It's Obvious

Here is the evidence of all the rain we've had...my boys have found a mudhole in the yard and increased it in size by quite a little....and what fun they had. More fun than I'm going to have trying to get those darn clothes clean.....oh well.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

This pic on the left is looking toward our campground..it's actually a little to the left of those tents. So many people left stuff, thinking it wasn't going to be that bad...do they think we just make this stuff up?!?!?!

This picture below is looking south in the Pecan Grove, the river has made its way right on into the grove....someone's hay bales they had in camp...It was starting to get dark on us as we were wandering around last night.
















I can't believe all the rain we've had here in the last several days. I think around 9 inches. My new rain gauge is on top of my microwave, still in its nice little package. Does a great job for me there Huh? Anywhoo...that's the talk around town. It's created quite a little problem for our town as the Walnut River runs thru the west side which is where our County Fairgrounds are located. We are having the Walnut Valley Festival a/k/a/ Bluegrass Festival next weekend. We had Land Rush last Thursday...in the mud, got camp all set up as best we could just in time to move it all out Friday a.m. cause our river was on the rise. To the tune of 3 ft per hour on the rise. We were unfortunately on the West side of the fairgrounds so water was coming to camp at a fast pace. Before long it was a mandatory evacuation everywhere in the fairgrounds. Now....the water is almost up to our fair barns and the "Pecan Grove" on the south is completely under water. Pretty crazy. The Walnut Valley Festival has quite a history, this would be the 37th year for the festival and it brings ALOT of people to our community for several weeks. Everyone has been dispersed into several places. We actually have a camping group at the Sale Barn....pretty interesting to see Campers instead of cattle pots and stock trailers in the parking lot! I don't know if the river has crested yet...but even if it has and the water starts to recede...I don't think their going to let us back in to camp. It will be an absolute mess, as this is not the first time the fairgrounds have flooded....it is however, a first for the Festival to have this kind of a problem. I went to Wichita today and they are having MAJOR flooding on the west side. Oh my gosh...it's just really bad all around us. And we're so far removed from that darn hurricane!

What the Heck?

Ok, I changed the background of my blog and lost all of my "stuff" I had on the side. Widgets I think they called them. What did I do wrong? Someone...who is computer, blogger, techno saavy...please help me!?!?!?!?! I can't believe I did that. I'm not even sure what I did?
AAAAHHHHH

Nothing Much

How about this little praying mantis? Found him last weekend while clipping flowers. Those things fascinate me.

My new coffee table and end table. No that is NOT a baby raccoon on the right side of the end table, next to the chair, that would be our wonderful Davey Crockett Hat!

My coleus and impatients did very well this year.

Well, I thought I might post a few pics of just...stuff. Had a fairly un-eventful weekend. I did several things yesterday, grocery store, a retirement party then home to start in putting up apples. I decided to start that around 330 pm. Actually went well, CB wanted to help me, so I sent both boys out with sacks to pick apples and when they got back in, I got a small knife out and a cutting board, I peeled, CB sliced and lemon juiced the apples. I ended up with 2 cobblers for a couple of my neighbors and 4 bags in the freezer for later. Not too bad for a couple of hours work---it really went much better than I anticipated with my little helper! Shame on me for doubting it to be any other way! Made a nice pot of chili(it's so nice and cool here) and we had chili pies for supper and vegged for the evening. Church was so good today, our new pastor speaks very well and......today, he played the guitar and sang....a song HE WROTE! Oh wow...it was great! I was very impressed. What a treat.

I've got a few pics of my new furniture I bought...you know, the new to me kind! I'm really enjoying the tables alot! Just a note, my couch is also a garage sale find! We love it!

My apple tree, we've lived here 9 years and this is the first time to enjoy these awesome things! Don't really know what we did or didn't do, but I am so happy to have them! I will probably weigh about 500# if I keep making these apple cobblers. Good thing for neighbors. Let them eat it!

A Must Share!

