last month..."Boys Life". I have seen this book on the used book store shelves for 30 years, as McCammon was always right next to Richard Matheson, who has been one of my favorites. But I never picked it up, and maybe I was not ready. But this story about a young boy in small town Alabama was just magical. Filled with story after story that made me laugh and remember being a young boy...yet bookended by a murder to be solved. Wow, I like a lot of books, but very few hit me like this one. Every once and awhile one pulls you in, and helps you see the magic in every day life.

And lastly, I got to travel over to Tuscaloosa on a Tuesday after work to eat dinner with Davis (he paid for me with one of his swipes) then walk 1.5 miles over to the Coleman Coliseum to see Alabama beat down on Missouri.   I found that they had a Ben's Pretzels in the coliseum, and quickly made Davis a believer in the best soft pretzel anywhere.   We had a great time just catching up a bit, and talking about college life.   The game was good, but we also saw a boy hit a layup, freethrow, three pointer, then hit rim on the half court shot to almost win some tuition money.   We saw a crazy rap guy perform at halftime, then make his way to his seat right behind us.   We saw a putt across the court that almost went in, then looked like it would have, when it was picked up.   And that guy was booed.   We cheered "Gooey Fries" till a guy missed two free throws, and everyone there got a free gooey fry appetizer at some local restaurant.   And then we walked back 1.5 miles, with a stop at Rogers library, where Davis showed me the normal study spot for him and Sam...with a fish called the "hog choker"...I think I got that right.   A really fun night.    

Busy with AHG - Money Management, Lock-In, Disc Golf

There was a lot of American Heritage Girl activities this month, beginning with two meetings with the Explorers working on their Money Management badge.   I had taught this badge when I was leading Belle's group, and was super excited when the leaders asked me to lead it for Ruby's group.   I immediately reached out to Granny, as one of the requirements was to learn about working in a bank.  Granny would probably share the differences between a back and a credit union, but I will plead ignorance, and just say anyplace that I have a checking account is a bank in my mind (sorry credit union people).   

Our first meeting went well, as all the girls worked on decorating their own "SAVE/SPEND/GIVE" banks made from Pringles cans.   I am always worried that this will not be fun, but surprised to see the joy they have getting to decorate the cans, getting to think about how they can help their parents with money, and stories later of how they are even using these little cans.   I think their favorite tho was the one can for each of them that was full of pringles that they could eat later.   Granny did a great job telling them about working in a bank, and even shared the "bloody finger" in the vault story, which is perfect for this age of girls.   Always fun when we can pull Granny and Granddaddy down to Chelsea with us for the day.   

While we learned about money management, the PiPas and Belle are learning about the rules and techniques of Disc Golf.   Which means that my discs have all been "borrowed" for the remainder of this AHG year for the girls, and fun that the new host church has an actual disc golf course around the church building and grounds.   I think I have to take Belle to 3 other courses so she can earn her pin, but that should not be too bad.

The AHG lock in was at Belle Farms near Westover, and only Ruby went this year.   Magan was at her girls trip in Hilton Head, and Belle had a show choir competition the next morning.   But Ruby did excellent as a little AHG leader on zoom calls planning with the other little girls the crafts and activities for this event.   She brought a large bag of coloring sheets, laminator for bookmarks, and some other crafty activities.   It was really crazy to walk by the computer in our room and hear her, just like her momma, planning events.   She is already an excellent leader, and I can't wait to see all this girl will do.   She did not have a lot of stories, but I do remember her being disappointed that they watched a "dog movie" instead of Mary Poppins.   That dog movie being Homeward Bound...she, like Sam, are not "dog movie" fans.   

Our money management badge required one more meeting, and one that I was looking forward to the most.   We had some work in the classroom to finish up the badge, but our application was a field trip to Publix, where I have an activity that divides them up in small groups to check prices of different items, and find the best value for the money.   Well, this was the Sunday right before a bad ice and rain was supposed to hit, and the Publix was closed when we got there.   I did a quick poll of all the parents, and we elected to go a little further to the Walmart.   After a strange public/private meeting giving them the assignment near the Subway, they all broke into groups and went on their way.   I did get a few pictures,  but tried to stay out of their way.   And at the end, they all got $1 to spend from Mr. Scott, who had planned for them to decide who and how they could combine moneys to get bigger things, but what turned into that typical end of Chuck E Cheese visit, where it takes 15 minutes for a kid to figure out how to use their 100 tickets that are not really worth much.   But I know they had fun...and I loved hearing from some of Belles group how they remembered a similar trip to the Piggly Wiggly a few years before.