Let's Go Chiefs!!

As most of my followers and blog readers know, we are HUGE football fans - Alabama fans in particular - and during the fall we live and breathe college football. We've never really followed any one pro team closely although we find ourselves watching a lot of pro ball too. We normally go to at least 2-3 Alabama games each year. This year, Ben's work schedule worked out where he was only in town for one home game so we didn't think we were going to be able to go to a game this year.

About that time, we realized that the Kansas City Chiefs had several former Bama players on their roster this year, including Javier Arenas (my favorite Bama player from last year). We had never been to Kansas City and we love to go to cities where we've never been so we decided to take a quick trip and go to a Chiefs game while we were there. We left early, early, way too early Friday morning (like 3:00 a.m. early) to get to the airport by 5:00. We made it to Kansas City by noon that afternoon. We had such a great trip. The people were friendly; the city was so very clean; there were lots of neat things to do; and we just really had some relaxing and fun days together!

We stayed downtown right close to the "Power and Light" District. This is a really neat area with lots of resturants, theatres, art galleries, and other cool things. We could walk everywhere we needed to go. I was just amazed by how CLEAN this city was!!


The above picture is a bar set up in the Power and Light District downtown. There are pubs and resturants surronding it. They have concerts out here and on the other side is a HUGE bigscreen tv where they were playing football games on Saturday. It's empty right now but it picked up a lot throughout the weekend.


Downtown Kansas City

This is Ben and I at the AMC theatre downtown. If you know us, you know we are movie people. Well, here we got to recline while we watched a movie and they bring you dinner and drinks all night. It was wonderful. I really wanted to go to a matinee on Sunday just to take a little nap, it was so nice. We knew when we walked in here that this was our kind of city:)

You can tell we are a little worn out in this picture. This was on Saturday night outside our hotel - we had just finished watching the Alabama game. We are always worn out after a Bama game but even more so b/c we had walked about 30 miles trying to FIND the Bama game on tv. We found somewhere to watch the LSU/Auburn game earlier in the day, but Alabama played at 6:00 that night. Unfortunately, so did Missouri and Oklahoma. If you follow college football, you know that Oklahoma was ranked #1 and this was two unbeaten teams playing. Well, we are in Kansas City, MISSIOURI so you can imagine the game that EVERYONE had on tv. We FINALLY found somewhere with multiple tvs and they gave us one in the back to watch Bama but we had walked all over that city looking for a tv. They were even nice to us about pulling for Bama. Of course, Missouri was in the process of beating the #1 team in the nation so they would have been nice to anyone at that point I think:) Bottom line: we watched the Bama game and they won so crisis averted!!

Here we are at the Plaza in Kansas City. This area just consists of about a 3-4 block radius of nothing but shops. My kind of shops too - they had Pottery Barn, J. Crew, Anthropologie... I could go on. If I ever win a lot of money somehow, I'm just going to hop on a flight and ask the cabbie to drop me off here. I think I could live for a few days in this place - even without food or sleep - just a few lattes here and there:) I also wanted to put this picture in here to show Emily and Karen that I did get my iced lattes every day. They know what a deal this is for me after our trip to Savannah a few weeks ago. Girls, we had been in KC for about 20 minutes and not a block away from our hotel was..... "Latte Land" - this is another reason I knew I was going to like this city:)

Sunday, we watched the Chiefs play the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was neat b/c we got a really good price on tickets: we were on the 15 yard line just 9 rows from the field. See, we bought tickets at the beginning of the season before anybody knew the Chiefs were going to be good. We were just wanting to see our old Bama guys play. Well, all of a sudden the Chiefs are 6-1 and we have some really great seats to watch a really great team play!! It was so much fun... the fans around us were great. We had them saying "Rammer Jammer" by the end of the game. The stadium was very nice and the Chiefs pulled out a great win!

This is Ben beside a tribute to his all time favorite football player, Derrick Thomas. He played for Alabama and was an amazing player for the Chiefs for about 10 years until he was killed in a car accident.

