It's official!

Jared is an Uncle!

Hudson Michael 

4:24 am on 7/27. Weighing in at 9 lbs and 21.5 inches long

Jared's older brother Jamie and Hudson

Fire!

12 miles as the crow flies from our house (4 miles from Jared's house)

UPDATE: Yell County fire at 350-400 acres, 50% containment

Click on link above for new video.  The smell of campfire is really strong outside our house right now!

Surprise in the mail

 Thank you Mom!

Look Emily!  We match!

HAHAHA

I think you rock the messenger bag pose!

Got to get ExCiTeD!

The possibility of a Senior camp trip came up last year and I decided to jump on it.  We just went to the meeting tonight and Sahara got her t-shirt!  She is all paid for (1st one to pay in full actually) and ready to roll.  On the 3rd day of school this year, she and about 25 other students will meet in the parking lot of the school at 6:15 and be on their way!  They are going to The University Of Mississippi - Gulf Coast Research Laboratory for 5 days/4 nights.


Sea Camp Shark Fest is the program they are going into.  It turns out they are the only students scheduled for this particular week, so the campus is theirs!!


These are example pictures of what she will be doing there.  Going to a class about sharks and their anatomy and shark safety.  Catching and documenting sharks, tagging them, dissecting them (in the lab).  Going to Ship Island for a tour of Fort Massachusetts (built in 1859-1866).   

          

The University is small and RIGHT ON THE BEACH!!  Of course they will have beach time too!  She is getting excited and I am jealous.

First stop on the way there is for dinner at Isle of Capri.  I hear the crab leg buffet is A-maaaaaay-zing!

I think he is moving in!

It's normal around here to have a thing or 2 or 3 of Jared's to wash, but this week, with his Mama out of town (awaiting the birth of her first grandchild - Jared will be an Uncle any day) look at his pile of clothes I washed compared to Sahara's pile on the right!!
 

I think this boy is set!

FOR SCHOOL
9 shirts
8 shorts
3 pants
and a Hurley backpack (which was the most expensive thing for $12-and bought before Nana made her LL Bean offer)
for a grand total of $87.80 (tax included!)

 
Sahara isn't really getting new school clothes because she has stopped growing!  But she did get 4 new outfits for Senior pictures so.... we have to wait to see them :)

Finally! An upgrade!

These were my 'dressers' in high school.  Then, they were painted mauve and smokey blue.  They were painted white with red knobs about 20 years ago.

These are the dressers mom gave me when I moved into the rental house in Phoenix.  They were from Kristy's room, which was then the craft room.  At the time she gave them to me, I'm thinking they were a few, maybe 8 or 10 years old.

As you can see, pieces are missing and broken.  I had ended the fight with the drawer pulls coming off all the time.  The dresser on the right, the 2nd and 3rd drawer actually have to come out together because the bottom of the 2nd drawer is gone so all the clothes in those drawers are as one.

One guess as to  what I have been using as dressers for the last 25 years???

YEP!  But I broke down and bought new ones!!  My bedroom is super small and these are on the large side.  They were from the Highland Hall Collection.  And I was lucky enough to find them at a little over 50% off (which is the reason I got 2)  1 would have only helped me with half my problem.  Why the super sale?  They were suppose to have mirrors but they were lost, broken, missing, sold separately...

 

They are a little darker then I would have liked, but these pictures are actually making them look darker then they are.  So here is a closer view.

I am so happy that I finally have bedroom furniture :)

Can someone explain???

How the leg bones and knee joint of a deer have ended up in my tree?

I am thinking a VERY large and most likely extinct bird of prey or Sascha brought home part of a carcass and went shake-wild with it causing this 'part' to break away from the rest and land in the tree 10 feet up.
Ya gotta wonder....
 

Long lonely days

This strange wet substance came from the sky.  Almost 3 months with no rain.  Got a trace the last 3 days.  I don't understand why my grass continues to grow when everyone elses is dead and brown.  I am the only fool out there still mowing.

Summer I classes are over.  I got a B in Math Concepts and an A in Intro to Biology.

Summer II started on Monday.

Kids went to see James for a few days.  Left on Saturday and may come home tomorrow.

It's been really quiet here.  I got 80% of my computer class assignments done in the first 2 days!  I still have reports, quizzes, and chapters to read.  But the assignments are about finished. :)

We found FiReWoRkS!

No rain in months have caused burn bans and firework bans across the state.  But there were a few shows going on that had special permits.  We headed to Morrilton as our closest option.
We stopped at McDonalds for drinks before getting to the park, but the lady at the window said we should head over the river to the park on the other side because it was a 2 mile walk from the parking area to the river where the show was going to be.  It's took us 15 minutes to get to the other park to find out that park is closed and we had to go to the other side again.  It wasn't 2 miles, but it was a walk.

We got there and found a good sitting area.  They had free hotdogs (gone by the time we got there), free watermelon, which we got but it was very messy and sticky, and free snow cones, but the line was tooo long.  

After the show it was a mass-exodus.  Only one way in and one way out of the park, and 50 towns and communities of people there to see it!  But the show was pretty good.  I wish we were a little closer to where the bands were playing because they set the show to the music and we couldn't hear it :( 

Thank you Morrilton for putting yourself at fire risk! It was worth the drive :)