Hours of fun on the lake!!

If you ever wonder why my arms look like a nice leather purse and my face has more wrinkles than most 100 year olds, it's because I'm an outside junky. Teaching PE outside for 20 years didn't help but now I can blame it on living on a lake! It's really fun and I love being out there with the kids and dragging them all over the lake! Jenny and I have taught several how to ski or knee board this summer. When I was 12, my good friend Trevelyn and her dad taught me how to ski on Lake Arlington near Ft. Worth. This past weekend, Trev's daughter, Kristy and her family came out and Jen and I got her daughter up on skis on the very first try. Mary Kathryn, who is 12, now has to teach my great-grandchildren how to ski. We have to keep this legacy going!! We had a great day fishing and skiing and riding the raft!

Mary Kathryn Parrott skiing for the first time with her beautiful teacher, "Mops"!

Mary Kathryn, Kate, Benjamin Parrott, Reid Parrott and Allie loved the raft!

Kristy Parrott, MK, Shannon, Reid and Benjamin fishing for the fun of it...not for food

Keith caught a big bass....but no one wanted to clean it!

Grandkids love to come to the lake!!

Jackson doing a 360 on the kneeboard, Allie skiing and Kate and Allie modeling their matching bathing suits!

Keely Brooke, almost 3 months, and Jaime!! Charlie, aka, "Chuck Nasty" is letting his hair grow out again!! We all like it long!

Allie loves babies - especially Camryn, age almost 8 months!!

Trey and Laurie Mounce and JT and Weston came out on Father's Day. I didn't think I would ever get off of the jet ski!!! "Faster, faster" is all I heard!!!!

John Tyler and Weston kneeboarding!!

Weston, Allie, Charlie, Jackson, Kate and JT ready to jump into the lake!

One day last week, 3 of the 5 boys that live next door came over to play. We call them "the 5-boy-house"! It took me 6 months to learn their names and know one from the other....Drew, Will, Kyle, Ben and Grant. They have quickly become my adopted grandchildren....so polite, fun, cute and they don't live with me!!! When I want them, I call and they come running. When they want to eat, they go home. Best of both worlds.

Grant with our pet dead snake!!
Tonight 2 adults and 2 kids spent the better part of a ball game cleaning up the "crime lab" more commonly referred to in other households as a playroom. It had to be cleaned before the rest of the guests arrived tomorrow and Thursday or we might lose a kid in there....now that might not be a bad idea! The picture below is the before and this really does not do justice to the mess!! You can't see the trash, body parts, little Barbie shoes, feathers from boas, Crayola papers peeled off or jewelry smashed down into the carpet.....but thank heavens we have this room or the whole house would look like this!! Gotta love grandkids!!!

A Busy Sunday

After church today, Bill and I went to the Nord to eat; he had had enough of my good meals and wanted something mundane so we ate at the Bistro. Then we proceeded to get a couple of things for the kids that were coming to stay for 2 weeks. (The girls just left their other grandparents home in Crawford, near George W; they had been to Bible School at Valley Mills Baptist Church. It isn't as big as FBC but I'm sure equally glorious.) The Galleria doesn't have a toy store so we went to Toys R Us in Katy on the way home. We got a few things, but that wasn't enough. "More is always better" is Bill's motto. When he dies, I think I'll put up 2 tombstones! He wants a bench...why? I'm not going to take a picnic lunch out to the graveyard and ponder while eating. But, more IS always better with him, so we proceeded to Michael's craft store. We got a few more things and then I lost him in the store. This is his usual mode of operation! He always leaves me in a store and never says where he's going. For 10 minutes I wandered around the store with all the other craft nerds with my assorted junk and tried to find him. Finally I turned down the aisle with bird houses and there he was, on his knees, looking at 8,000 little bottles of paint. He looked up and said, "do you see Emperor's gold?" what???? what are you doing on the floor and what is Emperor's Gold? I helped him up and we finally headed to the check out counter. We had paint by number, pads of paper, water colors, new crayolas, Pez, a battery-operated fan, bird houses to paint (with emperor's gold!) and to top it off, a rock tumbler!!!! It is running right now and has to for several days. It sounds like an old fashioned ice cream machine. The girls arrived at 6, we were on the lake by 7:30 and they are in bed by 10. They haven't painted anything yet!

After doing my most favorite job in the whole wide world, typing for Bill, Jenny and I went to The Kroger (that's what old people call their grocery store - The Kroger, like it was the only one in the world.) We picked up a few things that could suffice as meals for the week such as popsicles, corn dogs, "watermelon bread" which is what Allie calls lemon cake, milk, fruit, dental floss, shampoo and one roast. I don't know what we'll have with this roast; maybe ding dongs and bean dip! Anyway, we headed to check out and realized they don't have anyone working at the check out counters at that hour. Our only choice was to check it out yourself!! Oh, no! I hate those machines. We tried to act civilized but the lady "inside" the machine was a bit testy and sometimes downright nasty! She kept telling us to "put the items back on the bagging area"!!!! Well, I would if you could say it nicely and IF there was room to put it - but there wasn't anymore room! She got louder and louder and I wanted to punch the machine! We finally found a way to shut her up....there's a button to push to by-pass that command!! We finally left and bought gas at midnight....always a safe thing for 2 girls to do in the dark! She just got a new car and we had to get out the 2" thick manual to find out how to shut the "fuel filler flap" more commonly referred to as a gas cap!! After 5 minutes, I wanted to punch the manual!

