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Today Rick, Olivia and I took his mom for a ride around the neighborhood that he lived in as a youngster and on the way we stopped by his sister Helen’s house to visit for a while.  Although she was not at home,  Olivia had not seen her horses, so we walked around the house and here came the horses out to say hello to us.  I grabbed Rick’s camera and got a few good pictures including this one of Olivia petting one of the horses.

Olivia is a ‘pet person’ just like her granny and Aunt Amy, so she was very happy when the horses came up to her for a friendly visit.  We didn’t stay long this time, but next time maybe Helen will be there and Olivia can take a ride on one of the horses.  I’m very sure she would enjoy that experience.

About a year ago my camera that I inherited from Rick (as he got him a new one) decided that it had seen its last picture taking days.  It had been repaired a couple of times already and just was worn out I suppose, so off to the store we went to see what we could do about replacing it.  It was still under warranty, so we got a new camera, but decided to try a different brand (at Rick’s recommendation).  Rick is the ‘expert’ when it comes to things like that in this family, so I trusted his opinion (maybe I better use my own judgement this time).

I have never been really happy with this camera because it just didn’t want to do the things I was used to the other one doing.  And what it did do, it just didn’t do as well.  A couple of days ago this camera decided that it wasn’t going to work at all, and I’m not a bit unhappy with its decision.  That means that I can now get me one that hopefully will do a much better job.

This camera is still under warranty and we also purchased a replacement insurance on it, so I have been searching for something that I think might do better.  As I said before, I might not listen to the ‘expert’ this time.  I just might have to go with that thing known as ‘my gut feeling’ and hope that this replacement will work much better for me.  I’m gonna look around and read some reviews (although that is what Rick did), and see what we come up with.  It will probably be a few days before I make my final decision, but when I do then I’ll take a bunch of pictures and let you know how they turn out. 

I’M SO EXCITED !!!

Olivia is now a teenager and she takes over my computer when she makes a visit here.  As you can see that is the best time to get a good picture of her smiling.  She can play games or surf the web and whatever else she enjoys doing for hours at a time.  Sometimes it is even hard to get her off long enough to eat, and that girl is just like her Granny when it comes to eating.

School will be out for the summer in a few days, so I’m sure she will spend a lot of time here doing her favorite things… playing on the computer, watching TV and reading.  Goodness… that girl is growing up so fast.

I love Tuna and since I’m on this journey of losing weight, it has become one of the proteins that I eat rather often.  Today I decided that it was time for Madison to try and see if she likes it as much as Granny Cheria does.  Well, as you can see from the picture, the obvious answer is NO WAY.  I guess she is going to be just like her mom, Aunt Amy and older sissy Olivia in not appreciating some of the best foods in this world.  Or maybe I’m just one of those odd balls that likes strange things.  Anyway, I don’t want to take away from this great picture, so I’ll just let it speak for itself, and I’ll let you know about the next new food encounter that Madison experiences.

I have never been a very adventurous person, so I was a little surprised when my two daughters decided they wanted to try skydiving.  Goodness…I won’t even get into a plane, so I sure am not about to jump out of one.  But Amy and Tami both have done just that.  Actually Amy does it several times almost every weekend and she even moved from Wilmington, NC to Rock Hill SC, so that she would be closer to the ‘dropzone’.

This past weekend I made a trip to visit her and take Houdini for his first haircut and of course I just had to watch her enjoying her favorite ‘sport’.  She and Gene have a camper at the ‘dropzone’ so they don’t have to make the 25 minutes drive so often.  Gene works at the ‘dropzone’ and makes tandem jumps (he has another person attached to him as he jumps) several times a day.  We are always telling Amy and Gene that they are the two smartest morons that we know, but they enjoy it, so we just pray that they will be safe. 

It really is amazing to watch the jumpers as they appear as just small dots in the sky and then swoop down and glide to the ground.  Most land on their feet, but some land rolling and every now and then one will land in a tree (I haven’t seen the tree landing yet).  However they land, they all really enjoy it and we observers enjoy it also.

This weekend I took several pictures of Amy and some of her friends and thought you might enjoying seeing them, so a few are attached for your enjoyment.  Amy is the one in the purple jumpsuit.  Happy and safe jumping… and I’ll just stay on the ground and pray for their safe landing.

As you already know, one of our favorite family members is a 150 pound Great Pyrenees named Houdini.  Well… Houdini has been in bad need of a bath and haircut, which is no easy task.  Last Thursday evening Rick, Houdini and I took a trip to visit Amy and Gene in Rock Hill, SC.   Amy has a good friend who is a dog groomer, so Sharon and her apprentice Heather took on the task of bathing and giving Houdini his very first haircut. 

Now keep in mind that Houdini was a stray and had never had a bath or haircut in his 3-4 years of life on this earth.  We won’t count the bath that Rick, Amy and I attempted last summer, because we got more of a bath than he did.  By the time we finished we had more soap and water on us than Houdini did.  We will just say that he wasn’t smelling the best.

His hair was not in very good shape either, even though I brushed him almost every day.  Sharon said that I would never have gotten all the mats out, so the best thing to do was just shave all of his hair off.  And that is exactly what she did, except for just a bit on his head and his tail.  Now everyone has nicknamed him “poodle dog”. 

He also got his nails trimmed along with his ears cleaned and now since all that work, he doesn’t slobber as much as he did before.  Would you believe he also has lots more energy and acts more like a 4 year old rather than a 10 year old.  He looks like a totally different dog and my cats thought there was a new pet visiting.  And Madison just doesn’t care because she can ride on his back now without getting so much hair all over her.

What should have taken about an hour and half ended up taking three hours with all the barking and trying to wiggle out of the bathtub.  But I’m sure Houdini feels so much better even if he does still look a little strange.  Thanks Sharon and Heather for a job well done.