Category Archives: Weather

Best Friends, More Doggy and River Rats…

“Dirty hands, iced tea, garden fragrances thick in the air and a blanket of color before me, who could ask for more?”
— Bev Adams

It has been HOT.† Boiling, sweating, drenched-as-soon-as-you- walk-out-the-door, hot.† Complaints of how cold our Alabama winter was seems a long lost memory.

Liv spent the night with Kei and they had a blast.† They spent hours playing in the “creek” behind our house.† Or our ‘river’ as G calls it.† They were soaked, the dog was soaked, they all smelled like wet dog and creek….good times.

Creek Fun
Silly, Giggly Girls

When they finally got cleaned up they baked a cake.† They each decorated 1/2 of it.

Yummy Goodness

After dinner we took Nomad for a walk. I have walked, ridden, ran and skipped over the ‘concrete bridge’ a million times.† We used to ride our bikes over it BEFORE there was a fence.† I would KILL Kei if she ever tried anything like that.

Bestest Friends

After the walk they needed ice cream.

Yummy Ice Cream

Of course, after sticky ice cream, they needed a night time swim.

Who Needs a Bath???

I had 2 little girls that slept very soundly that night!

We got up early to go to some garage sales.† Liv had never been to a yard sale!!!† We had to remedy that quickly!

Bargains Galore!

We went to a yard sale out in Trinity and on the way back passed hay bales.† Liv had never climbed on a hay bale so I quickly made an illegal turn and parked the car!

HEY! It's HAY!

I enjoyed having Livvy here so much.

Saturday morning Kei and I went to Cullman to meander around.† We ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel and tried to find Southern Accents to no avail!† We went to the Cullman Farmer’s Market which we love.† On the way home we stopped at a nursery/antique shop.† Kei went head to head with a rooster.

Cock-a-doodle THIS!

She was also very angry that they had a statue of David with a GAP Tshirt on.† I told her we were in the country and maybe they were offended by his nakedness.† She thought that was the dumbest thing she ever heard.

We also saw a place where old school buses go to die.

Lonely Buses...

When we got home I relaxed in the hammock and Kei played with Nomad.

AHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Grrrrrrr

Sunday we went to church and afterward went to Eddie’s house for Nomad’s 1st River Run.† Nomad was NOT happy on the ride out there.† First he was in his little crate and he was having none of it.† Then we let him out and he still barked so loudly he about made me deaf!† We decided he wasn’t a traveling dog which made† us sad.† At Eddie’s we got in his car and Nomad laid on the floorboard and didn’t utter a peep!† Maybe he just doesn’t like Suzuki’s!

We had a wonderful day with Eddie and Nomad loved the river. Kei promptly dubbed him a river rat <of course that is what Johnny Depp was called in Chocolat and if you know Kei you will understand THAT> 🙂

Kei and Nomad the River Rat
My girl and my doggie...

We also ran by Hollywood Video which is going out of business and bought a few things.† One was “Marley and Me” which we have seen before.† However, we saw it before we got and fell in love with a yellow lab.† It was so much funnier because we have been there this time around.† Also so much more heart breaking.† Kei, who has never really cried at a movie, just went outside after it was over and hugged and hugged Nomad and cried her heart out. Poor baby girl.† She does love her doggie.

All in all a great weekend and now it is Monday….

The start of a new week, filled with possibilities!

Be Blessed,

Aaeeiii YAH….

We started ‘school’ back today.† Kei and I were both ready for it.

She did a report from “The Daring Book for Girls”.† This is the coolest book ever.† She picked, of all things, Karate.

Then she helped me fax my work flyer to about 50 Production companies.† She said she needed to write down the numbers so she would have them ‘one day when I am about to be an actress’. 🙂

We had to miss our roamschool outing to Moe’s.† Daddy wanted us to come over and go through the house again.† I have such conflicting emotions about moving.† I just pray that it all works out.

Tomorrow we start cleaning over there.† Lord give me strength and patience! 🙂

It’s Beginning to Look A lot like Christmas…

christmas-magic

Christmas is upon us.

We have done some “Christmasy” things the last week or so.

We volunteered to ring a ling ding the Salvation Army Bell.† We did this with Heather and her boys and it was FREEZING!† The kids had a blast when they weren’t too frozen to speak.† Heather brought her violin which I am sure was a first for our town.

Me & My girl
Me & My girl
Frosty Kids
Frosty Kids
Maestro
Maestro

We also got some snow!† It never snows here in December.† It used to, but not so much now.

Snow in the South
Snow in the South

We decorated the tree, although in all honesty, Kei did 99% of this herself.† I can not believe she has gotten to the point that she can do our entire tree!

All By Myself...
All By Myself...
O Christmas Tree
O Christmas Tree

We went to eat with Gina and Bobby.† Gina made chili and it was so good!† We brought Brit home with us and they did their usual girl things.† Max and Rob and Johnny and Fang, oh my!

Da Girls
Da Girls

It is about 2 weeks until Christmas and no I am not ready.† But then again, I never am!

Stay warm.

If I Were a Rich Girl…

kei-hat-lake

We spent delightful days at our friends new house at Smith Lake.†† The house was incredible.† Over 7000 sq. feet, on the lake front and beautiful.