Former Bama players: Javier Arenas and Wallace Gilberry

Arenas #21 on a kick off return: The Chiefs fans around us couldn't believe how much we knew about him, but they don't understand how GREAT he was for Alabama last year. Well, they didn't understand - they are aware of it now:)


This is Arenas again - notice the bright pink gloves. There was pink everywhere due to cancer awareness month. It went well with the red, don't you think?

It was a great trip and we have a fantastic time. We were sooooo happy to see Jack when we got home though. We got him a Chiefs book and I recorded the fans doing the "chant" during the game. Jack loves it and has been saying "Let's Go Chiefs!" since we got home. I think the Foreman family has finally found a pro team to pull for. I'm sure everyone around us is thrilled b/c just what my family needed is another football team to cheer for:)

ROLL TIDE!! and GO CHIEFS!!

Thrill Rides

The first night Ben got home, we took Jack to the Covington County Fair. It was the only night we were going to be able to go b/c Ben and I were leaving for a great trip to Kansas City early, early, early - much too early on Friday morning. We met up with Ben's brother and his family and Ben's parents. We also immediately saw Ben's aunt and her daughter too so Jack had lots of riding buddies. This was our third trip and Jack has always liked the IDEA of the fair but he's only ridden the really kiddie rides. This year he would actually be tall enough and big enough for some of the REAL rides. I didn't get my hopes up for him to enjoy those - I really thought with his motor issues, he wouldn't be too keen on all the rides.

This Mamma was WRONG!!! He rode everything he was tall enough for and begged to go again and again! There were some things he didn't get to ride b/c Ben and I had only gotten so many tickets and most of the rides he wanted to ride, he needed an adult to accompany him. He L-O-V-E-D the fair!! It was sooooo much fun to see how much he enjoyed it! I'll leave you with pictures of Jack, Leslie, Haylee, and Azland enjoying all the thrill rides!

This was our last ride of the night - we couldn't believe he wanted to ride it after all the cousins had gone, but he was fine by himself. I LOVE roller coasters too, but I'm telling you, when this thing took the turn, it looked like my three year old (who was laughing too hard to really hold on) was going to come flying onto the fair grounds!! Ben thought I was being ridiculous, but I made him stand in that spot where I projected Jack would come just in case:)


We still enjoy a good merry go round ride with CeCe!


Daddy and Jack; Katrina and Azland all enjoying the new double decker roller coaster! We spend a LOT of time on this ride... over... and over... and over.... you get the idea.

Azland and Jack

Amanda, Haylee, and Dusty

Leslie says, "Look! No Hands!" while Jack just laughs and laughs and laughs...

I think Jack's look in this picture really says it all! The fair was a blast!

"Sir Jack" - The Brave Knight

I just love Halloween costumes!! We're not big into Halloween as Christians, but we really, really look forward to our "Fall for Jesus" festival at church which is coming up really soon. Last year, Jack had to go as Thomas the Train's conductor b/c he was nuts, nuts, nuts about Thomas. My friend, LeighAnne O'Neal (who also happens to be an AMAZING and TALENTED photographer) took some pictures of him for me last year like this one:

I know - it's fabulous - she's really seriously talented:) My husband made Thomas (with a lot of direction from me:) last year. But we just didn't think we had the time for a homemade costume this year. He doesn't get in from work until tommorrow - just a week before the festival. I'm on the children's committee and helping to PLAN the whole shebang so we decided to just buy a costume this year.


Jack wasn't into anything specific like last year so we have been able to browse. We have had THE MOST FUN looking through costume books!! We have worn them out. After some talking about costumes that Jesus didn't like that much (like when Jack wanted to be "Demon Boy" at the church fall festival:), we decided on a brave knight - cape and all!


We got the costume and I was super pleased with it. I got in touch with LeighAnne again and even though she is about to have her third child VERY soon, she very sweetly agreed to take some more fantastic costume pictures of Jack for me today. I love, love, love them, but I'll let you judge for yourself!






