October ...Working on my Retirement List of Things I Want To Do

This has been a very good week and I am actually beginning to get some things done that have been on "My When I Retire List of Things I Want To Do. To make this short and sweet I will get right to the point. I had a Bunco Party on Tuesday which went Ok , and hopefully the next one will add a table of gals and be even more fun. Since I have gained all the weight I had lost before I retired lol I got started getting in the diet mode, now that only means that that hopefully tomorrow I will get seriously started, lol. I went to Pickensville, Alabama to see where Mom and Dad have been camping and it truly is a nice place and we met some of their camping friends. It was a very nice drive and an adventure in itself just getting there. We helped them get loaded up and back to the house and then helped them get unloaded the next day as much as possible. Chris had a birthday and I guess all he got from me was a phone call. Kyle also had a birthday and he requested a sock-it-to-me make and a meal of his request. So I cooked him fried chicken, cream potatoes , lima beans,mac n cheese and french bread.He ate and off to the woods he went.I cooked for him on Friday (2 days before his day) so that he could spend the entire weekend hunting.Kyle has been going to church for months and was saved last week so he is doing very good and we are very proud of him. OK so much for short and sweet. Another thing we did on my list was take a fall pontoon ride to look at the fall leaves turning. Today was a great day for that.

Marcia and Greg joined us in our ride.

view from the lake

our hunter Kyle, can you believe he is 19, already.

Kyle and his special cake

Some of my hobby goods.

This is a court house in a lil town that has a window where you can see a man that was killed there, see where the arrow points... well I thought I could see a mans face
but the sun was blinding me. I took a pic to see if it showed up.

This is the dam at Pickensville,Al. close to the camp ground.

This is what Dad calls his mule train, which is his truck, camper and fishing boat all hooked up. Pat drove it home for him.

view from Dad's favorite camp spot.

Mom and Dad

We went to eat at Down Yonder, So now we all know where down yonder is but we still looking for over yonder and up yonder.

This is what many call wasted money down yonder. This is the walls and ceiling of the restaurant than folks who visit have tacked up with date and names.

Beautiful week followed by more rain.

Once again I have pictures all together. This is October 15th 2009

October 2009 view from the den.

This is 1st week of November 2007

Love the wind chime, found this at Canton and finally just bought it. I have been looking at some forseversl years.

Another Canton shopping just had to have.

Since the title of this says there was a beautiful week, I am sure there was but its been rain for 2 weeks I know. I never got any further than the title andnow I have no clue what I did on a beautiful week. I will try to catch up quickly and once again try to do better.

WE did get out drive way poured and man am I glad. I had hoped to get the front landscaping done soon as the drive was finished .....but RAIN!!!!

Why do I do this to myself, lol. I hate when I can't remember what I have been doing, I must get better at this or I am going to think I never do anything. I did make a trip to Canton chraft show last week even if no one could go with me. I got up at 3:30 a.m. and away I went. I must say Thank you hubby for the new van, I would have never made that trip alone in the old one. I rolled into Canton about 830 and parked in the same yard I have parked for years and years. I had a great shopping trip and bought a couple things that I really have been wanting. Pat says the new wind chimes brings on a new meaning to "listening to the wind blow". They do sound very nice although I have not been outside that much to hear them. I did open the doors one day and listen to the wind blow. I was finished with my shopping and had done the important things like have funnel cake and the chicken on a stick and was ready to go on to Vicksburg.

I stayed in Vicksburg until Saturday morning and then I got up at 300 am to take Brooke to the airport so she could go visit her mom for Fall Break. That went just fine and then I headed on back to the lakehouse.

I have done lots of sewing projects during the rain but will post them next time, since I have not taken pictures yet.

This week I decided to get a Bunco group going in Bama. I hope to get it kicked off on Tuesday, this will give me something to do and catch up with old friends and family as well. I wonder if we can make it a Pajama party, lol. I sure enjoy my pajama's lol.

This week has rained all week and the lake is higher than I have ever seen it in the fall. I love a full lake. I am going to try to post a picture taken in November of 2007 along with one I took today.

September ENDS

As always I should have loaded my pictures then done the typing, its just easier to do that, however once again I don't have time to rearrange everything.




Breakfast of champions, lol.

Will after his dad with a gummy worm.

Randy and Emma enjoying the ride withe the Alabama flag flying.

Attempting to feed the fish and making noise to try to get the gig carp to come see us.

Randy really enjoyed getting Will and Walker still enough to just hold . Dustin checked out every seat and view on the ride.

Emma got to be the 1st one to check out our bathroom, she will hate me one day for this, lol.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUSTIN AND JACY!!!

It was just too pretty and I wanted to show you.

I dd get the Halloween shirts made in time.

Even got these mailed to Eric's girls.

