It's been FOREVER!!....

since I posted anything on here! I'm going to start off with this little quiz since I don't really have a whole lot to blog about at the moment. Christmas pictures will be coming soon!! I know, it's been a month since Christmas!

You can only answer these questions with one word...feel free to copy and do this yourself!

1. Where is your cell phone? desk
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair color? brownish
4. Your mother? patient
5. Your father? funny
6. Your favorite thing? cake
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? peace
9. The room you're in? office
10. Your hobby? running
11. Your fear? death
12. Where do you want to be in six years? madison
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? patient
15. One of your wish list items? tahoe
16. Where you grew up? ridgeland
17. The last thing you did? typed
18. What are you wearing? sweater
19. Your TV? heavy
20. Your pet? grey
21. Your computer? dell
22. Your mood? calm
23. Missing someone? Mark
24. Your car? fast
25. Something you're not wearing? socks
26. Favorite store? clothing
27. Your Summer? hot
28. Love someone? yes
29. Your favorite color? brown
30. When is the last time you laughed? earlier
31. Last time you cried? Saturday

The Shirtless Wonder

I wonder if anyone can explain why my 4 year old has suddenly decided that he doesn't want to wear a shirt...ever?? The first thing he does when we get home is peel off his shirt. He walks around all night long without it. Then, after bath time, he absolutely refuses to put his pajama shirt on, he only wants the pants on. Isn't he a little too young to be acting like Al Bundy? I haven't been able to get a picture of this yet, but I hope to get one soon!

We Got 2 Good Ones!!

This year's alligator hunt was a BLAST!! We left for Pascagoula on Friday afternoon. We arrived at about 4 p.m. and met up with my parents at Tucei's Fish Camp. After going to check in at Ward Bayou, we had dinner at Big R's in Pascagoula...if you're ever down that way, don't waste your time at that place...not at all what we expected! Anyway, I know you're all just dying to hear the details of our catch....

We got on the water at about 7 p.m. and headed North of the fish camp towards I-10. It only took us about 6 minutes to spot a gator that looked to be a pretty good size. The gator was swimming in open water, which is a good sign that it's a large one. We motored as close to it as we could and then killed the engine. The gator went down as we turned the motor off but don't worry, my dad employed the "blind cast" techinque...this means that you cast at the area where you last saw the gator and drag your hook back through the water and hope to catch something. In just a few seconds my dad looks at the rest of us and says "I think I got something"...he wasn't sure if he was actually hooked on a live animal or some sort of trash under the water. He slowly reeled in his line until we reached the spot where it was obviously hooked on something. Mark had the bright idea to drop another hook in the water to see if whatever we were hooked on would react...it did. The gator took off again and the line whizzed out of the reel. Again, we reeled in the line and got close to the monster again. At this point we noticed that the boat was moving in circles. When the gator begins to move like this, it means that he is disoriented...that's good for us. We eventually got him to come up to the surface and secured him with a snare only to realize that we were missing our gun. It was still in the truck. There are other ways to dispatch a gator, but a gun is our preferred method. We toyed with the idea of taping the mouth up and just riding back to camp with a live gator...I voted to call some buddies that were still at the fish camp when we were leaving and ask if they had a gun we could borrow. They came to the rescue and the gator was in our boat and we were back at camp at 8:30.

We got the gun from the truck and set out to find our second gator. As a part of the hunt, you are allowed one gator over 7' and one that must be longer than 4' but less than 7'. Again, it only took us a few minutes to see one we wanted. Mark hooked up with the second gator and after fighting it for about 15-20 minutes, we had him in the boat too. We filled both of our tags in 3 hours!!! We then went to "check them in" and get some final measurements.

Both gators turned out to be female. The larger one was 9' 1 5/8" long and weighed 196.5 lbs. The smaller one was 6'2" and weighed 50.5 lbs. The larger one was just 2 3/8 inches short of the state record for a female gator and just 3.5 lbs. lighter.

We had a wonderful time with my parents and Mark's dad. I really hope that we get to do it again next year!!

The larger gator.

The smaller one.


Team Hosford, yes, we have an official team!!

Sneak Peek...

Below is a picture of the scale when the wildlife folks weighed my biggest gator...yes, it weighed 196.5 lbs!! We did much better this year than last year. We're headed to the fair this afternoon but I promise to post more about the hunt later!! Stay tuned!

They're Baaack!

The beast. 8'.

The hunting crew, random guy, Mark, another random guy, Robbie (BIL) and Chris (FIL).

