Weekend Fun

Today is full already!! Not much going on, just working in the yard. Joe is getting a 10' x 10' or 20' dog pen and planning on setting that up today! I can't wait for the dogs (all 4) to be off of the patio!!

Jake has football practice at 12, so he is going to ride with Hunter and I will meet them there. Anna should be back from Branson tonight. I talked to her last night, while I was on a date, and she was having a BALL!!

Did you hear me...on a date!!! Joe and I went out alone for the first time in....TOO LONG!!! We went to Ruby Tuesdays in Russellville. It was nice. Joe didn't get home until 7:30, but at least the restaurant wasn't that crowded.

Jake hates having his picture taken...here is what he does when I say "Smile!" His exact words to me were,"Are you going to put this on that stupid blog so everyone in the world can see it? I don't like that!" And this is the picture I get as a result!

Then I tell him, "If you smile, I'll jump on the trampoline with you!" And this is the look I get! Works for me.

I scrapped 3 pages yesterday. Jake wanted to play video games upstairs and he doesn't like to be up there alone, so he convinced me I needed to scrap!! I got some new paper a few weeks ago (BG Archaic for those scrappers that read) and so I used it for all 3 layouts.

The first is Jake on his first day of school.

This is Jake playing his guitar


The last one is at their birthday party

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll probably take tomorrow off from blogging, so SEE YOU MONDAY!!

Bye for now!

Braces

The braces are ON!!

Anna was a little sore last night and this morning her bottom teeth were bothering her some. I asked her band teacher to excuse her from playing the trombone today and I hope he doesn't care... She was a real trooper and seemed not to mind it too much. I'm hoping today is better in the pain department. She is suppose to be going to Branson with friends in the morning and not be back until Saturday night. There is something about amusement rides that always makes things better!

Jake has parent/teacher meetings this afternoon, then a much needed football practice! I've started working on a scrapbook-(minibook) about him, so I'll post it eventually. I am hoping to get a book binder for my birthday next month so that I can make individual books on my own.

Should be a great weekend. There is no school tomorrow, so long weekend for us!! Joe isn't on call, so maybe we'll do something fun. Jake is going to a sleepover tomorrow night, so NO KIDS!!!! I would love to just go out to eat and relax with Joe! We'll see...he probably won't get home from work until 9:00, but it's a thought.

Hope everyone has a productive and wonderful Thursday!!

Bye for now!

Happy Wednesday

Yesterday was Jake's first football game of the year. It wasn't pretty (and that IS being nice)!! Jake said our team didn't even make 1 1st down. The other team scored at least 5 touchdowns! Oh well....I did manage to get a couple of pictures.... and in the end I think Jake had fun!!

By the way, Jake is #5

Watching from the sideline

This is the scene outside my front door this morning.

I love when the hay is baled! I don't know what it is, but I just think it is beautiful when our fields are full of scattered hay bales!


Today is the day for Anna..she gets her braces! We are going to eat a large lunch, as instructed, so that we can eat lighter for supper tonight. She has school pictures this morning, so that part worked out perfectly!

I want to send out a special birthday wish to Katelynn Dunaway!! Today is her birthday! I'm not sure if her mom reads my blog, but hopefully she will today and tell Kate, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" from Papa Joe, Mimi, Anna and Jake (We love you!) Here is a picture of the card I made for her....

Katelynn swimming this summer

I hope everyone has a great Wednesday!!

Bye for now!

Birthday Fun!!

16 kids, count them!!

(Actually, Jake's friend, Hunter, was camera-shy, so he didn't make the group pic). All spending the night at our house!!

We had a ball at the party! We had 14 girls total and 2 boys....you'd think that Jake would have hated every minute of that, but as you can see from the look on his face, he was in HEAVEN!!!!!

This is Jake with Anna's friends, Shanea and Layton

We had cake and ice cream, pizza, rice krispy treats, lots of candy, popcorn, chips..... I guess I'm lucky someone didn't get sick! We almost had an incident when Saylor put 6 Extreme Sour Warheads in her mouth at one time and almost puked!! That would have been bad!

Here are Anna and Jake with their birthday cakes.

They started the night by playing laser tag at the church and from there it was on to "Prom Night"! They finally bedded down at 5 am.
The next morning Jake and Hunter woke the girls up at 9 am!!! We had a scavenger hunt and played some more.

LOTS OF GIRL TIME

Did anyone notice that Jake was right in the middle of all the fun? Anyway, it was a blast! Oh yeah, they even went swimming for an hour of so...in the FREEZING water! I believe the last sweetheart left at 7:15 or 7:30 Saturday night! It was loads of fun!

Well, I think I'll go take a short nap.

Bye for now!

FINISHED!!

Here is Anna's cake...hope she likes it. Now it's clean up time, yuck!!

Bye for now!

One down, one to go!

I finished Jake's cake now it's on to Anna's. Two posts in one day...that is a record for me!!

Bye for now!

