Another Day

January 2012

2012-01-18T17:34:00.000-08:00

Where has the time gone? I have completely neglected this blog for 1/2 a year. I have found new interests like Facebook, a smart phone, Pinterest and Zulily, as well as a Kindle and classes of course.

I am about 1/2 done with my MBA. I will probably be working on it next spring but hopefully that will be the end.

Nothing super interesting going on here right now...just trying to get a little order in my life.

Mid-Year

2011-07-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

I was going to log in today and talk about my holiday weekend. It has been very nice....but after looking at some of my past blog posts, and realizing that I haven't been here in forever...I changed my plan.

I saw my new years resolutions a minute ago and thought about a friend's comment about making 1/2 year resolutions instead of the typical new year resolutions.

So... how did I do? Not really that good.

The budgeting thing has worked out pretty well. I have not documented it like I had planned but I have done much better with my expenses, etc.

Everything else pretty much bombed.... I didn't lose weight...I actually gained. I didn't manage to let my MBA work not overtake my life and I didn't take my lunch to work (which would help with the budget and the weight). I didn't work out either.

So....now for my plan....
LOL...it's the same of course. I am taking one class in second summer term...I will try very hard not to let it consume me. I'm only taking one in the fall too...so maybe I can manage to save some time for me/us.

Diet and exercise....I gotta get this right this time....I'm about sick of myself in this shape so I need to save some time for that too.. I guess it could be an additional class (lol...).

Anyway....hello to anyone that is out there reading. Wish me luck :-)

What was I thinking...

2011-01-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

Well...on days like today, and I know there will be many others, I wonder what I was thinking when I decided to get my MBA. I really really really really have not had a good day. Today was a "holiday"...and I've been sitting at my desk in the study looking for a free data mining software program to evaluate. (LOL)... First, you can't pick a program that any of the other classmates have chosen...you can't pick anything from this list provided, and you can't pick anything that you know how to use (apparently) because I have absolutely no clue as to how this program will work... After HOURS of searching and reading....I finally chose one that was approved. I had one selected yesterday but it wouldn't run on my computer...for some freaky reason....

So...I have a program that I don't know how to use and I've got to evaluate it (LOL)...this should be interesting.

So...today, I wonder what was I thinking...why on earth am I doing this....and why shouldn't I just quit already...not looking like it's going to be a good semester.

But...on the bright side....at least I can look forward to a nice vacation when this semester is over...

No day like a snow day

2011-01-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

First snow day of the year - January 10, 2011.

I really did make use of the day off...though I could have accomplished more :-)

First, I fed the animals. Then I took a shower, put on my makeup and dried my hair. Then I decided to try to take a photo of myself with the self-timer on my camera. I hate the arms length photos that I try to take and George just can't take a good photo of me (probably because it makes me so uncomfortable to look at the camera and wait for it to click). After a few tries, I came out with about five that I'm not embarrassed to show..and you know, the funny part is...everyone that I took after getting the set up done was fine. Go figure. Here's the one that seems to be the most popular on Facebook.

After taking the photo, I did the breakfast thing....and put on the crockpot with pinto beans for dinner.....

OK..so now to what I'm really supposed to be doing today....I checked my classes at ASU....in case they had posted anything since today was officially the first day of class. One of my courses had stuff posted, so..... I started working on that. I answered several discussion questions and read more of my assignment...

In the mean time... I visited Skype and saw that Helen was online...so I called her. She and I had a nice chat, I got to see Fatena and she drew a picture of the snowman that she built with some of her sisters.

So...now...I've still got most of a chapter to read but if I hadn't had that snow day, I would have just been getting started (lol).

Let it begin

2011-01-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

OK...I've been quiet about my MBA classes but I have to admit that I'm a bit nervous about them. Maybe a little intimidated at the moment....however, I got an email from my instructor (classes officially start tomorrow) that had the first reading assignment in it....well....If you know me...then you know that I had to start working on it :-P So...I have read chapter one....now I'm having dinner....I'm really going to try not to let this overwhelm my life (I know...good luck with that huh)...but anyway... I have 2 more things that I need to do tonight (fold clothes and tan)...so I'm going to do those before I let myself read chapter 2....haha

Anyway......we'll see.... George was awesome with helping me keep up with the house and dinner, etc. when I was working on my Bachelors degree and I know he will be with this as well...but I'm going to try to manage a little better....my course load is much smaller but the course content should be more difficult ;-)

Anyway... the beginning has arrived....

Sugar and Swine...make me feel so fine

2011-01-04T17:51:00.000-08:00

The Arkansas Razorbacks are playing in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans....Sounds like an awesome time to me.... NOLA is one of my favorite cities... I am completely a fan of the cajun drawl and the food in the city is "to die for"...amazing!

George took me to NOLA for our first wedding anniversary. Another time we went on a cruise that departed from NOLA so we had a little time in the city...and then we spent almost a week in NOLA one summer for vacation.

Well..I'm hoping that the Razorbacks beat the Buckeyes tonight...guess, I better stop blogging to cheer them on........

Time heals all wounds

2011-01-03T18:01:00.000-08:00

Time heals all wounds...or so they say. It seems interesting to me that there are wounds that need to heal that seem, in my humble opinion, to be basically self-inflicted...yet someone else is blamed for the occurrence.

Self-infliction occurs when you "get what you ask for"...you know "what you deserve"...when you cross a line that in nice, normal, polite society it is not acceptable to cross....

The blame...well....I guess when one crosses a line that polite society wouldn't cross, then one wouldn't be expected to take responsibility for one's actions...would one...

I guess one also wouldn't expect to have a person respond to their inappropriateness either.....

Glad we have that cleared up.

2011

2011-01-02T18:54:00.000-08:00

Wow....Can you believe it is really 2011?

January 1, 2011 was our (George and me)11th Wedding Anniversary. It's hard to believe it was 11 years ago...it seems like we have been together forever yet it seems like just the other day that we were getting to know each other. I'm glad that George is such a good man...strong, comforting, encouraging and a bit wacky (lol). Lucky lucky me... OK..that's enough about that...

I have decided (with George's support) that I want to work on my MBA. I hope I'm up to the challenge...we shall soon see as I begin my first two graduate classes next week. If all goes as planned I will be finished in between 18-24 months.

Now for my new years resolutions.....

I resolve to:

Exercise (starting with the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred as soon as it is delivered....treadmill until then)

Lose 10-15 lbs...not a big goal but really all I want...

Live with my new budget

Take my lunch to work

School.... take it seriously, work hard, but do not obsess about it (lol...should be interesting)

I know that lots of people make resolutions and some keep them and others don't. I don't know how I see myself on that...sometimes I do OK and other times I don't... This year, I really want to accomplish my goals. I am feeling the need to have more activity and focus...to do more than just work and sit on the couch watching tv.... and to accomplish something that would be good for me in many ways.

I have never been good at "saving money". I have always been more concerned with getting and doing what I want....but...right now (and I really hope this feeling remains with me) I feel like I NEED to be more mature and focus on what would be better for the future (not the right now).....

So...wish me luck...in....

Reaching year 12
Graduate School
Exercise
Weight Loss
Budgeting
Taking my lunch to work

Peek a boo...where are you?

2010-10-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

Gosh, I've been missing in action. I don't know what has happened to my blog. I really should be posting to it...there are things going on in my life...but I just don't seem to have the motivation to share much anymore. Hum....

Well...here's what is coming up in my life....

Taking the GMAT in November
The kids are all coming home for Thanksgiving
Lots of Christmas Shopping
Having Christmas celebrations with my family and George's family
Starting Graduate School in January and my freedom ends ;-)

Here's what has been going on....
We ordered a new bed...King size...now maybe Tess and George won't squish me so much

We are selling our mule and horse...waiting for the mule to be sold before I sell the horse

Not really anything interesting going on...we're just living the life that we have made for ourselves and looking for the next adventure.

Maybe it won't be so long before I get back her to chat.

Robert Earl Keen - Again

2010-09-25T17:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend, George took me to Little Rock to the Village to see Robert Earl Keen, Jr. This makes the 7th time for us to see him. The show was not like any other of the shows that I have been to. The venue was different, and there was actually seating(though I did not sit through the concert).... REK came on stage with his band, mumbled their names and his and started playing....someone yelled out "what"... he said "there is a program under your seat" and continued to play.... after the first song, he said "that's the first song"....then they played another....and he said "that's the second song".... I admit I was a bit lost in all of this....serious me was like, well crud, he's drunk, but no...no alcohol is consumed by this band on stage, so why did I assume that... did he not want to be there? They why perform if you don't want too.....but....by now it was obvious that he was once again going to be AMAZING! He was just being a smartaXX.... he played some new stuff, some really old stuff, some in the middle stuff...and all of my most favorites (with the exception of Linville Train and I've never heard him perform that one live).....they even threw in some funny stuff that I've never heard them do... "How do you spell New Braunfels"... a riot!

The opening act was pretty good...they had their music too loud for their vocals but they, I'm sure, are still learning what to do... and they say they are from Hamburg, AR.... (that's where we always went to deer camp).

Anyway... We had a great time at the concert and enjoyed the whole trip (well, I did at least).

S W E E T! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

BTW.... just about 11 years ago when George and I were dating, George took me to my first REK concert (even had to give up a weekend of deer hunting to do it)... look what he started....

Russell's Graduation from NADC

2010-08-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

August 27, 2010 at 2:00 pm was Russell's graduation ceremony from NADC (Nashville Auto Diesel College). We had a small family celebration going on....

Of course George and I attended.

As did Matt...

And Bill and Louise....

And of course Granny (Rita) and Papa (Henry).....

We had lots of good quality family time....and lots of food of course :-)

Congratulations to Russell. We are so proud of you!

Looking Up Again

2010-08-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

YIPEE! Russell got a job in the diesel mechanics field! Just got out of school...and had two interviews and two offers. We go to his graduation this week in Nashville and then real life begins. He's set up for a great start!

Still waiting on Goat babies... George is great but he sure can't predict due dates.
I'm guessing September 10th or so now...

