Congratulations Laura!

This is my niece, Laura, in Kansas. She recently got her learners permit and is SOOOOOO excited! Her mom is SOOOOOOO scared! Yesterday her mom and dad got her this car and now she is even more excited! Laura sent this picture so I could see the car and share it with my friends. I think she is such a cute girl, but she is my niece! The car is great!

Congratulations on your first car Laura!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

GINA! DON'T LOOK! :)

My sister and her family live in Kansas, which, of course, means they are KU fans. So when they came to visit on the 6th this month they brought a special surprise for Ethan. They outfitted him in KU garb. He loves it! See the big cheesy grin. He has to have his chocolate milk in the Jayhawk cup and we play ball incessantly. We had a lot of fun with my sister and fam, wish they lived closer!

Three Things About Me

I was tagged by Kathryn over at The Empty Nest to do this meme. The rules are to tell everyone three things about yourself that they don't already know. Hmmmmmm, ok that's out..... uuuuuhh, no........... Let me think, nope everyone knows about Rusty, OK here:

• I always come in on the trailing edge of technology. I never even heard of blogging until a couple of years ago. I know, pretty pitiful. I just shake my head in wonder when I read about people who have been blogging for years. I was one of the last of my friends to get a cell phone and now I can't live without it. When I got my iPod my niece had to show me how to use it. I didn't quit buying cassette tapes until they quit selling them. I tried to turn my first CD over to hear the other side. I could go on but I think this is bad enough. (Point in fact here. I can't get rid of the extra bullets.)
• I was raised an Air Force brat. Dad was a pilot in the USAF so we lived in several states including Michigan (where I was born,) Alaska, California, Alaska (again,) and Kansas. After dad retired we lived in Missouri then Texas, where mom and dad were from originally.
• I pay good money to Curves every month and haven't been there for weeks!

If you would like to play, please do. Leave it in a comment or leave a link to your post! thanks.

What's in a Name?

Kathryn at The Empty Nest and Mere at Mercedes’ World did this meme and it looked fun, so I borrowed it!

1. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (First 3 letters of real name plus “izzle”) Shaizzle
2. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (Favorite color and favorite animal) Blue Panda
3. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (Middle name, and current street you are on) Dea Trimble
4. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (The first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letter of mom’s maiden) Broshtay
5. YOUR SUPER HERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink) Purple Sweet Tea
6. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (Mother’s middle name and father’s middle name) Anita David
7. YOUR GOTH NAME: (Black, and the name of one of your pets) Black Rusty, or should I have gone with Black Bear? :)
8. YOUR SPY NAME: (Your name spelled backwards) Norahs

Feel fee to join in by leaving your answers in a comment or create a post and leave me the link to your post!

Busy, Busy, Busy (& A New Camera!)

Wow! That last week of school sure is busy! The kids last day was Friday and our last day was Saturday. That included three meetings I had to attend: 1) the GT Committee met to go over the stories submitted and score them. 2) The second grade teachers met to sort the kids into seven new classes for their third grade year. 3) The big district meeting was held at the Jr. High as usual. The retirees were honored, people with 5, 20, 15, 20, 25, and 30 years with the district were honored with pins. Two of the 30 year people were from our campus. In 3 years I'll have my 25 year pin.

Last week we kept my niece's standard poodle while she and her fiance went to Las Vegas to be married. His name is Dragon and he is the sweetest dog. He and Rusty got along fine, but Rusty had to remind him sometimes that this is actually Rusty's home so he was top dog. She came and picked him up on Sunday.













Speaking of Sunday that was the day of David's family reunion. We all met at Salmon Lake Park. It isn't too far away, just about a 30 minute drive. Click on the link, click on Rental Photos then scroll down to Family Reunion Buildings and you will see a picture of the Crazy Horse Saloon building where our family meets almost every year. We took Ethan with us and he had a great time. The lake there is spring fed and he spent a lot of time swimming, and I spent a lot of time on the shore watching him. We all brought simple food. David and his cousins went through a lot of old photos and a good time was had by all.



Here is a portion of the lake.









May 26th was my birthday and, as promised, David got a new camera for me. A Rebel XTI! The store was having a "special" where you could get 75-300mm lens with the camera kit, so of course I had to get that. I got a case and two rechargeable batteries and a 4gb card because it was "on sale." Now I've never filled up the 1gb cards I have in my Kodak so why I thought I had to have the 4gb is beyond me, but there you have it.




Now I have a little free time to read up on this and try taking pictures!

ABC Wednesday - S

I've Selected Several pictures to use for the S theme this week. To begin on a Serious note, I present this picture of a Stunning Sunset taken last Summer while Strolling along the Shore.

