Reed's Rat Race

Disclaimer:  These next few entries might bore you to death with details, so please feel free to skip any unnecessary paragraphs.  There will be no quizzes at the end.   I woke up at 3:30am Thursday morning, wide awake and excited, maybe even a little nervous.  I kept thinking to myself that there will always be time to sleep later.  Like a man I knew once said "sleep is overrated" and so maybe a few bags under the eyes is worth it when you have to soak up life as much as possible. My bags packed, kids kissed (with a little tear in my eye) and notes written, Ty and I headed out the door ready to drive the 2.5 hours to Birmingham.  It was early, but in order for us to make the 9am flight, and give us enough time to get through security, we left at 4:30am.  We made a stop in Tuscaloosa for a sausage biscuit at Hardees and then we arrived at the airport around 7:30am.  Ty parked the car and I checked the bags at the curb (and yes, Dad, I made sure to tip the baggage guy like

"To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax-- Of cabbages--and kings-- And why the sea is boiling hot-- And whether pigs have wings." (My father used to recite this. . .taken from Lewis Carroll's  Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There , 1872) I'm almost ready, people!  In less than 72 hours, I will be boarding Korean Airlines for a trip to the "Land of the Morning Calm".  With a few necessary items and my awesome sister, we are stoked for adventure and plan on taking tons of pictures to capture the moments.  I apologize ahead of time, for those of you that don't want to read about our trip, but I plan on blogging quite a bit and keeping my family and few friends updated. Will I miss my family?  Of course! Am I gonna try crazy foods?  Of course! Am I gonna look like a fool using chopsticks?  Of course! Am I gonna shop?  Of course! Will I get lost?  Of course! Am I gonna try and cross the North Korean border?  N

Summer Days are coming to a close.  Only in the Dirty South does one look forward to temperatures that don't hit 100 degrees!  I've been so grateful for the cooler weather (lower to mid 90's).  Unfortunately, with cooler weather comes school, and all the craziness that comes with busy fall schedules.  So I'm gonna take a moment to reflect on this past summer's happenings. Back in May, I had Gavin make a list of all the things that he wanted to do while school was out.   Here's what we came up with. . . 1) do chores to make money 2) go swimming 3) go to the spraygrounds 4) go fishing with Grandpa 5) go to Nashville, TN 6) go to Pensacola and the beach 7) go blackberry picking 8) go to Hannah's house (Smith house in Little Rock, AR) 9) go to a zoo 10) go to an aquarium Did we do it all????  Check out the pics to see what we didn't get to do Look what Deep Water Horizon rolled in!?! Sand and Shells, Milla's Favorite Treat! No Oil

Tonight we were just going to have BLT's for dinner. After a week of fixing "complicated orders" for our friend from Wales, we wanted something quick, easy and delicious...hence the BLT's. But then Angela asked me to make some guacamole and that got me thinking, which is always dangerous. My train of thought went something like this... Thanks to the tip from one of my sisters, I know avacados are good on BLT's. Guacamole is 99% avacado, so maybe it is good on BLT's. But what could I replace the mayo with? How 'bout some of the crema we used on the fish tacos we made earlier in the week? So that's what we did. By the way, crema is part mayo, part sour cream, a dash of lime juice, a sprinkle of cilantro, a zesting of garlic, and a full helping of AWESOME! Okay so picture one is all the required ingredients, minus the bread. Spread on the crema. mmmm, BACON. Lettuce and Tomato come to the party too! Finally, pile on s

So everybody keeps asking how my ankle and foot are doing. I figured instead of saying: it is still bruised and swollen over and over, I'd just take some pictures and let folks see for themselves. So without further delay, I present to you loyal readers, pictures of my injuries one month after "The Incident". This picture was meant to illustrate the color difference between my good foot and bad foot. It didn't work. But take my word for it, my right foot is a weird purplish hue. Scope out the swelling still evident around my ankle in the above picture. The above image illustrates the bruising still evident on the ball of my foot and on the inside ankle area. Remember folks always have your pet spayed or nuetered and for cryin' out loud, don't be a freakin' MORON and let 'em run around where they can injure innocent motorcyclists.

A few years ago, my good friend Rikki introduced me to these confectionery delights.  Bless her for enriching our lives with things that make our taste buds dance in pleasure, but curse her because they are hard to get!  Why oh why do they only sell them in the West?  What have we Southerners done to deserve this kind of discrimination! They make me oh so happy (the chocolate covered ones are hella good too!)!  I gotta go now, they are beckoning me to join their party! P.S. Thanks Rikki for sending this package!

The short story is: don't get me started on people that let their stupid dogs run free all over town and countryside. The long story is this: Riding to work Thursday morning.  6:50am. . .just like usual.  Riding along a rural county road, I crested a small hill at about 55mph and saw a dog running across the street.  I slowed some to make sure it wouldn't double back and then out of the corner of my eye, a second dog, a yellow lab I think, runs right out in front of me.  I had no time to avoid or brake any more.  I hit the dog squarely in the gut but I was angled just a bit.  I felt the impact and the bars jerked violently to the left, sending me and the bike hard over the right side.  At impact, I heard the dog yelp and then I heard the horrible sound of bike on pavement. I slid head first across the opposite lane into a grassy ditch.  When I stopped, I lay there for a second wiggling stuff and making sure my neck felt okay.  I could feel some pretty bad pain in my right a

So it's official. . .I've got my ticket and I'm headed to South Korea with my Sister.  Unless the Korean conflicts don't escalate, we'll celebrate her "29th" birthday with Kimchee and many dishes you or I have probably never heard of.  If all else fails, we'll stick with dishes we know our Mother made us.  I mean how many of us don't like Bulgolgi?  I hear they serve dog near the country side, but my only concern is if I try it and like it!  I mean I'm living in Mississippi for crying out loud-- if it's not deep fried or covered in fat back, it's not fit for eatin', folks!  Fried dog might be good?! What made me decide to make such a trip?  A combination of many things: Joy Luck Club (though a movie about Chinese women, still makes me bawl 5 minutes into the opening sequence), my friend Ko-Huan (who recently visited Korea), tax refund check, Air Force friends near Seoul, a wonderful husband willing to sacrifice for me (we could h

As of May 19, we have been married for n-i-n-e years.  Holy cow.  It really has gone by quickly.  Even more amazing is that Angela has not left me!  But that is simply because my voo-doo is strong.  We celebrated the occasion by dropping the kids off with Mom and Dad and then we spent the next three hours making out in the mini-van.  Woot!  Okay, just kidding about that last part.  We had a quite dinner and then went to watch Iron Man 2.  It was great to spend a couple of quite hours remeniscing about simpler times with my Sweetie.  Here's to another exciting, challenging, tiring, fun, wonderful 9 years Angela! 

There was an air show at the local Air Force base (as if every town has one) a couple of weeks ago. We decided to load up the kids and spend the day walking up and down a concrete run way in the blazing sun. Sounds like a good time right? Hey, it was FREE!!  Actually, we did have a good time.  The kids were pretty well behaved and didn't get whiney until the end as it was a pretty long and boring wait until the Thunderbirds took off and did their thang.  Anyway, we stuck it out to the end, unlike all the lightweights (Stewarts and Wilsons, I'm callin' y'all out!) that left early and we were rewarded with a great show by the Air Force's finest. I'm proud of this shot!  The pressure above the wing is so low that the moisture in the air vaporizes at ambient temps. How is it that babies can just shut down and sleep no matter what is going on around them? This is not our kid!  He just decided that he needed to be in the picture.  Weird. Beautiful T-33 w