Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas to everyone from our house to yours!

4H Speech Contest

What a night for Tori's school! At the county wide 4h speaking contest, 42 kids representing 7 schools came together for the contest. Tori's class, 5th grade Broadview Elementary, Mrs. Annette Johnson's class came away with the top three spots with Tori taking first, Colin taking 2nd and Kyle taking 3rd. Additionally, the other three participants who didn't place did very well. Her teacher must be really proud. It was a long night but we are proud of Tori and her public speaking ability. Love you girl.... Also Eric and Renee, you can view the speech on

www.youtube.com/hinshawhouse. Love to all.

Memphis Blues

Friends and loved ones... We made it back from Memphis and I have to be the first to say that Graceland was so depressing. I cried all the way through it. Note to self, leave kids and husband home next visit. Tori loved the Hannah Montana Concert. I must say I was quite surprised. It wasn't Aerosmith but was very entertaining. The pre party for club members was very good. Tori got picked out of the crowd to do karaoke and then they got picked to do an interview with the Memphis Eyewitness News. We didn't get mugged and ears are functioning again this morning. The Peabody was a great place to visit. Memphis is just too far away for me. I didn't get to visit any where on Beale Street. It was just a quick run through looking through windows. I didn't get to eat any barbecue, just taco bell. Another note to self... leave kids home. Overall, the trip was wonderful. I will never forget the look in Tori's eyes when she say Hannah on stage. That was enough for me. Enjoy the pictures.

Good Food, Good Company, Good Football

Friends and Family. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We certainly did. As I said in the intro, Good Food, Good Company and Great Football games. Tori was thrilled with all the overtimes this weekend. No, really, she kept saying, "when will this game be over with?" She can't wait until the LSU/TN game next weekend! Go Vols! Now it's time for Christmas. I hope everyone has a wonderful month preparing for Christmas. Here are some pictures of Tori and her cousins, Haley and Harley and picture of Shaggy helping decorate the Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving or Thanksgrieving?

This will be the first Thanksgiving without Mom and frankly I wish we could just skip the holiday, but we can't. Might as well, just jump right into it, because then there will be Christmas. Oh, me.... I think my whole family is experiencing this melt down, because nobody wants to get together this year. I think everyone is afraid to experience the absence. The thought of not having mom's favorite recipes, i.e., her oyster dressing, her overloaded table of desserts, her miniature ham and biscuits, I could go on on. Tori can tell this is effecting me and she came to me the other day and said, "Mom, don't you remember, I wrote down all her recipes in this book". (Tears being held back). We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the recipes. What I'm learning from this is, life has to go on and new memories can be made. I'm going to try some of the recipes and I will be making her favorite cake this year, the Hummingbird Cake.

Another picture... We finally had to break down and purchase a piano for Tori. She had outgrown the keyboard and needed to start with the foot pedals. Sweety loves sitting with Tori as she practices. Love to all.

Post-Halloween Blues

Friends and Family. I hope you all had a great Halloween without too many tricks and stomach aches. As I was preparing for Tori's class Halloween party yesterday, I realized that this would be her last one before she goes to the middle school. Also that means just one more Christmas party and one more Valentine's Day party. Why does that bother me? I guess I am in denial of her growing up. We had a great Halloween with the usual running all over town and coming home to our house awaiting our own trick or treaters. We were ready... at the door... for any sign of anyone and then finally we had our first trick or treater and I guess we scared her to death because we were just standing at the door waiting. Then we had only 3 more and that was it. Lights out at 9:30 and on to bed at 10:00. I hope you enjoy the pictures and have a great day. I couldn't help but look back at past Halloween pictures.

Happy Halloween!!! Boo!

Friends, family and goblins... Happy Halloween. Today, Tori and I went to see Broadway's My Fair Lady at Tpac. You should have seen the customes. The production was wonderful and Tori was in awe of the musical score. Next we hope to go see "It's a Wonderful Life" at the Tenneseee Repertory Theatre. If anyone wants to go, please let us know. Please enjoy Halloween pictures of Tori and her classic pumpkin that she carved herself. Have a Happy Halloween and love to all. P.S. The additional picture of the cake is of a cake Tori's friend made for the school cake walk. Tori loved the artwork on the cake so much, that she decided to buy the cake on behalf of Katie. Note, Katie, we are saving the cake for you when you come over. Yum....Yum...

What are your talents?

