50 and counting....

On July 14, 2010, George turned 50.
The kids and I celebrated with him over the weekend while they were home....but... today didn't go unrecognized...
George arrived at work to find a handicapped parking sign at his parking spot....























He was honored with a cool new t-shirt that I so look forward to him wearing everywhere we go (lol).....Here's the back....

























Here's the front.... and look at that smiling birthday boy...



























Somehow, they managed to find some props to use for decorating.:-) We can thank Henry and Rita for access to some photos..... and Dusty Clem for getting it all organized (Thanks Dusty).














I did find it funny that the only old fossil in this photo is Lonnie ! Haha





































They also had birthday snacks at break.

So... now.... he's stuck with just celebrating with me and Tess. He's having a ribeye for dinner and hanging out with us.

Hope he had a wonderful day....thanks to everyone that helped make it that way.

Visit with the kids

We've been having a nice visit with they kiddos this week. Russell was on holiday from school, so Nicole and Ryan rearranged their schedules so they could visit while he was here... so... we had everyone together at the same time... We got to have a few hours on the lake... here's a cell phone shot of me and Nicole... we were waiting for George to make some waves with the boat so we could crash through them....

Saturday night, we went to Pocahontas for Henry's (my father-in-law) retirement dinner. All of the family was there except Magi and Linda... it was nice to see everyone and celebrate Henry's new status...

Since I had all the kids together at the same time I got a photo of them when their Daddy-o. I don't get this opportunity often anymore, so I have to jump on it when I can.

Nice lookin' family that I have! Lucky me.

Everyone is leaving today and it will be just me and George and the critters for a while.

Oh....... I'm going to see Eclipse with my friend Suellen this afternoon :-)

Independence Day.... a day late

I really did start to post to my blog yesterday, but I've had so many electronics issues this weekend that I just couldn't do it. My laptop was down, George's computer won't ready my memory card and then it got malware problems as well...and my camera is on the fritz...

I have the computers working again but the camera is still not working correctly. But, I can now post the photos that I did get while trying to fix my camera.

We had a day at home taking care of things that needed to be done. We went to the lake on Saturday....though.... so... after working around the property with George and running back and forth to me...Tess wanted a nap...but she didn't want to miss anything, so she napped in the living room. Such a sweet puppy...on my couch ;-)

I made some slaw for dinner...had some baked beans.....so.... guess what was for dinner......

That's right.... ribs.... beef ribs to be exact....

George suggested we have ribs for dinner but we didn't buy any pork ribs...so we had some black anugs beef ribs from our Rex Whitfield cow. He has perfected a slow grilled method that takes quite a while....

I also made brownies a'la Drexene...which are brownies, with a layer of marshmallows melted over them and then a tub of chocolate frosting heated and poured over the whole thing.

This morning I got up and made a batch of Grandmother Dust's Sugar Cookies....

Yes, it seems like I'm going overboard... but Russell is home! and Ryan and Nicole will be here on Wednesday....so...I'm getting into the cooking groove... I know I'll need to make fried squash and probably fried chicken while they are here...and of course, we will need to celebrate George's birthday then too...so that means a cheesecake ;-)

Anyway.... our Independence Day did not have any fireworks or major plans but we have enjoyed a peaceful weekend together.

Charging my batteries....

I'm charging my batteries...literally. I have not had my camera in my hands since May 20th.... Can you believe that....I know I am not a great photographer but I usually do make an effort to take photos of what's going on in our lives.... this week I went outside to take a photo after the rain and my batteries were dead and the charger was still in the truck from our trip to Tulsa.

My friend Kim mentioned that she might start another photo challenge and that reminded me again that I still haven't charged my camera batteries.

I've been so un-me lately.

I have not.... cleaned out my closet or any of the drawers in the house, stayed on my diet, exercised, scrapbooked, taken any photos, ironed my clothes, or shopped.

Maybe I need to be charging my own batteries as well...but I'm not sure how to do that right now.....

Of course, I'm working up to a big new project....and maybe that's what I need is a little project to get me going again....I'm about ready to start tiling the living room, study and bedroom...that will make the whole downstairs tile. Of course, I still haven't ordered the tile, but I plan to this weekend.

