Ireland

We're Back!! Ireland was really wonderful. I took sooooo many pictures (over 600) that I am trying to decide just what to post on here. But I promise I will decide soon and show everyone some pictures. We had perfect weather, in fact, we had less rain than home. We only had to use our umbrellas twice, and we never did have to use our ponchos. It was so neat. Anyway I promise I will get some pictures on here soon.
By the was this is the Blarney Castle. It is where you climb to the top, and I do mean climb, and kiss the Blarney Stone. Did we do it? Yes and No. We did climb to the top but decided after watching person after person lay down on their back, go upside down and kiss the same stone, that maybe we didn't need a better gift of gab. Too many germs and other things. Oh well it was a fun climb.

I love my kids!

Flowers were popular this Mothers' Day in my house.

Which is fine by me.

Aren't these gorgeous?

Carrie, Marcy, Bobby, and Chris got me a collection of flowers from Cactus and Tropicals.

First of all is this orchid.

[I love the pussy willow stick that's supporting it]

I also love the vase it's in. So cute.

There's this neat moss at the base of the orchid.

Lavender.

An adorable sunflower.

Randy got me these cute purple flowers.

The name's complicated. The picture says it all anyways. :]

Kim made me these paper origami flowers. Along with a gift card from Amazon so I can order a neat leather cover for my Kindle.

Thanks everyone, I love you all.

Happy Birthday Tristan

Last Monday was Tristan's 11th Birthday. I really can't believe that he is that old! Tristan, I hope you had a great birthday. You really are a great kid, and a wonderful grandson. We love you! I thought I would show some of the pictures I took out at Kim's while we were celebrating.

I know this looks posed, and yea, it probably is. I think it must be Chris that is about to bop him on the head, I am pretty sure it wasn't the first time that it had happened.

He got some great presents. We got him a 4 man tent, and his aunt and uncles got him a nice sleeping bag and a camping lantern. Now he is ready for those warm summer nights. Or maybe a few chilly ones too.

I'm not sure Ethan ever knew I took this one. Not sure it would have mattered to him if he did know I was taking it. He was having fun trying to get it out with just his tongue.

He is pretty good on the tramp. Most of this is just me trying to get action pictures. Some were pretty good, others (that I will never post) were not so good.

I have to admit this one surprised me. Didn't know he could do a flip, but he did, although the landing was not real great!
Badmitten was the game of the day. I think someone (the people changed) was playing from the time we got there, til it was too dark to see the birdy.
In case you can't see it here, Bob is now playing with a racket in each hand. And using both of them to hit the birdy. In fact at one time he had two rackets in each hand. That didn't work out quite so well. The four of these guys are quite competetive. I think they all get it from their Dad.
It was a great time! I loved the weather, it was just right, not too hot, not too cold. And I love hanging out with our family. I can't wait for the rest of the summer and those great get-to-gethers.

The flower wall is finally up.

This has been a long time in the process. These are flower pictures that Carrie and I have taken over the past years. Some are from our own yard, some are from Hawaii, and some are even taken in Monticello. (From when we were down there when Mom was in the hospital). When I was trying to decide what to put up on this wall after we remodled I saw a wall with pictures like this at the Parade of Homes. I loved the idea, besides we could use the pictures that we had already taken. Carrie then started taking the individual pictures and taking out the color in the background to make the flower itself stand out. She had a lot of them done and then the computer goofed up and we had to dump most of what was on the computer. To say the least we were a little upset. Then in a tech. training they showed us how to use Picassa (Cindy I should have listened to you sooner) and I discovered that when I installed it on this computer it brought back all of the lost pictures. Ta-Da. So I finally had them all printed off and in the frames. It then took us about 2 months to decide just how we wanted to hang them. But with everyone gone last night Bob and I finally decided to just do it! I love it. It turned out smaller than I thought it would, but that is OK because it leaves us room to put up some more if we find more flowers that we can't live without.This is the next project. This is the family picture wall and I haven't decided if I want to try and buy all new frames for the family pictures or put them all back up in the mismatched frames. Hopefully it won't take as long as the flower wall.

Carrie's new ottoman

Carrie made this ottoman. Good job, HUH!

Happy Birthday Marcy

It's Marcy's Birthday today! Happy Birthday Marcy, Wish you were here or we were there.
LOVE YA!

