Countdown To Hubby's Arrival

Yippie Skippie!!! Mike will be home for a visit!! I can
hardly wait!!!! I'm soooo excited!! By the time he
gets home he will have been gone for 10 weeks... that's
a long time to go without seeing your Man!
In my opinion Thursday can't come soon enough!
And Monday afternoon when he has to leave will
come too soon!

I've been pretty busy in anticipation of Mike's
homecoming. I wanted to get as much done as
possible so I can spend as much time as I can
with him when he gets here. I have banana bread,
mushroom meatballs, meatloaf, homemade rolls,
and pancakes all made up and tucked away in
the freezer. Now all I'll have to do is nuke them
and cook our veggies or make a salad. Should
be pretty time efficient for us. Of course, some
things I can't prepare in advance, but this will
help some.

Friday, July 4th, the kids should be here to spend
the day with us. We've planned a BBQ and
Jaylan has decided fishing at the pond should
be an event included in our day. That child
loves to fish with her Papaw! I bought a new
BBQ grill a few days ago, it's still in the box in
the front yard at the moment, but I think
tomorrow I'll get out there and try to figure
out the instructions so I can get it put together
and Mike won't have to bother with it. We have
a nice size round smoker, but I was afraid it
wouldn't be enough room to grill everything
at once... besides, you can never have enough
BBQ grills sitting around. LOL

My house is shiny clean, the laundry is all done
up, and the yard is next. It usually takes me a
day and a half to do the whole thing because I
normally try to mow down the sides of the
driveway also. And the weed eating... it seems
to take forever!

My new puppy looks and acts completely
different than he did when I got him. The little
guy was one of 11 pups and he wasn't very
chubby, his little hip bones were protruding
and you could count his ribs. He didn't have
much energy, he just laid around most of
the time and shook constantly. Well he's
not shaking now!! He has turned into a very
animated little guy, he is soooo sweet. He
follows me everywhere. I've been feeding
him a mixture of pouch dog food, the kind with
the chunks and lots of gravy. Plus mixing it
with soft dog food and raw eggs. He LOVES
it! He just grunts and snorts the whole time
he's chowing down. His coat is even looking
differently. When I got him it was kinda
rough looking, now it's starting to lay down
and looks more shiny. Plus, he got wormed
and oh my goodness! The little guy had a
horrible case of worms! He still has no
name. I just can't decide on one for him,
none that I've come up with seem to fit
the little guy... who won't be little for much
longer. He's a Great Pyrenees, so he'll be
a big guy when he's full grown. I've been
calling him Baby since I got him and I'm
afraid that name might stick.... Big Baby,
huh?

Barkley isn't impressed with his new
counterpart at all! He sniffs him and walks
away. He also tries to stay between me and
the puppy when ever possible. And the
craziest thing Barkley's done in a while was
marking ME! Yeup, the crazy thing came up
to me, hiked his leg, and went potty on my
leg and foot. Then just walked away with
this majestic canter. I guess he was telling
Baby that I was HIS momma!

Cassie and I went to a few yard sales on
Friday. I LOVE to go to yard sales! I'm
always amazed at what people have for sale.
We found some pretty good stuff for the
Grandmonsters too. I got Jaylan a pair of
Roper boots for $5. The bottoms of them
weren't even dirty! The lady said that she
bought them for her daughter and she
outgrew them very quickly and only wore
them a time or two. I believe it too from the
condition of the boots. They're a little big
right now, but by fall they should be the
perfect size. I also found Honey Wayne
the cutest little 3 piece suit. It's a size
bigger than he wears right now, but by
Easter I think it will fit perfectly. The man
where we got it said that his son only wore it
once for a wedding. I got this for $5 also.
And we found a Jumparoo for Cookie for
$20, very cheap compared to a new one.
It too looked brand new. Sooo... it was a
good day! lol Cassie also bought several
items for the kids and her home.

I went to Current River for the first time
this summer. I had a great day down there
visiting with friends and some people I
haven't seen since last year at the river.
There are people that we've met over the years
and we only see them on the river in the
summer. But our little camping area seems to
draw people back year after year. It is
beautiful there and if you want, you can
camp directly on the gravel bar or you can
camp in the wooded area. Yes, it's primitive
camping, but it's just too much fun to
worry about that. LOL

I just have to tell this little Jaylan story,
it's too funny not to share. Jaylan is the
source of so many of my stories because
she's just hilarious without trying to be
funny. She's so nosey it's not funny, is
bad to eavesdrop on conversations, and
only gets part of the facts. Then she adds
her own "facts" and repeats the story...
too funny. Ok... so we're at the restaurant
a couple evenings ago. Jaylan is sitting
between me and my friend Cindy. The
TV is on and Jaylan looks up and sees a
commercial with Larry the Cable Guy on
it. She then says, "There's Peter Dumb."
Cindy says, "Who??" Jaylan says, "Peter
Dumb." Cindy: "That's Larry the Cable
Guy." Then Jaylan says, "Well on my TV
he says, Peter Dumb... Peter Dumb.".
Cindy gets this funny look on her face and
starts to snicker then says, "I wonder if
that's anything like Git 'Er Done?" Then
we both busted out laughing. Everyone in
the free world knows Larry the Cable Guy's
name is NOT Peter Dumb, and his famous
saying is, "Git 'Er Done"!! That child is
absolutely NUTS!! But I sure do love her!

Hope you have a good week and try to
stay cool!!