Happy Birthday Jake!!

Hi everyone! This week has been hectic, but productive. I've been working on an "Amazing Race" for the kids' party this weekend...lots of scavenger hunt, sack race, basketball shooting-type fun.

First of all...it is Jake's 10th birthday.

He told his dad and me this morning that there only double digits for him now, no single digit birthdays! He is suppose to be on "Cub Cam" this morning at school. The school has an inhouse television program and each day a child is chosen to read the announcements, lunch menu and birthdays for the day. Jake was very specific about what he wanted to wear! He is such a little ladies man!

On another front, Anna had her visit with the orthodontist yesterday and it wasn't good news! She will get braces next Wednesday. Then, after 6 months, she will have to be referred to an oral surgeon to have ligatures placed on two of her teeth. The orthodontist said that this would be tough. She said Anna's teeth have to come through about 10 mm of bone during the "pulling down" process and that is is painful. After surgery she will go to the orthodontist every 3 weeks and they will adjust the ligatures making the teeth come to their correct orientation. Anyway, she has got a long road ahead of her. Braces for 3 years according to her orthodontist!

We are having Jake's birthday party tonight: just us! Then tomorrow Anna and Jake will have all of their friends over !!WooooHooooo! Probably 15 all together, spending the night, eating junk food, watching scary movies, having a blast!!!

Summer is almost gone. I took these pictures below on Tuesday. It was beautiful outside. Perfect "fallish" weather.

TThe deer feed plot seems to be working.

Got to go make a couple of birthday cakes...wish me luck. I'll post pictures if I get a break!

Bye for now!

Making the Best of all the Water

I'm back! We were very lucky with Ike. Some wind, some rain and some scary times, but all in all, we came out fine!! The "eye" came right over us, but it wasn't as bad as predicted. We were expecting the worse, so what we got wasn't so bad. We had dismantled the trampoline, put up all the outdoor furniture, put the basketball goal on the ground, staked the crepe myrtles, mowed the ENTIRE yard just as the first raindrops started Saturday afternoon! The temperature was 58 degrees when we got up for school this morning..had to send the kids to school with jackets for the first time this year!!

We have a pretty busy schedule so far this week...Anna has 2 tests on Tuesday along with cheerleading and tumbling Tuesday after school. Jake has football practice also on Tuesday, which makes things a little tougher on me!! I also have a meeting Tuesday at the school, during lunch. Wednesday, not so bad. Only tumbling at night. Oh, yeah, Anna has her first orthodontist appointment on Wednesday. Thursday is Jake's Birthday!!!! He wants an AC/DC cake, so I'll have to be on top of my game to decorate that one!! I'll do it! Friday, Anna and Jake are having a "combined" sleep over. Anna is inviting about 12 girls, Jake 2 boys. It should be alot of fun...for them! Anna has already asked that I make them an "Amazing Race"-type game for Saturday!! Guess I know what I'll be doing this week! It really should be alot of fun!

Anyway, yesterday was BEAUTIFUL here. The rain had stopped early Sunday morning (3am or so) and only blue skies yesterday! Our neighbor, Tristan, and his friend Aaron asked Jake and Anna to go to the creek to swim. Joe wouldn't let them go without an adult, so we ALL loaded up on 4-wheelers and headed to the creek. The kids had a blast!! They climbed in this culvert...no small culvert mind you....it was at least 15 feet diameter this culvert! The water was gushing through it like a water slide. Inside the culvert the water was only about 8 inches deep, so the kids would go to the end of the culvert, sit on the boogie boards, and ride the current to the end and land in a big pool!

This is the "pool".
Can see where the creek starts flowing pretty fast in the distance?

This is Anna and Jake with their friends Tristan and Aaron.

Jake riding a wave.

Anna, always picture-ready!! This was minutes before she broke down after seeing a snake at the waters' edge!!

Well, gotta get moving on this Monday morning!! Hopefully will get to blog again soon...can't promise, but will try!

Have a great week everyone.

Bye for Now!!

Company Coming

Hi! I'm going to make this short...we have Hurricane Ike coming!! He is getting ready to knock at our door any minute now. They are predicting 10" of rain for us and tornadoes to go along with that. We have had a couple of tornadoes come through our place in the two years we have been building and/or living here. We have taken all the precautions and are lucky to have a safe room if we need it.

Please pray for everyone affected by this storm. I probably will be out of internet for a couple of days...the rain does that....so as soon as I'm able, I'll post.

Bye for now!

Just another day!

