Monday Drag

I don't know about any of y'all but I'm D-R-A-G-G-I-N this morning. It's 11:55 a.m. I've been up since 5:30 a.m. I've taken the mini-pin to the humane society, and I don't feel like doin a THING! Yesterday we had cool weather and clouds and it made me feel like autumn was here and that was depressing! I'm not ready for fall. I need to camp and fish and swim a whole heckuva lot more before I'm ready for that! So, all this to say, I've loaded my '4th' pictures on the computer but they haven't made it to Photobucket yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. I don't know. But here's what the boys did in the tub on Friday night.



I lit off a round Friday night. The fuse on these suckers are really short and I've got an issue with bein burned, for some reason.

Buster and a Bottle Rocket Gone Wrong

Buster is obsessed with firecrackers. No words describe how crazy he gets when firecrackers are bein set off. Have you ever known a lab who doesn't have the most dogged (excuse the pun) concentration? It doesn't matter if a nuclear bomb goes off by the lab. HE. WILL. NOT. MOVE. Ever take one duck huntin? Nothin, and absolutely NOTHIN is gonna take him off that bird! No matter what kind, how loud, how big or small these firecrackers are, he will not let up in his obsession.

Tonight, to get an early start on the holiday, E and Uncle Mike set up the PVC pipe and lit off some bottle rockets. Buster was solid as a stone statue as they got the pipe in the ground and unrolled the rockets. He never moved a muscle until they lit the first fuse. Then he hops all around and dives at the rocket before it takes off.

Here, the pipe has just gone in. The firecrackers aren't even out of the garage yet:


He's just waitin. He knows they're comin.


Ha! There they are! He thought dad was holdin out on him!




Wait! It's not lit yet!


It is now! There it goes...right by his face. We have yet to take him to the emergency vet for eyeballs blown out of his skull.




Ready for another one?


Here goes!




I'm sorry. Once again, there is no light for the video but per the audible exclamations and verbage you can tell that something went wrong. Buster's paw hit the base of the pipe as he was dancin around after it was lit, but before it went off. We didn't have time to correct it but Buster did. With his face. It hit his face, he shook his head to clear it and the bottle rocket landed about 10 feet in front of us, behind Buster and went off.

There was only one more after that and Buster kept starin at the pipe, ears up, tuning everything else out. We took out the pipe and he looked at us like he was sayin, "What? That's all?"





This next shot was taken 45 minutes after the last bottle rocket had been fired off. Buster is not givin up. E and Uncle Mike put the pipe back in the ground and Buster wouldn't take his eyes off of it.



I found this funky lookin bug on our front door.


Never seen one quite like this. I thought it was a june bug but then I saw it had some extra plumage on its antennae.

The clouds early this morning were something to behold. The first two shots I took on my foliage setting. The last two shots were taken with the portrait setting.





Oddly enough, the foliage setting didn't catch the rain drops. The portrait setting shots did, however.

Lake Trip

After a long 7 days of not seein E for more than an hour or so each night, he and one of our friends finished up a side job last Friday night.

Saturday morning we leisurely packed up to go campin. At noon, as we headed up to Quick Trip for some gas we noticed a weird grindin sound coming from the tires. After gettin gas, and air in the tires since we don't hardly drive the Ford, we headed back to the house to figure out what was wrong with the steering and tires. We checked the power steering fluid-all good. I got in the driver's seat and pulled it in and out of the driveway, makin turns so E could listen and watch the tires better from the outside. By this time, Wy is all-out impatient. He wasn't cranky or upset but he didn't understand why we were back at the house. We were supposed to be goin to the lake? Finally, as I was drivin in and out the thought came to me: Wyatt was playin in the cab while we had been loadin up that mornin! When he plays in the Jeep I always find my knobs and buttons flipped and turned. Hazards are on, brights are on, bass is off, a/c or heater is on, etc. The Ford is 4 wheel drive and that's exactly what the tires sounded like-like the 4 wheels were engaged! I yelled at E to come around and said, 'Look! Wy turned the dial to 4 wheel!' Sure enough, after we put it back in 2 Hi the truck sounded right fine!!

So, off we went!! Finally!!! The spot we found to camp at was perfect! We had shade trees, sun, not too close to any other campsites, and a huge brush pile just a walk away for firewood. We set up the tent just by the water's edge!



After a long week under our belt it felt SO relaxing to be together. No schedules, no housework, no side-jobs. We enjoyed our time immensely!







Wyatt, of course, loved the water. I took him swimmin twice on Saturday, while JD was nappin.



Saturday evening we made s'mores. I had made one in front of Wyatt. He was meticulous about eatin the marshmallow out from between the graham cracker and chocolate. When he was done with that one, he walked over to the cooler and said he was gonna build another one. And build he did! He set it up just like he had seen me!







For only seein a s'more made one time so far this year (I'm sure he doesn't remember from last year) I'd say he did a pretty bang-up job on his first go-round!

