Ann Fleming's First Ole Miss Game

Ann Fleming went to her first Ole Miss game this past weekend and had as much fun as a five month old could. I knew from my wonderful childhood experiences of going to games with my dad(see blog post I made last year on Ole Miss Game memories) that one day I would hope I would get to share the same experiences with my own kids. Ann Fleming got her chance Saturday to become a Rebel fan. I think she is hooked. If you read our blog you probably read Dennis and Ashley's(Royann's sister) blog also and you have probably read how her son Trip loves the bands and musics at football games. Ann Fleming is the same way. She loves the band in the grove and at the game.

We really couldn't ask for a better baby. I know a lot of people say that, but Ann Fleming really is one of the best babies in the world. She just goes with the flow, never crying, and always smiling. I hope it stays that way. I know if we are blessed with a second one they will probably be just the opposite.
Royann and Ann Fleming going in game!

Ann Fleming with Pi and Pap

Even the teams take time outs!





The band is on the field, sorry they get all my attention!

Getting Older!!

Ann Fleming is growing up so fast. Some say time passes by quickly and it does when you have a child, but when you get everyday and every hour with your child it makes it slow down a little. Just to give a update on her, she is: rolling over now and has been for about a month, sitting up when you hold her legs down from going up in the air, she crawled a few steps last wednesday(she is not a professional crawler, just a intermediate crawler), she loves to see, momma, daddy, mamaw and papa leflore, and she loves her pi, she doesn't not love her Pap, she is just still trying to figure him out,she loves her great grandmothers, she loves animals and remote controls(sounds about right since I love computers and her Mom is a Vet.),she loves her jumparoo Aunt Ashley let her borrow, she doesn't like her pacifier very much anymore, she loves babies like Tripp, Ann Carol, and Avery her cousins, she loves bath time,she loves the Ole Miss band, she loves changing clothes(we may be spending a lot of money on clothes one day) and the new one is, she loves looking at herself in the mirror(she gets to laughing and giggling and slapping the mirror). She is the calmest baby in the world. The only time she really ever cries is when she is hungry and then it isn't but a wimper. I hope it continues and here are a few latest pictures:


Ann Fleming listening to the band!

It is that Time of The Year

It is amazing to me how one smell, one song, or one word can take you back to one moment in your life. One of those things can bring a time or memory back to life that you thought you had forgotten. It seems that the dew falls harder in the late summer months and mix that with fresh cut grass there is only one memory that pops in your head as a boy. Football Season! I was never much of a football player growing up, but I tried. I grew up playing in the yard with my J.C. Penny Hutch pads with my cousins and those were some pretty intense games. The Hutch equipment couldn't stand up to much pad popping though. The shoulder pads were nothing more than packing plastic or Styrofoam that you pack a package to get ready to mail. The helmet was made of a small layer of plastic with straps on the inside that looked like belts making an x on the inside to cushion the impact of head on collisions. The face mask on the helmet was so small it would make any kicker on any football team scared to wear. The lower pads such as hip pads, knee pads, and butt pads were about as strong as the shoulder pads, all they did was just slow you down. Our uniforms never matched when we played each other because we always asked Santa for our favorite teams jerseys. I remember Russ one year got a Ohio State set. We made fun of him for Santa's mistake. We had one cheerleader at the time, it was Russ's younger sister. She did most of the cheering for both teams and alot of time drew more attention to her from the crowd than the game would. We drew big crowds young and old from our little community of Horseshoe to watch these epic battles. I still don't understand how a game of two on two drew such a crowd, but they did. It would be thirty to forty people sitting on picnic benches and lawn chairs oooing and aahing at some of the skills we as eight years old had. Looking back at the video now that my Aunt has brings a good laugh. I think back and I can smell the grass, I am catching that twenty yard pass for a touch down, I am wiping that grass off my face that a real face mask would have blocked after getting drilled into the turf, I am stopping a run in the backfield to a loud roar of people most of which have passed now. I am there. I am reliving it again in my mind.