Birthday X two

Hey my Babies are 19 today! I'm sure they will hate having me call them my babies. But I guess being the youngest, that is what they will always be.
Happy Birthday Carrie and Randy. LOVE YA!

I HATE WINTER!

I know that is somewhat dramatic, but I need some sunshine. These last two weeks have just plain been depressing. There was one brief moment on Friday as I was leaving the school that there was actually some blue sky and sunshine. I was so excited and actually felt physically better. Then 2 hours later you couldn't see 100 feet in front of you. Talk about a downer. Randy loves fog and was so excited, until he had to drive to Bobby's in it. I thought it was just claustrophobic. And now it can't decide whether to rain or snow. I'm sure by morning it will probably be snow, and I think that even that would be better than this drizzle. So I am going to find and post some summer time pictures and see if that makes me feel better.

Tristan and Ethan up the canyon on my 50 birthday. The kids (and Bob) threw me this great surprise party. I really was surprised! It was a great day and well worth remembering again. It definately brightens up my day.

Can you believe all these balloons! I do believe there were 50 in all. It was great!

Another day up the canyon. The kids let Bob and I come along on one of their climbing days. I decided that I am probably better off if I don't watch.

This one is taken from the top of the cliff. We decided it was more fun to take pictures from the top instead of from the bottom. (Make your own joke here.)

Hope everyones Christmas was GREAT!

We had a very different Christmas this year. Bob had to work Christmas day. That meant he had to be at the hospital by 7 am. So we traded our presents with Kim and Don and the Kids and Bobby and Clybe on Christmas Eve. It was strange to open more than just pjs on Christmas Eve. Then Carrie, Randy, Chris, Bob and I opened the santa gifts and our exchanges before he went to work. It was quite early and I am afraid that the pictures show it. It was still nice and I even had time to fix him the traditional Eggs Benedict before he went to work. He told them at the hospital that he had had Eggs Benedict before he came to work and they did not believe him. We also fixed Ableskivers and took him some for lunch. It sure made Christmas strange going over to Kims without him. I hope he knows how much he was missed. Anyway here are a few of the pics.
Aha, the quiet before the storm.
Randy, trying to decide where to start handing out

We figured it out!

Does it look early to you? I'm not real sure how much sleep Chris has had.

I really think it must be time to go back to bed. Which we all did after poor Bob went to work.

Just 3 left at home to open gifts. Things they are a changin.

Later at Kims. Tristan and Ethan both got RC cars. I am sure Don will be repairing for a long time.

Yea, I know, this is just scary, but too funny to pass up.

AAAAhhhhhh, Christmas Eve left overs. The only way to cook on Chirstmas.
Merry Christmas Everyone! Marcy we want to see some Texas Christmas pictures!

Merry Christmas

Wow, it really has been a long time since I have posted. Sorry bout that! I have a bunch of really great pictures from Thanksgiving, but that is sooo in the past now. So I thought I would show you all some of the pictures from our trip to Philadelphia to see Marcy and Chris. They are in the process of relocating the Cafe to another retail space about 2 blocks from where they are now. Bob and I thought we would go see if we could help some. Bob did a lot of sheet rocking, mudding and sanding. I tried, well let's just say that is not in my comfort range. Instead I worked on some projects that Marcy just hasn't had time to do. I made some drapes for her guest room, a table runner for her dining room table, and a tree skirt for her christmas tree. We also got to help decorate her tree. It was fun, and so nice to spend some time with them.

These first 3 pictures are from a place called Longwood Gardens. It is an Estate that is owned by Du Pont. They decorate it all up for Christmas with lots and lots of lights. The Conservatory was wonderful! All of the Christmas flowers, and decorations were neat. I took lots of flower pictures (surprise, surprise) and not a whole lot of people. Got to stop doing that!

Anyway here is one of Marcy. They had so many different kinds of poinsettas. This picture doesn't give these any justice. They were huge!

This pool would normally be a water lily pond, but for Christmas they made it into a Cranberry Bog. The tree at the end is covered with yellow poinsettas.

Instead of having live entertainment on the last night we were there they had Karaoke night. It was a blast to watch. And the best (of course) were Marcy and Chris!

I wish I could remember what song they were singing. I sure that would explain this picture. But I love it anyway.