Mandy and Nathan's Visit with Shelly's Family

Mandy and Nathan got to stay with me, Shelly, while Mama (the Normal poster to this blog) spent time with her Mama, my Grannie.
Here are some pictures from our fun visit!

This and That

   

Glenn took off for Germany on Friday morning to attend a class in Waldorf.  He wasn't too happy to go all that way over there to attend a three day class but what can you do!

It has reached high temperatures again.  The car was really dirty and so we went into Magnolia and went to the car wash and vacuumed the car out.  It really needed it!  We came back home and I cleaned the windows and mirrors and inside and then Mandy and Nathan put on their bathing suits and "washed the car".  I think more got on them than the car but they had a great time.

 

We are really washing here

 

 

 

Let's spray each other!

 

We have new baby birds and no, I am not taking care of them.  We actually have 3 barn swallow nests - up from 1 last year.  Here are a few pictures.

 

A barn swallow uses mud and straw to make the nest.  It takes so long that they use it year after year.      These babies are hungry all of the time.  I am very glad I am not a Mother Bird!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kathie made Mandy a new dress and Mandy was so excited to wear it!

I had an interesting

experience yesterday.  We were very busy yesterday as I took Nathan to a Psychologist down in Memorial and then  I after I picked up Mandy we went to find some boots for Nathan for horse riding.  Anyway, after piano we decided to go to Gramma Terri's a new pizza place in Magnolia for dinner.  It sits next to the rail road tracks.

As we waited for our food I received the overwhelming feeling that something is going to happen.  I have no idea what but it was a strong impression.  As I sat there I could feel a train coming, and hear a train coming but didn't know what direction it was coming from until it passed the restaurant and that is how the feeling was.

For some people that know me well, I do get impressions and they usually help me prepare.  I don't usually know what I am preparing for but emotionally it gets me on the right track.

Don't know what's coming but it feels big. 

Lessons

Nathan has started taking horse back riding lessons.  He is doing well and today I finally remembered my camera.  Although Mandy is too short to take lessons the teacher is going out of her way to show Mandy how to be around a horse and Mandy is enjoying watching Nathan.  I hope next year she will have grown enough to start as I think she would enjoy lessons and it would be very good for her.

 

  Nathan leading the horse into the corral and doing exercises on the horses back.

 

 

 

 

 

Learning to sit properly.

I said I would take some more pictures of the ducks and so here are all four of them peacefully swimming along and our two dogs, Blackie and Spot trying to see if they could get a duck or two.

                The ducks swimming along and Spot watching.

        Blackie and Spot hoping for a chance at a duck dinner!

Success

We have had another nice weekend and some of the prettiest weather I have experienced in Houston.  We were successful in bringing the ducks to the pond, finally!  They had fully feathered out and were big and so we decided we would try again.  We put the ducks in the carrier and carried them to the pond.  We released them and Ducky Wucky was way to interested.  He came over and started to grab the ducks and Glenn headed back to the house to get his rifle.  He had decided that 3 ducks were better than 1 duck.  While he was gone I splashed the water with a oar and shouted and Ducky decided to stay put.  He swam over to the other side of the pond and went to sleep.  We waited around 30 minutes and then had to go as we were going to dinner and then the adult session of Stake Conference.

We checked last night and they were still alive and this morning all four ducks are swimming around the pond like friends.  Yeah!  It was actually ideal with the blue sky and the water and the four ducks swimming in a row.  I will have to go take another picture but will post a couple here.

                     Here comes Ducky!         

On Friday, we had a baseball party for the end of the season and the boys received trophy's and we had pizza (I fixed me a sandwich) and cup cakes and played a family baseball game.  It was fun to watch all of the Dads playing against the kids.  It seems so strange to be going backwards in time.  We have already done the baseball. soccer, cup cakes, etc.  and to do it the second time is a little odd.

 

 

 

Go Glenn, Go!

 

 

Mandy driving a tractor

 

 

 

 

Line up for pizza

 

 

Nathan's teammates, coach and trophy's

 

Nathan played his last game on Saturday for this season and did well.  He was up at bat three times during the game and he scored once, got a hit and brought a runner home and loaded the bases on the third time.  At the Y the kids only get 5 runs before they call it a inning so that the other team can't just run away with the game.  He also made the play of the game (my opinion but the coaches said it also).  He was playing 2nd base and stopped a hit, caught it and tagged the runner to be out!  That may not seem to others much but most of the kids have a hard time throwing the ball let alone catching it.

 

We had Stake conference this morning and had some good speakers.  I liked one analogy.  The Patriarch told about a woman that had saved for years because she wanted to go on a cruise.  The day finally came and she started her vacation of a lifetime.  She quickly made friends with another older woman and they enjoyed the cruise together.  The friend noticed that the woman would go to her cabin each time they were to have a meal.  Finally, on the last day she asked her new friend what was going on.  The first woman said, I'm so sorry to have left you to eat alone but you see I only had enough money to buy a ticket and didn't have money enough to buy the food.  Her friend told her the meals were part of the ticket and she was so sorry that she hadn't been able to join her for the food and the flowers and  that she could have eaten with the Captain if she had wanted to.  How many of us don't realize all that we can have if we but ask?