As I got older I moved on from professional yard ball to junior high football. I know it is hard to believe, but I wasn't very big. I may have been five foot and I may have weighed a Benjamen. Summer practice was no fun for this pro yard ball player. The only time we played in the yard was when we scheduled it and when it was not hot or the cracks in the yard were only two inches wide or smaller. I was amazed at the difference in my old Hutch pads and the one I received from the school. I got a real helmet with a real face mask, real shoulder pads, and real lower body pads. They weren't as good as the ones received by the really good players. They got bike helmets. You could pump those up with air to add more protection. I wanted so bad a pump up helmet, but never got it. Those August days were hot and sticky. We had a new coach in town and he was a tough one and he wanted to make an impression on us as young men. We had a total of thirteen players, (talk about "Iron Man" football), on the squad which was a huge upgrade from the two I was used to playing with. He would run us until we would puke our guts up. The "Junction Boys" thought they had it tough. Most of us had grown accustomed to the heat because we had been working on farms most of the summer. The only difference between football and work was at work if you got thirsty you drank, but at football if you asked for water the whole team ran gassers and puked some more while you watched. Repayment for asking for water came from the team in the "bull in the ring". By the end of summer workouts we prayed for school to start.

School started and so did the season. The first game was a jamboree with other teams. I guess you could call it a glorified practice hitting other people besides our own teammates. We had a pep rally to get everyone fired up about the upcoming battle. More than one cheerleader was new also. We as a team needed more than a few cheers to get our team going. I told you earlier there were thirteen of us on the team. It takes eleven to play a game of football. I and a boy who couldn't even be a good water boy sat on the sidelines that night and watched the first massacre. After the game we shook hands and I ran into my older cousin who played for the opposing squad. Did I mention my older, bigger, meaner, stronger by a mile cousin? He told me I better be glad I wasn't in there because he would have killed me. He would always beat up us younger kids at family get togethers, so I knew I didn't want to tussle with him. We got beat the first game by twenty by our rival Central Holmes. Now really twenty doesn't sound like to bad of a losing difference but,it was only one quarter of football. In a jamboree you only play one quarter per so called practice game. So now how does twenty sound? What if we would have played all four quarters? That's right it adds up to eighty points they would have scored to our zero. That was not the shot in the gut though. We lost our starting tailback that practice game to a broken collar bone. So that left a big decision to the coach. It was me or the boy who thought the jock strap went on the head under the helmet for extra protection to start next game. He tried on a few of his teammates jock protection straps on his head until he figured out what was going on when he ran through the gym with one on his head and the coach caught him. He told the coach he had taken a pretty serious lick in practice and wanted some extra protection for his brain. After the coach laughed a little he told him what was going on with the little joke from the team, but back to the story. Hard decision huh? Jock strap boy or the little engine that couldn't (me). He chose jock strap boy. Nah! Just kidding! I lined up on the first kick off against Carroll Academy and peared across the line at men. These were not boys like on our squad. I think I saw a mustache on the guy lined up across from me. It may have just been mud, but all I know is it was intimidating. The ball was kicked to about the thirty by our kicker and it was on. I ran as hard as I could to the ball like I was taught to do in practice. The only difference was here there was a receiving squad on the other side and they were taught to block for their return man. We just kicked off to a return man in practice because we didn't have enough for a team to practice against. I remember taking off and going towards the ball. That's it. That's all I remember. Mustache boy pounded me! Pounded me right into the Bermuda. I saw stars, I saw moons, and I even think I saw Jesus. I hurt all over.My brother told me after the game later that night that it hurt him on the sidelines the lick was so hard. He still talks and laughs about the hit. The squares inside my face mask were each had a perfect square of turf stuck in them. I am there. I think back and I remember the smell of the grass in my face mask. I remember how I hurt.