Yesterday was really hectic here. Anna's cheerleading squad sponsored a Bar-B-Q chicken supper to raise money to pay for their expenses, i.e. jacket, duffle bag, camp, uniforms, etc. I helped in the kitchen from 3:30 until her game at 5:30, then returned to help with clean up. I'm not sure how well they did, but the food was great (thanks to her coach/caterer Mrs. Lederman). To top it off, I believe they won the ballgame...it was one of those weird games that the defense has 10 plays then it switches to offense for 10 plays. Anyway, we scored 4 touch downs and Huntsville didn't score (that I remember). Jake had practice while Anna was cheering. Thank goodness the practice field is right next to the game field. Today is a good day...NOTHING afterschool!! Anna is going birthday party tomorrow for her friend Kenzie!! Happy Birthday Kenzie! She is having a bowling party, so that should be fun. Otherwise, it should be a quiet weekend. We are expecting the rain and storms from Hurricane Ike to come in sometime Sunday, so we'll probably be working in the yard all day Saturday.

I have a cousin, Bill, stationed in the Navy in Corpus Christi, Texas and my prayers are with him and his family today. Be safe if you live in that area and know we are all praying for you.

I had to put this picture in my blog today, but first, you must know the story behind it. This is Jake, my (almost) 10 year old son. His sister, Anna, loves to read. Right now she is reading a 1200 page book and stays up late each night reading it. Jake on the other hand, told me 2 days ago he HATES books and everything about them, but last night he laid down and look what he was doing....READING!!! The title is, "The Teacher's Funeral", but the point is HE was actually reading! I think this may be a small miracle.

Well, gotta go change out the laundry and fold a few clothes.

Bye for now!

Back from Labor Day!

I know, I know...I am WAY behind on my blogging!!! Actually, I don't really realize people read this until I start hearing from you wanting to know why I haven't updated my blog. So to those of you who check frequently....today is your day...I have a lot to blog about and LOTS of pictures. (16 to be exact!!) So relax, get comfortable, and I'll fill you in on my last couple of weeks!


For Labor Day, Joe's sons and their families came to visit. They had so much fun playing in the pool. This picture is of Alexis (David and Reecia's daughter) with Jake and Anna, and Katelynn (Brandon and Tonia's daughter). Alexis, Jake, and Katelynn are all in the 4th grade this year!

This is Nick (David and Reecia's son) How handsome is he? I think he gets his good looks from his Papa Joe, but maybe its just me!! What do you think?

And this is David throwing Nick approximately 10 feet in the air!!! David did this for a couple of hours with all the kids. I don't know how he did it! I'm sure he was worn out when he finished!!!

This is Klayton (Brandon and Tonia's son). He's pretty handsome too! I know he gets his good looks from his Papa Joe...there is no doubt here!

It was 2 fun-filled days and it could not have been better weather! So here is a cheer...uuhhh....pyramid for the official end of summer!

Joe's mom, Mary, stayed with us last week and along came hurricane Gustav!! On the weather channel they predicted that Gustav would make landfall and "park itself right in Arkansas!" Can you believe that for ONCE they were EXACTLY right??? It rained from Tuesday through Thursday morning nonstop!! We got about 6 1/2 inches total. Anna cheered Thursday afternoon and the weather was perfect.

Mrs. Mary and I went to the ear-shattering peprally, which I don't intend to ever do again!! I can not tell you how loud it was... of course it didn't help that we were sitting on the first row about 5 feet from the speaker! Anyway, the fans were more than a little excited I thought!!

We played Mayflower and as you can see...WE WON!!!!

This past weekend was "Deer-Plot Planting Weekend" at the Dunaway's! For those of you who are unfamiliar to hunting, this is the way we lure the deer onto our land so we can enjoy watching them. This probably sounds crazy to some, but we plant stuff to entice the deer to eat so we can watch them! Jake would prefer that we shoot them immediately upon site, but as I have told him..."as long as I live here, there will never be a deer shot on our land!" And to that he says,"When you die...I'll shoot them ALL!" That is one gene I KNOW he did not get from ME!!! Just sayin'.....

Anyway, back to the topic, we (Joe, Jake, Anna, Rebel, Zoey, Dixie, Jada, Roscoe and myself) went to the field...some rode 4-wheelers, some used other modes of transportation...

This is Roscoe. He takes a pretty good picture, but he has issues. I won't go into them here, but lets just say he is not my favorite pet!

This is Rebel... a dog after my own heart! He is kind, loving, and always a gentleman.

Back to our feed plot, we planted clover, turnip greens, rape (whatever the heck that is), rye grass, and some other stuff deer eat... It was almost dark before we finished planting everything, but it was a beautiful dusk! I don't know if you can see by these pictures, but the Canadian geese were getting ready to land in our pond. You can see them just above the mountain/treeline.

Yesterday was Jake's first football practice. He is going to be playing for the Eagles. He is hoping to play wide receiver, but we won't know for a couple of more practices. He just glows when he starts football season!

So, as you can see we have been keeping ourselves pretty busy! I would love a little scrapbook time all to myself...maybe after I make the beds, wash a couple of loads of laundry, vacuum, dust, take Anna to tumbling, check Jake's homework.....well, maybe I'll get a chance tomorrow.

Wish we could all be as relaxed as Butterscotch, whose only concern is when I'll open another can of food for him.


Bye for now!