WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Meet Brixton aka Meatball, our youngest "grand-dawg".  His face says it all. 

It's Wordless Wednesdays over at The Miller Racing Family.  For more photos, hop on over and see Tanya.  You will be glad you did!

THANK YOU, ANGELA!

Recently, I was honored with an award from a new friend!  Angela over at Just Me....Photography won a Beautiful Blogger award and she was sweet enough to pass it along to me. How about that?!

I absolutely love her blog and admire her photography gift.  If you want to see a truly beautiful gift at work, you should go visit Angela.  I've had some email contact with her since we "met" and she is not only a gifted artist and a dedicated mother to her son; but, she is a beautiful lady.    Thank you, Angela!  You blessed my heart when you thought of me.

Blog Awards always come with their own set of rules and one thing you will find about me these days is that I'm a rule follower or at least I try to be.  So with that in mind, I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself.  

This is hard for me and probably why it always takes me so long to publicly acknowledge the awards that I receive.  I think that the facts that I share with you should be interesting and quite frankly, I don't know anything about me that fits that criteria.  I will give it a shot though and tell you a few things on my mind.  Will that work?

I feel the "winds of change" blowing around here and I say...."Bring it on!".

I am excited and scared about it all at the same time.

I am feeling the need to rid my life of a lot of "things" and live lightly.

Even though I find myself needing to live lightly and minimize the things around me, I'm a pack rat and find it hard to actually get rid of things in my life.

I made the first pass at doing that very thing yesterday and was somewhat successful.  I think it will take multiple passes to get to the place that I need to be.

I see a journey in my future which should bring a lot of blogging material.

If I am going to successfully transition into this new phase of my life, I am going to have to be really successful at simplifying my life and getting rid of a lot of things.

Just sharing this with you right now excites me and gives me some energy to get up and get started on it again!

So that was my 7 things.  I don't know how interesting you found that list; but I'm feeling excited about the future.  I think just telling you about it was part of the process!

The next thing that I must do as recipient of this great honor is to pay it forward to 7 blogs.  Although it is not a requirement, I like to pass awards on to those who haven't received that particular award before.  I may miss that from time to time; so if you get the same award twice, feel the love!

So here we go!  In no particular order, here are my Beautiful Blogger award nominees....

Jen at A Girl in Pearls & A Boy with Toys

Jen at Cabin Fever in Vermont

Pat at Gypsy Heart

Susi at Susi's Blog in English

Glenda at A G's Life

Kai at Fourty and FLABulous

Susan at This Day!

If you get some time, go meet these beautiful ladies!  You will be glad you did!

PHOTO ROULETTE

GOOD MORNING!
 

It is PHOTO ROULETTE time over at MISCHIEF and LAUGHS.  I know that it technically says "Friday" but Cara is so sweet to extend the time to enter until Tuesday!  That is good for people like me who like to play but can't seem to get one posted on Friday.  

 

The theme for this week is the 3rd folder, the 25th picture.  I view all of my photos in Picasa and they are very disorganized.  I spend way too much time blogging to organize them.  That is a project for another day!  So having said that, this is the 25th picture in a folder that appears to be the 3rd one.

This photo is of my "baby", Connor.  The original photo was taken in color; but, I used this photo in a black and white photo collage of our kids.  

I took this photo last summer in the harbor in Sunapee, New Hampshire while we were visiting.  One of my stepsons got married last summer and we took the time to have a family vacation.  This was the first time that we had all of our kids in the same place at the same time.  Since we have a blended family and they are scattered in various locations, it has been difficult to get every kid together at the same time.

 

The weather was beautiful the week we were vacationing up there and we had rented brand new Mustang Convertible to drive around.  This particular day, the wedding festivities were over and my husband, step-daughter, Connor and I went out riding around and exploring the area.  It was a wonderful day of making memories.   I have lots of photos from that trip taken with my little point and click.  This is just one of many.

This morning, I peeked in over at MISCHIEF and LAUGHS to get the button code for the week and saw that there are several entries already.  I am looking forward to linking up and viewing all of the great entries this week.   

Have a great weekend!

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN LORRAINE? and FOLLOW FRIDAY- 40 AND OVER

Here's a little funny to jump start your Friday!  We have all misheard lyrics over the years, I'm sure.  Some artists are just hard to understand, right?  I have a friend who thought for YEARS that Gary Wright was singing about "James Weaver" instead of "Dream Weaver".  Bless her heart for finally admitting that to us at Girl's Night one night!  ha!  We all got good laugh out of that one.

