Happy Birthday!!!!

It's always fun to actually be able to surprise someone for their birthday.  This year we were able to do just that to my mother-in-law, Ava.  Dec 4th was her 80th birthday and the family wanted to gather together to celebrate in her honor.  It was decided that the 3rd was a better time for all to be able to meet so, the Parker's gave her a call as we drove to her house, a little over 2 hours away and invited her to lunch.

The plan you see, was to take her to her favorite restaurant.  The surprise would be that the rest of the family would already be there.  It worked.  She was surprised.  ;o)   It was a great lunch at a seafood place called The Oyster Bar.  Unfortunately, not everyone could make it, but we still had a super crowd and it was an awesome time of fellowship.

Here are some pictures of the event:

Caleb and Nee Nee as she opened her present.

Wordless Wednesday

Praying Mantis

Wordless Wednesday - Just Feet

All legs curled - cute!

Forgotten Birthday

I'm shuffling through my photo's and it just hit me.....I forgot to blog a very important birthday in October.  The birthday itself was not forgotten, but with our busy schedules I didn't get the photo's on here.

So, Randy turned 16 on Oct. 10th.  Hard to believe that he is nearly 1/2 way through high school and can be "on his own" in 2 1/2 years...It seems like yesterday that I was looking at a 9 lb 2 oz new bundle of joy.  Gee whiz, time flies too fast.  I always heard, the older you get, the faster it goes.  I now know exactly what everyone means when they say that.

This birthday was a special one for Randy.  Probably because it was his 16th.  The older you get, then less significance is placed on a birthday and a party.  Last year he had a really fun party while at his dad's house complete with a Murder Mystery, family and friends.  This year he just wanted to have dinner out with his family.  

So I did my best to gather everyone, around RANDY'S busy band schedule, and pull together a dinner at Pier 99 over on the beach.

Not pictured was big brother Dusty and family, cousin Zach and his wife.  Not sure why I didn't get pictures of everyone.  I suppose conversation and chatter was enough of a distraction.  The fellowship was good, the food was okay, and the music in the back round was old country and fun, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbel type of stuff.  Brought back memories.  LOL

Wishing Randy another wonderful year....

Hugs,

Another Play - "Anatomy of Grey"

Anatomy of Grey was the name of the play that the Theater Department did at Tuloso Midway mid-November.  Randy landed a part in the play as the preacher in a small town.  This small town had people getting sick and no one knew why.  Dr. Grey shows up and does his best to treat all the patients, but people are dying and they can't figure out what's wrong.  There were definitely some funny scene's throughout the play to make you laugh, but there were also those that tugged your heart strings and yanked a few tears out of your eyes.

Entire cast at the end of opening night.

The Pied Piper

Just in case there is someone out there who wonders how the mystery in the garage is coming along....here's an update for you.  The mess came back....big and huge, just like before.  This time, Johnny decided that multiple traps needed to be set and we should probably use the old fashion kind.  SNAP!!  In addition to that, we bought a metal trash can to keep the cow feed in.  So, no more bags for the little guys to chew their way through!!  Aha!  Now we'll get ya!!

First night?   Four for four....yes, four full traps...Geeshh!!  And one broken one in the process.  I won't tell you how that happened exactly, but it was broke.

Second night?  Only three traps left to set, since 4 minus one broken one equals, well, three.  Ha!   We were three for three that night.....bbbuuutttt, one trap is missing.  Disappeared somewhere amongst the boxes.  Poor thing got snapped....then tried to crawl away... UGH!!  I can only imagine how we'll find that guy eventually.

Then we were out of town for a few days over Thanksgiving.  That will give the little fella's some time to get comfy again, and maybe a little bit hungry in the process.

So, at least the mystery is solved.  Mice.  Lots of them, must crawl up inside the hole in the feed bag and participate in the happy-dance.  Can you imagine sitting on top of, and being surrounded by, your favorite food?  Well, that's what they were doing.  And the more they ran around squeaking for joy and sinning by gluttony....the more that feed trickled out the quarter-sized hole in the bag and made it's way all over the floor around it.

Makes complete and perfect sense.  Did I want to believe our garage was being overtaken by a herd of mice?  Um, no....And do I enjoy the notion that we have to set traps to get rid of them?  Um, no....But, they are completely and totally destructive.  Not to mention gross when you notice the most obvious sign they leave behind on the ground.  :(

If I could just evict them like a landlord does to a tenant, I would....but they have come to love the comforts our garage provides and I don't expect a 30 day notice letter would have them packing their bags and vacating our property.

So, we've waged war....and have every intention of winning.

Warm fuzzies,

Boat Ramp Exploration

I posted a short while back about our impromptu trip to Austin with Johnny.  On our last day, we had to check out of the hotel a little while before daddy was done with his meetings.  What could I possibly find to do, inexpensively, to keep a 6 yr old from being bored while we waited?

As it would happen, it had been a while since I'd been to this location and as we made our way towards the Bank, I missed our exit by 15 or 20 yards or so.  I was SO tempted to just back up along the edge of the highway to make it back to the driveway we needed to get into, but the cars were really flying by in that area and it was obviously not a safe thing to do.

So, I kept on going, made the next turn around, which brought me somewhat past where we wanted to be to turn around and back track.  As we made our way through the turn around, I realized we had the perfect opportunity to stop and kill some of the time we had to wait for dad.  This perfect spot?  The city boat ramp, of course.

Caleb had the best time.  For the first 5 minutes he was a bit timid around the water and the skimpy shore  it had.  But, it didn't take long and he was venturing out, climbing, and having the very best time!  Here are a few photos of our spur of the moment school lesson as this was around the time we were studying shells, beaches, oceans and waves.

Don't be surprised if you see this post on our home school blog as well....these were great pictures and I just couldn't decide where to share them...