Miles, Miles and Family Reunion

OK ! I admit I am LAZY TODAY! If you have a blog you will understand, I just did not want to deal with moving the pictures to the end or a specific place. So below are pictures of the week events.



Brooke and Tyler have become a kitchen team. Brownies and cookies is their specialty, lol.

Proof I did find time to get in the lake this week. This was Monday after the trip to get Tyler I just had to relax in the lake and chill.

These teenager sure enjoy time together and its so peaceful, they all get along so well.

Solving the problems of the world.

Where did the week go?

Monday- I spent driving what seemed like forever to get Tyler. I had gone to get him last year with no issues and I know now that I had hand written directions instead of the GPS, lol. I guess I had played with the GPS and had the Road name on it without a number and ummm it carried me to the road, buta long ways from where I needed to be. Bottom line I got there and goy Tyler then headed home with only one stop in mind and that was food and bathroom. I had a small fender bender backing out of the parking spot (darn big trucks). Atleast I hit a friendly person, not much damage and they were happy with taking my info and insurance stuff. I still need to call the insurance company. I was pooped when I got back to Jasper and they had put Dad in the hospital, he was doing good just getting where he would get to breathing better quicker.

Tuesday- I stopped by to see Dad on my way out of town. The rest of the day I spent driving to Vickaburg (My birthday by the way). It sure was hot in Mississippi, and I could not wait to get back to Alabama. It was a nice trip with phonecalls and birthday wishes along the way, love the cell phone when traveling. Kyle got packed and I helped him get loaded in my van when we got there.

Wednesday - I went to work to process out and see co- workers for my last time inside the plant. It was kinda sad but honestly it was a good feeling to be FREE of the stressful job that has controlled my life for 30 years. They had me a lil party and folks that could cut loose from work came to wish me a good retirement. There are so many I still have not been able to see in the last few months that have been a big part of my life at GGNS. Some of these folks I have known longer than my husband. Iwill miss the friends but not the job. I miss ones that retired before me and I have not seen many if them again... kinda like highschool. I managed to get out of Mississippi by 1:00pm and headed back to Bama. I let Kyle drive part of the way and I slept. I have been tired all week and I blame it on the stressful drive on Monday when I was lost for an hour not turning 55.

Thursday- I was busy busy today, I had to go shopping for monthly food and supplies and get the house cleaned up for Family Reunion and the fact that I had been on the road for 3 days made it worse. I did get me a swim today and the lake water was not like bath water it was HOT.

The weekend was an unusual one for sure. The reunion was full of plenty to eat and Brandon's kids were full of intertainment. They really are well behaved kids. WE also got to watch some video of Dustin and Jacy's wedding and a video of Emma Tucker performing at church. The attendance was low for the reunion, but hopefully next year will be better.It just seems that things did not fall right for many this year. I will post a few pictures at the end of post.

Sunday- I must tell off on myself, maybe because I am so proud to finally get a chance to sleep in, lol. I woke up to breakkfast being cooked by Kyle. That boy can cook. I ate and went back to bed, and I managed to stay in bed all day, and I mean ALL DAY! I did get up and eat a few leftovers from Saturday and check email on my way to the kitchen, but right back to bed. The kids were content and lazy too. Pat hung out in our room watching his races and it was a wonderful day and a much needed one. We had a couple showers move thru so maybe the lake water will cool off some.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!

It looks like a relaxing day here for the most part. Late yesterday we had Mom and Dad over to grill hamburgers and for a pontoon ride. Randy and Glenda joined us as well. It is really nice on the lake late evening and after dark. We waited for it to cool off some, because Dad has been having a hard time breathing and the heat makes it worse, hopefully he will go to the doctor tomorrow. This has not been a good week for my parents besides their own ailments they had a close friend pass away,so that has had them upset all week and just as they were getting over that they got upo to find that dogs had killed their cat. They loved that cat and I know they are going to miss it, even Dad.

MY GARDEN- As you can see I am finally going to have squash by gosh. If all my plants begin to produse I will have squash for everyone, lol.

