Happy Belated Birthday PUNKY-SUE-RELLA!

How could I forget to blog about such an important day? Where is my head?

Yesterday was the birthday of one of the greatest Americans in history…yes, this day 29 years ago, Mary Amanda Clark – now Marble - was born to John and Melinda Clark in Amory, MS.

I'm sorry I'm a day late posting, Amanda - AKA PunkySueRella - one of the many strange nicknames growing on our family tree. I hope your day was fabulous! I wish I had been there to celebrate with you, but here is to hoping that God will put us in the same city one of these days. I hope you know how much I miss you.

If you don't know my sister, then you are missing out - BIG TIME! She is one of the kindest people I know. I never heard her say a mean thing about anyone growing up. She was such a good example, and the best playmate I could have asked for. That brings a story to mind. When I was little...I used to get "tired" of my friends. They didn't let me have my way like my big sister did, so sometimes I was ready for them to leave on Friday night...not good for spend-the-night company! So, my wonderful sister would play with them all night and all the next day while I did my thing. Yeah, I was a little spoiled. She has always been my biggest fan. It all started when they brought me home from the hospital. Mom and Dad said Amanda wouldn't even eat supper; she just wanted to look at me. She gave me an unrealistic perspective from the get-go. I came to expect adoration and rarely receive it. She did a great job paving the way for me all through school. I had it made in the shade because I was "Amanda's little sister," and it just didn't get better than that. All her teachers just loved her because she was very smart and never said a word. That brings to mind another story. When I was in 1st grade and Amanda was in the 6th grade we had a bully problem. One of us was being bullied on the bus, and you guessed it...it wasn't me! I had to tell this seventh grader to leave my sister alone! Sorry for the embarrasment, Manny, but I guess it worked. Neither of us was beaten up I am happy to report.

I really can't think of many people that I love and respect more than you. You are always there to listen and to encourage me. I absolutely CHEERISH our friendship. I'm glad mom never let us fight. Not that we really would have except when you always made me late for school with your 3 hour getting ready ritual. I've never seen someone with so little body mass take so long to shower, but old Rob cured you of that...now didn't he. You kinda sped up your game when you became a Marble. I think I am most thankful for the example you have set for me as a mother. You are FANTASTIC at what you do. Mary Peyton is the most wonderful thing ever, and so much of that has to do with her amazing mommy! I think I am just going to send my kids to you, and you can return them when they are 10!

Thank you for being my bestest friend. You are such an amazing person, and I owe so much of who I am to you and your example. I love you so, so much, and I am so blessed to have been given you as a big sister....well, little-big sister. I only wish I had a copy of your 9th grade band picture to post...until next year America. I hope your 29th year is the best yet!

Bye the way....that is my beautiful and wonderful grandmother, Mamer, in the picture with Amanda and Mary Peyton and the cake. She celebrated her 81st birthday on the 26th. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know I have a blog, so I don't think she will mind my posting her age. Let's just say she's not exactly computer savy, but she is AMAZING. I believe that is where Amanda gets several of her wonderful qualities. I was named after Mamer, Vera Laurette Walters, but I think Amanda got most of her pleasant traits. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that I inherited Mert's demeanor. Sorry, Travis. Mamer, is one of the most joyful people I have ever known, and I think she knows the first and second pronunciation of every word in the dictionary. She also laughs out loud at the funny papers everyday. I just LOVE her...can you tell?














this is Mamer, Mert and Mary Peyton...just for clarification. Aren't they precious?

Why worry about Vick

I watched the pre-season Monday Night Football game last night between the Bengals and the Falcons and I am so happy they didn't mention anything about Michael Vick...

As if that would really happen, it was so overwhelming it took away from a great 1st half of pre-season ball that featured a wonderful game from MSU alum Jerious Norwood.

My personal take on Vick is yes he did a bad thing and will be punished, but I wish that this much media attention would be placed on athletes every time one is reported beating his wife or when one is busted for not paying child support on some of his 9 kids, but does have the ability to buy a $100,000 car (Travis Henry I am talking to you). It seems the more elaborate and crazy the story the more the media go after it. I think beating your wife and not taking care of your kids is much worse then killing a dog, but that doesn't sell papers. Again, that is only my opinion.

