Funny Story

Whenever I go visit family I usually come back with hilarious stories to share. Here is the one that took the prize this holiday. It comes from my Aunt Diane. She heard this story from a friend of hers and says it's a true story.
A woman was walking into Applebee's to meet a friend for lunch. On her way in she noticed a dead cat in the middle of the parking lot. This woman was an animal lover and decided this cat needed to be disposed of properly. She got a paper bag out of her car and put the dead cat in the bag and set it on top of her car (she didn't want it stinking up her car while she was eating lunch). The lady met her friend inside and while they were eating they could see out the window at the parking lot. Another woman walked past the first lady's car, looked around to see if anyone was watching her, and snatched the bag off the car without looking inside it! The woman then walked into the restaurant. While waiting for a table she glanced into the bag for the first time. The shook of seeing the dead cat in the bag caused her to whip her head back and she hit the beam behind her....knocking her out cold! The other woman and her friend in the meantime are watching this all unfold in disbelief. The paramedics come to take the woman to the hospital. They put the knocked out woman on the ambulance and gathered up her belongs including the paper bag! The two ladies eating lunch decided to stay out of the chaos but could not help but in vision how that woman would react when she woke up and found that she still had a dead cat in a bag!

Teen from New City Jr. High--Go Tony!

Honesty Brings Reward To Hixson Middle School Student
by Dana Wilbourn
posted November 13, 2007

General Sessions Court Judge Bob Moon visited a Hixson Middle School classroom on Tuesday afternoon to reward a young man for his honesty. Tony Williams, eighth grade, seemed embarrassed and looked downward at his desk while other students listened curiously and tried to guess who the judge was talking about.

Judge Moon finally called Tony’s name and asked him to come forward. His classmates and teacher, Mary Byars, and principal Sandy Barnwell gave Tony a round of applause as he stood and shook hands with the judge.

This was not the first time Tony had met Judge Moon. A week ago, Judge Moon visited the Taco Bell on Hixson Pike after after a long day of presiding on the bench over 17 cases of theft. After ordering and sitting down to eat, the judge was interrupted by a young man, Tony Williams, who said, “excuse me sir, but you dropped this over at the counter.” Judge Moon looked down and Tony was extending a $5 bill.

Judge Moon asked Tony, “Why didn’t you just stick it in your pocket? There’s no one else here. No on would have seen you.” Tony replied, “It’s not mine.”

Judge Moon thanked Tony, who is also a standout football player, for his honesty. He watched as Tony and his friend, Jalen Anderson, sat down to eat at a nearby table. As Judge Moon watched, the boys bowed their heads and said grace over their meal.

When Judge Moon finished his own meal, he went to the boys' table and asked Tony about his parents. Tony said his mom was out in the car waiting for them. After shaking Tony’s hand again, Judge Moon went out to the parking lot to talk with Tony’s mother.

Pamala Williams, a single mom, was reading in her car while Tony and Jalen ate inside the restaurant. Judge Moon walked up to the car, introduced himself and said, “Your son is a remarkable young man, I’d like to tell you what he just did.” Ms. Williams said it scared her when the judge said it that way. She began to wonder what Tony, her only child, might have done.

Judge Moon told Ms. Williams that he would like to reward Tony for his
honesty, but please don’t say anything about a reward to Tony.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE

Tony Williams with his mother, Pamala Williams

Spiders On Drugs

Another funny video. I can't take credit for finding it though. My brother posted it on his facebook page a few days ago.

Human Tetris?

So I've been sick with a cold for almost a week now. I've been killing time with reading, sleeping, and surfing YouTube. I came across clips from a Japanese human tetris game show. Has anyone seen this before?

Oh to be 13 again!

I teach the middle school girls Sunday School class at my church. Here are some photos from our annual sleepover from a couple week ago. Also, here's a shout out to Erin, Jenn, and most of all Joy who survived the night with me! Thanks for your help!

"Welcome to Moe's!"

Dancing. Too bad a picture can't capture the bass level. Even though this was in the basement, it seriously rocked the house. Thankfully no police were called during this event!
DDR...nuf said.

I made them take a group picture right after they woke up the next morning...

...this is how they really felt about it.