Now for a Self portrait in Sun and Shadow taken on the Shore of a local lake.

Here we have a great-niece indulging in Some Serious fun Sliding.

I'll end this Series of S themed pictures with some Silliness. Here you can See my nephew, Shannon, and his Son acting, well, Silly!

ABC Wednesday is hosted byMrs. Nesbitt at her place.

Three Awards!

Kathryn over at 4urpets gave me this award! Isn't it pretty? Her friend translated it: “Love Me. When I deserve it the least is when I need it the most.” Thank you Kathryn for being my friend and Rusty's!

Meredith over at Mercedes World gave me this award. It is one she created herself. Mere is a friend both here and at Rusty's blog. Mere recently lost her own sweet dog, Patch. Thank you Mere for being a sweet friend.



Tammy at 3 Sides of Crazy gave me this award. She always has good recipies and lots of fun going on over at her place! Thank you Tammy!

An Award!

Look what Kathryn at 4urpets gave me! She has such a fun blog there with her 3 cute little chihuahuas. I consider her a great friend. She was the first person to comment on Rusty's blog and we have been friends since. Recently she started a blog, The Empty Nest, over here at Blogger and has gone to town with it. Thank you Kathryn!

Mere at Mercedes World also gave this to me! Mere is a great friend. She has given Rusty many awards over at his place and always has something nice to say. There is always something fun going on over at Mercedes World. She even hosts two of her own memes, Hump Day Humor and Scrumptious Sunday. Thanks Mere!

I'd like to pass this along to my friends! Enjoy!

Grandson (pictures below)

The time has come. As I stated in a post a couple of weeks ago, our own busy little grandson has come to Texas to live with us for at least 6 months. He is 3 years old, cute as a button, and VERY active. He will spend part of his time with his Granny (that is his great-grandmother, my step-daughter's grandmother) and part of his time with us. His mom and he flew in from Seattle, Washington last Wednesday and his mom flew back home yesterday. Granny took her back to Dallas for her flight. They split their nights between Granny and us, then on Tuesday night Ethan spent his first night with us alone. I was so afraid that he would be upset but it all went VERY well. He went to bed and slept the whole night away! Wednesday morning, yesterday morning, he got up in a good mood and had a great day with his Granpa while I went to work. They came to the school to visit and he met a lot of my friends there.

Friends have been helping me with necessities. Teresa gave me a booster seat, an umbrella stroller, a potty seat (the kind that adapts the toilet for tiny hineys), and a little net barrier that slips under the mattress and keeps the child from rolling off the bed. I think he is fine without it, but....

He loves Rusty, they get along so well! They run around like a couple of, well, 3 year olds.

One of my friends at school gave us a wooden car and track set that should provide hours of fun.
I am going to hit garage sales in search of 3T jeans and shorts. I've got to go to the store for tiny socks and 3T undies and size 8 shoes.

Life as I know it has changed, at least for 6 months.

Here is the Busy Boy ready to tour first Monday last Saturday with his great grandma (Granny,) his mom, and me (Nana.)
Here's Busy Boy with the Devil Dog Marine stuffed toy his granpa and I picked up in anticipation of his visit. Granpa was a Marine in his younger days so.....

Odd Shots Monday

For more Odd Shots visit Katney.

These peppers on the side of a Mexican Food place

are pretty odd, I thought.

Waiting at the Window

Early Saturday morning I was eating a biscuit standing at the kitchen sink looking into the backyard. I noted that the window needs to be cleaned. The morning was clear and bright, the sky a brilliant blue. I was waiting for my step-daughter and her Granny to come pick me up for a day at First Monday.

I noticed a mockingbird working over a pecan in the yard near the patio. I glanced at our lab, Bear. She too had noticed the mockingbird but seemed uninterested. Then she made a half hearted lunge in the direction of the mockingbird which flew to the fence and sat fussing at her.
Bear nosed the pecan then trotted to the back of the yard to visit with the dogs in the yard behind us. When she was a few paces away the mockingbird returned to the pecan.

I finished the biscuit and was watching a couple of squirrels playing in the pecan trees and thought I should call Rusty and let him out so he could bark at the squirrels, his favorite pass time. Before I could turn a crow flew down from one pecan tree and up to the next with a mockingbird in hot pursuit. I caught another glimpse of them as the crow was chased out of the yard and into the next.

Then I saw the truck, containing my companions for the day, and headed for the carport.