On a funny note, as halftime started they of course began reporting on Michael Vick. Well Chris Mortensen began this lengthy talk about all the legal blah, blah, blah. Well, behind him in the background of the shot I happened to notice a Pop Warner football team playing a group of mascots. It was funny to see, especially behind someone who was trying so hard to be all professional. Well I was able to capture this gem in the background. It is a short clip but watch the big inflatable Falcon in the center of the picture.



That is who we should be worried about my friends, not Michael Vick, he is attacking our children out there. I hope you enjoy. By the way, if this becomes the big blog story of tomorrow, which I doubt it will, take a look at when I posted, so you know I am not copying anyone.

Wolfe Update

Sorry it has been a while since we posted it's a crazy week around the Wolfe household. Well I don’t want to keep our 2 readers in suspense so I will just go ahead and let you all know that I finished dead last in the apple pie contest. Laurette has some pictures and I hope she will post them soon. I think I handled the defeat gracefully, although if I ever find a few of these ladies I will have to take out there knees for next year’s contest. To make matters worse there were only 4 pies entered so all I had to do was beat 1 in order to place. Well, ole Travis here came in 4th out of 4. To add insult to injury I didn’t even get to take my pie home. You will never guess what they did with it. The pies that actually placed are displayed in a refrigerator for the length of the fair, shown off as the pride of Wilson County fine baking. Mine on the other hand was tossed in the trash! Yes, you heard it right; they just went and threw it away like yesterday's news. I have been humbled by this whole thing and you better believe I am getting my game face on for next year.

A brief little highlight of some things that have been going on in our world.

1. Breaking a gas line - yeah...you know how they say call before you dig...well you should really go ahead and do that. Luckily no one was hurt and nothing was damaged except my wallet and pride.

2. Our lovely Maggie pretending to be David Copperfield and somehow figuring out a way to escape her fence after I spent a month trying to dog proof it. Thankfully the only thing injured here was my pride again.

3. The Wolfe's have a ping pong table now in the garage. I stalked craigslist for the better half of 4 months looking for the perfect one to show up. It finally did last week. I have to say Laurette isn’t half bad. Anyone that is up for a road trip can come on by and get a game in.

That is a little bit of our world. More details to come.

My Sister's Art

Go to WALLIEKATTZ to see what awesome stuff my sister has done! You'll love it! She is way more talented than I, and on that note, thanks for all your encouraging posts!

And the WINNER is...

Well, we don't know yet. We will find out tonight; however, we know that Travis was not the Grand Champion. They would have called us last night after nine. We waited up until 12, but no call. I'm just kidding. We didn't wait up. Wouldn't that be pitiful? I don't have the pictures up yet of the pie and its delivery to the fair, but alas...they are coming soon. Let me just say that I was sooooo nervous delivering this thing. I almost buckled it in my car. I could just see myself getting into a car accident and missing the 6pm deadline, and there are NO ACCEPTIONS to the deadline. The website stated that in bold print, and after meeting one of the members of the Board of Directors, I know that ain't no lie! She greeted me in the East/West building where the culinary competition was to be held. The name says it all.... the East/West building...yeah, I couldn't find it on my own. I had to go to the fair office, and they seemed a little stressed! I tried to sound as southern as I possibly could. Being from the Deep South myself, I know how territorial these folks can be. Who does that thing think she is entering our contest? I could hear their thoughts and my palms were sweating in response or maybe it was the 105-degree temperature. Pretty sure it was a mix of nerves and heat. So I finally made it to the East/West building and the fore mentioned member of the board greets me. They are high tech at the fair. You have to have bar codes on all your entries, which I did not. After this not so friendly liaison of the fair printed my bar codes, I headed to the next table to class V – the pie section. Only 3 other people had entered the apple pie contest as of 5:20 pm. 40 minutes and counting. NO ACCEPTIONS at 6pm. Surely we will at least get honorable mention, but you know how political these things can be. They have our address, so they may pull up our voting records, who knows! I told them that the entry, which I had a little trouble removing from the Tupperware Fort Knox that I had created, was my husbands…. do you know what she said? “I could tell.” Hold up, wait a minute. I know she didn’t just say that. I helped and crafted a lovely capital W out of dough, which was cooked to a golden brown sitting atop our apple creation. If my palms hadn’t been so sweaty already, I might have balled them into a fist and given her the business. But, I knew it was neither the time nor the place, and I was out numbered with no one in my corner. I might talk slow, but I’m not stupid! So I went along on my merry way. We’ll be back next year, though…win or lose. Watch out the Wolfes will be back! So, off to the fair we go tonight to find out our fait in the culinary competition. I’m not even sure that the Barefoot Contessa would have a chance out there. On a side note, we’ve already discussed that we will not try to win another goldfish this year. Last year Travis won a goldfish for me that lasted all of 4 days. I went over to ask my 11 year old neighbor to feed it while we were gone for the weekend, and when I stepped back into the house, Pickle Wolfe - the goldfish was swimming upside down and he wasn’t doing the back stroke. Jess, my neighbor, didn’t believe me when I traipsed back over to tell her I wouldn’t be needing her services. Would I really lie about a dead goldfish? To explain the name choice, Pickle, in case you were wondering…. we decided to name it after the Carney who was working the booth.


