Picture Disclaimer

Hi everyone. Happy Holidays! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I have a ton of things to post on the blog and I apologize to those who check here for not updating more often. I will be putting Christmas pics up shortly, so check back soon.

I quickly wanted to put this up for your holiday entertainment. Lynn's sister, Pam, took her baby Natalie to have some X-mas pics made. The company is called Masterportrait and is supposedly a nationwide company. Apparently, they don't take to kindly of people who use scanners on pictures they make. Check out this statement they send out to their customers. I thought it was very professional.

Double click on the statement to make it larger if needed.

It's just like shoplifting, DAMMIT!

Merry Christmas!

Bye Bye Baja

Just a few updates since the LSU-Bama game, which seems like it was ages ago. Since then, LSU has been impressively under-motivated and has seemingly squandered a chance at a National Championship. However, some Bama fans I know would argue that their team has done worse having not won a game since, and lost to another team in Louisiana. I haven't seen any "Saban is God" pictures depicting him walking on water lately. Note to Bama fans: Saban is a good coach, but he is not invincible. He did get beat while at LSU, namely to UAB and to Iowa in his final game as LSU head coach. He is good, but beatable, as is anyone in college football these days. Give him a chance, and he will pay off; although I admit, $4 Million a year is a lot to pay to lose to La-Monroe. I would have done it for a lot less.

So, I sold one of my prized possesions......the Baja. The problem with it, which was the only problem with it, was that I never drove it. I have a company vehicle now and all the lonely Baja got was an occasional trip to Food World. No matter what your opinion of the vehicle is, it was honestly one of the best vehicles I have ever owned. I definitely miss it.

Here is the crazy part: I listed it on www.cars.com, which I recommend, and it sold within three weeks. The couple that bought it live in Missouri, drove down to pick it up, stayed in a hotel, paid cash, and gave me asking price. Nice. And even better, I actually made a little money on the vehicle, which i have never, ever done. So the baja chapter unfortunately ended, but it ended well. Here are some memorial pics:

LSU vs. Bama 2007

As a late birthday gift, my lovely wife gave me 2 tickets to LSU/Bama which, in case you are not a football fan, was the hottest ticket in Tuscaloosa in years. I have not slept good since Thursday night when she gave them to me. Needless to say, I was just a bit excited.

Here are me, Lynn and Savannah pre-game.

Right after this, Savannah was wisked away in a white Escalade by her grandparents. Momma and Poppa Mason dropped us off at the quad, which proved to be a pretty interesting ride considering Poppa Mason almost ran over a cop while admiring some sorority girls in their short dresses.

Ran into my old buddy Ron Smith. This is me, Ron, and Dad.

Lynn and I right before going to the stadium. Isn't she cute?

We took this when we got to our seats. Everything was going pretty good for the bengal tigers in the first quarter. Up 17-3, it looked like we might just have a blow-out which would have been fine with me considering the past three games.

Fast forward to the second half. I was not very happy at this point. We had not scored since the first quarter, and it would get worse before it got better.

John Parker Wilson and Bama.

Glenn and the boys

Dorsey.

Steltz.

Highsmith.

Halloween Pics

Savannah's Halloween school outfit.

She kinda got upset when she realized she couldn't pick up the pumpkin.

And this is the pink leopard with mommy.

Savannah really thought the air ghost in Poppa Gary's front yard was neat.

She tried to catch the little plastic bats that were flying around inside.

And she really liked the air that came out of the hand of the ghost. Everytime we would get close enough for it to blow her hair straight up, she thought it was hilarious.

Savannah Walking

On my birthday, (October 24) Miss Savannah decided it was time for her to walk all by herself. She has been full speed ever since. Here is a sample.

One Year Old!

On October 18, Miss Savannah turned 1 year old. She had her birthday party at Granmaam and Paw Paw Mason's house on Saturday, October 20. Here are a few pics.....I will put up more as they come in. Thanks to Granmaam, Ron, and Mark who took most of the pictures....I was running the video camera.

By the way, as many of you know, Lynn and I are looking for a bigger home as our collection of toys and various child items continues to expand out of control. Due to the many gifts Savannah received, this move needs to take place soon. So, if you know anyone looking for a great three bedroom, two bath garden home priced to sell in a quiet neighborhood, please let us know. And thank everyone for the beautiful gifts for Sav. She is a very loved little girl.

The Icing Princess
Me and Savannah
The Family (notice all of the icing on Lynn's shirt)
Savannah really didn't know what to do with the cake at first. So cousin Natalie crawled in to lend a hand.

