Outdoor Wednesday.

Happy Outdoor Wednesday!! I am posting different pictures of flowers from the yard. We will have a some kind of flowering plant in the seat of the old rocker.

These we call "old folk flowers" because you usually see them around every old house site.

I love these Japanese Magnolias.

We have several more plants a blooming. I will get some pictures to post. The weather has been so pretty today. I wanted to stay home............however, I am happy I do have a job to go to. I will have this afternoon to get outside and enjoy the weather.

After a long day of thrifting....

This is Lee Laurie's, B-N-L, Steven and sister, Melinda.
After a long day of Melinda and Lee Laurie's shopping and us poor ole men working all day, we decided it would be nice to eat dinner together. The kids get a chance to play and we get some down time to visit. So, I ran by day care and picked Garrett up after work and we went to Steven and Melinda's house. We were trying to decide......do we grill or do we eat out. Eat out....the next question was where? I am sure you all know the drill. Ha.

Steven said that La Carreta was a nice Mexican Rest and it sounded good to everybody. We met the women folk at La Carreta...I like saying that name...La Carreta.......We put the children at one table and we sat at another one. I don't think the older children, Whitney or Michael, were really excited about sitting with two rowdy 7 year olds. However, Whitney kept them in line.

Look at the pretty smile on Lee's face!!

Of course, we had to take pictures. These are some pics outside the restaurant. I am glad that I have had the chance to get to know Steven, Melinda and their children. They have 3 great children. I look forward to seeing and visiting with them. They have always made me feel welcome and part of the family. Lee and Melinda's mom, Judy, is so funny. She is a hoot!! One reason, I love spending time with them so much, is because I can tell that is does so much good for Lee to spend time with her family. They laugh and joke and laugh some more....we always end up eating too much and staying too late.......but hey that's alright!! I mean......we're family!!

My little town.....

This is a little ole house on Main St. I love the wisteria running along the front porch. You can sit on the front porch and watch all the traffic going by.

Just out of town is an old....real log cabin.....church. One of the ladies at work, remembers going to church in the log cabin. She said they built a new church a few years ago.

This is one of the buildings on Main St. Main St is lined with Bradford pear trees. They are so pretty.

This a picture of Main St at 10:30 a.m. Notice all the traffic...ha. We do have 2 stop lights. Main St consist of about 2 full block of stores and offices and even the court house/police department. You will hear the bells ringing to let everyone in town know that it is 12:00 o'clock noon....Lunch Time!!

This is where I spend most of my time. I work here. I love my job! Here, we know your name, your family, your kinfolk.....you are not just a number. We don't have to ask for your ID....blah, blah, blah...we know you and you know us. People knew me, before I knew them......word gets around when someone new is in town.

Meadville's population is now 521.....two ladies at the bank as recently given birth to God's Little Miracles. The county school.....the only county school is located here in Meadville. They take there sports serious here. They have won several state championships!!

Meadville is a close knit family town and they adopted me right away. If a child is acting up in a store or on the sidewalk....someone will correct them. It is a place where "little blue-haired women" bring in homemade sweets to us. I just love them. Ms Audrey brought in a strawberry shortcake last week.....it was lip-smacking good!!! Some people still leave their homes unlock, the churches unlock, keys in cars.......they are just good down to earth people. It's a place where the community comes together to help someone in need......I could go on and on about how great Meadville is. The attorney across the street from me....his dogs follow him to work. Another man, brings his dog to work with him and their are two huge white dogs that hang out at the Farm Bureau office.

I have brought Hailey and Garrett(not at the same time) to work with me. They enjoyed it very much and all the customers that came in made it a point to talk to them and help make them feel important...special.

Meadville is a jewell of place and until now.......one of the best kept secrets!!

Celebrity look-a-like......

This was fun and interesting. A good friend of mine.....Lee Laurie says that I remind her of Pierce Bronsan or a young James Garner. I kinda like her picks better.....ha.
You should give it a try just for fun!!

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family name origins - Genealogy search

Dream log cabin....

This is some pictures that Lee and I took the other day. We were riding around looking at houses and I had been wanting to show her this one. It isn't far from where I work. It is out in the country. It has thousands of government land around it and off in the distance is a sandy bottom creek that would great for kids...grandkids...to play in. This first picture is the view from the front porch. I can imagine...us sitting on the front porch, watching the sunrise, drinking our morning cup of coffee, listening to mother nature. We sat outside Sunday morning on our front porch, drinking coffee listening to the birds sing. It felt good. There was a gentle breeze, a cool nip in the air, coffee tasted great.....it was one of those mornings, where you didn't have to talk to each other.....it was comfortable......to just sit back, relax dream and enjoy each others company!!

This is from the living room, looking at the fire place and the kitchen. It also has a loft that you can see from this position. It has a living room, kitchen, 1 bedroom, 2 baths, a loft, wrap around porch and a double garage, attached by an enclosed breeze way.