Travis: “what’s your name? We want to name our fish after you.”

Carney: “Pickle’s what they call me.”

Travis: “Well, Pickle, meet Pickle the fish. Have a good night.”

Carney: “Don’t let him die.”

Famous last words…Carney fish are notoriously weak species. We will be on the hunt for Pickle tonight….the Carney, not the fish.

And so the battle begins...

OK so I know it is a little weird that I would be baking a pie for the Wilson County Fair Baking Contest. I have received plenty of hazing from my father, brother, and anyone under the sun. Either way I am really doing this for 3 reasons.

1. One night Laurette and I had Marty and Kurt Cooper over and I found some apples at Walmart with a pie recipe on them...so I said why not. It turned out to be one of the best pies I have ever eaten. I have yet to be able to replicate that pie.

2. The Wilson County Fair is the greatest fair in the country. It is just like the fair in Charlotte's Web. Everywhere you look you see prize winning pigs, chickens, pies, whatever. Last year when we went around looking at everything I had a little urge to participate in something.

3. The simple humor involved in the whole event. Naturally I do not take myself to seriously most of the time, but I am willing to bet several old ladies have their game faces on tonight and are cooking like there is no tomorrow. I hope to capture a few funny memories from the whole process.

So here we go, let the cooking begin. Laurette and I have to turn the pie in tomorrow between 3-6pm so with work, I have been forced to cook tonight. I do have a few secret ingredients. The main two are; Fuji Apples and Capt. Morgans Rum. The Fuji apples are a sweeter type of apple, and I think they taste a lot better. The rum is just for the fun of it. Because everything taste a little better when you have some rum on it. I will report back tomorrow night on the results.

walliekattz.blogspot.com

Well, I've been wanting to do this for a while, so here I go. I've been inspired by Mary Katherine, so I hope she is flattered and not offended. I'm just gonna throw this out there and see what happens. Here are some paintings I have done, and I would LOVE to do a custom painting for you. Take a look. I hope you like what you see. Go to WALLIEKATTZ to see what I've been up to. thanks!

Leaving on a jet plane...confirmed

Well, you will not hear me say this many times, especially when it involves a government office, but I have to give major kudos to the US passport office for their quick turn around of our passports. We opened our mailbox last night amazed to find 2 lovely passports, both of which have hands down the worst pictures Laurette and I have ever taken in them. Today is exactly 2 weeks since we went to the post office and filled out the paperwork. So it is now confirmed, Laurette and I will be taking our Eastern European Adventure the first of September!

Make It Rain...

