Here's a quick little project I did a couple of weeks ago.  I've been wanting to find some sort of new dispenser for my dishwashing soap.  A good while ago, a friend gave me a really pretty hand-painted bottle that I have been using.  (please ignore how dirty my sink is in the picture below!!)

But if you look closer, you'll see that it gets really yucky around the top.

When I was cleaning out some cabinets, I found a brand new mason jar I'd hidden away and a pump that I'd saved from a bottle of lotion, or soap or something a long time ago.

I begged Ron to drill a hole for me.

Put the pump in and used a bit of hot-glue to hold it in place.

Voila'!  A new soap dispenser that doesn't get all gunked up (not sure if that's a word or not, but . . . )

I might try to paint the brass top at some point, but for now, I'm enjoying it as is.

Mornings On the Deck

Once school begins again (next week), I'm going to miss my mornings on the deck most of all!  I know that I could get up earlier to be able to spend the same time, but I'm not sure that's going to happen.  So in the meantime, I'm going to soak up the calm and the sunshine and enjoy!

I received my Expodisc in the mail the other day.  

I've been relying on a coffee filter or Photoshop post-processing for my white balance.  I'm hoping this will be an improvement on that.  It definitely was for these pictures---I only cropped them.

Grand Weekend - Finale

I never finished posting the last few photos from our weekend with the "grands".  Sunday morning, Ron and the kids met me at church and after that we ate a quick lunch, packed up and headed back to Tyler.  We met up with Carmelle and Chad at the Caldwell Zoo.   It's been years since I'd been to the zoo (we used to go regularly when my parents had a lake house nearby), so I was happy to see that it still lived up to my happy memories!   It was SOOO hot,.  The kids didn't seem to notice much, but we adults sure did!




There was plenty of wildlife outside of the cages, as well.




We stopped for a rest and drink---did I mention is was H.O.T.?!?!




Most of the animals were lazing around in the shade.
But, not the tortoises----they were fighting!  I never really thought about tortoises fighting before.

Ahh, love these little guys.  No fighting for them!


So cute, tucked away in their rocks.

I could have stood and watched this bird for hours---


Look at the intricacy of weaving he does for a nest.  Amazing!!  In fact, how in the world can you watch something like that and still believe that nature is a coincidence?   God had to have a hand in developing this creature's instinct for sure!!

We rushed around at the closing of the zoo, sneaking in a quick visit to the snake house for M.  Before going our separate ways, we met at a restaurant to celebrate Carmelle's birthday together.  She loved the gift that the kids made for her this weekend. . .

as well as the book altered book that I completed.


We had a great time with the grand kids and I look forward to doing it again sometime---although I had to allow myself some time to recover first!!  ;-)   It was fun making memories together!

Keep The Old . . .

Make new friends

But keep the old.

One is silver

And the other gold.

Today, after more years than I care to even count, I had lunch with a childhood friend.  Shannon and I grew up together --- both of us the youngest in our families of older brothers.   We shared many an adventure when we were little.  Most were good adventures with lots of laughter, but there also was the tragic death of her daddy when we were quite young---a devastation to all the families in our little neighborhood group.  Not long after that, life and different school districts began to take us apart---a reality of growing up in the South in the 60's and 70's.  She went to a private school and I didn't.   We eventually lost touch, although we still only live a few miles from each other.   Several times over the years, we have run into each other and promised to make plans to get together--but somehow it never happened.

But, we re-connected today.  We caught up on each other's families and jobs and church, etc.  And we talked about how different life is now---with the technological/social/medical advances of today, her father probably never would have died, her mother would have received the help she needed for depression and we probably never would have lost touch.  But, life goes on and it is good.  Healing has happened for her and for me in so many different ways and it was good to get to share that with each other once again.

Freshening Up

I thought it was time to freshen up here on the blog.  Let me know if you encounter any problems with the new blog design.  I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of that shadow that is on each side of the window, but until then, I'm enjoying the new summery feel.

Is It Wrong?

Is it wrong that all I want to do right now is sit on the deck and watch the birds and other critters?

More "Grand" Fun

Saturday morning, after sleeping all night without us in the bed with them (yahoo!!), we got up and headed to the lake.  We stopped to pick up breakfast on the way and the kids enjoyed their pancake breakfast picnic.
While Ron biked and swam, we had a nature scavenger hunt




then headed into the water.


Michael found a frog, so we had to find some sort of container for it----which soon became a frog sand castle.



There was a group from an Hispanic church that was having a celebration of baptism in the lake---pretty cool to see them in their white gowns with family wading in the water nearby.



Then, we played in the water.





We took a break to eat the snacks twe prepared the night before.


Then Ron joined us for some water fun in the deeper water.  I don't have any pictures because it took both of us treading water to keep up with these two, but they had so much fun jumping off of the floating platform---M turning flips and A jumping to me (with life vests on both of them).
After a picnic lunch and then played some more.



(Sorry so blurry, but A needed her skills spotlighted, too. )
I wanted a photo of all of us, so I moved everyone up to near the beach.  After I set the timer, I attempted to run into the water to join them---however it turned out to be a very ungraceful run into the water----its' really hard to run through a muddy lake bed!

We stopped at the Cypress Black Bayou Zoo on our way out of the park.

All of the animals living there are native to our area and are being treated or rehabilitated in some way.  Some were brought to the center as abandoned babies.

Others are there because of injuries such as broken wings.






This one is for Dan:

The kids were able to pet a baby Vulture.


By the time we got home, everyone was pretty wiped out.  I carried the kids in and Ron ended up on the couch as well.


Someone had to stay up and get things ready for supper---wonder who that was?!?!