Our Newest Addition

Snickers is her name. Baby is our game. We decided that we were in our new home for 2 years now, that we needed to add another member to our family. It has been a long time since I have taken time with training a new puppy and trying to keep things going around the house at the same time, BUT, it has been a VERY LONG TIME since I have had to baby proof a home. Snickers can find things from all over the place. She is kept in the Den and in our master bedroom most of the time. She does not get to roam the entire house yet, but that is because there is another BIG puppy in the other main part of the house. Josie belongs to Adam and Amy, Mark's son and daughter in law. Snickers is 14 weeks old and is doing pretty well on potty training and she is FULL OF ENERGY!! She keeps Mark and I young at heart, needless to say.

Fall Harvest

OK, I have to admit it is so totally different being able to get vegetables out of your garden at the end of November, but we did. We planted beans and peas towards the end of September and we have already gotten 2 pickings off these plants. These are green beans of a different type of variety that we planted in the garden the first time around. Yellow beans was another type of bean that we planted in this fall crop and I also preserved them by freezing. Pictures are of the beans. Mark loves to play in the dirt, so this is our reward for his wanting to play. Got to love that about you my dear husband. Thanks for wanting to take care of us this was as well.

New Pitch on roof

Here are a few pictures of the wood on the "new pitch on the porch" and a couple of shots of the metal going on the roof. It is coming and it looks better than I was thinking it would. Mark had to convince me to put on the metal roof, but that is his area and I had to be educated about metal roofs, so it was fine with me, with what he wanted to accomplish with our roof. About half of the roof is completed and now when Mark returns from PA, he will get the other half completed.

Rain, Rain and more Rain

Of course if you want to re-roof your home, you need to work with the weather, or the weather SHOULD work with you. NOT here in AL. This is what it looks like outside on the roof with the rain and then take a gander at what it looks like inside the house when it rains. Yep, you guessed it, we have rain EVERYWHERE, because our weather wanted to teach us PATIENCE!! Not to fret though, it is NOW under control.

Step 2 on roofing project

Never ending is Mark's mind. He is GREAT at what he sees and what he does. He wanted to throw a different pitch on the back porch, so HE is making Trusses to do so and he did a GREAT job and he could not have done it without the help of a few hands. John, Adam and Amy. They were a huge help and then there was me. I helped, but only 1 time on the roof for me. My feet stayed planted on the ground after the first truss went up. Not my cup of tea, so to speak. Again, I would have said, "You want to do what?" with the roof, if it were not Mark putting up this project.

Roofing Project #1

When you own a home, the work is never completed!! A new roof was needed for our home. Mark knows how to do all of this wonderful stuff, thank goodness, because I would just look up at the roof and say "HOW MUCH?". This is the shingles coming off the roof and getting it ready for the new metal roof that Mark wanted to put on the house. The newest and in thing at this point in time. The government is giving energy saving bucks on taxes if you put on a metal roof. Works for us.

ID Trip

Here are a few pictures from my driving across this BEAUTIFUL country that we live in. I went the correct weekend, because the following weekend the snow began to fall in WY and parts of ID. Not for me at this time of the year.

Home Return

Good day you everyone!

After driving across the country to the tune of 4400 miles is 93 hours and only one incident with the car, we have JOHN III home with us, safe and sound.

John has been busy getting his bearing straight around here in Hueytown, AL and searching for a job that he can get to because of the extra car for him to drive, so he is going to be biking around the area for a few months.

We are glad that John is home and that all turned out as well as it did.

Have a great day.

A wonderful visit

We had lots of fun with Tara and their three young children here. Adam and Amy enjoyed visiting with Tara and seeing some of their nieces and nephew. It was great to be able to sit and chat with the little ones and hear what they have to say about anything and everything. We did find out that they love cats. The youngest 2 had fun with Pappa on the motor cycle, but only in the yard. NO way were they going out on the street. Thank you Tara for bringing your family to visit with us and spending time with us as well. WE LOVED IT!!!

Busy Weekend

This was a busy weekend for us. We traveled up to KY to celebrate Autumn's birthday, Bryson's blessing and Autumn's Baptism. Autumn had asked that I make her dress for her confirmation and with the help of my mother, (THANKS A BUNCH MOM) and the patience of my dad, (and THANKS DAD) and the ever loving support from my husband (I ADORE YOU MY FRIEND), we finished up the dress at 2200 on Saturday evening. Mom and I had Autumn try on the 2 pieces of the dress while at her birthday party, just to make sure that we had about the right size for her. It is a REAL challenge to make a dress long distance. It was fine. Bryson was great for his blessing and then Autumn did a wonderful job at her baptism. I would be admiss if I did not thank Linda Lilly for opening up her home to all of us for the beautiful birthday party that Autumn had and to be able to renew friendships and love with each one that was there.
Jennifer and David, you are doing a super job with your children and teaching them about the gospel and family importance and what to strive for in life. Thank you for sharing all of this with Mark and I. We loved every minute of it. Thanks to all of those who were a part of Autumn's and Bryson's special moments for the weekend.

Gardens anyone?

With spring coming around a little later than usual for our area, we have finally gotten out and began to put some gardens in the yard. Mark has been doing the digging for since my encounter with the long black creature. Mark has also expanded his garden from last year, which is good for us since we have a couple of extra folks living in the house with one more to come. It will be nice to have some FRESH produce from our garden.

Bon Fire Embers

Mark, Adam and Amy made a bon fire on Saturday and was able to reduce some of the piles of items that we had accumulated over the past several weeks. They had fun just being able to relax after a full day of work for Mark and Adam and Amy with being with folks from their church on an overnight camp out. These were pictures that I took at approximately midnight. The fire was still good and hot and I was not sure that my camera would take these shots, but they look good. Have a great day everyone.

SOMETHING I DO NOT DO!!!!!

I decided that maybe I should try to help Mark with the yard work. I am digging up a couple of garden beds and planting flowers, shrubs and what nots. One WHAT NOT THAT I AM NOT taking care of is SNAKES!!! This critter went across the top of my bare foot and I jumped at least 2 feet in the air, if not more and screamed like nobody has ever heard me scream. Thank goodness Precious, the resident cat, was on hand. She attacked the snake, after the snake was trying to strike at Precious. Precious got the snake pretty good and I thought it was dead. I did not go out and test to see if it was going to move. I just stayed on our back porch and took pictures. I knew that Mark would think i was CRAZY if I told him about my snake crossing, so I took picture to prove I was not too terribly looney. I have informed Mark that my gardening days are DONE and that he can have his entire yard back. If this is the thanks I get about getting out there and helping him out, I want no part of it. No thank you. Not today, Not tomorrow, NOT NEVER!!!! The snake was excorted back down to the pond area by our resident Precious. Thank goodness for Precious.