This is my 1st red tomnato and I picked it today but will let it ripen a few days in the window.
I am hoping that Susan has tomatoes to spare and I can trade her some squash for them, lol.

The remained of the pictures were taken at the island across fron the cliffs. We finally were able to go to the island by the ciffs when there was no one there. I had never played on the other side and it was mostly rock over there. It is a good place to take pictures so maybe next time all the kids are here we can get some taken there, maybe in our Alabama t-shirts, lol.

Check out Chloe!

I just wanted to make a short post so everyone could see how good Chloe is doing with her swimming. Kyle and I went to her meet for a short time, we should have stayed longer, but we were hot and kinda lost, because we don't really know anything about swim meets. We did see the man from the Mountain Eagle there and he was interested in Chloe.
Check out Chloe!

Other updates:

Tracy had a safe trip back to Vicksburg on Monday. Chris got his machine to use when sleeping on Monday and he slept 10 hours Monday night, then stayed awake all day Tuesday like a normal person. Wednesday morning I asked him how he felt when he got up and he said WONDERFUL!!!! I am so excited for him. I think he is about to experience a new life. He left Wednesday and headed back to Vicksburg. Tyler went to the Dr on Wednesday and things are looking up for him, I am sure Tracy can do a better job on the details than me, so I will let her. It has been kinda quiet here but I have been busy getting caught up on housework and looking ahead to MYHAND FAMILY REUNION. Mark you calendars if it is not already marked. We will have it the Saturday before the 4th and it will be POT LUCK as always and we plan to eat at 4 p.m. That is a little different than usual, everyone is welcome to come earlier and visit and play on the lake. I joined the Target fitness center today and they are going to make exception and allow Kyle, Tyler and Brooke to work out the month of July with me. I hope they push me to build a good habit.

2nd week of June

Gosh I can't remember what all we have done since last post. It is a good thing I added some photo's as the days went by. The rock work got finished and we still do not have gutters. Tracy joined us, I did find some time to use my sewing machine, BTW Tracy take a pic of Rusty's shirt to send me. We had some rain and stormy weather but we all enjoyed that too. We went for pontoon rides almost every day. I cooked some fried squash , okra, purple hull peas, new potatoes and corn bread. I have totally lost control of my eating. Tracy left today and I am not cooking anything else this week and this is Monday, lol. The kids have stayed up late watching movies and made brownies or cookies most every night. We had a family gathering on Saturday with all the trimmings and Rando's BBQ, we all ate entirely too much, but it was all GREAT!

Tanner likes the shirts I do for him, he designed this one.

This one is for Brooke.

Tanner caught a turtle.

Dustin came by one day just in time to catch the afternoon pontoon ride. He just had to dive off the BIG CLIFF since Brandon had done that last year. He said he can't let Brandon out do him, so does that mean he is going to have triplet boys?

We made a trip to the Kawasaki Beach with Tracy. This is one of the best swimming places on the lake and no one seems to know it but us, lol. I hope to take Brandon's kids here when they come to visit, its right on the way to feed the fish.

Tanner was up early to check on his turtle.

Notice the rock is finished on the lake side.

Kyle grilled the steaks and they were very good.

The Gardner boys were glad to see their mom.

More sewing , this one is for Tracy.

The lakehouse from the road side, notice the front entrance is complete except for the door being stained.

I don't know maybe we should just paint the door white. What do you think?


The best thing happened, Dad told me to call the sleep center here that they would see Chris. So I did and they were GREAT! They saw him that day and got him in that night for a sleep study and rearranged their schedule to get him back to do the 2nd night with the machine. He has sleep apnea very bad. He went today to see the Dr and got a loaner machine until the insurance can get approved for one. He is excited and we all are to, this should be a life changing thing for him. He will use it tonight for the 1st time so we will see what tomorrow brings. We are so impressed with the way the Dr. worked with him and how friendly they were.

I am sure I left out many things about the week, but it can be all summed up with a GREAT WEEK!

