Five Favorite Photos Friday

Spring is finally here to stay, the grass is growing and the trees are again fully clothed in their green leaves. I've been taking quite a few photos of them.

We discovered this old bridge on our way to one of Mr. Walton's newest stores.

The rest of the pictures were taken within walking distance of the house.

I really like the look of barbed wire.

Can you tell?

Weed or flower, it doesn't matter. This is my favorite photo of the week.


It's supposed to rain here this weekend but as they say, "April showers bring May flowers."

Wishing you a wonderful weekend, regardless of the weather.

PS. We've got lots of things going on next week so if you don't see me around, you'll know why. I'll be back soon.

Determination and Frustration

Our 3 dogs seem to think this box that houses one of our hoses is also home to some kind of rodent.

The box is the first thing they check whenever they go in the back yard.


Two of them are pretty determined but if they can't flush anything out, they go on about their business.


The other one is determined to open the box and get inside to check. See the teeth marks that have been left on the top.


Smoke is the most determined. He just won't give it up. He's convinced there's something in the box besides the hose.

Tuesday night AD let the dogs out about 10pm to take care of any business they might have to do before we called it a night.

Smoke just would not come back in. I could hear him outside trying to find that intruder he just knew was hold up in the hose box.

He whined and he scratched and he dug. Finally AD had to go out, physically pick him up and bring him back inside.

He was filthy.


Which led to this - a late night, right before bed, bath.


And the bath led to this


this


this


and this.

I know Smoke still thinks there's something out there just taunting him. I can see it in his eyes.

He's thinking, "I'm going to catch that elusive invader and then we'll see who gets the last laugh!"

Having Your Cake and Eating It Too

Yesterday AD came home with a package pick-up card from the post office. He doesn't usually get to the post office before the office part closes for the day.

I knew what was was waiting for pick-up and made sure I got to the post office to pick up the package.

It was the cookbook I won in Shelley's giveaway last week.

There are 6 different sections of cake recipes. This is the first section I wanted to check out.

So many wonderful recipes like Buttermilk Cake and

Mississippi Mud Cake and

Strawberry Shortcake! Oh, my! I can't wait until strawberries are in season here.

I know I can buy strawberries at the store right now but when you can get them fresh - like I said - Oh, my!

Then there's a section called Afternoon Tea and it has a recipe for Jelly Roll with Lemon Cream. Does that not sound scrumptious?!?

There's even a section of Healthy and Special Diet cakes. Several of them are gluten-free.

Ok, so now I need to go check out the pantry and see what kind of cake I can make first but not before I say. . .

. . . Thanks bunches for the cookbook, Shelley. You rock!

The Nose Knows

Smoke has hip dysplasia. Our vet prescribed Glucosamine and Smoke has done well on it.

This is one of the big, brown pills he has to take everyday. The bottle says the pills are "tasty chewable tablets."

Smoke disagrees.

We've tried camouflaging the pills in cheese cubes, in large marshmallows and other types of treats. But Smoke's nose

KNOWS. And he turns up his nose.

So everyday cheerleaders are enlisted to help - Dani and

Elliott.

They all get a treat when Smoke takes his pill. Elliott and Dani are right there to make sure he does.

Would you call that doggie peer pressure?

Fifteen Years

It's been 15 years since the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.

As most Oklahomans do, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when we received the terrible news.

Please remember those who experienced the bombing first hand - the victims, their families and those volunteers who worked during that time.

God bless.

Five Favorite Photos Friday

If you've read my blog for awhile you know that our family follows NASCAR.

This weekend the races are at Texas Motor Speedway near Fort Worth. Up until last year we hadn't missed any of the races in Texas. When I got up this morning I was really kind of missing being at the track this week.

So I thought today would be a good day to pull out some of my favorite race related photos from past years.

One of our favorite drivers is Carl Edwards. In November, 2006 we were able to meet Carl at one of the area Office Depots.

He was so nice and took time with each one of the fans that were there - even a fan that's old enough to be his mom.

G1 has been a Carl Edwards fan for a long time - even before Carl made his way up into the Cup series. Needless to say, G1 was pretty excited about getting to meet the driver of the 99.

Daughter was pretty excited to meet him too. Carl signed her jacket before she realized what was happening. That jacket was retired to a display frame and she bought another one to wear.

