Weekend!!!!

We ran away for a long weekend.  We seldom go any where on a holiday weekend.  We went to a camping trip JUST for adoptive families. 

If you live in TX and are an adoptive family then mark your calender and contact COAC and plan on coming next year.  It was GREAT!  We had about 20 families, all adoptive.  All, I think, from the foster care system.  It was nice to have a group of people that get the issues that are dealt with on a daily bases. 

The camp was at Lake Whitney.  I had never been to the state park there, but would recommend it.  It is a very big park with lots of spread out camping areas.  Most of the slots are large and noise level is very low.

Lake was very rough.  I wouldn't have wanted to be in a boat.  The waves coming in were very much like ocean waves.

 MN is in the black and white, T is in blue, D12 is in the blue life jacket, D9 is in the yellow life jacket and MJ is in goggles.

 Doesn't this look like ocean waves rolling in?   They would crash hard enough at times to knock small children down.  The sound was just like setting on the seashore.

 DH's sister and BIL came out for the day on Sat.  They are "watching" the kids play in the surf.

It was a fun weekend!  Kids made lots of new friends.  We made new friends.   I didn't take pictures of kids because I didn't know if any wouldn't want to be on the blog so just took pics of ours on the beach. 

We were also having a discussion on which child had the largest calves.   Want to take a guess which set of leg muscles belong to which child.

Weekly Glimpse

It seems life moves to fast to get much blogging done.  I may do an other post later with some intentional pictures.  But for now here are snap shots of life.

I wish this showed how dirty his arms were.  They were gray/black from "cooking".  He loves to cook.  

 Since I AM an equal opportunity Granola I thought this young man deserved his picture in the blog during a "in trouble" session.  

If you can't tell this is two large cages filled with fowl.  One is peafowl and one is guinea fowl.  We were headed to the flea market.  I already had them sold before the kids even caught them.   I had DH cover them with a tarp for the road trip.   Not so much for their comfort but mine.  We get enough stares with just the bus!

 See this stubborn child getting wet?  I ask her to come back on the porch.  I got the "look".   I ask again and again.  I then turned the water on a little, she looked at it.  I ask some more.  She "looked".  I turned the water up more.  Still nothing.  Turned it up more, but it was stuck, so didn't move.  I turned it up all the way.  She is still standing there refusing to come to the porch.  I walk over ask again, nope.  So I unstuck it!   She was then MAD! when the water hit her.   I had already alerted mommy what was going to happen.  She watched from the door.  Then I set down on the bottom step, in the dry and continued to ask her to come to me.   Mommy being so kind brought the camera to me.  

 She did finally come to me.  We cuddled and life was good again.   :)

I love this picture!   These two are feeding the goldfish. 

Other non pictured news. D9 learned not only to ride a bike with training wheels, he then quickly went on to a bike without training wheels.  We had tried before to get him to but it just wouldn't click.  A couple of months ago DH bought a tricycle at an auction and a scooter.  D9 and grand son love the tricycle and scooter.   They both have taken that and learned the peddling and balance needed for a 2 wheeler.  Grand son is a whiz on his bike, with training wheels.  It won't be long until they are off.  

Escape!

This was my vehicle of ESCAPE.

Yep I ran away to day and grubbed mesquite all day, while listening to an awesome audio book.

It was the life story of H.A.Baker.   It is HOURS of listening, and a little hard to listen to until you get into the groove of it.  I downloaded it free from here: http://firekeep.com/firekeep_worship_podcast/tag/under-his-wings/ I really found it worth the listening time.

This is the grubber attachment, on the bobcat.  It digs down into the ground under the burr of the mesquite,and if you do it just right pops the tree out of the ground.  You then have to make sure all roots are totally out or it will keep living.   I can do trees about as big as your arm.  Beyond that it is rare to get it out.  We have ZILLIONS under that size.

An example of some of my handy work today.

I have a tomato almost red.  Yea.  The fact that this plant had two tomatoes when I bought it isn't important.

I got the guys to move my bush out.  This is my bougainvillea.  It is huge!   It is beautiful!  I'm sure it won't be as pretty for a while as it adjust to being outside.  I do want to try to start some cuttings from it this year.

 Not much grass, but my mint behind the rocks is really growing beautifully.  It will smell so wonderful if we ever get rain as the rain drops off the house into the mint bed.

This is a very abused bed.  I hope to have it doggy proof for now.  I planted two new lantana in it yesterday.

This bed is starting to grow.  It has a mixture of herbs and flowers, most of which should not need replanting, just time to cover the bed and hide the doggy proofing.

I still like windmills :)

See the donkey (s)

As they play the four legged one as learned to cut the mustard in their game of tag.  She runs across the pond to get back to MN.  Then starts grazing again.... until MN runs again then....

