June - River Weekend

Yes, I know. It has been a while since I posted anything. Time flies when you are having fun I guess. And fun is what we have been having mostly. Summer is a great time for a family. We get so many daylight hours, and there is always something to do. We have spent the majority of June playing tball and trying to stay cool. Succesful on all counts. Alot of time in the pool for the two, and alot of time by their mother keeping them somewhat in line. Pretty amazing she manages to do all that she does and is taking 6 grad hours the first summmer semester.

I was gone the last of May and first week of June at LSU Banking School. Great experience, met some good folks, and learned much. Mostly it was about the people though....and the socializing. My only suggestion would be they don't need to allow so much "free time". Way to much free time, in Red Stick. I did get the chance to go have dinner with some wonderful friends. They have a house up on False River that is beautiful, and had a home cooked meal and slept in a real bed. That was nice after 2 weeks of living in a dorm and eating out. Blessed to have the Forrest in my life.

Got to come home to a full swing of tball. Noah finished up well. He really came on strong once we started coach pitch. He was the youngest out there by about 5 months, but held his own and had a great time. Not alot of drama in the 5&6 year old league in Tupelo. Most everyone out there is there to have a good time. The coaches that do start to take it seriously get quickly brought back to earth by the rest.....out of line behavior was just not tolerated...by coaches or by fans.....

Noah's biggest fan.

We did get to come and spend the weekend in Enterprise. Dad is in the middle of building a cabin at their place on the Chunky. Going to be really neat when it is done. He had a framing crew there to work on Saturday. Amazing what those guys can get done in so little time. The language barrier is fun to work through, but they definantly know how to build. I helped through lunch and cooked for the crew, and then took Noah to the River for the rest of the the afternoon. He managed to swim and throw rocks for about 3 hours.....tired little man when we made it back to the camp. T and lil C hung out with the Clarks and made a trip to town. I do think that both the kids and thier mom will enjoy the River more when dad gets a good place to stay and somewhere to get a shower.

Saturday Morning about 9 am.

Saturday afternoon about 4.

Cold Water

Noah after 3 hours on the River.

Very hot down there this weekend. We stayed at the Barn, but it was so hot, it was hard to get into the woods much. I did get some minerals put out for the deer. We are still dealing with the windstorm from April......so much damaged timber. Worse than Katrina on the place. Loggers are doing a good job, but the place is so different. I am blessed to have been able to hunt one last turkey season in the hardwoods. Those are all gone now, and that is tough on someone that loves the outdoors as much as I do.

July is just a day away and then we will be down to weeks until school starts. Can't believe Noah starts real school this fall...


Late Saturday afternoon looking down river below the cabin.

Easter Weekend

My goodness this is a busy time of year, but I guess it is always busy with our two and the things we like to do. The kids have hunted most of the Easter eggs in Tupelo and have eaten enough candy to make sure that no dentist will have to wonder where their next paycheck will come from.

We started our Easter festivities the weekend before Easter with an egg hunt for the young kids at FUMC. It looks like it was a good time had by all. Tracie stayed with the kids through that....Carson in one place, Noah hunting in another. She did all this on her bum ankle, btw....that was alot of fun. (Tracie stepped up on the deck 3 weeks ago Thursday, and twisted her ankle on a Croc, doctor visits and PT has been pretty common since then). While the kids and mom hunted eggs, I helped out with the FUMC outreach project, knocking on doors in our "Mile of Grace"....not the easiest activity in the world. Noah and I headed to ParksMill for an extended weekend after the egg hunt.

Turkey hunting had been tough for most of the year, cold weather has kept the leaves from coming out, and with all the burning we have done in the past couple of years, a turkey can see A LONG WAYS....and is not always easy to call....and needless to say I need easy to call turkeys. I did manage to get lucky on one Monday morning. Found a turkey roosted over a beaver pond and got close enough to get him cut off from where he wanted to go, ended up killing a good three year old. Noah was proud I "caught a turkey", I know I sure was.

The rest of last week was just one Easter party after another with daycare, pre-k, and then an Easter Carnival on Saturday. It seems like we where going and doing all week long, it went by quick though. We also had something at FUMC Wed, Thur, and Friday night......The Good Friday Service was special. It is so dark and sad, I completely understand what a friend told me earlier in the week, "If you don't go to the Good Friday Service, you are really not getting all that you could from the Easter Sunday service". It truly makes you appreciate the Gift that was given.

