New Wyld Life Director

Our new WyldLife Director Betsy Corry just arrived in Asheville this weekend and already she has made an impact on our lives. She shared this video with us.



Do yourself a favor and watch it at least two times and just try to not say "I wanna meet that Dad!" in the next five minutes.

This is so random, it made me laugh and it showed me how Matt and his new WL director are going to get along just great.

Mighty Gamecocks

Last night, Matt and me and the Williams (Matt and Hannah) drove down to Columbia for the season-opener for college football, South Carolina vs. NC State.
We were so fired up to watch 2008 Gamecocks at home, to see some college friends, family and to show our friends WHY we went to USC. Our plans were not a disappointment.
The 34-0 drubbing was great fun. Although, I don't know a Gamecock fan that wasn't disappointed with our first half effort.
Nonetheless, we had a great time-until it was time to go.
We finished our visit in the sauna called Williams Brice Stadium with Matt's family, met Chris Fowler from SportsCenter and then the Gamecock fans showed just how classy they were to our friends from NC State.

The entire way back to our car, Matt and Hannah were yelled at, cursed out and it was terrible. Not frightening, just embarrassing. I mean we just beat them 34-0, don't you think that you could have just said, "Good game" in a really sarcastic manner?

Anyway, we got back to our car and we noticed that not a single car was moving along Shop Road. For over an hour. It was a parking lot with everyone sitting in their cars with the cars running. There was a throw-down between a guy Matt knew and truck driver...where the guy was threatening to beat the driver's a** and his passenger laid down in her dress on the pavement to make a point. It was ridiculous.

But finally, traffic got moving and we were on our way at 1am back to Asheville.
Around 2:55am we were about an hour from home when we came across two police cars crawling along the highway outside of Saluda. We were the first cars to see this sight. If you need a visual, think of the boardgame Parcheesi. We had no option but to stay behind them and see what was going to happen. An hour and three miles later, we came across the accident that caused us to sit in the dark and barely moving for an hour in the middle of the night. A mobile home split in half across the two northbound lanes of I-26.
We quickly got past it and pulled into our driveway at 4:30am. Wanna know what time I saw Asher's face? 5:55am.
Fantastic night.

Product Placement

I was in the aisles of a local health food grocery store last week and I really wanted a Diet Coke. But that is plain silly since we all know that Diet Coke is NOT health food. Let's not kid ourselves.

So I was drawn by the good marketing and design of the Metromint bottle. I am a sucker for cool looking products. But also, I know that lemon water is a natural diuretic and makes your bowels get motivated. I am a big fan of that as well and so I bought a bottle.

Ya'll this is the best stuff that I have ever had to drink!
Really, no kidding. I love it. The version that I love is the Lemonmint water.
Normally, I HATE flavored water. Because really, how much flavoring does it need? It's water.
But, this is so refreshing. I actually felt more awake after I drank it than I ever do when I drink Diet Coke.

I love it, love it, love it.
Go find some now and try it out. Here is what a bottle looks like:


And you can visit their website and find out where you can buy some at Metromint.com

The Way for NBC to Really Capitalize on the Olympics

How is this for an idea?

After staying up until after 1am every night for two weeks, plus watching the Olympics during the requisite "prime time" hours, in addition watching MSNBC during my kids nap time; I still feel like I missed 85% of the Olympic Games.

I wasn't able to watch much of the boating events except for the Men's Eight, only the Badminton final, some Clean and Snatch (yes, I watched that) and minimal water polo.

Yet, my Olympic Fever has not dampened AT ALL. How about NBC start running all of the events that they didn't cover on say "Bravo" or the USA Network? Let's watch the events that we didn't always win gold or even heavily favored for gold? What about Pistol? Or Fencing? (which we swept-but there was no coverage) Could I please have a replay station on my OnDemand feature on Charter Cable?

I swear, the TV people are smarter than me because I will be forced to watch the National Convention coverage simply because my butt is used to being on my couch at 8pm sharp. But I would much rather watch the replay of the Steeplechase over a bunch of politcos waving flags or flip-flops or whatever they are going to use these next two weeks.

