Did the organizing work?

Wow...it was so nice to know where everything was and know what my choices were last night when I was scrapping.....and it was so easy to put everything back in it's place! That was awesome! Took just minutes to clean up!!!!!!

I really need to sit down and post about my trip....maybe tonight I can get to that.

Jars Everywhere

So, I finally got motivated and cleaned up my scrapbook area. I tend to get freaked out by the mess and have to take time to straighten it up. This time, I had taken some things to work to do a special project we were working on for a lady that was retiring, so I had to unpack my mess..... and it just made sense to straighten it up now. I should have taken a before picture so that you would understand how bad it was.

Yesterday we went to Little Rock and I spent a little time looking at storage solutions....I'm forever thinking that I need to buy something to get more organized....but....this time I saw something that interested me but used what I had at home to try it out. Jars! Here. Jars! There. Jars! Everywhere!.....they sure make my supplies more visible!

That paper storage rack was something that I already had...but I labeled my paper this time...... :-)

Now, if only I had time to scrap! Haha.....I have straightned up the house....but I've still got to go get groceries and do some laundry.... maybe later this evening ;-)

Sunset

After the rain finally stopped last week, I noticed that the sunset was unsually interesting. We have a lot of great sunsets here...but this was interesting with that huge cloud bank.

That point in the background is Pilot Knob......

The sunset progressed.....

It reminds me of one of the many reasons that I love where I live.....

Unplanned Nashville

We made an unplanned trip to Nashville this weekend...got a late start and all that so we just really drove there swapped vehicles with Russell, saw his new apartment, had a pizza at Sal's Pizza Restaurant (the worlds best pizza place I promise...have the White Greek Pizza)....So...needless to say, I suffered from a little boredom... (no shopping time in Nashville)....so to entertain myself on the trip home, I played with my camera some....


This is the reason for the trip. Russell's transmission went out...so we trailered our little car to Nashville on Saturday afternoon, loaded his truck blah blah blah and started home...we stopped a little way out of Nashville to sleep...got up and drove to Bono to get Tess and come home....

This is my New Balance shoe...I almost always take my shoes off when I'm the passenger for a long ride....

This is a photo of just some of the things that I have piled in the floor in front of me...that's my cool mustard Big Buddah bag and my sweatshirt.

Here are some lovely photos of the trees and highway looking through the windshield of the truck...sorry about the smear on the window (oops)

We had some fog on part of the trip...usually just around the rivers and creeks.

Another highway shot....

And for my Ozarka friends...I'm posting a photo on facebook for Chaney and Tracy :-)...I went through Jackson!

We'er home...have no clue what will happen with the truck...but the kid has been rescued for the time being.

A little fish

Ever heard the phrase "Big fish in a little pond"....I grew up in a little pond...and I really liked it....now I live in a little pond...and I still like it. For a while, I was a little fish in a big pond...when we lived in Tulsa...and it does have it's advantages...but in the long run...I really prefer a more simple life in an area that I'm comfortable in and that I know the people around me.
So...here's to all the fish....little and big...Enjoy Your Pond.

What do you see?

What do you see when you take a walk? Depends on where you look...
Since it's still all rainy here I'm forced to post photos that I took over the beautiful weekend that we had! I was walking around in the goat pasture because I had seen some fungi growths that I wanted to take a closer look at... and I saw this lonely pine cone burried in the sand...nothing special, but it caught my attention and made me think about how something so simple could be so interesting.


I also saw a few black eyed susans in the field. I liked this photo. Can you see the bug on the flower...click on it to enlarge it if you can't. I love how each blade of grass is so defined.

So if you look around (up, down, all around) when you're walking around you might see some things that make you smile.

Photo adventure

Yesterday I carried my camera with me a lot...and never saw anything that I wanted to take a picture of...so I left it inside when I went out again...and you know...this time I saw several things that made me think...I wish I had my camera....so I went back in to get it.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a few photo tips from my Brother-In-Law, Bill. I tried to use one in this shot...and I think it turned out pretty good.

For some reason, I love to look at mushrooms, toadstools...etc...those fungi growths........Here's one....

