Random Thoughts On Monday…

Let me begin the week by wishing someone special a very happy birthday! Our youngest son, Brad, was born, thirty-one years ago, today. Brad was a very welcomed surprise addition to the family, and our family wouldn’t be the same without him.  Delivering Brad proved to be difficult (10 lbs, 9 oz. natural childbirth), but raising Brad was easy. He was a delightful, easy-going, baby and child, always willing to go along with whatever his siblings wanted to do.

Brad made good grades in school (except for the year he refused to do a required project, and had to repeat the class), and worked his way through high school and college, at a local bank, paying most of his tuition costs, himself. Brad’s easy-going personality kicked into overdrive during adolescence, and he got along well with everyone.   My chief complaints with Brad, as a teen, were these: his room was always a mess, he was tardy to high school a lot, and he was [and still is] a procrastinator.

The years have flown by, and now our baby boy is a grown man with a family of his own. In fact, we took note, this weekend, when we celebrated his birthday a little early, that, on this birthday, Brad is [almost] one-half as old as his mama!  I celebrated my 31st birthday, shortly after giving birth to him.

Happy Birthday, Brad!

In other news, I’m happy to report that Ed mowed down most of our garden over the weekend! I don’t know which one of us was the happiest to see it go, but it’s gone.  The last of our tomatoes are in the kitchen, still waiting to be canned, but, after that, we’re done!  Look out beach, here we come–as soon as I am able to travel!  I haven’t been feeling my best, lately.

Man, this summer heat is really oppressive!  Being outside is miserable, unless you go out first thing every morning, which I do.  Once I finish with my chores, I just stay inside until late in the afternoons.  Ed spends more time outside than I do, but the heat doesn’t seem to bother him as much as it does me.  I’m hoping the temperatures will be a little milder under our favorite oak tree at St. Simon’s Island, when I get there.  The highs are supposed to be in the upper 90’s all of this week.

We’ve had a couple of news worthy incidents happen in our area, lately.  First of all, a few days ago, our oldest son spotted a rattle snake crossing the road beside his house.  He ran over the snake with his car, but it didn’t kill it.  So he called our son-in-law, who went down and shot it.  This makes me nervous, because this is the same road I walk on for exercise!  I’m always vigilant, but I’ll need to be extra vigilant from now on!

Late one afternoon, last week, a freak storm blew up.  The wind was so gusty, it blew our grandsons’ trampoline out of their yard, and across the road! (the same road with the snake crossing)  The trampoline flew up on its way out of the yard, hit the roof of the back porch, and did a little damage there, too.  Fortunately, our oldest son was driving his wife’s car that day, or her car would have been parked in the path of the flying trampoline, as well.

Fortunately, the trampoline looked worse than it actually turned out to be. It’s been repaired, and is still usable, thank goodness.

Today has started off with a bang–literally!  A family of squirrels recently moved into the pine trees above my windmill/flower garden.  They’ve been making quite a mess, while feasting on pine cones each day!  This morning, Ed declared war on them by shooting up among the trees with his shotgun–at 7:30 in the morning!  Would you believe two of the squirrels actually had the nerve to stay in place after being shot at?  They vacated following the second shot, but I’m sure they’ll be back. I got a look at them, and they looked mighty fat and happy!

In other morning excitement, for the second day in a row, we had to give another one of our hens a cold-water bath! (Yes, we bathed a hen before attending church, yesterday!)  Actually, in this heat, that cold water felt pretty good to me. Once caught, Mrs. Hen didn’t put up much of a fight while in the cold water, so she may have felt the same way!  Hopefully, the second cold bath will be enough to break Mrs. Broody Hen out of her cycle of wanting to sit on eggs.  Ah, we live such an adventurous life, don’t we?!  With that thought in mind, I’ll close by saying…

Have a great Monday!

Hello Monday, It’s Me Again…

What a “strange weather” weekend!  Thankfully, we didn’t get any of the tornadoes and bad storms that so many other people received, but the weather was unstable nonetheless.  The weather certainly kept us on our toes all weekend!  We received nearly five inches of (much-needed) rain, on Saturday alone–and the rain was followed by high, gusty winds.  Saturday began with temperatures in the 70’s, but ended with temperatures in the 50’s.  Whew!

