Screened Porch

This is a work in progress, but when finished it should be a comfortable screened porch. Eventually there will be cushions and an outdoor rug. I want to move an electric outlet inside the screened area, too. It will be so nice to be able to be outside in good weather without all the bugs.

Botanical Garden Visit

Over Labor Day weekend I went to visit Bryan's family in Birmingham. On Saturday we went to a small botanical garden. It was a nice day with much cooler temperatures than we had been having. We had a lovely time just relaxing and watching the boys have a good time. Bryan pushed me around in a wheelchair, so I didn't have to try to walk it, and that made it much more pleasant for me.

The gardens were at the end of summer, so not too much was in full bloom, but there were still some flowers. I remember cannas and black eyed Susans among others. This place should be beautiful in spring and after the leaves turn in the fall. There were some elderly men who were sailing remote control sailboats on the lake. Someone had set up a little girl's tea party, complete with tablecloths and full tea service. There were preparations being made for a wedding, too.

It was a lovely, quiet, peaceful place right in the middle of a busy city. Loved it!

Here are a few of the pictures I took:

Could we please have an early Autumn???

Here it is the end of August and I am looking back and reflecting over the last few months. It began badly with all the flooding in May - and then more flooding a few weeks ago. In addition we had one of the hottest summers ever! I am so ready for some cooler weather. We were teased with a couple of better days, but the heat is going up again. I will just say I am very grateful for air conditioning. I will date myself, but I can remember when the best we had was a fan at home and some air vents in the car. I'm also grateful to be in Tennessee. Louisiana is so much hotter and more humid!

I am looking forward to the slight chill in the air, the smell of burning leaves. and the beautiful colors of autumn.

BIG WEEK part two: new one-year-old

Our summer is full of grandchildren's birthdays. This was Alli's first birthday party held at her Smith grandparent's lovely home out in the beautiful countryside of Winchester, TN.
Alli loved the curly bow on this present.
After all the gifts were open, we all went out to the pool. The weather even cooperated. No storms bothered us and the temperature was not too hot until about the time everyone was ready to get out of the water, anyway.
This little sweetie is Alaina. She will be the next birthday (of the grandchildren), but not until December.
We all enjoyed the day. Alli was surrounded by parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. Even the babies loved the water.

Thanks, Marilyn and Chris for letting us enjoy your beautiful home and pool. I especially loved the flower garden and the butterflies.

BIG WEEK part one: new car

Finally, after weeks of trying to decide, I traded my car on a used (slightly used) van. It is so nice and so much more comfortable than any car I have ever had. In a couple of months I am going to have a hydraulic lift installed and I will be able to take my power chair anywhere I want to go. I'm looking forward to that.

Beautiful Alli

This is my beautiful granddaughter Alli. She was tired, but even though she didn't smile, I just love her eyes in this picture.

Another 6-year-old

Caitlin turned six yesterday. She had a Bounce-U party. They have so many cute things that can be done now for a party. This place had all kinds of inflated things for them to climb, slide and bounce on. Need less to say, all the children were totally exhausted after an hour of doing that. They had a blast! I enjoyed watching.


Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of Caitlin. She was very animated and hard to get her still long enough to take a picture. But she was having such a good time.

Happy Birthday, Caitlin.

Cutest Birthday Party Lately

My oldest grandchild, Noah Love, recently had his sixth birthday. His very clever parents planned a terrific party.

The theme for the party was Star Wars, hence Bryan is dressed as a Jedi Knight. Here he is talking to all the kids about the "power of the force" and administering the Jedi Oath to them. They all were dressed in Jedi robes.



Here the guests were doing some preparatory swings against an unarmed pinata that Bryan is holding up by a rope as Noah observes,

and then they progressed to light saber training as the Jedi Master instructs.

On cue (Vader music) Darth Vader slipped in to their training session. (He's hard to see but is in the center at the back). Sorry about the two little girls who were scared of him. They wanted to see him out of costume to be sure he wasn't really Darth Vader.



After everyone got to try out their new skills, the young padawans eventually defeated Vader (who was about to burn up in the black costume) and they had refreshments - pizza and Yoda soda outside before the storm came up, then ice cream and cupcakes in the house.