Yep, MN swears she cheat!   I find it funny than MN won't get close to the water if she is to close as she has been known to push her two legged friend in!   Not that this bothers MN much unless, like tonight it is cool.  The she avoids the pond. 

That was a glimpse of my day.  I feel like I accomplished a lot with the grubbing.  It is something that we need to do a LOT of.  I can't work on it during the week.  This has been a long week with kid issues so I was wanting a break.  I got the kid break and accomplished something worthwhile.  I worked a little over 7 hours, as that is how long the 1/2 of the book I was listening to today was.   I finished it :) 

After that I took the walk around taking pictures.  Now it is almost 10 and I am off to bed.  All be blessed!

Wasp Sting...........quick fix........

So what do you do when you get stung by a wasp and have nothing to put on it?  

Grab a copper penny.  It has to be copper, not a new one.   Just hold it on the sting a while. I have used this idea twice now.  A few years ago a red wasp popped me at a retreat.  I tried the penny.  It worked.  Yesterday at the park a yellow jacket got me.  I was hunting in my fanny pack for a penny.  A friend offered me one, thinking I was nutty.  In just a few minutes it stopped stinging.  This morning it was a tiny pus pocket which I popped and cleaned with peroxide.  No itch.

Weekend At a Glance

Our weekend went ........ somewhere??? Not sure where.  I think these pictures of K on the donkey were Friday.  

 Can you see how upset "Tunia is over this child on her back?  

 MN likes to play tag with her.  They run around and around this dirt pile, then she goes on top and WINS!!!

 The other "cowboy". Could he be a donkey boy instead?  

 My understanding is that he did get "bucked off".  Seems donkey put her head down.  When donkeys do that they become slides!  Next think he knew he was in a heap on the ground in front of her nose, with her sniffing him.  MN was right there to help him get up and decide real cowboys don't cry.   He got back on later. 

 I think this was Sat.  I had been feeding K some blackberries.  Once she was "done" and cleaned up she went back in there and had a few more on her own.   She likes blackberries.  

 Oops!  she is in trouble!  What this picture doesn't show is how MAD she is.  It was really funny.  She has a switch that can switch on and off.  You remove her to her stool as she is screaming, set her bottom down tell her she may get up when she is through with her fit and about 1/2 the time even mid scream it is suddenly quiet.   This time she was really mad.  She kept screaming.   Being such a loving Granola I took pictures. 

 Such a face!  Should break any Granola's heart.   Only funny thing.....I seem immune to it.    :)  

On Sunday we had a BBQ.  I invited a bunch of friends, but not many showed up.  Maybe they all know if they show up I put them to work helping.   This is my friend's son and D9.  Friends son is pealing boiled eggs for the very first time.   This was for the 'tator salad.  

 T was chopping the tators for the salad as they did the eggs.  We did wash the pealed eggs to help wash off a few egg shells.  

 It was a tiring day for some.  This is oldest grandson, hanging out with the adults.   We really didn't talk about him to much.   Just a little. 

 DIL, I really love this picture of her.  I am sure she is NOT going to love me for posting it.   :)   She is so pretty, she doesn't look old enough to have the grandson above :)   

 And the rib she is gnawing on looks pretty good too! 

See I am an equal opportunity in trouble photographer.  This is another grandchild that wasn't getting his way.   Doesn't he look like his daddy?  

I didn't get any pictures of some of us practicing with our toy's.  I really really suggest everyone leave the other DIL alone if she has a gun in her hand.  She is an amazing shot!   Remind me not to shoot with her.  

Missed kids swimming pictures.  They did that twice on Sunday.  It was only 103.  I did swim last night.  The wind was blowing so it was cool then. 

DH only cooked a box of ribs.   We used over a gallon of BBQ sauce.  I'm not sure what was better the ribs or the fellowship.  It was all good.  Wish others could have joined us. 

What am I ??? and other pics

This is a better picture of the strange colored kitten.  Isn't she pretty?  

 Her color looks so much like a possum.  I really thought that was what they were dragging in the first day.  Second thought and hope was a baby raccoon, but no, just a strange colored kitten.

 My granddaughter is a critter lover, but this woolly worm was almost more than she could handle. 

It was fine as long as I was holding the worm she wanted to take it.  But, T couldn't give it to her so I could get pictures.  Ever hold a woolly worm in one hand and phone in camera position in the other and try to see what the lens saw?   It wasn't easy!  I did get a few cute ones.   She never did grow fond of the worm.  Later brother came out gather it up and off he went home with it.  I did tell DIL she owed me big time for not suggesting he put it in his pants pocket.  Last I heard woolly worm was in a jar in her house, which is MUCH better than my house.   Grand son really needs to learn the fun of sharing woolly worms with chickens.   :)