Happy Birthday to me!  Everyone thank you for all of the cards, gifts and well wishes.  Cyndi and family - I loved the song!  It was the high light of my day. 

Wow! What a week

This week has been one of those "oh my goodness, could I possibly get any busier" weeks. We had two recitals, a rehearsal for one of the recitals, a reception after one of the recitals and a first horse back riding lesson not counting the usual music and dance lessons plus school and baseball practice.

Nathan had his first horse backing lesson (the free one) on Wednesday. A member of Magnolia 1st ward has stables and offered free first lessons to our education group and a discounted rate of $25.00 for lessons after that. Nathan loved the horses and stables and will be continuing. We tried Mandy but she is too short for the stirrups and so she will have to wait a year. She did enjoy the horses though. Nathan has great balance on the horse and seemed to do fine. We will see - we start regular lessons on Monday's at 10:30 for the summer.

Mandy had her regular dance class on Thursday at 4 and was told to wear pajamas. I don't know why I didn't think to take pictures but as soon as that was over we flew to Nathan's recital at the Gosslings. It was very nice and Nathan did well playing "Give said the Little Steam" and "All through the Night".

On Friday, Mandy had her recital rehearsal at 6 and Nathan had a baseball practice at 5:30. Mandy's rehearsal lasted for over 3 hours and actually took me back to when Cyndi was in dance. The other Moms were all telling about competition and how long they took, etc.

I had known that I didn't approve of the dance style for awhile but watching the rest of the dancers I am certain we will not be continuing at this school. Even the youngest girls were egged on by Moms calling out "work it, Meagan" as they shook their booties and pranced provocatively. The older girls were worse and could have fit in to a strip club except they still had some clothes on. The school did a little page for each girl on the wall with their picture and what their dreams were. Most of the older girls wanted to be Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and have their own dance group. That is me shaking my head at what the world is becoming.

Saturday came and it was a zoo. Glenn had to take Nathan and Mandy shopping for Mother's Day and I had to clean house and fix the refreshments and then they returned and Mandy needed to dress and get her make up on (she was very happy about the make up) and head to the high school by 11:30. It has a large auditorium and it was packed. People were standing in the back and along the sides. Mandy was very cute in her lion costume and did very well in her dance. Mandy is the third from the left in the video.

Afterwards ( Jason had to change a tire and then go buy tires for their car) we took Shelly and girls and us and we went home and had a nice reception with Hannah (a girl from dance) and her extended family. After they left, Shelly, Sammi, Becca and I went dewberry picking again and then when we got back from there we went to a Ward Social. Whew! we were a tired group when we got back home. It was a pleasant weekend but very busy!

Happy Mother's Day for all of the wonderful women in my life.

Rain, rain go away!

 

Last night it started raining about 3:00 am.  It took Nathan all of 30 seconds to get down the stairs and in to my room.  Mandy came down about 5 when the lightning was getting intense again.  It has rained all day long in sheets and the weather said we received around 4".

I was looking out the window at the creek that has risen and is fast moving and saw this huge, beautiful bird in flight.  It sailed in to our pasture and stood and watched the rain.  I went out in bare feet and took a picture.  It is a crane but I am not sure which kind.

T

 

 

This is our creek and it is getting higher and is fast moving and the crane.

Saturday - Baseball and kittens

 

We have had a very nice Saturday.  We had to be at a baseball game at 8:30 which meant that we had to leave here at 7:45 but we made it and Nathan played very well.  I forgot my camera and so no pictures but he hit a high ball into the outfield.  It would have been a 2 base hit but the boy on 1st base didn't know what to do and so Nathan almost out ran him and had to turn back and run back to first.

After the game we bought Glenn some shoes and ran over to Shelly's to return some things she had left behind.  Then we had lunch at our favorite place - where else but McDonalds!  The kids played for 30 minutes and had a great time.

We headed home and bought a yummy ice cream cone at a recently opened pizza place that has blue bell ice cream.  We sat outside as it is a near perfect day and then ran to the feed store and headed home. 

The only sad part of the day was that as we were unloading and putting away the chicken feed, fish food and duck food I heard one of the kittens meowing and went to check on them.  I had noticed that they weren't as chubby as Emma, Sarah and Cali but I didn't think it was a problem.  Well, two of the kittens died some time today so we took the remaining kittens into the house.

These are the two remaining kittens and Cali.  Keep in mind that Cali is 6 weeks old and weighs around 1 1/2 lbs.  I think they will be ok but the one on the right (Becca has named her pumpkin) is very weak and we are hand feeding her.  Yes, for those keeping count we now have 7 cats/kittens living in our house. Wow, we haven't had a cat of any kind living in our house since Bob lived with us many years ago.

 

                 

Name the Dog

  

I finally received Duke's papers for the AKC registration.  I need a formal name for this dog who is afraid of everything.  The kids keep coming up with very strange names - i.e. Duke Fane Ball (Nathan), Duke brown/white dog (Mandy).  I was thinking along the lines of Master Duke Ball or something like that.  OK family - I need some names.