The very crafty director of Jack's daycare, Mrs. Jenny, made him this cute bucket for all his festival loot!



You can check LeighAnne's photography out under Nanabell Art in my favorites list. Bring on the festival - if there are any dragons present, my brave knight has it under control!!

The House At Pooh Corner

It's exciting for us that we only live about 90 miles from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. This theatre really puts on some incredible performances throughout the year. A couple of years ago, Ben and I along with the Fores saw "Bear Country" - a play about the life of former Alabama football coach, Bear Bryant and it was fabulous! This year, I had heard that they had a play about Winnie the Pooh and all his gang and I really wanted to take Jack. When I looked for tickets, I realized they were only playing on Saturdays during the fall. Well, I just counted it as a loss since we all know that Saturdays in the fall = college football at the Foreman house:)

In the middle of last week, I realized that Bama's game wasn't until 8:00 p.m. this Saturday and I immediately thought about this being the last week of "Pooh" at ASF. It is really important that I be at my house for the Alabama games (as we all learned the hard way last weekend:), but I haven't been able to find a particular place to be to make Auburn lose so it wasn't important that I watch their game:). After deciding that, my mom and I decided to take Jack to see "Pooh" on Saturday afternoon.

It was a great show with wonderful talent and a beautiful set like I've come to expect from ASF. The actors were really great and enthusiastic throughout the whole play. I do think it was for kids maybe slightly older than Jack simply b/c there were REAL people and they didn't have on the big Pooh and Tigger costumes like you would expect. So I would have to lean down and say, "Jack, that's Pooh" or "There's Eeyore" or whatever... But he did pretty well and LOVED it when Tigger was bouncing around on his pogo stick! Eeyore is his favorite Pooh character (I really pushed that when he was younger b/c Eeyore is my favorite:) and he liked it a lot when he was close to us. All in all, a good idea and a really fun day. Jack even got to take some pictures with some of the cast after the show!

Jack and Winnie the Pooh:

With Tigger and Kanga:

With Rabbit and Roo:

And to make it a really special day, Jack even found Bear Bryant (who he knows well b/c we have LOTS of pictures of him in our house:)

It was a good day and I did make it home in plenty of time to watch Bama win a good Homecoming game!!

Standing in the Gap

Pictures from Savannah:

Forsyth Park

Lighthouse on Tybee Isand (in my Bama shirt and torn jeans although they weren't able to pull us another win out:(

River St. in historic downtown Savannah (looking so stylish with our yellow trolley stickers:)

on our patio/courtyard

fountain in Forsyth Park

So, I just returned from a weekend trip to Savannah. I have actually been twice before when Ben and I would vacation in St. Simons Island and travel to Savannah for the day, but I've never experienced it like this before. I went on a GIRL'S WEEKEND!! I've never really had one of those before - not since I was a teenager anyway. I've been to some conferences and things like that, but never just away for a weekend with the girls (without kids) just for the fun of it. I can sum up what a great time we had in this sentence: We got home Sunday and we are already planning the next one:)

My oldest childhood friend (not related to me), Karen (who I have blogged about here and here) and her best friend and roommate from college, Emily (who I have blogged with for a few years now and felt like I had known for years but had actually never met face to face) planned a trip to Savannah so they could spend a weekend together now that they live several hours from each other. Well, Karen invited me to come along. My first reaction was "YES!!!" and that's what I told them and I made plans to join them and was soooo excited!! But, I have to tell you that as the time approached, I start getting a little nervous. I've known Karen forever and I feel like I've known Emily forever, but I had never actually met her and had never been around her and Karen together and I started thinking, "What if we don't all hit it off? They know they love being together and what if they wish they could just have had the weekend for the two of them?" I was just so excited about the trip and I didn't want to be diappointed if it didn't go great and I REALLY didn't want them to be disappointed that they invited me to come along, ya know?