The view from my mower

Sometimes I would do just about anything to be outside...and sometimes, things need to be done but they get put off...out of sight out of mind....so today, I rode my trusty Craftsman lawn mower down the driveway to mow around the entry of the driveway, the mailbox, and the trash container....I ended up pulling our weedeater on wheels down the driveway too so that I could get closer to the fence....I'm sure it was as interesting sight.....I took my camera with me for some reason...I guess it's because you always wish you had it with you when you don't take it...so here's a shot of my driveway from the view of my mower while I'm bouncing up the road.... No, I didn't do the whole driveway...I guess I should :-)but I probably won't....

A chill in the air

What a nice feeling morning! I'm loving that chill in the air. It makes me want to be outside doing something productive or riding my horse....but inside is calling me today...I've picked up and cleaned up the house some, I'm ironing my clothes (taking a short break but I'm 1/2 done), changing the sheets, etc....just had to get the house back in order....

I've got a roast in the crockpot for this weekend...George is going to cook some pork ribs and at some point I'm going to make gnoccchi for the first time :-).... For some reason I've had a hanerkin' for some and I didn't find it in our local grocery stores...but I could have overlooked it.....ah well...it really doesn't sound that hard....so we'll see. Sounds like the weather really makes us want to cook....

Nicole is supposed to come on Thursday...and they we have an appointment to have her Sr. photos made on Friday afternoon.... George will take Nicole back on Sunday, I belive....Saturday I leave for the AATYC Conference in Hot Springs and come back on Tuesday.....Ozarka is decorating the dining room for the All-Star Brunch so I've got a ton of things to pack and take with me....hopefully it will look like I'm envisioning it....We've got some cool "star" wrapping paper that we are wrapping boxes and putting pretty bows on to use as the centerpiece...then we have star confetti (multi sizes) and curling ribbon to scatter on the tables.... we had a super small budget to decorate 80+ tables...so we had to be creative....we are under budget thanks to George...he provided our boxes.

The new goats are really sweet...they were following George around earlier and they seem to like being close to the horse and mule. I still don't have names for them but I'm working on it.

My friend Kim is going to do another photo challenge...If you're interested in playing along check out her blog at http://kimwhitten.blogspot.com/ and let her know you want to play. The color challenge that we did in the spring was lots of fun and it was very inspiring as well.

Nameless

New goats! New goats!! New goats!!! Guess what...we got new goats! They are super sweet...sometimes the goats are tame and sometimes they are not...these little fellas are tame...they let you pet them and they come to the fence to greet you. The white one is not quite as tame but she's good.

I don't know what I'm going to name them yet but I'm working on it....the 3 little boys look a lot alike don't they. I'm hoping to find something that distinguishes them apart before picking the name.

Any suggestions for these guys?

Insy Tinsy Spider

Sounds like the Insy Tincy Spider better be haning on tight soon...supposed to be a wicked bad rain storm coming through tomorrow....

October 6

What a rainy dreary day....

Life has thrown me a few curve balls lately but I'm working my way through all of the crud to find the place that I need/want to be...Sometimes you get comfortable with your life and forget that the curve balls are there.....it's not all bad though...I have a great husband that I love very much and a great family as well.

So...go away rainy day blues.... I'm ready for the sunshine!

I love Fall

Well, I'm back...I hope....
I'm so loving the crispness of the beginning of our fall weather. I love lots of things about fall. It's a great time to be outside...I'm looking forward to some fall rides in the nice cool weather.

A few weeks ago, George and I were working outside and I kept seeing spiders webs...actually we've had a pet spider on the back porch for a while but it finally moved away.... this web was spun on the front porch...and the dew was glistening in the morning sun...I couldn't help but run back in for the camera to get a shot before the dew went away....


I love how crisp and clear the sky can be in the fall....I'm really bad about snapping photos while driving down the road...but don't worry...I don't take time to make adjustments...I just pick up the camera and snap snap snap and hope that something comes out ok. This was Sept. 26...after the golf tournament when I was driving to Bono....it was a beautiful afternoon...




I took a few shots on the way home too...(notice the bugs spots on the windshield).... the sunset was amazing that evening but it honestly didn't look anything like the photo...in real life, the sunset was all silvery bright and the clouds that the sun is going behind were glowing as well. But...I thought this was interesting as well.

