Bonus Photo -- Sense of Motion

My second granddaughter got to celebrate her 7th birthday here in TX. It is actually a couple of weeks after her birthday, but this is the first time they have been here this close to any of their birthdays, so it was party time!

The party was at the other grandparents home. There had never been so many children (or for that matter, people) at any of my grandchildren's birthday parties before! There are a lot of cousins on my daughter-in-law's side of the family. The kids had a lot of fun, if the noise level was any indication.

In this photo, birthday celebration girl is attaching a balloon to her father's ear for me to photograph, just as her cousin J.R. runs in front of it all. You can't really see birthday celebration girl (the pink between the blur and the chair is her) and J.R. is the man in motion. Her dad is sitting still, not really pleased with us, but being a good sport, none the less. The balloon is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. Float above it all. *If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the orange ribbon kind of hanging from my son's ear/glasses area.

Photo of the week 17 of 39 -- 9:00 AM

This is my son at 9:00 AM this morning. Of course, I could have taken this photo on any of the mornings that he's been here and gotten the same result. And as my hubby said, I probably could have taken the same photo at 10:00 AM or 11:00 AM. He rarely gets to sleep in (he's in the military and has three children) and he is on West Coast time instead of Central time like we are.

Next week's theme is "Crossroads".

More Kid Fun

I thought my grandson looked so cute in his orange t-shirt today. I told him that I wanted to take his picture and he just smiled and posed for me.






















When I had visited them around Easter, I purchased a "Wreck this Journal" by Keri Smith. I had a lot of fun wrecking it and the girls had a lot of fun watching me and giving me encouragement and ideas. They each asked for one of their own to wreck. So, today I gave them one! In this photo, you can see granddaughter number two with the paper cup she made from one of the pages. She had a little trouble making the "point" watertight, so she came up with the idea of taping it! Smart girl!












Granddaughter number one has been collecting rocks the last couple of days. I think she has the makings of a true rock hound! Who knows, maybe one day she and I will go to some of these mines that let the public look for gems and we'll see if we can find some diamonds or other such treasures!

Dinosaur fun and climbing trees

My mother, known to her great-grandchildren as Granmolly, brought my grandson a dinosaur thing today. He was delighted by the sounds and movements it made. I never got a great picture of him with it, but I think you can tell that he was happy.

My youngest granddaughter (the redhead) does not like to pose for "pretty" photos. She'll act silly for a shot all day long, but if I try to get her looking nice, she turns, runs, ducks, hides -- you get the idea. She finally posed for this one. It's a dang shame I didn't get it better in focus. Don't bother to enlarge it, it only gets more blurry if you do.

The oldest granddaughter went pretty high in the cedar tree her dad used to climb when he was her age. I should have taken one of the distance up in addition to the close up.

Brown Eyes

When I first checked this photo out after taking it, while it was still in the camera, it looked like I had captured a silly girl! Maybe I did capture a bit of her silliness, but I think I also got some of her true beauty too. Just look at those dark eyes and her shiny hair! I didn't even see the little curl until it was on the computer! I also didn't notice she had some of it in her mouth until then. Silly girl with brown eyes.

I tried to get one of her sister to add, but she kept hiding from me today. Maybe tomorrow.

Happy Days are Here Again!

The kids arrived here today, finally, safely, at long last. To say I'm tickled pink is to put it mildly. It actually hasn't been that long since I've gotten to see them myself. I was at their house for Easter this year, but no one else here has seen them for a little over two years!

The girls had just gotten hair cuts. Don't they look beautiful? My grandson looks darling in his camouflage. They're all a little shy for little while after they first get here. After all, they don't get to see us in person often.

Their other grandparents live near by, so we have to share when they come to TX. Regardless, the next week should be lots of fun!

cleaning and yard work

For the last several days, my hubby and I have been working on the yard. Mowing, burning dead fall and clearing trash that Barkley has made out of once useful items. We haven't done this, to this extent, in at least two years and believe you me, it should not be put off that long. When it is, it makes for very long, hard, hot work. Especially in the summer, which is when you do this sort of thing. There is still a lot I'd like to do out there, but we had to stop. For one thing, we had worked harder than either of us was used to, for so long that neither of us could think straight any longer. For another, we still had the inside to take care of because our son and his family are coming for a visit. I sure wish I had started all of this a month ago and worked half as hard. Oh wait a minute. I did start all of this a month ago. I just didn't keep working at it. Crap. When will I ever learn?







In the middle of all of this, our hot water heater finally died. I found this out when I was trying to take a shower that I was in extreme need of. The water was very cold and I was very hot and sweaty. Thankfully I had rested for a while and cooled down quite a bit, compared to what I had been, so I didn't pass out in the shower, but it was a very quick shower indeed. If you want to truly conserve water, shower cold! You won't stay in long at all! I know where my pertinent parts are and I washed them and got the heck out of there! I had chill bumps when I did, but I was much cleaner than when I went in.