Well, it went FANTASTIC!! Better than I could have hoped!! From the time Emily and Karen got to my house on Thursday night, we started talking and with the exception of 3:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m., we didn't stop for four days!! It was so wonderful! We did so many fun things! We...

ate good food; heard about ghosts and voodoo priestesses; saw a lighthouse; drank non-fat lattes (one of my favorite things); walked and walked and walked around the historic district; took a trolley ride; ate good food; met some interesting people; saw all the spots made famous in the book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (which EVERYONE should read before visiting Savannah); laughed and laughed and laughed; drank our weight in Diet Coke (and then some); watched a movie; prayed evil spirits out of our rental house; took some beautiful pictures; saw some beautiful sights; and if I haven't mentioned it, we ate some good food:)

The one downer of the weekend was that Alabama lost their football game after a 19 game winning streak, but I won't get into all that or how I almost tore our rental house down jumping and screaming during the few minutes I watched:) The weekend was actually amazing enough to even lessen that blow. I also won't get into the fact that I almost caused a riot in Cracker Barrel on Sunday with my Alabama shirt on:) Emily and Karen, though, having only witnessed a SMALL fraction of my actions during a game may never be the same:)

Here is Emily's post for a very humorous and detailed description of our trip. She's a great writer so I'm not going to try to outdo her on that, but instead I want to write about my favorite part of the trip - the girls themselves!

Karen has always been a calming influence in my life. She just exudes Godly wisdom and has always been able to encourage me in my walk with Christ. I love to hear her "take" on spiritual things and she has never ceased to make me think and push me to continue to examine my relationship with Christ - not church, or church work, or religion, but my actual RELATIONSHIP with Jesus. She's also one of, if not the best, listener I've ever befriended and this weekend was no different.

And then there's Emily... She's talked about how she was a little nervous and I felt the same way. I've blogged with her forever now and we have exchanged emails and prayed for each other and loved on each other from afar. I felt like I had already invested a lot into this long-distance friendship we had established and I couldn't bear the thought that it wouldn't be the same in person. Well, no worries, because I'm telling you, we were seperated at birth!! From the things that break our hearts, to our worries over our children, to our addiction to Diet Coke, it was like looking in a mirror (except she has better hair than me:). I just fell in love with this new friend and it was so, so wonderful!! I cannot tell you the times she would be talking about how she felt about something and I would be thinking, "Right!! I know EXACTLY what you mean!" and that's a great feeling!

I was again reminded of God's mercies on this trip and how He speaks to us through others. One of the amazing things about this trip was how much we talked about the Lord, our walk with Christ, our spiritual needs, things that have helped us grow, specific things the Lord has shown us - and more than that, we shared places we need prayer. We told each other how to pray for us and that was such a blessing to me. I am blessed with lots of great and wonderful Christian friends that I get to see on a regular basis, but this relationship reminds me of how Paul was constantly praying for the young church, most of the time when he was away from them. I can't see Karen and Emily every day and I don't get to go out to lunch with them or call them to come over when I need someone to talk to, but through this weekend (and the ones to come), we can find out how to pray for each other - how to call out to a God that we believe is faithful to hear our prayers and answer the desires of our heart as we strive to bring him glory on behalf of each other! I'm so blessed to be able to stand in the gap for these beautiful "girls" and I'm even more blessed that they are standing in the gap for me!

Bama Song and Magic Glasses

Jack goes through stages of things that he loves and enjoys. There are two big ones right now. One is going to the movies to watch 3D movies in his "magic glasses." In the last two weeks, we have seen "Legend of the Guardians" (and yes, my child is scared of Aunt Jemima, shadows on the wall, and the handy helpers on Mickey Mouse but scary, dark movies with iron face owls - he didn't bat an eye:) and "Alpha and Omega." Jack liked both of these movies a lot. I don't think he would have watched either of them at home, but put him in a theatre with a 3D movie and he doesn't move for two hours. He gets that quality from both his parents. You give us a kid who likes a good movie and we are happy parents!!

