Thanks Coach!

9-29-08

Cindy brought herself and her cool camera to Selmer to watch Gracie play soccer. Gracie performed on cue.

I promised her a dollar every time she touched the ball. Was that wrong? Enjoy the pics.

Cindy Comes to Selmer

Cindy read the girls a bedtime story.

Audrey and John Burton

They couldn't contain themselves after Ole Miss beat Florida.

Mac and Cheese World Record

Not really, but Addie did take down about three bowls at lunch today. 

Run For The Border

The ladies joined me for a delicious lunch at Taco Bell today. Gracie
and I each had the Volcano taco.

Gracie and the Ved Med Cheerleaders

The team is always glad to share their kool aid with fans Addie and
Clara Grace. Addie took the field midgame tonight when I was in charge
of watching her. AB ran her down and I missed the whole thing because
I was so focused on the game. Whoops!

Team Vet Med

Good Grapes

Addie enjoyed the fruit at Ella Davis's baptismal brunch this afternoon. I wish I had a better to picture of the gathering, but the iphone camera is limited. Cameras aside, Ella has the honor of being the first child baptized by Trinity Presbyterian Church's first pastor, Randy Rhea. Addie, however, will always be able to say she was the first child ever baptized at Trinity. I hope I can remember to remind her of that someday when she actually cares. 

Wagon Rides at Jack's Bday

Running With Three

   

Anita Beth and I logged a collective 21 miles this morning, with three kids and no Grandmother to help us out. Iris is in Switzerland so we were on our own. We needed a little help from our friend Bubba, but we got it done. I'm very proud of AB as she is planning on running the St. Jude Half Marathon in December. The best part was meeting at Bubba's after we finished for donuts and hang-out time. Gracie and Addie each ate big chocolate-covered donuts with sprinkles. After they were finished, they were both chocolate covered and sprinkled. 

Pedro Says Hello

Snowballs are Snowballs

A new dog walked up to the house last week. He slightly resembled the Taco Bell chihuahua so I called him Pedro. He's a cute cream-colored little dog built like a jack russel or a feist except with a tail. His only annoying habit is treeing our three-legged declawed cat (George), but other than that he's not so bad to have around, and it's kind of fun to have a dog named Pedro to greet when you come home at night. 

After Pedro had been with us a few days, his owner pulled up in the driveway. Apparently Pedro had a home about two miles down the road. The owner let us know that Pedro's name was not Pedro, but Snowball. According to Anita Beth, Pedro did not want to go home. Poor Pedro. 

Anyway, Pedro came back to us again a few days ago. He slept on the front porch last night. This morning on the way to school, Gracie reminded me that Pedro is not our dog, and she told me that his name is not Pedro. 

"What's his name, Dad?" she asked. Apparently, she couldn't remember what the neighbor had said.

I told her that his real name is Snowball.

"No, Dad," she said, in her usual corrective tone. "His name is not Snowball. Snowballs are snowballs and names are names and dogs are dogs."

I couldn't have said it better myself. 

Addie at the Picnic

Desperate Housewives

I'm So Glad You're Home Dad!

Audrey greeted me from the excersaucer when I arrived at home tonight.

Futbal Star

Gracie was all over the field Monday night. She chased the ball really well and had a couple good kicks. Who cares which direction she kicked it? I don't. 

We are really proud of her. She also knows the Pledge of Allegiance as randomly demonstrated here. Needless to say, we'll be sending her to college early.

Soccer, Week 2

Gracie plays her second soccer game tonight. I am excited to see whether the burst of potential she showed at the end of last week's game with show forth again tonight. Gracie was talking big at the breakfast table this morning. She verbalized the objective of taking the ball away from other players and announced that she intended to do it. I'm not sure whether she distinguished players on her team from players on the opposing team. I didn't want to quell the fire so I didn't tell her that you only want to take the ball from the other team. Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing her take the ball from anybody, whether it's her team or the other team. Stay tuned to jakeanitabeth.blogspot.com for updates.

Assistants to Chef Bubba

Bubba cooked his famous white chicken chili Sunday night. Gracie and Addie sat on the counter and helped. 

Flying First Class

Anita Beth and Audrey joined me in the Rebel Club for the Ole Miss/Samford game Saturday night. If you've never been in the Rebel Club, all I can say is, there is a place where the cokes are free, with no lines and you can drink all you want, and there are unlimited supplies of barbeque nachos, and air conditioning, and close circuit tv and bathrooms without urine on the floor. There is such a place. A big thanks to Uncle Larry for showing us this place! 

The Nanny Returns

Savanna is home from college this weekend. The girls prepared for her return last night. She is going to take them to a "tea" while AB and I head to the Ole Miss game. Gracie and Addie are so excited. The sign in the background says "Welcome Home Savanna."

This morning Gracie and Addie were sitting on the steps waiting for her to walk up like she did b.c. (before college). "When is Savanna coming," Gracie asked. Anita Beth looked at her watch and subtracted the time from 2 p.m., which is when she's coming. "She'll be here in about 6 hours" Anita Beth replied. 

Gracie thought about it for a second and said, "Ok. 6 hours. Does that mean she'll feed me breakfast?"

