Author: apronsandappetites.com

Sunflower House 2011

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Our first sunflower blooming

Kate wanted to take pictures of the sunflower house yesterday when she was here.  She is a novice photographer that can get some pretty good shots sometimes.  She will aim and look in the viewfinder.  If it doesn’t look good to her, she moves her position or moves her subject.  I’m actually amazed at her.  Here is her shot of our first sunflower bloom:

Kate's view of our first bloom

She took several pictures of the sunflower house.  Some of them are excellent, especially for a five-year-old.  Actually, they are excellent for an any-year-old!

I made her a front door and a back door this year.  We had to get all the bird houses out and hang them around.  Then the door bell was next.  Add a chair and a little table to the mix, and the little house is starting to look like home.

still has some growing to do

view from the front: front door is by the blue birdhouse and path goes around to come out by the gate

Here is a look at some of Kate’s photographs.  I love them!  And she took all of the following pictures:

She really worked on this one to get it just right and close.

finally got just the shot she wanted

She tried to get a shot of this flower outside the “house,” but couldn’t get her angle right, so she said, “I think I can get this better on the inside.”  So in she goes and then tells me to hold the sunflowers away from it so she can get a good shot.  After she took the picture, she looked at the view and said, “That’s a good one.”  I love when she does that!

Some of the flowers inside the house

One of the many birdhouses

The sunflowers still have a little bit of growing to do.  Some will get taller than others giving the house a full look as well as a tall look.  There are plenty of sunflowers left if anybody would like to bring a bucket of water and gather some for your own sunflower house.  It doesn’t take a lot of room for one.  Of course, there’s not a lot of room in them either.

The Alter Ego Strikes Again!

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Alter Ego Worthless Son

That stinking alter ego worthless son kidnapped my hard-working son!

hard-working son

I cannot believe it!  He, the hard-working son, left with my car bright and early Saturday morning to get the pool paint because he was going to paint that afternoon, and I didn’t see him again until 4:30 that afternoon.  No paint.  What the heck?  He tried to explain how and why it was that he had been gone all day long without getting the paint for the pool, but, of course, he could not because that stinking alter ego worthless son kidnapped him.  Alas.  I shall catch that no goodnik one of these days, and get rid of him forever!

On the bright side, my little grandgirls were in the Kiddie Parade Saturday evening since it was rained out Saturday morning.  It was a rather small parade:  Kate and Ava and a little girl in the crowd we begged to get in it.  They made a circle in the road and that was it.  Rain has a way of changing plans and keeping them from getting back on course.  That is why I am still working on getting the pool painted:  the rain that caused the flooding.  But the girls had a great time even if the parade lasted all of three seconds.

The first place winners

Ariel

Little Ava went to sleep at 4:30, and the parade was supposed to be at 5:30, so right at the stroke of midnight, so to speak, she woke up and got to ride in the parade after all.  That three seconds was awesome for my sweetie pies.  There were some people gathered for the real parade that clapped, making Kate a star.

Ah, life in a little town.

Oh Yes! Oh Yes! Let the Good Times Roll!

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hard working son

Do you know what this picture means?  This picture of my son doing the etching of the pool?  Oh Yes!  The good times, er, paint will roll!  I found somebody who actually carries rubber-based pool paint in the big city and will be sending the hard-working son over in the morning to get it since the paint I ordered over a week ago still has not come in.  I hope he comes back with my vehicle before the sun goes down.  The painting party is scheduled at 1:00 p.m. for all those invited (which means any willing worker)(unless, of course, the alter ego worthless son gets control of the vehicle and I don’t see him until the sun goes down).  Actually, the painting, I and the hard-working son can handle, but I’m quite sure there is something I can find for the other party participants.

Kate is going to be disappointed that she cannot practice for her future in the circus.  She has been honing her acrobatic skills the last couple of days.  And loving it.

sliding down

The child never wears anything but panties, so it’s hard to get clothed photos of her.  I always try to take pictures in as discreet a pose as I can possibly get while still actually getting her in the picture as well.  The pics are so cute, but the perverts are all over the internet, and since I’m not sure where these photos will end up, I selected to only use this one.  She holds the rope and climbs up out of the pool just like the high wire circus acrobats!

Tomorrow morning is the Kiddie Parade for our little town festival.  The theme is Once Upon A Time, so Kate and Ava are going as mermaids; Kate, of course, being Ariel; Ava will just be happy to get to ride in the pink Barbie car aka Ariel Mobile Sea Reef.  It was rather dirty, so for the big event Kate and I gave it a good cleaning

hard-working grandgirl

She started out wanting to be Sleeping Beauty with a pumpkin-shaped carriage.  Being the dedicated Momma and Gigi, my daughter and I got together, looked at her two sheets of poster board and bag of gold foil wrapping paper, and promptly convinced our little darling she would be just waaaay too hot in that long-sleeved Sleeping Beauty dress and that Ariel would be awesome.  Thank goodness she bought it.

today an ordinary Barbie car; tomorrow a stupendous sea reef

So… after the big (I jest) Kiddie Parade, I will come back here for the big (I really jest this time) pool painting party.  Please have my beverage ice, ice cold.