Tracie and I had Friday off and we managed to get a good bit done around the house. Some spring cleaning and I made the first moves on getting our garden ready. Added some humus mix and good topsoil. Looking forward to some tomatoes in June.

Went to an Easter Carnival Saturday, Noah was picked to be a magician assistant. He did great and is something we have talked about A LOT since then. Good memory for he and his mom and dad. We left there and headed to Oxford for a little SEC baseball. Beautiful day, and the updated Swayze Field is a gem........I hate to admit it, but Ole Miss has passed MSU in its baseball facility. State went so long and had, what was considered one of the nicest parks in college baseball. That was true for a long time, but we have been passed, and not by just OM, most colleges have updated. There are some updates coming, but they are about 5 years over due. OM's park even has a playground.......guess where we spent most of our time. Fun time though. Noah enjoys most all little boy things, and I really do think he enjoys sports, playing and watching. He was having a great time watching the players and keeping up with whats going on....his little sister, not so much. She has zero interest in "boy baseball". We where sitting just taking it all in Saturday, talking to N about what was going on and, Carson was being Carson...until she saw a girl come running out to shag a bat....that made her day. She loved getting to see someone she could identify with.......kids are funny.

Saturday evening was spent resting and dyeing eggs for the Easter bunny to hide. We woke up Sunday to find that indeed the Easter bunny had stopped by and left the necessary proof....gifts.

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day. We made it to the Invitation Service, big crowd and its was fun to see everyone so dressed up. I may be bias, but I am pretty sure I was with the prettiest family. I truly do believe Noah had a good idea of why we where making such a big deal about Easter, we had a good many talks and it did seem like he had a good understanding. I wish we could take more credit for that, but we are blessed with a great pre-k at FUMC.

This week has been at a much slower pace, with the weather as nice as it has been, we have been outside every evening for as long as we can before bath time. We even managed to get the garden planted this afternoon before it was time to come in, and to my surprise we didn't break a single plant....

Opening Weekend of Turkey Season

The Tupelo Mallards headed South to ParksMill for the opening weekend of Turkey Season. The kids and I left around lunch Friday and made our way down in time for Noah, Grandaddy, and I to make a quick round on the bb to check a couple of spots and to just get a look at the place. Seems like forever since we have been home. Carson wanted to stay where her Muggie, which was good with us. Tracie managed to make it down about dark or so, we had a huge supper, and alot of visiting to catch up on. The Barn is so much fun when everyone is there. Matt, Jen and EJ made it in just in time for supper. EJ is getting BIG.

This time of year, the wooods are just bare from a long winter, and it seems like you can see about a mile. Makes for hard hunting, and I just don't think the woods are to pretty right now. I always look forward to that first green of Spring, it just seems to make everything better to the eye.

Great family weekend. We got to visit plenty at the Barn and had lunch with Clarks. The are doing alot of remodeling, and thier place will just be that much more fun for this summer.

Turkeys where pretty shy, a good bit of gobbling Saturday morning, but not much co-operation from the birds. Matt and I hunted Sunday morning, with zero activity and I went Monday morning before heading back to Tupelo, no luck for the weekend. First time in a while one of us has not gotten one opening weekend. Better weather is ahead though.

Tracie, the kids and I rode down to the River Sunday morning. It so pretty down there. We are looking forward to being able to spend some time down there this summer. Noah love its.

This weather is great

I think this weather has finally gotten to me. I have been patient and understanding now for about 2 months. I understand where we live and the fact that the worst of our weather year is typically in February.....but it seems like this has been an especially tough Feb. I am just tired of the cold, tired of the wet, and ready to see the sun shine. I hope March brings with it some warmer days, and at least some sun. The kids rarely get to go outside, and then it is only for a few minutes before they get to cold and have to come back. I really cannot remember this much cold weather for so long. Maybe the penitence we are paying now will mean a summer of sun with highs of about 80.....I am really ready to head some where warm with sand and some waves. Hopefully soon.

