Bridal Shower - Our little football player

OK, Anissa's senior prom - over/done, graduation - over/done, graduation open house - over/done, Brandi's bridal shower (today) - over/done, Me -overdone and beat.

So with that said, this is going to be a short blog. The week flew by with comparing notes with daughter Renee' on what she needed me to do at this end. She mentioned this week she was so glad she didn't try to have her wedding here in town (they live in Ohio). I think between the girls I've used up more of my cell phone minutes than I ever have.

But the shower time arrived, the room Renee' rented at Country Suites was very nice and just the right size. Family and friends arrived and enjoyed some good food, lots of laughs and may hugs.

My pictures didn't turn out very well so I'm using some that her Aunt Elaine had on FB

I won't even try to tell you some of the comments on this present.

So after clean up and loading two cars we headed over to Brandi's place to drop presents off. I'm sure tonight she is showing Darrell all the new and exciting things they have for their new home. And I'm sure Darrell is just tickled pink about all these kitchen gadgets.

The only other picture I want to share is of Darrius with his new football helmet. All last week he went every evening for try outs and on Friday they posted the boys that made it. Of course he was just beside himself, he's been wanting to be on a team that actually tackles.

From what Brandi said he hasn't taken it off since they got home from purchasing it and has spent most of the afternoon playing catch with his older brother to see how it feels to catch a ball with a helmet on.

Guess that's it for today. We have a bit of a breathing room before back to full swing of wedding items so I'm going to enjoy the next few days.

Till next time........................

Lunch at the lake, wedding errands,

Not to much to write about this week. We've been busy daily but it's mostly helping Brandi with the wedding by doing some running around for her. I have to give my husband credit. Monday we left here at 8:30am and didn't get home until after 1pm. Five stores and not one complaint. What a guy, than we went back out the next day and hit three more. Told Brandi she owes daddy a big big hug.

Larry did get one of "his" projects done. Had another basement window that he wanted to replace with bricks and four glass blocks. Only two more to do.

We took Brandi and family up to a restaurant in the little village called Mulliken the other night. This has been a family owned business for as long as I can remember where the food is simple but just like the saying "taste just like grandma's". One of those places you see when your traveling, normally sitting on a four corner lot with maybe a mom and pop grocery store beside it. And you just know that this is where all the locals eat and everyone knows everyone. That's pretty much this place. My father use to go there every morning for his bacon and eggs as my brother now does, to discuss the plight of the crops, how the market is doing and who just purchased that newest combine. Each man has his own chair at the big long table and heaven help anyone sitting in their spot. But than who else but the local farmers arrive at 6AM, sometimes even before the cafe is officially open, so they just walk in the back door thru the kitchen and grab their coffee on the way to the table. Brandi put on her Facebook that night about going there and it was fun reading comments from her friends about this place. So to get back to taking the kids up there, we are having Rob cater the wedding for us and it would be nice to have Darrell (future son in law) at least taste the food before hand. Luckily he enjoyed his meal.

Today we went up to my sisters cottage to have lunch with our niece and nephew who are visiting with their kids from Albq NM. Quinn who is 12 so wanted us to bring Pepper as she is a total animal lover. We don't normally take her along when we plan on staying for longer than a few minutes and never when we've been invited for lunch. But Quinn and Pepper had a great time and here's a couple of pictures to share.

Here's Quinn and Pepper checking out the water
Quinn went in and didn't take long for Pepper to follow
Especially since she had Peppers ball

Darrius had a two day football camp this weekend and Brandi posted this picture on FB

What better way to cool off a 100 kids at the end of camp day

Darrius is so excited about football season, (community sponsored event) as he finally gets to play tackle football.

So that's about it for this week. Seems like next week will be full with helping Renee' with last minute things for the bridal shower on that Sunday. Anissa needs a ride to work a couple of mornings, of course Darrius on Tues/Wed and Thursday afternoon a vet appointment for pepper's shots and heart worm test.

So until next time.................................

Cooler weather - replanting shrubs

Up until yesterday (Friday) the week turned out to very nice weather wise. Highs in the 80's, low humidity and lows in the 50's (that one night of 53 was a little too cool). But all good things must end and the heat returned and looks to be in the 90's until at least Wed, but for only one day, than back in the 90's. Someone asked why we don't get a window air conditioner but I really don't like those things and besides there probably aren't any more around.

We didn't do much this week. Went bike riding a few times but we need to get out and ride a lot more.

One day we planted three blue berry bushes in one corner of the back yard. I had to go back and get some more top soil and I came across a dog wood bush on sale and I couldn't pass that up. So we (ah Larry) ended planting that behind the garage, which than it looked kind of funny with just the one bush. By the time we (again Larry) finished we had transplanted two rose bushes, and a mum plant. I'm hoping that everything survives. The previous owner had a shed sitting there and worked on motorcycles, so who knows what he dumped on the ground. If things survive I'll take a picture for the next blog.