W

I promise this is my last post about 9/11. Writing this stuff down and publishing it has been cathartic for me. Do you remember this speech the night following the attack? It was so comforting to me to hear a strong leader.

And when Bush came to New York a few days later I could actually see his Marine helicopter landing at the downtown heliport across the harbor from our apartment. The visit to Ground Zero was covered live. His impromptu speech was truly inspirational.

Memories coming back...

Maybe one of the most sobering moments was the first major league baseball game after 9/11.  Do any of you remember this?

9/11

Most of you probably know that Anita Beth and I lived in New York on 9/11. In fact, I saw the second plane hit and I watched the two towers burn and then fall with my own eyes. Needless to say, it was traumatic. Luckily, I didn't lose anyone I loved or even knew. Each year that goes by I think less and less about it. You would think that I would have nightmares about that day, but I don't. Yesterday came and went and I didn't think much about 9/11. In fact, I didn't care to read any of the news articles about the different memorials around the country. I'm almost ashamed to admit that because it makes me feel callous. 

Today, a friend forwarded this Budweiser commercial to me and it kind of hit me because I remember seeing the commercial from my couch in Brooklyn a week or two after the event. From that couch I could look out the same window that I was looking through on 9/11 and see the hole in the sky that was once filled by the World Trade Center. It was a magnificent view really, until 9/11 it was anyway. After that we mostly kept the blinds down so we didn't have to see the smoke rising. The rubble smoldered for weeks and smelled like burned acid. You could smell it all the way across the harbor in Brooklyn. 

If you'll recall, after the 24-hour news coverage ended and television went back to normal, the commercials were mostly be tributes to New York and Washington and the vicitims of 9/11. I remember my eyes would well with tears at these commercials that autumn. 

Now I've mostly put all those memories out of mind. I think a failing memory of tragic events is a gift from God that allows us to go on with our lives, but sometimes, we need to make ourselves remember. It actually feels good to remember... somehow.

This one really got me.....

The First Soccer Game

Gracie played in her first soccer game Monday night, and more important, she finally got that team shirt she'd been asking for since she was two. Though we've been practicing kicking the ball in the yard for a couple months, the whole game thing took a little while to register. In fact, she cried at the beginning of the first game because she didn't understand why everybody didn't get a ball. Once I explained the "one ball" concept and the game got underway Gracie mostly stood on the field with her hand in her mouth and tried to spot her fans in the bleachers while Walker Rhea (our preacher's kid) took the ball down the field and scored over and over again. In her defense, she is 3 1/2 while the kids who had the hang of it were four and five.

I started out encouraging Gracie to chase the ball, but then resorted to telling her to chase Walker, since he usually had the ball. Gracie jogged around a few times and I told her how good she was doing. For most of the game she was more concerned about the location of her Kool Aid than the location of the ball. But then, in the last quarter of the second game of the double-header somebody flipped the switch. She jumped in the scrum and kicked the ball and actually followed it and kicked it several more times all while fending off some ferocious D from the purple team (I think they had a couple 7 year olds out there). I was soooo proud. I know that was more than I ever did when I was three. I was (am) the most unaggressive athlete ever. My only pride is that I didn't skip down the field when I played soccer (I hope I didn't anyway).

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2020 Olympic Gold Gymnast

Addie didn't get to go to the circus. She got this nifty outfit
instead. Seemed like an even trade to her.

Gracie Hits the Big Top

Is the circus sometimes referred to as the "Big Top" or did I make that up? Cindy treated Gracie, Garner and Moms to the Barnum & Bailey Circus Sunday night. Apparently they hit the souvenir and concessions stands hard. Gracie saw tigers, elephants, and clowns and is still talking about it. We both agree that we don't want to go in the cage with the tigers and we both think it would be pretty cool to ride an elephant. Neither of us is sure how you get on the elephant. Thanks Cindy!

The Sports Writer Returns

I decided to try my hand at some sports writing. This time, I'm not getting paid, but I had the itch to give it a try. I'd love for you to read it and let me know what you think (unless you don't like it, then I don't really care to know). Check out my new sports blog at www.sportscoverageblog.blogspot.com

Check back in a day or two for circus pics. That's right, Gracie's with the elephants.

Sunday Nap

Addie rarely makes it home from church before getting her nap.

Good Hair Essential

"Mommy" by Gracie and Addie

Mommy Gets a Makeover

Neeter, Warrior Princess

Addie Helps

Corinth Lawyer

AB tells me there has been some confusion about my new law blog. First, I'm flattered that there are people out there actually reading my stuff. Second, the correct web address is www.corinthlawyer.blogspot.com. Thanks for reading it.

Also, anybody out there who wants to help me get google optimized, I need my web sites linked on other people's web sites. If you know anyone willing to link to my www.neeseadams.com or www.corinthlawyer.blogspot.com please tell them to have at it.

Also, you can access the blog or the web site anytime by looking under the links section for My Law Blog or Neese Adams.

Thanks again for reading it!

Last Saturday

Halleluja! Football season is back! Thus, I was glad to stay home with the kids last Saturday while Anita Beth did whatever. During commercials I snapped a couple pics of Addie and Audrey. There's also a few from Gracie's first day at preschool.