A couple things worth blogging about tonight...

The President...no, I mean THE PRESIDENT as in The President of the United States was in Southaven today, at the Desoto Civic Center, campaigning for Haley Barbour, one of the candidates for governor of Mississippi. We had plans to go to the Memphis Tigers football game against ECU today with another couple from our church and 4 teens from our church. Well, our plans were to leave our house at 10, be at the church by 11, and get to the game early enough to meet up with some tailgaters and then be at the game when it started at 1 this afternoon. Well, the President coming to town held things up a bit because they had I-55 closed off, so Stateline, Goodman, and Church Roads were all bumper-to-bumper because folks were trying to get onto the interstate, and couldn't, so they just sat there holding up traffic since there was nowhere to divert these cars. So we ended up going north on Horn Lake Road, East on Stateline Road, North on Tulane, East on Holmes, all the way down to 78, then back to Goodman Road, just to avoid the heavy traffic. But somehow we still made it to the church in time. We had to wait for two people to get up and get ready, so we didn't end up leaving the church until after 11:30. We didn't have much time to hang out with many tailgaters by the time we got to the Liberty Bowl. We got there just in time for the pre-game show. I must say, it was HOT at that game. It is not supposed to be that hot in November! By the time November gets here, we should be wearing 3 layers of socks to football games. So now I'm sunburned to a crisp, but I guess it was worth getting to see Memphis beat the ECU Pirates, with a final score of 41 to 24. GO TIGERS!!

Now, back to the whole President coming to town, I would like to thank Karen for sharing this article with me. After you read it, you will see why it's sometimes embarassing to be from around here, lol.

Car Rams Miss. Arena During Bush Event
Yahoo Website
By WOODY BAIRD, Associated Press Writer

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. - A car ran a police checkpoint outside the arena where President Bush was speaking Saturday and rammed the building. Authorities swarmed the car with weapons drawn and took away the driver and at least two children who were with her.
Bush was in his limousine when the incident happened, but the limo had not left the building and he was not hurt, a senior Bush administration official said. He left the arena less than five minutes later from an exit about 40 yards from the car.
No shots were fired from or at the car, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. "There was a vehicle that did crash into the side of the building," Duffy said, although it was "not close" to the president's car.
"The president was never in any danger and is keeping with his schedule," Duffy later told reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush flew to Paducah, Ky.
He would not say whether Bush saw what happened or say what the president's reaction was.
Mike Pearson, Secret Service agent in charge of the bureau's Jackson field office, said the woman ran a police checkpoint outside the center and was in the custody of the Desoto County Sheriff's Department. The children were also taken away.
Bush was kept inside the center until the situation was under control, Secret Service spokesman Ann Roman said in Washington.
The driver was not immediately identified. A witness, Linda Neeley, 40, a teacher from Horn Lake, Miss., said the woman was white and in her 30s or 40s. She said the children appeared to be 8 to 10 years old.
Neeley and other witnesses said the woman drove a gray Toyota Camry through a parking lot on the same side of the DeSoto Civic Center as the president's exit. The car jumped the curb, drove through a gate where press buses had just left and rammed the building near a loading dock.
"We heard sirens and looked and the car was flying around the corner," said Michael Smith, 17, who was on the loading dock with about a dozen workers taking a break from their food service jobs at the center.
"As soon as the car hit the wall, there were probably 20 cops on her," Smith said.
Neeley, who was standing at the press gate taking photos, said the car "was going pretty fast," though no ambulances were called after the crash. Damage to the front of the car indicated it hit the building at 5 to 10 mph.
Police rushed the car, dragged out the woman, handcuffed her and whisked her away. Bush had spoken at a rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour, the first of four campaign speeches Bush had scheduled for Saturday.