I've been having a lot of job related changes going on... it's all good though... waiting for those things to get settled so I can tell you all about it. I'm excited though!

Also thinking about a Master's Degree... need to take that GMAT and get it over with though. YUCK!

Nicole has started her first year of college at OU. I know she's got lots of adventures ahead of her and I hope she enjoys every one of them.

Ryan and Leah are both in school at U of A..... I'm sure they are tired of school by now but they are forging ahead.

And George...we'll you all know what he's doing...hunting season is fast approaching and he's READY for it.

And...... Robert Earl Keen is coming to Little Rock next month so George got me tickets!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So...that's what's going on with us right now....ttyl.

Look up.....

2010-08-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

If you keep your head down and your eyes in directly ahead, you could miss a lot!

I was walking up my porch steps last night after feeding the horses....keeping my head down and watching just in front of me... out of the corner of my eye I noticed a bright spot.... so...I looked up and saw this amazing glowing sunset. By the time I got in the house, got a camera, and got back outside, the sun had lowered some...but I was still able to get a photo of the sunset that had caught my attention.

So, it made me think...if I don't look up and around.... what am I really missing???????? Think maybe I'll give it a shot :-)

Busy Busy Busy

2010-08-09T19:49:00.000-07:00

We're having a really busy month this August! Gotta get things ready for Russell to get out of school and move back from Nashville....looks like he has a part time job with Fed-Ex in Jonesboro and an interview about diesel work too. We're doing a lot of work on the trailer at Bono for him.... paint, flooring, cleaning and rearranging....all sorts of stuff. That will be done this weekend....

This week I have a groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow and I will be glad when it is over :-) Have workouts every afternoon!

The next weekend is the qualifying shoot for George and the boys for the Horseshoe Bend hunt. Leah and I will have to find some way to entertain ourselves while they are doing that....maybe old Hardy town.

Russell's graduation is also coming soon. Going to Nashville August 26-28.... Then we have Labor Day Weekend....and all sorts of celebrations.

Now...you know with all of this going on, we have the normal things to take care of...so tonight I was weed eating by car headlight (lol).

Once upon a time....

2010-08-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time... 11 summers ago.... I met a guy....

And it was the beginning of an all new adventure.....

It led to:
A move to Tulsa
A first flight
A first trip to New Orleans (and a second and third)
A first trip to Las Vegas (and a second)
A first trip to Washington, D.C.
A first cruise
A first dive at Cozumel
Another trip to Cozumel
A first time to Deep Sea Fish
A Second set of Dives at Cozumel
A travel trailer and camping trips
Deer Camp (many times)
House hunting (and again)
Remodels
A first horse and a second.... and a mule
Goats
A dog that owns me
Kids that are mine at heart (the way it counts)
A move to Catoosa
A move back to Arkansas
Lake Norfork (the place we met)
The White River and Trout fishing

The list goes on and on...

Once upon a time ... 11 summers ago.... I met a guy....

and he began to make all of my dreams come true.

Big sigh.....

2010-07-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Things sneak up on you when you least expect them. Some things, like bills and repair projects, and cleaning, etc....those kind of things... you know how it is...you mow the yard and then you look up and realize that it needs it again...or you look at your garden one day and it looks fine....then two days later..it's a mess....

Other things sneak up on you too....like the sudden urge I had this week to go to breakfast with Ryan. When we lived in Tulsa and he was the only kid living with us, when George would go out of town, we would go out for breakfast before work/school. I thought of that this week and remembered how much I enjoyed it and wished that he was close enough so that we could sneak off to breakfast :-)

There are lot of other things that sneak up too... birthdays (ugh), pounds (oh no!!!), etc.. and of course they are not all bad......

It's really nice when someone sneaks up with a hug.

50 and counting....

2010-07-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

On July 14, 2010, George turned 50.
The kids and I celebrated with him over the weekend while they were home....but... today didn't go unrecognized...
George arrived at work to find a handicapped parking sign at his parking spot....

He was honored with a cool new t-shirt that I so look forward to him wearing everywhere we go (lol).....Here's the back....

Here's the front.... and look at that smiling birthday boy...

Somehow, they managed to find some props to use for decorating.:-) We can thank Henry and Rita for access to some photos..... and Dusty Clem for getting it all organized (Thanks Dusty).

I did find it funny that the only old fossil in this photo is Lonnie ! Haha

They also had birthday snacks at break.

So... now.... he's stuck with just celebrating with me and Tess. He's having a ribeye for dinner and hanging out with us.

Hope he had a wonderful day....thanks to everyone that helped make it that way.

Visit with the kids

2010-07-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

We've been having a nice visit with they kiddos this week. Russell was on holiday from school, so Nicole and Ryan rearranged their schedules so they could visit while he was here... so... we had everyone together at the same time... We got to have a few hours on the lake... here's a cell phone shot of me and Nicole... we were waiting for George to make some waves with the boat so we could crash through them....

Saturday night, we went to Pocahontas for Henry's (my father-in-law) retirement dinner. All of the family was there except Magi and Linda... it was nice to see everyone and celebrate Henry's new status...

Since I had all the kids together at the same time I got a photo of them when their Daddy-o. I don't get this opportunity often anymore, so I have to jump on it when I can.

Nice lookin' family that I have! Lucky me.

Everyone is leaving today and it will be just me and George and the critters for a while.

Oh....... I'm going to see Eclipse with my friend Suellen this afternoon :-)

Independence Day.... a day late

2010-07-05T15:03:00.001-07:00

I really did start to post to my blog yesterday, but I've had so many electronics issues this weekend that I just couldn't do it. My laptop was down, George's computer won't ready my memory card and then it got malware problems as well...and my camera is on the fritz...

I have the computers working again but the camera is still not working correctly. But, I can now post the photos that I did get while trying to fix my camera.

We had a day at home taking care of things that needed to be done. We went to the lake on Saturday....though.... so... after working around the property with George and running back and forth to me...Tess wanted a nap...but she didn't want to miss anything, so she napped in the living room. Such a sweet puppy...on my couch ;-)

I made some slaw for dinner...had some baked beans.....so.... guess what was for dinner......

That's right.... ribs.... beef ribs to be exact....

George suggested we have ribs for dinner but we didn't buy any pork ribs...so we had some black anugs beef ribs from our Rex Whitfield cow. He has perfected a slow grilled method that takes quite a while....

I also made brownies a'la Drexene...which are brownies, with a layer of marshmallows melted over them and then a tub of chocolate frosting heated and poured over the whole thing.

This morning I got up and made a batch of Grandmother Dust's Sugar Cookies....

Yes, it seems like I'm going overboard... but Russell is home! and Ryan and Nicole will be here on Wednesday....so...I'm getting into the cooking groove... I know I'll need to make fried squash and probably fried chicken while they are here...and of course, we will need to celebrate George's birthday then too...so that means a cheesecake ;-)

Anyway.... our Independence Day did not have any fireworks or major plans but we have enjoyed a peaceful weekend together.

Charging my batteries....

2010-07-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

I'm charging my batteries...literally. I have not had my camera in my hands since May 20th.... Can you believe that....I know I am not a great photographer but I usually do make an effort to take photos of what's going on in our lives.... this week I went outside to take a photo after the rain and my batteries were dead and the charger was still in the truck from our trip to Tulsa.

My friend Kim mentioned that she might start another photo challenge and that reminded me again that I still haven't charged my camera batteries.

I've been so un-me lately.

I have not.... cleaned out my closet or any of the drawers in the house, stayed on my diet, exercised, scrapbooked, taken any photos, ironed my clothes, or shopped.

Maybe I need to be charging my own batteries as well...but I'm not sure how to do that right now.....

Of course, I'm working up to a big new project....and maybe that's what I need is a little project to get me going again....I'm about ready to start tiling the living room, study and bedroom...that will make the whole downstairs tile. Of course, I still haven't ordered the tile, but I plan to this weekend.

I did get my paint out so I can do some touch up painting this week (Russell and I need to touch up his room for sure).

I just need to be motivated...or to have something to be motivated about.

Maybe I should go ahead and order that GMAT study book.....

Well...I've rambled on tonight...but maybe this is the charge that I needed....I guess we'll see.

Vacation June 2010

2010-06-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

Wow! Vacation this year was great. George and I were gone for around 8 days... We packed up our camper and boat and went to Daisy State Park in Daisy, Arkansas. We fished, played in the lake, took a couple of day trips around the area, found a nice little Mexican Restaurant that made Carne Asada Tacos the way I love them so we ate there twice!

We camped at Daisy State Park until Thursday, then we drove to Greers Ferry to check that lake out.... Daisy is a nice park and Lake Greeson is nice as well. We only had our fishing boat with us, so we couldn't play a lot but we fished and found a nice cove to swim and float around on one hot afternoon.

George is a pyromaniac! He loves to build fires, so we had one most nights...and he's got a man crush on that little shovel that he bought just for the camp fires.

This is going to be one of those mushy moments.... It seems that George makes all of my dreams come true. Since I've met George, I've done so many things that I always wanted to do....and one of those things happens to be seeing the Cossatot River. Years ago I saw a picture of the Cossatot River and decided then that I would like to see that river in person....Well... here she is....
A very calm looking river at this point.....

This is Cossatot Falls...there are these huge rocks all around this area. I couldn't find a place to take a photo of them all... but they go across the river and then for quite a ways down the river.

At the time, that area hadn't had much rain so the river was low...I know it has some serious rapids on it when the level is right. I could have spent all day climbing around those rocks at the falls!

I wonder how much rain reached that river from the awful floods that came to the Little Missouri River and Caddo rivers soon after we left the camp at Daisy....about 12 miles from the camp ground at Langley. However, we were on the lake, not a river.
We were quite lucky to be out of the area though.

While we were gone, we went to the Crater of Diamonds too. I have to say...I am not a diamond digger....I might go again some time, if I'm with someone that just really wants to go, but it would have to be in the cool of spring or fall. It's just a huge plowed field and there is nothing like digging in the dirt in the hot sun and being all sweaty...not really my thing.