A loss

This day has been sad...I lost a co-worker friend today....last week she had an aneurism and surgery...she came through surgery fine but took a turn for the worse and today she passed away. She was an inspirational person. She was thrilled to work at Ozarka...to her it was a good place to be and a way for her son to afford to go to college. She had the worst job on campus....she cleaned the bathrooms in all of our buildings...3 times per day.... But, she was always cheerful, always doing a great job and so very pleasant. I'm going to miss seeing her....lucky for me, her janitors closet was right outside my office so I got to see her frequently. Rest peacefully Lesa...we will pray for your family.

Not much to say

I've been quiet on the blogging front lately...just not much to say that I think would be interesting to anyone.....

Haven't been riding much lately...we set a time and date and then it rains....and since we set the date at the end of the weekend...it's too late to reschedule...

The boys have been coming to visit...they haven't been here the same weekend but they have both been home...and Ryan is coming in today to hunt in the Urban Deer Hunt at Horseshoe Bend and/or Cherokee Village.

Russell is liking school a lot and enjoying having roommates (haha) and looking for a job....he's like every other college kid...broke and having to share a room.....

I haven't heard from Nicole since she went home from her visit before school started but George usually talks to her during the week and she seems to be fine.

Ryan is good...he is still dating Leah....I think most of you have met her but if not, you probably will...she fits in nicely with us.

George is excited about the Urban Deer Hunt and he's ready to get some new goats...so maybe I'll have my goat blog back soon. We've been scouting for deer hunting location several times lately....

Me...I'm here...I'm working and in addition to that I'm teaching 2 College Success classes...I'm starting to look forward to the fall weather...it would be nice to ride Goldie on a nice cool day.

That's just a little update about us...not much going on that is exciting...just living our everyday lives.

Recession

I'm really not diggin' this recession. I think I'm ready for it to end.

Laurel's visit

Laurel came to visit us this weekend. We planned a little trail ride with some of our friends...we went to Rafter D's and met Karla and Fred there....they brought an extra mount so that we could all ride together. Laurel met John and rode him for the Trail Ride. John is a super good, mellow quarter horse that is very trustworthy. The ride didn't start off as "easy" as usual...Karla's little mule Pebbles was having a bad morning. They (Karla & Fred and their mules) ended up not making the ride with us, but they left John for us to use.



After the ride, George and Laurel rode the 4 wheeler. After checking the game camera, they decided to set a trap (live trap) for a raccoon...since there are 4 of them eating the deer corn. (They did manage to catch one...and transported it to another home).


They also did a little fishing on our pond...Laurel's first cast caught this handsome large mouth bass....After this it was time to fix dinner and settle in for the evening (George and Laurel fell asleep in the living room shortly after 9)


This morning, the last day of the visit, Laurel and George went for a little ride behind the house. They had some adventure as Goldie and Hat got a little skittish about something. Apparently Goldie made a quick retreat from the woods but Laurel didn't have a problem with it...she just kept on riding her.... Goldie is a little high strung sometimes and I worry about putting someone other than myself on her.... but she was doing great until she got spooked and according to Laurel she was fine after that too.


This is just a little parting shot of Goldie and Laurel at the end of their ride.


Soon we'll be taking Laurel home....and she and I are hoping to talk Uncle George into taking us to lunch somewhere on the way....

A little ride

This evening after work, Nicole and I took a little ride around the property on Goldie and Hat. It's the first time for Nicole and Goldie to ride together. I think we had a pretty good time.

If the weather holds, we're borrowing John the Quarter Horse from Karla and going for a ride at Rafter D's tomorrow.

Come back by for updates on Nicole's visit.

A morning on the White River

George and I went for a little fishing this morning. The river was so foggy that you could bearly see to navigate. I had wet hair by the time we motored from Red's Landing to the Norfork Trout Dock....but the first cast produced a rainbow trout...followed by the second cast repeating that..... of course we didn't have that result everytime...but it was a nice day on the river...

