We’ve moved the blog again. Now find us at:

www.cockingfamily.com/blog

If you’ve been following us via RSS, there’s a link on the new blog to keep doing that. While you’re there, jump over to our website, too:

www.cockingfamily.com

It’s all new and improved. Let me know what you think of it!

I went fishing in the lake (OK, retention pond) in the cow pasture behind our sub yesterday. As we were pulling up we noticed 2 gators in the water which made me a little leery of going in the little boat that is always there. My friend JR was also favoring the shore. Two other guys decided to brave the waters so we overturned the boat and there, in all its shiny round glory, was a black widow guarding a huge egg sack! I must say it was beautiful. I wish I had my camera since it was the first time I’ve seen one in person and its red hourglass belly was easy to see.

Needless to say we all fished from the shore!

Here are a couple of shots from the Florida Music Festival in Orlando. It was a really fun show even though we got drenched by a colossal downpour before we went on stage. At least it finished raining before we went on.

That’s Melissa, Greg, Ryan, Matt, Jeremy, and my jeans under the keyboards.

You can see more pictures by clicking here

Ellie looks like Wallace sometimes. We were trying to get her to make the face. We got this instead….

Two of our friends wanted to have “date nights” tonight for anniversaries. It just happens that one couple’s anniversary is today and the other’s is Sunday, so we’ve taken all the kids in for a few hours. Including our girls, there’s a grand total of 8 kids in our house right now–7 girls, one boy (poor little guy). The oldest girl is 7; the youngest is 2 (Toby, the little guy, is 3). So far there’s been a lot of dressing up and dancing to “princess” music. Toby’s been amusing himself with a toy electric guitar and just watching the girls. Next up: dinner. On the menu at Chez Cocking tonight is hot dogs, mac & cheese and carrot sticks. Ketchup and salad dressing for dipping is optional. Once everyone’s fed, it’ll be movie & popcorn time. I’m thinking Winnie the Pooh. Quite an elegant evening.

We’re so glad that we’ve made close friends here in our neighborhood. It’s been great getting to know these wonderful people.

Off to read “Fox in Socks” to Toby!

Dinner for eight

Movie time

It’s been another smoky week in Orlando; my hometown, out on the edge of the scrubland…

Really it just hasn’t let up!

The Georgia wildfires have been sending their smoke down to us. The pictures above are what it’s been like the last few days. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when those were taken. It sort of gives you the felling that you’re on vacation since it smells like a campfire. It does make your eyes sting a bit though.

We just found out that we will be playing on the main festival stage on Thursday May 18! We’ll be opening for the Festival headliners Flogging Molly who are this Irish Folk/Punk band from L.A.

Here are a couple shots from the main stage last year.

The best thing for me from a playing perspective is that it’s outside and it’s the main stage so we’ll have great sound which always makes it so much more fun to play.

We have a small group Bible study in our neighborhood. All of the families are on staff in various departments in Campus Crusade as well. We guys went out by ourselves last week to the pasture behind our houses to play horseshoes and roast some beef over fire. Maybe the cows came out of sympathy for their kindred who were being eaten.

Thought I’d post one picture from a show with The OaKs last week.