Bruce and Mandie's new future home!

We are so happy for Bruce and Mandie, that they have found their "dream house". I know that together they will make it in to a home, not just a house, and will make memories there that will be unique to them and to the little family that will begin May 23, 2009, on their wedding date. We love them both so much, admire their personalities, hospitality already and wish the best for them in every way, spiritually, emotionally, financially and in endeavoring to set up the little home they will be living in after they are married.

Our new puppy-Chocolate (pronounced in Spanish)

These are pics of Manuel's new little chocolate lab, which he originally named Chocolate! Kind of strange for a dog, but as Mandie says, its his dog! These pictures were taken the first night we got him, so the kids had him in the house. Since then Manuel made him a little pen outside and he is very happy, because it is right by our rabbit cage and he loves playing with them through the wires. I'm not so certain about the rabbits opinion of his proximity, though!

More of Neewollah Parade

This is Cera Schenck, Tori's little sister. These are just a couple of the floats, "Little House on the Prarie", an old stagecoach, and then the Marching Band of the Caney Valley, Oklahoma Trojans.

Some pics from last weekend-Neewollah parade

Tori Schenck, Jeremy and Trelanie's oldest little girl.

Great Weekend!

Well, it's Monday again! The weekend was good, busy, but good! Becky, Noel, his friend, Eddie, and I went to Neewollah parade on Saturday and met up with Trelanie, Tori, Cera and some of Trelanie's family. That was fun and I had my smoked turkey leg! Binky, Aunt Becky had a funnel cake in your honor! Then we went out to the cemetary to check on flowers on Mother and Daddy's graves. I should have taken a picture. Mandie and Bruce planted a little flower garden between the two graves and it looked so pretty! Thank you, Mandie and Bruce! We ended up at Sonic for lunch and headed south to Ochelata and Ramona. On the way I stopped at WalMart and got a chocolate lab puppy (from the parking lot) for Manuel to replace his lab that got killed. He really loved the little thing and I was so glad I got it for him. Saturday evening we went to a tremendous cookout at Monte and Carolyn Barham's place and that was great! The kids enjoyed the hayride and we all had a good time. They are such wonderful hosts! Sunday morning in Tulsa at the Church of God Holiness Church we had Pastor Appreciation Day and a carry in lunch. The food theme was Cajun, in honor of Brother Gremillion, and the food was great! We ended that day at Ochelata for evening service and such went our weekend! Thank God for a good time and protection for all. Mandie, Dafne and Bruce went to Youth Challenge in Indiana and came back with great reports and exhausted! I will try to post some pics tomorrow.

My Southern Living at Home "find"!

I was walking around in the Goodwill Store close to my office the other day, just browsing, as I do ocassionally on my lunch break, and saw this platter. It looked familiar and I thought it was probably from Southern Living at Home, but wasn't sure. It was marked $2.50, I think, so I bought it. When I got home I looked in the catalogue and sure enough it was there. The regular price was about $56.00, I think. I thought that was the bargain of my week! My niece, Robyn (Waits) Huff sells Southern Living at Home products and there are some beautiful items. Actually everything is beautiful and of very high quality; a little pricey, but it really dresses up your home. There are also great monthly sales for customers and wonderful opportunities to buy things at a discount for hostesses having a party. She does a lot of book parties for people who live at a distance (she lives in Stuart, Florida) and that's how I got several really great things that I treasure. I can't remember her web site right off, but the web site for the catalogue is http://www.southernlivingathome.com/. I will try to get her address for anyone who is interested.

Our weekend

Rusty Brewer was spending the weekend with Bruce, so as a consequence he was at our house quite a lot over the weekend. These pictures were on Saturday evening after everyone was full of burgers and brats and just being lazy. Marissa was spending the night with Dafne that night, so she was there, too. Obviously in the last picture Dafne didn't want her picture taken! What a fun weekend! It was great having the kids' friends in our home. Rusty and Bruce were back Sunday evening and I felt like the Woman Who Lived in the Shoe when we all walked in to church Sunday night! It's a blessing having kids and I wouldn't trade mine for anything, but don't anyone dare tell them that!!!!! :-)

More weekend pics

We were cooking hamburgers and brats for dinner Saturday night and Mandie started snapping pictures. She said we had had such a great weekend that we needed pictures of it.

