Cousins

These are my two sweet cousins who stayed a night, along with their mom, dad, granny, grandpa, aunt, and another cousin with my mom in May. The next day hubby and I came over to visit with everyone, and had a wonderful day. The menfolk also got out and put a belt on mom's mower and replaced the mower deck.

The reason why we had such a crowd was a very special one. The sister of the two cuties pictured above, Stephanie, graduated from college in a nearby city. We are all so proud of her, and were honored to attend her graduation ceremony. She is going to be a wonderful teacher!

They know more than they let on

I think they're on to us. We were going to be gone a few hours to my mom's house. Hubby packed up his backpack to go play tennis with his brother, and I packed up some things I needed to give to my mom.

And then one of the dogs came along and dropped a toy next to our bags. Pretty sure they were packing up to go too.

A birthday

Somebody had a birthday in May! We marked the occasion by traveling to her town, then Mom, S, K, J, and myself went out for Chinese food. We made a stop at a K-Mart, which doesn't sound like much, but actually had a couple of interesting things happen there. First of all J somehow got away from my mom and S, ran into the pharmacy, and wound up running into the pharmacists' legs while he was talking on the phone. He didn't seem too upset. And the point is, he was supposed to have that door shut and locked!

Most memorable from that day was the simian that was wearing a diaper and hanging onto a man at the customer service desk. Naturally we had to point him out to J! I don't know the situation, and don't believe in people owning wild animals, but the point is, he was there...in Kmart!

You know as we get old (27 in this case-ha!) we need help blowing out those candles.

Happy birthday to my loving, caring, witty, talented little sister S!

An ode to my husband

So my husband has recently started reading my blog. It only took a couple years or so. lol At any rate, he brought to my attention the lack of pictures including him. So I am here to right that wrong. And now I give you: Mr. Green Veggie!

Mr. GV is always willing to give a hand up to those in need.

Mr. GV is always willing to pose for a picture--even if it means standing out in the rain!

Mr. GV is always willing to do his part, including keeping the truck in place.

Mr. GV looovveesss manual labor.

Mr. Green Veggie would never dream of putting a small child to work.

Stay tuned for more righting of the wrong of no pictures of Mr. Green Veggie!

Family Forever

We had a sad family occurance in May. My great-uncle passed away. He and my father were very close. My dad passed away in March, and my family and my uncle's family all thought "Well, it won't be long before Elbert is gone too." And it was just under 2 months before that was true. They were just that way. I feel certain my dad and uncle are somewhere together, telling story after story, jokes, and riddles. They were both smart, funny men, and I miss them both so much.

The following is his obituary, with identifiers removed by me:

Elbert , 77, passed away at 12:45 a.m. Thursday, May 13, 2010, at Memorial Hospital.
He was born Sept. 25, the son of William and Laura. His marriage to the former Lucinda took place Nov. 3, in Corinth, Miss. She survives.

The Korean War veteran served with the U.S. Army and was an electrician for Mississippi Lime for forty-five and a half years, retiring in 1997.

In addition to his wife, Lucinda, survivors include one son and daughter-in-law, Brian and Sarah; two daughters and a son-in-law, Melissa and David and Dawn; three grandchildren, Justin, Staci and her husband, Mike, and Sara; one sister, Louise.
His parents, two brothers, and three sisters preceded him in death.

My sister and nephew were visiting, and the two of them, mom, and I made the drive a couple states away in order to see my uncle one last time and support his family. With a 2 year old to entertain, you still have to live life, even though you are sad and mourning. And so we went:

swimming at the hotel. He enjoyed it for a while, then wanted to get out. We did some chasing around the pool, which was his favorite part. It goes like this: I say "I'm gonna..." and he says "Dit you (get you.)" Then I chase. And he squeals. And yells. And giggles. And tries to get away. lol A good time for everyone involved!


There was cuddling and story telling, most especially the reading of a new book about the Wonder Pets. Seriously, we read that thing *at least* 15 times while we were there.

J and his NaNa.

And there was even a pillowfight!