I am an American. So of course I will be watching. But give me Men's 70-meter Archery final every day of the week. Not literally. But some version of that.

Killer Dog

Slappy, our weiner dog has turned into a killer.

A killer of moles that is. Or Voles. I am not exactly sure of the correct term. In the last two weeks, she has killed three of them in our yard. I have pictures of one dead one. But I found this one on the internet and it gives a better description that mine does.

It has been a bit shocking to see her playing, flopping a dead one of these things around in our yard.

Slappy has also been wearing out her welcome by becoming something else that I have to take care of all day long. I am ready to introduce her to a new family soon I think. Any takers?

Crap

I wanted to post something of more substance today, I really did. But if you weren't convinced the Barak Obama is the guy to vote for in November by his time with Rick Warren on Saturday. Maybe this video will help you out. Please, just give it a chance. You will laugh your head off and be amazed by the amount of work that this took.



Thanks to Mike Hall for sharing this with me!

Warren Bazemore

So hilarious! This is a good friend of mine and Matt's from college. His claim to fame was that he was the "Slinky Boy" and sure enough...there he is. Red-headed Warren singing his heart out!

Going back to Columbia this past weekend made me miss our college days and friends. We are hoping to get down there for a few games this season; football AND soccer. I am fired up for sports right now. Olympics, college football, college everything. Have I mentioned that I love the Olympics with a passion that is nearly unmatched; except the Tour De France. I love watching Badminton, water polo, team handball. I mean, whatever obscure freakin' sport is on...I will watch it. I think it goes back to us living in Korea when the Olympics were there in 1988. Olympic fever is here. I just watched the ENTIRE opening ceremonies. Why? Just cause. Get ready peoples...Olympic Fever is here.

To No In Particular

But if the shoe fits, wear it.

I want to be the first to let you know that HE is in fact not the one. He is not going to change. I have spent too much of my life waiting to see the person that I want to see him be and instead he has turned out to be the person that he is going to be. Is he finished changing? Not at all. But I have learned through the various seasons of life, including the lives of my children to find out that I can not make anyone (including myself) into the person that I want them to be.

All that I have to offer is the simple truth that God will hopefully, sometimes and even unsuccessfully help me to love the people that he puts into my life the way that they are. I also pray and hope that they can somehow love me, no matter how much I fail them. With that being said, just loving someone is not a true indicator of the fact that you should be with them the rest of your life or even the next five minutes. I have been through relationships that have lasted years (and shouldn't have) and first dates that I have been hopeful about that turn into nothing.

Stop spending time, energy and your heart on a relationship that you have not be able to make work. The first time around, work hard on it. The second time around, give it a good go. The third, fourth and fifth time should be confirmation that this is not going to work and it is time to move on.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But since I have the benefit of having been in many relationships prior to my husband, I can tell you...even in marriage, relationships are difficult and this is a person that I have signed on to be with for the rest of my life. Dating should be fun, enjoyable and easy. Marriage is what's hard. If you can't have fun dating, then you will never have fun being married. I also have seen people who have a hard time dating; get married and my previous statement has been proven true more times than it has been false.

Go ahead and give yourself permission to close the door on this one. Not for me. Not for him. But for you. Every breakup is hard. You will always wonder about and maybe even still love a person. But, better relationships are out there. You don't have to blame him. You don't have to blame yourself. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out, even when two of the greatest people in the world find each other.

Thanks for listening. I hope that this will enable you to move on and find someone else. Cause girlfriend, this one's over.
Love and kisses. Tata,
Leslie

Anyone else out there ever needed this talking to? Cause I sure did. Thankfully, I did and I did move on. Now I have an incredible husband, children that I love and a life that I could never have dreamed of. And it's still hard to remain content! I can't imagine if I was with a person who made me consistently unhappy.

I don't really have anything

Sorry for the lack of posts. Matt was out of town all last week hiking in Colorado and I had both kids, working and had three showings on the house.

