New Links Over There...

In case you haven't noticed, Joy has added some new links to the little "Friends and Family Blogs" widget over there on the right hand side of the blog------>.

These include:

Medcalf Corner
Brad and Carri Medcalf (Brad is my cousin)

Cooler Corner
Abbey and Adam Cooler (Abbey is my cousin/Brad's sister)

The Hensons
Lisa and Brent Henson (Lisa is my cousin)

Cannida Lane
Jennifer and Bobby Cannida (Jennifer is Joy's cousin)

Go check 'em all out, and tell 'em who sent ya!

Baby News!

Nope...not us. What were you thinking?

Congrats to Inman and April on the birth of little Houston #2 on Wednesday June 11. Logan weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds-9 ounces, and apparently April's epidural never kicked in. She's a tough one, for sure! Read all about it here.

Congrats, bro!

Rock Band & Amish Friendship Bread

We took a long trip downtown last night to eat at Azios. Billy's favorite dish is the Ossobucco. I had never even heard of this!

Then it was back to our house to play rock band
Kayla joined the band, so Blair became the singer.
We also made "Amish friendship bread." Kayla brought a "starter." It is a bread mix that multiplies. We baked some last night, and it was yummy. I have a starter now that I have to take care of for 10 days, and then I will have 4 bags to give away. Who wants it?

This one is for Mary...

Mary...even though you're in Louisiana now and just a week or so away from downloading Droddy #3...I'm crushing your head!

Monday Night at the Ted

5:15 PM on Monday, the cell phone rings...

Los: Sullivan...what's up? Wanna go to the Braves game tonight?

Me: Yeah...let me check with the boss and see if its OK.

Five minutes later, after a quick call home...

Me: Los...we're on. I'll pick you up in twenty minutes.

Los: Sweet.

7:15 PM on Monday night, 21 rows back of home plate at Turner Field. Braves vs. Nationals. Tim Hudson on the mound. You probably saw us on TV and didn't even know it. Braves win 7-2.

All-in-all, a great night with a great friend. Thanks, brother!

It sure got crowded in here all of a sudden!

There is a phenomenon in the blogosphere known as an "Instalanche." The term originated as a reference to a tremendous spike (an avalanche) in traffic on a person's blog after having a post linked by the popular news/current events blog Instapundit. Today, I'm creating a new term...the Ragalanche. Here's the chart of our simple little blog's traffic over the last 30 days, including yesterday, when my bud Carlos linked to my post about babysitting his kid last week from his blog, Ragamuffin Soul...

See what I mean? Thanks for the traffic, Los...and if any of you 350+ visitors are still around, thank you, too! Hope you enjoyed that post and any others you might have read. Come on back anytime!

Adventures in Babysitting

So while Carlos and Heather are over in Uganda, my sister Stacy is keeping Losiah. She's got some help with Emily and Erin, but this past Monday night when Stacy and Joy went to their Bible Study, guess who got to watch after Losiah? Yeah...it's been awhile since I've done this on my own, and needless to say it didn't start out too promising...

Luckily, despite being a Whittaker, Losiah is about as even-keeled a kid as you could ask for. Those tears up there lasted a total of about five seconds, and then we were best buds for life...

By the end of my two hours, Losiah was even rocking out to some Guitar Hero on the Wii! Kids got some mad skills, just like his dad.

All in all, it was a fun night...and I get to do it again this Monday night. Maybe we'll see how he does with some Super Mario Galaxy this week...

By the way...if you haven't been reading Carlos and Heather's reports from Uganda, you're missing out. Click on their links above or in the blogroll to the right and get caught up...immediately.

Ragamuffin Soul goes to Uganda

So, my boy Carlos and his wife Heather are headed to Uganda.

If you've ever been to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert, or an artist of the like, you probably saw a publicity spot for Compassion International, an organization that sponsors children in impoverished nations, and well...you can read the rest on the website.

Carlos and Heather, along with 10 other well-known bloggers are headed to Uganda as part of a Compassion International mission trip. They, along with 10 other bloggers, will be logging exactly what they are seeing through video, words, and photos. Take a few minutes and head over to Ragamuffin Soul and see exactly what's happening on the ground in Africa.

We Did It!

Full report to come later, but Steve and Jamey and I all finished the Disney Marathon yesterday! I ended up finishing in 3:53:03, beating my goal by almost seven minutes. I was exteremely pleased, and Joy had a great time following me around the course all morning. More to come later...

More New Bloggers!

After helping Wes and Blakely get inspired to start blogging, we've got some more new bloggers in Jamey and Mary Droddy. We've been friends with Jamey and Mary since they moved here several years ago. They will be moving to Shreveport, Louisianna in January, so they've started a blog to help keep everyone here at "home" in touch with them. Check them out at The Droddy Blog.

See...everybody's doing it...who's next?

Carter Martin Classic

The Martin family have been friends of our family since I was a child.

This is the story of Carter, Scott and Leigh Ann's second son who died of cancer in 2004. This video was shown during the 2006 Carter Martin Classic. The Classic is held annually to raise money for cancer research in cooperation with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Please visit http://www.cartermartinclassic.org/ for more information or you can visit Children's Health Care of Atlanta and select The Carter Samuel Martin Experimental Therapy Research Fund to make a donation to help find a cure.

Dinner with friends...

We had dinner with Josh & Valerie last night. Valerie is one of my best friends from college. They live on the other side of the city, so we don't get to see them a lot. It is always good to see them and catch up when we have a chance. We had a fun evening!

Weekend with Friends

We had a fun weekend with Steve & Johnna and Jamey & Mary. This weekend away has become an annual tradition. Last year we went up to the mountains. This year we spent the weekend at St. Simons. We really enjoyed just hanging out, riding bikes and eating lots of good meals.

Dinner on Friday night...

Steve & Scott did most of the cooking.

The Biker Gang

Coolin' at the Playground Ya Know

Johnna decided to go for a swim. Mary & I did not join her.

I love St. Simons! It is so pretty especially when the sun is going down...

We had a great weekend!