I've been cheating on this blog with another...

So in case you don't know, I post to another blog as well and have kind of neglected this blog. Understand that I still love this blog, I've just been posting to the other one more because it is about my running progress. It is called Run, April, Run and I am not the only author to that blog. Check it out if you haven't already. That one gets posted to pretty regularly, like a few times a week.

Anyhooo, (I gotta make this fast because I gotta get ready to go make coffee for Chad's discussion group), Laura introduced me to Yahoo!'s "Cover Art" online videos when she wanted me to take a look at Mandy Moore's cover of "Umbrella" (which is pretty good, I must say). Well, I decided to check out some of the others and this Bowling for Soup cover of "London Bridge" cracked me up good.



Enjoy!

A Stolen Car, A Reunion and the Return of a Friend

In case you never heard...



It doesn't look so bad from the front does it? Well look below to see the back seat and you'll see why Michael's poor '96 Buick Regal was put to rest. For those of you who don't know, Mike's care was stolen from the shop in Camden where it was getting repaired. It was then sold to a suicidal dude who drove the car up to a train track in Columbia and parked it there so he could die. Unfortunately for the one trying to kill himself, he parked it the wrong way, the train hit the car from the back (he was sitting in the front), knocked the car off of a 60 foot embankment, and the dude still lived. The poor Buick risked his life so that another may live. Now Bruiser (that's my '96 Buick Regal) is without his twin brother. It is still a bit sad, but at least the grey Buick was able to go out in a blaze of glory and even get mentioned in the Camden newpaper.



Awww, Whaley's Mill 414 reunited...



A few weekends ago we got the opportunity to have a bit of a reunion of sorts and hang out on Shelley's family's boat in Charleston. I've come to appreciate these gatherings more and more since we all don't get to see each other like we used to. It's awesome though that we can usually pick up right where we left off and it feels as if time hasn't really passed. These things are always bittersweet for me though. I realize that things will never be the same, that life is constantly changing so in a sense it makes me sad, however I can't really be that sad at the progression of life because there are things that I really like about life now as well. I struggle though because I am definitely the most sentimental of everyone as far as I know. I live with the constant awareness that when I see someone, it could always possibly be the last time I see them so I approach our gatherings in that fashion...at least in my mind. When I outwardly express that sentiment, my friends look at me like I'm a weirdo, so I just internalize. I'm sure plenty of therapy will result later on in life.

Lauren Returns!

Last Saturday night, my buddy finally returned home from her mission work in Arizona. I was totally excited. Lauren and I think a lot alike. I like people who think like me (and no I'm not egocentric at all, nor am I sarcastic). But seriously, I'm glad she made it back safely. She caused quite the pandemonium though upon her arrival...


Eddie anxiously awaited with the video camera ready to grab every little precious moment of the return (notice the bandage on his hand...well let's just say he got in Lauren's Mom's way when she tried position herself at the front of the gate to be the first to see Lauren)...

Michael holds one of the signs that the family brought...


Awwww...they're reunited and tackling each other...


And here we are at the Krispy Kreme. A successful welcoming, I'd say :-)

The Family Vacation...part 1

Here's a few pictures from the vacation so far. Not much time to tell stories, maybe I'll get to that later.



These are mountains.



So adorable :-)




Gettin' me some fresh mountain air.



Caverns

Fish, Snakes and Beavers, oh my!

Ok so I actually caught a fish yesterday! It was slightly larger than Denis' fish that he caught the other night. Chad is pictured holding my fish because I do not touch fish that I'm not about to cook...

So I'm fishin' along and look down in the water and there's this little snake sittin in the water. Chad came and looked at it and said it looked like a water moccasin judging by the pattern of its skin and the fact that it was staying under water. So Chad tried to crush the snake's head but it was under water and in the mud so it kept just sinking in the mud instead of getting crushed and then it swam away. But later, I was further down the river fishing near some tree limbs and looked over and saw that I had a new fishing buddy. This big ole snake that is photographed below. He didn't seem like he wanted any trouble so we decided to leave him alone and maybe start packing up our things to head home.

Yet, Mother Nature was not through with us. We get our stuff packed up and then this huge creature comes at us! Was it Bigfoot?!

No, it was a giant beaver! Ok, not a real beaver. But it was our friend Ben Mitchell dressed up like a beaver.

I don't know what that kid was doing, but he apparently likes to just dress up like a beaver and wander around the forest. Whatever floats your boat! Then like two children who had just spotted Chuck E. Cheese, Ashley and Michael insisted on getting their pictures made with Ben the Beaver.

Everyday is an adventure if you just allow it to be.

Gone Fishin'

We bought fishing lisences and poles today and went fishing tonight. We actually managed to catch a few things. Here's how the night went down...

Rippy caught a nice sized catfish.

I caught a stick! yummy :-)

And Denis caught this HUGE bass! Wow...he'll be eating off of that for a week!

So in conclusion, Rippy caught the best fish...or item. Technically sticks aren't fish. Unfortunately, none of us really know how to skin and filet catfish. So, we let him go. I guess that was fortunate for him. I started feeling sorry for him being all hooked up and tied down and all. I have guilt issues. Can't help it. I watched too many Disney movies with talking animals when I was growing up. No one wants to eat Nemo. But at the same time, I'll bet Nemo tastes good. Hopefully I'll catch something in the morning :-)

I've given in...

I swore I would never create a blog. My reasoning behind this was that I was too cool. For the record, I think I created blogging. Okay perhaps I didn't create it because I'm sure someone out there was doing it before me. I think you would call that writing in a journal. But anyway, back in the day I created my own little geocities Web site called "Beautiful World Tonight" and had a section on this site called "April's Thoughts on Things." I did this before the word "blog" was in everyday vocabulary. I would also post photos and videos and poems and all that mess. People seemed to get a little bit of entertainment out of it. Come to think of it though, I'm a bit embarassed by the poetry. I thought for a season I might be able to make a career out of being a poet. That was dumb. Because I, like my good friend Lauren (hehehe), believe that making one's self vulnerable from time to time is good for the soul, I will leave whatever it is I had posted on that site up, as long as it decides to stay up. Or until I get hate mail telling me to remove my wretched poetry. So, click around Beautiful World Tonight if you never knew that I had that site, or if you remember it and want to take a trip down memory lane, or if you want to just make fun of my wretched poetry...or if you are just really bored and have absolutely nothing else to do. Be my guest. Hopefully I'll get more stuff going on on this blog soon. Till then, take care of yourselves...all two of you who are reading this. :-)