Life at UE . . .so far

As you may know, here at UET we have a yearly event called White Trash Prom where underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) bid on dates with upperclassmen to go to the White Trash Prom. Basically, the department gets dressed up in the worst looking outfits from Goodwill (although my shoes were from Wal-Mart, thank ya much), come up with crazy characters, and go around Evansville for the date. This is our group of underclassmen. My name was Trixie, in case you're interested. On our date we had a wonderful dinner of mac and cheese and hot dogs (which is actually pretty normal for me . . .)

and then we were off to Wal-Mart for a photo shoot at the photo place there. We got some nice pictures and were stared at and asked many questions by passers by. This is a picture of us with the nice picture lady, Roxie, who played along real well. The pictures turned out beautifully, by the way. I've got wallets.

After we got our pictures made we went out into the parking lot to have our NASCAR box races. I came in second. It was fun, even though there was a creepy pickup truck that kept driving by slowly . . . After all this we went back to the house and played Twister and had a good ole time. Then we were off to the Prom where we danced the night away and got all hot and sweaty because the AC wasn't working like it should have for having over 100 people in one smal space.


The next event was Principals and Schoolgirls, a frat party, what else? So a few of us decided to indulge and dress up like schoolgirls.

We had a fun time getting dressed and everything beforehand. Too bad the party kind of sucked so we just went back to the room and watched "The Longest Yard" (Good movie and it had Burt Reynolds, and his mustache, so that made it ten times better).

Back home:

My mom finally moved out of her place in Bell Buckle and into her new home in Nashville right next door to my sister and her wonderful children. Momma had been moving things gradually up to the new house with the van but last weekend she made the final haul up there.

My uncle Nooge and Cousin Johnny came up to help move the heavy things and I came down to help out as well. This was the trailer that went behind Nooge's truck all the way up to Nashville. How it all stayed on, I have no clue. And with everyone's help we were succesfully moved in by Sunday! Now there's just the matter of unpacking . . .

Summer with the Fam

Here we have some pictures from the family trip to Pigeon Forge, including a trip to Dollywood, the Dinosaur Museum, and the Smokies. Then we have some lovely pictures from the family birthday celebration. Enjoy!


The boys packed up and ready to embark on the amazing day at Dollywood!

Rachel being absolutely thrilled to be going to Dollywood! No sarcasm, she was just really excited.

One of my favorite pics. Please just take a moment to let this sink in . . .

Jake and Will on the Bee ride. Will had a good time steering and pressing the buttons as Jake sat back and watched.

Another ride in the kids section of Dollywood. The duck ride was a fave, especially since Jake kept referring to the ducks as Donald Duck.

Will and Gramps, havin a good ole time in Dollywood!

Jacob had a good time playing in the water, fully clothed. Funny while we were up in the play place thing we just kind of wandered into the water section and next thing you know Jake and I are both soaking wet and having 5 year olds shoot at s with water guns. It got intense out there.

Will wasn't so sure about the whole water play park thing. I think he was a little baffled.


Right across from the kids playplace there was a store that sold fun hats, and since the Veggie Tales Vikings were pretty popular that day both Will and Jake got viking hats. And Daddy decided to wear the hat as well.

After purchasing the viking hats we saw several kids inthese hats that looked like dragons, so Jacob had to have one. He absolutely loved it and kept roaring like dragon.

Passed out after a long, hard day of playing at Dollywood.

On the way to our place in Pigeon Forge there was a Dinosaur Museum, almost right across from where we turned to get to our cabin. So, of course, Jacob really wanted to go. This would be him digging up fossils, more like playing in the sandbox, in the museum.

I love this picture because Daddy is like "Look up here Jacob," and Jacob is like "What the heck are you talking about?" Add your own captions if you so choose, I just found it amusing.

At the dinosaur museum most of the dinosaur replicas looked pretty cool. But this one dinosaur's teeth cracked me up. I just thought they were really . . .special.

This would be Jacob frolicking along the trail in the remains of a fireplace. He had a pretty fun time on that mini hike. Oh, and notably creepy fact: There was a creek alongside the trail so we went down to it to explore. Well, when we got down there, there were wet footprints on some of the rocks, and I mean like barefeet footprints. And there was no one around in barefeet. CREEPY! Moving on . . .

I just love this picture because James looks like he's taking orders from a drill seargent. Too funny . . .

This would be Jacob "climbing the mountain." He wanted to go to the mountains the whole time we were up there. I'm not quite sure he got the concept that we were actually in the mountains. But at least he had this little romp and afterwards he said he climbed the mountain.

Me and Will during our little excursion in the Smokies.

Rachel and Jacob overlooking Cumberland Gap in the Smokies.

This would be me with Will and Jacob enjoying my delicious 19th birthday cake! Momma never lets me down with my birthday cake :-)

I think that Jacob firmly believes that any cake that he has should be eaten like it is at his birthday party and he can just rip into it and get it all over his face. But, hey, at least he has a good time doing it right?

Will found a new buddy at the b-day party. This picture was taken right after Stan pulled up in the driveway. Will saw that it was him and automatically reached for him. They enjoy the quiet moments of just observing the action.

I think Jacob enjoyed the whole chillin on a float thing better than actually swimming.

Post-swimming extravaganza. Good times were had by all, even if Jacob wouldn't jump into the pool.

A very awkward looking picture, but cute nonetheless. JP, Will, and Anna Grace at the summer birthday gathering.

This would be from a little swimming trip I took with Rachel and the boys. Fun times in the swimming pool. If only Jacob would let go of us and swim on his own . . .

Rooney!!

Heather and I went to see Rooney play at Exit/In. It was quite an amazing show! Everyone was singing along the whole time and the band was looking quite nice as well :-)

Heather and Me before Rooney began. Gettin Excited!!

Ned's hair defies gravity.

This is an artsy little picture of Matt, the bass player. He's pretty cool. He wears his sunglasses at night.

Taylor is just so pretty. *le sigh* Heather and I ate next to him and Louie (the keyboard player) before the show. Needless to say we were in awe and could hardly manage to control ourselves as we ate our delicious sandwiches.

The boy can belt and look damn good while doing it!

The lead singer of one of the opening bands was very attractive. So, naturally, I got a picture with him. I think it's adorable, don't you?

And to make the night absolutely perfect, Heather and I got to meet Robert Carmine after the show. He was a real sweetheart. I can die a happy woman now :-)

Bonnaroo!!!

For Bonnaroo, my friend Stacey, who is from Texas, came up with some of her friends. Hilarity ensued:

Artsy photo of Paul and Marcus as the train is whooshing by.

Just a nice little group photo of the Texans in front of the post office . . .

Zach after we got the wonderful tent up. It was cute, there was a "room" for the girls and a "room" for the boys.

"Oh what a lovely home for the next 4 days!"

Paul and Stacey were thrilled to chill in the tent! Notice all of the beautiful tie dye shirts :-)

An overly excited Stacey posing in front of the official Bonnaroo Ferris Wheel!

The tie dye crew entering Bonnaroo on Thursday evening.

Our neighbours were from Australia. They had BonnaROOS!

Stacey, me, and Heather getting ready for our first full day of heat, dust, and rock and roll!!


The Kings of Leon rockin out!

Franz Ferdinand: they're kind of a big deal.

Me, Heather, and Bob getting ready to enjoy the most amazing show ever: The Flaming Lips.

Heather, me, and Stacey on the last day of the Roo. Tuckered out, but still enjoying every minute of it.

As Stacey said, "This truly is the happiest place on Earth . . ."

" . . .And the trippiest place on Earth."