Sunday mornin I caught a couple of fish. I had Wy reel in the second one since he was up and out of the tent. He got frustrated as the fish got closer to shore. When the fish was only about 5 feet out in the water Wy kept sayin, 'No fish! Mama! It too hard!! No fish! Help me mama! It too hard!'



I took over and reeled her in:





After that hard work, the trail boss needed a swig of good cold clear water.

I pray everyone of y'all are having a good time with family and friends this Memorial Day Weekend and remember the price that has been paid by our forefather's and our brothers and sisters in the military, fighting for our explicit right's as Americans. I don't feel we have much longer to enjoy our freedoms that have been bought and secured thus far with such high cost.

My prayer is that our nation will not forget the sacrifices that have been made and once again stand up for what our Great Nation has been built upon: Trust and faith in the Sovereign God and His values for our individual lives and for our wonderful country. Don't be afraid to excercise your right to Freedom of Speech and Religion. It's still our right!! The more voices that are in the choir, the better the choir is heard!

Let Freedom Ring!

Mother's Day

My Mother's Day started out by still being out with my sister-in-law for a mom's night out on Saturday night. I got back home at 2 a.m. and was fed, bathed and in bed by 3. I crashed. It takes me days to recuperate from just a late night at our house, let alone a late night somewhere else! I was dead to the world until JD woke up at about 6:30 a.m. I nursed him and put him back in bed. I knew there was no way I was gonna be able to go back to sleep again so it was me and a cup of joe. I walked across the road and sat and visited with my aunt and uncle until my guys got up. Despite the incredibly small amount of sleep I had, my Mother's Day was a wonderful day. It was very relaxing and carefree. The weather, even though it was mostly overcast and dropped a little rain on us, was beautiful. Not chilly; not hot. After we grilled, with my aunt and uncle, it got downright chilly around 8 p.m.

Here's what the edge of my flower gardens looked like for 7 years, before this Mother's Day:



Now, I'm not ungrateful by any means, that I had barriers around my flower beds to keep the soil in, but I've really really wanted to change out the curb-stone to something that followed the feng shui of the front yard. The curb just didn't fit the style of the rest of the landscaped flower beds. You can see the natural rock up and to the right. It goes on around the beds surrounding the maple tree.



My gift from my guys was a load of cut landscaping rock. This was a great gift! I was really excited about layin it all out and makin it fit to our style. It's the same style of stone we have on the front of our garage and the front of the house. I think the new look ties together the brick, stone and natural rock.

This is the west flower beds, along the fence. There's a lot more shade and general darkness in this area of the yard so I wanted to add all light colored natural stone between the new limestone to add some brightness to the area.



I chose the darker rock in between the limestone for the front of the house to bring out the darker color from the brick.



The east side of the yard, up by the road:



I chose to put all the limestone with the straight edges here because the fence already has an angle to it.

The east side of the garage:



I have morning glories, marigolds, some bulbed plants, black eyed susans and gladiolas in this flower bed.

I couldn't be happier with my Mother's Day, although a little more sleep would've been good, but that's nobody's fault but my own and my sister-in-law and I had a good time.

Thank you, E for makin my day so special. Thank you for makin every day a day I enjoy with you and our boys. No gift can compare to the love and peace I have knowin that you are my husband and we have two wonderful boys in our life.

Easter Fun on Saturday

Our day dawned gorgeous once again! We are spendin it with Aunt D and Uncle Mike (who live just across the road from us) and my cousin Courtney, her husband Chad and son Carson. We have friends comin over for the afternoon/evening. In the smoker right now are two huge tenderloins, a rack of ribs and bacon wrapped chicken stuffed with cream cheese.

For dessert I have made 3 pans of apple dumplings.


I've also made cinnamon rolls for Easter mornin with family.





The boys drove the truck around for a while this mornin:

Aunt D started gettin out her Easter decorations and Wyatt, not bein one to sit around twiddlin thumbs, joined right in.


JD had to get in the fun too:



Aunt D said the tree needed to be decorated:






Geez! Don't mess with him when he's hangin Easter eggs! He's got it handled!
Cousin Carson made it to town and first things first-a ride in the truck!


Then it was egg-dying time:




Showin Daddy his eggs!

Carson dying his eggs:


Time to pack up and go hunt Easter eggs:

Egg Hunt:
Jd hunted from the truck. It's legal to hunt from a truck in these parts ya know, but only if you're in a battery powered vehicle that goes no more 'n 5 mph and you use no firearms:





In case you're wonderin the orange thing around his neck is his safety goggles. I'm not sure why he wore them but they were on all day long.






The dogs are always around for the action.

Each of the boys got some goodies and toys from Uncle Mike and Aunt Rene:

Jd ate one of his eggs:

After all the grub was devoured we sat round the fire and had a good time late into the night.