We can only hope The President didn't see this psycho woman with a bad case of road rage. ::shakes head in disbelief, rolls eyes:::

We ended up taking Travis to a Fall Festival at Michael's sister's church. There was a hayride and some games. At first Travis was scared to get on the hayride, but once it started moving, he was all excited. All of the games were in the gym, and they had a kids' basketball goal set up, and Travis wouldn't let anyone else have a turn, so they got out a second ball so the other kids could shoot in between Travis shooting. That child is ADDICTED TO BASKETBALL! We finally had to pull him away from it, kicking and screaming. So then we left. Then we decided to go to Bethel because they were having some basketball games. So we went and our pastor was there, another man from our church, and some other people we knew. It ended up being a bunch of guys sitting together talking about basketball, which I LOVE basketball, but it's hard for a girl to get a word in edgewise when a bunch of "the guys" are talking sports. Then not too long after that, our pastor's wife and her sister showed up, so FINALLY I had someone I could talk to. Through the whole time, Travis did not take his eyes off the basketball game going on. He just stood there the whole time watching. He got to the point though where he wanted to actually go down on the court and play with the ball, and he just doesn't understand it when we tell him he can't play, plus with the fact that he was soooo sleepy. So I ended up bringing Travis home and Michael stayed, and someone is supposedly giving him a ride home, I hope. The church isn't that far from here, but I still wouldn't want to be walking alone out there, especially on HALLOWEEN.

It's Halloween today, or shall I call it Helloween? Several people today have asked me if we are taking the kids out Trick-or-Treat'ing tonight, and when I reply NO, I get this GASP followed by a WHY NOT? As parents, Michael and I have decided to find something else for our kids to do on Halloween. So we are taking them to a Fall Festival at Michael's sister's church. There will be food, games, and a hayride. I believe that it better for us to take our children to a safe place where we will be with fellow Christians that share the same views on Halloween as we do. I will admit, I grew up trick-or-treat'ing every year and can more than likely recall what my costume was each and every year. But now that we have had a chance to have kids of our own and find out what Halloween is really about, we have decided to ban the holiday in our household. The following is an excellent site that tells a lot about the history of Halloween, and if you are a Christian, you should truly consider the same for your family. The Dark Side of Halloween

Today's gripe session is brought to you by Memphis Drivers...They don't know how to drive, they just pretend they know how. :::music rolls:::

So yesterday evening around 6:00 p.m., I'm rolling down I-240. Traffic was flowing pretty good, for once, and all of the sudden, everyone is slowing way down to look at who knows what. There were no wrecks, no construction, no one's bumper falling off, so I have no idea why when drivers reach a certain point on I-240, everyone just slows to like 10 mph. So I end up slamming my breaks and swerve into the righthand lane to avoid rearending the car in front of me, and then the car behind me does same. No wonder there is a wreck, if not more, on I-240 every single day. It's impossible to have morning or afternoon rush hour traffic without at least one wreck on 240. And related to this gripe session, when one raindrop lands on a Memphis driver's windshield, how do they react? "Oh Lawd! It's raining! I don't know how to drive in the rain!" :::swerve::: :::screeching tires::: :::CRASH!:::

In other news, Travis climbed in the bed with us again last night. He kept talking in his sleep, and in his 2-year-old conversation, he sounded like he was getting mad at me. "Mama, NO!" he was saying, and of course, this would wake me up and I asked Travis "What's wrong?" and he was still snoring!!! Geez, my 2-year-old hates me, even in his sleep! I guess I terrorize him so much with my plastic spoon that he has nightmares about me! Around 5:00 this morning, Jacob woke up wanting a bottle, so with one eye open, I stumbled into the kitchen, stepping on one of Travis' booby traps (a strategically placed lego), made a bottle, fed Jacob, put Jacob back to bed, and decided to just lay down on the couch, because I knew if I got back into my bed, in which Travis now sleeps, I would wake him up. At least if I laid down on the couch, I could get a little more sleep. I fell asleep on the couch and was having a really strange dream when suddenly something hit my face. Travis was up and he threw a small plastic bowl at my face! I guess that's his new way of telling me he wants his breakfast. So I got up, poured him some milk, turned on the TV so he could watch Sesame Street, and laid back down and dozed. Shortly after that, Michael was up, getting ready for work, and he fussed at me because he couldn't find any socks in the clothes pile in our bedroom, so I had to get up and find them. It really gripes me that he will just stand there and stare at the pile, as if a sock is going to magically arise from the pile. And it gripes Michael that I never fold the clothes. I'm sorry, but I'm doing good to wash and dry them. Folding clothes is dead last on my to-do list. I detest folding laundry with a passion!!!