We have had some fun lately. We celebrated the boy's 5th birthday this past week. Good time had by all, due to the WEATHER, we had a birthday party at the gym at FUMC. It was a lot of fun. Well attended, no fights, broken bones, or strange parents. Easily a 9. Tracie did a great job of planning and getting everything together. All I did was show up with the kids.

It has been a quick wonderful 5 years. We where living in a single wide trailer house on the other side of the lake when Noah was born...since then we have moved twice, from one end of the State to the other, had a front row seat to the Nations largest natural disaster, and he picked up a little sister along the way. It has been a great ride though. I can't begin to imagine the next 5 years. Wow....we will have a 10 year old and an 8. And I will be 35.....that just sounds old.

March bring hope though. There have got to be some warmer days in there somewhere. Tracie gets a week off, and turkey season starts. Those are some things to look forward to. We have spent most of the past two months in Tupelo, but with turkey season starting soon, I would imagine we will be heading South fairly regularly with a couple of extended trips thrown in for some hunts with friends. Can't wait.

Reviewing the Golf Swing

Putting this up for Ben to critque or just say stop....Is there anything there to work with?

The Late Winter Blahs....

Christmas was wonderful, and the time spent with family and friends was what makes that special time of the year special. We are blessed to have a wonderful and healthy family and a place to spend so much time together. Kris got to come home for a long visits and I think enjoyed her time back home. ParksMill was well used throughout Christmas and New Years. We ate plenty and enjoyed each others company to the fullest. It is a good thing that we all enjoy each other, because the hunting at PM was not the best this year. Dad and I have hunted really hard, and just have not seen the deer like we typically do. I hear that is about the same report for most folks this year though.

This was the first Christmas for EJ, Matt and Jen's baby. He is a blessing, and Matt and Jen are going to be great parents. I just hope Matt can hold off a couple of years before he has the boy out fishing. Our family has really changed in the last 5 years. We went for so long with just us "big kids", social time was centered around doing this that big kids do and we also enjoyed ourselves. With the addition of Noah, Carson, and now EJ Christmas is just so much more fun. N&C are getting to the age that the Holidays mean alot to them and that makes our time just that much better.

Life is a little slower since we got New Year's behind us though. It seems like between Thanksgiving and New Years we where somewhere about every other night. Busy times, but it was fun. School is back in full swing now, and the Spring semester of grad school officially starts for Tracie tonight. She will be in class Monday and Tuesday night, I have disciple on Wednesday night. Makes the week go by fast though.

It is not so much that I dislike this time of year.....its just that this time of year is really not tied to anything that I look forward to. Summer is summer and all that goes with it, Fall has football and planting and the beginning of hunting season, Thanksgiving to New Years is was it is, THE BEST TIME OF YEAR, but from New Years to about the middle of March is the "blahs" to me. By the middle of January, I have hunted out. Deer are skittish, ducks are spotty, and Tracie's patience has been tested to the point that her February 1 birthday gets more and more expensive....Also, since moving to Tupelo we have found that it is REALLY COLD this time of year up here. We have found that to be especially true this year with the snow event and the 7 or so days that it never got out of the 30s.....But there is hope, February is almost here, and that means March is coming....turkey season, baseball, and some crappie moving up.

The biggest excitement we have had up here in a while is the snow and freeze storm we had in early January. Kids and mom loved it. Kids because they got to play in to the snow and mom because she got to miss a day of school.

Christmas done come....and gone

Well it was a very busy Christmas season. We have attended numerous gatherings with family and friends and helped with many many kids events. It was fun though. Tracie is a pro with those types of things and handles it all without to much fan fare. I think she had 4 in one day at some point during the fun. All was great though. We are a blessed family. Noah and Carson had a wonderful time and this year was really alot of fun getting them involved in the Christmas events. I knew we had done a good job when Noah asked me one day last week, "what was Christmas spirit" we talked about what it meant to be happy and just loving life and being fully of joy because it was Jesus's birthday.....he told me he was full of Christmas spirit.

I want to think that is what he was full of anyway.....

I wrapped up work on Wednesday of last week, we fried 8 turkeys and delivered them around. Spent most of Thursday enjoying being with the family and went to FUMC Thursday night. Beautiful service and a big crowd. Came home to getting the house prepared to host Santa.