As I was watching Barry Bonds attempt to break the home run record last night it occurred to me just how bad professional athletes have gotten. Take Bonds, he has been a jerk to everyone in the media then complains when they write bad things about him. He is also about to rob a man of his crowning achievement. Hank Aaron faced unimaginable racial pressure when he broke this record before. He was an amazing player and now Bonds is about to rob not only him but baseball from any integrity it had left.

Then you have one of my hometown boys, Mr. Adam "Pacman" Jones. I will have to thank Pacman for at least giving Laurette's crush, Frank Wycheck and all of talk radio in Nashville something to talk about. Now Pac has decided he wants to take a chance at professional wrestling, Jim Rome had an email today from someone that summed it up best.

Pac,
You really want to get into wrestling now? That has to be the dumbest choice ever.
Sincerely, The Second Doughnut

To top it all off the man that Pacman's posse gunned down at the strip club in Vegas actually at one point in life worked for the WWF and had dreams of being a major professional wrestler. Tommy Urbanski now lives everyday in a wheelchair and is learning how to put toothpaste on a toothbrush and worries about his kidneys shutting down. So Pacman is using his fame and suspension time to waltz into a media frenzied wrestling career that was once the biggest dream of a man now forced to live in a wheelchair because good ol' Pac decided to "Make it Rain". Pacman you are a real winner!

Here is my thing, when I was younger these athletes were doing all kinds of terrible things, but heck at least they were smart enough to kept them under wraps and if they were exposed they apologized for their actions. Sure Darryl Strawberry and the '86 Mets were all hooked on Coke, but they kept that stuff relatively quite. At least Strawberry admitted he had a problem and tried to get help, and tried again, and tried again...you get my point. Bonds will NEVER admit to steroids. Sure Michael Jordan was and is a womanizer and addicted to gambling but he kept his affairs on the DL. Nowadays Kobe has this smugness about him that seems to say "why do these people not like me", um... maybe because you possibly rapped a girl. Thank goodness his wife may finally be leaving him, and leaving him $100 million dollars richer I might add. And then we have Ron Mexico, or I mean Michael Vick. How stupid do you have to be to house an illegal dog fighting company in one of your backyards. I mean at least Michael Irvin was caught in a hotel with strippers and cocaine...not his own backyard!

With so many terrible athletes out there now, I am glad to know that my school, Mississippi State, molds young athletes into responsible upstanding men. Men like Captain Fred Smoot and Dontae Walker....errr..Maybe I should just quit while I'm ahead.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

As promised, here is the post about the Brickyard 400. That's Travis's mom, Mrs. Kris, and yours truly. Boy did we have fun! I do love my Yankee in-laws. They have taken me to 2 races, and I think I want to be a racecar driver now. They don't really have an obsession with racing or keep up with it at all, but there is something about being in Indianapolis on race day. I'm trying to talk my father-in-law into buying me a racecar and being my sponsor. I haven't gotten anywhere with that endeavor. I don't think my mom would be for that one either. I think I would want my sponsor to be Dr. Pepper or maybe Purell...two of my favorite products.

Being from Mississippi, I suppose I should be a NASCAR fan, but honestly I've never seen the point in it. After having experienced a NASCAR and an Indy Car race, I can promise you that you will never find me watching a race on TV...but if you buy me a ticket, I will go and enjoy my most favorite passtime: people watching. And let me tell you, there are some sights to be seen!
The first wonderful part of the day was that Mike Delphino (sp?) James Denton from Desperate House wives was the flag waver for the day. Our seats were in perfect position to capture these shots.

We had really neat seats because I could see everything that was going on. I tried to take one picture of a pit crew and by the time I got my camera ready they were finished! It took them 12 seconds to change all 4 tires on one car! Why don't I get that kind of service?

Tony Stewart, #20 - the Home Depot car, won the race. It got exciting there in the last 10 laps. The 250 laps before that kind of drug on. I did get to see a fire, so that was cool. No one was hurt of course. Back to Tony, the guy has quite a following....like the lady sitting behind me who began praying and weeping when Tony took over the lead on the 252 lap. Seriously, she was crying!!! Many of you may know that I have a staring problem. I think sometimes it takes my brain time to process things, so while I'm in the process of processing...I just stare. Well, believe me, she got the stare and I think I laughed in her face. here is her picture. That's Tony crossing the finish line, lucky shot, and that is his #1 fan with the blond hair.