ABC Wednesday K

K is for Kitty

While this is not strictly a photo, it is amusing. My Kitty Bob is being attacked by a mockingbird. she has a nest in my lady banks out front and Bob had the gall to lay on the front lawn. Mockingbirds are notorious for agressively protecting the area near their nests. Hope you enjoy this. We keep a pretty tight rein on him in the spring so Bob did not hurt the mockingbird then or later. The babies hatched, grew and flew off in their own good time.

Go to Mrs. Nesbitts place for more ABC Wednesday!

Award - Awarded and Accepted With Thanks

Look what Lili gave me! I happily accept this award. Now to pass it on.

The rules are:
By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you agree to award it to 10 more people whose blogs you find Excellent Award worthy. You can give it to as many people as you want but please award at least 10. You deserve this! Feel free to recognize blogs that have already received this award.

I would like to award this to:

Kathryn

Paulie

Sandy

Susan

Mercedes

Jenn

Quint

Tom

Inspired

Marcia

Odd Shots Monday

Odd shots is hosted by Katney's Kaboodle.

Last weekend we went for a walk in a beautiful park maintained by the city called Davey Dogwood Park. There are over 200 wooded acres in this and 5 miles of one lane road. At this time of year the dogwoods and redbuds are blooming in abundance. The woods are beautiful with the blooming of these understory trees. Last weekend was also the first weekend of The Dogwood Trails, a local festival that draws many tourists. Thus the photo below.

Normally the scenery wouldn't be marred with these handy dandy items.

A Book Meme from The Aged Cat

I was tagged by the Aged Cat to do this book meme, which is right up my alley since I love to read. I'm reading a weird book right now, Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett so it is closest at hand. I've read quite a number of Pratchett's Disc World books and they never fail to make me laugh out loud. I put in a couple of extra sentences, I couldn't help it. The first two sentences were really short anyway.

Here are the rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment here once you post it to your blog so I can come see!

Here are sentences 6 - 10 on page 123 of Moving Pictures:

One Spink, two Spinks. Now get on with it. I want those posters all around the city first thing tomorrow. The artist gave Victor an agonized look he was coming to recognize. Everyone around Dibbler wore them after a while.

This was fun and I enjoyed reading others entries. If you would like to do this with us, please do and let me know so I can go read it!

You Cheer Me Up Award

This is such a cool award! I love Lucy. Lots of thanks to Elaine over at Napaboaniya for it. She has a very cool blog, so go visit!



I'd like to pass this award on to Mercedes, Gina, Paulie, Edmund Bear, The Aged Cat, and Susan

The Bird Nest Cafe, Better Known as Wanda's

Weekend Snapshot

This is Wanda. She is sweet and warm and everything you would expect out of the owner of a small southern cafe. Wanda was a waitress for years at another local cafe. When it closed down she opened her own cafe and named it "The Bird Nest Cafe." Most of the people we know who go there call it "Wanda's."

David and I enjoy going there on Saturday mornings for breakfast and on Sunday afternoons for the plate lunch special. Talk about your down home southern cooking. We had the pork chops yesterday. Wanda told us they were"as tender as a mother's love." That's pretty dog gone tender. We thoroughly enjoyed them (fried of course) along with the green beans, real mashed potatoes with cream gravy and peanut butter cake. YUMMY! I had coffee and David had sweet tea.

I am a member of NaBloPoMo '08.

100th Post!

I just noticed that Wednesday's post, ABC Wednesdy, was my 100th post! It wasn't quite as fun and exciting as the 100th day of school, no 100 hats or Fruit Loop necklaces, but on the whole nice little milepost to have reached.

ABC Wednesday - F

ABC Wednesday

F is for.........

Flag

Flower

Flappers



















Fairy Princess

Frog

Four Things

I saw this meme at Gina's and thought I’d do it. Feel free to copy and do it too.

Four TV shows I watch:
Lost
Scrubs
Monk
Psych

Four places I’ve lived:
Michigan (born here)
Alaska (Elmendorf AFB)
California
Texas

Four places I’ve vacationed:
England (week long bus tour, wonderful)
New York City
Alaska (David & I did an Inside Passage cruise)
Florida

Four places I would like to vacation:
Washington, DC
Plimoth Plantation, Plymouth MA
Yosemite National Park
Isle Royale National Park (David and I are trying to visit as many national parks as we can.)

Four of my favorite foods:
Mexican, I even put it on the blog here once.
Italian
Southern home cooking (That's the best isn't it Gina!)
Hamburger Bar hamburgers (local)


Four things I like to do:
Read and listen to books. I check out books on CD and tape and keep one in the car so I can listen to it on the way to work and back.
Play with my dog, Rusty.
Go to the movies with David.
Make cards.