A Special Father's Day

I met Brittany when I transferred to Auburn. We both transferred in the same year, were the same age, and hit it off great. We became instant friends. I couldn't have asked for a better friend while I was at Auburn and in the few years since. She was a maid of honor in my wedding and has just been such a wonderful friend to me.

Brittany and her husband Ty recently moved to Huntsville, which was sooo exciting to me! B and I hadn't lived in the same town since I graduated. (Or since she got married, since coincidentally that was on the same day! Whew...that was a busy weekend!)

Well, yesterday, Father's Day 2010, Brittany and Ty welcomed their first baby into this world!! Meet Samuel Joseph!

Baby Sam weighed in at 8 lbs. 6 oz. and was 20" long. He is a beautiful baby!! And I am so happy for Brittany and Ty! They are going to be wonderful parents!

A Day at the Rodeo....

...but this isn't your typical rodeo!! I drove up to Murfreesboro Saturday to watch Adam compete in the Tennessee Valley Lineman Rodeo. This was his second year to compete. Last year he placed third overall, placing in a couple different individual events as well. This year, not only did he place first in one event, he won 2nd overall!! He did a great job! It is amazing what some of these guys can do and how FAST they can do it. We unfortunately did witness one guy fall off of a pole from almost the top. Amazizngly, he was able to walk away. However, it just goes to show you how dangerous this stuff is! Here are a few pictures from the day.

And here's a video of one of the events...hopefully it works!

Playing Catch-Up

Wow! I am so far behind on posts!! I guess we have been pretty busy the past couple of months, but it's all been good! I will try to give you a brief overview of our lives the past couple of months....

May 8th:

It's my 26th birthday! We went to Henderson for the weekend to celebrate with my side of the family. I was able to spend Saturday visiting my family while Seth went fishing with Adam. I know he just hated to have to do that! :)

We spent the evening being entertained by Luke, who is such as ham!! Funny boy! We had a wonderful weekend and look forward to visiting again sometime this summer!

May 24th:

Caleb graduated from high school! Even to me who has only been around the Bowen family for five or six years, this is crazy! Seth and I are very proud of him. He is a wonderful young man!

The ceremony went well...just your normal graduation. You can see that it was very emotional for Myles...or maybe that was his reaction to the very bad singing.

Can you tell they are brothers? Always looking very mischievous when they are together!

We enjoyed dinner together at Logan's after the graduation. Yum! I love Eli's face in this picture...I think there is a pretty good possibility he was up to something when Seth took this picture.

June 11th:

One night the week before, Seth was looking something up online and noticed that the Zac Brown Band was going to be in Birmingham. We didn't want to pay $50 a ticket, so where else did we go for tickets but eBay?! (We are some eBay lovin' folks!) I lucked out and won some pretty decent priced tickets, so off we went to B-ham! We ate at Jim n Nick's...Yum again! And even got some FREE lemon pie since it was Seth's birthday. We got to the amphitheater just in time to hear Joey and Rory start to sing. Aren't they cute? :)

The concert was wonderful...with the exception of the heat! It was soo stuffy and humid until about 9 oclock. At least it cooled down after that!

We had a great time and would definitely recommend this concert! They are a very talented and entertaining group of guys!

June 13th:

It's Seth's 30th birthday!! Woo-hoo!! I threw him a big family baseball-themed (what else?) birthday party at our house. Although he has his sister to thank for his sign in the front yard! :)

My parents and Brandi and Luke even came down for the shindig!!

Good times!!

June 18th:

Today I sit here in my cubicle at work, bored to tears...therefore, I am taking the opportunity to update this! So, I guess I'm being semi-productive...although it's not work related. Oh well...it's FRIDAY! And tonight we're going to see Toy Story 3!!! Woo-hoo!!!

Proud to be an American

“Since America felt it was important to build a memorial to the service and the ultimate sacrifice of her veterans, the Honor Flight Network believes it’s equally important that they actually get to visit and experience THEIR memorial.”

For those who haven’t heard about Honor Flight, it is a group that provides a free day-trip to DC for WWII veterans (along with some Korean and Vietnam vets) to tour the monuments that were built in their honor. I think this is such a wonderful service to provide for these heroic individuals! We have had multiple veterans travel on this flight from our area. However, most recently, one of my favorite older gentlemen here in Huntsville got to go…Mr. Newman.