I don't think anyone was misheard more than John Fogerty from Creedence Clearwater Revival.   So this morning, I thought I would share one of my favorites with you.  It always gives me a chuckle to see this person's take on what CCR might have been trying to say in this song.  I hope you enjoy it.

And because it's Friday....and my favorite day of the week.....it's time to linkup with my friend, JAVA, over at NEVER GROWING OLD for her great Friday party.....

This is a great time to make new friends and find some new blogs to read.  I'm heading over there now and hope you will join me!

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - NUFF SAID!

And that's how we do Wordless Wednesdays down here in da bayou! 





For some more great photos and to participate in this fun party, go see Tanya over at The Miller Racing Family.  

You will be glad you did!

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

WEEKEND ROAD TRIP!

Since we had an appointment Friday morning to get the windows tinted on our new car at the dealership in Shreveport....

And since we were already part of the way to Houston...

And since our wonderful salesman over there had promised to fill our tank up with gas...

And since my stepdad was out of town for the weekend and my Mom was home alone.......

What better time to make a road trip, right?  

So after our car was all tinted up, we headed south to Houston for a weekend of relaxation and fun. 

We arrived in time to head out for some of those wonderful fajitas at Ninfas for dinner.  I'm sorry to say that I forgot to put the chip back into the camera after uploading my photographs the last time so I was unable to take photos of our meal.  You remember how yummy they looked last time though, right?  

Consistency is something that you can count on at Ninfas and they were just as yummy this time.  Of course, we ate way too much!

And what should you do when you have eaten way too much good food?  Go home....lay on the couch and watch a movie, of course!  It was pretty funny, by the way!

Saturday morning, I did something that I rarely ever do.....  I slept in...and it felt soooo good.  I guess I needed it after all the drama that we have had going on this summer.

The weather was so brutally hot on Saturday that I really had little energy to do anything other than lay around in the air conditioning, visit with my Mom and relax.  What a nice day!

While I did that, David took the opportunity to head out in search of Fuller's Vintage Guitar.  He has wanted to visit this place for awhile and get his hands on some really nice and very expensive Taylor guitars.   Since music stores are not a lot of fun for me, Saturday was the perfect day for him to do that.  While he was out, he was sweet enough to stop by and grab another chip and chip reader for my camera so that I didn't go through any more withdrawals than necessary.

So I did not make it Niko Niko's or to the cool shops down in Montrose or to Ikea like I had thought that I might do while in Houston, but I did manage to go for some incredible pizza Saturday night.

We have had pizza on our minds lately and what better pizza to try than  Wood Fired Pizza Co.,  voted one of the top restaurants in all of Houston!  

 

This little restaurant, tucked away in a strip mall, in Cypress, Texas is well worth the drive over to experience it.   They have all of the traditional toppings to choose from along with some spectacular gourmet options.

Nothing traditional for us!  We chose the Mediterranean Vegetable.....

And the Wood Fired Chicken Pesto....

This hidden jewel did not disappoint.  Both pizzas were fabulous but the general consensus gave the Mediterranean Vegetable a slight edge.  I think we will definitely be craving these pizzas.

That pretty much sums up my weekend road trip.  It was a fun time visiting with my Mom and enjoying some wonderful food.  While I did not spend it as I had envisioned, it was just the kind of weekend that I needed.  Thanks, Mom!  Next time that I come down for a visit, I hope that it's cooler and I hope that I don't forget the chip for the camera and I hope I have more fun things to share with all of you when I return. 

Have a great week!

This weekend I am tempted to stay home and enjoy the air conditioning and stay out of this brutal heat; but I probably won't....

So instead of staying in and staying cool, what will I do?

I may or may not go here.....

 I may or may not see this beautiful lady....

I may or may not eat here......

 

  But if I do,  this will probably be involved.....

Loukoumades

 

After that, I might have to visit this place ......

And if it gets too hot outside, then we may or may not need to cool off here....

I'm sure there's something in here that I don't know that I need, right?

And of course, we may or may not have to grab some dinner....

Mmmm......

Of course, if we decide to go there.....

THE best fajitas that I've ever had....and oh yeah....fresh tortillas...you should try the corn ones.......AMAZING!

And all the yummy extras to go along with the fajitas!

And if we have dinner there, this will happen next.....

How many of these will he enjoy??

You should taste this stuff! 

There will definitely be lots of laughter!