If you haven't fallen asleep by now from reading today's entry, I would like your opinion on something. (Just click the Shout Out link below.) I was in my bedroom this morning folding laundry (yes, I finally decided to break down and fold it, lol) and Travis was jumping on the bed (bad, bad boy) and he started playing with the alarm clock radio and turned it on. I was somewhat intrigued by what I was hearing. I don't know if any of you actually listen to Dr. Laura, which I usually don't because she gets on my last nerve, but she actually gave this woman some really good advice! Basically, this woman that called in has a 3-year-old daughter and she is currently not married to the father of the baby, but they are living together. Dr. Laura cracked me up because she referred to this living arrangement as "shackin' up", which that's what my parents would call it, so it's odd to hear someone like Dr. Laura use that terminology. ANYWAY, this particular caller said that her problem is that her boyfriend doesn't want to have a big wedding and that he just wants to go to the justice of the peace and do it that way. The caller wants a big wedding and feels like she would be missing out on something if they just went to a judge to get married. Dr. Laura AGREED with the boyfriend, and added "You [the caller] forfeited your chance to have the big flooflah since you've already been shackin' up with the boyfriend for so long," and the caller said "Yeah, that's what he said" and Dr. Laura replied, "Well, he's right." SO what is YOUR opinion on that? First of all, do you believe it is okay for a couple to live together before marriage? Secondly, if a couple has lived together before marriage, do you think they should still have a big wedding with all the bells and whistles? Or should they just go before a judge to make it legal? In my humble opinion, when I got married, part of the excitement was getting to finally live together for the first time, sharing everything. If you have already experienced all of that before marriage, then all you should do is make it legal via the judge. To me, a wedding ceremony is to celebrate the beginning of your new life together. If you've already been sharing your life together, then what's the point of celebrating it 3 years later? It's called putting the cart before the horse.

There is a wonderful breeze blowing right at me, through my window. It feels awesome, and it keeps making me forget that it's the end of October. Feels more like middle of April to me. What am I talking about? We don't have seasons around here...just sporadic temperature changes that keep everyone hacking and coughing and sneezing and wheezing. :::ACHOO:::

Anyway, Travis has found something new that he loves to eat....CHEESE. For lunch today, he refused to eat ANYTHING on his plate and instead, he insisted that I open up the package of shredded cheddar cheese out of the fridge and give him some. So I give him a little pile on his plate, and he eats it and wants more! Of course, half of it missed his mouth and ended up in his chair or on the surrounding floor, but oh well. It's something different at least.

In other news, the other piano player from church called me this morning to let me know Kenneth (the songleader) had picked out the hymnals for the next two Sunday mornings and Sunday nights. Wait a minute, Sunday nights? I had no clue Kenneth would be picking out my Sunday night songs. I thought I would continue to pick them out. The usual communication glitch. Well, it was okay, until she started naming off the songs Kenneth had picked out for me to play Sunday night. I play organ Sunday morning, so most of the songs Kenneth picked out for me were fine, but my problem was that he put down songs for me to play on piano Sunday NIGHT that I only know how to play on the organ. He just doesn't quite understand that just because I know the song on the organ, doesn't mean I know it on the piano. So now, I either have to make the decision to teach myself those songs on the piano before Sunday or call him up and pick new songs. :::shakes head and rolls eyes:::

Last, but not least, tonight's the big night to see if I did good at playing Matchmaker this time!! :::crosses fingers and says her prayers:::

You know what I was reminded of recently? People will spend money and waste time (or is it waste money and spend time?) trying to stir up crap. I believe there are organizations out there and the people that work for these organizations have found that their calling in life is to dig deep for whatever they can find that will P people off. No, it's not the ACLU I am talking about. This time it's the PETA (People for the Ethnical Treatment of Animals). Recently PETA has been questioning the captivity of the Memphis Tigers' live mascot, TOM II, a 12-year-old bengal tiger. (I believe LSU is also on the chopping block for the same thing.) The following link as evidence (TOM II), TOM II is obviously not being mistreated. As a matter of fact, TOM II is treated better than animals at the zoo, heck, he is treated better than most people's pets!! How many of you give your dog a birthday party with a cake made out of raw meat? (see pictures on the above mentioned link). PETA was even invited to take a fieldtrip to see TOM II's habitat, and they refused. :::shakes head::: One thing's for sure, TOM II is not going anywhere, the big baby! :-)

Wow, it's 1:55 p.m. and I'm just now posting something? :::GASP::: No, I'm not sick, just busy. Busy with kids, busy talking on the phone, busy working on my site. Yes, working on my website AGAIN, adding some midi files. So the kids are down for a nap and peace and quiet reigns for the time being, and I thought I could think of something to post. But I actually have nothing to post about except for a few random thoughts.

