Category: family

i have now been married to the same incredible woman for 15 years. august 11, 1990 i married way above myself.

the family and i had a “willy wonka” day today. first we went to see “charlie and the chocolate factory” today and then we watched the dvd of the original movie.

i sad to say that i found the remake disappointing. actually it would have been a decent movie if i had never seen the original. yet that’s the problem with remaking a classic – it’s very difficult to match it let alone top it. “charlie and the chocolate factory does neither. it’s a good and funny movie but the original was a great movie.

johnny depp is a freak as willy wonka. i understand why some people have compared his portrayal of willy wonka with a candy making michael jackson. i wish tim burton has left the original movie alone and done a sequel or something.

it’s time for a landscaping update. because of the rain we had on july 2nd some of my roundup was washed off and it didn’t kill the grass as effectively as it should have. so i sprayed more roundup yesterday and it definitely did the job this time. we now have a large brown patch of grass in the shape of our future flower bed in our front yard.

the second, update is that i have finally found a better price on the top soil. nature’s own garden center will sell me 7 cubic yards of top soil (their flower bed mix) for $226. this is the best price i’ve found thus far. if anyone knows of a better price i’m open to saving money.

this is where i am. i have married far above myself and i know it. i married an incredible woman and i don’t deserve an incredible woman. thus i most constantly grovel and hope that pam never realizes that she could have done so much better than me.

noah has some guests over to spend the night tonight. their two brothers and their family are friends of our family. neither one of the brothers had ever had a chili dog and being as that’s one of my favorite meals in the world (high class aren’t i?) we decided to introduce the brothers to them. after eating the chili dogs the following conversation went on between pamela and the youngest brother, age 6.

youngest brother – i just pooted.
pamela – hey this is a non-pooting house. said with a grin
youngest brother – oh, well this always happens to me when i eat chips.
pamela – well, i guess we’ll have to keep you from eating more chips. won’t we? again, said with a grin
youngest brother – umm, what i meant is this always happens to me when i eat chili dogs.
pamela – but you’ve never eaten a chili dog before tonight so how could you know it always happens?
youngest brother – um, well … i just found out

the whole thing made pam and i laugh.

i once heard someone tell a story of hearing a preacher tell a bunch of college kids the following:

when you were born you cried and everyone else was smiling. the question you have to ask yourselves is if you have lived such a life that when you die you will be the one smiling and everyone else will be crying

friday, i went to the funeral of my uncle david (actually my great uncle david). it was obvious to me at least that he had lived such a life – a life of meaning and purpose. the room was full of people who were truly thankful for the part that david played in their lives and were going to miss him. it wasn’t a small funeral. the room was packed. it wasn’t packed because uncle david was a celebrity or a person of importance or note. it was full because david had consistently lived out a life that was faithful.

i’m sure david was smiling friday and i know that there were many people in that church auditorium that were crying.

adam is away at boy scout camp so it is pam, noah, and i around the house right now. last night we went to haley’s birthday party and there noah found the big rope swing in the back of the fletcher’s house. once he found the swing we didn’t see him again for quite awhile. he was too busy swinging (and judging from his shirt he was also busy falling off the swing).

when i was in middle and high school my mom and dad would take my brother and i to columbia, alabama where we would ski on the chattahoochee river. one of the best parts about going to the chattahoochee is that across the river from our “camp” (you louisiana people would call it the camp – we called it our trailer) was a huge rope swing. the end of the rope was at least 10 feet off the water when it was hanging still and straight down. to swing on it you climbed another 15 feet up an incline and swung from the side of the tree that supported the rope. when you let go of the rope at it’s highest point you were a good 20 feet off the water. you could do a flip off of it with ease. of course, you could also do a monstrous belly flop off of it. i’ve done both (unfortunately more belly flops than flips). in some ways i really miss that rope swing and in other ways i don’t miss it at all

SIDE NOTE – how many new, useless, and stupid reality tv shows can be released in a single year? just let me say one thing “i want to be a hilton.” stupidity has reached new heights. of course, “the princes of malibu” may top it.

pam, my wife, is definitely one of the smartest, most incredible people i know but i am blown away by what i have to admit that she did tonight. this evening my wife, the mother of my children, the one who is presently working on her ph.d. in speech and hearing science at l.s.u., tonight this incredibly intelligent and attractive woman watched “dancing with the stars“. some moments simply amaze to the point of complete shock. this would be one of those moments.