3 Week Hangover

For the past three weeks, LSU has successfully made me and my brother much older. It started with a come from behind victory over Florida, followed by a less-than-motivated outing against Kentucky (not to mention probably being very sore after the Florida fiasco), leading up to the ultimate ending against Auburn. As to the decision to throw the prayer in the end zone rather than run to the middle of the field to set up the straight field goal attempt, I will default to mine and my brothers text message conversation after the game. Since we can't watch the games together, we typically exchange a few hundred text messages throughout the duration of the game. It went something like this......

Matt: no way that just happened.
Derek: Unreal!!!!
M: wow
D: you have to be kidding me
M: most screwed up thing i've ever seen
D: amazing......is les smart or crazy?
M: both I think.

Enough said. Next stop, Tuscaloosa. Geaux Tigers.

The Osborn's in Texas

If you look at this blog, and for some reason you don't check out my brothers, do yourself a favor and go there now. He and the girls just spent a week in Disneyworld, and the pics and videos are great. Seriously, if you dont have the time or money to go to Disneyworld, just visit Matt's blog. You will have a wonderful time and save some cash. Karlyle and Morgan look like they had the time of their lives. www.ozintx.blogspot.com

Perspective

This is kind of a different way to look at statistics for the U.S. I thought I would share with everyone.

The following pics were taken by a guy named Chris Jordan. The idea is to give people a visual account of certain statistics rather than just numbers. He put it together by splicing together hundreds of small pictures.

The following depict the 2 million plastic bottles used by Americans every five minutes. I am as guilty as anybody on this, but I will definitely think twice about it now when I go to get a bottled water.

Sea of plastic bottles.
Partial zoom
Full zoom

South Park SEC Coaches

Thanks Dad for sending me this.

This is a Little Extreme

Saban a God?

Welcome to the south.

Busy and Sick

It has been quite a while since the last post, so i will try to bring everyone up to speed. Basically, Lynn and I cannot get well. Give the all the credit to the germs of daycare or whatever; in any event, one of us is always sniffing or coughing, running a fever, suffering from a headache, or is nursing a sore throat.

At the time this post is being written, Lynn gets the ""sickest of the day" award. She is probably going to have to have surgery to clear out a portion of her sinuses that are entirely stopped up. For this procedure, she has been told that she will only have to miss one week of work. She is very excited.

Meanwhile, I have had a nerve block on my neck and upper back area for a nagging neck problem that has been bothering me over the past year or so. The doctors have told me it is a football related injury that has progressed over time. It has only been two days since I had it, so the results are pending.

The little girl is doing much better since she had tubes put in her ears. Oh yeah, Savannah needed tubes for her ears because they were stopped up and were continously causing infection elsewhere. We were seriously going to the doctor's office twice a week for a while....not including mine and Lynn's trips. Since the tubes were installed, she has only had a few coughs and some runny noses, and her balance has improved tremendously. She is trying very hard to stand and walk and cannot wait to be able to chase the cat.

Currently, we are accepting donations to cover the multiple $35.00 co-payments for each doctor visit. Just make the check out to "Tuscaloosa Pediatrics" and "MedCenter South."

Here are some pics from the past month or so.

Me and Sav on gameday. Geaux Tigers!!

New favorite food: cheesy poofs.
Cartman would be proud.

This is a newly developed sleeping position by Savannah. This happened one Saturday morning after she had breakfast. You are probably saying to yourself how cruel we are to let her sleep like this. The problem was that everytime we sat her up, she woke up and got mad at us for messing with her. She stayed like this for almost an hour.
Savannah also likes to sleep on every area of her bed at night.
Always chewing on something. Nice bib!
Lynn, Momma Mason, and I took Savannah out to the quad for the Bama-Arkansas game. I gave in and allowed the outfit since the entire rest of my family, my wife, and my in-laws are Bama fans (I would've had some help here if Matt did not live in San Antonio).

Here is Savannah and Baylor (a.k.a. Fancy)But seriously, which cheerleading outfit is cuter? Even Lynn admits it. She is coming around.

After we got home from the tailgate, Savannah escaped her mother with no diaper.

Rough day on campus.....Tigers win; Bama wins; time for bed.

Granmomma's Visit

Back in mid August, my mother came back to the states to visit us and Savannah (well, pretty much just visit Savannah). Anyway, here are a few pics we took while she was here. We miss her dearly and look forward to seeing her again soon. She and Richard are scheduled to come back at the end of November. You can see their blog and all about their new lives in the Country of Panama at www.panamaphillips.blogspot.com