Finding beauty wherever you are........

We all need to stop and enjoy what is around us and look for the good in everything.

This a some pictures that I have taken at different times. I had forgotten about the pictures of the flowers. I do remember standing in an ant bed, while I was holding the flower so my friend could take a picture of it....man, did they sting me a bunch of times. PaPa John took care of them ants, though. I thought of my good friend in Texas, Deanna, just now.

This is a bird nest that is in the backyard. We have several bird houses that we will put out next spring. We have the feeders out with birdseed in them and a couple of humming bird feeders out too. We have squirrels that visit us.......they love eating the hickory nuts and acorns. It is enjoyable just watching them.

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather we are having.

Hailey's first performance.....

Hailey is in the school choir. We have sang ever since she was a baby. We would ride around and Tyler, Hailey and I would sing. They got a vast varity of different songs....you can tell this by my playlist.

Ms Lee, Garrett and I went to watch and hear her sing. She is growing up so fast. She is taking guitar lessons, also.

These two have so much fun together.

A special hello to Woody and Tammy. Thank you for checking on me. There has been so much going on lately that I haven't taken the time to blog any. LL told me that y'all asked about me and it did make me feel good. It has really been hard lately...........but the sun is shining and everything is going to be ok.

Tyler's first bowl.....maybe the last one?

Tyler wanted to make a bowl for his Kakia(grandmother) for Christmas. He looked for the just the right piece of wood to turn. After searching and looking at...I think...every piece in the shop he found this one.

He was like....ok, what do I do? After showing him how to find the center of the wood...attaching the wood to the lay and finding which tool to start with, he got started. He was unsure at first.....so I told him, "Man, it easy, just carve away at the wood, cutting out any piece that doesn't like a bowl", you can imagine the look I got. Notice the grooves in the side of the bowl. You use just the sharpest tip of the carver to cut the groove, then you get a piece of wire and place in the groove, while the wood is turning and you burn the wood with wood.

He made this for Christmas '06. After he finished turning the bowl, he said....daddy, this is my first and last bowl.

It made her Christmas that year. She displays it proudly, even though it might match her decor....she is very proud of it and him...just like I am.

A special thank you goes out to Mr. Larry, the man that is responsible to my wood turning, and please keep him in your prayers.

This one is for Woody.....

This blog is for my blogging buddy....Woody. He doesn't like caviar......uh, I can't blame him. Lee Laurie was thrifting the other day and ran across this cook book......The Little BEAN Book by Margie F. Tyler from Mississippi. She signed the book to "Dot" on November 25th, 1989. I love to cook and we love to eat.....

I was thumbing through and a recipe caught my eye....Mississippi Caviar and I thought of you, Woody. I felt like maybe you and your sweetheart Tammy would maybe like to try it. The recipe seems easy enough.

I think when we try to make it, I will do a few things different....maybe add a can of Rotel(drained), maybe some shredded cheese, maybe whole kernel corn(drained).......I like taking most recipes and putting my own signature on it. I will let you know how it turns out.

Grand Daddy Long-legs....

The other day, we were painting the cottage and I had to knock about 6 clusters of Grand Daddy Long-leg spiders. Lee Laurie didn't get a chance to see them before I disrupted them. I was rolling the large areas and she was painting the trim work around the windows......we work real good together....seriously, we do.

There was an area on the front porch that I needed to paint and I saw some more clusters. I climbed up on the ladder and pinched the bunch of spiders. I warned her what I had in my hand before I showed her. She doesn't like spiders, either. When she saw me holding them....well, she really didn't say anything. I went inside and got the camera and then I climbed back up the ladder and pinched the other bunch. I am not sure to just how many I am holding, but it is a bunch. We do not know why they huddle up like that. There was a cluster of them on the side of the pool also.

Per Google, Wikipedia, states that there is an misconception about these spiders. There is an urban legend stating that grand daddy long-legs spiders have the most potent venom of any spider, but there mouths are too small or weak to puncture human skin. I have been told all my life that this is true. Have you heard of these spiders and their venomous threat?

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.