CARTER AND KARLIE AT THE ROYALS GAME

BIRTHDAY FLOWERS

SMALL TOWN USA

This is a picture of a street in the small NE Mississippi town that I was born and lived in for 20 years. A train track went down the middle of the street. They say the train track has now been removed and a bike trail is in its place. The building on the corner by the stop sign was my uncle's drug store back in the fifties. When I would go to his store, he would always give me a fountain coke and I would drink it and look at comic books, while he and my dad talked. When we would leave, he would tell me to pick out a comic book to take with me. The building on the left across the street was a bank where my parents did business. I went with my dad many times to that bank when I was a little girl. Can still remember the musty smell. Good times and bad times in that small town.

 

LABOR DAY WEEKEND/BIRTHDAY

Kim and Abby arrived late Friday, so we could help Kim celebrate her birthday. It was too hot on Saturday to really do anything. The temperature was 102. Abby and Pap-pa did walk up to our neighborhood playground but didn't stay long and Abby came back red-faced. Tracy, Kim, Abby and I did go out to eat at Kim's favorite local Mexican restaurant for lunch. Hubby didn't go. He was afraid he would miss the OSU-Mississippi State game.

We had a cold front come through on Sunday and the temperature was around 90. They all went up to our neighborhood pool to swim that morning. then we went down to Bricktown in OKC for the birthday dinner. We went to Jazmoz Bourbon Street Cafe on the canal and the food was really, really good. We walked around on the River Walk after we finished eating for a little while. Then we came back home and had cake and ice cream. It ended up being a pretty busy weekend but I think everyone enjoyed it.

I have mentioned before that we live out with the horses and cows.  See the cows in the background, proof we do.

Abby is a little dare-devil in the water.

At the restaurant eating the awesome crab dip.  It was really good.

Not sure what Abby was trying to do, but made us all uncomfortable.

Tracy always lights the candles.  She did it for so many years when she worked at Chuck-E-Cheese.

Abby helped her mommy blow out the candles.  Later she asked Kim if she missed the opening of gifts.

A RAZORBACK AND TWO TIGERS

We took these pictures of the grandkids when we were at Table Rock Lake.  They are on the balcony of the condo, with the lake in the background.  Although, you can not really see the lake in these pictures.  We told them to cheer, but Carter said he was not having any part of that.  The little girls were  happy to oblige us though.  Of course a razorback can't stand too close to two little tigers.

I think this one is cute, but we told them to only show their hiney when we ask them to for pictures, not any other time.

LANDSCAPING-BEFORE AND AFTER

When we moved into our house four yeas ago,  we loved pretty much everything about it, except the landscaping.  One of the first things on my to-do list was to have it landscaped.  The backyard looked really bare with only two evergreen trees in it and one evergreen, the top half was dead.  Well we will have been in our house exactly four years next month and we finally had someone come out and do the landscaping.  The pictures don't really do it justice.  It looks like a new house with the landscaping.



These are the before pictures.

They removed the big evergreen and several of the shrubs.  All the  trees and shrubs that they removed, they transplanted to our back yard.

They also removed all the tree stakes.  They were such an eyesore.

When we first moved in to this house, we had three pine trees on the island but last year, one died. We had to cut it down.  We have plans to add more things to the island but not sure exactly what at the present time.  We have mums that will be in bloom in the fall.

The lady said it will take about two summers for everything to fill in.

The stone was expensive, but worth it.  I think  adding  the rock underneath the gutter downspouts add a lot.  They trimmed the hollies back to about a third of their size.

I didn't notice at the time, but I managed to capture one of our barn swallows in the picture.  They have a nest on the ledge over our front door and I think  have produced at least four different sets this year. Their first set all died.  Hubby looked out the front door and they were all laying on the porch dead.  But, they are very messy.  Hubby is always washing the poop off our door mat.

Back in November, we also had three trees planted.  I will show pictures of backyard later.  It is beginning to not look bare anymore.

CARTER- FIRST DAY-SECOND GRADE