Off to the Races

Cross Country day again. It's beautiful here today which should make for a nice temperature to race in - only expected to be mid 80's. We've had a busy, busy couple of weeks. The backyard is dug up and sand laid out ready for concrete to be poured for our enlarged patio. I mowed almost the entire 8 acres last Friday and Saturday. Nearly killed me when my allergies caught up with me from the grass pollen.

Ok, so here's a funny...I realized today how much of a mom I am and how much our house is child friendly. For example, I go to step into the shower and nearly trip on the little cars in the bottom of our shower. Why are they there you ask? Well, we have a very nice tile and glass shower and it's very big. The boys love to take showers but what they love best is to play in the bottom of the shower so they bring in toys. Once I am out of my shower I dry off and glance into the tub. Yep, more toys. Now they have their own bathroom but our tub is huge and jetted so they like to take a bath in our tub once and a while with the jets and of course, more toys. If you looked at my bathroom counter you'll find a variety of lotions, soap, toothbrushes and 2 robots - one red and one white. Step out into my bedroom and on the nightstand you'll find my journal, bible, devotionals, cd player and assorted Eric Carle books for the snuggle time. My fridge is covered with drawings from the boys. There are little shoes all lined up on the shoe rack.

The little things don't go away as they get older though. Ky has a surprising amount of "stuff" around. MP3 charger next to the computer, shoes, sweatshirt on back of chair. Don't get me wrong, the boys do clean up and put their things away but when it's busy, it's refreshing to see how much they love to be "at home" by bringing out and leaving out all the treasures. Each evening and at least once each morning I "sweep" the house picking up this and that and depositing it to the correct room - not because they are lazy and won't but because I realize that very soon at least one of my birds will fly away and I won't be able to touch his sweatshirts and inhale his individual smell. The days of cars on the floor under the table will pass sooner than I want. I love being Mom.

Nolan Ryan Pictures

Yea Baby! Life's good!

Monday night we had the opportunity to go with Cory and Carol (our good friends here) to see NOLAN RYAN. Yep, 20 of us hanging out with the most AMAZING pitcher in baseball ever! Afterwards we went to the Redpin bowling alley and hung out with another 100 guests - great dinner, drinks and open lanes. It was a bunch of fun. Later some of the new Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly Super Sonics) came to hang out. Carol and I had our picture taken with Mr. Kevin Durant - NBA 2008 Rookie of the Year!! Yee Haw! Enjoy the pictures!

Elizabeth Arden...Is that you?

I can honestly say that this red wasn't exactly what I was going for. Yeah, E. Arden called and wants her door back! It's a cloudy day so I planted all my fall plants and arranged them on the porch. Having finished that I thought what a great day to grab the leftover paint from the laundry and do the front door. Ok, so I should have known upon the second coat or even upon opening the silly jug of paint that the color was much, um, brighter? So now I have a red door until Monday when I can go get the correct color (much more like the shutters) and redo the door. The good news? Maybe I can get away with using the current color as the primer???

But the porch looks great and is ready for fall.

Ron put up some of the ceiling panels today and put light in my shop. Hallelujah, I can see! It's great. I managed to finish up the scripture boxes I was making for the ladies in my bible study. They turned out great - thanks Cathy K. for the idea!

And just for fun...here's Cowboy Jake in his Daddy's boots. Ride 'em Jake!

New Critter

I was out sweeping the front porch this morning and moving around planters getting ready to add fall plants when I came across my newest friend. He's a brown preying mantis. Pretty cool looking. I left him on the sticks in the planter for now. Guess I'll transport him somewhere else later if he's still hanging around when I go to plant that container later today. Enjoy!

Race Day

Kyle raced at Oklahoma Christian University yesterday. He placed 40th with a time of 18:58 for a 3 mile race. That's 30 seconds faster than his race last week at Edmond Santa Fe. We think that's pretty darn great! Here's a picture of our runner....

Off to the Cowboy Museum

Tonight we are going to Fellowship of Christian Athlete's silent auction and dinner. Thanks Cory and Carol for the invite. I am praising the Lord right now because up until this morning I thought it was a fairly dressy affair. You know me, I love to dress up but Good Heavens my back is killing me today and I've been having sinus issues so getting all dolled up wasn't very appealing - blech. Now I've been told it's much more casual....Hallelujiah! No hosiery, no pinchy shoes, no hours on the hair and makeup....happiness here!


Update on the critters....looks like the caterpillars are not loving the new environment since we've lost at least one and the other isn't looking so great. We'll see if we can get Cam to let them go tonight. We may be adding a critter though. We saw an article in the Sunday Oklahoman about the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue here in Piedmont. For $250 and having an acre of land you can adopt a donkey that has been rescued. I LOVE DONKEYS! They are so cute and so sweet...like big dogs. Anyway, we are looking into adding a couple to Camp Cardwell. Wouldn't that be great for the little guys since they are small enough that they can ride them? We have the pasture area already set up from the previous owners. Here's the webpage so you can check out about this awesome group - www.donkeyrescue.org . Our nearest one is right here in town - not far from where we are. Yep, it's official...I'm becoming a country girl. I want a horse really bad but the time isn't right yet. You'll see, in a couple years there will be horses and donkeys here!


So time to go get ready to pick up Cam, try to find where Kyle is running so I can chat with him for a sec, go home, get dishes done, get dressed into clean clothes and brush my hair, pick up Ky, pick up dinner and go to the party. Who knows...maybe there'll be someone famous there. I'll keep ya posted.