You know its been too long since you posted when you have to read the last post to know where to start. I know I will leave out lots of things just because I can't remember them now.

I have learned to make the trips to Vicksburg an adventure for me, I have been checking out various shopping areas and locating special stores, so that when I need things I know right where to go. This trip I located the Hancock Fabric store in Tuscaloosa and dang I just remember the 52% off sale ends tomorrow. I decided it is easier to shop at Hancock Fabric online and if you catch the sale and work it right no shipping charges. I don't shop for fabric often and rarely buy it unless its a 50% 0ff sale.

The trip to Vicksburg was to take Tyler for his stay awake study, which went really well. It will be another 10 days before he sees the Dr for the official results but I feel certain he will be allowed to get his drivers license. I was able to do a lil shopping when out getting him lunch. I picked up a beach towel at Bed Bath and Beyond and door bells at Lowe's. Neither of these stores are in Vburg or Jasper. I did not stay in Vburg for the Friday night game since it was going to be 2 hrs or more away and probably in the rain. I wanted to get back to Jasper on Friday to get ready for the weekend.

I was kinda disappointed that Pat has become an Alabama fan again, lol. It made for a boring game. I could not even get any Arkansas folks to pick back and forth on game day.... sigh. Oh well we Bama won and I guess Pat is an Ole Miss fan and I will just have to wait for that game. We had lots of piggy food for the game and were stuffed. We went to Randy and Glenda's after the game for a bday gathering for Dustin and Jacy and visit with Brandon and his children.

Sunday the weather was finally good enough for a pontoon ride and I was up early making the chocolate gravy and biscuits for the Myhand crew to join us and then go for the pontoon ride. It was a wonderful ride. We carried the kids to feed the fish and once again there were no fish to feed. I had hoped they would be there since the water level had come up so much. I know Dustin and Jacy think I don't know what I am talking about of these fish, lol since this is the 2nd trip they have gone on and no fish. There were a few small strippers and large brim but not the big carp that suck a baby bottle. We were back by 11 am and the rest of the day was just spent relaxing.

WE had started our concrete driveway last week but the rain put a stop to the work there so this week we are back to getting that done and with this gorgeous weather I think they will be finished before September ends.

Fall is here and the weather is just wonderful, I have so many things I wanna do during October. This is one of my favorite months and every other year we were in outage and I missed it. Hopefully I can do half of the things I have planned for this month. lol.

Accomplishments of the week!

This has been a good week for me. I spent 3 days at home (Alabama) and I mean I did not leave the house for anything... YEA ME!!! I made up for that on Friday when I made 3 trips over to Mom and Dad's, lol. I actually went over there to go with Dad to see his Dr and to get his medication straight. He had changed his mind and thinks he has it straight, so I took the time to do some things at their house that they had wanted help with. I may have been more help than they planned, lol. I am finding out more every day just how much I am needed here in Alabama. I think the time has come that I must attempt to go with them to the doctor visits if at all possible. There is just too much going on and too many medicines involved for them to be able to remember it all... so 2 sets of ears will help, hopefully. I had to make 2 trips back to the lakehouse while trying to do some cleaning there. The 1st trip was to take a look at the sidewalk layout that the workers had come up with to see if it was what I was talking about and it was. I went back to Moms to get help from Kyle and Randy on their lunch break moving a heavy desk. Its a lot easier to supervise the moving of something than it is to move it, lol. This is just the beginning of what I hope is going to make things simpler for my parents, just getting the house better organised, or at least where I can do things there to help out without spending so much effort searching for things. It's only a week until they go for the Fall fishing trip and I just want to keep them healthy so they can do that and spend some time with them as well. While I was there I got a chance to take some pictures of Dad with his tomato plants. He is so proud of them and honestly this is the only time I remember my dad having a garden, lol. Mom use to years ago and he might have helped stake some beans but never tend to a garden or claim it, lol. The main reason was he worked daylight til dark at least 6 days a week.

Below is a pic of the old living room rearranged for better enjoyment of all of us, since the extra dining table has been moved out. I think Mom will enjoy having a tv to use when Dad watches stuff she don't like. In fact Mom Randy and I sat there and had a really nice chat and it was quieter.

We should have our driveway and sidewalk completed by mid week, if the rain does not mess us up. I really think it will be a rainy week and will take all week.

The weekend has been good but rainy. The lake has come back up over the rocks. We enjoyed football all weekend and other than Arkansas our teams won. This next week will be a trying weekend for us... when ALABAMA and arkansas play. Its almost like the ALABAMA vs auburn game in our house. If the game is not intertainment enough, then the Keesee's are lol. We have all kinds of pig to eat on that day.