Greers Ferry was a bit disappointing in that only one campground had water hookups...and it wasn't the one we really wanted to stay at...and it was rainy on Friday...so we spent most of that day driving around looking at the area.

Anyway...all in all it was a very nice vacation! Relaxed and lazy...and I got a lot of reading time too.

Oklahoma Graduation

2010-05-31T18:48:00.000-07:00

On May 20, 2010 the last of the children graduated from high school.

That's Nicole! She has plans to attend The Universtiy of Oklahoma in the fall.

Unexpected?

2010-05-22T17:20:00.000-07:00

Bet today's blog is not what you would expect. I'm planning on multiple posts from the weekend but today's is just for fun....

Went to Oklahoma - Tulsa to be exact for a graduation celebration, but that is not what this post will be about....

Once upon a time, and it now seems so long ago, I lived in Tulsa....I learned alot about city life and had a lot of new experiences while I was there....then we moved back to the country in Arkansas....'cause though you can take the girl out of the country you can't take the country out of the girl :-)

After leaving Tulsa, I missed a few things....I'm not being sentimental in this blog, so don't start thinking friends and family, though that would be true....

The thoughts in this blog are a lot different than that....

One thing that I experienced while in Tulsa was.....

That's right... Head Country Bar-B-Q Sauce. Made in Oklahoma and man...is it great! So, while we were running around this week, we went to Wal-Mart and got 2 gallons....let's see how long that will last and keep me satisfied!

What really surprised me when I moved back to Arkansas was that I really was shocked at how much the local quick shop charged for a 20 oz. fountain drink...in Tulsa I had been getting 32 oz. fountain drinks for 88 cents.... I was shocked..... so....I really began to miss this.....

That's right! QuikTrip convenience stores.... they are the best and they are on about every other intersection in Tulsa.... (that sounds like an exageration but it's not far off)...and I notice that they were building several new one's around the city. And guess what the view from my hotel room was....yep...QT! I only managed to make one QT stop while I was there... :-( but that's more than none....lol

So.... how's that for the unexpected ;-)

Firelight

2010-05-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

We've been trying our hand at camping with our new camping trailer. I'm known among my friends and family for my dislike of smoke. I don't like the smell of burning things and the smoke whether cigarette (YUCK) or burning leaves or wood smoke, I always get a stuffy nose...thus part of my dislike....HOWEVER, I really enjoyed the fire that George built during our Mother's Day weekend camping trip. I was lucky enough to stay away from most of the smoke and I still had a stuffy nose, but it was cozy, comfortable and beautiful...yet best of all it produced toasted marshmallows :-)

Here's a glimpse for you....

One down, a million to go

2010-04-18T18:49:00.001-07:00

This weekend was the first of our camping adventures. We spent the weekend at Lake Charles State Park at Powhattan. I know...it's not too far from home....but it was a very nice park and a great test run for us and the camper.

Tess got to go fishing with us and she learned to watch the floater...when it starts moving, it's time to get excited. We caught enough bream for dinner but can't say that we were impressed with our fishing luck. Heard that last weekend was an awesome crappie weekend at that park.... we still had a great time and are already planning more adventures and even a return trip to Lake Charles.

Off focus

2010-04-05T19:19:00.000-07:00

My blog has always been geared heavily towards goats. We have goats, so that makes sense but this weekend my camera turned itself toward cows....I really don't know why....two of my neighbors have cows and I see them every day...but they have never really been of any interest to me. However, this weekend they seemed more interesting. I took this photo last night after the calf caught our attention playing at the fence line. After I took some photos of the baby, I got interested in the Mom and the bull....but this was my favorite of the photos from last night because of the grass and the momma cow's face....

So behind....but catching up now :0)

2010-04-04T12:49:00.001-07:00

WOW! It's amazing that I was nominated by my friend Kim W for this award. She has an awesome talent for all things artistic and crafty and she shares so well...I'm pleased that she nominated me... (THANK YOU KIM)

She gave me rules for the award as well...and for all of you that really know me...you know I'm such a rule follower...it's awful...so....for the rules...
And they are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award. (complete)
2. Copy the award & place it on your blog. (complete)
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award. (complete)
4. Share 7 interesting things about yourself.

About me:
1. I really really love having goats.
2. I have just recently learned that I really love FRESH veggies and fruit so much better than the processed ones(and I'm 41...took me a while :-) )
3. I can wakeboard (not very good though)
4. I LOVE having the CUTEST shoes
5. I covet Kim W's photography skills but I'm too lazy to learn to be a good photographer...I'm so hit or miss
6. George and I color my hair
7. Animals really get to me

So there are some things about me....I've changed them multiple times while typing them... :-) Must always second guess myself...that would be #8 :-)

Now for a little catch-up...
There has been a lot going on with us this year and since March it has been pretty busy and it looks like it will be a busy one still. Ryan and Leah came to visit in early March. Nicole and Bri came to visit for their spring break (we took a day trip to Branson with them). We bought a camping trailer and had to go to Texarkanna to pick it up. We've been going to some Perryman auctions and getting the place de-winterized. I think we pretty much have some other things taken care of that weighed heavliy on us this year...maybe a few final t's to cross but pretty much done.... Russell is home for his spring break right now.

Nicole will graduate in May, Russell will graduate in August and sometime in between we should have a vacation....so...there is a lot going on this summer....

Early in March we saddled Goldie and Hat and took them out for a little ride. It was time to start getting ready for the riding season. Goldie was a little high strung that day but not too bad. After we got back George worked on his rigging.

Today we took another ride and we saw the beauty of spring peeking through. This cow was drinking from the pond runoff. She let me get fairly close but there was a fence between us. Can you see the water dripping from her mouth. Sweet, huh.

Here's my pink dogwood tree..it's starting to open up. When we bought the house we didn't know this was in the front yard...what a great surprise when it opened up as we were moving in.

Here's a little moss that I saw growing in the woods....it just caught my attention and begged to be captured in a photo.

It is Easter and we chose to stay home this weekend. It is a beautiful day, though a bit windy on our hilltop. I spent most of the morning outside and I'm headed back out again. I know that I have "inside" things to do (like ironing) but they can wait until dark.

I hope to be more faithful to my blog and my blog reading friends...so again, bear with me and I'll keep you posted on our life.

What's for dinner?

2010-03-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

Today I have been starving to death....you know that feeling...no matter what you eat you still want something else...you're not really hungry but you just can't seem to find what you really want.....wellllllllllll....I finally found it.....

It's what's for dinner.....

And it was even on my "diet".

Spring forward

2010-03-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Started the day out by trying to bottle feed one of our baby goats. She's been sick and I don't think she's getting enough to eat....she ate about 2 ounces and then wandered around in the yard eating some of the fresh spring grass.

Now we're hanving out waiting for the girls (Nicole and Bri) to get ready to go so we can got to Branson for an afternoon of shopping. They are here for their spring break. They have plans to visit the grandparents and hang out...

Exercise......

2010-03-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

Sidney was getting a little exercise.... Little goats do lots of bouncing and hopping as they learn how they can move. They are so entertaining to watch.

Aimless Ramblings

2010-02-28T07:01:00.000-08:00

Today I feel restless. I accomplished a lot yesterday and still hope to accomplish a lot more today but I just have a restless feeling floating around me.

In life, we are often exposed to situations and experiences that make us wonder about how those things could happen. It's disconsorting to me at times. I am a huge wonderer of WHY...so I always feel the urge to ask questions...but I do try to control that urge. Of course George won't say that I'm successful at it (lol).

I had the best feeling this moring. Standing outside in the crisp sunny morning holding my little baby goat, Sidney, made me feel so content. He was so sweet and cuddly today. He's getting more used to me. I play with him some everday so that he knows me and hopefully stays friendly as he gets older. If you have never been around a tiny baby goat, you should try it. They are extremely cute. They have such individual personalities and they hop, bounce, jump, rear up and fall down spontaneously. I spend lots of time just watching the goats....they can always make me smile.

I also have this feeling with Tess.... at night, she gets on our bed and when George gets in bed, he makes her move...she comes to my other side and stands on the edge of the bed and waits for me to scoot toward the center. Then she lays down next to me as close as she can get...usually squishes me (she does weight 80 pounds) as she lays down. Then she snuggles in beside me. She'll put her head on my arm or my pillow and snuggle with me. It makes me feel very comforted. Isn't it nice to be loved so unconditionally.

I am supposed to be ironing right now. I don't really like it but I don't hate it either. I just really don't want to do it today.

Yesterday, I sorted my closet and took some of the "too large" items out of the closet. There weren't many but there were some. I haven't lost enough weight to need new clothes but I did have some that were too big now (YIPEE). Now I need to iron what I have and maybe pair up some different outfits :0).... almost like shopping...just in my own closet.

Hope you weren't too bored with my rambling...but I did warn you that it was going to be rambling today.

Peace to you all.

New Goat Day

2010-02-23T16:05:00.000-08:00

Today, Susie the Goat finally had the babies that I've been waiting for....she was huge so I expected twins and maybe triplets....unfortunatley, she delivered two still born kids but she did have one that survived. He is small but he seems healthy.
This is the new mom, Susie.

Meet Sidney. This is the newest addition to the Dust farm. Isn't he a cutie pie. This is the first photo ever taken of him :-)

Here's another shot of the little man.

Here's Sidney in his new little heated condo (inside his Mom's house).

They have their own personal house and pen for a while so they don't have to worry about all of the other goats getting in their business.

Scrappin' Candy

2010-02-21T07:40:00.001-08:00

I got a Hobby Lobby gift card for Christmas and I finally got around to using it :-)

I of course tried to stretch my money as far as I could and look at all of the cool goodies that I got!

I can't wait to sit down and use some of these little lovelies.

Thanks Russell.

What a week.....

2010-02-21T07:12:00.000-08:00

Wow, has this been a week. But....in the end, it has good results.

