Memories

I really hate living in town...but, I know it's only temporary and there are certain conveniences...one being that my kid can be safe enough to go down to the park by himself and catch crawfish. These are the memories he'll keep forever.

Smallest one

Monster!

Hey Dude, how's it going?

Negotiator

My little negotiator was hard at work this week. "If you take me to the creek mama, I'll "let" you take pictures." Hmmm, imagine that. Unfortunately for him, #1, I will only take pictures toward sunset and #2, this has been a really busy week for me. So he's been pretty bummed that I wouldn't go in the middle of the day...you know, when it's 95 freakin degrees outside WITHOUT the humidity...in the shade! It was still quite warm last night at sundown. But I was able to get him to hold still for a few minutes!

The light when we arrived. (Still about 10 minutes too bright, or if he wasn't so anxious to start fishing, I would have moved him a hair back into the open shade.)

The light when we left. A touch too dark without a reflector. Guess I can't have everything. ;)

Summer ends

Not really, but it's getting close. But with less than 2 weeks to go, band camp has started. Boy does that bring back memories! Although I KNOW we didn't have camp from 8am-9pm, which is what they had yesterday and again Thursday and Friday. I am thankful I only have to be up there from 6-9pm, but it's still warm. And to "help" punk #1, I bought him a camelpack to wear, so he wasn't so cranky. Oh who am I kidding, it didn't keep him from being cranky! ;)

2nd row from the right, 4th person in...wearing black...in 95+ heat...and you wonder why I just shake my head!

Almost directly center (remember all black), right in front of the big tuba.

Yesterday was their first "full/late" practice and I have to say I was rather impressed with all of them. There are 8 8th graders plus all the new freshmen and between 6-9pm, they learned a good portion of their program. I'm excited to see it continue to develop over the week with the finale performance Saturday night for family & friends.

Reruns

I think I've posted these before...many years ago! (And before I knew much about editing!) I'm (finally) getting around to creating a website and I wanted to put some of my waterfall pictures on it, but realized I had never really "fixed" them up (adjusted colors, brighten, sharpened them, etc...), so I went back and pulled out a few of my favorites to put on it and thought I'd post them here too.

Pond Falls

Machine Falls

Rutledge Falls

Savage Falls

Stillhouse Hollow Falls

Haynes Hole Falls

Blue Hole Falls

Upper Greeter Falls

Now that we've had some rain, it would be nice to get back up into the mountains...unfortunately I don't see us having enough time to squeeze any in for the next few months. :( We'll have to make time come fall!

Stormy days

It's been raining a little bit (in our area)...and sometimes a lot, for the past 20 days. Some days a good storm and some days just a sprinkle. But something is better than nothing...and we went way too long without nothing...so I will not complain. But I have to say, we had one monster of a storm 2 nights ago. There was enough lightening to keep the sky lit up most of the night...along with all of us.

The next morning we went out to play! It's been a long while since we had a big puddle to play in...how can you tell them to "stay out"...when the dog's the worst of the bunch! :)

Who didn't see this coming?!

Another sunset

We've been blessed with some AMAZING sunsets lately...and the other night at the fair was no exception. I wish I had had time to grab my big camera, but since we were parking car, I had to settle for my phone. It still makes you realize you're just a little peon in the grand scheme of things! I guess this was my "gift" for working 7 hours! :)

27/52 Handmade (Bacon Jam!)

Oh me oh my did this turn out to be love at first taste! Well, tasting/testing as it cooked...because what if it wasn't good?! Better to know that ahead of time than after wasting 2+ hours making it. I have more pictures to post, documenting the process, but I doubt I'm going to forget this recipe! I'll definitely be making it again...soon...as SOMEONE'S been sneaking a spoon into the last jar and it'll soon be all gone...and then I'll have to cry...and make more! ;)

26/52 Play

Had fun playing with the neighbor girls at the lake a few weeks ago...even though it was still 100 degrees when we got out there!

