Weekend festivities

This is just a bonus picture because it is so cute. She was helping me get the cat Laverne (AKA Lala) out of the house. The other one is Shirley (AKA Batcat)

Somebody got a taste :)

Friday night LK's Aunt Nancy came to stay with us and join Lane and I for concealed handgun license class on Saturday. We sure enjoyed having her and wish she could've stayed longer! The class was very informative and actually pretty enjoyable. We all passed and will get licenses soon...Lane was just renewing his. Can you see the large hole in the middle on the target in Lane's right hand. That was his. He's a pretty good shot :) The target in his left hand was mine...not too bad, I scored a 95.6. You can't really see the holes in it as well since they were a bit more scattered, but they are mostly all in the 3 inner rings. Go me.

We rushed home to get ready to celebrate Mom's birthday at our house. I've always thought you should know my Mom's age because she sure doesn't look it. She may disagree with me opening my big mouth, but I doubt she'll be too upset:) She is one of those ladies that seems to never age. It's too bad I don't have her genes! Mom turned 64 on Sunday. She is one of the most graceful, genuine, and generous people you'll meet. I am so blessed to call her Mom. We celebrated Saturday evening with Pioneer Woman's homemade pizza and red velvet cake...made by yours truly. I highly recommend both recipes. This was my first time to bake the cake and it was wonderful. I had to send the leftovers home with everybody so I didn't eat it all. I'm known for taking a fork to the fridge and having a bite, over and over again.

Lena Kate helping Mimi make a wish and blow out the candle.

LK getting a taste

The ladies (minus me) enjoying couch time together

Aren't my parents cute?!

Mom and Granny (who will be 89 this year...you can see who she gets her aging gene from. That is her natural hair color!)

On Sunday we had another special visitor as LK's Great Kelley stopped in for lunch on her way to the coast. We had more homemade pizza, salad, and brownies. She was so sweet to bring LK some fun books and me some pretty flowers. Thanks Kelley. We are enjoying them. We had a great visit before she got on her way. Then we rested a bit and made our way to the coast too. We met Kathryn and Jeff White (Lane's college friend and her husband) and 2 of their friends in Port Aransas for dinner and visiting. We had a great time getting to see them and enjoy a nice dinner. Lena Kate also got to enjoy more time with Mimi and Papa...she loves that:)

This week we've been getting ready for the rain and are about to go make mustang grape jelly. The grapes grow wild in the back of the pasture in the creek bed. It is quite a laborious process but the jelly is AWESOME. Dad decided at the 11th hour last night that we were going to do this today...geez, thanks for the planning. Of course, he's at work! I'm off to Mom and Dad's. See ya later, hopefully with some pictures of the process.

Thursday Lena Kate gets her cast off---woohoo!

Nada Mucho

Don't really have much for ya, but thought I'd share a few pics of sweet LK. We have a BUSY weekend planned here. I'll give ya the lowdown next week.

SAD GIRL :(

MUCH BETTER :)

She poos in blue!

She LOVES to wear Mama and Dada's shoes

Case and point...and our weekend :)

So last week I mentioned the ABUNDANCE of spiders around here lately, then I openned the door and saw this friendly looking guy hanging right outside the door...that is the bottom of the storm dorr y0u see below him. YIKES.

Then, later that day I needed to clean the animals' outside water bowl. I had it inside in the sink and had been scrubbing for awhile when I decided I better check to ensure there weren't any spiders under the rim. I guess intuition was working because guess what was there-A BLACK WIDOW! I think I heart raced for hours after that. Look how scary it was. It was in the rim and when I stuck the brush in to see what kind of spider it was since I just expected it to be a fuzzy jumping spider that is harmless....um see what walked out!!!! NOT HARMLESS!!! THANK GOD for protecting me from this guy. I promply killed it after I took this picture...call me crazy for stopping to take one, but I needed proof. Lane also killed 3 of these earlier in the week. Bug spray galore has been happening since and even before, but more so now. I will also be getting a dog bowl without a crevice for bad spiders to hang out in.

OK, this picture didn't turn out, but you can still see the RED marking at the bottom of this DEAD spider.

OK, now on to MUCH more pleasant thoughts!!! I just thought I'd warn yall to be careful this season since it has been fairly wet and spiders are abundant.

We had a nice Father's Day weekend here in HOT South Texas. Friday night we took dinner to Clay and Erin Jostes. They just had their first child-John Lee. He is the sweetest little guy. I got to hold him and just soak up the newborn feel. He is so tiny compared to Lena Kate. She seemed huge when I tucked her in that night. Mama was a little sad that her baby is growing up, but I'm not quite ready for another infant yet...soon, I'm sure :) We ate with them and enjoyed the enchiladas, rice, beans and guacamole...I think it was Clay's favorite. Clay and Lane road around their ranch while I got baby time and to visit with Erin. Lena Kate was a good girl, other than destroying John Lee's room in under a minute. She had to dump out his toys and books, and CDs...whew, she was busy. She would sweetly pat the baby and say "bebe". I think she'll be a great big sister one day.