This is the front porch.......can you just see......a couple of rocking chairs, a few potted plants....a white porch swing some cushions covered in some pretty rosey material.

This is the front of the house. Sorry, we didn't load the back view, however, the back view is just as pretty. It overlooks a pond.

I do not now know who owns this cabin......that's right....we don't know who owns it. Where we live, it is ok to go to new house sites and wonder thru.....the owners like it and don't mind. When I was building a house, it made me feel good that people wanted to stop by and see it....some may call it "NOSEY" but here in the south......we call it visiting!!

Hailey's first harvest....

Hailey decided she wanted to start hunting this year. She has been going target practicing with me for several years. I use to take her hunting when she 2 or 3 years old, before she realized she didn't like it....she would be fishing!! We would have an extra pair of binoculars, an extra gun(not that she could shoot) a blanket, crayons and coloring books, baby dolls, snacks, drinks, flash cards....anything you could imagine. She would get tired or really just bored beyond her years. We would get ready to leave and she would be too tired to walk back.......so, here we go, I would carry her out on my shoulders and everything else tuck under my arms, around my neck, in each hand, a backpack clenched in my teeth......I looked like an elephant and she was the Queen of Huntingland. Well, this year she decided she wanted to start hunting...Garrett decided he wanted to hunt also. I tried to take turns with each one of them and even once I took both of them. Picture this, a 4 ft by 4 ft stand, 12 feet off the ground, two kids and me, along with everything and then some. They had the Nintendos playing against one another....at times made so much noise, I couldn't think, they even shook the stand a couple of times. I started reading my book and we just enjoyed the afternoon together.....really close together. They had fun and that is what is important.

Garrett and I had gone to a stand that I have had a great deal of success in harvesting a deer. Late in the afternoon, 3 came into the food plot and with his excitement, moving to get a better look, they saw us. The last thing we saw was their white tails going away from us.....ha. We listed that hunt as a success..... sicne we finally saw something together.This is them, with Garrett acting crazy......

I took Hailey a few days later to the same stand. We were sitting there.....it was getting late.....I call it "Prime Time"....this is when you will see the most deer.....a bunny rabbit hopped out and I told Hailey where it was. After a few minutes, she tapped my leg, took her hand and acted as if she was pulling a trigger. I explained to her that this was "Prime Time" and that if she shoots, we will not see a deer. She said OK....well about 2 minutes later, she is tapping my leg wanting to shoot. I told her go ahead.

She lifted the gun and shouldered it, flipped the safety off.....and I could feel her shaking from excitement, nerves....heart pounding.....the end of barrel was dancing everywhere, she couldn't hold it still. I placed my hand on her back, leaned over and told her to just relax..."Yea, right Daddy"....I told her to keep the rabbit in the sights, don't even think about shooting..after a little while, she calmed down...as much as possible...she squeezed the trigger and hit her target. We hugged, high-fived and I let her know how proud I was of her.

She was still so excited!! She had a huge proud smile on her face....that girl knows she can smile. We talked for a little while, and she told me, "Daddy, you were right. I even didn't feel it(the gun) kick". It was a boost of confidence that she gained that afternoon. When we got home, she had to tell Garrett about the hunt and of course, we had to take pictures. They are already talking about next season.

We do eat what we harvest and the children are taught to respect and enjoy nature with all of its beauty.

Our Valentine's Day....

Lee Laurie and I went to Porches in Wesson, MS. They open for lunch Monday through Friday and Sunday. They only open at night on special occasions. Lee mentioned that she would like to go and that is the only hint I needed. I called Wednesday and made reservations. It was very beautiful. It is an old Victorian style house. You can go to Lee Laurie's blog, A Southern Rose, to see more pictures. It made my night, seeing the smile on her face, hearing the excitement in her voice, snapping pictures of everything....... The restuarant has a real comfortable feeling.....the feeling a place has or doesn't. The food was delicious.....the employees and other guest was all nice. We met a couple there in the restaurant and after visiting with them, Lee was offered a job....ha.

This is the glass rose trinket box I gave to her for Valentine's. She loves any kind of stuff like this...see the pink rose.

The room where we ate our dinner was probably the old dining room in the house. Our waiter snapped this picture of us. The short door on the left side of the picture, we think is where they kept their china and linen.....back in the day.

These are camellias that Hailey picked for Ms Lee. When we say them, Hailey just had to pick Ms Lee a couple. She is a sweet loving girl......she always thinks of other people.

This little lady dates back to the 60's. She is a little bell......Lee can ring it when she needs me to get her something....when she is blogging.. Don't laugh, she has already used it.....for real. Also, she is holding a pink rose.

This is the small vase that I got for Lee....and yes one of the roses are pink......you guessed it, she loves pink and she loves roses. I bought all of these one day when I was "thrifting" on my lunch break. She has taught me so well. She also got a dozen of white roses.

I want to thank Lee Laurie for a wonderful Valentines!!