I'm sharing a recipe with all of you that is so easy and so delish. You can all thank my wonderful Mother-in-law for this one! She made this awhile back and I fell in love...I'm taking it to my folks today for dinner.

Grape Salad
4# grapes, red, green, black or just one color is ok
8 oz cream cheese(oooohh)
1 cup sour cream(aaahhh)
1/3 cup sugar or splenda(mmmmm)
1 Tbsp vanilla
Beat cream chesse, sour cream, sugar and vanilla until smooth and fold in grapes. Before serving you can sprinkle 3 Tbsp brown sugar and 3 Tbsp of chopped nuts on top for a little pretty on top!
Did I mention this was EASY! I love grapes, I love sour cream and I love cream cheese, how could I not love this salad!
This has been a low key weekend, we went to a fund raiser on Sat night for the Groom family(their son had the heart transplant). Had good supper and a silent auction, DH sold the live auction and lots of money was raised for them! It was awesome! Tyler was there and he looked so wonderful! He had 3 of his nurses from OKC come up as well and they stayed all evening! Very cool. We live in a great community and I'm proud to be a part of that!
I finished scrapbooking my baby book gift. It really turned out pretty cute.
As I'm typing this a.m., I'm watching the weather channel update on Hurricane Gustav....wow, They just interviewed a man who is going to ride out the storm on his boat. What?!!?? There are ten adults in this group of people and 8 children. May God protect them. Have wonderful day!

Blah, Blah, Blah

You may be saying that very thing I titled this with after reading this post! I can't believe it's been a week since I've posted. Our house has been busy but not crazy! Last weekend was fairly low key---we had a big auction on Sat but Sunday was nothing but church and home. It was nice. I can't believe it's Labor Day Wknd already. It seems weird since it's still August. We don't have much planned and that's nice. Friday night I think I'm going to scrapbook, I'm quite excited about that. I'm actually working on a baby book for a cousin...her baby shower is in a couple of weeks and I'm not quite done. It's been fun and I find it therapeutic! My DH doesn't understand that...but it's ok! Sat night is a fund-raiser for our friends the Grooms' to help with the expenses of their son's heart transplant. It's bbq supper and an auction, DH is going to auction off some big ticket items for them. Sunday is church and I would like to go to my folks house and hang out, maybe fish, let the dog run, etc. Monday should be called the Day of no Labor!



Last Sat we had a land/house/personal property auction for some WONDERFUL people...anyway, the home is awesome and there is 150 acres. We have always admired this place and thought what a great place that would be to have someday. Well someday came and we didn't anyway, anyhow have any fundage for this place. Can you say....$412,000? WOW, it brought alot. Anyway I pray that the people that bought it be as blessed with it as the people that sold it. It's a wonderful farm. On to the personal property...I came home with my mini-van stuffed full of treasures! Oh how fun it was, in the nearly 14 yrs we've been married, we've never owned a coffee table and had ONE end table...now I realize that is not a crisis in any way since our first house was hardly big enough to turn around in....but our home now is quite a bit bigger and my boys are big enough to not "toddle" into the edges, etc. So I purchased the coffee table and 2 end tables/lamp tables for $42.50. They are nice, heavy, chunky, western flair tables. I'm pretty picky(i've learned) and I'm NOT a big fan of stuff that looks new, I know, that's weird. My home is full of.......well, how do I say this nicely...Treasures, yea that's the word...I've found at auctions for next to nothing or I've been known to dig in junk piles at my folks or anywhere I can to find the perfect...Thing! Anyway, these tables have big potential and my little brain is about to wear itself out thinking of all the options I have, but for now....they are what they are...even though they are a bit Shiny for me...a good layer of dust and some dirty fingerprints will fix that right up! I got a whirly-gig popcorn popper...does anyone know what I'm talking about? It's like a pot, with a lid that has a stir-thing attached to it and pops corn on the stove. Anyway, they are the best, I didn't want a new one(there I go again) and they had 2 at this sale so we got one and so did my f-i-l! Let's see, oh yea, each of the boys found some good stuff...CB found a cap gun in a holster and oh my gosh....I told him he could bid on it, he thought that meant BUY it! My uncle was standing by him while they were selling it...my f-i-l was selling at the time. CB just bid, bid, bid, even when he had the bid, he bid again! I told him it was a good thing Grandpa was the one selling, he took care of him! Anyway, he had to take it off to go to school and otherwise he's been John Wayne since Sat. ZB found a good minnow bucket and I told him he could bid on it and give $7.00, well, he got it for $5 and got a new dip net and some other stuff with it! He was excited. JB bought a nice little electric smoker for $7, we've been wanting one and I'm so glad we didn't go ahead and buy a new one, this one is just like new and perfect size. We used it Sunday, cooked a roast and had awesome sandwiches that night for supper. I think that was all our stuff... I looked like a gypsy momma leaving there with all that stuff in the van! I love my new tables, It really makes the living room look "finished" The boys are not as happy their wrestling mat, a/k/a/ middle of living room is too small, but.......maybe my windows will last awhile longer as they shake and rattle when that's going on.



