From left to right: Hunter, Nate, Alissa, Amber holding Boo (aka Harley)! Those of you who are familiar with my family will recognize Hunter, Amber and Boo from previous pictures. The other two are of my sons new friend's children. They were all staying here Saturday night and they all get along great. When I got them, they had already spent five days together and still weren't sick of each other!
This is Boo. She will be 4 in October and she is a very loving little girl.....with a stubborn streak to match her daddy's! She likes to be in the same room with me ALL.THE.TIME. when her daddy isn't here!!!



And this is what Amber created out of her magnetics kit while watching television this evening! She is in bed sleeping and so is hubby. Even the dog has gone to bed for the night. I still am waiting for the washing machine to quit so I can put the clothes in the dryer before heading to bed. And Drew is coming in the morning....I can't believe I'm still up, it's 11:38 PM......I gotta get some sleep.....night all!

This first photo of Amber was taken just before we left Thursday morning for her orthodontist appointment. As you can see from this picture, she has a full set of braces on her top teeth but not her bottom ones yet......


.....that's what this morning's appointment is for....the full set of bottoms. I did give her ibuprofen before we left the house and I'm thinking it was a pretty good thing to do and was told by the gals in the office there to 'piggy-back' the ibuprofen every 3 - 3 ½ hours for greatest pain control and comfort for her. I tried to get a picture of her after she had her full set of bottom ones on too, but it was too painful and she had nothing to smile about. It is now Saturday and she is finally able and WILLING to smile....she has something to smile about.....no need to take anymore ibuprofen! Hooray.....so without any further ado, here is Miss Amber smiling once again:
Okay, the smile is not an actual smile....it is more of a forced smile so you all can see the braces on her bottom teeth!

It always creeps up on me........

......August 1! Every year, it's always the same. I wake up and after having my coffee I glance at the calendar and realize that it needs to be changed and it is my late hubs birthday. He would have turned 66 today! He's been gone 32 years....my youngest was only 2 at the time and the oldest was 7.

His birthday used to sneak up on me then too. I think it's because it was the first day of the month and until I turned that page on the calendar it always seemed like I had so much more time before the new month would begin.It always seemed like I would have more time with you too, but that wasn't too be.

This is the first year since the kids were older that one or all of them has not called to remind me that today was their Dad's birthday. Children grow up, time passes, life's get busier and seemingly more pressing issues get in the way of things we should remember. I'm doing fine. I have remarried a man you would like and be friends with. So I will quietly remember you, Dave, on this your 66 birthday and wish you a Happy Birthday up in heaven with the angels by your side and with our gradson Owen in your arms, in the company of your Savior. I'm sure the celebration you are having up there is greater than any celebration I could have ever given you, no matter how many birthdays you would have had in this world! I love you and Happy Heavenly Birthday!

This first picture was taken early Friday evening. Hubby is on the far left and to his right is our youngest son Jeremy. To the right of him is our son Doug. The little guy is Jeremy's "I'm almost 7 years old" son Trenten. Trenten wanted to help with the deck, but just didn't know where to begin!
This one is after they quit for the day on Saturday. They worked hard to get most of it done so tomorrow would be an easier day and they could have the afternoon and evening off to relax before returning to work on Monday!
This last one is of them still relaxing, each with a nice cold beer. Good job, men!

They still have to put the handrail up and the top will be some kind of lattice or boards to allow for some shade. The deck is in the mid-day sun for about 7 hours and it can get pretty hot out there. Now Doug says we need to take out the window in the garage (above and just to the right in this picture) and put a door in....."closer to the refrigerator in the garage that way," he says!

And Amber is here a day early. Her mom called at 9 PM and said they would be dropping her off around 10 and asked if that was okay....of course I said YES!!!

GONE!!!!

The small cement porch and steps leading from my back entry room to the backyard are gone. Tom and Doug at first tried beating them to death with a sledge hammer......didn't work so well. They broke the sledge hammer. Next on their plan was something called a hammer drill(?) they borrowed from Jeremy. The object of the hammer drill is to drill a lot of holes in the concrete, thus weakening it, and then fix the sledge hammer and proceed to beat it to death again.

That didn't work so well either. Takes too much time......crabbing about taking a month of Sundays to get the job done, etc, etc, etc!

So they went to the local rent-anything store and rented a jack hammer for 4 hours. Of course they knew the store would be closed before the 4 hours were up, guaranteeing them the use of it longer than the 4 hours they had to pay for! Now that's usin' your noggins, boys! And since the store doesn't open until 9 AM and Tom leaves for work at 3:30 AM and Doug at 6:30 AM, guess whose job it is to return it? Lucky guess......process of elimination!

It is already loaded in the trunk of my car because there is NO WAY that I can lift that thing! Hopefully the nice gentleman at the rental place will remove it for me (said while batting eyelashes and sweetly smiling).

What? What's that? Oh, you're wondering why the need to remove the porch and steps....well they are going to build me a nice deck about 8' x 10'. It will be the perfect spot for one of the three tables w/umbrella and chairs! A lovely spot to sit and yell at the bunny rabbits that are eating all my flower petals! Although, I doubt that my yelling at them will do much.....it never did anything for my kids either!!!

The Hunted and The Hunter

First I want to reassure those of you who have been wondering about me; I am fine. Life remains very busy, and I had family here visiting from Oklahoma, but I have a little more time in the next few days so perhaps I will be able to catch up!

This first picture is not one I took. I found it on Flickr and it was taken by someone named KURTQ. I was not able to catch the mother duck and her ducklings as they were being hunted by my dog, Prancer.




Actually that is not quite accurate! Prancer was crying at the door to go outside, and I assumed she had to go out for the normal reason house dogs cry at the door to get out. Little did I know that about six feet outside that door a mother duck was taking her six ducklings for a walk. I let Prancer out and she took off like a shot! Only then did I see the momma and her babies running as fast as their little legs could carry them for shelter. The momma duck took flight and flew a few feet away. I think it might have been a ploy to get the dog to run after her and leave the ducklings alone. I yelled at the dog to come back, but she either didn't hear me because she was intent on the ducklings or she chose to ignore me. I called again! She stopped and that afforded the ducklings a chance to catch up with their momma.

Then I noticed Prancer was sniffing and sniffing the grass. At first I figured it was because she was smelling where they had been. I hollered at her again to come back and she picked her head up and looked at me and only then did I see a duckling with ruffled feathers running towards the rest of them. I hollered again for the dog and she did come to me and I hastily ushered her inside and then went back outside just in time to see the momma herding all the ducklings underneath the neighbors deck and out of harms way of Prancer. Prancer is NOT a hunting dog. Although she has killed three woodchucks and two moles in the last year, I don't think she would have hurt the ducklings on purpose. I think she would have tried to play with them and the way she does that is to slap things with her feet, which probably would have killed them. In any event, she came in and the ducklings were all safe.....for now at least!


What I wish she would chase is the bunny rabbits. They are eating all my flowers. Does anyone know a way to keep bunny rabbits out of the flower garden?

After the parade and posing for a family picture that you can see here, the kids went swimming and had a blast! What I find so amazing is the fact that there was no....I mean NONE, fighting amongst the kids! And there were a bunch of them here!

Several of the little ones getting cooled off after running and playing!
Cayden smelling the lilies!
Bumpa giving the little ones a ride through the yard. Maybe next year he should take this and drive them in the parade!!!!
Two bald eagles at John Ball Zoo.
KeAira, Amber holding Cayden, Hunter, Harley, and Darian standing by the statue of John Ball. He was the man who donated this land for the zoo.