I did get my paint out so I can do some touch up painting this week (Russell and I need to touch up his room for sure).

I just need to be motivated...or to have something to be motivated about.

Maybe I should go ahead and order that GMAT study book.....

Well...I've rambled on tonight...but maybe this is the charge that I needed....I guess we'll see.

Vacation June 2010

Wow! Vacation this year was great. George and I were gone for around 8 days... We packed up our camper and boat and went to Daisy State Park in Daisy, Arkansas. We fished, played in the lake, took a couple of day trips around the area, found a nice little Mexican Restaurant that made Carne Asada Tacos the way I love them so we ate there twice!

We camped at Daisy State Park until Thursday, then we drove to Greers Ferry to check that lake out.... Daisy is a nice park and Lake Greeson is nice as well. We only had our fishing boat with us, so we couldn't play a lot but we fished and found a nice cove to swim and float around on one hot afternoon.




George is a pyromaniac! He loves to build fires, so we had one most nights...and he's got a man crush on that little shovel that he bought just for the camp fires.

This is going to be one of those mushy moments.... It seems that George makes all of my dreams come true. Since I've met George, I've done so many things that I always wanted to do....and one of those things happens to be seeing the Cossatot River. Years ago I saw a picture of the Cossatot River and decided then that I would like to see that river in person....Well... here she is....
A very calm looking river at this point.....

This is Cossatot Falls...there are these huge rocks all around this area. I couldn't find a place to take a photo of them all... but they go across the river and then for quite a ways down the river.







At the time, that area hadn't had much rain so the river was low...I know it has some serious rapids on it when the level is right. I could have spent all day climbing around those rocks at the falls!

I wonder how much rain reached that river from the awful floods that came to the Little Missouri River and Caddo rivers soon after we left the camp at Daisy....about 12 miles from the camp ground at Langley. However, we were on the lake, not a river.
We were quite lucky to be out of the area though.

While we were gone, we went to the Crater of Diamonds too. I have to say...I am not a diamond digger....I might go again some time, if I'm with someone that just really wants to go, but it would have to be in the cool of spring or fall. It's just a huge plowed field and there is nothing like digging in the dirt in the hot sun and being all sweaty...not really my thing.

Greers Ferry was a bit disappointing in that only one campground had water hookups...and it wasn't the one we really wanted to stay at...and it was rainy on Friday...so we spent most of that day driving around looking at the area.

Anyway...all in all it was a very nice vacation! Relaxed and lazy...and I got a lot of reading time too.

Oklahoma Graduation

On May 20, 2010 the last of the children graduated from high school.

That's Nicole! She has plans to attend The Universtiy of Oklahoma in the fall.

Unexpected?

Bet today's blog is not what you would expect. I'm planning on multiple posts from the weekend but today's is just for fun....

Went to Oklahoma - Tulsa to be exact for a graduation celebration, but that is not what this post will be about....

Once upon a time, and it now seems so long ago, I lived in Tulsa....I learned alot about city life and had a lot of new experiences while I was there....then we moved back to the country in Arkansas....'cause though you can take the girl out of the country you can't take the country out of the girl :-)

After leaving Tulsa, I missed a few things....I'm not being sentimental in this blog, so don't start thinking friends and family, though that would be true....

The thoughts in this blog are a lot different than that....

One thing that I experienced while in Tulsa was.....

That's right... Head Country Bar-B-Q Sauce. Made in Oklahoma and man...is it great! So, while we were running around this week, we went to Wal-Mart and got 2 gallons....let's see how long that will last and keep me satisfied!

What really surprised me when I moved back to Arkansas was that I really was shocked at how much the local quick shop charged for a 20 oz. fountain drink...in Tulsa I had been getting 32 oz. fountain drinks for 88 cents.... I was shocked..... so....I really began to miss this.....

That's right! QuikTrip convenience stores.... they are the best and they are on about every other intersection in Tulsa.... (that sounds like an exageration but it's not far off)...and I notice that they were building several new one's around the city. And guess what the view from my hotel room was....yep...QT! I only managed to make one QT stop while I was there... :-( but that's more than none....lol

So.... how's that for the unexpected ;-)