My dad went to have back surgery on Tuesday. He had a problem with his his spine closing in on his spinal cord. It was causing a lot of pain in his legs and hips and would have eventually led to him not walking. He had surgery and had that fixed....but after that he had a heart attack (while he was still in the hospital). However, no one knew he had it and when he complained the next day of chest pain, they did tests but couldn't find any sign of a heart attack. They gave him some meds for his stomach and indigestion and let him go home. After he got settled in at home I came home to Brockwell. (This is Wednesday)

About an hour and a half after I got home, Mom called to tell me that they were at the ER and that Dad had had a heart attack. I grabbed some clothes and headed back to Jonesboro.

After some tests (a blood test that revealed the problem) dad was admitted to the ICU. Luckily (sort of) the ICU was full so they put him in the overflow area and let Mom sit with him. You have to remember that he has a 5 inch incision in his back so laying still and on his back is a bit uncomfortable...and he was so tired and pale.

Now to Thursday.... They scheduled him for a heart cath and took him for that at 11:30. The results were that his stint from 2006 was clogged and he had 2 other blockages. They were able to clean out the first stint and added a second at that spot and then put one in another spot. The before and after photo shows such a difference in blood flow. He recovered quickly. On Thursday night, I stayed at the hospial with him so Mom would go sleep. At about 6:30 They moved him to the regular ICU when a spot opened so I had to sit in the waiting room...but at 11:00 that night they moved him to a regular room because he was doing so good and called me so that I could sit in his room.

Friday morning he was feeling good and they let him come home at about 11:00.
I spent the night with them to make sure he was ok and drove home on Saturday morning.

He has caught up on some sleep and is walking around. He went outside for a while yesterday to soak up some of that sun and this morning he feels good enough to go to church.

So, this week has been "a week" but the results are great.

Catching up with my old blog

2010-02-15T17:44:00.000-08:00

As you can probably tell from past blogs, the sky is one of my favorite subjects. On most regular days in my life, I go out the back door in the morning to feed Goldie and Hat. Our back door faces the sunrise so I have a great view every morning...some mornings are a little more colorful than others and offer a little more eye candy. This is one....

This view is a little more zoomed in and south east. (LOL...I had to ask George....directions and geography are not my thing).

My horse is such a princess...She has this regal air about her and I just love her so much. She either stops what she's doing and watches me while I'm outside or she acts like she doesn't know I'm there (for a little while).

We put a round bale of hay in the goat pen for the goats and they decided it was as much a toy as food.

Well, that's just a little bit that's going on at our place.

Scrapping

2010-02-07T14:22:00.000-08:00

I got motivated to do a little scrapping this weekend. I can't seem to take a good photo of the pages...so you will see my couch at the edges of these photos.

This is the last page I did.... I had a couple of good photos of us and our dad's so I came up with this.

George loves to hunt and he spends as much time as he can hunting during deer season. This one has a skinned deer in the photo so view at your own risk.
Here's a page dedicted to Robert Earl Keen. He's my favorite singer. I have seen him 6 times. I thought is was interesting that I had a piece of paper with music notes and it even had a train on the page.....so I used the music for the page! Then I cut out the train and used it because REK has a song called Linville Train (one of my favs.)
This page is missing a photo. I want to get a good photo of me riding Goldie and add it to this page. I have a photo from the first trail ride where I met her, but none since... I do have photos of several other people riding her...just not me...and this is my page :-) I also added a new technique (for me) to this page....stitching with my sewing machine....I will probalby be doing more of that at some point...it was pretty cool. This is Goldie's page....it's the first one that I did this weekend. I realized that I did't have a page about here yet. I often say that she and I are so much alike.... we are both "Princesses" and stubborn......and we both "have a mind of our own".This afternoon I've been getting ready for the Superbowl (Go Saints).... we're cheating on our diets today and having......our special recipe hot wings with homemade bleu cheese dressing , little smokies, cheese dip, hot spinach/artichoke dip, pita chips, tortilla chips and chocolate cake.

Bring on the BOWL.

Sweet Giveaway

2010-02-01T18:39:00.000-08:00

http://tinyurl.com/ygwadkl

A friend of mine shared this super sweet giveaway on Twitter. I really love these Lisa Leonard designs and would love to win one!

Take a look and remember these designs when you need an extra special gift...I know I'm going to!

Day 3

2010-01-31T14:22:00.001-08:00

So, we had all of the snow fall and then yesterday, I stayed in out of the snow...but I just couldn't do it again today...so we went for groceries and when we got home it was time to play.

See, when you have the camera, you can put the blame on others...here's the culprit...there is no proof that I was involved :-) HAHAHAHAHAHA

Day 2

2010-01-30T18:31:00.000-08:00

This was the view on day 2 of the snow. I took my camera with me to feed and got a couple of shots....

George is such a good husband...he shoveled a path on the porch and later he got the 4-wheeler out and made paths to everywhere that I go. I feed our animals (my choice) and so he made me a path from the shop to the horses and from the horses to the goats and back to the shop...so now I don't have to trudge through snow up to my knees. :-)

Hat was at the fence waiting for me this morning. He really stands out in all of this white wonderland.

I took a picture of Goldie and Hat eating their breakfast. They have a barn, but they won't stay in it out of the weather...they do use it some though. Have you ever seen a buckskin the color of Goldie right now...she's soooooo DIRTY!!!!

Tess loves to play in the snow...it was a little deep this moring :-)

I was lazy today. I watched the What Not to Wear marathon today, finally ironed my clothes (that means my hands are well enought to iron again). I really wanted to go to Little Rock but knew it really didn't make sense....so I surfed the web and chilled out.

I think I will have to get out tomorrow though...... :-)

Snow Day

2010-01-29T18:39:00.000-08:00

Today was a snowy day all across the state.... I got the phone call this morning that let me know that our school would be closed for the day. I stayed in bed and was lazy for a while...then I got up....I had promised myself that I would clean the house this weekend...or on the snow day if we got one....so I had to get started....but first, I had to feed my horse and mule.

Tess and I went out and I though man, I'm already "truding" through the snow and it's 8:30.

Tess had to play in the snow some more but I had work to do...so I threw the ball in the front yard and she played there and on the porch.

This is a photo of the snow falling taken from the front porch.....

Tess loves to play catch and chase...no matter the weather. She is on the porch here.

Here she is again...trying to decide if she wants to give me the ball again....or keep it for herself.
And another.....

George worked today, so after he got home (and of course he said the road was fine, not slick at all) we went for a drive. We didn't meet a lot of traffic but we did manage to get behind a couple of people that shouldn't have been out driving :-/.... Anyway... we didn't have any trouble at all and it was beautiful out there.... but apparently some people would say it was slick since we saw about 5 in the ditch.

This shot, through my window and side mirror, is of the snow flying up from behind the truck as we drove down the highway...

After we got back, I had to feed the animals. The trudging was much more difficult now. I waded through drifts up to my knees on the way across the yard..... Did get a 4-wheeler ride back to the house when George got done getting hay for the goats.

I haven't taken any photos of the final snowfall but I will tomorrow. It should be a beautiful white wonderland.

Days gone by.....

2010-01-27T17:46:00.000-08:00

On this cold winter night, I sat down at my computer and thougth...I really need to update my blog..... however, I have not taken any photos recently...I've been letting my hands heal from carpal tunnel surgery...and thankfully they seem to be about healed! So, I though surely there is a photo in my archives that would be blog worthy tonight....

So....sitting here, wondering if the ice and snow will come....I came across this photo and thought this little guy deserved to make his debut on my blog....
One Sunday afternoon during the late summer, George and I went to Horseshoe Bend to do some early deer scouting. This guy landed on the window and rode back home to Brockwell with us. He had good staying power.

So...now I'm sitting here remembering that great summer afternoon and still wondering if the snow and ice will come our way.

Relaxing

2010-01-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

For some reason the horse and mule prefer to be in the yard than in their pasture. You can walk outside and they go to a gate in hopes of getting into the yard. I don't know why the like it more because it's fenced and gated as well, so they are still "not out". But....they do love the yard. They enjoyed some time relaxing in the sunshine over the weekend....

This is Goldie my Missouri Fox Trotter mare.

This is Hat. George's mule.

Here they are together.

Hunter George

2010-01-09T17:44:00.001-08:00

George and I drove over to a real estate auction this morning...then we went to Horseshoe Bend so he could do a little deer scouting. This evening he went hunting at our place and got a small buck. He came and got me before dark, so that I could take photos for him. I knew this meant he had a monster buck out there.... but he only wanted photos of the blood trail.....go figure...

Here's my Happy Hunter.

BRRRrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

2010-01-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

WOW! It sure is cold outside. Tonight the horse and mule said that they needed more hay. I know....Horses can't talk...but I assure you Goldie let us know she was not happy with her current situation and wanted some attention. She paws at things when she wants attention....so George and I braved the cold to get a round bale from the hay barn and put it out...we also had to water the animals. So....here's an interesting tidbit to share...though it is a bit sad.... When I went to water the horses (I used this word to mean both the horse and the mule), I put the hose in the tank and then I switched on the light. Glad I did....there was a squirrel that had fallen in the tank and couldn't get out...it was dead of course (which is the sad part) but it was a bit freaky to turn on the light and see something furry that I was not expecting....I got it out of the tank and it was frozen stiff.

I was really surprised that I didn't get any colder than I did while we were out there but I was bundled up pretty good....

Maybe tomorrow I'll have something better to post.

The Dawn of the Day

2010-01-06T19:00:00.000-08:00

This morning when I went out to feed the horse and mule, I was greeted with extreme cold and a beautiful sunrise. I had to grab my camera and go back outside for this one!

Home to snow

2010-01-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed our trip to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl. It was FREEZING COLD....but we had a good time nontheless. Lucky for us, Doug (George's brother) and Hanna (Doug's wife) have some very nice friends that live across the street from the stadium...we enjoyed pregame in the comfort of their home...we also go to avoid the traffic after the game there as well. We met several nice people and had lots of fun.

This morning we had a late breakfast, went to Bass Pro (George got a couple of things and even bought me a new "trout" rod ;-) )and then we made the trip home...and guess what we found.... SNOW........