Mr. Newman attends the same congregation as Seth and I. Seth grew up knowing the Newmans…I have only gotten to know Mr. Newman during the past couple years that Seth and I have been married. But he has found a special place in my heart...he reminds me so much of my granddad who passed away a few years ago.

I was so excited for Mr. Newman when he told me and Seth that he was going to get to attend the next Honor Flight trip out of Huntsville! I cannot wait to visit with him and hear his stories from the trip! The folks who fund and support Honor Flight deserve a huge round of applause in my opinion. They recognize that our WWII veterans are a dying generation and deserve all the respect we can give them while they are still here to share their experiences.

My granddad was so proud of his service for the US Navy. He and my grandmother attended his battleship reunions EVERY year up until he passed away…my grandmother still goes when she can. I can remember Adam dressing up in my granddad's Navy uniform when he was little...I even played "Anchors Aweigh," the US Navy's anthem, at my one (and only) piano recital. I think being around him made me appreciate so much more the service that those in the military provide to our country. It is a service that I don’t think I would be brave enough to do…but I am SOOO thankful for all those who have served in the past and continue to serve today!!

(My granddad...Daddy Phillips :) ...is the second from the left. He was pictured here in 2004 with the only few remaining original crewmen of the USS Iowa.)


“We can’t all be heroes. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they go by.”

The End of an Era

Last week, Caleb played his last home game as a Madison County High School baseball player. Senior Night came way too quickly this year. It seems like the season just started. Yet Senior Night has come and gone, and today is their last game. Seth and Caleb have both worked very hard this year, and I am proud of both of them!

We had quite a few seniors this year! I'm sure the team will miss them greatly! They are some talented young men!

Redeeming Themselves

As you know, Seth and I have a Nissan Altima that we bought a couple years ago. I have LOVED this car up until last Thursday when "Alfred" started having issues. We have had no trouble at all out of this car since we bought it. Then when we were on our way back from Destin (Seth's dad was driving), Alfred decided that he was done. Luckily, we had stopped for gas, so we weren't in the middle of traffic. The car would crank up and everything seemed okay. But when you pressed down on the gas pedal nothing, and I mean nothing happened. It was so weird! Like the total opposite of Toyota's problem. Luckily, Seth got it going enough to get it home. Alfred went to the Nissan dealer in Huntsville the next day. He spent the next week there getting his electronic throttle changed out. Everything seemed to be going okay....

...until yesterday. I went to pick the car up after work, drove it for about 10 miles, then guess what! It did the EXACT same thing. Except this time I was in the middle of an intersection. How marvelous is that. So, I just waved and mouthed apologies to everyone as I coasted at the speed of a snail into the mall parking lot.

Seth was yet again able to get it going and Alfred went straight back to Nissan. At this point we were getting slightly irritated. Our car was suppoed to be fixed and here I was nearly getting smoked in the side while sitting in the middle of traffic. Not good! The Nissan folks were shocked and confused about what was going on, and they needed to keep it to figure it out. But they couldn't give me a car to drive in the meantime. Really??? The car is under warranty AND they had already fixed it once! As Seth said, if we were angry people, these foks would have gotten an ear full.

Today, Nissan redeemed themselves ever so slightly in my eyes. They did find the problem that I told them about, and guess what, they are replacing the ENTIRE brains of the car because of it! You know that can't be a good sign. And they gave me a brand newAltima to drive in the meantime. :) Now that is much better customer service in my opinion!

The Boys of Summer are Back

It's baseball season for the Bowens again! I've taken so long to post...it's actually almost over! Seth and I went to Destin with the baseball team last week for their spring break tournament. Tough work, I know! Seth may have actually had to work since he had to live with the boys that week. Me on the other hand...I just got to enjoy some games, eat some food, and not go to the office!

The games went pretty well. Caleb had a good week....even got a homerun!! We ended up winning our bracket, but got put out in the semi-finals.

We did have a couple of warm beautiful days while we were there. I had to force the boys down to the beach to take a couple pictures! I mean, c'mon, you can't go to the beach and not take a pretty picture!!

Since they were such good sports, I did take them to get ice cream and to the Bass Pro Shop to stick their heads in the shark. :)