 

Did I Say I Would Be Done When?

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So tomorrow night (to post pics and get ‘er done) has come and gone.  But… I have found a brand new blog!!  Well, new to me.  At least I don’t remember going there before.  Oh, dear.  Now I’m wondering if I had already subscribed and then subscribed again.

Anyway, it’s note*to*self.  Isn’t that the neatest name?  And I know the author of it.  If and when n*t*s really begins writing, I will put it on my blog roll so you all can check it out.  n*t*s has a great writer!

My grandgirls went to the carnival without me tonight.  boohoohoo  I am taking them tomorrow night.  Unless the pool paint comes in.  In the case of the finally-arrived-pool-paint, I shall have an evening BYOB-and-tell-me-where-I-missed-a-spot party.  Bring your own chair.  I will be the one in the boots in the bottom of the pool with Bikini Blue all over me.

Gettin’ ‘Er done

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This weekend has been the clean the pool house and get the pool repaired and opened weekend.  My good friend, Cheryl, came by Saturday in the midst of her very, very busy day to give me a boost by helping with the pool house.  Okay.  So she practically cleaned it all herself.  Emily, her daughter, and I just sort of looked busy.

I was supposed to have it finished Saturday night, but a good friend’s anniversary/retirement celebration took precedence.  Today I didn’t get it completed either.

So… tomorrow you get the pics of the completed job.

♪♪♪ It’s My Party And I’ll Give Away Something ♪♪♪

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okay. so it's Kate's party in this picture. my party pictures were too risque!

Lesley Gore has nothing on me in the party area.  There are some mighty fine party pictures of me floating around out there somewhere.  Lots of fun at those parties.  Some pretty cool party guns (closely resembled a particular body part) and some great party get-ups.

One party in particular, and unbeknownst to me, I was graced with a big sign plastered on my back by the ever fun-loving nephews

now, you're how old?

the train engineer

that said “Old Saggy Tits.”  My poor mother finally just couldn’t take it any more and she said, “I think the baby got something on you.”   I was holding little Jack at the time, so I put my hand up on my shoulder to check it out.  And she instructed me it was down farther on my back.  Lo and behold there was a piece of paper taped to my back… which explained the big hug and back slapping I had gotten from the men-boys.

So what’s the point of all this party talk?  My birthday is coming up this  month, and I am having a big Getting Older Give-Away!  Yippee!  Let the fun begin.

All you have to do to get your name in the pot is comment on here that you follow my blog.  That’s one.  Another way is to let me know that you have subscribed to my blog, and if you haven’t already, then check the sign-me-up box to subscribe.  That’s two.  And the third way to get your name in is to put a memory or some story or some comment about me.  I’m so excited!  I can’t wait!

The contest will end June 17, my birth date.  That evening I will post who won and will mail or bring your prize to you that day since I will be leaving to go to Hilton Head on the 18th.

Get to thinking everybody.  It doesn’t have to be any big comment; just something about me.  After all,  it is my birthday!

birthday balloons

My Exciting Upcoming Weekend

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getting ready to repair and paint

My life revolves around work.  Get up and go to work.  Come home and work.  Go to bed and work to go to sleep.  If I were more focused, it wouldn’t take me twice as long as it does anybody else to get something finished.  I need Cousin Sandy to come up here and sit on my deck pointing with her cigarette in hand everything that needs to be done.  I got soooo much accomplished that day.  Or Sis Dar to come down and tear into everything telling me put this here and put that there.

utter chaos

This is just the beginning.  By Sunday (if I get the pool paint I ordered) it will be my backyard paradise.  I will need it because I will be practically dead from exhaustion.  But next weekend will be Sangria Saturday!  And I am going to cook some of my voluminous recipes.

As a matter of fact, I will give you all a great dessert recipe we had at book club the other night, via Bridgette.  Layer ice cream sandwiches, Cool Whip, and drizzle caramel and chocolate over the top.  She used two boxes of ice cream sandwiches for a rectangle pan and about one and a half tubs of Cool Whip.  Place a layer of the sandwiches on bottom, cover with layer of Cool Whip, drizzle the chocolate and caramel; repeat.  Freeze overnight.  It was fantastic and so easy.  She has used raspberry sauce with raspberries for garnish.  Topped it with crushed Heath bars or Butterfinger.  It’s a versatile dessert that you can make to your liking.