All of the local schools are closed for tomorrow but we won't know about Ozarka until in the morning...we don't have students tomorrow, so we'll see what they decide about staff.

One of the ladies I met this weekend is supposed to send me some photos that she took of us before the game... I of course forgot to get my camera out of the truck.

Ten Years Today

2010-01-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

Hello Blog - I've been absent for a while. You wouldn't think that it takes a special mojo to be able to sit down at the computer for 5 minutes and post something to a blog...but it does for me. Anything that is remotely creative is that way for me....and believe it or not...this is a creative outlet for me...(whether it seems that way or not).

So... guess what today is...guess...guess...guessssssssssssss.....It's my 10th anniversary! George and I got married 10 years ago to day at about 1:00 pm....in Jonesboro....Have to say it's the best decision I have ever made.

As you see, I'm not really the sappy type...I won't be going on and on and waxing poetic with romantic prose...but I'll just say.... It ROCKS to be MRS. GEORGE DUST.

Tomorrow we are going to Memphis to the Liberty Bowl Game..GO HOGS! We're looking forward to the game!
********************************************************************************
I never got around to posting any Vegas photos... so I thought I would drop a couple of those in today.

This is from the airplane on the way to Vegas....I am notorious for my "non-person" photos....and I love sky scenes. I loved being above and in the clouds.

This is a street scene...early one morning...it looks way different at night.

M&M World.... do I need to say more.....

The ceiling of the lobby of the Bellagio...I would have taken more photos of in the Bellagio of the living gardens but my camera batteries died and the spares were in my room.

So...there's a little shot of Vegas...I really didn't take that many photos :-)

I'm going to try to be more faithful to the blog than I have been lately.... see you this year!

Did the organizing work?

2009-11-16T14:08:00.001-08:00

Wow...it was so nice to know where everything was and know what my choices were last night when I was scrapping.....and it was so easy to put everything back in it's place! That was awesome! Took just minutes to clean up!!!!!!

I really need to sit down and post about my trip....maybe tonight I can get to that.

Jars Everywhere

2009-11-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

So, I finally got motivated and cleaned up my scrapbook area. I tend to get freaked out by the mess and have to take time to straighten it up. This time, I had taken some things to work to do a special project we were working on for a lady that was retiring, so I had to unpack my mess..... and it just made sense to straighten it up now. I should have taken a before picture so that you would understand how bad it was.

Yesterday we went to Little Rock and I spent a little time looking at storage solutions....I'm forever thinking that I need to buy something to get more organized....but....this time I saw something that interested me but used what I had at home to try it out. Jars! Here. Jars! There. Jars! Everywhere!.....they sure make my supplies more visible!

That paper storage rack was something that I already had...but I labeled my paper this time...... :-)

Now, if only I had time to scrap! Haha.....I have straightned up the house....but I've still got to go get groceries and do some laundry.... maybe later this evening ;-)

Sunset

2009-11-02T17:46:00.001-08:00

After the rain finally stopped last week, I noticed that the sunset was unsually interesting. We have a lot of great sunsets here...but this was interesting with that huge cloud bank.

That point in the background is Pilot Knob......

The sunset progressed.....

It reminds me of one of the many reasons that I love where I live.....

Unplanned Nashville

2009-11-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

We made an unplanned trip to Nashville this weekend...got a late start and all that so we just really drove there swapped vehicles with Russell, saw his new apartment, had a pizza at Sal's Pizza Restaurant (the worlds best pizza place I promise...have the White Greek Pizza)....So...needless to say, I suffered from a little boredom... (no shopping time in Nashville)....so to entertain myself on the trip home, I played with my camera some....

This is the reason for the trip. Russell's transmission went out...so we trailered our little car to Nashville on Saturday afternoon, loaded his truck blah blah blah and started home...we stopped a little way out of Nashville to sleep...got up and drove to Bono to get Tess and come home....

This is my New Balance shoe...I almost always take my shoes off when I'm the passenger for a long ride....

This is a photo of just some of the things that I have piled in the floor in front of me...that's my cool mustard Big Buddah bag and my sweatshirt.

Here are some lovely photos of the trees and highway looking through the windshield of the truck...sorry about the smear on the window (oops)

We had some fog on part of the trip...usually just around the rivers and creeks.

Another highway shot....

And for my Ozarka friends...I'm posting a photo on facebook for Chaney and Tracy :-)...I went through Jackson!

We'er home...have no clue what will happen with the truck...but the kid has been rescued for the time being.

A little fish

2009-10-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

Ever heard the phrase "Big fish in a little pond"....I grew up in a little pond...and I really liked it....now I live in a little pond...and I still like it. For a while, I was a little fish in a big pond...when we lived in Tulsa...and it does have it's advantages...but in the long run...I really prefer a more simple life in an area that I'm comfortable in and that I know the people around me.
So...here's to all the fish....little and big...Enjoy Your Pond.

What do you see?

2009-10-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

What do you see when you take a walk? Depends on where you look...
Since it's still all rainy here I'm forced to post photos that I took over the beautiful weekend that we had! I was walking around in the goat pasture because I had seen some fungi growths that I wanted to take a closer look at... and I saw this lonely pine cone burried in the sand...nothing special, but it caught my attention and made me think about how something so simple could be so interesting.

I also saw a few black eyed susans in the field. I liked this photo. Can you see the bug on the flower...click on it to enlarge it if you can't. I love how each blade of grass is so defined.

So if you look around (up, down, all around) when you're walking around you might see some things that make you smile.

Photo adventure

2009-10-12T17:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I carried my camera with me a lot...and never saw anything that I wanted to take a picture of...so I left it inside when I went out again...and you know...this time I saw several things that made me think...I wish I had my camera....so I went back in to get it.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a few photo tips from my Brother-In-Law, Bill. I tried to use one in this shot...and I think it turned out pretty good.

For some reason, I love to look at mushrooms, toadstools...etc...those fungi growths........Here's one....

The view from my mower

2009-10-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I would do just about anything to be outside...and sometimes, things need to be done but they get put off...out of sight out of mind....so today, I rode my trusty Craftsman lawn mower down the driveway to mow around the entry of the driveway, the mailbox, and the trash container....I ended up pulling our weedeater on wheels down the driveway too so that I could get closer to the fence....I'm sure it was as interesting sight.....I took my camera with me for some reason...I guess it's because you always wish you had it with you when you don't take it...so here's a shot of my driveway from the view of my mower while I'm bouncing up the road.... No, I didn't do the whole driveway...I guess I should :-)but I probably won't....

A chill in the air

2009-10-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

What a nice feeling morning! I'm loving that chill in the air. It makes me want to be outside doing something productive or riding my horse....but inside is calling me today...I've picked up and cleaned up the house some, I'm ironing my clothes (taking a short break but I'm 1/2 done), changing the sheets, etc....just had to get the house back in order....

I've got a roast in the crockpot for this weekend...George is going to cook some pork ribs and at some point I'm going to make gnoccchi for the first time :-).... For some reason I've had a hanerkin' for some and I didn't find it in our local grocery stores...but I could have overlooked it.....ah well...it really doesn't sound that hard....so we'll see. Sounds like the weather really makes us want to cook....

Nicole is supposed to come on Thursday...and they we have an appointment to have her Sr. photos made on Friday afternoon.... George will take Nicole back on Sunday, I belive....Saturday I leave for the AATYC Conference in Hot Springs and come back on Tuesday.....Ozarka is decorating the dining room for the All-Star Brunch so I've got a ton of things to pack and take with me....hopefully it will look like I'm envisioning it....We've got some cool "star" wrapping paper that we are wrapping boxes and putting pretty bows on to use as the centerpiece...then we have star confetti (multi sizes) and curling ribbon to scatter on the tables.... we had a super small budget to decorate 80+ tables...so we had to be creative....we are under budget thanks to George...he provided our boxes.

The new goats are really sweet...they were following George around earlier and they seem to like being close to the horse and mule. I still don't have names for them but I'm working on it.

My friend Kim is going to do another photo challenge...If you're interested in playing along check out her blog at http://kimwhitten.blogspot.com/ and let her know you want to play. The color challenge that we did in the spring was lots of fun and it was very inspiring as well.

Nameless

2009-10-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

New goats! New goats!! New goats!!! Guess what...we got new goats! They are super sweet...sometimes the goats are tame and sometimes they are not...these little fellas are tame...they let you pet them and they come to the fence to greet you. The white one is not quite as tame but she's good.

I don't know what I'm going to name them yet but I'm working on it....the 3 little boys look a lot alike don't they. I'm hoping to find something that distinguishes them apart before picking the name.

Any suggestions for these guys?

Insy Tinsy Spider

2009-10-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

Sounds like the Insy Tincy Spider better be haning on tight soon...supposed to be a wicked bad rain storm coming through tomorrow....

October 6

2009-10-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

What a rainy dreary day....

Life has thrown me a few curve balls lately but I'm working my way through all of the crud to find the place that I need/want to be...Sometimes you get comfortable with your life and forget that the curve balls are there.....it's not all bad though...I have a great husband that I love very much and a great family as well.

So...go away rainy day blues.... I'm ready for the sunshine!

I love Fall

2009-10-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back...I hope....
I'm so loving the crispness of the beginning of our fall weather. I love lots of things about fall. It's a great time to be outside...I'm looking forward to some fall rides in the nice cool weather.

A few weeks ago, George and I were working outside and I kept seeing spiders webs...actually we've had a pet spider on the back porch for a while but it finally moved away.... this web was spun on the front porch...and the dew was glistening in the morning sun...I couldn't help but run back in for the camera to get a shot before the dew went away....

I love how crisp and clear the sky can be in the fall....I'm really bad about snapping photos while driving down the road...but don't worry...I don't take time to make adjustments...I just pick up the camera and snap snap snap and hope that something comes out ok. This was Sept. 26...after the golf tournament when I was driving to Bono....it was a beautiful afternoon...

I took a few shots on the way home too...(notice the bugs spots on the windshield).... the sunset was amazing that evening but it honestly didn't look anything like the photo...in real life, the sunset was all silvery bright and the clouds that the sun is going behind were glowing as well. But...I thought this was interesting as well.