One Word

I read an article the other day about the way our minds
retain certain things about our loved ones. And I started
the dangerous process of thinking. lol I decided to try
and associate just one word with each family member.
After I finished I looked at the list and it was a bit
interesting, thought you might like to see my list. If
you know my family, you'll understand most of this. If
you don't know us, you'll just think I'm stark
raving nuts! :)

Mike - Mate (My Hubby)

Momma - Love (She was the Love that bound our
family together)

Daddy - Work (The Workaholic of the family)

LaDonna - Goobies (Daddy's nickname for her)

Teri - Food (He enjoys eating soooo much)

Cassie - Rat (Daddy's nickname for her because
he couldn't remember her name when she
was born)

Cody - Underoos (I can still see Cody running
around in his Ninja Turtle Underoos as a kid)

Brandon - Goofy (He's always acting Goofy)

Jaylan - Chatter (It never shuts up!)

Honey Wayne - Thumb (The resident thumb
sucker)

Cookie - Baby (My last Grandmonster)

Grandma M. - Seamstress (Could sew anything!)

Grandpa M. - Whistle (Whistled under
his breath all the time)

Grandma S.- Hat (When she wanted to dress up
she always wore a hat)

Grandpa S. - Tobacco (He always had a bump
in his cheek, a chew of Beach Nut tobacco)

You ought to try this with your family and people
you're close to. Some of the people you have to
think about before you can come up with just
ONE word.

Our Newest Family Member

The newest member of our family has arrived. I got an
email from Aunt Ronda that she's a Grammie again.
The precious bundle's name is Liberty Marie... isn't
that the cutest name? Hmmmm.... I'm wondering if
she's named after her Grammie... Ronda Marie?!

LaDonna and I went to Rolla today, she had an
appointment she had to keep, but after that it
was Katie bar the door!! We went shopping in our
normal crazed haze! lol At one point in time I
had her laughing so hard in the Wal-Mart parking
lot that she couldn't drive the car to park it. We
were just hee-hawing like a pack of donkeys!
Needless to say it was a good day.

Then the bad part of the day hit... I had to bring
all those groceries and wonderful treasures into
the house and put them all away.... Yuck!! Oh
well, that's the price I pay for finding things I
just don't think I can survive without. :)

I have this strange shaped lump laying in my
bed, on my side no less. Hmmm.... could it
possibly be a stray Grandmonster?? OMG I
think it is a Jaylan!! Bless her heart, she's had
a good evening. She tried on her new clothes I
found today, played with her new Webkinz,
chased poor ole Barkley all over the house and
tried out her new sippie cup. We even watched
SpongeBob while we ate our Pringles and cottage
cheese. Such a nutritious dinner! :)

She later decided I am cooking breakfast for
us in the morning instead of going to the
restaurant. What I'm cooking she hasn't
decided, but she's definately decided I'm cooking.

Earlier this evening Honey Wayne was in the
truck with Jaylan and I and he'd pooed his
diaper. I said, "Man oh man, something
stinks!" He grinned real big and volunteered,
"ME!". I get so tickled at him sometimes!

Have a Great Weekend!!!

Hubby's Coming Home!!

Darn! I didn't realize it'd been so long since I posted on
my blog! I should be beat thoroughly! :)

Hubby's phone call last night was fantastic!! If nothing
goes wrong or changes on his end, he'll be coming home on
July 3rd and get to stay until the 7th. I can hardly wait!
Our Jaylan was very excited when I gave her the news
also. She immediately wanted to know if she could
talk to him, the little thing thought he was home now.

My yard is absolutely beautiful! My flowers are
flourishing, the lawn is nicely groomed, no undesirable
items laying about, it doesn't look like the same place.
But I've worked my hiney off getting it all spruced
up too. I'm just thankful it's finally done.

I'm getting an addition to my little family in the next
couple days. I'm getting a Great Pyrenees puppy. I've
been wanting an outside dog for some time now, to help
deter the critters carousing around at night and
hopefully this new pup will do the trick. It's been a long
time since I've had a puppy so I'm a little excited
about his arrival. Hubby wasn't too thrilled when I
told him what I was getting, but I guess he'll learn to
live with it.

I've been sewing this evening, making some more of
the burp cloths from cloth diapers. I had a few diapers
left and decided to get them all made up and just get it
over with. I got a bunch of new ribbon when I went to
St. Louis, so these look completely different than the
last bunch I made.

After almost four months, I've finally made my first
sale on Etsy! Yippee!! I was really starting to wonder
if I'd ever sell anything. I sold 2 bingo bags last week
and low and behold I sold another one today. Maybe
things will start looking up now that I'll start getting
some feedback for people to look at. I really think that
was my main problem, people didn't have any clue as
to what kind of a seller I was. Now they'll know.
These sales have kinda given me an incentive to start
sewing more and post some more items. That'll be
my project for tomorrow, I have lots of stuff in boxes
hidden in the closet I can sell.

Two weeks ago my sister and brother-in-law took us
all to Branson. It was a lot of fun, but by the time we
got home I was completely pooped! Silver Dollar City
was absolutely nothing like I expected it to be. I
thought I'd get to see people doing their crafts, NOT!
The only thing I really got to see was a man working
with glass. I enjoyed shopping though! We went to
a Ben Franklin store that was exactly like they used
to be when I was a child. It was a fantastic walk down
memory lane. And of course my Sister took me to a
wonderful fabric store, I found some fabric I'd been
looking for and got some new ideas for projects. And
we went and saw the newest show in Branson, "Noah".
It was awesome! I enjoyed it soooo much. At first it
was a little slow, but about half way through it picked
up and I was mesmerized.

I'll try to be a better blogger, but I'm not gonna
promise anything! LOL