The first game of the year brought on the squad of Central Holmes who we had previously lost to by twenty in the jamboree and who my cousin played for. Game plans were in place after a hard week of practice of corrections from the jamboree. I should have known how bad we were from the way the game started that night. Every school during pre-game runs through a sign as they run onto the field. We made it through the sign with no problem. The after is what we had the problem with. A couple of guys made it through the sign and the lead guy fell down. That lead guys was me. I tripped everybody on the team. It looked like the perfect strike in bowling. The whole team went down except for jock strap boy and he just kept on running. I guess payback came back to us for the humiliation we put him through. The laughter in the stands roared as we all lay on the found in front of the goal post. Kickoff was non eventful as I just kinda ran down field and pushed a couple of boys around. I had been assigned to play right tackle. The right tackle blocks the defensive end on the right side. We broke the huddle for the first offensive series of the game and there he was. #73 Plain as day! That is all i could see was the number seventy-three unless I looked up and I mean straight up and there he was Kevin, my cousin who had warned me the previous week he was gonna get me on the field when we played each other. We lined up and I was so nervous the ref called a false start my body was shaking so much. We lined up again after the five yard penalty and the ball was snapped this time with no yellow flag and Kevin planted me face first into the grass. He let the runner run right by him as he lay on top of me and whispered in my ear hole of my helmet "Hope you like it down here, because that's where you gonna be all night".He didn't plant me every time though. He would sometimes throw me out of the way and kill our quarterback or running back. Whoever was possessing the ball at that moment. After three quarters of this beating before leaving the sidelines the coach told me " Rocky if you don't block yo man I am gonna put you in the backfield running the ball". I told him " Coach that's fine what play do you want me to run?" Let somebody else take that beating I was thinking. He didn't find it amusing. After taking another quarter of more blistering hits and power drives into the ground I took matter into my own hands. I would get the better of my older cousin just once before this game was over. As the clock ticked down to the last few seconds and we were still trying to to get one score before the end I hit Kevin with all my might. I bounced right off of him and he came back at me and I turned to brace for the hit and he drove me right into the ground. I don't mean just the grass. He drove my helmet and face mask through the grass and into the dirt. I had inches of grass and dirt in my helmet. He picked me up as the horn sounded and shook my hand and put his hand on my shoulder pad and told me I played a good game. He said he enjoyed it. I was thinking, I bet you did. I can smell that grass. I am there still walking or limping off that field with my cousin. I can still hear him laughing about the beating he had given me.

We lost Kevin a few years back, but anytime I smell that fresh cut grass fragrance I think of him and football and eating a lot of grass and inhaling a lot of grass my first year of football. We went on after that game to become pretty close. He told me later on he had a lot of respect for me for never giving up that night. I sure had a lot for him.

She is a Happy Baby!

Independence Day

July 4th has always been a special holiday for me and my family. We are a very competitive family when it comes to sports. If we have a family get together we are gonna have some sort of athletic contest to play to see who is the best(thanksgiving is the Turkey Bowl or family football game, Easter is baseball,we used to have a skate off at the skating rink at our family reunion until somebody got hurt, and Mother's day we golf, and July the 4th has turned into who can do the most on the diving board). The odd thing is we had three of us play college basketball, but we don't have a basketball game. Every Christmas we give out medals to the best of the worst achievers(what person stretched their body to its fullest potential to win,You add your points up from hits, golf strokes, touchdowns, and the diving board contest points). Last year I took home the silver only behind Uncle Larry who I think still paid off the judges. This is the year I am not gonna be denied the gold for the diving board contest. Here is a shot of my first flip and then the camera ran out of space. As you can see it is almost perfect except for the fat rolls. I wish I had a copy of the back flip because it mezmorized the crowd.

You tell me who is the better flipper. I mean look at the clearance I got compared to Uncle Larry and I made it all the way over and my feet hit the water. He landed on his back. If I lose this one I will know it is rigged.
I will keep you updated on medal point counts in future posts. Anyways it was good just to spend time with family and relax. Ann Fleming got to go swimming for the first time and loved it. We ate bar-b-que until we almost popped . Ann Fleming got to spend time with family and grinned and cooed for everyone.
Here are some more pictures from throughout the day:


Favorite grandchild and favorite great-grandchild, I am sorry the cats out of the bag:

Two Month Doctors Visit

Ann Fleming had her 8 week checkup with Dr. Smith at Childrens Medical Group in Madison. We LOVE Dr. Smith-he is great with babies and really great with us, explaining the million questions that we have too. Plus it doesn't hurt that he came highly recommended from our friend Crystal Downing and he is a pet owner/lover too-he has a diabetic cat that gets insulin injections twice daily along with oral hypertension meds daily-he must be a great client. i'm excited if some of my clients come in once a year for a rabies and maybe a heartworm test. :-)
Anyway, Ann Fleming likes Dr. Smith too. An 8 week check up for baby also=SHOTS!! It was her 1st set- i started her on Tylenol the night before really worried that she would run a fever and be really irritable afterwards. I, too was a little anxious about the shots even though i give shots everyday to pets. Ann Fleming was a champ thru the whole check up. She loves changing clothes so taking her clothes off makes her happy-watch out daddy-i think we have a fashionista on our hands. If she like changing clothes this much when she's 2 months old, imagine how much she will love clothes when shes a teenager. I hope she's not like her aunt kelsey-the kid loves shoes and buys a pair at least every week-i think she told me last night she now has 68 pair of shoes after she had given some away and sold some too. (good luck abby- her roommate at ole miss-her closet is only 23" wide-i don't know how she will ever get all of her shoes much less clothes in that small of space.)
Anyway, back to ann fleming. We make it through the exam-checkup. Her statistics are pretty good-she's growing like a weed.
Weight-13#6oz (90-95%)
Height-2 foot-(over 95%)
Head-39 1/2 (over 95%)
What can you say-she has a big momma & daddy-both with big heads too.

