Mason Sings

Mason loves to sing and we love to hear him. In the pictures above,  he is belting out the song Someone You Loved.  I have not heard him sing it. I haven't even heard the song. I guess I'd better get with it. It's time for FaceTime!

Al Does It Right

Al takes care of a problem the best way he knows how. He takes matters into his own hands. This happened a couple of weeks ago. I told the story on the layout itself. I'm copying it here, so that if you are on your phone, you won't have trouble reading it.

Our little group is fond of Cracker Barrel. We like to get a round table. There is only one problem with this corner table, on the wall behind Al is a picture of a very homely woman  and she stares 

disapprovingly at us. I mentioned her eyes being on us, so Al did what he could. He covered her face with a napkin. If anyone else saw what he did, they said nothing. Perhaps she bothered them as well.

I don’t think she appreciates this layout either. Look at that

sour expression!

Remember This Moment

Can't believe  I haven't posted here since the 24th. There is no excuse for that! I just forget.

Well I didn't forget tonight, even though it has been a rough day here. Ron and I are both very sore, him from working too hard and me because  my physical therapy yesterday tore me up. Oh, it is ok. It was the plan. That is the way they work sometimes. Overwork you one day, let you rest the next day and then you go back to those same exercises.  If  I do as well at the end of this week as I did last, I'll be happy.

Any way, as sore and tired as we were, our basement flooded AGAIN.  Thankfully, prayers of our friends were answered. Ron was able to clean up the water and he even found out  why it has been flooding. His job for tomorrow is to fix that problem.

The picture here is of a better day on Wednesday, when my ORU (Opinions R Us) friends celebrated my birthday. We were 18 days late, but it was just as much fun. We had to delay it until we could get everyone back to Ohio, etc. We went to the Bistro in Green for dinner, then went next door to Handles for ice cream. I don't think any of us, oh maybe one, were counting calories.

O H I O

They were all  born in Colorado, but they are Buckeyes through and through, especially on game nights.  That's what happens when your parents are true blue transplants from our wonderful Ohio.

Caleb, Julia and Oliver jump at every chance to show their allegiance to 'their' state.  O H I O!

Tribute to the Man

Ron is definitely a hard worker. I guess that is because he was deprived of manual labor most of his life, having gone into computers right out of high school.

I think he overdoes it now, but he does accomplish some pretty cool things, like his latest task of putting up more cameras for our security system. I guess he gets to mix his two worlds of computer expert and hard labor.

Young men years ago, before  this millennial generation, would be used to working, but by 77, they had generally slowed down a bit. But Ron continues to push his muscles.

Here is a pictorial salute to his skill and hard work.

Shredded Notes

It is nice to own a shredder. Mason particularly appreciates theirs now. He was elated to get the chance to shred the notes from a history class that he despised. In his own words, it was a rotten class! 

I don't know if it was because he really doesn't care about history like he does math, he just doesn't like to study history, or because it was one of the slanted classes now that tries to make it look like our country is a bad place to be. 

The only thing that surprises me is that it took him quite a while after school was out to do it...well I guess not. When summer vacation finally gets here, there are lots more interesting things to do.

Oliver's Mustache

Oliver will be surprised when he sees this picture. He won't remember having a mustache. It is my gift to him. I'm anxious to hear what he says.

Celebrate Early

Buca di Beppo knows how to celebrate a birthday. Although both of us were celebrating our birthdays the same  night (early because that is when  our son was in a nearby city on business) this is the regular size of the fantastic brownie  sundae they offered free to me. They had  a record of my birthday and emailed me a coupon.

The three of us were only able to eat about 1/3 of this and it was  REALLY good. I would consider doing this again next year and taking more people with me.

Reasons To Be Happy

I have so very much on my computer because over the years I've been a shopaholic at scrapping sites. Scrapgirls was my first love and even though I have broadened my horizons, I still like Scrapgirls very much. Today they offered a freebie, that after changing some color, would go well with a new picture I had of our daughter, Chelle.  I also used a curled frame from a Scrapgirls kit Fancy Curls by Syndee Nuckles that  I had bought back in 2011. So here it is. Chelle with Reasons to be Happy. 

I just finished listening to our president announce he is up for election in 2020. What a powerful speech. I love our God.  I love our country.  I love our  President.  God Bless America. 

Trump has made America Great Again and he's not finished yet.

Lucky Guy

Ron is a lucky guy because he likes to do it himself.  

He really has it good tonight because our basement flooded in the torrential rains we've been having...and there are more predicted tonight.