We did have a great time at the race. Thanks for the fun day, Mr. Mike and Mrs. Kris. Here is one last example of my photography skills.

And we thought we were crazy over sports

As I was plugging along today in the blog world I came across an interesting article. The headline read Manchester United Signs Nine Year Old to Contract. For those who don’t know Manchester United is a soccer team in Europe. I was blown away that they would actually sign a kid who hasn't even met the height requirements for the tilt-a-whirl. Imagine my surprise when I continued reading and found out that Man U signs about 40 kids around this age a year!!! WHAT! This is unbelievable. To think that a professional team is out there scouting 9 year olds.

I am also thinking about how awful of a job it must be to go scout 9 year old soccer games. I just have to be honest here, but when my kids begin playing sports it will probably be the most boring afternoons ever. I will of course be proud of my kids, but come on. I have seen enough t-ball games to know that this has to be painful to sit through. Special props to my father who had to sit through all my terrible games, especially through that 4th – 6th grade baseball stint, I know I was horrible, but he was a trooper. Maybe it is a right of passage for fathers, but I certainly would not want the job of trying to find the next Pele’ somewhere between the sno-cone stand and the soccer field. Below is some footage on the kid. It’s true; he is very good, but seriously 9 year olds getting scholarships! Unbelievable



I think Sly needs to be give a call to this next youngster.

Dusting off the Cobwebs

Well, hello blog readers...any of you who are still here and haven't given up on us. The Wolfepack has been going full throttle. Speaking of, we went to the Brickyard 400 this past weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
I know all you NASCAR fans are jealous, but more to come about that later. Travis' mom has all the pictures that I took...so just hold your breath for that awesomeness that is to come!

On to more recent news. Travis and I stood in line last Friday at the passport office in a balmy Nashville postoffice for almost 2 hours. Let's just say that I think some folks were getting passports to go back home if you catch my drift. Was that too politically incorrect? You may be asking yourself why two kids like us need passports. Well, come September 6, 2007, Travis and I will hop on the big bird with the flaming tail, as my dad likes to call it, and head to Budapest, Hungary. You again may be asking yourself why in the world are they going to Budapest? Well, if you know my thrifty husband, you will have deduced by now that it was the most cost efficient ticket. No, we aren't just headed to some random country. We will spend the night in Budapest and then hop on the train, ride through the Austrian countryside (I'm hoping they will have chocolate frogs on the train just like in Harry Potter) and end up in Prague, Czech Republic, where we will meet up with Josh and Emily Blades and Hunter and Emily Jones. I will be the only female on the trip whose name is not Emily. From there I'm not exactly sure where we are going, but about 5 days later we will end up in Munich, Germany. Yes, Travis is already beside himself with excitement that he will be going to his homeland. I just hope I can get him to leave. Will post more about the National Lampoon's European Vacation later,
but if you have any suggestions on where to stay and what to see in Munich let us know. We are in charge of that leg of the journey.

Now on to tonight's events. While I have been updating our dusty blog, my wonderful husband has been baking an apple pie. Not just any apple pie, this is his prototype for his entry for the Wilson County Fair apple pie contest. Yes, that's right, Travis is entering a pie contest. Why is he entering, well...why not? I'm mighty proud of him. It has always been a dream of mine to marry a man that can cook. As some of you may know, my Little Daddy is an amazing cook, and my husband is turning out to be as well. He doesn't cook much because he says I'm a kitchen snob, but when he does it's usually pretty good....that is if he doesn't put too much Tony's or Texas Pete's on it. Luckily, apple pie calls for neither. Thankfully, that is the only contest he is entering, but who knows what this may lead to. We might come home with bee hives for next years honey competition. I'm pretty sure our neighborhood has rules about that sort of thing. And I know they definitely don't allow swine in the neighborhood...so no Wilburs either. Will let you know how the competition goes. I really wish this blog could be scratch and sniff because there is a fantastic smell coming from our oven!