So Dr. Smith excuses himself-he said the last baby he gave a shot to was now in college and he doesn't want to be the bad guy. The nurse comes in-First we get the oral rotavirus vaccine-she loves that (oral=hence eating!) Then, she grabs her legs and holds them down the side of the table. things are not going well. Ann Fleming HATES her legs to be bound. The child can't stand to be swaddled either-we tried when we got home from the hospital and she would kick and go crazy on us. So we unwrapped her and tried the sack-that didn't go well either. the miracle blanket-NOPE she wasn't having it. So we stopped trying to doing anything besides cover her with a blanket and tent it at the bottom. Back to the shots, she went balistic when she held her legs down-turned beat red before the shots were even given. I was trying to comfort her somewhat however, I don't think that I did a very good job. I think that I even teared up a little bit. Her daddy's eyes were red, but he said he was laughing at her. The shots were fine, she just didn't like her legs held down. She got 3 shots total and got 2 bugs bunny band-aids. Why didn't they have cute band-aids when we were little? As you can see from the pictures, she screamed but after she let her legs go, she was happy. We stayed on Tylenol throughout the day and had some errands to run while we were in the area.
She did have some bleeding and slight redness where she received her injections but otherwise didn't have any problems from her shots. Next check-up/shots at 4 months. Here are the pictures of our visit. If you're looking for a great childrens clinic that is clean and fast, Childrens Medical Group in Madison is great-we have only been for well-baby visits so far-lets hope it stays that way, but we are in and out in a flash. it takes us longer to get there than it does in total time we are in the clinic. Their website is www.childrensmedicalgroup.net. The clinic is super clean, nice waiting area and clean rooms. Everyone is super nice too. Enjoy the pictures-thanks Mamaw Peg for the cute new outfit-it fits perfectly!!!




Ann Fleming getting examined by Dr. Smith

She is not liking her legs being held down!

Can you say we are beat read and screaming loudly?

Telling mom all about that lady holding her legs down!
The funniest part of the day was when the nurse was leaving the room she said bye to Ann Fleming and we all three swear she said bye back. We all just looked at each other when she said it with Roy Long eyes.
Quick facts about Ann Fleming at 2 months
She eats 6 to 6 1/2 oz of formula at every feeding. She gets some breastmilk whenever mom can make enough-it only equals about a drop. Mommas not making much milk and was about to starve me to death when I was a newborn.
She is quirky-and already spoiled rotten. She knows how to work both her momma and daddy.
She is a great baby-very laid back and relaxed and can travel and go anywhere.
Her favorite napping/sleeping place is in her Chicco red car seat. (its the only secure/constant place she has had so far in her little life)
She grins and smiles all the time.
She still loves her lamb swing.
She is fighting sleep bad-does not want to go to sleep-she's afraid she will miss something.
She is super strong and can kick off of you if your not careful.
She holds her head up really good but is still a little wobbly.
She wants to know what is going on around her and looks around constantly.
She loves to snuggle with anyone that will take a nap with her.
She absolutely loves to change clothes-she gets so excited and smiles and grins at you.
She still loves to take a bath.
She still has a head full of hair although it has gotten a little lighter since she was born.
Her hair is so long in the back that she has a rat tail (or mullet?)
She is a bundle of joy and I can't believe how fast time is flying by. Royann

Beach Bums

Last week we spent the week in Orange Beach with family while Royann got her CE's for the year. It was Royann, Ann Fleming, Nana, Pi, Emily, Ashley, Aunt Margie, and Me. We all had a good time despite the oil in the gulf. I spent most of the time playing golf with friends that were also in Gulf Shores. Ann Fleming had the best time with her grandparents. She didn't want to take pictures though.