A loss

2009-09-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

This day has been sad...I lost a co-worker friend today....last week she had an aneurism and surgery...she came through surgery fine but took a turn for the worse and today she passed away. She was an inspirational person. She was thrilled to work at Ozarka...to her it was a good place to be and a way for her son to afford to go to college. She had the worst job on campus....she cleaned the bathrooms in all of our buildings...3 times per day.... But, she was always cheerful, always doing a great job and so very pleasant. I'm going to miss seeing her....lucky for me, her janitors closet was right outside my office so I got to see her frequently. Rest peacefully Lesa...we will pray for your family.

Not much to say

2009-09-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

I've been quiet on the blogging front lately...just not much to say that I think would be interesting to anyone.....

Haven't been riding much lately...we set a time and date and then it rains....and since we set the date at the end of the weekend...it's too late to reschedule...

The boys have been coming to visit...they haven't been here the same weekend but they have both been home...and Ryan is coming in today to hunt in the Urban Deer Hunt at Horseshoe Bend and/or Cherokee Village.

Russell is liking school a lot and enjoying having roommates (haha) and looking for a job....he's like every other college kid...broke and having to share a room.....

I haven't heard from Nicole since she went home from her visit before school started but George usually talks to her during the week and she seems to be fine.

Ryan is good...he is still dating Leah....I think most of you have met her but if not, you probably will...she fits in nicely with us.

George is excited about the Urban Deer Hunt and he's ready to get some new goats...so maybe I'll have my goat blog back soon. We've been scouting for deer hunting location several times lately....

Me...I'm here...I'm working and in addition to that I'm teaching 2 College Success classes...I'm starting to look forward to the fall weather...it would be nice to ride Goldie on a nice cool day.

That's just a little update about us...not much going on that is exciting...just living our everyday lives.

Recession

2009-08-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

I'm really not diggin' this recession. I think I'm ready for it to end.

Laurel's visit

2009-08-16T08:16:00.001-07:00

Laurel came to visit us this weekend. We planned a little trail ride with some of our friends...we went to Rafter D's and met Karla and Fred there....they brought an extra mount so that we could all ride together. Laurel met John and rode him for the Trail Ride. John is a super good, mellow quarter horse that is very trustworthy. The ride didn't start off as "easy" as usual...Karla's little mule Pebbles was having a bad morning. They (Karla & Fred and their mules) ended up not making the ride with us, but they left John for us to use.

After the ride, George and Laurel rode the 4 wheeler. After checking the game camera, they decided to set a trap (live trap) for a raccoon...since there are 4 of them eating the deer corn. (They did manage to catch one...and transported it to another home).

They also did a little fishing on our pond...Laurel's first cast caught this handsome large mouth bass....After this it was time to fix dinner and settle in for the evening (George and Laurel fell asleep in the living room shortly after 9)

This morning, the last day of the visit, Laurel and George went for a little ride behind the house. They had some adventure as Goldie and Hat got a little skittish about something. Apparently Goldie made a quick retreat from the woods but Laurel didn't have a problem with it...she just kept on riding her.... Goldie is a little high strung sometimes and I worry about putting someone other than myself on her.... but she was doing great until she got spooked and according to Laurel she was fine after that too.

This is just a little parting shot of Goldie and Laurel at the end of their ride.

Soon we'll be taking Laurel home....and she and I are hoping to talk Uncle George into taking us to lunch somewhere on the way....

A little ride

2009-08-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

This evening after work, Nicole and I took a little ride around the property on Goldie and Hat. It's the first time for Nicole and Goldie to ride together. I think we had a pretty good time.

If the weather holds, we're borrowing John the Quarter Horse from Karla and going for a ride at Rafter D's tomorrow.

Come back by for updates on Nicole's visit.

A morning on the White River

2009-07-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

George and I went for a little fishing this morning. The river was so foggy that you could bearly see to navigate. I had wet hair by the time we motored from Red's Landing to the Norfork Trout Dock....but the first cast produced a rainbow trout...followed by the second cast repeating that..... of course we didn't have that result everytime...but it was a nice day on the river...

Here in the real world

2009-07-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

I'm suffering badly from vacation envy....several of my friends and co-workers are beach goers this summer....I know...what can I be whining about...I just got an awesome new truck.....and I'm happy....but I sure am envious of those people that are enjoying the beach.

I was sitting in the dentist's chair yesterday listening to the sound of her drill and I kept thinking how much more relaxing and fun it would be to hear the sound of the ocean...I was green with envy of Betty and her trip to Hawaii....and my friend Kim's trip to Destin...you can see how beautiful Destin was at www.kimwhitten.blogspot.com

Oh well...It's not like I'm not having a great summer....riding horses, going to the lake and doing a little fishing on the river.... :-)

Maybe I'll save my vacation time for the winter and go do something then.... :-)

The move to Nashville

2009-07-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

Friday we drove to Nashville to move Russell to begin school. It was a beautiful day and an easy trip there...everything went so well....you feel it coming don't you....here it is......UNTIL we went to the the appartment....it really wasn't an AWFUL place in it's own right...it had new furniture, a decent looking neighborhood etc....it was just the million other residents already inhabitating the place...I really had no clue where the boys would stay because the apartment was crammed full of roaches. I don't think I've ever seen that many roaches in one place.....completely GROSS..... The boys sucked it up though and after being assured by management that the apartment had been sprayed decided to stay.....as the afternoon wore on the bug population seemed to diminish (probably from the excellent "hunting" skills of George and his can of RAID)..... but after dark....the swarm began again....Russell called us (at our roach free hotel) to tell us that he wanted out in the morning.......So, Saturday morning we picked up the 2 Calico boys that were there and headed in to collegiate housing to get them moved to another apartment.....oh...more fun than anyone could ever want for a Saturday morning in a huge town with a great mall and tons of shopping...what better way could I be spending my time than sitting in a classroom that is being used as an office waiting for someone to decide that it's the right thing to do to move these boys into a room that didn't have a million roaches crawling around in it....oh...I forgot to mention that we came armed with ziplock bags full of roaches that the boys had collected as evidence.....along with several photos.....we met lots of NADC people.... the District Recruting Manager, the VP and the President herself.....it seemed that the only people the didn't think the boys should be moved was the "boss" at collegiate housing...the lady working with us was great and trying hard to get something done....finally over 3 hours later we finally had a new apartment.... no furniture for it until Tuesday but hey....we had the apartment....so we checked it out, finally got some lunch (and those of you that know me know that feeding me lunch at 2:30ish isn't the best idea if I don't get snacks in between...but I was being nice still)..... then we moved the boys out of Roach Haven and into The Cove. After we got them moved in we went shopping for their food and other supplies.....and finally we took them to dinner at about 9:00......but we got it all done.

Now they are all settled in and waiting for furniture.

When we were leaving this morning I made the observation that here's these redneck boys in this very nice attractive gated community of apartments with beautiful landscaping and retaiing walls ......I'm sure the community is wondering what just happened :-)

I'd post some of those photos but they gross me out still.

But, after all is said and done...I think things are good.

Happy Birthday to George.....hum......

2009-07-14T18:13:00.001-07:00

Well, today has been a very interesting day....it started out bad and got worse but then it got really great!

Today is George's birthday. He's not really big into celebrating his birthday but we always make a big deal about mine....so....today for his birthday, he bought me a new truck....go figure...aren't I a lucky girl.

It's a 2009 Chevrolet Silverado 4x4 Z71 with the LTZ package... white and a crew cab.... It has cashmere colored leather seats that are heated, dual air and remote start!!! I am so spoiled!!!

Weekend activities

2009-07-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

This has been a weekend of celebrating or sorts.... Russell had some friends over for a fish fry on Saturday and on Sunday we celebrated Geroge's birthday since the boys were both here. Leah came to visit this weekend too.

Here's George opening his cards...then his gifts. Oooh...Presents...we love presents. He got all sorts of new tack for his mule (a felt saddle blanket, a Billy Cook cinch, and a new snaffle bit) and some camo Croc flipflops and a drill bit sharpener.

Ryan and George went for a little ride about this morning too. Ryan had not seen Hat yet, so he rode him and we saddled Goldie for George to ride.

Russell watching George opening his gift.

Here's Ryan and Leah after the ride.... Cute couple. It was nice to have them in to visit. Leah was lots of help and she's a really nice girl. We miss having Ryan around so it's nice to have him come visit.

Everyone has gone home now and Russell is at work.. George has been running the bush hog and I've been doing more dishes and doing the laundry.... our dish washer got a real workout this weekend since I can't cook without making a mess....we had good food and good company....what more can you ask for.

A Horse and A Mule

2009-07-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm down to 1 horse and 1 mule.... Wink sold yesterday. We delivered him to Norfork last night....he has a nice new mommy that only has one horse (him) and she plans to love him and feed him and ride him every day (or so she says). If not, he can always just watch her Mercedes drive by as she spends her days of leisure not working...haha...just kidding. She has big plans for Wink and I think he will enjoy all of the attention.

July Journey Daily

2009-07-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

I'm joining my friends Kim and Joan in doing a July Daily mini book. This book has something in it for each day of July....sometimes it is just words and sometimes it is kind of scrapbookish. These photos are not the best but here's a little idea of what I'm doing. I hope to improve my skills with this daily project and make a little book of memories of my life.

Here's the cover....

July 1 - The first day of July...The Dawining of a Brand New Day for me in many ways... a new day in general...and a new beginning for Ozarka as the new President arrived.

July 2 - My life is simple. I enjoy a quiet simple life most of the time. I've become much calmer in my nature and enjoy things that I never would have thought that I would like. Such as picking blackberries....a yearly thing for me now.

July 3 - Picking Blueberries....like I said...I enjoy lots of things that I would have never thought about before....I picked Blueberries for the first time this day with some of my friends from work. It was a nice morning and we were done before it got good and hot. I also went for a ride on Goldie that afternoon with Fred and Karla Rush. George was supposed to go but he wasn't feeling good.

