Molly is off to Disney next week!

So so so proud of Molly!


She's off to Disney World in Florida next week for an internship.  I'm so sure she will love it there and meet all kinds of interesting people from all over the world.  Disney is truly a world community, and she'll have a great time.


Bon voyage, Molly!

Saturday night visitors...

Another thing you don't get to see every day! 


It's been interesting lately....the dog started barking last night and I finally got up out of my chair to see what in the world she was so adamant about.  Much to my surprise, these two little guys were munching down on the cat food on the front porch! 
It think I scared them as much as they scared me, and they quickly climbed up the post here to "hid" from me.  When I walked out, they turned my way and hissed at me!  Then then stuck their heads in the crack of the roof and I guess they thought I wouldn't be able to see them anymore.  So cute!


I don't really mind them taking a little cat food, so I'm not going to discourage these little bandits too much.

Survivors

 At the beginning of spring, I planted up and set out a bunch of plants on the pavilion.  We weren't quite so dry and arid as we are now, and we didn't have the deer fence finished yet.  So needless to say, most of them were just getting ready to bloom when the deer chomped them down to nothing.  I was so upset!

I dragged the poor things up on the house porch and spent the rest of the spring and beginning of the summer babying them back to some semblance of life.  Well, the fence is up and seems to be holding those rabid deer at bay (knock on wood!) and I finally felt secure enough to put them back out.  

Here's two of them that are finally blooming again!  I know they're not as big as they would have been, but at least they are survivors!

Oh, the sights you'll see...

One of the benefits of retirement seems to be that I can poke along at my own pace, which my family and everyone I know will tell you is s-l-o-w....
Went to see my mom yesterday at her retirement apartment and  I poked around until about 10:30am before I decided to go into town.  As I was driving in Pipe Creek, a small hawk flew across the road in front of my car, literally a few feet in front of the trucks front end, carrying a snake in her claws!  It was amazing - something you would see in a nature film!  I thought to myself, "now that's not something you see everyday."
I kick myself for not having my camera in the car.  I usually carry my little Cannon with me, but not today (of course!)  Sadly these pictures aren't mine, but it looks almost exactly what I saw.  It was amazing.
Not more than a few miles further down the road, again, almost directly in front of me, a small fox darted out into the road, picked up a squirrel that had been killed by traffic, turned, and dashed back into the cedar trees, squirrel firmly in mouth! So fast! It was the smallest little fox, but so easy to identify because their ears are so large compared to their bodies.  
It's amazing what you can see when you have time to slow down and look.
Mom was having such a good day yesterday, too.  Wide awake, connected, and able to talk with me a little.  
All in all, an amazing day.  

Bar top

Today we chose the bar top tiles and John installed the cement board across most of the top.  We've just laid the tiles down to see how they look, they're not glued down yet.  It got just too hot to work out there. Whew...I'm so looking forward to fall.

The pavilion work continues...

We're (well...John is) adding the bar.  This is as far as we've gotten. The tile is down, and the plywood under-wood is on the front. I stained it with only one coat. There will be some fancy wood laid over this. Today John actually put in the inside of the bar, so I'll take some more pics soon. More work tomorrow!

KT poses....

This is what you get if you ask KT to smile for the camera.  What a ham! (But a cute one!)

Tonight's special visitor was....

Ms. Ella!! We were so glad to see her.  She's just about to crawl, and can stand for the longest time.  What a cutie pie, smiling all the time (well...almost...) I think she wasn't quite sure about John's mustache!  Thanks for visiting, Ella.

I'm so blessed...

to have niece's who send me flowers!  I was totally surprised to find flowers at my front gate on Friday -- from my niece Katie Hoyt!!! 
She sent them to me to help me celebrate my retirement...it can't get much better then this - no going to work and flowers on the counter.  I'm one happy woman!


Thank you, Katie!  Love you!

KT loving her new pillow-mat

It was a big hit! She jumped from one pillow to the next, counting...two...two...two.... that's the only number she seems to know! So cute!

Update on the pavilion...

We're working on adding the bar to our outside pavilion, and it's starting to take shape.  Thanks to Jeff for coming out last weekend to help John level the floor behind the bar - the original slab has a bit of a crown to it and we didn't want anyone's drink rolling off the bar!
Now that the cement has dried, we're adding the tile. I really like the contrast of the tile with the rock wall.

Crafty day....

Thankfully, I ran out of stain for the railing project outside early today, so I was able to spend some time doing something fun today!
A while back I ran into this nifty idea on a site that Colleen had found.  So, I thought that I'd make one of these for KT to use for naps and laying around at our house.

I found four coordinating pillow cases, two in King size and two in regular standard pillow size.  I wanted a little extra fabric to use for an addition to the project.  


I wanted to put KT's initial on it, and also a little extra fabric for tying it up when it wasn't in use.

I looked up a letter "K" and printed it out, cut out the fabric, ironed it on and then stitched around it with red thread.  I think it turned out pretty nice!


