Moments like this...

Moments like this really warm my heart!

Nelson has really improved on reading a lot. He and Henry love the Dr. Suess books.

Sorry....

I have had some venting on here lately and well, here I go again!!! But first, I'd like to THANK TXU for reading my blog and then contacting me to get our issues resolved.

Now.. back to the griping. Our A/C is just not working right. We know what's wrong but it takes money to fix it and the people that installed it, a few years before we moved in, failed to fill out the warranty information... t hey did leave the warranty paperwork though,a lot of good that does us. So, we are waiting for the previous owners to return our call so we can contact whoever installed it and get it fixed!!! I cannot have another high electric bill because the blasted thing is running non-stop.

Second.... As most of you know we sold our house in Murchison in January of 2007. We had the home and the land titled separately but we sold it combined. Apparently the title company dropped the ball somewhere because the tax office, school & county, show that we still own the home. We get the statements from them on the taxes owed and forwarded them to the new owners who lease the home out. After the second time, we sent it certified and they responded assuring us it would be taken care of. Well, today we got letters in the mail from two attorneys notifying us of a lein on OUR property AND that it is being foreclosed on if payment isn't received. So...we are back on this issue. I am of the mind to call someone to go hook up to that stupid house and haul it off somewhere, then pay the measly $300 in taxes and sell it AGAIN. If the new owners want to pay all that money for less than an acre of land with no home, then so be it.

Scissors: Just Old or Really Old?

Today James found a rusty pair of scissors buried in the yard. If you know me you know I watch too much HGTV including the show If Walls Could Talk. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a show where people buy really old homes (like mine! - built in 1905) and find "treasure" and links to the history of the home in the yard, walls, closets, etc. I've always wanted to find something, even a rusty pair of scissors, that were some how linked to the people that first built this home or even the second or third owners. So I was pretty excited when James brought the rusty scissors in. There was quite a thick layer of rust on them and they wouldn't open or close. I cleaned them up using some acidic toilet bowl cleaner and got most of the rust off. Now, for all I know these could just be a couple years old, left behind by the couple we bought the home from or.... maybe they're really old................

July 4th Weekend

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Friday James worked so the kids and I went out to Berryville to watch a firework show. It ended up being pretty neat... people bring their own and shoot them off on the beach there then the VFD does some big ones! Plus, there were other areas having shows that we could see all around the lake. The boys really enjoyed it!

Saturday when James got off, we went out to his Mom & Al's house for a swim party. It was a lot of fun. Nelson & Henry got to swim most of the day with a couple of other little boys that were there. We got to visit with Al's kids which was really nice. I'd like to get to know them more. We had a hard time getting the kids out of the pool to eat. When we finally got Henry out, he consumed HALF a chicken, literally. And it was not a small chicken. Al injected it with a jalepeno butter marinate then deep fried it like some people do turkey. Henry LOVED it. He loved it so much that he carried the carcass around chewing what he could get off of it (yuck). Nelson did great swimming. He kept his floaties off most of the time. Us "big kids" played a game of water volleyball.. my first time.. and it was really fun too!

On Sunday we drove to Arkansas. A very dear aunt of Debbie's... James' great Aunt Sissy... passed away. She has been ill for some time now so it was expected but sad nonetheless. James spent a lot of time with her during his childhood summers. She lived in Texas back then but they made many trips to Arkansas to see his Nanny and other family and to fish. The country up there is beautiful and the lake .... I took some pictures but they do not do it justice. Even under the circumstances we had a nice visit. Nanny and the rest of the family, Uncle Bubba, Aunt Kim, Courtney & Chelsea, hadn't seen Nelson since he was 8 months old and had never met Henry. The boys took right up to them. James and I both regret not making more of an effort to go see everyone before now. I expect that we will go back again soon. It was so good to see everyone, it's really a great family. I hate that I didn't get my camera out sooner... there's not pictures to show of everyone... only the lake! After the viewing we went on back home. The drive wasn't as bad as I thought, it only took 3.5 hours.

So this morning.... James had to head in to work and the kids and I slept in. It's been a couch potato kind of day. Thankfully, James has been slow at work so he and Eric were able to come by and do a little project (new phone jack in the living room) and have lunch with us.

Well, here are some pics for you! Enjoy!

Update

Things have been going pretty good lately.

Mom was in the hospital...very very sick with pneumonia on top of everything else. She spent some some time in the ICU and gave us all a big scare. She has been home for a while now and is doing so much better. Thank God!! She went to the doctor last week and got a really good report - her tumors have shrunk to about half the size they were in April. She begins chemo again next week... hopefully a couple more treatments will finish them off!

Swim lessons turned out great! Henry got over his screaming fits and by the third day he was swimming with no floaties in the deep end. Nelson too! They are both swimming like little fish now. It's great!

Since my last update, we've also gone to a Rangers game. It was pretty fun. We sat somewhere... I can't remember where except it was completely in the sun. THe seats were so hot they burned the back of our legs. About an hour into the game the sun went down enough that we were in the shade. The section we were in had a waitress which the kids thought was really cool.

Also, James built me a walk-in closet! I LOVE IT! He did a great job. It was his first time to do sheetrock and you can't even tell. He really is good around the house! Ha!

Nelson & Henry both played t-ball this summer. Henry wasn't really into that much, he just wanted to wear the uniform. Nelson did really good though. They already started coach pitch which made it a little more challenging. After 5 pitches without hitting the ball, they had the option to use the tee. But most of the time Nelson hit a pitch. It was really cool!

That's about it for now... here's a few pics.