Visiter from the outside.....

The other afternoon, it was cool outside so we decided to "air out" the house. We opened windows and doors. Lee Laurie was cooking some sweet treats.....one reason I have put on a few unwanted pounds....and we had opened the french doors that leads out to the patio.

She was at the kitchen table when I heard a squill and "Stevie!" At that moment I knew something had came in from outside. I am thinking a wasp or bee. She hates anything that flies....even airplanes. Well, it was this pretty moth. All that Lee had seen at first was a shadow sweep aross her face and she knew it was something big. When we saw the moth I ran for the camera. Doesn't it look so pretty? After the photo shoot of the moth, I went and got a small insect net that Lee Laurie had gotten for the children. I used it to catch the moth and set it free outside. It wasn't hurt at all. Notice the beaded board that we put up. We just put in up over the paneling and we painted it. I do not enjoy painting beaded board. We would roll it and use a paint brush for the grooves. It looks great and we love it.....now.

Now on to the next project......

Kids and sand piles..........

Somehow, we adults forget what was really fun back in the day. We over look the simple things in life....I was once told about the KISS method. Lee Laurie said that I knew all about that...ha. No, I mean the K.I.S.S. method. It stands for "Keep It Simple Stupid" or you can just drop the last S or make it stand for whatever you want....Stevie, Suzy, Sam.....I know, I know, you get the picture. Well, the children and Lee Laurie had been after me to set the pool up....every day.... I had a friend deliver some sand(I wanted to do it right this year) to level the ground and make the bottom a little better than last years bottom.

Hailey and Garrett were so excited about the sand they forgot for a moment about the pool. Getting back to my original thought.....we can buy the WII-hoos, Nintendo DS-hoos, Dell laptop-hoos, tv/dvd player-hoos and tons of toy-hoos......but give a kid a dirt pile, a sand pile and they will play and play and play.....woo-hoo!!

Well, the pool is set up and they have been playing/swimming in it and playing in the sand that is around the outside of the pool. We did...well to us a smart thing....we do not turn the heater on to the hot tub thus keeping the water cool for us and we let them play in the pool.

The Baby bash with Deanna from Timeless Things...

On February 26, 1966....I was the pride and joy of Ronnie and Carolyn's eyes, because they had me....a 8 pound 4 oz bouncing baby boy.....blonde hair and blue eyes......I was the first and only boy and the baby....my sisters to this day, say that I got away with everything. I like to think that I just learned from their mess ups....ha

This is a picture of all three of us, my sisters...Terry, Wanda and thats me all decked out in the suit. This I think was Easter and in Mississippi. We moved from Baton Rouge, LA. We have gotten close over the years and I know that they will always be there for me....as well as, I will always be there for them.

This was back in the good ole days. This picture was taken when I was 11 months old. I use to think it wasn't cool to wear shorts and a long sleeve shirt.....however, after looking at this picture, I must have started the trend way back in the day and just didn't know...lol

I want to thank Deanna for having a baby party bash and allowing me to visit and join in on the fun. I wish you a Happy Birthday.....both days....July 1st and 2nd.....I was wondering, does that mean you get two of everything....birthday whoopings, birthday cake, double the presents.........I hope you have a wonderful birthday!!

Never know where you might see us........

We were going to a rental storage unit to look for some things Lee needed to decorate her booth at the vendor's market. They were having a contest on cutest booth and the competitiveness came out in Lee. We got some stuff out of storage and a few things to put in trash. Well, you can see what happened next. Lee saw the clothes hamper and curiousity got the better of her. She was at that moment "a dumpster diving diva"......just as beautiful as always though.(She normally, doesn't dumpster dive...really)

I saw the optune time to work on my photography skills. I grabbed the camera and she dared me to take a picture....actually threatened bodily harm if I did. I told her we could always delete...hee hee heeee. How do you like the shirt she was wearing?

She was finding some cool stuff....right? She was on her tip toes, neck stretched out trying to see over the sides.....beautiful!! I think we....I mean....she put more stuff in the truck than we put in the trash bin. Deanna, I wish you could have seen the smile on her face, everytime I snapped a picture her smile just got bigger and bigger. And I think you would be next to her hunting. And another thing.....we were on one of the busiest little roads in the county.....in my truck.....hard to miss my truck because I have a personalized tag with my last name on it....duh.....mental note, borrow neighbors truck next time we go to storage.... Anyway, as people were driving by, I just had to start waving and smiling...."Hey, this is Stevie and Lee.....they probably thought...hey that is my banker, man, things must be bad"....I could hear cell phones going off...."I saw Stevie and Lee getting stuff out the dumpster".... Didn't bother my Lee though....she filled her arm a couple of times. I was begging her to come on....baby, let's go....people are seeing us....they are going to be calling....please, just let's go.