Getting Home Before 8:00

If we get home before 8:00 it is a very early day for us. Does anyone remember the eighties doughnut commercial about the guy that repeats the same thing each day(he is walking out the door at 4:00 in the morning and saying " Got to make the doughnuts" then walking back in late that night saying "I made the doughnuts"). That is what Royann's and my life feels like lately. Here is our schedule:

1. wake up at 5:40
2. make the coffee
3. shower
4. dress
5. pack the car( i feel like I am packing for vacation each day, it is a lot of crap)
6. leave by 6:30 and drive to Greenville
7. get there and unpack all this crap
8. work all day and maybe get a lunch
9. pack the car again (all that crap again)
10. drive home
11. Unpack all of this crap again
12. try to get get home before dark and which lately has been unusual
13. eat
14. shower
15. go to bed and repeat over

If we do get home before dark, we get to do one of our favorite things. We feed our fish from our deck on Mossy Lake. We have even bought a automatic feeder for when we are not there. When I say we have fish, we have fish in biblical proportions (hundreds). They are on top of one another trying to get to the food. We have all kinds, catfish and bream, big and small, dark colored and light colored. Royann has even started to name them. We have a Scarface, Black Man, and Braveheart(because he will come close to Royann on the deck).







This is Black Man

Same Genes and I Don't Mean Blue Jeans!

You don't think they came from the same gene pool do you?

Talk About Some Crazy Family Pictures

I found this site the other night while on the internet. I can remember taking a lot of pictures just like this. I think by the time Ann Fleming gets old enough we will have a few with her also. Take a look it is great:

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Here are some examples:
1. Great pregnancy pic in the swamp
2. Logjam
3. Sometimes the only way to get little ones in the picture

Down Goes Betty!!

Betty was a huge part of Royann's and My life. She has been with us through thick and thin. We made many trips and had a lot of heart to heart discussions in Betty on our way back to Muscle Shoals, Al. We have had Betty since we got married and she will be missed greatly. Her transmission and electric dash instruments started going out last week and I started thinking I would hate to have a new baby and wife on the side of the road with a dead Betty.She had close to 200,000 miles and has given us her all. The thing I will always remember about Betty is the way she would growl at people walking down the sidewalks and cars in the lane next to her. She would especially growl when a good looking BMW or Cadillac would pull up beside her. (She had a problem with her muffler, so it sounded like growling and she would talk to us and passers by.) We took the plunge and got another Tahoe last week. It is basic everything in it. We think we stole it. It has 20,000 miles on it and belonged to the GM of Gray-Daniels before us. We had to buy from Gray-Daniels because they are big supporters of 4-h. Betty gave off one last growl when they pulled it around to switch stuff out of vehicles. I don't know if it was because she thought we were racist(Betty was black and the new truck is white) jealous, tired, or just telling us she loved us one last time. I want to think it was the latter.


We will miss you and always remember you Betty!

Some Things Aren't Always as Glamorous as We Thought!!

When I was a young kid I went to Mid-South Wrestling with my uncles and cousins. We had a great uncle that would not miss a match when it would come to the Civic Center in Greenwood, Ms. He couldn't drive so I think that is why we went. My Dad and uncles would load up and make the trip to Greenwood just for him. Even though these were the days when it wasn't much of a Soap Opera and it was more wrestling than talking. My Dad would always remind us it was fake and just enjoy my uncles having a good time. There were good guys and bad guys back then. I remember my cousin one time getting so scared of Kamala he climbed under his chair when he came out. Kamala was no little man. He was 6'10 and 450 lbs. I ran into a few years back in Como, MS where he is a truck driver now and told him the story. We always pulled for the Junk Yard Dog because he was from Tchula. Any way back to the story, I rented the Civic Center this past weekend to host The CTA Reunion. The first thoughts that popped into my mind was being a kid and going to those wrestling matches with my uncle. He is dead now. I remember as a kid watching as the wrestlers came out of their dressing rooms to the excitement of the crowd and thinking about what five-star accommodations they must have had back there before coming out. I remember thinking they must have a state of the art gym, five star food, gold plated toilets, and this huge glamorous dressing rooms. All my hopes were dashed this weekend when I made the trip back to the dressing rooms. This is what I found:



We had better accommodations in our basketball locker room at MDCC.

The Loves Of My Life

4 weeks till we meet either Ann Fleming or Bradley Wilson?????


Does anyone think Kitt is getting a little jealous already?

Maybe The Dingo Ate Your Baby!!

One of the best lines from the show "Seinfield". I thought about this when I rode by this car seat. I also thought that somebody had to be real mad to throw this thing out.


The baby did survive the crash though and crawled away with only a few minor cuts and bruises.