Update: Protect Our Children Bill
Just wanted to let everyone know that this week Senate Bill 1738, the Protect Our Children Bill, PASSED! Thanks to all of you who helped support this bill by calling, emailing, or writing your senators.
Saturday Morning Fun
I bet no one can guess how I spent two hours of my Saturday morning...Give up? I had to get gasoline. That's right, I waited for two hours in line at Kroger to get gas. I have not been able to find gas for several days now and only had about 60 miles of gas left in the tank (by the time I pulled up to the tank I only had 42 miles left). Those of you who don't live in Nashville may not know that Nashville has had an EXTREME gas shortage for the last week. I thought it was a problem all over the US, but after talking to a few people that don't live in Nashville, I found out it is simply a Nashville problem.
So, I woke up this morning and called Kroger to see if they had gas. Before I could even ask my question the man on the other line told me they had gas, they would only have it for a limited time, there were about 200 cars in the parking lot waiting, and that I needed to get down there quick. So I threw on shoes and grabbed my purse and that is how I came to wait in line for 2 hours.
I wish I would have had my camera with me. Not only were the lines of cars in the parking lot something to see. I also got to watch a car be swarmed with several angry people cursing and threatening the driver because he cut in line.
Mike said he heard on the news today that Nashville has used as much gas in one week that we usually use in a month, and that is mostly due to hurricane Ike evacuees that have travelled up to Nashville. Luckily, now both Mike and I have full tanks and hopefully by the time we need to fill up again this problem will be solved.
So, I woke up this morning and called Kroger to see if they had gas. Before I could even ask my question the man on the other line told me they had gas, they would only have it for a limited time, there were about 200 cars in the parking lot waiting, and that I needed to get down there quick. So I threw on shoes and grabbed my purse and that is how I came to wait in line for 2 hours.
I wish I would have had my camera with me. Not only were the lines of cars in the parking lot something to see. I also got to watch a car be swarmed with several angry people cursing and threatening the driver because he cut in line.
Mike said he heard on the news today that Nashville has used as much gas in one week that we usually use in a month, and that is mostly due to hurricane Ike evacuees that have travelled up to Nashville. Luckily, now both Mike and I have full tanks and hopefully by the time we need to fill up again this problem will be solved.
Protect the Children
Many of you are aware that I have an Oprah addiction. I just finished watching Oprah's show from yesterday about "Online Child Predators". It was mind boggling, upsetting, sickening, informative, but most of all it was moving. I hope some of you were able to watch it, but at the same time those of you with children (especially daughters) this would have been an incredibly hard episode to deal with.
I will not go into detail, but I do want to say that these people will stop at nothing to find a way to enjoy themselves. I was completely surprised by some of the information given during this show. It is like the Child Predators think of the internet as a secret hiding place to do their illegal acts. Luckily, technology is catching up and it isn't as easy to hide anymore.
Everyday there are task forces and programs out there that are monitoring the online activity and finding these people. The unfortunate part is that there are so many online predators and there isn't enough manpower and money to capture the majority of them.
So here is where you can help. There is a bipartisan bill that the Senate will be voting on soon. The bill is Senate Bill 1738, it is called the Protect our Children Act. Go to this Oprah Show link, once there click on the "senate.gov" link to look up your states senators. After you have the contact information for your senators: call, email, and write them (there is a sample letter on Oprah's page). Ask them to vote for this bill. If this bill passes it will provide the man power and resources to help find these predators, but most importantly it will help keep children from harms way. Hurry because the senate will recess September 26th.
I will not go into detail, but I do want to say that these people will stop at nothing to find a way to enjoy themselves. I was completely surprised by some of the information given during this show. It is like the Child Predators think of the internet as a secret hiding place to do their illegal acts. Luckily, technology is catching up and it isn't as easy to hide anymore.
Everyday there are task forces and programs out there that are monitoring the online activity and finding these people. The unfortunate part is that there are so many online predators and there isn't enough manpower and money to capture the majority of them.
So here is where you can help. There is a bipartisan bill that the Senate will be voting on soon. The bill is Senate Bill 1738, it is called the Protect our Children Act. Go to this Oprah Show link, once there click on the "senate.gov" link to look up your states senators. After you have the contact information for your senators: call, email, and write them (there is a sample letter on Oprah's page). Ask them to vote for this bill. If this bill passes it will provide the man power and resources to help find these predators, but most importantly it will help keep children from harms way. Hurry because the senate will recess September 26th.