Mid September - Gunter Reunion - Baird Reunion

September has been busier than I thought it would be, so far. I was disappointed in Labor Day weekend and not really anything to tell other than we did not labor or ride the new pontoon due to the rainy weather. We have been trying to focus on some yard projects for the fall. I thought if I could get the stuff then Pat would work on some flower beds and landscaping stuff while I am off to Vicksburg at times. We disagreed so much on what to do and how to do it, then I decided to just do it my way... for about an hour then I realised we neither one could do what needed to be done ... so I called to get an estimate from a landscaping company. They came out and seemed very knowledgeable on what and how to do what needed to be done and WE BOTH quickly found out we knew nothing and the stuff I had bought was not even the stuff I needed, lol. So we finished a few things we had started even if they said we should use different stuff. We will be getting them back to do the front of the house when we can make up our mind just what to do.

I still have not been able to give Mom and Dad a ride on the pontoon... seems they are feeling bad when the weather is nice and feeling good when its rainy... go figure. We did take one ride on Labor day with Randy and Glenda and it was exciting to say the least... we let Kyle drive and he was doing a good job and ummm yea going faster than I wanted... can't believe I am actually saying that. Anyway the water patrol noticed us right off and that we did not have the registration numbers on out pontoon boat.. so we got pulled over and he checked us for all the required stuff, which we had, but Kyle did not have his license with him nor did I. We explained that we had just bought the boat and he asked when I had to say well I guess we have not officially bought t since we have not give the man money yet, lol. He was happy and just informed us to have DL on use when on the lake and noticed our Alabama shirts and boat and says Have a nice day and ROLL TIDE ROLL!!! We decided an ALABAMA flag is needed for the pontoon, lol.

This weekend has been busy with family reunions so I will post the pictures with comments as needed.

Below is the Baird Reunion which is being moved to the Farmers and Traders Bank at Curry so that will be a lot more convenient for most.


Jenna was the youngest member of the family there.

This was the only set of twins there,lol. Landon and ???

The women folks gather and visit in the kitchen area......

while the men folk visit in the dining area.

The Baird Family Reunion gang was smaller than normal due to illness of several.
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This is the beginning of flower bed work.

This is a rock garden by the front door... the shrub is to be moved.. and this Elephant seemed to be just what we needed in it. Sorry Auburn Fans.. Remember I am an Auburn Fan for every game except 1;

Oh this is Dad demonstrating the new recliners that Randy and I bought for him and Mom.... I assure you he loves his new recliner already.
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The Gunter Reunion which was held on Saturday.

Women preparing for the feast.

Cousins visiting after many years.

The men folk sitting out front greeting everyone that comes in.

Lots of Good food and good company what more can one ask for.

Tom and Harold are the brothers of my grandmother who passed years ago.

Hopefully things will settle down a bit and I will post more regular.... I know there is so much that gets left out if I don't post every week.

Cruising the lake again, finally.

It has been several weeks since I posted and I am not gonna be able to catch up now, but I am so excited I just had to share with all my friends and family. We have searched high and low and tried to become knowledgeable on the perfect pontoon boat to buy. We tried one out about a month ago and we really liked it, mostly, but I got motion sick in it for some reason and something about the seats just did not fit right. The front of the boat stuck up too high in my opinion, and I knew I had to ride in another pontoon boat with 3 logs to see if they all were like that, It rode smooth, had the power and was great but just did not fit right. We spent a Saturday driving around looking at boats in other towns and giving the new van a good test, but we were not able to ride in one that day. We had planned to spend Mon and Tuesday of the next week finding the perfect boat and at least ride in another one, however it rained and just did not work out, then we got side tracked with dad going in the hospital on Thursday and then on Friday going to Vicksburg to watch Tyler and Blake play football. So as you can see we have been busy in many directions. The good news is Dad got to come home from the hospital today. This morning I got back on the list of business stuff I need to take care of and called Nelem's to test out one of their pontoons with 3 logs. We had looked at them and knew the one we wanted to try out and it just so happened they had put it in the lake yesterday, because they sold the demo they had in the lake. IT was wonderful we drove it at 11 a.m. and I knew it was the one, Mr. Nelem told us to come back to get it at 4 or 5 they would have it cleaned up. I tell you I just love doing business here. It will be a week to 10 days before I have the money arrangements completed and he was willing to let me get it now just on a hand shake. I went to see Dad at the hospital and share the news with him and he seemed thrilled for me and him. I am so glad he is doing better. We drove over to get the pontoon and it was spotless and I got to drive it home... woo hoo. Its wonderful is all I can say and I can't wait to take some nice long pontoon rides without worry of motor quitting.

The seat is adjustable for short folks and very comfy.

Pat chillin at dusk when Kyle got home from his night class.

Kyle approves of the new ride.

Pat checking out the console gadgets.

Love the color.. How about you? ROLL TIDE!!!!

It was a gorgeous day, but expecting rain the weekend I hear.