Sadness

I was just thinking about Aunt Carolyn.  She has gone to be with Uncle Al now.   I know that will make them both so happy.   They had over 50 years together before Uncle Al passed.   Aunt Carolyn was around a lot longer.   She was the sweetest woman I think I ever met.   I never heard her say something bad about someone else.   She seemed to follow her own advice.... If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.   She was a grand lady, much to be admired, very loved by all who met her....   We spent a lot of quality time together when I was younger.   Our men would be out hunting and we would be at the camp, just talking and talking.   Anyone who knew Aunt Carolyn knew she loved to talk...  :)  Of course, as she talked she would be making those little bisquits we loved to eat.   She was a mentor to me as I was learning to be a wife and mother.   I pray that one day I can be as gracious as she was.


She will be missed.


Amen.

We are Blessed!

We are so blessed to live in this world that God has given us.  Today will be a quiet Easter for us.   A little unusual.   Typically there are little ones running around and lots of food being cooked and enjoyed.  This year, we celebrated a week early.    I have two grand children with birthdays and their party was this weekend.

It was a pirate party!  There were gadzillions of kids...  You see my daughter Danielle and her husband Mark have a LOT of friends and about 5 years ago, they all decided to start having children.   At one point I think there were at least a dozen families that were pregnant.   Just kidding.   But it seemed like a dozen.  And now when there is a kid's party, those little rug rats are everywhere.   Every party has a theme.  Last year, we had Spiderman and the Princess:

The Princess Cake

The Spiderman Cake

Spiderman Bouncy House

Spiderman Pinata

Taylor enjoying her Princess Cake

Uncle Cody was SUPPOSED to dress up too, but chickened out at the last minute, but that didn't stop Aiden from dressing up and shooting his webs everywhere.  I think he made some of the smaller ones a little nervous.


This year it was Pirates.   Yes there was a bouncy house and ... hmmmm ... I forgot to get a picture of it.   But I did get the Pinata.  :)

Sweet pirate vs Mean pirate :)

So Grandaddy says "stick me with that big ole knife ya got there little pirate".   Aiden thought it was hilarious and ran off.   Grandaddy said "that knife was a littttttle sharper than I thought it was".    :)

Taylor had as much fun playing with the pirate props as Aiden.

Aarrghhh Matie!

There's that Pinata!

I did get the inside of the bouncy house.   

Everyone waiting to take a whack.

Tay Tay doing her thang.

and we have candy.   Thank you Lord for our blessings.... please let them take it all home with them.  Amen.

cooling off....

Blowing out the candles.

Even Uncle Cody and Aunt Melanie came.   Little Jake had fun looking at everything and then he was out.  Next year, he will be running around with his cousins.

So, my point is that with the birthdays and all that come with them, we decided to have our Easter celebration last weekend.    What fun!

Sneaking into that candy....

Consulting with Grandaddy on the dogs.

Mark and Cody hid 66 eggs.

My girls....

My babies...

Happy Easter Everyone!

Count Your Blessings.

So much in so little time

So many things have happened since I last wrote.   My daughter is expecting her third child, another girl, and I attended her shower (sorry no pictures available yet).   Then my son injured his eye.   Not just a small injury, but a bad tear to the eyeball itself as he was hit with a rock that ricocheted from under the mower he was on.  We are hopeful he can go back to work tomorrow, even if it is only light duty.  Then I got sick, followed by my Dad's hospitalization in ICU for internal bleeding, then my husband got sick, maybe the flu.   All I know was that the result of tending to him left me with the same illness and I can tell you, it felt like the flu.     We are all feeling better now and the family had a great day yesterday celebrating Taylor's BD and Easter.    Yes, I know its not easter, but when your children are married, you have to share the holidays.  It was a beautiful day, just a typical April day in the south.   This Saturday we will have our Taylor/Aiden big blowout birthday party, followed by a family party for Aiden... yes my grandkids are just a tad spoiled and I don't care who knows it!