The big man did show and the kids where super excited. We had our breakfast and headed to Enterprise in time for lunch with the Clarks. Great to be with family. Ended Christmas night at Parksmill with the Mallards. More eating and gift giving. Wonderful Christmas day and further assurance of the blessings that are health and family.

Santa's bag was mostly full of bikes.....Noah got a big boy bike and Carson got a PINK radio flyer.

Pretty Ladies.....I ate way to much for Christmas lunch....but it was all so good.


It really was not that cold, Dad just looks like that anytime the temp gets below 65.....

Carson loves dress up.....these just happened to be close by. Her aunt Kelli got her princess dresses....we have seen those alot this week.

Pretty rare when we are all there.

As is the tradition with the Mallard men, after the gifts are given and the visiting is wrapping up, the attention turns to hunting. Dad, Alex, and I are the only ones in camp, and deer are moving slow, but that will change pretty soon.

I do believe that we are ready for 2010. These years sure to seem to go by fast lately.

Enjoyed Thanksgiving, and.............Here Come Christmas

We sure do seem to bunch up our holidays. Seems like Thanksgiving takes forever to get here and then in a day it is done.....and the count down to Christmas is on. Fun time though. We left Tupelo and headed South Tuesday before turkey day and stayed through Sunday. Good time had by all. I think I gained a pound or two and I know I consumed more dessert than I have in the past several months.

We stayed at the Barn, and everything worked out well. The new arrangement helped with traffic flow and getting the two their own play room helped much. We had more food than could feed twice as many people. It is just hard to control some of the chefs in the family. Between Aunt Kelli (bacon wrapped shrimp kabobs), Tracie (pecan pie), Momma (dressings galore and many breakfasts) and myself (stuff venison tenderloin....I also cooked two turkeys at one time, smoked and fried) there was never any hunger in the house.

I am still not even close to getting to set at the grown up table....
Tools of a master....turkey be ware....the egg is the easiest thing to cook on since the microwave.

Not very many deer, but some great time with T. Could not imagine a better way to spend an afternoon.
Lovin Aunt Kelli.
..........and marsh mellows.
they even let dad play. It was fun for a while.....but then it got real cold. Tracie was a real trooper. I think this was on Friday and she had been up since about 4 to shop black Friday.
the skinning room would be on your left and mine and Matt's old room to the right. Looks different huh?

Lest I forget....there was one other thing.

.........there was a little football game played on Saturday that many of us had an interest in. The Egg Bowl is not something that T and I watch together. I think we have twice....once, our first together, before marriage and I think we where in DC and could not watch it with anyone else and then Eli's senior year (in the rain and a beating by OM) I think that is when she decided I was a keeper. Since then it has just been best to watch it on our own with kin....somebody ain't going to be happy with the outcome. We handle it well, just maybe not in the first 15 minutes after the fact. It is best to give a little time.

State won, and it was a great day to be a Bulldog. Dad and I went, and it is a memory we will share for a long time, we've got a few of those, and several on that campus. Great way to end the year and it really does look like things are headed in the right direction...at both schools. Not much use to gloat....history tells us that have seen a few of these that roles can be reversed pretty quick. Besides, when you sleep with the rival....it can get lonely on the couch if you say too much.

Favorite Time of the Year

It is my favorite time of the year, and living in Tupelo now, we actually get seasons. The fall colors have been great this year, and the weather is outstanding. We have been spending as much time in the out of doors as possible, at least we did until the time changed....which I was against. No time to do anything when you get home now.
I was feeling bad about not updating the blog, we have just been busy, but then I got to looking around at some other friends, and I see we are not the only ones. With Tracie working and in school two nights a week, and all the rest we have going on...the days fly.
The kids are having a great year. Noah is loving school and lil' C is the queen at Debbies. Today was the annual Thanksgiving "Feast" and program for the pre school at church. We should have charged admission. Probably 300 plus in attendance to see kids and grand kids. I don't think there was a person left working in down town Tupelo. Great time though. Noah and his class did great as did all the other classes. Lots of proud mommas and dads. Tracie even got to take a 1/2 day from school and come over....when she got there is realized why subs where so hard to find....all the teachers where there. Not a lot accomplished anywhere today. Tracie did manage to get our Christmas tree up. Early, we know, but it was a convienent time for us and now she can decorate the rest of the house and the tree before we head South for Thanksgiving.