Well Done Kudos

Ron loves to work outdoors and he also loves to cut  trees for some reason. So he got a good opportunity to do that when the poplar tree in the front corner of the courtyard started leaning across the courtyard. We really don't know what made that happen, but there has been a LOT of rain this year. It would seem there would be softening of the soil around the tree, but I suspect there  was more to it. I'm thinking raccoons used it to get in the area. I can't prove it, but I do know that Maggie was afraid to go out there for a while before it was cut. She would just stand outside the door and sniff the air. 

In any case, the tree is now gone.  I do not miss it and Ron had his 'fun'.  

I've been unable to  blog for a few days, but I'm feeling better tonight and  I have a new page of costuming photos. This is the same photo shoot that I  blogged about on the eleventh. The girls did a good job with these costumes and they finished the look with perfect expressions.

These characters, Star Lord and Gamora were well represented.

Class Project

It's not all about getting A's. They had lots of fun doing their class project. They decided to portray two characters in Guardians of the Galaxy. Ashley dressed as Star Lord and Jay as Gamora. There
were 167 photos taken by Ashley's mother Chelle; so I had plenty  for a layout. I had enough for a whole book, but It would take me way too long;  so I narrowed it down to a mere four pages.This is the first.

Happy Birthday to Us.

I think neither of us was anxious to age another year. We know that wisdom comes with age, but...so do wrinkles aches and pain at this stage of life.   It was nice to have our friends celebrate with us, something we did not plan ahead of time. It worked out great and cheered me up. We had a fun time, even played a game from our past that none of us could remember the rules for. We had to google it for directions, but we laughed the whole time. It was just what we needed.

Oh yes, I am old enough to know not to end a sentence in a preposition, but I'm also  old  enough to not worry one bit about that.

Hammock Heaven

John was being Mommy and Daddy for a few days while Mommy was away with the ladies in her family. He and the kids found some time to enjoy the back yard. Daddy and Julia chose the hammock while the boys were on the trampoline. The best part as far as I'm concerned was when they chose to FaceTime me...Gramma.

Juniors

Opryland is a nice place for a graduation. Nashville School of the Arts had their graduation ceremony there this year.  Aussie as Grand Marshall of the junior class and Ashley as Marshall had  parts to play in the graduation.  So next year when they are the graduates, they certainly should know what  to expect.

They Were Here

They were here and now they are gone. That seems to be the way my life is going right now.
It is like the Bible verse "You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14).

A  figurative statement becomes reality in old age. 

At least I had the chance to take these pictures before they vanished.  Now I can 
publish these in my next book and be able to enjoy them for as long as I have. 

When my time here is over, there will be much more beautiful sights to see. We have God's word on that. Not only will everything be beautiful, but there will be no tears, no sorrows, no political fighting. God will reign supreme over His creation. 

Satan will be with us no more!

Tomboy

You may have read before that I call my Maggie our little Tomboy  Princess. That describes her well.

She chooses to be a Tomboy,  but the is so beautiful when she has been groomed well that she looks like a princess.

She like nothing better than to 'help' Ron. She gets to ride in the 'truck'. It is amazing how high that little dog can jump up into that vehicle.

The Cool project is a neighborhood improvement project that the local churches  do in Cuyahoga Falls, OH.  I believe they said this is the last year for it.  Maggie didn't understand why she couldn't help.

3 Kids

Laughing Buck Farm has been a great place for our grandchildren to play and learn. It is the net best thing to living on a farm. They learn all the chores that have to be done in raising crops and animals. Here are Oliver and Julia making memories with a little goat.

We had a super time  this evening when John flew into Cleveland for work tomorrow. We met him at the airport and ate at Buca di Beppo in Strongsville. I had received an email invitation to get a huge brownie sundae for my birthday, so it was the perfect place for dinner, just a few minutes from the airport. Of course I ate too much, but it was a great way to celebrate my birthday a little early. The real date in the 8th, so  I suppose we will celebrate at least one more time. It would be terrible if I actually got another year older every time we celebrated. I feel like I've aged several years for every 365 days I've  lived since 2015.

Dandelion Seeds

I like dandelions, unless they are in my own yard, then  I dig them out, making sure I  get the whole root.  Well at least that is the way it has been until today. Evidently, last year  I was too busy to dig weeds and  today I'm too old. I did dig several, but I have to admit, I  didn't get the whole root on most of them. I see older ladies working in their yards, but I just don't have what it takes anymore. After  working just a couple of hours digging out weeds and planting some flowers, I managed to get into the house and lie down a few minutes before feeding Maggie and then us. Everything hurts...everything.

I'm so glad I had a layout to post.  I do because last night I  spent my time playing words with friends and forgot  to post.

Back to the dandelions, Julia and Oliver  are like every other child I've ever known. They enjoy blowing the seeds all around.  This is picture was taken at Dunn Elementary.  I suppose they were there, either to take or pick up big brother, Caleb.