Pretty sure I am still recovering. Oh, and with the Olympics on...well I just don't have a minute of free time.

Olympics

I mentioned before that I love the Olympics. Want proof? I watched women's team handball between Russia and South Korea for two hours today on CNBC. Is that a bit excessive? Any more excessive than the belief that I could go compete for the US in this sport?

Anyway, I watched the whole opening ceremonies last night and saw these pictures today. Please click through and go see them!
Boston.com

My Precious Kids and I want a new camera

I was inspired by the amazing weather and evening light to take Asher and Lucy outside, even if just for five minutes with my camera this evening.






















Also, here at some pics that I took at the lake with the cousins over the weekend.





So you might ask, why would I want a new camera? I think that I have maxed out what my camera can do. Also, I am disappointed in the sharpness of the pictures. I think that there are flaws with this camera that I can't work out and it makes me less satisfied with my work right now. I would love to move up a level. Anybody at Canon wanna give me a new fat camera to "demo"?

Don't Mind If I Do

This weekend, I packed the kids up and went to Columbia to visit with Matt's folks and the kids cousin's.
It could have been fun if Asher hadn't decided that he needed to pay me back for the past three years of being a delightful child.

Everytime I turned around, he was throwing a fit, yelling "NO!" or being awake at 4am.

The first night there, he fell out of bed four times. Between 2am and 4am. And he couldn't/wouldn't get back in bed without my assistance.

So of course he was exhausted and cranky the whole rest of the next day.
The next night, I was putting the kids in bed when Lucy thought it was a good idea to figure out how to escape out of the pack and play. I put them in bed, was relaxing with the in-laws when Lucy came running into the living room. Fantastic.

So I put her back in and she got out three more times.
Ugh.

Finally she goes to sleep and Matt's mom, Linda tells me, Buffy, Jeannie and Mary Lane to go out and have a girls night. So fun to hang out with my sisters-in-law!

I come back and go to sleep. Somewhere are 4am, Asher comes to me and tells me, "I'm awake mom." I tell him, "no you're not." and we go back to bed. 45 minutes later, he is screaming in the hallway.

Let me break this down for you. In the house, with rooms that all adjoin this particular hallway are Mark, Linda, Buffy, Maggie, Zoe, Tori and Lucy. That is SEVEN people whose sleep is dependent upon Asher shutting his trap and going back to bed. So, I pray for help and then try to decapitate the child. That doesn't work, but he does go back to bed. I wake up 20 minutes later and hear Lucy talking. It is now 5am. I walk into the hallway and the light is on in the bedroom. Asher turned the light on and is playing blocks while Lucy watches from the pack and play. I remove Asher from the room, put Lucy back to sleep and give Asher the "river city" talk.

The "River City Talk" is a Sloanism for don't make me take you down to "River City" which I am guessing is a reference to the Music Man. But I have no idea.

He goes back to bed and sleeps until 7:30. But of course, I ran into Mark in the hallway after putting Asher back in the bed and he was on his way to doing what most people do at 5am, unload the dishwasher.

Wanna know what we had planned to do in the morning? Pictures in a studio with all eight grandkids. Thankfully we cancelled the appointment and decided to wait until David and Mary Lane's baby gets here.

I want to say, I had a GREAT time with Matt's family. I love them like my own. Asher was the problem and I could have drop kicked him back to Asheville and Lucy and I stayed the rest of the week. But that was not in the cards.

So we came back home after a few hours at the lake yesterday. But I got lost and somehow managed to go in a big circle back to Columbia and a 2.5 hour trip took 4.5 hours.
awesomeville.

Christian the Lion

I know that many of you have seen this video, but I just saw it for the first time and am weeping in my office. It is amazing. Please watch it!

Are you Freakin' Kidding Me?

I just unloaded our dishwasher from that I loaded last night. Take a look at just how many sippie cups were in there:




I hope to teach my husband one day about the idea of using the same cup ALL DAY LONG.