We had spent enough money today and it is time to go to bed. I have a few chores to do before retiring - I must set up all the crafts for Mop's and Pop's Bible School. We will not be out done by Valley Mills Baptist. Two Bible schools in 2 weeks might seem like too much but.......remember "more is always better".

Random happenings of late!!

Well, it's been a while since I wrote anything; so I had to call my friend, Nancy, aka "Millie", and ask how to find where I even typed...also what my username and password was...being the good friend she is, she remembered. It's been a busy spring so far with everything from power washing to babysitting my parents. Both are challenging! Today Bill informed me that the "professional" power washers were coming and they are out there right now on tall ladders, buckets of chemicals, big brushes and sprayers that spray so hard that it almost knocked him off of the ladder!! I'm guessing this is my anniversary present....isn't the 40th year - water?!! OK with me. I thought I might continue doing the brick fence but since it is 98 degrees outside, I think I'll let them do that too.
This was my love note to Bill in the drive way one day early on in this conquest when it was fun power washing!! It's not fun anymore!This is Pedro attacking the side of the house. Notice the large spray of water?! Mine puny power washer did not have this much power!!!! It would have taken off more than my toes if I had hit my foot with his sprayer!

I mentioned babysitting my parents......it's got to rank right up there with a root canal! I love them to pieces but somewhere in the Bible it says that you should leave them and cleave to your spouse....such a goofy word...cleave.....reminds me of Beaver Cleaver or a meat cleaver which all of us girls use on a daily basis I'm sure. Dad had a mild heart attack and so I went to help. He asked when I was leaving 5 minutes after I got there, accused me and Bill of gambling and ate a big spoonful of ranch dressing thinking it was soup. We were at Cracker Barrel - such a lovely place to dine. The lobby really sent him spinning as there were 5,000 things to look at and buy. He just wanted to get in the car and leave. That took longer than it takes paint to dry! Took Dad to the doctor and he said he hoped that he didn't find out he was pregnant!! Mom accused me and Bill of taking her box of her grandpa's sermon notes!! Why on God's green earth would we do that? I didn't even know she had a box of notes and can honestly say I didn't know she had anyone in her family that would remotely represent a preacher!! She said she wasn't accusing us but thought Bill would be the only one that would want it since he's such an antique nut! He might want it when you die, but not now!! Besides Sherry finally reminded her that she had given them to Robyn, her oldest granddaughter. Here is the latest picture of 88 year old Mimi and 94 year old PeePaw!!

Aren't they cute!!!

Speaking of antique nut!! Most of you know I live with a man with a rare sickness....He buys every antique he sees. The downstairs of my house smells like an antique store (along with the delightful smell of 3 large labs, Dixie, Dexter and Daisy.) Bill's friend, Tom, told him about an estate sale and he was in hog heaven! He bought all kinds of junk and brought it home....he's now going to rent a booth in an antique store in Katy and try to sell stuff. I had the wonderful privilege today of IRONING.....antique doll clothes. I washed them and then ironed probably 50 worthless pieces of clothing and hankies. It didn't take very long because (1) they are small and (2) no one is going to buy them so I didn't put much effort into it. They still have roach-poop stain on them from pre-WWII!! I bet none of you were doing that today! Living with an antique nut gives me the opportunity to do lots of things none of you have done. About a year ago, at the age of 61, I unloaded 5,000 antique maps out of the bed of a truck. They were 4' x 2' each. It took until the sun disappeared on the horizon. I was hungry, hot, sweaty, mad and contemplating divorce! Not really, it's all worth money so I really don't care what he brings through the door as long as it's not another woman - unless she can iron, cook and unload junk!

I only spotted 5-6 spots where Mr. Armadillo got to my flower bed last night. I was going to sleep outside on the blow-up mattress but opted out for my own bed. Besides my gun and I probably would have slept right through his arrival. Surely he had eaten all the grub worms in the flower bed and can move on to someone else's yard tonight.

Speaking of yard, today I get to spread 14 yards of sand for the beach. It's suppose to be here around 5:00. I'll be spreading that way past dark I'm sure. Jaime and Michael and going to help. Why is it called "yard"? Is it enough sand to fill up 14 people's yards? Strange word. The calendar is filling up with out-of-town friends and family and it's time to play on the lake. Can't wait; this is always my most fun time of the year. Love having all the grandkids here. I'll post pics of those if I can remember how! Time to get to work!