And this guy gives the greatest service!  He's our favorite!

 

 

So I think I've just about talked myself into a road trip.....which really wasn't that hard.   Road trips are one of my favorite things to do.   Before I decide for sure on my weekend plans, I'm going to link up with my friend, JAVA over at NEVER GROWING OLD for her fabulous FOLLOW FRIDAY - 40 AND OVER.  This is a great place to make new friends and find some great new blogs to read.  

 

So if you'll excuse, I'm going to hop over there now.  Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting me today. I hope you have some fun things planned for your weekend and I will be looking forward to reading about your adventures.

Take care and be blessed!

GOOD NEWS ABOUT JULZ!!

We got some really good news about Julz today!  The PET scan showed that there is no more cancer.  There were a couple of inflamed lymph nodes; but, there was nothing to indicate that there was cancer present anywhere else.  

On August 27th, she will have more lymph nodes removed and will begin a month of 5 day per week interferon infusions.  After that first month, she will have 3 shots per week of Interferon for the next 11 months.  

Thank you all so much for caring and praying with us for our sweet girl.  We are sad that she is having to deal with this; but, we are relieved with this outcome.  Your prayers make the difference!  

MORE OF THE SAME....

Because everyone seems to love the purple stuff and because I don't have a lot to say today.....

Enjoy some more wisteria photos from a few years back taken with a little "point and click".

Have a great Monday!

Photo Roulette

Good Morning and Happy Saturday!  

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend with the people that you love.  I am linking up for the second weekend in a row with CARA over at MISCHIEF AND LAUGHS for her fun PHOTO ROULETTE.  

I know it says "Friday" on the button...but the party goes on until Tuesday....seriously....and you had more than enough of me on Friday already, right?

If you would like to participate or you want to just see some great photos, go over and see CARA.  She has a beautiful family and a great blog and she's just a really sweet person that you will enjoy meeting. 

For this fun party, we dig back into our photo files and pull a specific photo.  This week, CARA has chosen for us to pull the photo sits in the 1st folder - 18th position or the last photo or whatever.  Just post something that fits at random without looking at your photos first.  

Here is my entry....

The wild wisteria that blooms every year in the forest behind my house.

Enjoy your weekend!  I'm off to watch some great "fall scenes" from  THIS OLD HOUSE that I have dvr'd.  There's nothing better than fall in New England and those lovely old houses.

RECOGNITION

Finally, I have a day to catch up.   I'm sorry that there are multiple posts some days and other days, there are none.  Life will settle down and I will become more organized.  I'm sure of it!  Now on to important news....

Recently, Mary at Life in a Small Town, Kat at Kat's Confessions, and Musings of a Modern Mom were all so sweet to pass on an award to me.   These ladies all have great bogs that you need to visit if you haven't done so already. 

THANK YOU, Ladies!

You are all very sweet to pass your award forward to me and I'm honored to receive it.  I am sorry that it has taken me so long to acknowledge it.

So....as the rules go, after thanking the person(s) that gave me the award, I am to list 7 things that you may not know about me.  That is a hard one....I don't know how interesting they will be....but since I'm a "rule follower", I will give it my best shot....

So the first thing that you may not realize about me is that I haven't always been a "rule follower".  Oh I try to follow them like crazy now; but once upon a time, I was very good at NOT following the rules.

  Yep, I can hear the gasps from here.

Having said that.....Even though I was not a "rule follower", I never once skipped school.  I didn't even skip lunch like so many did.  I dutifully stayed on campus during lunch and had my chips and a Coke.  Sometimes that meant hanging with a different crowd at lunch.  Staying at school during lunch while my friends were all sneaking off campus just allowed me to make new friends.  If I wanted to skip school, I always got my Mom to check me out of school for some reason.  Even on Senior Skip Day when everyone was expected to skip school, my mom called in with some sort of reason why I would not be there.   I know....crazy, right? 

Despite my "chatty" nature, I'm really pretty shy, in person.  Oh, I can carry on a conversation with just about anyone in social situations; but, I'm definitely more of a "stand on the sidelines and observe people" kind of person.   

I won't watch movies or read books if I know that animals get hurt or lost even if I know there is a good outcome.  That commercial about the abused animals that has Sarah McLachlan in it drives me crazy!  As soon as I hear the music, I have to turn it off.....even if that means running from another room and leaping over the furniture.  I absolutely cannot watch it.  It tears me up....and oh yeah, I hate to cry....but that's a blog post of its own.

