Lessons!!!

Here are a few things I have learned along the way in this journey called life.

1.  God knows my heart, and I hide nothing from him.
2.  You really only have a few good friends in life.
3.  Your family loves you no matter what happens in life.
4.  God is faithful to see us through all things.
5.  Marriage is one of the best things to happen to me.
6.  God has chosen the right direction for your life...you have to listen.
7.  Life really is short.
8.  The older you get the more time flies.
9.  You don't always get what you want.
10.  Life is an adventure, so enjoy the smooth rides along with the bumpy rides and don't complain....it doesn't get you anywhere.

Spring Fever!!!

 Okay, I know that it is only March, but when the temperature is in the 80's and you have to use some aloe because of all sun you got...Spring Fever hits.  Now this weekend it is cold and rainy, but I still have the fever and our yard is reflecting that fever.

 I planted a lot of dianthus...I fell in love with these flowers while we were at Midway.  This was our Mother's Day flower every year.

 Petunias!!! These in this pot are the carpet petunias.  I love them.

 Some baskets of flowers are a result of buying too many.  LOL

 Mark put up some over the rail baskets for me, and I planted the wave petunias in these.  I can't wait for them to cascade over.

 I am loving this new deck!!!

As you can see, Spring Fever has hit me BIG time.  I just hope and pray that this little cold snap doesn't hurt them.  Having the outside of our house look so nice definitely inspired me to do more planting this year.  WOOHOO!!! Spring is here....but so is the pollen:-(  But that is what they make Claratin for....LOL

Little Friends!!!

When you don't have kids, you just seem to adopt other people's children.  We have lots of "little friends" as I call them, but I am just going to show off two today.  These have to be the sweetest kids I know (I will probably say that about each one later on), but seriously these two are adorable.  They sit in front of us in church each Sunday and never a peek is heard from them.  I probably make more noise than these two do during service.  You can't help but fall in love with Emma and Wade.  Aren't they both sharp dressers???  He is totally fascinated with our pastor, and what a great role model to have. I love her new cute hair cut.

I will say that they are more adorable in person.  They are just the two sweetest most polite kids.  Such a great testimony of their up bringing.  They have great parents, and it was a pleasure to meet their grandmother and aunts a few weeks ago.

Wade was so adorable in his suit.  He is a little heart stealer.  He and his sister, Emma, seem to really love one another.  I love sitting behind them every Sunday and watching them interact with one another.  We have visited them at their home and they are just as sweet.  I am happy to call them my "little friends."

Crazy Mixed Up!!!

The title for the blog is because there will be a variety of things talked about in this blog that are totally unrelated.  Now I know most of you thought from the title that I was going to talk about myself.  LOL

First let me say that I love remodeling.  Not that I am actually doing any of the work, but I love it.  We (by we, I mean my Uncle Harold) is taking a closet and making us a half bath. I am thrilled to pieces.  If you are a multi bathroom family, you might not be so thrilled, but we are a one bath family right now; and it doesn't always work.  I have loved watching the process of our little house transform right before our very eyes.  The only problem is before we get through with one thing, I want to do something else.  LOL

This is the end of our home before our improvements began.  The poor wreath did not help at all.  LOL

This is the finished product of our remodeling.  New siding, new windows and new doors.

Our flowers were very pretty this spring.  I have loved watching them bloom.  I have raised my windows (only since I have new ones) and let the cool spring feeling air come in, but I noticed our pine trees are brimming with yellow balls of pollen...so maybe no more raised windows for us.

 Our daffodils that we planted the first fall we moved here were gorgeous this year.

 We planted this daffodils our first there as well, and my cow (which I love) was a yard sale find for only $1.

 Up close and personal with the flowers.  They had such vibrant color this year.

Our gorgeous yellow bell bushes.  They always seem to show off.  My grandmother planted these when she lived there.  If I am not mistaken, I think these are cutting off her mom's bushes.  My great grandmother died at age 91 in 1979 (I think), so I think that it is pretty cool these bushes are a product of some that she had.  Family heritage in a plant.  I must admit that we haven't been that diligent about working in our yard.  The reason is, every time we had the yard looking great the house with all the rotten siding made it look horrible.  It seemed to be a wasted effort.  But now that our house looks great on the outside, I am excited about planting and doing more things outside.

My father in law seems to have improved on his new dementia medicine.  Sometimes a little too well.  I say that because hurdles that we have over come before like, no driving and someone else handling finances has resurfaced.  We thought these were things that were firm in his mind, but the medicine has worked so well that we are facing these hurdles again.  We have found (thanks to my sister in law) that typing a letter to him works.  He will reread it over and over again, so things stick in his mind.  This has saved us from having to repeat ourselves.  I was proud of him today as he realized that the time, day and date was wrong on the clock.  You would have to leave here to know how many times a day Mark and I tell him the day and the date.  We are thankful for any progress he makes.

Our sweet niece Anna just found out that she is having twins.  We are super duper delighted.  They are due in September.  Some of you may know that Mark and I lost twin girls on September 15, 1994.  I would be so excited if her twins were born on this day.  We can't choose these things, but I can hope.  She found out that they are identical, so we are getting two of something.  We are so excited for her and Mitchell.

We are so happy for Anna and Mitchell on their expectant arrival of twins.  We will be praying hard for the safety of their arrival.

I have had a noisy visitor at my house lately.  I can't really say much because I feed him, so I guess he won't go away now.  Meet...Chicken and Dumplings.

This is our neighbor's rooster who spends more time at our house than his.  He is funny!! He eats birdseed along with Willy (our squirrel) and the birds.  He doesn't crow in the morning, he waits to around 3 pm.  I love watching him strut around our yard.  He is a hero though.  A week ago, a hawk swooped down and almost had a small hen, but Chicken and Dumplings ran over and spurred and pecked that hawk.  He let the hen go, and Chicken and Dumplings carried her to safety under the grape vine.  A true hero in his own right.