She would say, "just one more minute, babe"....now for those of you that don't know....one more minute in Lee's time is a minimum of a half hour. I ain't playing...for real....and if she is on the computer blogging....it is about one and a half hours. She got her loot and was headed back to the truck when she a magazine caught her eye.....that she thought I would like to.....uh...read.

I told her I didn't need it, because she was prettier than any picture in that magazine. All in all, we survived.....got some cool stuff.....we both were laughing about it then and even later that night we were laughing....and wondering who all saw us....oh well, we had fun and I will never....and I do mean never, will forget the day we went dumpster diving. I can see the smile on Lee's face and hear the happiness and laughter in her voice. The old saying still stands true today.....one man's trash is another man's treasure!!

It is little moments like this, that we will always remember and talk about in years to come. We are blessed to have shared many fun moments together and looking forward to having many many more together.

What is that noise....

Sometimes you just don't know what you might catch.....

We had a mouse that was helping itself to whatever it wanted in the pantry. He was living large. Lee wasn't too crazy about having another pet....since we live too far from the dude that is on tv that is the exterminator....so I figured I can catch him. I went to the local hardware store, I bought poison, the old mouse traps you put bait and this little cute glue strips. Well, I was thinking...what would make them walk on this glue strip...so I baited it with 2 small pieces of dog food. We decided against the poison, since we have the pets outside. I was successful in catching the little critters with the old timey mouse trap. I forgot about taking up the glue traps. We had left a couple of doors open over the weekend since we were in and out working and we had such pretty weather.

I walked into the kitchen and I heard some thrashing going on around this plastic grocery bag. After checking it out, I found this little bird stuck to the trap....poor thing. I called Lee and we put on gloves...notice how pretty her rosey flower gloves match my shirt....Lee's first thought was were is my camera...blog picture!! It took us a while to clean all the sticky glue on the little fellow, he wanted to peck us not realizing that we were friendly.

After getting him cleaned up we set him free. I do not figure he will come inside looking for food again. He lost some of his tail feathers so it will be easy for us to spot him. Ha. It did have a happy ending and gave us a memory to talk about years from now.

Honey, do you remember that time we caught that bird.........

Lee Laurie.........you are a Super Star!

This was taken at Chucky Cheese the other night for Garrett's birthday. He had a blast....said this was his best birthday ever!!

This post is for Lee Laurie.......she is a wonderful mother, caring and loving friend, thoughtful....I can't describe in words just how wonderful she is......

She received a big atta girl the other day at work. She exceeded her goal on pre-sales....she reached 240% of her goal. So on top of being a mom, a grandmother, a loving friend....my best friend, a person that would go above and beyond to help you, even if it meant putting things she needed or wanted to do second....she excels at work....she has a huge customer base and she is the only one they want to wait on them.

To me....she is a "SUPER STAR!"

I love you, Lee.

Hailey and Garrett at the park....

These are some older pictures of the kids. Lee Laurie and I had taken them to Hattiesburg to have some fun. This is a little park just off of Hardy St in Hattiesburg. There is a zoo next to it. We didn't make it to the zoo, however, we are planning another trip with them.

We had stopped by a produce stand and had bought some stuff....boiled peanuts and some fruit. Since it was windy and chilly that day, we sat in the truck and ate boiled peanuts while the two little ones played.

Of course, the cool weather didn't bother them at all. They are two clowns. If you look close, you will see that they have their fingers stuck in the dinosaurs nose.....yuck!! You can tell by the smile on their faces it didn't bother them at all...ha.

They get along so good together. After letting them play for awhile and burning off some that childhood energy, we decided to let them drive the Volkswagen......

and what a fine job they did....well, not really, this is at a store in downtown Hattiesburg and they use this ole Beetle Bug to draw attention. It is really a cool way to tell someone which store is yours....you know the one with the white VW Beetle that ran half way into the building....yep...well that is my store. Also, downtown just a few blocks away is the Historic District and they have several old beautiful houses. We have taken several pictures of them. Lee has posted a few of our pictures on her site, asouthernrose.blogspot.com

Afterwards, we took them to Chucky Cheese where they played even harder. They had a blast!!

We must make time to spend with our children.....they are not little for long....they grow up and start wanting to find out who they are, where they want to live, what they want to do.....they need reminding that we are and will always be here for them. After several years, I know I am where I belong......one of the many songs that Lee Laurie and I like is by Rascal Flats....God Blessed the broken road. It has a special meaning to us. Hope you enjoy!