Goodbye sweet Buster

This sweet dog belongs to my mom's next door neighbor. My whole family has known him for about 8 years, since my parents' built their house. The land had been passed down from my grandfather to my dad, and had sat empty for over 40 years. Buster assumed it was just an extension of his home, and so his presence came with the new house.

My parents' dog, Sparky, and Buster were fast friends, and used to play together all the time. Then they got older, Buster got a sister (Lizzy), Sparky got a brother (Buddy), and they weren't together as much. But they still hung out some together.

Recently Buster started losing lots of weight. As a lab, he was a big dog, but he became very thin towards the end of his life. He spent many of his days lazing about my parents' garage, and so we watched him go downhill, especially in the last few days.

Yesterday when it was obvious Buster was even worse, and not going to get better, his owner took him to the vet to end his suffering. It was the right thing to do, yet we are all hurting because of it.

Buster, you were loved by more than just "your" family, and we'll all miss your slobbery greeting whenever we drove up, your bellowing bark calling to Sparky to come play, and your coming to the door waiting for my mom to hand out your treat.

Rest easy, old friend.

Movies

So one thing we have done in the last month or so is hit up the movie theater! I am lucky for being in a family of movie-loving people, including my husband. Lately we have seen:

*Shrek Forever After (in 3D)-- I saw this with mom and Mr. GreenVeggie. It was mom's first 3D movie (not counting the one at Disney World) and our second (after Avatar.) Love 3D movies, and really liked Shrek.

*Sex and the City 2-- I saw this with my mom. Yes it was a superficial romp. Yes it was too long. But we still liked it a lot!

*Prince of Persia--I went to this movie because Mr. GV wanted to see it. And I wanted to see it too. Just not as bad as he did. We pretty much had the place to ourselves, just us and two seniors sitting on the front row. They were a sweet couple. He had a walker and just the way he was walking made me think he'd had hip replacement or the like. She went and got his popcorn. I also got the distinct impression she was there so he could see the movie. Anyway, it was a pretty good movie. Lots of action, and the bloodletting was kept to a minimum.

*Karate Kid--I give this 9 'wax on, wax offs' out of 10! I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, from the scenary, to the child star, to Jackie Chan, I thought they were all treat.

*Marmaduke--Ah, Marmaduke. This was my nephew's first movie visit. I saw part of it. Something about a talking dog, right? lol No, really I did see more of it than that. It was OK, but nothing special. More on this in another post.

Upcoming movies we hope to see--

Toy Story 3 (in 3D)
Grown Ups
Knight and Day
Killers (Mom and MGV saw this last week together--I plan to go this week while hubby works.)
The A Team
Twilight Saga: Eclipse
The Last Airbender
The Sorcerer's Apprentice

And that takes us through July....Yes we are movie junkies!

Silence---great and terrible

So, my nephew has gone home to his mommy and daddy today. He became my little shadow during the past couple of weeks. I really loved it, even though it made it difficult to do things around the house or even go out the door at times. This morning I buckled him into his car seat and kissed and hugged him goodbye. It was then he realized I wasn't going with him, so he looked at me with slightly worried eyes and said "C'mon Anna. C'mon." (By the way, my name is not Anna--pronounced Ah-na--that is his interpretation of Auntie, and I have a feeling it will stick. lol) I told him no, that I had to stay here, but it broke my heart! Never mind that I will probably be seeing him at the end of next week for the 4th of July holiday, or at the very least in August.


My mom and other sister are driving him to the halfway point, about 4 1/2 hours from here. And so my mom's house is unusually quiet. I hear the clocks ticking, the ceiling fan whirring, and the occasional kicking on of the air or refrigerator. I like some silence every now and then but this is almost overwhelming. But happily this evening I will be back at my house with the barking/hissing menagerie that is typically my life.

Still around

I promise, I'll be back eventually. This:

is keeping me very, very busy right now. Expect lots of pictures and updates, mostly starring the busy-maker, in the next couple of weeks!

The elusive visitor

We have a temporary resident on the front porch, right off the dining room. So far I've been able to photograph the nest, but the mama flies away when I get close enough to the dining room window to get a good picture. I don't want to bother her and any potential babies, so I'm just keeping my camera on the dining room table, and the shutters open, just in case. But no flash, and no climbing up and looking inside the nest.