Our fuel prices didn't stay down very long. Luckily we filled our car up at the $3.37 and the next day it jumped to $3.57. Some one on the news must have used the word "may" rise when reporting on gas prices.

We need to raise the grade up around the back of the house but before we can do that we had to remove a old coal shoot and brick the wall up. Got that done this week so now we want to build a small retaining wall at the end of the patio. This and the raising of the grade should divert any rain run off away from the house (hopefully).

Guess that's about it for this week. I only have one picture to share and that's of our grandson Darrius playing in the sprinklers. Of course his friend Pepper wasn't far behind.
That's it, till next time......................................

Record Heat with no air, storm damage

Along with many other area's we either tied or broke records this week. The hardest day was Saturday when it reached 103 with heat index of 114.

Storms rolled through here on Thursday, while some of us got 5/10th of a inch others just a mile away got a inch. But the biggest thing was the straight line winds that took down limbs and wires. We were lucky and didn't have the damage but many people in the surrounding area have been with power for several days now.

I have a few pictures to share showing some of the damage out at the farm.

Wonder where this siding landed
Here's the bottom of the pine tree
Here's the top of the tree

Luckily with so many huge old trees all around the houses there wasn't any more damage than there was. But the family has been without power since the storm when wires were pulled down which caused outages all around them. As of tonight they still haven't gotten it back on but they do have a generator to keep the freezer/fridge running.

As I type a cold front (dropped down in the 80's) has gone thru and we are enjoying the cooler temperature. As I've mentioned we don't have air here so the last week has been spent sitting in front of fans, reading books or doing my ancestry. I've stayed away from going to places that have air, I found a long time ago that I have more problems after spending time in air conditioning than if I just put up with the heat. Most of the week hasn't been bad, we've opened the house up at night, than close it early morning. Because of not going out this week I haven't been grocery shopping or the laundry mat. With the temp's down in the 60's tonight and only low 80's tomorrow I'll hit the laundry early and grocery store after.

I mentioned last week that our daughter Brandi moved in to their new place over the weekend. Here's a picture of the house. They are all getting settled and enjoying having so much room.
I took some pictures of the flowers that we planted last fall before leaving and a few of the annuals I put out. Lots of watering this week but they seem to be doing ok.

We didn't have Darrius this week as his folks took a few days off to get settled. That's ok, grandma needed a long break after last week. But Tuesday he will be back and with cooler weather Pepper will be biting at the bit to play outside with him. And believe me Pepper needs to have some of that energy released after spending so much time in the house and it being to hot to play.

Guess that's it for this week. Till next time..............

Aug weather in June - Residing Garage

Not sure what's going on with our weather here. We have been in the mid/high 90's more in the month of June than we normally have in August. July is starting out the same way or at least the first 8 days. Wonder if this means we will have Sept weather in August? So far it hasn't been to bad in the house. Did I mention we do not have air conditioning. We open everything up at night and close it up during the day with the furnace fan running. It keeps it about 15 degrees cooler inside so can't complain.

Last Sunday we went over to the Moore side to help our sister in law Gail celebrate her retirement. Had a nice gathering and of course lots of rug rats running all around.

Here's a picture of Gail, congrats and enjoy your new retirement career.

Tuesday is a normal Darrius over night stay with us and spending the following day. Pepper just loves these days and stays pretty close to Darrius the whole time.

I haven't figured out why yet but for some reason we picked last week to re-side the back of our garage. Nephew Dave happened to have some siding that matched our blue color almost perfect so we loaded it up and brought it home. It took a couple of days as we were trying to do it early AM and late PM as much as possible but we finally finished. It looks so much better. The previous owner had a shed attached to the back and when they moved out they took the shed with them. Fine no problem except they cut a door way between the garage and shed and left that wide open. So last summer Larry just patched it to keep the snow out.

Brandi and Darrell moved this weekend to a nice big home. With three kids all needing their space this will work out great for them. Everyone has their own room, not to mention a family room and finished basement. It was a awfully hot day for moving but they got two homes into one in about six hours and ended the day in the hot tub to ease the sore muscles. Larry and I did our fair share of contributing to this move by taking Darrius off their hands Friday and Saturday. Darrius seems to think he's able to do everything that his dad and big brother can but it usually ends up more work for the mom and dad. He was so excited about the move and just couldn't wait to get there yesterday to try out the basket ball hoop.

Oh and Darrius wanted me to take a picture of his hair cut. Pretty cool design.
One night I meet Brandi at the hall where the wedding/ reception is going to be. We wanted to check out tables/chairs, see what's available there and how she might set things up. It's a nice place and with a few extra's it will look special for their occasion.

Guess that's it for this week. Till next time.......................