1st Week of June

CHANGES



We have had a good 1st week. It did start off a little rough, just getting the kids all use to things being different. I always try to keep all the kids on the same eating schedule for the summer. This helps to keep my kitchen cleaner. This is tougher than it may sound. I also try to not have an open kitchen, this helps keep them on the same eating schedule and this keeps the kitchen cleaner as well. It is always hard for me, you know grandma's are suppose to want to feed kids and you can tell none of us have been lacking in the eating department. With the additional space comes new rules that takes the kids and Pat a little getting use to. I know I sound bossy, but Over the years working such long hours and being gone from home so much I found some battles were just not worth the effort, so I picked my battles carefully and put up with many things that I did not want. Also with such limited space there was no way to keep things in there place when they had no place because of the lack of space. I lived with all kinds of things, every summer, in the den area because 75% of the house was den, lol. I am quick to let them know I did not spend all the money on this house to have to deal with bags, mattresses, blankets and pillows, not to mention laptops, phone chargers, ipods and other device kids have for entertainment in the middle of the den where people have to move to sit etc. Of course about the time I got everyone on board here comes Kyle who had to be orientated to the new ways, then here comes Chris and that just blew it all, just kidding. Another big change this summer is soft drinks. We no longer have open bar on soft drinks, lol. The patio storage is working great, I can keep soft drinks and water cold for boat trips and some meals and know we have them. The only real coke drinker we have here is Blake, everyone else prefers tea or water, so this has gone well. We still have a couple soft drinks a day but that is a big improvement. I think I may actually gain control of this house, if I stand strong, Pat has been use to doing things his way and that is ending, lol I have tried to bring on my ways again slowly starting with the new kitchen. It has been a battle, but I am determined this house is going to be run my way. Pat has quit smoking again this week, so this has been touchy, somehow it just don;t seem fair I have to keep dealing with hid quitting attitudes for him to "FALL OFF THE WAGON" over and over. I will say my retirement was based on our quitting for financial reasons and if we can't make it he will have to go back to work, lol. Enough of my fussing and bossy butt, however I truly feel I deserve to have things my way for a change and now I have time and energy to fight the battles.




FAMILY

We had Dustin and Jacy join us for the weekend, and really enjoyed the visit. I hope they come back next weekend when Tracy is here. Brandon and Christy need to come next weekend too or they are gonna miss Tracy and Chris this summer. Of Course we had chocolate and biscuits for breakfast on Saturday and then hit the lake early. We were able to take a long pontoon ride with Dustin and Jacy. We went to Rock creek to feed the fish and were disappointed that the fish were full and not but just a few there. I had never been there to find so few fish. I asked what was wrong with the fish and found out that about 85 kids had just been there to feed them and they were full. I really would like to take Brandon's children there sometime. Saturday evening Mom and Dad and Randy and Glenda joined us, we grilled burgers and hot dogs.

The xbox room has worked out quiet well. The computer in there is working out good too.

HOUSE

We have had progress this week, I am so excited to have my garage doors installed. I have never had garage doors or garage door opener. So this is a treat. More battles to fight here but I think we will come to an understanding that the doors stay closed and you enter /exit thru the normal door unless the vehicle is going in or out or moving large objects in or out. If you run to the store you close the door until you return then open it. If you walk out you walk out thru the normal door because there is no way to close the garage door from the outside without a remote. This keeps bugs and varmints from entering besides keeping down the dust, cob webs etc.

The rock guys have started back on the rock and its looking so good. It would be so great to be complete by my birthday, lol.

The gutter's have not been installed this week as planned, due to various worker problems but hopefully we will get a date on that this coming week. It did rain this week one day and we made use of the fact that we had no gutters and the kids took showers under the valley.

Blake decided to try the patio out as a water slide, this was a short lived adventure, thank goodness. Brooke and Tanner had to try it too, but they all found it to be more pain than fun, lol.

The rest if the pictures are just various ones of the fun this week.

Kyle tanning while we swim at a spot close to the dam.



The easy way to float and play football.

Tanner seems to find a friend where ever he goes.

Today we have all been lazy and hybernating inside. Some need a break from the sun. Some just need a break, lol.