playing catch up from 8-4 -11 onward....

my bestie longest friend came to town and we took bradley to the zoo in columbia on the 4th of august.. it was JUST 104 degrees out... insanely hot. but, HE loved it!

somewhere I have a picture of his daddy and three of his friends when they were 4 years old sitting on this very turtle!

 the flamingos are beautiful but DARN they STINK!

 dragon sitting is so much fun....

 these guys would dash by his hands and fingers I think they liked playing with the children on the other side of the glass...

 Bradley liked climbing then jumping down from these rocks...

 he and jeanette fed the goats until we ran out of quarters and had picked up most of the food that had been dropped by others...

 of course he had to give the goat a kiss too... then we RAN to the sinks and scrubbed of the slobbers and slime from them... but they were just too cute!

 I am not sure who was more excited here the riff raff jeanette or bradley ... there were two babies here too and they would come to get their share...

 click the pic below and check out the tongues on the babies they were loving the kids feeding them and petting them... (the would love being wild even more i am sure but, they have a good life )

 all the kids love these statues that are scattered though out the park and sitting on them and taking pics...

 our last stop was inside the aquariums, partly because they were cool inside and we were melting!  Bradley thought these were the best thing he would run from one to the next and back to sit on the little steps and he would yell PISH PISH PISH... he was a tad excited!

 Halo has been coming over pretty regularly... its good to see her and spend time with her she loved the pork steak bone... suck, chew, slobber, drool ,repeat... she is such a good baby and plays and play and is learning to crawl and sit on her own :)

 Michael has been working outside for a bit now knocking down walls pouring concrete making a BIG wonderful patio putting some roof up and just making things very nice for us all out in the back yard.

 Ha ha Halo loves chewing on a cloth diaper(burp rag) sHE WILL LOVE IT AND SNUGGLE IT BITE IT PET IT AND CALL IT GEORGE... OH sorry cap loc and mental slip into an old movie there... can you name the movie(with a few additions from me in that )

 and halo and papa have fun too... she will about break her neck to see him when he comes in and will hollar if he leaves the room until he comes back... she loves her papa and he loves her :)

now on to SOME not all of the stuff happening around here...
last monday (week ago) cory called me said momma the car wont start and i have to be to work in 30... stephanie is at work. can you carry me to work... so off i went to pick him up and get him to work... just a little late... told him that on his next day off I would come over and help to get the car going as they need the car and its an hour round trip for me to go get him and carry him to work.  so wednesday comes around... and we take the battery to advanced auto ...it is dead or near enough to death (i had bought that battery in 02) that it needed replaced... and of course that was NOT all wrong with the car... the alternator was too (it was replaced in 02 as well) GAH... well got that all done then on friday when lori was out the darn Black truck battery died too... it has NOT been replaced yet...Her car died th week before and it being a Saab with out a book and michael has not been able to find the info on line yet that he needs... it is just sitting and will sit for a while.
now to back track... on the 6th (my 44th Birthday) at 315 ish in the afternoon we had some major lightening thunder and rain storms... we lost power for a short spell (15 minutes or less) but we lost cable thank you lightening,  for 5 days... which means no internet... not only that but in the last week we learned we lost not ONE but TWO tvs AND vcrs the cable box, the uv light on the pond and the ICEMAKER in the freezer LITERALLY BLEW A GASKET.... there is black oil all over inside and of course the soonest a repair person can come is tomorrow... told the woman to send him with a new ice maker in hand because i dont want to hear oh well we have to order the part and it will be another 2 weeks... GAH!
and the icing on the cake of life... friday when Lori was out and the truck died on her, it was to go to the dr as she has had a few things going on... and we will know more today later... but, they are thinking that she has Hodgekins lymphoma, so we will be figuring out what has to be done and how to go about it soon (hopefully today we will have a diagnosis and treatment plan and perhaps even start treatment.)

and that is the short version of whats been happening here in the house of Hall... I have missed you all and maybe someday will even get caught up ... not holding my breath however...
But always remember that God is in control and one day we will look back on the trials of today and realise that they just are not that big :)  love and hugs and Happy Monday :)