Today I was approached by Tori's teacher to help her establish a classroom approach called "Friday School", which in part, is based on in my day what they called "cooperative education". Once or twice a month, parents or volunteers, come into the classroom and teach mini courses in fun topics such as woodworking, baking, drama, and of course science. Also, giving the parent or volunteer to share their talents and/or love of a specific hobby. Oh, I thought that was wonderful idea, you know, to teach outside the four walls and to give the kids a break during the long winter months. Just sign me up I said. When I left the classroom I froze in my car thinking about what will I do mine on? Oh my gosh, I can't think of anything. Then I chuckled to myself and said, hey, I can teach them how to fold laundry. Then I thought, well, why not teach them some household domestic skills and make it fun. How do you fold a towel? How much laundry detergent does it take for one load? How do you load a dishwasher? Sweeping and vacuuming techniques. Discuss allowance amounts? The list could go on and on. No, I wouldn't be able to teach them a language or artistic techniques, but I can show them how to help at home. As you can see by the picture, we have already started with Tori mowing the yard. No, just kidding, the blade was turned off. Have a good day. Love to all.

Sweetie is ok now!

Hello friends and family... To those of you have I know just been worred to death about little Sweetie, as you can see she is going to be ok. She was in the hospital for 3 days with a near fatal infection caused by a fly larvae that embedded in her side. Now that is gross, I know. I have never even heard of that. We almost lost her. She lost 4 lbs on her little 10 pound body. We are grateful because this is the cat that is closest to Tori. Anyway, on a lighter note, the picture attached is of Katelyn and Tori changing my bathroom into a laboratory for their lab experiments creating cures for everything from dog conditions to a puke dissolver to a cure for breast cancer. They used every bath product in the house and put them into little bags with labels. Now, let me ask you a question. Did your mom ever let you do this to her bathroom? I don't know what's wrong with me. Anyway, have a great day and love to all!

Gatlinburg....again?

How many times do you have to go to Gatlinburg before you say..ok, that's it! No more for me. Once you have been there and done everything, why do you go back? Can someone answer that question? For the kids, of course. Tori and her friend Abby had a wonderful time. Horseback riding, go carts, a mirror maze (which is new), the space needle, putt-putting and then a great museum called Wonderworks in Pigeon Forge. Check out their webiste: http://www.wonderworkstn.com/ Steve also took us on a 2 hour scenic drive through the mountains. It was interesting because he told us it was just 6 miles? Ha. We did see some bears along the roadside and visited some open to the public historic homesteads that the girls loved. On the way home I asked each girl what was the best thing they did... Are you ready for this... "wading in the creek and catching crawdads (spelling?) and one said riding through the mountains". Now, isn't that interesting. Next time we will be spending more time in the creek and less time waiting in line. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Love to all....

October

Friends and Family.... Well, we are just sitting around waiting for the weather to change. Today it is 86 degrees and is too hot to play outside -- so Tori and her friend Katie, opted for listening to classical music and painting birdhouses and pumpkins. What a life! Me, just the regular Saturday stuff -- cleaning and laundry. We are looking forward to a lot of good football today. Go Vandy! Go Vols! and Go LSU!. Tori and I are trying a new Paula Dean recipe today for the football game. We will let you know how it is. You take a pound of bacon and a sleeve of ritz cracker and some parmesan cheese. Take the cracker and put a teaspon of cheese on it and then wrap in a 1/2 piece of bacon and put on a baking rack with holes over a cookie sheet. Then bake at 250 for 2 hours. Well, that's all and have a wonderful day!

Hello friends and family. We just got back from Knoxville where Tori competed in the State Pre-Teen America Scholarship and Recognition Program. Congratulations to Tori for winning 1st runner up in Speech Contest and a special trophy for merit accomplishments. She was competing against mostly 12 year olds and we are so proud of her. We did some sightseeing and watched fireworks from our hotel window on Labor Day eve. Knoxville is a great place to visit but we missed our home and all our pets. Thanks to Nana for coming over to check on all the cats and Little dude the Hamster. Funny story about Little Dude: Nana came to check on him and one of the doors was open on his cage, but he was still there in his nest along with a mysterious kleenex. How did he get that in there? MMMM???? Hope you enjoy the pictures. Eric, miss you, Renee, call me. Love you all.

Tori's 10th Birthday

Hello... fellow friends and family members. I was captivated by this way of communicating when a friend of mine sent me her family blog. How cute and modern...... I didn't know it even existed. I wanted to share pictures of Tori's 10th birthday party with everyone. We had a wonderful time. Twenty three kids came and swam and swam and swam. Of course, I could barely walk the next day. Another birthday gone... if my math is correct ... I only have approximately 6 more parties until she is 16 and then she will be too old to have parties. And then she will be off to college and gone. So bring the parties on..... I will never complain about a party again. Ha. Tori is growing up to be a bright, compassionate and beautiful child. I hope you enjoy the pictures.