We have spent most of the Fall attending football games in Starkville and Oxford, I guess the only MSU game I have not been to was the weekend OM played BAMA, and T has been to a couple of OM games with friends leaving me to tend to the kids....We are both still pleased with of our teams, she more than I maybe. But State is headed in the right direction, some tough losses. We have had a grand time tailgating even though it seemed to rain every Saturday for the first couple of months. Kinda glad it is winding up though. The Rebels will most likely be in some kind of bowl that we will have to attend, but the focus will move to lots of hunting going forward. Look out Shreveport....... The view from Club is just a little different than our seats across the way....it only took a pint of blood and some shady concession.



Through rain, sleet, or hail, and $10 to the nice man delivering the hay. There have been a lot of special conditions to tailgate this year. I would bet that the Universities are going to have to spend $s and have a wait and see approach to see if they have any grass come up next spring.

All others things considered, the biggest news of the Fall for our family has been the addition of another Mallard. Matt and Jenn welcomed Evan James into the world last month. All is going well. They are going to be great. The coming home of EJ did prompt a good bit of attention at the camp to make an effort to do some cleaning. Several of us spent a Sunday moving everything out of the Barn and cleaning from the bottom up. We also rearranged and got the place ready to host Thanksgiving. N&C's room is ready and we made them some more space. THANKS MOSTLY TO AUNT KELLI.

Matt feeding EJ in the new play room downstairs.

Kelli working hard to get the Barn clean.

I hope to continue to do better at the blogging, though I think the calender going forward to Jan 1 is just about filled up with something. B/T church, parties for kids and grown ups, and running back and forth hunting somewhere it will be January 2010 before we know it. Fun times though.

Being Sick is no fun

I am a slacker and I admit that. The blog has not been updated in almost a month and I am fully responsible. But it has not been the most fun of times lately. We had both kids down with the flu two weeks ago. Tracie had to stay out with them and they recovered, but I am pretty sure it took some days of T's life. Being kept in the house with the "2", and it raining non-stop for 2 weeks has been no fun.

This rain has really kept us pretty low key the past couple of weeks. The flu would not let us get out two weeks ago and the kids where absolutely going stir crazy in the house last week. It would rain all day, and they couldn't go out at day care and then we would come home and it would still be raining. We did manage to get to the park last Sunday, but got rained out after about 20 minutes. Noah and Carson loved the extra time with their mom and could probably get used to that more often, but I think Tracie remembers why she teaches high school..

We are better now though and the sun has finally come out and that is a blessing. Sunny days and cooler temps are ahead. Thank the Lord. We got back to normal last week, with the kids in school and T back to work and going to class. Still busy times, but it does make the weeks go by fast.

Tracie had some serious heartache Thursday night with the Ole Miss loss. I guess it wasn't so much that they lost. Winning on the road in the SEC is never a gimme, but when you had been hearing for the past 6 months how great you are and all the experts had just penciled that one as a W....it is hard to bear. Nothing really compares to the passion many of us have for teams. Your mood and your outlook on many things is dependent on the wins and losses of young men who you don't know and probably never will. I am not sure what that makes many of us that live in the South, but I would not change a thing. Tracie is completely drained after watching Ole Miss play and is then heartbroken if the lose and over joyed if they win. And whether win or lose she will be back again the next week.

I was pulling for OM Thursday night. I thought it would be great for the SEC and I don't like to pull against Tracie. What makes her happy, makes me happy. And besides, I was thinking at that time at least they have a chance to have a good year. I will just continue to support my Bulldogs and look forward next year............I had no idea I would witness what happened Saturday in Starkville. I have witnessed some tough losses at MSU. This was pretty tough to swallow. Dan is the man though. Better days are ahead. State looks like a football team and will learn how to win. LSU's second string is more talented than most of State's starters, but they are well coached and seem to have bought into the coaches. We will win more this year than most thought back in August.

All else is well. Starting to get close to my favorite time of year. Planning to do a little bow hunting this weekend and enjoy the cooler weather.

One more thing.....I love all those talking heads that say this guy is to old to win ...yeah...right.