Another favorite is the Alabama Fight Song. He would probably like all the other fight songs too if we would teach them to him but since we would never do that, the Alabama song is his favorite! He's also recently become familiar (and maybe just a tad bit obsessed:) with all the SEC mascots and their names. I would be curious to know if anyone else knows ALL the SEC mascots by name?? Well, Jack does! And he says that "Big AL" the elephant is planning to beat "Cocky" the Gamecock this Saturday:) I'll leave you with a video of him singing the fight song. This isn't his best performance by a mile but it's been the best one I've been able to record so far. ROLL TIDE!

Brilliant Minds

I've had a few friends ask me recently about how Jack's therapy is going at Brilliant Minds and they were kind enough to point out that I haven't blogged about it yet so I thought I would do that today. I'll start by saying that we have been EXTREMELY pleased with his therapist, ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) and the techniques that we have been able to learn and implement at home and Jack's progress although it has played out in a much different way than I envisioned at first.

Ms. Kassi (Jack's therapist) and I felt that Jack's biggest issues when he started where his inability to eat in a public resturant (for fear of babies or diapers being in there) and with our family members who had babies and his unusual and irrrational fears. So, she started working with him on his eating. There are lots of specific words they use for their techniques but for me, not being trained in ABA, it looked a lot like desensitization to me. For instance, she started with eating candy with a picture of a dipaer, then an actual diaper, and a picture of a baby, then a baby crying, and finally a real baby. Once he mastered the candy, she moved on to real foods and on and on. She used a lot of positive reinforcement with things Jack loves like SEC mascots, paint, play dough, Seminole magazines (which are in abundance in Destin:) and other fun stuff. This sounds very easy when you read it but you have to understand that we went through straight hours of screaming, fits of angry, physical aggression and various other difficulties with Jack just b/c we pushed the issue of him eating a starburst with a picture of a diaper in the room.

We began going two days a week for two hour sessions and are now just going on Fridays. There have been improvements in Jack's eating. For instance, he ate in a resturant with a baby at the next table last week and ate with Ella and Maddox (a nine month old) like it was no big deal. I know that sounds very minor to everyone, but we were THRILLED!! You have no idea the fights and long days it took to be able to do that!! But, he will regress too - this past Sunday he didn't want to eat when Ella was at our house. So, one victory doesn't mean we're done. BUT my major issue with the eating was how irrational, loud, and defiant he would become around babies and food before and now he will calmly state that he doesn't want to eat. That I can live with!!!! Although, it's an odd thing, a calm statement of a desire to wait to eat is an appropriate response and I will take it!! So, we've made progress in that area.

The coolest thing to me about the therapy is that for a while we didn't seem to make much progress in the area of eating. We've been going for a few months now and it took until the last couple of weeks to see a lot of progress. But in other areas - like the irrational fears - we saw HUGE progress!! It was like Jack was able to take the processes from one behavior and apply them to another problem area that was easier for him to change. I can't remember the last time Jack was fearful and couldn't verbalize it - which has been a HUGE issue in the past. The great thing about this is when he can verbalize, we can face it, and he normally gets over the fear immediately if he can touch it, talk about it, figure it out. But when we didn't know WHAT the fear was, we couldn't talk to him about it or deal with it at all.

So, in conclusion, we've seen lots of progress. Most of it is really small things that nobody else would even notice but makes our day to day lives soooo much easier. The best part is these little victories seem to make Jack happier, more easy going, proud of himself and more confident in trying new things and going new places. He's not "fixed" and he's still behind in some areas (like motor skills which Ms. Kassi is about to start working on) and he has setbacks on a regular basis. But, he's figuring out ways to deal with his difficulties - positive ways - and even though he doesn't always USE thoese techniques, he has them and he's learning and that's great! And I'm letting all my friends who were asking know....

We like ABA, we like Ms. Kassi, and we love Brilliant Minds - especially Jack's brilliant mind!! :)