Noel's weekend

Noel invited a Caney Valley School friend over Friday night and they had so much fun Eddie didn't end up going home until late Saturday night. They played football, went to the flea market, went fishing, cooked their fish outside, ect. They were two tired and fishy smelling kids when it was all over. After taking a shower, mandated by his sister due to the fishy smell, he put his pjs on and back outside they went, so excuse his appearance. I forgot to say that Eddie was excited when Noel suggested that they cook their fish over the fire. He said, "Oh, yeah, let's do that! It's just like the old people do!" I think he meant it was the old-fashioned way!

Noel and Eddie-fishing "champs"!

My white basket

I think I will use my basket for toys for our little grandson! What do you think about that? That way he can climb in and out of it if he wants to and even hide under it from his mommy! (Just kidding!) I would never help him do anything ornery! Of course not! Although I remember my daddy "helping" us clean our plates if we didn't want all of our food. Isn't it amazing how we (those of you who have kids) thought it was just fine when our parents were a little lax with some of our rules, but we wouldn't think of it with our kids! Well, my parents' laxness only went as far as maybe slipping some of my food to Daddy while Mother wasn't looking, or him not telling that I got a ticket for speeding as I got older. One time he even paid a ticket for me! Wow! Anyway, however I got to this topic from what I plan to do with my oversized basket, I don't know! Have a good day everyone!

Some of my fun "finds" at yard sales and the flea market!

Bianca wanted me to put pictures on here of some of the fun things that I have found in the past few weeks at yard sales and the flea market. So here they are! There is a wonderful flea market in Tulsa on Admiral between Mingo and Memorial streets. It's open on Saturdays (probably Sunday, too, but I don't know that) and some weeks there is nothing that jumps in my van and some weeks I find things like some of the items pictured here. I don't go nearly every week, but when I have time and a little money it is so much fun. I bought this basket at a yard sale this weekend for a very low price. It is huge. It's size doesn't show in this picture, but I think Wyatt and Payton would both fit into it if we chose to stick them in it! I will probably paint it some other color because I don't usually do white, but I don't know. I broke my rule of not buying something unless I had a place for it picked out, when I bought this! I'm still trying to decide where to put it. Okay, hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed buying the things pictured here! Come over some Saturday and we'll go rummaging!!!! :-)

This little metal shelf was purchased at the flea market, also. I got it for maybe $5.00 if that much. I put a candle, albums and devotional books on it in the living room.

This is a wooden board sign that I got for a dollar I think at the flea market. I feel like waving it from the roof (not really) right now, to remind Americans where our roots were/are/should be!

This clock is a metal clock that caught my eye and I bought it for a dollar or two somewhere. I love clocks and have them all over my house! Sorry it's on it's side! I have it in the family room.

This trunk is a very funny find from the flea market and probably my cheapest bargain, as far as money goes. I was walking around the market (outdoors) one Saturday and saw this trunk sitting with a bunch of other old looking stuff that was borderlining on junk. I love old trunks and have bought one for Mandie and Binky both, years ago. Dafne doesn't have one, though, so I was thinking of her. The hinges were okay and it was intact, so I went in search of the owner. He quoted me $5.00 for the trunk and I counter offered $1.00. He accepted and then I went to find Manuel so he could load it. When he saw it he started laughing and said, "Honey, I could have gotten that for free last week because it was in the trash. I guess someone pulled it out!" Oh, well, the laugh was worth the dollar. We got it home and I cleaned it up, put some scratch cover all over the top of it and stored some of Dafne's stuff in it and then used it for a coffee table in the family room. I love it. I may have to look for another trunk for Dafne later!!!!!

