Wordless(mostly) Wednesday...

less than 2 hours left in this day but it still counts!...



(my dad's works)


(old flame)


(new baby)

Friday Fifteen...

(squirrel on the roof!)


(sunshine on the oaks)


(flooded yard)


(mostly cleaned out garage)


(table project, not yet underway)


(favorite mug)


(Sarah)


(girls bunks)


(new color for the laundry room)


(Papaw's yard clean-up)


(book purging)


(kitchen in the morning)


(bird and/or cat watching)


(Papaw)


(Sarah's friend)

Some video...

Mark finally loaded the software for Amy's video camera. Here's some of our goofy animals and our record setting SNOW from mid-February.

Yesterday was a terrible day for breakable things at my house. Bright and early Tallulah knocked the dog food bowl off the counter and it shattered into a million shards. Then she was sleeping on the microwave and stretched out to push my favorite vintage crockery mixing bowl to the floor. It had another vintage bowl nested in it so two were lost at once. Later on Tibert jumped into my windowsill and caught his foot on a candle holder; sending it sailing. Lastly; he jumped onto a bookshelf and flipped an oval mirror off. I haven't lost so many things in the past 10 years!! Hopefully this will NEVER EVER EVER happen again!


(crock from Marshall Pottery)


Now I've got to protect these beauties from the cats! My brother got a nifty glass cutter from his girlfriend this Christmas. He finds bottles at their local recycling center/dump and can have as many as he can haul away. The beer bottle juice glasses are probably not dishwasher safe but that's ok. Three of the wine bottle coolers didn't survive the shipping and one juice glass broke but I have enough and he can always make more later. The blue ones are not mine but the green and brown ones are(except for the green juice glass). I LOVELOVELOVE them!! The kids helped me unwrap them and now Ryan wants a cutter so he can make some.



(cobalt juice glasses)


(beer bottle juice glasses)


(wine bottle coolers/iced tea glasses)

front yard this morning...

We are having a lazy day today. I'm hosting our milk co-op this month so we have a cooler full of milk in the front yard. It was so nice this morning that I dragged out the camera and let a few kitties out. Here's what came of it.













In other news...

Ryan is having a Halloween party Saturday night. We aren't sure how many to expect. His pool party was attended by 40 kids!!

Check this out, its GRUESOME but looks delicious too!! This would be FUN for his party but we're going with pizza since they are teens. Much easier!

Apples don't fall far...

My kids are taking after me in ways I'd sometimes rather they did not. This is a water snake of some kind that had been about to enjoy a meal of bullfrog... Until Ryan yanked it from the water and stuck it in this bucket. It measured about 33 inches long. They did release it after an hour or so, it was too aggressive for them to hold.
(click any image to see it bigger)


Remember this cutie pie that I found in the woods back in early April?...



He has turned into a giant hair-eating monster!!!


**
And his cohorts have taken up all the good places to sit.


**

In other news...

We've decided to start on the carpet next weekend. We found the tools we'll need and have been encouraged by other folks' successes. I think we're going to paint the kitchen this week, at night. I've also got plants to pot and some yardwork to get done during the days. Fun, Fun!!

** taken with Mark's phone camera.

Kitties in the yard....

I'll start by saying that I do NOT like taking them outside. It leads them to think that every time the door is opened they are supposed to run out. But, they love it and for now they stick very close to the house. I'm sure we'll end up having to build some sort of enclosure for them soon. We have a net from the trampoline to work with.


(gathered under the kitchen window)


(Gypsy and Tallulah checking out dead leaves)


(Tallulah loves this tall grass, usually she's crouched down in the middle of it)



(Tibert is constantly on the move)


(sometimes they play pounce with each other)


(isn't he handsome?)


(Gypsy found a good napping spot for the rest of the afternoon, poor thing was worn out)



(Rosie was mad because they didn't get to go outside for as long as the others. She showed her displeasure by dominating Ruby in the hallway)

Caturday and the OkraFest...

Started out as a normal Saturday. Took the cats outside for their morning playtime...

(click to biggify)








Then we headed north to the tiny town of Pritchett, Texas for their First Annual Okra Festival. We had a BLAST!!!

This family was serving up free samples of fried okra(3 ways) and a delicious gumbo. My favorite way was whole, dipped in Louisiana Fish Fry batter and deep fried til golden. He had homemade ranch dressing to squeeze on them too. HEAVEN. What was missing(but most assuredly NOT missed) from this festival, which was put together hastily, were the typical food vendors with funnel cakes and overpriced crappy carnival food. I know they would have made money from vendor fees but it was nice not having to smell that cooking oil smell.


(check out his hat)

My friend Tricia(in my blogroll) shared a booth with a jelly lady. Tricia sells soaps and knitted hand towels and such.







She took us around the corner to see her family's new horses. They are just gorgeous!! We got Gypsy and Jasper from her, she's also a cat person.*G*



It was hot when we got back to the festival grounds so we headed inside for more FREE food, what was left from the cooking contest. They had run out of hamburgers and hotdogs(which weren't on the free menu) so we got gumbo, a large assortment of desserts(including a delicious blackberry cobbler and sour cream bundt cake), homemade ice cream and iced tea. They took donations too so we didn't feel guilty about the free food.


(love this)


(my lunch, I was too busy stuffing my face with dessert to take its picture)


(they had the quilting put aside to keep it clean, wish I'd taken a close-up or three of the flowers in between the blocks, they are 3-dementional)


(cooking burgers when we first arrived)

They had an animal rescue petting zoo with donkeys and a goat. Horse and pony rides too but the girls didn't want to.



Proceeds and donations will benefit the community center and the fire department. Unfortunately the farmers ran out of okra for sale so I came home empty-handed except for my soap and jellies.



I'll tell ya about THIS place tomorrow!!!...