I'm not sure if I am playing piano tonight at church. It all depends on whether or not the other piano player is at church tonight. (Wednesday night is her regularly scheduled time to play.) If her husband gets off work late, she doesn't come by herself. She once made the comment to me that she wasn't going to drive all that way by herself. :::AHEM::: I drive farther to church, and with 2 babies. Since Michael goes to school on Wednesday nights and I have to make the drive by myself too, I could very easily take the same attitude as hers, but Michael told me that I should be the better person and go on to church. Besides, most everyone there is very helpful with the kids while I'm busy at the piano. The long drive by myself doesn't bother me. Besides, that's what cell phones are for. Anyway, have I ever mentioned how much I love our church? We are all one big happy family. :-)

Here's a link to the latest poem I have written. I wrote it yesterday afternoon and it was written in memory of Sam. In Memory of Samuel "Sammy" Levi Nichols, Sr.

I am excited! I finally found the right code for having background music on my webpage. :::jumps up and down and does a cartwheel:::

I know most of you have already seen my site a bazillion times, but here's the link if you want to see my latest addition. Candy & the Brew Crew

That's all for now...just had to share my excitement! :-)

I am a firm believer that Dell has some sort of system that, once your computer is paid for, they automatically trigger a satellite to remotely damage your computer so that you have to buy a new one. Scam artists they are!!! I paid off my laptop in full probably about a month ago, IF that. Well guess what? It's started giving me problems, BAD problems, and today the boot sector got corrupted, whatever the heck that means, and I spent an hour on the phone with some foreigner name Alonzo that was trying to help me fix the problem. Lucky for me, (or should I say lucky for him?) the problem got fixed and now everything's hunky dorey. Computers just don't understand that when they screw up, they inflict massive total breakdown in the realm of communication!!! :::chews off fingernails:::

I went to bed earlier than usual last night to catch up on some much-needed sleep. I don't think I realized how tired I was over the past several days, and then last night it hit me. I just couldn't hold my eyes open anymore. Michael took care of getting Travis to bed for me, and I went on to bed. I don't even know what time Michael came to bed. He has had a lot on his mind lately...decisions for the future, etc. I think Michael is going to set up his own blog soon, so hopefully he can talk about himself and I don't have to give away his life history anymore :-)

OH, now THIS is cool. I know the two people I'm about to talk about read this blog, so I won't use their names. I just think this is cool, so I have to blog on it...

This Thursday night, my best friend since 4th grade is meeting someone I've known since Jr. High and was in the band with. They've both been single awhile and are looking for Mr./Ms. Right, respectively, and you never know, maybe they will be "the one" for each other. It's been really exciting for me just because I can't believe I just thought of it like a week ago. And since I know both of you read this, just wanted to say GOOD LUCK GUYS and I LOVE Y'ALL!!!! Maybe for once I will succeed at playing Matchmaker!! :-D

Today was a long day. I feel emotionally drained. I don't think I can cry another drop. It was the most beautiful funeral I have ever been to. Perhaps that sounds morbid, but had you been there, you would know exactly what I mean. Having the assurance that if you are truly saved, you will have a home in heaven when you pass from this life makes funerals beautiful when you know that person was saved and is in heaven right now. Sam's brother delivered the eulogy, and the message he gave was truly one I won't soon forget. What Sam couldn't accomplish in life, he accomplished in death. In his 7-page note he left behind, he gave instructions to his family (and everyone else) to serve God now with what life we have left. He also wanted his boys to be raised the right way, to be raised in church. All of the music was beautiful and I could only hope that it sounds like that in heaven.

