Gorgeous Gran!

On my nephew's wedding day, my sister and niece came to our cabin to do Mom's hair, make-up and nails. In no time at all they had her looking like a movie star. :o)

Here she is getting a manicure and pedicure, and enjoying every moment of it.















She looked gorgeous!


















Here she is outside the chapel after the wedding. (The pretty bride and one of the photographers in the background).

Aubrey Meets Jonah

Last year in May I posted about my niece's baby boy Jonah, who was born two months before his due date, weighing only 2 pounds 7 ounces. Jonah was born on May 20 (my husband's birthday, too), and our granddaughter Aubrey was born 6 days later on May 26.

On Friday, September 4, they met for the first time.



Aubrey loved Jonah and kept wanting to kiss him. He wasn't so sure about that. :o)

Our Cabin In The Woods

Here's what our cabin looked like. We were in the Bear Cub cabin. This photo is from the Lake Forest Luxury Cabins website.

There were 8 adults, a 4 year old, and two babies in our group, and it was roomy enough of all of us. You can take a virtual tour of our cabin and deck by visiting the website.

We saw gray squirrels, birds and deer from the deck. The back of the cabin backs up to the woods. It was so peaceful.

The weather there was much cooler than here, and it rained! Not enough to spoil any plans, so it was wonderful to see.

In the bottom picture, Mom is waiting on the front porch for the cars to be loaded on the day we left. She had a wonderful time. I'll post some pics of her at the wedding later.

Oh! I have to show you where Camryn slept at the cabin. She is in a dresser drawer on a pillow, next to her parent's bed. Isn't that the cutest? :o)

Resting On Labor Day

Arkansas is lovely, but it's good to be home.

We had fun, the wedding was beautiful, and it was great to see loved ones again.

We left Wednesday morning and spent that night in Ft. Smith, Arkansas.

Ron travels so much that he had enough points to get us free hotel rooms at a Marriott. We were near downtown, and walked to Neumeier's Rib Room for dinner. There was a really good live band playing, the Rain Kings. That was fun!


The next morning Reece, Mom and I went up the street to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church to get holy water for my dad's grave. What a gorgeous church! Reece loves to go into churches. :o)




After breakfast we drove to Bunch to the cemetery. It's been several years since I was there, and the visit was bittersweet, as always. Since we were in the area, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to visit my dad's grave.

Here are Mom and Reece at Dad's headstone.
















Some of the family looking around the cemetery. We have lots of family buried here. Visiting the cemetery makes me sad because I miss them, but happy because it brings back good memories of them.














Reece was enchanted with this very old statue of a pretty girl. He wanted to give her a hug, I think.









It took us the rest of the day to drive to our cabin on Beaver Lake near Eureka Springs because we stopped for groceries and other things we needed. We were delighted with the cabin. More on that later.

On The Road Again.

We will be traveling home today. We appreciate any prayers for safe travel as we make our way back to Texas. Thanks, dear readers!

I'll be blogging about the trip, the wedding, the family "reunion," and the birthday celebrations during the week. And I'll be happy to see the puppies!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today, September 5th, is my mother's birthday. She is 83 years old, and is still the most beautiful, vital, wonderful woman in the world.

Mom was the fourth of six children, and is the only one still living. She and my dad were married nearly 50 years, until his death in 1992. They raised 3 girls, and Mom has 7 grandchildren and 10 great-grands. She is so loved by all of us.

We have gathered this week for my nephew's wedding, so most of us will be with Mom to celebrate her birthday. What a blessing! We are scattered, so it's not often that that happens.

Mom is holding my youngest grandbabies, Camryn in the first picture, and Aubrey in the second.

Happy Birthday, Great Gran!

Hello, Dolly!

I'm away this week, so have made a few blog posts that will post automatically while I'm gone. I won't be here to fix them if they look weird when they post, so please forgive any wonky looking posts. :o)

A few years ago, when I was more crafty, I made these little dolls. The first one is completely beaded (I think I may have blogged about her before). The second dolly was made with a stick, yarn, a poly clay face I made, some beads and a feather.

I really need to get back into crafting. It was so much fun.

St. Pius X, Pope, Confessor

Joseph Sarto was born at Riese in Venetia on June 2, 1835. He was successively curate, parish priest, bishop of Mantua, patriarch of Venice. He was elected Pope on August 4, 1903. As chief pastor of the Church he realised to the full the value of the liturgy as the prayer of the Church and spared no effort to propagate the practice of frequent and daily Communion. He died on August 20, 1914 and was canonised on May 29, 1954.
The Roman Missal, 1962

Quotes from Pope St. Pius X:

Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven.

Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet: “There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land” (Hosea 4:1). Yet in the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man.

(Words to hold onto in today's world).

Wordless Wednesday

June, 2009
















August, 2009

Ready To Go!

I've spent most of the day making sure everything is ready for our trip tomorrow.

Mom and I went through her closet and packed her suitcase this morning, except for a few things she had in the washer. She's pretty much ready to roll.

On the way home from Mom's I noticed the AC in the car wasn't working again. By the time I got home I was so mad. Ron and I ran an errand, then took the car back to the Honda dealer. I went sailing in there with the two huge invoices we got from them for the last two repair jobs. I think Ron was afraid I was going to throw a fit, but I reined in my anger.




I just showed the guy the two bills, told them that we've had the AC repaired two times in the past few weeks, spent nearly $2,000, it's still not working, and we're leaving town in the morning. He took the car back right away to have them look at it, and came back in a few minutes to tell us that when they fixed the AC the first time they made sure it was full of freon, but now it was all gone. He said they would find the leak and have it fixed before they closed. Josh picked us up, and as we were driving home the guy called to say that it was a pressure hose leaking, and he would have to charge for fixing it, but gave us a discounted price. Another $240 later and we have cold air again. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

I ordered a gas cooktop (finally!) last week, and got an email that it was ready to be picked up today. So we went by and got it. We'll have a plumber come out and hook it up for us next week, when we get back. I'm so excited! I love cooking with gas, but haven't had a gas stove since the first years we were married. My old Jenn-Air electric cooktop is worn out. I only have one burner working right now.

Josh and Cyrise needed to do some shopping for the trip, so they brought all three kids over and I kept them until about 8:30 this evening. They were so good.

Ron left around 6 PM to go pick up Jason. Jason's sister-in-law drove him halfway, and Ron met them and brought Jason back. He's asleep in the spare bedroom, and I'm so glad he's here and that he's going with us to the wedding.

After the kids left and while Ron was gone, I did some cleaning and some laundry. We packed our suitcases tonight, and I have a "gramma bag" with some books, raisins, lollipops, sunscreen, bubbles and cookies. I also have a couple of bags of groceries to take, since the cabin where we're staying has a fully equipped kitchen. We'll buy milk, eggs and other perishables when we get there.

And now I'd better get to bed. We're planning to take the dogs to the kennel when they open at 7 AM. I have posts pre-scheduled for each day that we are gone, so if you happen to drop by my blog there will be something new to read. See y'all next week!