Now I'm waiting for the plumber to come and install the new water heater. While I'm waiting, I'm trying to clean downstairs some. I'd like for us to have a place to sit and talk and even eat. What a novel idea! At the moment, that isn't possible. I am not kidding, but I will not post photos of it. Hearing about it is one thing, seeing it is something altogether different. And at the moment it's even worse than it was this morning since half of the stuff that was in the bathroom is in the kitchen. We had to clean off and take down the shelf that goes over the water heater. I just hope they make it here today.





Later: I wrote most of this earlier today. The water heater did get installed! Hurray! The bathroom is back to normal and the living room and kitchen are in better shape than they were, but no where near finished. Once you get to that totally worn out state for several days in a row, it doesn't take long to get there again each day. Who knows, I may actually get into better shape if I keep at this. The kids will be here tomorrow. Don't know how much more I'll get done before they arrive.





The top picture is of the old water heater. The bottom one is of the new one with the shelf back and everything back in.

Photo of the week 16 of 39 -- Yellow

Bartlett pears at Brookshire's grocery store. They almost look soft enough to eat. Not like the ones that grow on our tree which are hard enough to be considered a deadly weapon if thrown at someone! I'm thinking that our pears are canning pears and not eating pears. Although, some of our past dogs have loved to eat them right off the tree. I think that's how they kept their teeth so sharp and strong!

Next week's theme is "9:00 A.M".

In the Stands

Last night, my friend Kari treated me to a Texas Rangers baseball game. It was guaranteed that one of us would leave happy and the other would not. The Rangers were playing the Boston Red Sox. She is a Boston fan and I am a Rangers fan.

I used to go to about 10 games a year with my friend Marianne. She passed away last October. This was the first game I had attended since her death. Actually it was the first I had attended without her since we had first started to attend games together all those years ago. If it hadn't been for Kari, I might not have ever gotten back in the saddle, so to speak. I owe her a very big debt of gratitude. I drove myself there and met her, a first for me. I even got there before Kari and sat alone until she arrived. In the past I would have felt self-conscious, but it didn't bother me a bit. I even enjoyed everything I was watching and doing. I may be able to go to games totally alone in the future. Of course it's always more fun with a friend and I do hope someone will end up going with me, but

there's no reason to stay home if no one can. What a gift Kari gave me!

In the past games I've attended between the Rangers and the Red Sox, the Red Sox have beat the Rangers in every single game. And I do mean every single game! Not only that, but the Sox fans were more than rude. They were hostile and rude! Throwing things at Ranger fans and using fowl language, just to name a couple of things. Last night was different! The fans were every bit as vocal about their love for their Sox, but they were fun, not rude in the least.

The game was going pretty dog gone quick. There was a pitcher's duel going on. It started at 7:07 PM and I'm pretty sure it was over just after 9 PM. With the Rangers winning! And the crowd went wild! OK, I may be exaggerating just a bit. Half of the crowd was extremely happy, but there is a huge Boston fan base in Texas and they were more than a little disappointed. Final score Sox 2 Rangers 4. I didn't take a picture of the final score. I was too busy heading for my car as soon as they said "BALL GAME!". I live a good 2 hours from the ball park and the longer it takes to get my car, the longer the drive because the traffic stacks up. I made it home just after 11 last night. For me, it was a good night all the way around!

Thank you, Kari!

The photo challenge

Pam asked me recently if anyone was playing along with us in our weekly photo challenge. Well, the answer is no. Just she and I are doing the weekly thing, to the best of my knowledge. Then I realized -- to my horror -- that she credits me each and every single week and I don't know if I've ever told you that she's doing the weekly challenge also. So, if you want to see what Pam's been up too, go check out her blog -- pquinn a quiet life. I enjoy checking in on her several times a week. You might too. I think she's pretty cool.

I may have told you this part before....I don't remember. When I first started looking for a photo challenge to take on, I googled "photo challenge". One of the many websites that came up was Julie's. I liked Julie's website and the different theme's she was using. Her challenge was a daily photo, but I knew I'd never do that and I decided not to set myself up to fail. I emailed and asked if she minded if I did my own thing with her theme's on a weekly basis. She basically said 'Go for it!'. I do love to look at her blog -- 365 Photos in 2009 (or maybe not!), at least weekly to see what great shots she's taken. She also has a list of many people, on the right hand side of her blog under "365 Photo Blogs", of people who are participating with her. So if you like great photography, I highly recommend you check them out when you have time.