I could stay there forever and Kei had all the rooms assigned as if we lived there by the time we left.† Complete with a homeschooling room of course.† An amazing house.† Imagine waking up, walking into the kitchen and being surrounded on 3 sides by floor to ceiling windows with a lake view.† The pool was great and Kei worked on her diving skillz.† She stayed in the water for hours and hours.† I swear she is part mermaid.


It was just what we needed.† Of course I got horribly blistered.† Why is it I lather Kei in sunscreen and then half way put it on myself!!!!?????

Happy Thursday,

K

Still Sunny…

Today was a good day.
It’s strange, because I am so broke, things are looking dismal for our company, but it was a good day.
Money has always been unimportant to me. It has become important through not having any.

Today Kei played outside for hours and I read my Harlan Coben book. I love him. He is smart and witty and such a great writer.

I am reading The Whipping Boy to her and I read some of that also.† It is a great book and we are both enjoying it.† We started the Middle Ages Monday and have tons of resources for that time period.† It is one of my favorite times.† She made a Wanted poster for Prince Brat.

001

Now I am getting things together for chicken fajitas for dinner. Yummy and easy.

Tonight we are going to watch the American Idol results show!† Go Adam!!

Just a very good day, me and my girl.

K

TGIF…

Fridays used to be a huge deal for me.

Start of the weekend, school’s out, work is finished.

Now…not so much.† I work from home so I am pretty much available 24/7, Kei is homeschooled, the weekend is just the weekend.

But Friday was beautiful!† It has been so rainy and yucky here.† I am so tired of soggy ground, dashing everywhere with something over our heads, wet everything!

Kei made the most of the day.

First, she planted a garden.† Ok Ok I realized afterwards you can’t plant anything in a container that doesn’t drain!† I am going to fix that.† I am new at this “Country Girl” stuff ok?

kei-garden

Then she found what we thought was a lizard but on further research decided was a salamander.† Regardless, she loved it.† She kept it about 30 minutes and then started feeling bad and released it.

kei-liz

Then, she played in the sprinkler. Well she played in 3 sprinklers because she couldn’t make up her mind which one was best!

k-jump

Then it was time for a little rest.

k-tired

She spent the rest of the day reading and running around.

Then she insisted on making dinner “all by herself”.† She bakes quite often and is very careful but her dinner was going to involve chopping….lots of chopping.† She begged and promised to be careful so I agreed.† She made me sit outside where I was listening for the sound of fingers being cut off but all went well.† It was a delicious dinner and she was so proud of herself!

kei-dinner

We had vegetable stir fry, leftover pasta salad and for desert…Grape and Banana Kabob with whipped cream.

Ahhh…my little chef.

Happy weekend,

K/K

Beautiful Saturdays…

It was so pretty outside today.

Kei and I got up early and went to some garage sales.† We got some good deals!† I got 2 great books, The Reader’s Digest Children’s World Atlas and The Giant Book of Questions and Answers for 50 cents!

Then Kei hit pay dirt and got an almost brand new Groovy doll, sleeping bag, bed and chair for $3 total!† Kei loves garage sales, me, not so much. I like the sales, I just hate finding them.† If they were all lined up together I would like them more.

Then we went to Cade’s baseball game.† Cade and Kei are like brother and sister.† Kei is NOT† a sports girl.† I tried to give her a crash course in baseball 101 [since I spent every minute of my growing up years at the ball park] but she still was a little confused.† Of course so was Jerri, Cade’s mom.† I was cracking up at both of them.† They are so silly.

They we came home and Kei worked in her flower garden.† Kei loves nature, Kei also loves mud.† Where there is mud, there is Kei.

mudNow Kei is out playing with the neighborhood kids.† There are tons of them running around.† That is one thing I love about living here, there are always kids to play with.† Last night when I grilled the pork tenderloin, I threw some smoked sausages on the grill.† So all I have to do for dinner is cook some onions and green peppers. Yummy!

Happy Saturday…

Hugs,

K/K

Brrr It’s Cold INSIDE!!!

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day today.† Warm breezes blowing, birds chirping, butterflies flitting around.

The smell of freshly mowed grass in the air.

And what did my darling girl want to do? Go ice skating, where it is cold and wet and brrrr.

Our home school group goes ice skating twice a month.† Kei loves it.† She has gotten to be pretty decent in a short amount of time.

It wasn’t so bad.† Regina was there and I got to talk to Tara, a homeschool mom that I haven’t ever talked to much.† She was great and gave me some great ideas for curriculum for next year.

But still…ICE SKATING?

kei-ice-skateHappy Weekend,

Hugs,

K

Earth Day 2009

What a beautiful world we live in.

We celebrated Earth Day by going on a Wild Flower Hike and picnic with our homeschool group.†† On the way we passed a school bus and felt very sorry for the kids who were going to be stuck inside on this wonderful day.

We arrived at the spot with little problem, thanks to Esther’s directions, Gina’s ability to read said directions and Bobby’s manly driving!

It was a little cool and overcast but we set off.† It was a great place to hike and a stream that the kids, of course, had to try out.† I think these kids would jump in water if they had to chip the ice away first!

There was exploring,

exploring

there was splashing, there was worm races, there was a simple ceremony for poor dead Lacey who raced a good race,

lacey-the-worms-funeral1

there was laughing, there was friendship and there was learning!

kei-brit

What better way to celebrate Earth Day!

Hugs,

K/K