Here in the real world

I'm suffering badly from vacation envy....several of my friends and co-workers are beach goers this summer....I know...what can I be whining about...I just got an awesome new truck.....and I'm happy....but I sure am envious of those people that are enjoying the beach.

I was sitting in the dentist's chair yesterday listening to the sound of her drill and I kept thinking how much more relaxing and fun it would be to hear the sound of the ocean...I was green with envy of Betty and her trip to Hawaii....and my friend Kim's trip to Destin...you can see how beautiful Destin was at www.kimwhitten.blogspot.com

Oh well...It's not like I'm not having a great summer....riding horses, going to the lake and doing a little fishing on the river.... :-)

Maybe I'll save my vacation time for the winter and go do something then.... :-)

The move to Nashville

Friday we drove to Nashville to move Russell to begin school. It was a beautiful day and an easy trip there...everything went so well....you feel it coming don't you....here it is......UNTIL we went to the the appartment....it really wasn't an AWFUL place in it's own right...it had new furniture, a decent looking neighborhood etc....it was just the million other residents already inhabitating the place...I really had no clue where the boys would stay because the apartment was crammed full of roaches. I don't think I've ever seen that many roaches in one place.....completely GROSS..... The boys sucked it up though and after being assured by management that the apartment had been sprayed decided to stay.....as the afternoon wore on the bug population seemed to diminish (probably from the excellent "hunting" skills of George and his can of RAID)..... but after dark....the swarm began again....Russell called us (at our roach free hotel) to tell us that he wanted out in the morning.......So, Saturday morning we picked up the 2 Calico boys that were there and headed in to collegiate housing to get them moved to another apartment.....oh...more fun than anyone could ever want for a Saturday morning in a huge town with a great mall and tons of shopping...what better way could I be spending my time than sitting in a classroom that is being used as an office waiting for someone to decide that it's the right thing to do to move these boys into a room that didn't have a million roaches crawling around in it....oh...I forgot to mention that we came armed with ziplock bags full of roaches that the boys had collected as evidence.....along with several photos.....we met lots of NADC people.... the District Recruting Manager, the VP and the President herself.....it seemed that the only people the didn't think the boys should be moved was the "boss" at collegiate housing...the lady working with us was great and trying hard to get something done....finally over 3 hours later we finally had a new apartment.... no furniture for it until Tuesday but hey....we had the apartment....so we checked it out, finally got some lunch (and those of you that know me know that feeding me lunch at 2:30ish isn't the best idea if I don't get snacks in between...but I was being nice still)..... then we moved the boys out of Roach Haven and into The Cove. After we got them moved in we went shopping for their food and other supplies.....and finally we took them to dinner at about 9:00......but we got it all done.

Now they are all settled in and waiting for furniture.

When we were leaving this morning I made the observation that here's these redneck boys in this very nice attractive gated community of apartments with beautiful landscaping and retaiing walls ......I'm sure the community is wondering what just happened :-)

I'd post some of those photos but they gross me out still.

But, after all is said and done...I think things are good.

Happy Birthday to George.....hum......

Well, today has been a very interesting day....it started out bad and got worse but then it got really great!

Today is George's birthday. He's not really big into celebrating his birthday but we always make a big deal about mine....so....today for his birthday, he bought me a new truck....go figure...aren't I a lucky girl.

It's a 2009 Chevrolet Silverado 4x4 Z71 with the LTZ package... white and a crew cab.... It has cashmere colored leather seats that are heated, dual air and remote start!!! I am so spoiled!!!

Weekend activities

This has been a weekend of celebrating or sorts.... Russell had some friends over for a fish fry on Saturday and on Sunday we celebrated Geroge's birthday since the boys were both here. Leah came to visit this weekend too.

Here's George opening his cards...then his gifts. Oooh...Presents...we love presents. He got all sorts of new tack for his mule (a felt saddle blanket, a Billy Cook cinch, and a new snaffle bit) and some camo Croc flipflops and a drill bit sharpener.


Ryan and George went for a little ride about this morning too. Ryan had not seen Hat yet, so he rode him and we saddled Goldie for George to ride.

Russell watching George opening his gift.

Here's Ryan and Leah after the ride.... Cute couple. It was nice to have them in to visit. Leah was lots of help and she's a really nice girl. We miss having Ryan around so it's nice to have him come visit.

