The Spider Monkey in Action

My Brother the Spider Monkey

This past weekend was the Tennessee Valley Lineman Rodeo. My brother is an apprentice lineman for Jackson Energy Authority back home, so this year he decided to compete in the rodeo along with many other guys that he works with. The rodeo was held in Huntsville this year, so Seth and I were able to go watch Adam compete. Adam participated in four different events, against lineman from two dozen other utility companies. He did great in all of them! He won 1st in one event and 2nd in another. He ended up winning 3rd overall!! (1st and 2nd place went to two of his co-workers!) Here are a few pictures from the day...

Rescuing the 175 pound dummy! How's that for life-like?!

Adam, scaling the pole in an unusually fast way...Seth likened him to a spider monkey. :)

Adam and his beautiful wife, Ashley

The boys discussing strategy for the next event.

Getting the gear ready to go.

Accepting his well-deserved awards. We're very proud of Adam and all the hard work he does keeping the lights on in West TN!

Smile for the Camera!

Most of you who know me know that I am a picture taking maniac. I always have my camera with me. I snap photos of anything and everything that is going on...be it a birthday party, a baseball game, or just something that made me smile. I guess I figure someday I'll be old and senile and I want to be able to remember things that happened years ago.

About four or five years ago, my parents bought me a Kodak camera. It had an amazing zoom and great resolution. Since then, that camera has been everywhere with me. But here lately, its performance has been sub-par. Probably due to severe overuse, the focus has stopped working well. It has also always had trouble taking pics in low light, but that had even gotten worse lately. So, my wonderful husband, decided to get me an early anniversary present: a new camera!!

I knew I wanted a camera with a good zoom and a quick shutter speed, but I didn't want to mess with all the attachments that come with the SLR cameras. Sooo, after much research and multiple visits to Best Buy, we made a decision: the Sony H50.

This is actually last year's model. It was just recently discontinued and replaced with the new model. So, we had to purchase it directly from Sony. But we got a pretty good deal on it! So far, I am loving it! It has amazing quality! And, it has done excellent in low-light conditions. I will post some pictures soon that we took over the weekend!

The Newest Bowen

We welcomed a new addition to the Bowen family yesterday..."Bo" Bowen, Caleb's new Lab puppy! He is absolutely precious! Bo seemed to be drawn especially to Eli. Here are a few pictures of the newest Bowen.

'Tis the season...

Let's take a poll. How many of you are allergic to poison ivy/sumac/oak? Any or all of the above? If so, I am sooo sorry! I have been blessed in that I have never had a problem with these dreaded little plants. My sweet hubbie, however, is not so lucky. He can simply breathe it in and start itching. If he gets it in one spot, he's pretty much guaranteed that's it's gonna go everywhere.

Well, Seth was weed-eating around the yard one day last week. Two days later, you guessed it, those little red bumps showed up in one tiny spot. And the next day, his legs were completely eat up! We both knew he'd end up having to go to the doctor, but Seth wanted to experiment with a few home remedies first. Here are our results:

Scalding Hot Shower: uncomfortable, in my mind would worsen the itching
Results: did NOT work

Oatmeal: hot, gross, a mess to clean up
Results: did NOT work

Salt Water: easiest of our supposed remedies
Results: did NOT work, according to Seth...not enough salt

Therefore, our next option...

Salt: yes, rubbed straight on the wounds....it's okay, go ahead and laugh
Results: burned somewhat, shocker, yet did NOT work

And finally...

Bleach: that's right...it's so bad, we're resorting to straight up chemicals
Results: it smelled like feet and NO, NO help at all

Although, some of these temporarily relieved some discomfort, they accomplished nothing that over the counter medicine doesn't do. So, yesterday, Seth went to the doctor, got his shot, steroids, and some trial meds. Moral of the story? If you are severely allergic to poison ivy and find yourself in Seth's situation, just go to the doctor. The rest is a waste of time. :) Although, kinda funny to watch.

Six P's of God

At the beginning of this year, the elders at Maysville decided to start a "young professional" class on Wednesday nights. Seth's dad has been overseeing the class, but the guys have been teaching it some. Seth taught this week, and he did an amazing job as always. He always puts so much time, thought, and effort into his lessons to try to make them applicable to whomever he is speaking to.

This week he discussed facing adversity...something that we can all relate to in one way or another. You can turn to the Bible to see many examples of how you can handle adversity: Job, David, Paul, Jesus, Joseph, and sooo many others.

Seth gave us a list of reasons that we have to be optimistic through adversity: The Six P's of God.
(1) God's Power
(2) God's Provision
(3) God's Protection
(4) God's Presence
(5) God's Peace
(6) God's Promises

All of these things should bring us comfort every day! We have an amazing God and he WILL take care of us, no matter what we face! If that doesn't put a big smile on your face, I don't know what will! :)

Weekend in Henderson

This past weekend we took a trip to see my parents. We hadn't been up there since Christmas, so we figured it was about time we paid them a visit. We also took Seth's brother, Caleb, with us. It was a wonderful weekend! It started off perfect with this precious little face greeting us in the driveway.



Luke and his momma came over for dinner, so we could see our little man! He is growing and changing so much! Still one of the happiest babies I've ever seen!

The next day Dad took Seth, Caleb, and I to the river to do some fishing. Really it was just the boys who were fishing. I was just along to soak up some sun. :) As I used to tell my mom when I was little...I was not born to fish! Anywho, the guys didn't have too much luck fishing, as you can see.

But we had a beautiful day to be out and enjoyed it tremendously! Maybe next time the fish will be a little more hungry! We spent the rest of the weekend watching FHU baseball, eating, playing games, and did I mention eating?! All in all, it was one splendid weekend!