I found this plate at the flea market a few weeks ago and it is in Spanish. I am not sure what "cervo" means, but Manuel thinks that it means something like a country person, or someone who has a farm/ranch or something like that. Anyway, the whole thing say "Home of the ________" Whatever word that is. I loved the colors and since it is some kind of pottery or stone ware, I bought it for a couple or three dollars and hung it in the kitchen. It sounds welcoming to me.

This is a metal sign that I got 1/2 price at Hobby Lobby (I love that store!). I have it hanging on the little wall between my kitchen and dining room to remind me that His Grace is truly Amazing and it will see us through anything!

This is a beautiful mirror, although the pic has a bad glare on it, but I got it at the All City Garage Sale in Ochelata this year for $3 or $5 dollars. I'm sure it was very expensive new.

I bought this several weeks ago at the flea market for about $5.00, I think. It is totally nonessential and I don't even know what it is, but I love fancy little things and I couldn't resist it. It looks to be tiny silverware and they are only about four inches long. There are two of each piece and it is in a gold box. It went in my curio cabinet, too. Anybody know what this is and what it's for?

This picture doesn't do this little pitcher justice, but it is probably about 1 1/2 pint pitcher with gold edgings. I know that it must be old, but I got it at the flea market for $1.00, I think. I love antique pink glass and it fits right in to my curio cabinet holding my little collection of pink glass.

This is a column that I got at a yard sale. It has a pineapple carved on the top. The lady said she couldn't find the right place to put it, so hadn't used it. The price tag on the bottom was about $56.00 and I got it for less than $10! I love pineapples because they have an old colonial tradition was that a pineapple was a sign of welcome to your guests.

This is a picture that I got for my dining room. I use grapes, vines and cider/sparkling grape juice bottles for my decor there, along with a sprinkling of pottery.

The mirror is an old beveled mirror that I got for almost nothing. It must be very old. Actually, after I took this picture I put a small plant in front of it and I like it much better.

Wyatt

Bianca called me yesterday and said that Wyatt is learning the head signs for "no". The little stinker shakes his head no and grins when Bianca tells him "no"! Of course Noni (me) thinks that is funny! Maybe his mommy doesn't when she really needs him to listen to "no"! He also is learning to "wave", although he is still a little mixed up and probably doesn't have it all together with what it means yet. She said he will stretch is little (left) arm out as far as he can and then turn it so that he is waving his fingers at himself. He thinks that is just hilarious! Great-Grandma Hazelwood would be proud that he is another "lefty" just like her. Binky and Scott say that he predominately uses his left hand. His Uncle Noel and "Aunt Robyn" are also lefties, so he won't be alone! Anyway, just another pic of him that I "snitched" from his mommy's blog!

Our weekend

Well, I spent part of my weekend working and the other part yard saleing and doing things like grocery shopping, cleaning (a little), ect. Over all it was a good weekend. I found some fun things at some yard sales, like a column with a pineapple carved on the top of it that was new (56.00 price tag) for $8.00. I also found a lot of (12) International Santa Clause figurines that my cousin, Sue Werle, collects, for a fraction of the regular price. She was happy to have them! One of my not as sensible purchases was a huge wooden framed mirror, square with a round beveled glass mirror. It must be very old, but I got it for $8.00, I think. I broke my yard sale rule, which is not to buy if I don't know where I will put it. I also got two very nice throw rugs in the exact shade that I need for a very reasonable price--a Dr. Laura book for a dollar and you know, just had a lot of fun. Everyone needs a day like that sometimes! I hope everyone has a good week!

Happy Belated Birthday to my Future Son-in-Law!

Bruce turned 23 on October 7, and while he hasn't been in our family all those years, we are looking forward to a future of him being a family member! We love you, Bruce! Here is a picture of him and Mandie at a "surprise picnic" that she had for him on his birthday!

Our New Kitties

My Garden

My Garden