Here's AD at Texas Motor Speedway in November, 2008. The excitement of the races never gets old.

That year Carl won the race and I managed to capture his famous back flip, albeit a little blurry. Still, it's one of my favorites.

Wishing you a weekend as exciting as a NASCAR race!

Secret #2 Revealed

LanyardLady was on the right track yesterday when she thought I might use the straw bags for flower arrangements. Jerri, at Amazing Grace, was spot on when she guessed planting flowers in the bags.

Don't these bags make the cutest fencepost planters?

I know about marigolds but I've never had salvias before. Their color just attracted me and I thought they would look nice in the plainer of the two bags. Plus, I read the little marker that was in the container and it said salvia attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.

I'd like to find a few more bags and plant some more flowers in them for the posts out by our front gate. I think flowers on the fence posts would be a nice greeting for anyone who stops by our place.

Two Secrets and a Surprise

Yesterday was one really great day!

Secret #1: The weather was perfect and I was invited along on a really fun time but for now I'm going to keep what I did a secret.

Secret #2: Angela, at Pickles On Pizza, will appreciate this. The other day I came across a really cute idea that I want to try. It involves straw bags, none of which I had. But I was pretty confident thrift shops might have some on their shelves.

Being the great guy he is, AD took time on his lunch hour to stop by one of the thrift shops in town and found these two. He gave me a call and described what he'd found to make sure that's what I had in mind for my project. Perfect!

So the project is my other secret until it's completed. Do you have any ideas on what it might be? I should have some photos of the finished product in the next few days.

Now in addition to everything else my day ended with a fantastic surprise - I am SO EXCITED to share it with you!

Shelley, at My Name is Ouisa, had a giveaway several days ago and she announced the winner yesterday - except I was off doing the thing I'm keeping secret for now - and I didn't see her winner's post until very late last night/early this morning.

And. It. Was. Me! I was the winner!!!! Can you believe it?

See what I won. A. Cake. Cookbook!

I ask you - could anything be more perfect!?!?!?!?!? I cannot tell you how excited I am!

And now I'm wishing that each and every one of you has as great a day today as I had yesterday!

5 Favorite Photos Friday

Here's 5 of my favorite photos from this past week.

You may have seen this one before but I really got a kick out of this photo of G3.

G1 came over this last week to help AD plant a couple of trees. Yea! We have 2 trees now. I think the birds are thanking us too.

This is AD's tractor. There's just something fascinating about an old tractor.

Son and I had a lot of fun decorating these little chick cupcakes for Easter dinner.

The neon food coloring we used for coloring eggs this year turned the eggs vibrant colors (even more so than you can see in the photo.)

Well, this is the end of another week. Hope you have a beautiful weekend where you are.

Rooms for Rent

Back in January we opened our feathered friends diner. In late February we had our first customer.

Recently AD put up a Purple Martin house. Then last Thursday he installed a second one.

Within about an hour of the second house's grand opening our first visitor showed up.

With all the wind we've been having the last few days I can only imagine staying in one of those rooms would be much like staying in a hotel room during an earthquake or in a ship's cabin on rough sea cruise.

Laughter - the Best Medicine

Mikey enjoyed this laugh the other day - Dani, not so much.

What a Weekend!

Son and his family came for the weekend. Here's G3 and G4 checking out AD's old propane powered tractor.

They brought one of their fur kids with them. This is Mater. He was a very good boy!

AD took the boys down to check out the deer feeders.

G3 liked filling the containers.

There was game playing.

Son got in on the fun too.

I joined in on a game of Clue - Haunted House Edition. G3 won that one.

The boys always like to take a ride on my four wheeler.

Here's G4 waving a good-bye as he and his dad go for a ride.

Son helped the kids make prints of their hands before that came up. Once they got here I cut out all the prints and we made a craft.

A lovely bouquet for the children's Easter table.

There was a bit of egg coloring too

and some cookie baking.

Those cookies smelled really, really good. They tasted the same way.

After the kiddos retired for the evening, Son and I decorated a few cupcakes for Easter dinner.

One of Daughter's co-workers came up and took some family photos for us. He does a great job!

Of course there was a hunt for Easter eggs today and there was lots of candy for prizes. After all, hunting for those eggs only happens once a year.

How was your weekend?