So, I have been a hunting widow/single mom for the past 3 days....let me tell you, I have the utmost respect for single moms. I can hardly make it for 3 days without pulling my hair out. I love my little man but I just get to a point where I need someone else to talk to! Anyway, Mark was alligator hunting this weekend in Pascagoula. He got the opportunity to be a "guide" for another hunter. They loaded up Friday and headed for the coast. Friday night was a bust for them but Saturday proved to be a better night and they harvested an 8 footer.


Jake and I got a glimpse of the beast this afternoon at my in-laws house.


Next weekend is my turn...but on this hunt I will be the permit holder. I'm hoping to do better than my catch last year which was 6'10". Mark claims that they "left" a 10 footer out there for me. Let's hope I can get it!!

S'mores?!?

This afternoon, Jake says "Mama, I need some crackers, chocolate and a marshmallow." I asked "what are you going to make with that?" He replied, just as cool as a cucumber, "spores." Ha!

Pump It Up!!

Sooooo...it's been a long time ya'll! We have been super busy over the last couple of weeks and I have really had no desire to blog at the end of the day...basically, I have been a blog slacker!

We went to Hayden's birthday at Pump It Up a couple of weeks ago. Jake, Mark and I had a wonderful time. It's always a plus for me when the adults can have fun at the kiddo birthday parties! Jake and I raced through the obstacle courses and down the slides, we bounced in the bouncy houses, it was excellent! Jake has been asking to have his next birthday party there...he doesn't turn 5 until May...

Here are some pictures from the day.

Racing through the obstacle course with Jake.

I look like I'm striking a pose...really I'm just trying to cool off my armpits!!!

Did someone say CAKE??

The whole gang.

Have You Forgotten?

I certainly haven't. I vividly remember standing in the breakroom at M&F Bank in Ridgeland watching in disbelief as the first plane hit the North tower. I thought, that would be terrible to be on a flight that runs into a skyscraper in NYC...then the second plane hits the South tower and reality sets in...this was no accident. I've been watching specials all week on the events of 9/11/2001. I can hardly believe that it has been 7 years since it all took place. I want to encourage everyone to take a minute today and just say a prayer for all of those affected by this tragedy...the loved ones left to pick up the pieces and move on. I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like.

Random Thoughts

I don't have any pictures of Jake this time, but I do have a snapshot of our two dogs, Duke and Dixie. They were so sweet to wait for me to come back from the mailbox. Surprsingly they were both standing still, on all fours and Dixie was not barking. Duke doesn't bark unless absolutely necessary so it wasn't unusual for him to be silent.

Does anyone else feel a tremendous sense of pride upon seeing a convoy of power trucks rolling down the interstate? This has been a common sight around the Jackson area over the past 2 or 3 days. I'm not sure if it is my love of blue collar workers...yes ladies, that's right...I don't find a man who wears a suit to work every day very appealing...or if it's just the sight of all these workers coming together for a common cause. It's very heartwarming! I'm proud to live in a country where we all pull together and help one another out.

Jake threw another interesting question at me this morning. We were just riding along when Jake says "Mama, God made all people from dust." I say "that's right." He then says with the most serious tone in his voice "I wonder what he made cars from, probably concrete." That's right baby, concrete!! I love that kid.

Jake's been doing well so far in 4K. We've made major strides in getting him out of the car in the morning. He is still extremely tired at the end of the day. This is both a blessing and a curse. It sometimes makes for a long trip home full of crying and whining about various things. Last night, he was asleep when Mark brought him in the door at 5:30. He slept through dinner, snack and bath time. We finally put him in his bed at 8 and he slept until 6:30. 13 hours of sleep does WONDERS for a 4 year old's attitude. He woke up this morning with a huge smile on his face and was very cooperative when it was time to get dressed.

Just a random update on what's been going on for the past couple of weeks...I hope to have more to write about soon!!

I Don't Want to Grow Up!!

Lately, Jake has been telling me that he does not want to grow up. He wants to stay little forever. I imagine he is probably coming to the realization that things get tougher for you the bigger, or older you get. I was putting him to bed last night and our conversation went something like this:

Jake: "I don't want to go to school tomorrow, they give me too much work to do."

Me: "Well, that's just the way life goes, you've got lots of years of work ahead of you."

Jake: "But Mama, I don't want to get bigger, and they just keep feeding me snacks! It's not fair!"

This of course made me laugh out loud and he then told me that this was not funny!