My heart goes out to all of those folks who lost their homes or businesses during the tornadoes during the past few days.  I just finished reading about some folks, in Alabama, who lost their homes–for a second time within a year!  Can you imagine?  Many families weren’t even finished rebuilding their homes, when they were damaged again–some beyond repair!

The weather wasn’t suitable to be outside on Saturday, so I took the opportunity to take a long nap while listening to the rain on the roof!  When I woke up, I decided to bake a cake–something I rarely do these days.  Later, I ended up doing a little “indoor” gardening–meaning I planted some seeds in starter pots, and placed them in the window sill.  I have some cabbage and tomatoes planted, with squash soon to follow!  I’ve never done this before, so we’ll see how it goes.  You may recall that I’ve always had a “brown” thumb!

Speaking of gardening, Ed and I recently drove my car to pick up a few gardening supplies.  I drive a PT Cruiser, and it never ceases to amaze me at the amount of things that Ed manages to pack inside of that vehicle!  We drove home carrying 120 pounds of fertilizer, 5 “double-sized” bags of miracle grow potting soil, 40 pounds of dog and cat food, a large pail, an azalea plant, a silk wreath, 3 dozen mason jars, and several bags of groceries!  I guess you could say we were “fully loaded”!

You may recall that I posted on Thursday, how our family had “acquired” a new dog, when a golden retriever wandered into our yard on Wednesday morning, and never left.  Our daughter, Brandy, put a message about the “found” dog, on Facebook, on Wednesday, but hadn’t heard anything–until Saturday night, when the dog’s owners called.  They gave enough info to prove they were the owners, but  it was already dark, and the weather was bad, so the owners decided to postpone coming to get the dog until Sunday.

The couple, who happens to live about three miles away from us, came to get their dog on Sunday morning.  (Thankfully, I wasn’t home at the time.)  Brandy said, the dog, whose name turned out to be “Flash”, didn’t want to go with them.  (Apparently, “Flash” had become quite fond of his new home!)  The owners loaded “Flash” up in the back of their pickup truck (I hate that! ) only to have him jump out as they were driving off with him!  Poor “Flash” hurt his leg when he jumped out of the truck, but still managed to get away.  The owners decided to go home to get a different vehicle, and come back.

By the time they returned, “Flash” had gone back to our daughter’s house, went under her deck, and refused to come out!  Finally, Brandy was able to coax poor “Flash” out from under the deck, by using a rawhide chew.  The couple managed to take their dog home, but  he sure didn’t leave willingly or happily, which kind of made us all sad.

I took this picture of a wet “Flash”  early Sunday morning, before he left us.

I was hoping for a happier ending to the weekend, but happy ending or not, the weekend’s gone, so let’s change gears a bit, and join Heather over at Acting Balanced for her “Meet Me On Monday” meme.  You can join in, too, by clicking Heather’s button below.

1. What is on your bedside table?  A lamp, a clock radio, a flashlight, and a silk rose in a vase, and a piggy bank.  Exciting stuff, huh?
2. Hardback, Paperback or E-Reader?  I prefer hardback books, but, of course, I have a few paperbacks, too.
3. What is your ‘go to’ drink of choice?  Sweet iced tea, ’cause I’m one of those G R I T S– in my case, that stands for “grandma raised in the south”!
4. How do you like to spend your birthday?  I usually spend my birthdays at home, surrounded by family.  Sometimes, my daughter will host a birthday meal in my honor, and of course, we always have cake and ice cream!  I was fortunate enough to celebrate a couple of recent birthdays at the beach, and that was fun, too!
5. Finish this sentence – I would never be caught dead in …a bikini!  That would be a crime!

Oh!  I nearly forgot!  I’m also joining “The Coupon Queen” for “Make A Friend Monday”.  Hop on over to her place by clicking this button:

and you’ll meet more great blogging friends.Have a great Monday, everyone!