Saturday morning Lane and I went down to the caliche pit to target practice. I'm going to get a concealed handgun license. I don't intend on carrying often, but feel more prepared and able if needed. You just never know what is going to happen with goverment these days and just think it is a good idea. Lane is renewing his too. I'd have to say it was fun to target practice and tougher to hit that red bulls-eye than I thought! Lane's 9 mm is a bit big for me, but I warmed up pretty well. Then on Saturday afternoon, Juli and I ran at 4:oo pm...NOT A GOOD IDEA...it was rather warm so we only made 2 miles...but at least we did that! Then we met Juli and Blaine and a group out for dinner in Beeville at The Cistern. It was great food and company. I think Lane and I both enjoyed a night out since Mom and Dad kept Lena Kate...all night! I'm pretty sure she didn't miss us, but she was excited to see me when I picked her up, so I'll take what I can get.

Sunday we went to church and then Lena Kate and Lane had Daddy time. She was pretty worn out because she took a 3 hour nap-the longest ever!

I think LK looks JUST like her Dada in this picture. I had her hair pulled up and also a ponytail in the back. She has been rockin the 80's side pony lately.

silly girl!

Love those pretty eyes!

Everybody needs a Missy footrest

I hope everyone had a great weekend and Monday morning. Many blessings to you all!!!

Complete and total randomness

Silly Willy

Everybody has to have a messy spaghetti picture right? (pre-broken arm:( )

Not too much exciting is going on around here, and I'm perfectly find with that! Lena Kate is about to be 18 months old-when did my baby become a toddler?! She is so busy, broken arm and all. She loves her babies these days. The other day, I watched her feed her baby, give it milk, stroll it around in the stroller, carry her, and then cover her with a blankie. It is sooo sweet. She loves shoes, or should I say she has a love hate relationship. If she doesn't want to wear the pair I chose she will throw a fit. Boots will always work for her though...no surprise there! She still tries to "ride" her cars that are to push with your hand..it is funny, trust me. It looks like when clowns ride those little bitty trikes. She is also enjoying movies and TV shows more. Sesame Street, Barney, and Caillou on PBS are her favorites. She also likes the backyardigans. Don't worry, I don't just park her in front of the tv and check out. We are usually playing most of the time. When she gets a bit tired in the afternoon we may put on a movie for a little quiet time.

Lena Kate is also filling out. At her dr's appt last week she tipped the scales at at whopping 21.3 pounds. This is big for her, she is even getting little dimples on that cute hiney! She is also picking up new words all the time. Her newest favorite is "STAY". She tells Missy to stay and the kitties to stay, and sometimes the tree to stay. What a character.

The worst part about the broken arm is no fun bath time. She is really missing it and I feel so bad when she gets upset that she can't play in the tub. I've found Glad Press and Seal to be a great protector and will stick to her skin at the top to protect her cast from water, but it doesn't hurt to remove it either:)

The garden is doing well, we are finally getting okra...and it is TASTY. Of course, I would love it fried. Toss a little chopped okra in a little water, then add flour and salt and pepper and fry up. It is as simple as that and my favorite way to have it. The bugs and spiders in the garden are driving me crazy. I HATE spiders and there are all kinds out here, lots of psychedelic scary colored ones. We also have black widows, Lane saw 2 the other day-YIKES! I am careful to check Lena Kate's outside toys before she plays with them. Back to the garden, we have a tomato surplus around here. We have tons of cherry tomatoes and Mom and Dad have tons of LARGE ones. Unfortunately, I don't even like raw tomatoes.

On a good note for me, I've been working out every day again-yippppee! I have a super fun workout partner-Juli Laechelin. We are having fun laughing, talking, working out and chasing our kiddos together. I thank God for bringing us together. It is so nice to have a friend close going through the same life experiences. It has been great getting to know her. We are going to run a 1/2 marathon together in Corpus on Oct 17th. I like having a goal to work towards:)

Yes, this is a totally random post..sorry if you are bored! For those of you in close vicinity to an HEB, get in your car and go buy a carton of Poteet Strawberry Creamy Creations ice cream. It is soooooo good! So much for losing weight! I got it for LK-hahahahaaha. Actually, she loves it as much or more than I do.

Pretty in Pink

What happened pretty girl?

Still drinking her "nok" AKA milk

Got my baby and I'm getting outta here!

HOT PINK-that is. Fortunately, Lena Kate was a very good girl when getting her cast, just looked at the nice man doing it and waved bye-bye when he was about 1/2 way done. I guess she was ready to go. She has a clean break in her forearm and has to wear the cast for 3 weeks. It isn't fun, but it could be alot worse. We are grateful for quick healing baby bones.