I don't even know how to say what I want to say right now, so I am just going to spill it. There were certain things I saw today that were a slap in the face, and I'm positive I wasn't the only person that felt that way. For one, there were lots of pictures sitting around with both of them in it, all smiley and happy looking, as if to make the statement that they were happily married. If someone attended that funeral that hadn't known them, they would never know the problems that were going on. I don't know, maybe that is how the family wanted it to look. Nevertheless, it just didn't agree with my stomach. And the real kicker for me was the huge arrangement of red roses atop the casket, which a giant red ribbon streaming down from it that said "Love Your Wife Crissy". She even admitted that she had no idea how much Sam really loved her. She treated him like crap the final days of his life. She told him to his face that she hated his guts, for crying out loud. So I guess now she's sorry for everything she did, as she should be. Now I've got that off my chest.

It was a beautiful October day, and a chilly breeze blew across the grass. And while some people said they couldn't bear to watch Sam be laid to rest, I knew that was only his earthly flesh. His spirit lives on forever and we will see him again when we're called home to be with Him.

In the Commercial Appeal today, referring to the Sports section, the coaches of Conference USA are predicting that the Tigers (basketball) will be 4th in C-USA. 4th?? Last season before it was all said and done, Memphis was 2nd to Marquette, and Louisville and Cincinatti were 3rd and 4th respectively. Coach Calipari says any one of those teams could be number one. We will just wait and see. I don't understand why these folks waste their time trying second guess who will be ranked where. The Tigers just need to get out there, play the game, and WIN.

In football news, not that I'm that into football, but I thought this was an interesting piece of trivia:
When Memphis played Tennessee Tech and Ole Miss, Memphis scored 40+ points on those two teams, whom they played back-to-back. Memphis repeated this great feat the last two football games when they played Houston and Tulane. This is the first season Memphis has scored 40+ points on back-to-back games since 1972, and it happened twice this year.

And people think I'm not a Memphis fan, and that I couldn't give a flying fox's butt about sports.

The sermon this morning was very thought provoking. I can't even begin to sum it up. All I know is that it really worked on my heart. The Pastor kept making references to Sam and how sin crept into his marriage and tore them apart. All I can say now is that seeing Sam & Crissy's marriage disintegrate has been a lesson to all of us, not to let the devil creep into our lives, because he will, and he will take hold of anything he can, whether it is our marriage, our health, our finances, etc, etc, etc.

Dorothy and her sister, Lora, came into town from college for the funeral and all. They both visited Bethel for the morning service, but tonight they both came to our church. It was so good to see Dorothy again; I'm only sorry that it was under these circumstances. (For those of you who do not know, Dorothy used to be our church pianist, and she was the one who encouraged me so much to use my talent to play for the church.) Between congregational hymns, the Pastor gets up to make announcements as usual, and he said "We have several visitors with us tonight, and it's great to have my sister, Dorothy, back on the piano. (The pastor and Dorothy are brother & sister, in case you missed something.) Then the Pastor looked over at me on the piano and he said "Wait, that's Ms. Candice!" and then everyone in the congregation kind of chuckled, and then he said "I guess Dorothy isn't missed around here!" and then he just smiled and said "The Lord really has provided our need." (Referring to Dorothy leaving and the Lord providing our church with another piano player.)

Isn't it a shame that the only time old friends get together is for a funeral? Sammy's visitation was tonight. Michael skipped church tonight and went straight to the funeral home. Michael was able to call up a bunch of people they went to school with, and many of them were there. It was definitely a reunion, but why don't friends make time for each other just because? I went on to church since I had to play piano tonight, then afterwards I rode with another couple from church to the funeral home.

All I could do was go up to Crissy and give her a hug. The girl looked like she was on some heavy antidepressants of some sort, which who could blame her? I probably would be, too, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to face anyone. I literally saw people walk right past her, without speaking to her at all. Just sad.

Seeing Sammy wasn't what tore me up so much. It was seeing all of the pictures they had sitting around. They had a huge bulletin board set up that had a collage of pictures of Sam with his two boys, pictures of Sam growing up, pictures of Sam & Crissy, not to mention tons of pictures in all kinds of picture frames of the two of them. There were wedding pictures and lots of snap shots. I felt like someone pulled my heart out of my chest and stepped on it. It was like I couldn't breathe for a moment, and then I just started crying. Sorry if all of this is getting too personal and too sad, but I have every right to include it in my entry. The funeral is tomorrow at 1.

Afterwards, Michael and I were in the car and he said the best thing we can do is to not let something like this happen to us.