July 3 continued - Spending time with friends ....it's just really nice.

July 4 (this is a clear page so the color showing thru is my table) - I must have got what George had....I was sick until noon...then spent the afternoon in the house watching movies.....

July 5 - Today I felt good...so I worked in my garden....picked it, hoed it, tilled it and watered it....then Imade a trip to Wal-Mart for groceries ....and then George and I rode for a while...He rode Hat and I rode Wink....Goldie went along for the trip.

July 5 continued

July 6 - I'm doing a little/lot of reflection....all of the changes in my life at this moment cause me to think....I'm definitely not saying the changes are a bad thing but they are CHANGES.

Well...that's all for now...I'll post more as the month goes on.....

How we change

2009-07-06T19:16:00.001-07:00

This is me and Wink.....

I've been spending a little time most days (but not all) riding the horses.... Wink and I have been enjoying each other's company (haha...don't ask him about this) quite a bit lately. He's such a beautiful horse and can be such a sweetheart too...then there are the other times...but hey....no one is perfect.

I've also been playing in my garden and finding some fruit patches...I picked blackberries and blueberries over the weekend...why this intrigues me so much is really beyond me because now that I have the fruit...I don't know what I want to do with it....I think I'll make a cobbler out of the blackberries...but the blueberries....well....I gave some away and I froze some...and I'm eating some each day.....but the odd thing is that I didn't know I liked fresh blueberries (blueberry muffins yes...but fresh?) until after I went and picked 2 gallons.... I think it has something to do with the hunter gatherer urges that we are all born with....but....if you had told me 20 years ago or so that I would be doing this and enjoying it, I would have been laughing at you to your face.....my my how we change.

Trip to Texas

2009-06-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

George and I took a little trip to Texas this past weekend....Amarillo to be exact.... At one point I saw this cool reflection in my side window....so I turned around to get a photo of it....

On the way there we made a pit stop in Tulsa to have lunch at Costa Azule with my old boss, Tom. This is a photo of downtown Tulsa (where I used to work) as we were crossing the bridge over the Arkansas River.

We went to a wedding celebration for Dusty and Susie Johnston.... We had a great time visiting on Friday night, went sight seeing on Saturday and to the wedding reception on Saturday evening.

The sight seeing consisted of Cadillac Ranch and Palo Duro Canyon....
Here I have just added our names to the cars... and here's views of the row of cars from the front and back...I have shots of each one.......

This is a shot at the canyon..I have tons but my computer is uploading slow...so I'm just posting the one.... It was beautiful.

The Day of the Father

2009-06-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

Today is Father's Day.... we invited our Dad's to come to our house for lunch today. We had a small gathering...... My family...Dad (Tommy), Mom (June) & Thomas..... George's family (some of it).... Henry, Rita and Matt....and Russell was home....We had a nice long visit and plenty of food for lunch....

This is me and my Dad (Tommy)..... we're sitting on my deck in the new chairs that Henry got for Father's Day. I reverted to childhood and made my Dad's gift....a scrapbook of his family.
Here's our parents... in order ...... Henry, Tommy, June & Rita... for a while today we had a really nice breeze on the deck and used the canopy to block the sun...but we took advantage of the air conditioning for a large part of the day.....

This is my brother, Thomas. He's a great guy....I often wish I had the outgoing personality that he has...but, alas....I just do not.

And....here's George....kicked back waiting to open his Father's Day gift and watching golf (why????? oh why?????? I'll never know).....
I hope our Dad's enjoyed the day and know how much we do really love and appreciate them. I know we enjoyed it a lot!

Happy Fathers' Day to all.

The search is over....

2009-06-15T19:10:00.000-07:00

One fine day in the town of Heber Springs, AR, Suellen and I had a meeting....after the meeting, we stopped at a coffee shop for a little refreshment.... On the wall of this lovely little shop was a ceramic flat vase with a ceramic flower. Instant love....I knew that I MUST HAVE ONE! The nice young man that was running the coffee shop did not know where it came from because his mom decorated for him (Great job MOM)... So..... I took it off the wall to find out any infor that might be on the back....it happened to have lots of info.... Ganz Bella Casa Kathryn Youngs.....all these words were on the back....so....what could stop me from finding it!!!!

Well...guess what stopped me.... I couldn't find them anywhere...found lots of Bella Casa...lots of Kathryn Youngs but not this actual item.....I searched eBay...bought a half vase but still not what I really really wanted...... then...the depression set in (haha...just kidding).....but I kept checking occasionally.......

Well.... guess what.... Low and behold, Betty and I went to Heber Springs last Friday (great place for a girly trip)..... while hitting the lovely little shops on Main street we ventured off just about 1/2 block to The Pickett Fence and a book store that is close by..... We were wandering through the Pickett Fence shop and suddenly out of no-where.....I saw it.... hanging on the wall in front of me....the vase and flower....I know the shop owner thought I was insane....I squealed...and grabbed it off the wall like it was the last of the most popular christmas toys and the only thing on your kids wish list.... Then I rounded the corner and found more!!!! I was in shopping heaven..... my friend Suellen had wanted one too...but in the moment I just wasn't positive that she would still want one....Isn't texting awesome... in a matter of a few minutes I knew that she wanted one too....

So today, I took her's to the office....now Karla has ordered one from that shop for herself too..... and maybe a little something else as well....

Here's the photo....it' hangs in my scapping corner in the study!

A smile like that

2009-06-07T18:03:00.000-07:00

It sure was nice to see this smile today. George is pretty happy with his mule... and I'm very glad. He is a rather quiet man but he's been pretty expressive with his enthusiasm of this mule....

Russell (sporting his crazy summer doo) rode Hat for a little while today...after he was done he said "this is better than a 4-wheeler)....George really liked that ;-)
Did you notice that Russell and Hat have the same hair style....haha... and no, I did not dress Russell...That is entirely his OWN style.

I meant to take some photos of George on the ride today but left the camera in the truck....oh well... another time......

Way to go HAT.

Hat

2009-06-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well, George finally picked out a mule to add to our collection of animals. Today we went to Missouri to look at a mule named Hat. He is a very nice, large sorel mule. We went out for a couple hours of riding...I rode a very sweet mare named Dandy...I assure you she was a dream! Makes me hope for what Goldie can be.

Anyway, George is pretty happy with Hat so far....He's rather excited to have him...here's a peek....
George & Hat

George & Hat

Hat up close....

And a body shot of Hat....

Perfect Rice

2009-06-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, I got another subtle hint from my friend Kim about a recipe....
Who can't make rice....it's so easy...hahahaha yeah right! I have never been able to make really good rice...it's always hard or sticky.....so after I drooled over Kenda's perfect rice at work, she decided to give me the recipe.....

Here it is....

Perfect Rice!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees....

In a baking dish (casserole dish with lid) put....

1 cup white rice
2 cups water
some oil or butter
salt

Bake covered for 45 minutes at 350....
Remove from oven and fluff a bit.....

I've made it twice since she gave me the recipe and I never made rice...my husband always made our rice (I really do love rice).

Give it a try....how much easier could it be.... put it in the oven and forget it.

Lemon Parmesan Pasta

2009-06-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

My friend Kim threw out some rather large hints that I should post this recipe on my blog for all of my little blog reading friends to enjoy....trust me...enjoy is the word for this dish...along with simple and quick...amazingly easy...who knew something so easy would be so good....

Lemon Parmesan Pasta
Makes 3 1/2 cups.....takes 10 minutes
Cook 8 oz of angel hair pasta & drain
Toss with:
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
2 teaspoons minced lemon zest
salt and pepper to taste

That's it....

Now.... last night I sauteed some mushrooms in butter and stirred them in and gave the pasta an extra squeeze of lemon juice from that lemon that I got the zest from....and boy was that yummy too!

So...give it a try...and play around with it some....it's superb just following the recipe.....

Enjoy! oh...and by the way...that recipe came from the Cuisine at Home June 20006 magazine...

Shrooms

2009-06-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

George has a "little" project going on in a box under the house....he's growing button mushrooms...well...here's an example....hehehe...Now that he's grown this monster button mushroom, he's checking them a little more often so that he can harvest them at a more "button mushroom" size..... :-)

He thought comparing his hand to the mushroom would give you an idea of the actual size of the mushroom.

I sauteed this lovely mushroom tonight and added it to our lemon parm pasta....YUMMO!

Friday Review

2009-05-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

Well, Friday started off very foggy and we had a really heavy dew on the ground....so I had to wait until the afternoon to work on the yard. But, I got the yard mowed and the tick granuals spread....and we had company for dinner....Lonnie and Royce came out to pick up some goats so we had them stay for dinner....it was nice...good food - T-Bones, roasted potaoes, grilled cabbage, bread and black forest brownies....good company and good conversation! George is getting out of the goat business....we still have about a dozen out there but he's planning to sell out.....Wink is for sale as well....I have decided that I just love Goldie more and George wants to pick a horse or mule for himself...so Wink needs to find a new home....

This morning, I'm waiting for the gang to get ready to go to the lake.

Hello out there

2009-05-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

Well Hello everyone...it's been a while since my last update....I am very random sometimes and I've been playing on a new (to me) site....I get hooked on something new for a while and don't have time for everything....my new place is www.scrapinstyletv.com ...It's a site for scrapbookers....you sign up and become a sister and then you can view other layouts, talk to other scrappers, take challenges, etc...just tons of things....It's nice to get feedback on your layouts too.

I did some serious scrapbooking over the weekend. George let me have the whole day to Scrap on Sunday....it was very nice to create for a while.

Monday was supposed to be a lake day but the weather was bad and iffy all day.....so I cleaned out my closet and dresser, and went through the pantry....I'm going to use all of those strange ingredients that I thought I had to have....HOW? Not sure yet but I'm sure I'll think of something (poor George).

I worked Tuesday and then went to Gaston's Resort for a Retreat meeting ....just got back this afternoon...and since I'm working 4-ten hour days, I'm off until Monday (which is a trip to Little Rock for a meeting)....

