Fresh Air and Sunshine!

I am such a blog-slacker! Nothing but cobwebs and dust in here. I'm so proud of Lanette for keeping up with her blog. I've tried and failed.

Besides raising a trio of boys, I've been doing two things. Incubating germs, and spending time in my yard. Hopefully I'm finally finished with the germs (the flu in May, leave it to me. That was the sickest I've been in years.) Looking forward to being well, that only leaves me with outside! I'm not known for being a person that likes to spend time outdoors. Don't get that confused with activities like camping, I love that stuff. Just in general, if there's a choice I'm usually inside. Well look at me now! I've exhaled the stale air, and ventured into the breeze! We have alot of shade trees, so I'm not exactly tan, but at least it's fresh air! My porch is my favorite place to be; it instantly reduces stress just walking out there. Ahhhh....

I'm starting my own trend, I'm calling it, Project: At Least I Post Pictures Every Now and Then. :) Here are just a bunch I've been meaning to share.

Tanner dressed for Field Day at school. He's usually strictly a jeans kid, this was out of his comfort zone. I told him all day that I liked that look on him, and he should dress sporty more often.


Don't they look thrilled with me??


Self-propelled....run faster Cam!





Front flower beds



My neighbor in the back has miniature horses. This spring they had two babies! They are so adorable! I only got one this time because my battery died, I'll go back.





A flower bed all ready for planting. It was taken over by that crappy viney grass, the roots were a nightmare.


This photo taken by Tanner, so cute!


The grapevines in the back are loaded with grapes! Stay back, birds!




Gus loves to play on the trampoline. He just bounces and flops around like a rag doll when the kids jump, and he loves it. He likes to chase them around and around.







A few weeks ago we had a rash of wildfires break out all around the area. The smoke made an eerie, but pretty glow.





One of Ivan's dreams has come true, he finally has a bass boat. We only live about half a mile from the dock, so he and the boys will get alot of use out of it. This was before he washed it for hours, he'd be mad if he knew I was showing it dirty.


Cowboy hat, sheriffs badge, nerf gun, and a light saber. This kid means business!!


Cam and his friend Dylan, jamming out.


Coming back from an errand the other day, Ivan drove me through downtown Dallas because he knows I love it there. Only got pictures from the car, but I'll take what I can get.




Pretty catepiller...makes me wonder if the butterly will have the same colors...

More Make-Up Days

Day 37
We've had a string of bad luck concerning water and the kitchen. Nothing as bad as the big flood, but there have been a couple smaller happenings; so frustrating! Doing dishes, I hear water start to gush. A connection between pipes had come loose, and the whole sink full of water was draining all over underneath! Had to take every single thing out, dry it, throw it away, take it out of it's mushy box, undo whatever damage was done. But, in the end, it was nice and clean and organized, and looked great! So great I wanted to share. :)


Day 38
Dinner on the Balcony at Sunset


Day 39
How I spent the month(or where I wanted to be at least.) Photo courtesy of Ivan. Thanks dear.


Day 40
Tanner the engineer. This is an ongoing project, he goes out and spends hours working on it, building a whole system of dams, channels, drainage. Then he'll level it, and start over. He's always liked to play by himself, just sit and think something through. It's very interesting, and I love to watch him.


Day 41
Shopping Green. I've been meaning to switch to reusable bags for a long time, and finally did it. I love the bags, they aren't inconvenient at all.


Day 42
Reorganized recipes. They needed it!

Make-Up Days

Day 31
Found these two just staring out the window, daydreaming.



Day 32
Wet rat Gus.


Day 33
Tanner's Science Project.


Day 34
I hate ants! Never had this kind before, though. The upstairs bathroom all of a sudden was attacked by carpenter ants. I came in one day to find them everywhere. They had made a hole in the ceiling, and were sawing away happily. This pic was after I sprayed them with windex. Since then we've had a great exterminator come in and now the only time I see an ant, it's dead or dying. Yay!


Day 35
Off to school, with a backpack that weighs the same as he does. That night I helped him go through it to see what all he had in there, I found tons of graded papers that he'd never shown me, and at least 6 books that he's reading or has read. I'm so proud that he loves to read. He should just haul around one at a time.


Day 36
My Tax Return Splurge
Natalie, you're going to hate me. I got a dyson! It's awesome. It really does clean so much better. And the navigation with that ball, it feels like a sports car, vrroom! I can use it on the hard floors, too, just push a button to turn off the brush. My only complaint, and it makes me sad to say, the quick-draw telescoping wand. It is quick-draw, that part is nice. But it's stiff, and part of it isn't hose, it's solid, so it's sometimes difficult to use. My last vacuum, a plain jane, I could easily vac the stairs with it. With the dyson, the stairs are a pain! Everything else is great, though, so if I just bribe Tanner into vac the stairs for me, all is good! :)

Day What?

It's hard to keep up with a daily thing like Project 365 when you're a busy mom. Even harder when you're a procrastinator. Harder still when you're sick for the entire winter! I am so done with being sick! I wish I could wake up and say I feel great! Instead I get up trying to decide how miserable I'll be that day, and what meds I can take to try to help. First I had a plain old cold. That lingered longer then colds usually do for me. Then it morphed more into a head cold, then the sinus pain. I've never had sinus problems that bad. I went to the dr, sinus infection, gave me meds. At the time my ears hurt, but no more then just a symptom of the sinus thing. Halfway through the antibiotics, my ears got so much worse, not better. Had to go back to the dr, this time for some different meds, and a steroid shot in the butt (Man, that sucker hurt! Still does actually!)

Add to that some major girly problems, more meds...I've been a barrel of fun!

I'm finally on my way to becoming well, I think. I feel pretty good during the day, but at night my headache comes around, and my ears start to ache. Ugh, my poor family, they must just be wishing I'd get better or find somewhere else to live.

I have been taking pictures, of course, but I do have some blanks. My 365 might take me a while longer then an actual year, but I'm ok with that.

Wherever there's a day I missed, just picture these germy guys in it's place:

Day 30

My new washer! And I only captured Tanner watching it, but at one point all of the kids and the dog were sitting here watching. lol. Gus still likes to watch it.

Day 29

Heather sent me this picture of my great-niece Kaiden, playing in the snow. She's such a doll, I miss her!

Day 28

Before going to bed I looked for Gus to put in his kennel. I found him snoozing illegally on Cameron's bed.

Day 27

Here are the flowers I gave Ivan. I had so much fun taking pictures of them.