Let me know if you try it and what you think.  I think I will make it this weekend for the big Paradise Party I’m having.  You are all invited.  Please bring your own work gloves and rubber boots or old tennies for climbing in and out of the pool.  If you don’t want to paint, you can clean the pool house.  It only has two years worth of crud in there since I didn’t even go in it last year… I don’t think.

How exciting!!  Something different for the weekend.  Paradise Party!!  It may look like a dump heap right now, but Paradise coming up!  Can’t wait to see you (and your work clothes).

Back when I was young…

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Tonight at book club the old farts, well, older farts, got to recollecting about way back when.  Our book for the month was “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett (although a member of the club did call her Kathryn Stunkett).  And that member should take note that I did not burst out laughing even though I wanted to really badly.  Just smiled great big.  Everybody probably thought I was immensely enjoying the discussion… which I was.  Ms. Stunkett wrote about the plight of the black maids in Mississippi during the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Actually, it was more about the interactions between the women, black and white, during that time as well as the fight for and against segregation.

But, as in all books, there are a lot of other little tidbits that one can glean knowledge about or that brings back a memory.  In our case tonight, we were remembering when the zip codes first began to be used on letters, how we could just write the name and the town and the addressee would receive the mail, and the fact that people didn’t want to have to use the zip codes.  Now, of course, it’s second nature to slap it on there.

Then there were the telephone party lines.  That brought back some memories and stories!  Here’s a link to walk you down that memory road as well:  telephone party line

Some of us remembered when Medgar Evers was shot and killed for trying to make things better for African Americans in Mississippi, and we remembered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he did the same, and was killed for it as well.  And today we have a President, whether you  agree with his politics or not, that brings justice to those senseless deaths.

How the world changes!!!  I’m just trying to hang on by a string!

Blog Baby

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One of my favorite blogs (which is now defunct due to some apparent nasty comments or emails to the blog author that upset her to the point of forfeiting her blog writing) (such a shame because she was really good, too) had a blog one day that put her on the Freshly Pressed page.  I will never make that page.  Not just because I don’t write well enough or am not quite interesting enough but because when they sent me the little popup question “Would you recommend Word Press?” I inadvertently put never instead of yes, of course.  Which I would by the way.  It’s very easy to maneuver around on; they give great tutorials, and have a great help page.  But in my haste, only reading a smidgeon of the question, which I am want to do quite frequently, I checked the wrong box.

So I know that is why I will never be Freshly Pressed.  It has absolutely nothing to do with my boring blog or my lack of good taste or my rambling, unfocused content.

Back to my original thought before that stinking rabbit came along that I had to chase.  Another thing I do quite often:  chase stinking rabbits.  That is why I can’t get anything accomplished in a timely manner, finished completely.  I go to another room… and there is a stinking rabbit!!  My life is exhausting.  Those stinking rabbits run in circles, you know, so I must run in circles as well.

On to the blog of one of my favorite bloggers:  she wrote about the fact that her blog is her baby.  I could so relate!  Although I am better now, I still come in and check to see if there are any comments, how many hits I’ve had that day, if I can change my blog’s little clothes (heading photo), or just talk to the little darling via a post.  It’s kind of neat having a blog baby (her title).

Mine will probably never grow up because I try to keep it short and sweet, although occasionally it throws a tantrum by way of Brenda the Blogger.   It’s just a little dose of a little something to give you a break in the day.  No big thinking here; just interacting… that is, if you comment.

So enjoy your evening or your day and give my little baby blog a bottle (comment).  Or not.

Gypsy Parade

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three budding gypsies

This past winter the girls and I were gypsies.  Kate loves pretending to be, well, just about anything.  And, of course, do I.  Ava will follow suit even though sometimes she refuses to wear our “designs” for play.  She’s usually rather stoic, looking at us like we are fools, with her solemn little eyes.  I can just hear those thoughts now. “Please don’t tell me you expect me to put that thing on my head!”  Although recently she has begun to enjoy pretending with us.

We traipse around town, the three of us; me pushing Ava in the stroller; Kate driving her pink Barbie car… her decorated pink Barbie car.  She usually has riders along for the ride as well.

passengers ready for a ride

I have on the worst clothes in my closet (usually short shorts that highlight my nasty thighs and a cami with stains) because we never decide to go for the ride/walk until we are outside in the middle of it, a block away from appropriate clothes before I realize I wouldn’t be caught dead in the clothes I am traipsing all over town in!  The gypsy parade:  Me in the what-kind-of-get-up-is-that, Kate in God-alone-only-knows-what-she’s-come-up-with, and Ava stained from lunch and dirty from playing; me pushing the stroller that Ava sits in with a drink in hand, doll or stuffed animal squeezed beside her with periodic yielding as I take my foot and push the back of the car that Kate has run off the sidewalk road because she is gawking at something along the route; me in flipflops with the other two gypsies barefoot.

Maybe we should call this the Redneck Gypsy Parade.