Another sunset

Another sunset from the other night. We've had a lot of rain since I took this picture...what a blessing.

Noodles

The "boys" have put out noodles on the river in the "hopes" of catching fish. This is NOT noodling where you put your hand in a hole, fishing with your hand. (I don't see THAT ever happening!) But they cut up swimming noodles into 1 ft sections, attach some wire, thin rope and a hook and float them in the river. (They tried doing them on the lake, but apparently there's no "honor" on the lake, as they were vandalized and one had something "left" on the hook...nice lesson for a child to learn.) :( But so far so good on the river. Not much luck so far, but this was their first/only catch from the other day!

When I asked "who" caught it, punk #2 said he did...imagine that! But I did hear that he had quite a fight on his hands pulling that line up, so I guess he did earn it. :)

Rain

Our temps have broken (for now) and we've been getting more rain...not enough to affect the drought...but enough to start helping.

Happy Dance

Running into the store quickly the other day, I stumbled upon this glorious sight! (Well, unless you're a teacher, and I've gotten several "not funny" comments from them! :) But along with school starting, comes BUYING school stuff. I've already had one punk tell me his tennis shoes are too small (big surprise) and another starting middle school, so he'll have to now be in dress code too. Oh the joys. I'll have to deal with kid #1 first, since he will need shoes for band camp in 2 weeks vs school starting in 3. One day at a time. But until then, I will do the happy dance! :)

Heat wave

With temperatures above 100 for the last 10+ days, we've only been going to the lake late in the day. When we left at 5:30pm, it was STILL 103 degrees. But shortly after we got down there, it started cooling. As we pulled on the lake shore, I snapped this with my phone...fishing tournament about to start, so they were all lined up. (By the way...all the land you see...is supposed to be underwater! That's why we are in a severe drought...and why we can drive right out onto the lake bed.) :(

Ready, set...

GO!

Heading out to "ride" the waves.

Giving the girls a ride.

Beautiful sunset to end the (hot) day!

Summer pt 2

Finishing up our weekend in Kentucky from a few weeks ago. Hopefully we can get back up there in the next few weeks again before school starts. But July is setting up to be a incredibly busy month. VBS starts tomorrow, next week we'll be working at the fair (and hoping for a temp break) and then starts band camp to round out the month! Crazy! And school starts that next week! I just got the fall schedule for marching band and my head's already spinning! We need to enjoy what's left of our summer!

This one has us all wrapped up!

See!

I don't know what I'm going to do with this one! He's got $100's of dollars in fishing gear and he's hand fishing with a hook and line!

"Noodling"...checking the boxes.

Empty...I'm sorry, but I am NOT putting my hand in a box under water to see if there's a catfish in there! I don't care if you have the hole upside down and snakes/turtles "can't" get in there! There's ALWAYS a first for everything!

Hanging out before a evening boat ride. My big kid camped out in the tent he got last Christmas. Set it up and took it down all himself! They'll be getting more supplies this Christmas too!

Summer pt 1

Summer is (sorta) flying by! Hard to believe school starts in 1 month! These hot temps are making it hard to be outside, but we're trying to make some fun memories with the punks. :)

The 3 of us drove up to the lake a few weeks ago, before the temps took off and it was just beautiful. I'm glad they can enjoy the carefree summer days and have plenty of memories as they grow (too fast) up!

Stick bass! ...thanks for snagging that Hunter!

He's got great style!

Toes?

Say wha??

Oh, smile? Ok!

He cracks me up too!

His snarky, "I don't want my picture taken" look...I didn't listen and did it anyway! :) The picture looks so funny because he's so "not tan" in it...he's so dark now from swimming, it's funny!

Foggy Sunrise

I might not have caught a sunset at the lake, but I had forgotten I had captured this sunrise back in May, when I had to drive the youngest to his uncles at o-dark freakin early one morning, so that he could be in a fishing tournament with him. This picture made the 40 minute round trip drive worth it.