Dorm Life
Sadly, Mike's Grandfather passed away a couple of weeks ago. So, on the long drive to Dallas we stopped for the night in Searcy to rest and to drop Martini off with Uncle Kyle, Grandma and Grandpa. We decided on our way back through Searcy we would take a couple of extra days off of work to spend a little time with family. Luckily (for me), this happened to be the first week of college for BJ and I got to stop by Sears Hall and see BJ's dorm room.
For someone who did not really enjoy Harding University, and who especially hated dorm life at Harding, this was somewhat an eerie visit. Hopefully, BJ will enjoy her time at Harding a lot more than I did. I recently heard through the grapevine that after some prodding, BJ found the cafeteria and actually LOVES it:) Here are a few pictures of her incredibly cute dorm room. We Love you BJ!
It's a Family Affair
A couple weekends ago some of the family on my Mother's side decided to have a little get together. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was fun getting to catch up with everyone and see all the new babies that have been born in the last year. Due to certain circumstances not everyone was available or able to come. We missed everyone that wasn't there!
Cabo San Lucas
Sorry for the lag in posting. I can not believe it has been over a month since my last post. Quite a bit has happened over the last month so hopefully I will have some more postings out quickly.
Before you get to read about our Cabo trip, I first want to thank Mike's parents for letting us use one of their time share weeks. If it hadn't been for their generosity we would not have been able to take this trip. Thanks Dennis & Sherry!
Since we have gotten back, everyone has asked us what we did while we were in Cabo, well the answer is...Nothing! We ate breakfast, laid out at the pool, took naps, ate lunch, took naps, laid out by the pool, went out to dinner, and slept. That was pretty much the schedule for 8 days. We did throw in some snorkeling, scuba diving, spa time, and a sunset cruise, but the majority of the time was spent relaxing. All in all we had a wonderful time. Cabo San Lucas was the first trip Mike and I had taken by ourselves since our honeymoon 5 1/2 years ago. We had a really great time, but I think we realized that for a long relaxing vacation (like this one) we would enjoy having friends on the trip with us. I will warn whoever is thinking about going to Cabo, it is EXPENSIVE! So save your money.
The following are pictures of our resort:
Since we have gotten back, everyone has asked us what we did while we were in Cabo, well the answer is...Nothing! We ate breakfast, laid out at the pool, took naps, ate lunch, took naps, laid out by the pool, went out to dinner, and slept. That was pretty much the schedule for 8 days. We did throw in some snorkeling, scuba diving, spa time, and a sunset cruise, but the majority of the time was spent relaxing. All in all we had a wonderful time. Cabo San Lucas was the first trip Mike and I had taken by ourselves since our honeymoon 5 1/2 years ago. We had a really great time, but I think we realized that for a long relaxing vacation (like this one) we would enjoy having friends on the trip with us. I will warn whoever is thinking about going to Cabo, it is EXPENSIVE! So save your money.
The following are pictures of our resort:
The top two pictures were taken from the balcony of our room. The last two pictures were taken from the pool deck of the resort. It was really neat how the cruise ships just pulled right up.
The next two pictures were taken on our second night in Cabo. We made reservations at this really nice restaurant called the Sunset Da Mona Lisa. The view was amazing!
This series of pictures were taken during our snorkeling cruise. Word of advice...If you ever go snorkeling do research and find as small a boat as possible. The chances are the smaller the boat, the smaller the crowd. The company we chose for snorkeling did an amazing job. We had 5 people snorkeling, a captain, and his "Gilligan". It was peaceful, intimate, and quiet. We snorkeled for 45 minutes and then went sailing for about 2 hours. They served food, had an open bar, and because there were only a few of us they also served as our tour guide. Telling us about Cabo, who lives where, where to eat, where not to eat, and things to do while in Cabo.
Here's Mike steering the boat.
These pictures always turn out so goofy looking.
This is what we looked like after our "Day of Snorkeling." In reality it was only 3 hours.
This is us before dinner one night
The next few pictures were taken during our Sunset Cruise:
This is a picture of our resort from the Catamaran
Mike relaxing at the front of the Catamaran
This is "El Arco"
A snapshot of us (along with some random woman:) in front of "El Arco." 
Finally, you can't travel to Cabo without a trip to Cabo Wabo!
One last thing I forgot to mention. Our trip seemed to be the trip for celebrity citings. In the airport we saw Barry Trotz (the coach for Nashville's Hockey team the Predators), Vince Gill and Amy Grant were on our flight, we met someone from the TV show "Nashville" at our resort, in the airport on our way home we saw Jewel, and the most exciting celebrity run-in happened our very first night in Cabo. For dinner that night we decided to eat somewhere close to the resort, so we headed to a restaurant not far on the beach. About halfway through the meal a family sits down next to us and it was Christian Slater, his wife, and kids!