So...what to do tomorrow? I started a list we'll see how far I get....I'm hoping to do the things that are outside.....and then Saturday maybe we can go to the lake!

I'm going to be better about posting here...so check back...don't give up on me.

A slacker I am

2009-05-19T19:03:00.001-07:00

According to my husband, I am a slacker. Apparently I am a slacker because I have not updated my blog and I so obviously have not had anything else to do..... (did you know my husband now sleeps in the goat pen with his goats :-))....

Here's what's been going on....
GRADUATION....Russell graduated on Friday night. YEAH!

Family in town......Our families came to visit...we got to show off the horses and goats.....Goldie and Wink were loving the attention.

Project Graduation....We worked a lot to get everything ready for project grad.....these boys are trying to unthaw a frozen t-shirt so they can untie the knots and get it on.....please....don't ask what all they did with that shirt before trying this....boys will be boys....

So that's what's been going on in my life...I'm really hoping to get everything back on schedule now.....

Yawn.....

2009-05-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

I want to type a big long blog post about graduation and all of the celebrations this weekend but I am just too tired....I am so so so tired...I've been up for 38 1/2 hours .....I think I'll go to bed instead.

Shoot!

2009-05-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to Loneoak to do a makeup shoot for our regional tournament. Our first team got to shoot but the second one got rained out. They are all milling around trying to get ready...and praying for the rain to hold off.

Here's Russell's team. They did pretty good...we have to wait for all of our district to finish their make up rounds to see whether we get to go to state to shoot.....

And..here's Russell taking a shot...

Cake

2009-05-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I made and decorated a cake....it seems like I just havne't had much time for that stuff but....I made one for Mom's birthday celebration. I had fun with it....It could have been smoother but it was still pretty (I think)...and even better than that...it tasted good.

A horse is a horse of course of course

2009-05-08T19:27:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since Goldie and Wink made the blog.

They are really enjoying all of the grass that the rain has brought on. For a while, they were doing a pretty good job of mowing the yard but they are way behind now.... We've given them free reign of the whole property (except for the goat pens) and they are enjoying that freedom. They still come to the house when you call them in (which is so great).....It looks like we're building a litte more fence this weekend so we can keep them out of the yard and the garden.

Speaking of the garden....I've planted mine and I'm hoping that huge rain we had today didn't drown everything. Some of my tomato plants looked a little worse for wear but they were still standing....so they've still got a chance. I need to get some tomato cages ready...I'm going with the "I have faith" attitude. I'm going to have a great garden this year.

Running on empty

2009-05-05T12:56:00.001-07:00

I think I'm tired...I think I'm wore plum out....and I think I still have a lot to do. Project Graduation has been a huge focus at our house...my wonderful husband built me a couple of walls to decorate...and then I painted (I'm not an artist) a backdrop to look like Santa Fe..... uhhhhhhhh....well, it'll do...I need art lessons....haha....

It's always hectic at graduation time...getting the house ready, all the extra activities, getting the food on...but its fun and well worth all the effort. I think I've got something to do every evening next week...

Looks like we're going to have a busy time.

Ears or no ears....

2009-04-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

We have more baby goats...but I will spare you the photo log of each one....but you've just got to see this one.... He is a La Mancha goat...check out the lack of ears...don't worry, he's not deformed...that's the way he is supposed to be. His Mom is a La Mancha goat....but I don't think the daddy is...The brother has regular ears.

I think I'll name them Vince and Eddie. Vince for the La Mancha...you know...Vincent Van Gogh (haha) and since Vince sounds so "Brooklyn" I thought Eddie would be a good match.

Flowers bloom

2009-04-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of the flowers in my one and only flower bed. Over the weekend, I noticed that things were starting to come alive...and today, when I was driving across the cattle guard, I noticed how much more they had opened up....and then I remembered why I had picked them out in the first place.

If you look closely at this one, you will see a tiny grasshopper on the flower...didn't notice this when I was taking the photos... yeah! Bonus!

Making a splash

2009-04-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday, we stopped by the trout hatchery by the Norfork Dam.... George bought some fish food to lure some big trout in for a photo for my color group....While shooting those photos I got this cool splash photo.....Way cool.... click on the photo to enlarge it and see how cool it really is....

This link will take you to the Color Fun group ....take a look sometime...it's quite interesting....
http://tinyurl.com/dazh79

I'm thinking that I would really like to make a splash myself...

Feelings transcend

2009-04-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

OK, we all know I'm the "crazy goat lady" but....it seems that we all have similar feelings about our Mothers...

Mother's day is coming soon and in an early moment of honor, I am posting a goat photo. This photo is Minnie and her Mommy, Mable. Minnie is showing her mommy a little care and attention...it was such a sweet moment to see that I had to snap a photo to share.

huh......

2009-04-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'm tired.

Whew...what a week

2009-04-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a crazy feeling week but it's been fun as well...
I was supposed to have jury duty this week but no trials are scheduled....I was supposed to go to Little Rock for a meeting but it was cancelled..... so my calendar looks all junky with all the scribbles......

Monday started with the birth of 2 new baby goats...Gloria had two little boys....and then there was an afternoon trip to Mountain Home for a Dr. visit...just a checkup...all is well...
Tuesday was an afternoon trip to Mountain Home for a Taste of Home Cooking School Show...truck trouble for George....difficult animals.....and it made for a long day.....but the cooking show was a lot of fun.
Today is just Wednesday and I'm tired...
Thursday is the Spring Carnival from 4-7 at Ozarka.....
Saturday and Sunday will be spent in Fayetteville visiting Ryan and Leah.....

I sure am glad I'm not taking classes right now. :-)

Goat Names

2009-04-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, today I was asked if I really name all of the goats and if I could name them. I said yes to both...here's the list....
1-3 Mable and her babies Minnie and Max
4-6 Cybil and her babies Bonnie and Clyde
7-8 Ninnie and her baby Ned
9 Meg
10 Goldie
11 Aggie
12 Annie (Aggie's baby but she's grown)
13 Lily
14 Tillie
15 Connie
16 Jenny
17 Alice
18 Hattie
19 Carrie
20 Cate
21 Ben
22 Jerry
23 Gloria
Leon (Borrowed)

Easter (photo heavy)

2009-04-12T17:47:00.000-07:00

Today is Easter....Happy Easter to all!
George and I went to Pocahontas to visit with some of his/our family today. Henry, Rita, Mohamed, Helen, Fatena, Hailey, Katie, Paul, Christie, Katie Grace and Laurel were there (along with the dogs...Tess & Max)... It was a very nice day even though the weather didn't exactly cooperate. Easter should be warm and sunny for all of those beautiful springy Easter frocks to be worn.....alas, a lot of sweaters were worn today all around....We got there early so that we wouldn't have as much competition for Fatena's favor....she's such a cutie pie!
Here's Uncle George with Fatena.

Grandpa and Fatena sharing a hug.

Henry and George....like father like son...we always have them grilling.

The ladies (except for me and Rita...we were taking photos).

Mohamed and his dog Max. Max isn't like Tess (my spoiled rotten K-9). Max has a real job...he's a guard dog and very good at his job.

Laurel has a lot of affection for Tess. Tess has grown up playing with Laurel and Katie Grace at our family get-togethers. Even in the cold and rain, Laurel was willing to hang out with Tess.

Another photo.... Me and Fatena...Tess had a little jealously problem but she survived. As it happens, Fatena likes dogs, so she was fine with Tess hanging out with us.

I know I took some photos of Rita but as it happens it was with her camera. I'm going to have to ask her to email them to me. I also didn't get a shot of Paul today. He was entertaining the ladies during their photo and I never got a shot.

My color group is working on purple this week. I knew I could find some purple at Rita's house. She has the most wonderful flowers...so I knew she had to have some purple ones.... I was in luck! All sorts of blooms going on today.

I hope you all had a great Easter holiday...and along with chasing the Easter Bunny remembered the "OTHER" Easter story....Peace be with you all!

Prom and other early April things

2009-04-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was Russell's Senior Prom at Calico Rock. I took a few photos on the deck before he left....we ususally go into the yard but it had rained and I didn't want him to get all wet. Russell is such a nice looking and nice in general young man. I hope he had fun at the prom. I haven't got to ask him yet because he went to Oklahoma for Easter.

I've been experimenting with my camera and I have some good photos of Tess from today. We worked in the goat pen today...moving logs and brush, painted the horse barn and other assorted outdoor things....Tess and I sat in the yard for a while after we walked around and played with the camera.... and I took her picture....

Just found out that we're going to go to Pocy tomorrow for a while....we'll get a chance to see Fatena again :-)!! Haven't seen her since Christmas and I know she's grown so much!

Happy Easter!

Another baby today!

2009-04-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

Ninny had her baby goat today....she only had one and it's a little boy. I got to go find her and be the first one to see her baby....I brought them up the hill and put them in the "baby pen"...In case I haven't said this before on my blog, I love baby goats...they are soooooo cute!
Here's momma and baby in the goat house....

Here's baby goat...Ned....

I went to the hay barn this evening too. There's a nice dogwood tree that is starting to bloom down there (they are all over but this one was easy to get to)...I love when the blooms are just coming out and they are a greenish white color...then suddenly they are completely white. I have a beautiful pink dogwood tree in my front yard and the blooms are coming out but I haven't taken a photo of it yet this year.

Spring

2009-04-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

It's beginning to look more like spring around here....my dogwood trees are starting to bloom...the animals are all having their babies, the sun is shining and the wind is blowing...and the butterflies are fluttering by.

I was playing with my camera Friday afternoon after I planted some things in my garden. I thought these two shots were pretty good.

It's been a strange weekend....did a little shopping in Batesville on Saturday with Betty....I bought myself a couple of new skirt/jacket sets...very springy/summery....I'm excited to get to wear them. The horses had some adventures as well....first Wink broke the fence because Goldie got to go out and he didn't...then in the afternoon, they wandered off while hey were supposed to be grazing. George found them though...just back in the woods but quite a ways back.

I rocked baby Minnie today...she was such a sweet little thing...baby goats are so cute....