Riverboarding!

What is Riverboarding?

Weekenders....

After careful consideration we decided to wait until the kids were back before we took on the major project of removing our carpet. Ryan is 16 and 6 feet tall so he needs to be in on this rather than his mom!! We've had other things to do, like clean the utility room, the kitchen, the girls' room, bookshelves, etc. It hasn't been all work though, we've done some listening....



And laughing too...



Next Saturday we'll head out to collect the kids from my parents. They are having a good time but I suspect at least Ryan is really ready to be home.

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.

The kids are here....

We took off for Tuscaloosa, Alabama early Saturday morning to meet my parents and brother there for a kid hand-off. They'll be staying 2 weeks. Right now I'm not sure if my parents will bring them all the way home or if we'll meet again in Tuscaloosa to retrieve them. Meanwhile, I'm nursing a very out of whack back and have to seriously consider not doing all the projects I had planned to tackle. Ouch. I. Hurt. Bad. So bad that it hurts to breathe sometimes. Anyway, I'm going to rest as much as possible and see what happens toward the end of the week.

(click to biggify the pics)

(playing in a creek we hiked to)


(mom and dad's house)


(firepit for marshmallow roasting in front of the new master bedroom suite)


(Shuford creek, in the backyard)


(the narrow window above Amy's head is the same as the one in the firepit picture-far right of the pic)

That time of year again!!!

We're headed out for some quickie R&R. Happy Summer Everyone!!!

Finally, a name!

We have been through site after site and a pet name book I bought when my mom rescued a pregnant Llaso Apso from the side of the road when I was about 8 or so. Nothing seemed to fit although there were some fun, interesting names.
****edited****
Finally for whatever reason, it came to me this afternoon. His official name is Buster Tom(not Alexander) Sonier, and it was unanimously agreed upon. YAHOOOOO!! I'm so glad to have something to call him!





I am going to try and get some of him awake but he's a fast little thing! Maybe this weekend I can. Also, my other animals are quite left out lately so I may snap some of them as well.


In other news...

I am sick, sick, sick, with whatever Amy had. Now Sarah and I are coughing this deep, wet, cough. My chest itches just under my collarbone, weird. I'm feverish, dizzy, and tired, and headed to the couch for a nap. Mark will have the pleasure of running the kids around to their Wednesday night church activities tonight.

We have postponed our trip to the Ft. Worth Zoo and Botanical Gardens which would have included the Spring Festival at the Japanese Gardens. I hate that we'll miss it but with the zoo it might have been too much in two days.

We sold the Suburban. I keep telling myself that I'm glad but I miss it terribly! It was a 1990 model and there was more wrong with it than right(seat belts weren't reliable, power windows didn't work, a/c didn't blow at all, needed brakes, tires, struts, shocks, and other new stuff). Our neighbors across the street bought it from us for $500 and were driving it within hours so apparently it wasn't a fuel pump problem as we suspected. Oh well. It would have drained us to make it safe and comfortable for our family. I'm hoping to get used to the Jeep one of these days. It is easy to drive but getting in proves difficult. The door handles are touchy and sometimes the locks don't unlock(automatic sliding ones) and because of the contoured seats its hard to get in to and out of but its easy for me to see out of and the seats go in nine kinds of directions, and it isn't white(big plus).

I managed to get all my blogroll moved over from the old blog. I'll be adding more of my favorite blogs later. Does everyone else have 2000 blogs saved to a favorites folder or is it just me??? Sheesh!! There isn't enough time in the day!

Now, I'm off to the couch, iCarly be hanged.

Scenes from a North Carolina Winter...

Since I was in such a snit all winter I didn't get a chance to post pictures from our wonderful trip to visit my parents! We left a day or so after Christmas and came home on the 12th of January. There was a tiny bit of snow but not like our last trip durng the winter. Anyway, here are some scenes from around the house and yard. Click to see them better, its worth it!



(kids exploring in the boxwood patch)


(same mountains the morning after a snow dusting)


(bottles in the mud/laundry room)



(side landing in the morning sun)



(barn from the boxwoods looking down)



(Buckaroo in the snow)



(Amy at the kitchen sink from the mudroom)