Head of the Hooch

This past Saturday and Sunday was the Head of the Hooch race in Chattanooga. It is a 3-mile rowing race held annually. This is the 3rd year it has been in Chattanooga and is also the 2nd largest rowing regatta in the county. Since 1981 the race was held in Roswell, Georgia (outskirts of Atlanta) on the Chattahoochee river (hence Head of the Hooch). Due to the event's growing popularity the race was moved to other larger venues and then finally found it's home in Chattanooga. There were supposedly over 1,000 row boats in this competition. I was struck by the amount of strength and focus this sport demands. I'll probably pay more attention to this sport during the Olympics.

Looking from the Walnut Street walking bridge.
The crowd was loud and encouraged the rowers to keep going. The finish line was just beyond this bridge at the pier.
Taken from the Riverwalk.


More on the Head of the Hooch:
http://www.timesfreepress.com/absolutenm/templates/topstory.aspx?articleid=24459&zoneid=83

Childhood Halloween Memories

I got a great surprise in the mail today. My parents sent me a CD full of pictures of past Halloween costumes. Here are some of my favorites!


Halloween (age 15 months?) I love the entry floor at my first house!
Same costume at age 2. It fits much better here!
What a witch!I loved my kitty costume.

Me as little Orphan Annie. Elliot as the clown. Mom as Charlie Chaplin...kinda.
Trick or Treating at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

In my last post I mentioned that I was Bo Peep...funny how my memory fades. I was actually the sheep!

I have to brag on my mom for this costume. She made most of the previous costumes, but this is by far the most creative. It was made out of a trash bag and electrical tape (The back of the costume was also identical to the front). We also glued real M&Ms around the rims of my glasses.

Ready for some candy!

I think was I in 8th or 9th grade..a little old for Halloween, but oh well! Still had fun.

I love how my TP costume is already falling apart even before I left the house for the evening!

Happy Halloween

Fall is definitely my favorite time of year. I love the cool brisk weather, the colors of the changing leaves, and the smells of pumpkins and spice. Halloween has also been one of my favorite holidays, especially as a kid. I always felt bad for the kids whose parents did not allow them to participate in what they considered a "holiday of the devil". Even now I can't understand why trick-or-treating can be considered by some as participating in evil. How can dressing up in fun costumes and getting free candy be wrong?!?! Thankfully my parents were fans of Halloween and loved helping my brother and I get our costumes ready each year. Some of my favorite costumes as a kid were: a mime, little Bo Peep, a cheerleader, a cat, and a giant M&Ms bag. I grew up in a large neighborhood (300+ homes) and the amount of candy I racked up each Halloween was by the pillowcase fulls. After a few hours (yes, I said hours) my brother and I would come back to the house and pour out our earnings all over the living room floor. This was usually followed by a squeal of delight. We would then proceed to the "serious" part of the evening--bartering. Each year it went something like this, "Hey El, I'll trade you ALL my **cough-crappy-cough**orange circus peanuts AND 25 pennies for 3 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups." Good memories.

Sadly, I do not have any plans of dressing up this year and I doubt a single trick-or-treater will come by my apartment. However, in the spirit of the season I carved a pumpkin!!!

Happy Halloween!

This is what happens to trees in the south when there is a drought.

My cat, Chloe, was pretty fixated by the glowing pumpkin on the balcony.

Finally they are engaged!!!

Jesse and Susan got engaged on Friday evening on top of Lookout Mountain. I love, I mean really LOVE surprises! So I was thrilled when Jesse asked me to help in his plan by sneaking up on them to take pictures right after he proposed. I have to say that Jesse did a GREAT job of surprising my dear friend. It could not have been more perfect.

Thank you, Jesse, for letting me be a small part of your special day. You are a lucky man, my friend. Susan, I love you. Jesse is a great guy and I'm so happy for you! Congratulations and blessings to you both as you continue preparing for marriage. I look forward to the big day!

Chloe vs. Tinkerbelle

For some reason I'm having a difficult time falling asleep tonight. My cat, Chloe, was completely wired tonight because she hasn't gotten much attention lately. I was hoping that in trying to tire her out it would help tire me too. Obviously that did not happen and here I am blogging about this situation.
I'm still not sure if my cat is just dumb or if she just really enjoys jumping into the wall. Either way I get a kick out of this game.