Aunt Melanie giving TayTay some help.

Aiden and Taylor looking high and low.

Jake just watching and taking notes on how to hunt the eggs.

Uncle Cody giving some pointers.   He has already let it be known that Jake will find them all next year.

Daddy letting Tay count the eggs to see how many more were unfound.   You know we quit hiding the real ones when my kids were little.   I guess Dad hid them too good to be found :)  Shooeee, what a smell when we did find them.

After the hunt... of course Spiderman had to be involved because everyone knows what a fan Aiden is.

Taylor's New Dress

I read somewhere online the other day that the new trend is to take a little girl's t-shirt and put ruffles on it.... Cute, right?    So I was shopping and a little pink t-shirt caught my eye because it had a little built in ruffle around the neck and I bought it to try this idea out.   Well, I got home and saw that the t-shirt was extra long and frugal me couldn't make myself cut off that much material to waste.   So.... I made this dress with ruffles instead.

Of course Wildchild (i.e. Taylor Grace) had already spilt something on it before the picture...   Bless her heart!   But isn't this just a cutsie picture? Here is an edited picture that is also closer up so you can see the cute ruffle material.  Peace and Love y'all!

But now for that randomness that I've been accused of...   I CANNOT sleep at night if there is any light in the room.  I have blocked the little led light on the satelite box, put room darkening drapes on the windows and I make sure the outside light is off so it doesn't come through.   I know there are others of you who experience this - right?   right?   Well... I know I have one young friend who has shared having this same issue.  I believe her husband likened it to a vampire thing.   This is what I found as a cure...

Yes, it is a miracle.  A sleep mask.   But let me warn you, its kinda scary if you wake up in the middle of the night, kinda groggy and forget its on....

Rain

All I really want to say about the rain is "Thank you God for the rain!"

I am new to this blogging thing but I suppose I should start from the beginning.  Yesterday I wrote about retirement.   Sometimes it feels like my life began again from that point forward.   No more getting up early and driving an hour to go to work, working all day at a very stressful job and then driving an hour to get home.  Somehow I still had to figure out how to get everything else done that life consists of.   I seriously don't know how it all got done.  Then when I retired, I felt guilty that I had this carefree life of kicking around in my jeans all day doing whatever came in to my head. How was I the lucky one?  At some point I began to relax and then the creativity that I knew was there, buried deep in my soul, began to work its magic.  In this blog I will begin to show you some of my projects... I am having so much fun now... but that catholic guilt raises its mocking head every now and again to make sure I know....  Life is not all about me...   I must do for others too... and so, at the crack of dawn I was up this morning going to watch TayTay (grandbaby girl) and take her to the babysitter and then come home and get Boomer (son's monster dog) (and my two babies Maggie and Gypsy too) in out of the rain....   

Don't let TayTay's smile deceive you.... she is my wild child (as I call her), with the soul of a true DIVA....

As for Boomer, he really is a gentle giant 100 pound baby.

Retirement???? Really?

On April 30, 2011 - I will have been free retired for 2 full years.   Where has the time gone?   Oh, wait.... we starting building our house (yes we did), I began making and giving away selling my jewelry.   I have played with my grandchildren, Aiden who is about to be 5 and Taylor who is about to be 3.   I sorted through some of my storage boxes and took some loads to the Lighthouse Children's Home and just plain burned a bunch of old stuff I didn't want anymore.  I have had a garden in the summers and have planted blueberries, a peach tree, a grapefruit and tangerine, a plum tree and countless other items on our 10 acres, all of which I maintain on a daily basis.  I planned a wedding for my son Cody and his beautiful bride Melanie.   My 3rd grandchild Jake was born and now my wonderful/gorgeous daughter Danielle and her husband Mark are about to be parents for the third time in approximately another month.   Its a girl!   I will have 2 boys and 2 girls.... I am SO blessed.

So for those of you who think being retired is easy.... THINK AGAIN!