Cinderella's Grandmother

You can barely see her but this is Cinderella's grandmother in the mirror on the merry-go-round. I didn't tweak this photo at all.

Cinderella's grandmother had a lousy day today even though she was productive - cleaning house, doing laundry, went to choir practice and even cooked a very good meal for tonight. She has just been in a lousy mood. Guess even members of Cinderella's family have those kinds of days.

Front Yard Wildlife - Five Views

Yesterday I saw this turtle in our front yard. Even at a distance, he looked huge! So I stepped into the front yard a little closer to him and decided to go in and get my camera. I decided to put on the long lens because I was a little apprehensive about getting too close to him. I was scared he might be a snapping turtle and I didn't want to get "snapped!"

Hello!

A close-up of his tail. This looks very prehistoric!

And here's a side view of his head.

Goodbye!

I looked him (or her) up on wikipedia. It IS a snapping turtle. They can weigh from 10 to 35 lbs. and even up to 75 lbs, the shell on an adult can grow up to 20 inches (he was pretty close to that in length, I believe), they have very strong jaws and can also injure by their claws (especially the back claws), can defecate, urinate and/or musk on you and should be avoided. The females lay 25 to 80 eggs a year.

He was headed for our little pond in the front yard probably to eat well. They will eat other reptiles, small mammals, and even snakes which I like!

So I kept my distance and photographed him and let him go!

Dolly Park

I'm back from Tennessee. The four of us had a wonderful time although I hated my oldest daughter did not get to be with us at "Dolly Park", as Paige called it. The above photo shows how beautiful the lights were there.

Paige was CRAZY about Dolly Parton. We went into her museum on the park and we could NOT get her out of there! She loved looking at her clothes, shoes, photographs, musical instruments, listening to her music, etc. She wanted to go to Dolly's house!

It was a good visit with Erin, too. We spent the night with her the first night and had a great time. Then we rode from Nashville to the Sevierville/Pigeon Forge area. Erin had a gift show to attend while we went to Dolly Park. Then we were able to shop some, eat out and enjoy some more time with all of us together. I love my girls. :)

A Mini Vacation Coming Up!

Here are my three favorite girls! Tomorrow I'm leaving with the two on the left and going to visit the one on the right! ha!

We're headed for Nashville and then to Gatlinburg for a mini vacation. I'm very much looking forward to just being with my girls. :) May not post again here until I get back but hope to have a lot of good photos to post.

An Aha Moment!

This is the back of our house. This was Halloween night and I know it's dark and difficult to tell anything about it but it's a pretty big house to clean - two story. (*As a side note, one of our neighbors that lives across from the back of our house came over the day after Halloween and told Johnny that it looked like our house was on fire! ha!*) Anyway, most of the time I don't like to clean house but somebody's got to do it and we really can't afford to pay anyone so that leaves me. Sometimes I AM in the mood and actually enjoy it. But I ALWAYS enjoy having and being in a clean house.

Last night, I decided that today I would take Paige to her Mothers' Day Out school and then just come straight back home and use that four hours to clean house. I didn't finish but I did get a lot done. Being surprised about how much I did accomplish, I had an AHA moment! I thought, you know, I could do this every Tuesday (or Thursday) if Emily's working on Thursday and I'm taking her to school. I could come home and clean house and get some things done around here instead of wasting time just looking around, etc. in the area where her school is. Then having that done, I could run any errands or do any shopping with her after I pick her up! What a grand idea!

I still have some cleaning to do but I got most of it done today. I will definitely do this again!

A Sewing Day!

Today was a sewing day for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Above is one of the things I worked on. It was very tedious with little bitty pieces of fabric to cut and applique but turned out cute, I thought.

For more, go to my other blog, bearbear to see. I think this is the first time I've posted one photo the same on both blogs.

Decorations Came Down Today

I have never in my life put up decorations for any holiday one day and take them down the next! But that's what I did for Halloween this year. It all went up amazingly fast and taking it down was fast, too. I think my husband and I enjoyed it more than anyone! Had a great Halloween with only one trick or treater but she was a special one. :)