Here's another video of her jumping from a few months ago.

Spelunking anyone?

Brian and I drove over to Raccoon Mountain, TN on Saturday. It's about 20 minutes from Chattanooga. Brian had gone there several years ago and also been there when he was a kid. We first got turned around and after driving 30 minutes up the mountain we realized were at the TVA Pumped Storage Unit. Then it started to pour rain. We waited it out in the car for a while and then went into the visitor's center and got a brief education on the pump system used for a backup electricity source. (The nerd in me found this somewhat interesting.) We saw the upper reservoir that is released into Raccoon Mountain and drops a couple hundred feet down to the lower reservoir to generate power.
So after that not-so-brief detour at TVA, we found the part of Raccoon Mountain that we were hoping to find in the first place. There used to be a cement slide that went down part of the mountain that Brian remembers going on as a kid. He's description of this so called "great ride" sounded really dangerous, so I was not surprised when we found out it had been closed down for over 6 years. Needless to say, he was disappointed. We did find out about their different cave expeditions. We saw many people there who were covered head to toe with orange clay from one of the more rigorous spelunking expeditions where you have to crawl through parts of the cave. I totally want to do this and to my delight so does Brian! We are thinking about going on one later this year. It looked like fun. I just hope I'm not claustrophobic!

I want to be a part of it, New York, New York

Vacations are always nice. I had a mini vacation this past week in New York City. It was a great time of site seeing and catching up with old friends. Here are some highlight pictures!

Brian and I in Central Park.

Heather and I across the street from the Apple Store.

Happy early B-day to me! Dinner at the most fun Indian Restaurant EVER!

Brian and I after seeing The Color Purple at the Broadway Theatre.

High school friends--Shelli and I in China Town.

Times Square

Here's to Memories!

Oh the memories! I can totally relate to this weather man. Here's a shout out to former Lula Lake roomies and all who spent time with us at our less than ideal home!

Weekend in Greenville

I went to Greenville to see Becca and Heath a few weeks ago. We went to the My Chemical Romance Concert just to hear the band MUSE play since they were the opening band. We could have cared less about My Chemical Romance and left before they came on stage. The MUSE part of the concert was pretty good. I sat next to a dad (well he sat, I was jumping up and down) who was there with his wife obviously escorting his pre-teenage son to this concert. He was not excited to be there at all. Too bad for them, but I found it very amusing in my sick sociological way and could not help but laugh about the whole thing (body language is so great).

On Friday we did some hiking along with Becca's mom outside of Greenville and stopped by Pretty Place also where Becca and Heath got engaged...awwww. Here are some pictures from the trip. We also ate at an little German restaurant which was actually in an old Waffle House building. I had some great German beer and bratwurst!

Foster Care Month

MAY is....

DID YOU KNOW?
· There are over 13,00 children in the foster care system in the State of Georgia and over 500,000 nationwide.

· Nearly half of children placed in foster care are over age 10.

· The average amount of time a child spends in foster care is 24.4 months.

· In most counties there is an extreme shortage of foster and adoptive homes meaning that children are placed in group-homes or shelters and sibling groups are split up.

· More than 20,000 children age out of the foster care system each year. These children are often left with limited or no skills or influences to help them successfully live independently.

These children need compassionate, safe, and stable homes.

More than that, these children need to hear about the love and healing that can be found in Christ.


“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name, welcomes Me…” - Mark 9:37

*Taken in part from Mercy's Chosen Children's bulletin insert for Foster Care Month

Heheheee

More Fun Quizzes at QuizPox.com

Weekend Photos

Our youth group's car wash and fish fry this weekend was pretty successful. We raised the money we needed for our white water trip scheduled in June!

We both had sunburns by the end of the day. Except mine did not turn to a tan by the next day!

Within 5-10 minutes almost all the kids were soaking wet.

Washing the church van is no laughing matter.

Sunday afternoon Brian and I walked up Orchard Knob to get a good view of the city. It was difficult to take a good picture of both of us. My neck got cut off on one try and then the sun was so bright, Brian couldn't stop squinting. Oh well, at least the sun was out and it was warm this weekend!