I made a trip to Hobby Lobby on Tuesday. I had material I had bought to use for the fair and then ended up not needing it, My 60 day return period was running short, so DH is always late on Tues so the boys and I headed south. I better back up, when we left the house Tues a.m. I told all the y chromosomes in my house this was the tentative plan. DH of course said ok...I'll be late, no big deal. My darling little cotton-tops were not as excited. "Do we have to go", "I hate hobby lobby" "can't i stay home" "i don't want to go", blah blah blah, to which I responded..."I have some errands to take care of and you boys are not staying home by yourselves, you will be fine and change your attitudes. Off we go to school....At 3 pm, it's a sure deal, I'm going to Ponca, not only do I have something to return to Hobby Lobby....and get money back....BUT they are having 50% off all scrapbook paper and stickers! Whoo Hoo!!!!! My youngest(the challenger) was so NOT happy(big surprise). We get there and I begin oohing and aahhhing down the aisles of paper, all the while their having a fuss of some kind, fighting over who is going to drive the cart, the one driving the cart hitting the other one in the foot, reminding each other that they are dumb, stupid and a pain. Oh how fun it was.....NOT! They are so silly, the had the nerve to ask me to buy them a model...Oh my....I'm fairly certain I won't be taking them shopping with me anytime soon....yep they pretty much sucked the fun out of that trip...I rarely get to hobby lobby and when I do, I love to go down every aisle...oh well.....I did get some awesome paper and a few stickers. Well, I better get myself in the shower...I've typed quite enough here I'm sure. Have a great holiday weekend and remember to be thankful for all the Little Blessings as well as the big ones! I say that as I had to really look for the little blessings on Tuesday during my "not so fun" trip shopping!

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN! PRAISE THE LORD!

I don't think I've even had a post about this...(long story short) there is a young man here in our town that was in need of a heart transplant. He got really sick around the first part of August and they ended up in OKC at the Baptist Hospital and Dr.'s there indeed confirmed he needed a transplant. He has been waiting and has had an unbelievable team of prayer warriors praying for God to provide him the perfect heart. Couple of days ago, he started not doing so well, the dr's were concerned about his other organs being damaged so they did a balloon procedure on him which was ok at first and then was not...they then opted to do another procedure yesterday where a Device of some sort would be inserted, very lengthy procedure and bumped him out of 1st place on the transplant list for a minimum of 3 weeks due to his body not being able to handle that much in a short period of time. So yesterday morn they took him in for the procedure because there was still no heart available, don't know exact time frames here, but....they STOPPED the procedure! I call came that there was a heart, they were 90% sure it would work for Tyler...it did and they did the transplant last night and he is doing wonderful thus far! The power of GOD is so AMAZING. I'm giving you the link to read up on this...I am so happy for this family. I really believe there is going to be quite a transformation in many people thru this. Praise GOD! Thank you in advance for any prayers you send for this family.

Count your blessings and give Thanks for his love Endures Forever!
www.caringbridge.org/visit/tylergroom