Everyone has gone home now and Russell is at work.. George has been running the bush hog and I've been doing more dishes and doing the laundry.... our dish washer got a real workout this weekend since I can't cook without making a mess....we had good food and good company....what more can you ask for.

A Horse and A Mule

Well, I'm down to 1 horse and 1 mule.... Wink sold yesterday. We delivered him to Norfork last night....he has a nice new mommy that only has one horse (him) and she plans to love him and feed him and ride him every day (or so she says). If not, he can always just watch her Mercedes drive by as she spends her days of leisure not working...haha...just kidding. She has big plans for Wink and I think he will enjoy all of the attention.

July Journey Daily

I'm joining my friends Kim and Joan in doing a July Daily mini book. This book has something in it for each day of July....sometimes it is just words and sometimes it is kind of scrapbookish. These photos are not the best but here's a little idea of what I'm doing. I hope to improve my skills with this daily project and make a little book of memories of my life.

Here's the cover....


July 1 - The first day of July...The Dawining of a Brand New Day for me in many ways... a new day in general...and a new beginning for Ozarka as the new President arrived.

July 2 - My life is simple. I enjoy a quiet simple life most of the time. I've become much calmer in my nature and enjoy things that I never would have thought that I would like. Such as picking blackberries....a yearly thing for me now.

July 3 - Picking Blueberries....like I said...I enjoy lots of things that I would have never thought about before....I picked Blueberries for the first time this day with some of my friends from work. It was a nice morning and we were done before it got good and hot. I also went for a ride on Goldie that afternoon with Fred and Karla Rush. George was supposed to go but he wasn't feeling good.

July 3 continued - Spending time with friends ....it's just really nice.

July 4 (this is a clear page so the color showing thru is my table) - I must have got what George had....I was sick until noon...then spent the afternoon in the house watching movies.....

July 5 - Today I felt good...so I worked in my garden....picked it, hoed it, tilled it and watered it....then Imade a trip to Wal-Mart for groceries ....and then George and I rode for a while...He rode Hat and I rode Wink....Goldie went along for the trip.

July 5 continued

July 6 - I'm doing a little/lot of reflection....all of the changes in my life at this moment cause me to think....I'm definitely not saying the changes are a bad thing but they are CHANGES.

Well...that's all for now...I'll post more as the month goes on.....

How we change

This is me and Wink.....

I've been spending a little time most days (but not all) riding the horses.... Wink and I have been enjoying each other's company (haha...don't ask him about this) quite a bit lately. He's such a beautiful horse and can be such a sweetheart too...then there are the other times...but hey....no one is perfect.

I've also been playing in my garden and finding some fruit patches...I picked blackberries and blueberries over the weekend...why this intrigues me so much is really beyond me because now that I have the fruit...I don't know what I want to do with it....I think I'll make a cobbler out of the blackberries...but the blueberries....well....I gave some away and I froze some...and I'm eating some each day.....but the odd thing is that I didn't know I liked fresh blueberries (blueberry muffins yes...but fresh?) until after I went and picked 2 gallons.... I think it has something to do with the hunter gatherer urges that we are all born with....but....if you had told me 20 years ago or so that I would be doing this and enjoying it, I would have been laughing at you to your face.....my my how we change.

Trip to Texas

George and I took a little trip to Texas this past weekend....Amarillo to be exact.... At one point I saw this cool reflection in my side window....so I turned around to get a photo of it....

On the way there we made a pit stop in Tulsa to have lunch at Costa Azule with my old boss, Tom. This is a photo of downtown Tulsa (where I used to work) as we were crossing the bridge over the Arkansas River.

We went to a wedding celebration for Dusty and Susie Johnston.... We had a great time visiting on Friday night, went sight seeing on Saturday and to the wedding reception on Saturday evening.

The sight seeing consisted of Cadillac Ranch and Palo Duro Canyon....
Here I have just added our names to the cars... and here's views of the row of cars from the front and back...I have shots of each one.......



This is a shot at the canyon..I have tons but my computer is uploading slow...so I'm just posting the one.... It was beautiful.