Fun was had by all, but a few light sabers didn't survive the battle. There were a few extra light sabers, so the entire class posed for a "graduation" picture and received a certificate of graduation from the Jedi Academy. Then Noah opened his gifts and the guests had to leave quickly before the huge thunderstorm hit.


This is Noah and "Darth"Caitlin, my second oldest grandchild (who also turns six in a few days).

We all had so much fun and the adults got as big a kick out of it as the children. The only way it could have been better would have been if the temperature was not hovering in the very high 90's.

Happy Birthday Noah. Loved your party.

Cast:
Jedi Master.............Bryan Love
Darth Vader............Ben Love
Padawans................Noah Love and friends

My Junk

This week has been no fun! I have been cleaning out things for a yard sale I'm doing with my daughters. I have a car full of "junk" to try to sell tomorrow. I still have things to clean out, but this is a good start.

I would much prefer to be posting about the cutest birthday party I have attended in a long time. That will have to be the next posting, after I get time to download the pictures. Happy Birthday again, Noah.

Tour of my yard

Here are some of the pretty things blooming right now in my yard. They make me happy. Ok, I realize the apples are not blooming, but they are in my yard. I have pears and plums, too. The plums didn't fare so well in the late frost, but there are a few on the tree. The birds seem to have enjoyed my blueberries. I think I got two ripe ones before the birds got them. I did get to pick strawberries several times. They were yummy.






These Easter Lilies were a gift several years ago. I set them out in the yard to see what they would do, and now they are all bloomed out.

My Garden is Growing

You can see how much my garden has grown since April 19 when I last posted a picture. I have eaten some of the Swiss Chard. Its different from "southern" greens, but I like it. I have also been eating strawberries for about a week. They are yummy. There are baby tomatoes and bell peppers that I am looking forward to.

The big garden is also growing. We were lucky that it didn't wash away in the 14 inch record rains we had May 1-2. Last year we had a big rain in May (more like 6-8 inches if I remember right), and then we had almost no rain for two months. It did not make for a good garden last year. It was like the soil just choked the life out of the plants. My raised bed didn't even produce as much as it should have. At any rate, I am happy with the progress. I am really looking forward to some good home grown tomatoes.

I didn't post about the floods at the first of May because so many others did, but it was a devastating flood that will take years in recovery. The damage here was minimal. I had a little water in the basement and some of the homes in the trailer park had pushed in under pinning. Compared to the total losses some people had, we were very blessed.

I Was Robbed!

Well, not really. I was at Walmart, riding in one of those electric carts. I went in the ladies room and left the cart, with 8-10 items in the basket, right outside the door. When I came back out, no cart! Most of my 8-10 items were stacked up on the floor where the cart had been parked. But the crazy thing is that they didn't leave my receipt book, a pair of pantyhose, and a package of wrapping paper. I have no idea why they rode off with part of my items and left the rest. I guess I looked pretty silly, standing there holding my meager few items that were left and laughing at the absurdity of it all. Classy people shop at Walmart.

It isn't nice to steal from an old person. We are slow but cagey.

You might be a red neck if...

....you plant a garden without sunscreen. (I have a little sunburn on my neck because it was so cool when we started that I didn't take any sunscreen or my ugly hat out to the garden with me.)

Saturday I planted the big garden with Heather and Ben. They did most of the planting with me helping a little here and there. They are growing tomatoes, bell pepper and onions, and I put in some squash out there. On Friday I had planted part of my raised bed garden (in the picture above) and I finished it on Saturday. Now if the weather will be kind, maybe in a few weeks we will have some yummy vegetables to show for our effort.

I'm a Ham

Well, maybe in more ways than one!

After several weeks of lessons and more studying than I thought it would take, I am a licensed amateur radio operator. Unfortunately I still don't fully know what I am doing, so the learning process will continue. I'm glad I did it, but I have a lot more to learn.

aggghhh!!!!

Excuse the lack of posting on my part...I am immersed in HAM radio!!! I will be back to reality after Saturday. :)