Then I sewed the pillow cases together, stuffed them with the pillows, and sewed them shut.  That last part was tricky and I'm trying to figure out how I could have done that better next time, if I make any others for possible future grandkids (sigh!) Ha!

This was a fun little project that only took about 2-1/2 hours.
I'll let you know how KT looks on it later this week!  She'll be over on Friday to try out her nap mat.

Danny

Yesterday was the third anniversary of my brother's death.  I thought about him all day, not that I don't think of him often.  He'd be so proud of how his kids are doing if he were here.  I think of him when I see our cat, Mouse.  Dan was remodeling our home when I brought Mouse home as a small kitten - one of the many strays that are often found on UTSA campus where I worked at the time.  That kitten followed Danny around the house as he worked - climbing up on him as he layed tile or flooring.  Such a cute contrast, Danny and that little kitten. 
I miss his jokes, his emails, his stopping in whenever he was up here in our area for a cup of coffee.  Wish he would drive up now, I'd put the pot on.....
He and Dad are building something right now, I'm sure of it.
Here's another little picture I've recently found.  Standing in front of our church.  Must have been his baptism day?  Don't be fooled by that angelic smile.... I'm sure Mom and Dad had to wrestle him into that outfit.

Babysitting Story -- KT touches my heart...

This is why I want to be off and able to keep KT anytime she needs me.  KT is in love with her momma.


Thursday evening I found myself keeping KT since poor Colleen had to work (very late) on a project at work, and Jeff and John had a softball game.  


KT and I had a fine old time - swimming in her little whale pool, making art on the concrete with chalk that her NeNe (Jeff's mom)  brought her from Houston last time she was here, watering plants, and just having a great time outside.  Then we went in for supper, had a bath, and were reading books on the floor in the living room.


At one of the houses nearby in the neighborhood a garage door opened.  KT heard the noise, looked up straight at me and said "momma?"  I said, "no, KT, that's not momma yet.  That's another house."


She stood up, looked at me again, pointed to the garage entrance door, and said "momma?"
I stood up and said, "no, KT, that's not momma, but lets go look so you will know for sure."  She streaked over to that door and I followed behind, turned on the light and opened the door.  The light was on in the garage and there was no car there.  I said, "See, KT, momma is not here yet."
She backed up and I closed the door.  I started back to the living room, and turned around to see KT down on the floor, pushing on the cat door to see in the garage, and she said, "momma?"


My heart just swelled.  What a darling little girl!  She is the smartest little thing.  I had to distract her with something or other and before you know it, Jeff and John came home.  She was just as excited to see her daddy, I can tell you.


KT loves her momma.  Great job, Jeff and Colleen.

4th of July!

My brother and sis-in-law have been having the famous 4th party for as long as I can remember.  At least 34 years or so, as far as we can figure.  Usually it involves some furious volleyball games, but this year given the extreme heat we've been experiencing, everyone hung out in the air-conditioning.  
It's interesting to see how the crowd changes every year.  At first it was just us, the very young couples.  They all started bringing our friends, who all brought theirs. Then as the years went by, all the children started arriving.  Each year they'd grow a bit bigger, new little ones appeared, and before we knew it, they started joining the volleyball games.  Pretty soon, we moved aside to allow them to play (except for a few old geezers who play despite bad knees and aching backs!)
Now, those kids are starting to bring their children.  This year there was a passel of little cuties running and crawling all over the place.  Beautiful!  
And I'm so grateful that they all keep coming, it means a lot that they all still want to spend time with us oldsters, maintaining the traditions.  
We done good!
We all missed Ashley and JR. Wish they were here with us.

What is this ad selling?

Now that I have the time, I can be amused by the little things!  This was simple genius by this company.  Genius.  Found at IOwntheWorld.

Dirt Devil-The Exorcist from MrPrice2U on Vimeo.

Movie Review -- Winter's Bone

I'm not sure what drew me to rent this one from Netflix, other than the actress is going to be in an upcoming movie that I'm looking forward to, The Hunger Games.  And, she snagged a nomination as best actress for this role last year. 
I can see why - she plays the utter hopelessness of how life has played her hand throughout several parts of the movie.  
It's set in the Ozark mountains.  Seventeen year old Ree Dolly's father has optioned his home and land as bond for his latest arrest on drug charges, and he's come up missing. Ree's having to virtually raise her two younger siblings since their mother has mentally "checked out" and can't or won't help. Money's non-existent, and they have to live on what they can shoot or what the kind neighbors will provide.  So Ree goes looking for her dad so he can show up for the court date and they won't be chucked out of their home.  
It's depressing and violent.  There's no getting around it.  And it made me want to get up and start cleaning up the yard and house, after seeing the trash and junk piled up in these homesteads. 

Retired!

Waiting to feel different.......
May take a few weeks...
today I just feel like I'm taking a day off.