A Goul-ish Kinda Day!!!!

The rain is coming. The winds are starting to blow. It's a shame it has to happen on Halloween Day for we have some lil hooligans around here who are wanting to Trick or Treat.......

Will be fun to see them all dressed up for the big night!!

We didn't have our other 2 munchkins for the annual pumpkin patch shoot this year. We will change that next year!!

Be back tomorrow to add everyone dressed up!!

HAPPY ALL HALLOW'S EVE!!!!!!

All is Right in My World!!!!

We had a very bad scare with my Sophiejane last week and this week.  My best friend. My companion. My BFF. My therapist.  My soul sistah....my poodle, who will be 18 yrs old on Thanksgiving next month!!!  She is deaf and she is blind.  And we've always called her our "special child" because she's never been the most brilliant of the poodle breed ---- but man, oh man, do we love her!!
When I got home one day last week, she was screaming out, it seemed, in pain.  Nothing I did could console her.  She was howling and barking and whining and lets just say....I was losing it too seeing her like that.  Off we go to the Vet where they ran every test and couldn't find anything wrong. We swaddled her tightly and took her home.  She started again during the night so we gave her a lil calming med and she settled down.  3 days later, her ear began draining with a substance that was not very nice to see or smell.  If ya get my drift.  Back to the Vet we go...he took one look at her and admitted her with surgery scheduled for next morning.  He wanted to get her on fluids and IV antibiotics and settled before surgery to clean out the ear.  Seems she had a major middle ear infection that burst her eardrum and it had to be cleaned and scraped out.  She has no ear drum now but she hasn't been able to hear for a while anyway.  Then she had to stay the night after surgery to be monitored and keep the fluids going in...she's also in renal failure and her kidneys aren't doing all they should be doing right now.
Needless to say, I've been a wreck.  Nervous.  Scared.  So what do I do when all those things happen to me????  I COOK!  I've made pork chops/beans&rice, cabbage and tomatoes, chicken n'dumplins,  big pot of mustard greens with ham hock in it and pecan pie bread pudding with a bourbon glaze to drizzle over top.....whew!!
But I got to go get her this morning and we've been cuddling all day long.  She's back where she needs to be........and........ALL IS RIGHT IN MY WORLD AGAIN!!!

back in my lap where she belongs ... I may have held her more today than I ever held one of my newborn sons!!!!

Her dad was glad I was on the nervous cooking spree.....he loves bread pudding!

before it was cooked

after it was cooked!

with bourbon sauce!

~~We never appreciate the things that are closest to our hearts until we almost lose them~~

 I will appreciate her now every dingle dangle day!

Soccer...at 5!!!

Just as the sun begins its descent into the horizon.....

ITS TIME TO KICK IT UP KATIEJANE!!!

the action doesn't begin until 6 pm on this clear night for the 5 yr old soccer team that our granddaughter plays on.....she is a goalie!!

they take it very seriously...UNTIL....

it's time to do a lil flossing!!!!  hahahahahaha

Nothing cuter than seeing these little ones work so hard for their team!!

until the break when they all wanted to hang on the net...

until it started tipping over and coach had to save the day!

They're FIVE....this is what 5 yr olds do!!!!

game over!!!!  whew that was about an hour of running around the field!

Cap'n came to watch her play too!

As we walked off to the car, a full moon was looking right at us!

GOOD GAME KATIEJANE!!

Have I talked about my GRANDKIDS lately??!!!

I try so hard not to bore you with talk and pics of my sweet grands over and over and over......

BUT....it HAS been awhile!!!!  (heeheehee!)

I love it when my kids go do something fun on their own...like without their children!!!  Cuz that means I get to play with the littles while they are gone.  Last week, my oldest boy and his bride traveled out to Californey so I went to their house for a few days and then brought the kids back here for a few.
Austin had a baseball game and somebody came to the game to surprise him!

somebody else was pretty happy too!

a little game talk after their big win!

thanks for driving for 3 hrs just to see the game!

they spent a night with Lilli & Katiejane where they were lucky enough to see a beautiful rainbow!

That's the girl's great grandmother standing with them...so cool.

Pizza with the cousins!

Then it was off to Case & Lane's house where they played ALL day outside....on playground equipment, drawing on the sidewalks and coloring a cardboad house, painting pumpkins....you get the idea.  Just good ol' kid fun!

and ending the day with a community bath!

back to YaYa's house to swim, make cookies and learn to drive the golf cart!!

WHAT a fun week for these cutie pie cousins!!!

And now what's right around the corner????

The Hunt in Canada!

I have to first comment on the horrible hurricane tragedy....the very town, the very small town of Cape San Blas and Port St. Joe, that my friends and I JUST visited is where landfall occurred this afternoon.  I cannot imagine the damage that has been done and I fear that the beaches and the towns have been washed away.  My prayer is that this little piece of heaven will still be there when the sun comes up tomorrow and that the people there will find help and comfort and one day....peace.


On a happier note......while I was lazing the days away at the beach, my boyfriend and two of my sons were working hard.......that is, working hard doing what they love the most!!! 
HUNTING IN CANADA on a planned goose hunt ~~~~~~~~~and as the pics started coming in, one of my boys told me that he could now cross this off of his bucket list...that this hunt was the pinnacle of his waterfowl hunting career!!!!!   Best pics EVER!!

(they are so cute....look like my little boys hunting ever so long ago!!!)

and my VERY FAVORITE....my boys and their dad!!!

Week 2 of the Gaggle of Girlfriends trip!

As I put my WA friend on her plane home, over at the next gate I picked up 2 more wild and crazy friends who flew in the same time that Lisa flew out!!!  Every year for the past 5 yrs, we've gone to Navarre Beach at the end of September and we stay in the same penthouse that we've come to call "our paradise"!!

Sunrise from both ends of our balcony!

Our coffee mornings were bathed in the softest light on this balcony....sigh...*

These are the hilarious girls that shared this annual trip with me...pretty much all we did all week long was this....

and a whole lotta this....

enjoyed seafood almost every day of this trip....and loved every morsel!

SCORE!...on the best shell collecting day in all my life!!

So, this trip was a little bittersweet.....one of these gals went and bought a beach house right down the road, so we won't be staying in our Paradise anymore.....yet, on the jelly side.....we'll be staying in her beautiful new home for FREE!!!!!!!

I feel so blessed.  My husband sent me off with a kiss and wishes for a fun trip with my girlfriends (while padding my pocketbook a little too!!) ...he just GETS IT and that makes my heart so warm.

My soul feels lighter and more understood, after time alone to reflect.

My girlfriend tank is full.

My prayer book has been visited and re-visited.

I feel good!

Beauty surrounds us....

Next up on the agenda??  Keeping my Dallas grands for 5 days while their mom and dad travel to CA for a friends wedding.  

And just wait till I show you the pics from my boyfriend and son's trip to Canada for a goose hunt!

***back to add:  I'm chuckling every time I look at my fall banner above.....that pic was from last yr because since it has continually been about 90 degrees or above here since oh I don't know...May??? we have not had any fall yet.  Our trees may just turn from green to winter brown!!!