Broken

My poor baby has a broken arm:( She fell off the console in Granny's car last week-we weren't driving, we were looking for Granny's lost glasses, so don't get any crazy ideas. She managed to sorta roll off the back and apparently landed on her arm. She cried for awhile when she did it and wouldn't use it for a little while, but she bounced back pretty quickly and was using it and moving it all around so I guess we figured it was just sprained. Yesterday she fell in the dirt and still came up holding her arm so Lane suggested I take her to get it looked at since she was favoring it still if she fell on it just right, and I agreed. Did I mention that she was swinging from the rings and holding her entire body weight up and enjoying it over the weekend-WITH A BROKEN ARM!!!! Somehow right after the x-rays before they said anything, I just knew it was broken....I was right. When the told me my stomach dropped and I felt sick. I feel so bad for not taking her last week. Fortunately, her doctor was very understanding and said it happens all the time when they don't come in until a week later. She sent us on to an orthopedist to check her out and cast it if that is what they think it needs since she is so small. She fractured the larger bone in her forearm just above her wrist. I'll be waiting for the call tomorrow on when they can take us. Until then she is in a splint wrapped with an ace bandage. She would rather it not be on her but she doesn't seem to mind it too much. I figured she'd be more miserable than she is. I managed to snap a couple of pictures yesterday afternoon.

Poor Baby! I promise she didn't wear tennies all day with her dress. I found a GREAT sale at Stride Rite in bewteen dr's appt. yesterday and she wanted to teste them out..yes, I promise she wanted to put them on.

Doesn't this next picture just make you sad? I found a new use for Glad Press and Seal. It keeps a broken arm clean during mealtime.

Hoping the rest of the week gets better!!!!

Corn SWEET Corn

This Memorial Day we spent the afternoon upholding a lifelong family tradition. We put up sweet corn. Every year Uncle Ray plants several rows of sweet corn. On a good year, it just can't be beat. It is really my all time favorite food, I'd have to say. We all gather at my Granny's house and everyone has a job. First we pick the corn, then somebody is chopping and shucking, several are silking, then there is a team in the kitchen that blanch, chill, then cut the corn off the cob. Then it is bagged for the freezer so we can enjoy this yummy treat all year long. Add a little butter, salt and pepper and you will be in heaven....or close, in my mind. I just know there is an endless supply of fresh buttered sweet corn in heaven waiting for me. I never had corn out of a can growing up-still don't for that matter. I'm so thankful this was a good year and the freezer is stocked. I have so many fond memories of this fun and exhausting day each year. I surely hope and pray for many more. Lena Kate had a good time too:)
This year's crew (minus me)

Our helper

Notice how tall the field corn is in the background behind the few rows of sweet corn. It is a great year for corn here...these years are rare. Do not notice how "lovely" I appear in this picture...remember-we were working!

OH-YUMMY!

I have several more pictures to post from our day o fun...but blogger is slow....just sayin.

Hope you all have a blessed week!

San Angelo Family Fun

We spent this Memorial Day weekend in San Angelo with Lane's family and had a great time! We got to see everybody...Leelee, Grandpa, Uncle Trent, Aunt Nancy (Nee-as LK calls her), NeNe, Papa, Great Mimi, Great Kelley, Uncle Chip (aka jeffe), Uncle Chili, Aunt Carla, Cousin Annabelle, Cousin Megan, Corley, and Minnie,! Whew-we did lots of visiting and pretty much stayed in and let Lena Kate entertain us except for a venture out to lunch while to guys golfed on Sunday. Miss Annabelle graduated from high school and is headed out to Ole Miss this fall, so there were many congrats to her. She is such a beautiful sweet girl and just adores Lena Kate, as do we all!

We had some great food as always. Lena Kate got to play in the water fountain and with the waterhose so she was a happy girl. Here are a few pics from our weekend.

Enjoying some carrots and ranch at Cheddars. She decided she loves it-uh oh!

I told Lena Kate and Sammy Jo to smile for the camera. SJ is Great Kelley's new boxer-what a sweet BIG girl. She loved giving LK kisses.

Splashy splashy. (Mom made her this cute top)

Playing with Cousin Corley-they are 2 peas in a pod and followed each other everywhere wanting what the other had...just like cousins should!

Uncle Chili and Aunt Carla brought Lena Kate a Zhu Zhu pet which died a quick death after 2 dips in the fountain...it was cute before that! Maybe she'll get a replacement. It actually still worked after the first bath.

Milk break. Doesn't she look so big/old in this picture..makes Mama sad.

Hangin with Papa


Sorry Leelee and Grandpa-I didn't get a picture of all of yall this time!

We had a surprise waiting for us when we got home. The sweet corn was ready, and we spent the entire day Monday putting up sweet corn. It is soooo good. I'll tell the story of that tradition in my next post.