I wanted to be a psychologist until I took my first psychology class in college.  The teacher was crazy!  She walked into the room on the first day of class with open toed sandals and kicked a metal trash can across the floor...and then cackled like someone psychotic.  It just got even more bizarre going forward. Since I was going to have to have her for several classes, I decided that maybe that was not the curriculum for me. 

I always felt cheated growing up that I wasn't born in Texas.  My dad always spoke with pride of being from Texas.  My brother got the privilege of being born there and I had to be born in Louisiana.  My dad was a pipeliner so we spent quite a bit of time in Texas when I was young because of his work and it was just a nice place to live.  Additionally, my grandparents and all of the rest of my dad's relatives lived in Texas and going to their houses was always so much fun.   I asked him often why did we live in Louisiana if he was from the awesome state of Texas and he said that he settled there because it was home for my Mama.  How sweet is that?!  But still......  She lives in Texas now with my stepdad!  Just sayin.....  ha!

Once upon a time when I was a little girl, I thought that all Moms drove cars and all Dads drove trucks.  That is the way it was in the little "Mayberry" like town where I grew up.  It was like that in my family and in the families of all of my friends.  Dads made the exception of driving cars when they were driving their families somewhere.  Otherwise, they drove trucks and the moms drove cars.

Okay, I know this was all pretty random and maybe that is the point....but, I did follow the rules and told you 7 things that I don't think you already knew about me.

Now, if you are still with me and I hope you are, I've saved the best part for last.  Now I get to pass this award forward to the following 15 blogs that I've discovered and adding my own twist to the rule.....those who don't seem to have received this particular jewel before (in no particular order!):

 UnCommonSense

From This Side of the Pond

~Southern Style~

Karen's Journal

Eneida's Words

Bringing Pretty Back

Crazy Shenanigans

For Me

Hon, What's for Dinner?

Mischief and Laughs

Murdock's Mama

Cranberry Morning

The Miller Racing Family

Letters from Coco

This Day!

I'm off to share the love with those above!

RAIN IS A GOOD THING & FOLLOW FRIDAY 40 and OVER

Good Morning!!

 

It's raining!!

After the record breaking heat wave that we have been having, I am so thankful to see the rain.  This was a view from our front porch last evening.  It was a difficult drive home from work yesterday as a huge storm moved in right at 5:00.  The wind was blowing around 45 mph and lightning was striking all around and it was pouring down rain.  Having said all of that, I felt my mood lighten and I welcomed the rain.  We got home to discover that our electricity was off which didn't surprise us in the least.   We just changed into something comfy, opened some chips and salsa, made a couple of turkey sandwiches and ate dinner on the front porch, while watching it rain.  By the time, we were finished with dinner, the electricity was back on again.  It was a beautiful evening!

This morning I woke up to another beautiful rain storm and I thanked God that it was my day off and it was raining and that I had absolutely nothing to do outside of the house today.  I can stay home and rest and enjoy a day of peace and quiet AND rain.  My weary soul needs this time of rest and rejuvenation.  It's Friday and I still have two beautiful days of my weekend left before Monday rolls around and we have absolutely no plans.  *whew*    In fact, I might not leave my recliner house all weekend! What about that?!

 

I have been quite busy this morning though!

 

 I have had this idea that with all of the expense that we've had lately that we really needed to get a handle on our spending.  One of the first things that has come to mind is that we really should cut our grocery bill down and start eating some of the stuff that we have in our pantry and our freezer.  We tend to go to the grocery store without a list or a real plan on what we are going to make for dinner.  We have purchased things randomly, without a regard to what we were spending, and that has to stop. 

So in an effort to get a handle on this issue, I decided to clean and straighten the pantry and take an inventory of that and the freezer.  I am going to attempt to make a plan to use up the items in our pantry without purchasing very much at all from the grocery store besides a few fresh things and dairy. 

Our first meal tonight using items from the pantry and freezer will be Red Beans and Rice with Andouille Sausage and Stoneground Cornbread Muffins.

Once I season those beans up with my addition of onions, bell pepper and extra spice and seasonings, they will make a yummy meal for dinner and the fact that it will take minimal preparation is a bonus.  I can stay out of the kitchen and catch up on some other things that I want to do.  For now, what I want to do is link up with my friend, JAVA, over at NEVER GROWING OLD for:

 

Why don't you join me over there for a great party?  It's a great way to find new blogs to read and make some really great friends.   

I hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend!