Birthday Bubbles /Unusual Anniversary Gifts

There is the good side of knowing that you have lived another year to see more adventure, do exciting things and spend more time with loved ones.  Then, there is the reality that you are now, one year older than you were this same time the year before, you feel a crook in your neck more often than you would like to think, and that food that you ate five years ago ain't sitting well with you any more.  But it doesn't have to stop you from having fun!

Scootard's birthday had rolled around again and he received some interesting gifts....:-).  One was a package of bubbles that was given to him by my assistant......yes, that's right.  Bubbles!  And he was quite excited about the gift!

things got real interesting (and wet) from then on..........

And just when I was thinking that the house had been sufficiently soaked with soapy, watery bubbles.....the event migrated into the kitchen........

REALLY??? ok, time to go outside!

Now, that's better.......:-).

Glad we got that out of his system....haha

Our anniversary is the day after his birthday.  So, we received a few gifts for that as well around the same time from our daughter Tracey. This gift basket was filled with chocolates and all kinds of things that neither of us needed seeing as we are about to tip the scales!  But hey!  It's his birthday and our annivesary, right?  

We even got some nice cards with words of endearment inside.....:-)  Very cool....

The cards and usual gifts kept coming.  And then there was this little guy sitting in the middle of the three blocks you see in the picture.....

 Here is a closer look......Kermit's cousin....haha

Scootard gave me this with a card and a poem....We figured we would save the expensive stuff for the upcoming European adventure next month! Think I would spend it??

A couple of gift cards to Red Lobster came to us from our daughter Tracey for our anniversary.  So, we headed there for lunch.

We don't have a Red Lobster in Canada, so whenever I get the chance to go I like to get whatever I want.  This was a new item on their menu....not sure what it's called, but it was ok. The dish consisted of langastinos, (?) mussels, and lobster tail over linguine.

Scootard ordered a seafood salad thingee of some sort.....

And then there was a salad that came with mine that was not very good.....:-(.  It went into a box to be taken home.

We had enough left overs to take home with us.......

After lunch we headed back home where my garden awaited full of color from the previous months of work....

One of my favorite spots to sit was calling my name......

The garden angel was in place under a crepe myrtle reading a book......

And the little girl from Canada was snoozing in front of her book taking time to smell the flowers......:-)

Thanks for sharing our birthday and anniversary celebration with us!  Next month we head to Europe to really celebrate!  

Stay tuned!!

Short Trips, Oh What Bliss!

I tell you, I had been itching for over several days for the weather to break "somewhat" for it to be bearable enough to go for a ride on "Ms Vickey".  But, to my horror when we tried to start her she wouldn't budge.  Barely let out a "groan"....:-(.  It had been over three weeks since she had been out for a ride and the top case had drained the battery. I had been warned by a Kymco dealer in BC to remove the case if the bike was going to sit for a long period of time, but somehow that advice escaped me..

Being the traveling folks that we are, we happen to have a set of jumper cables in the trunk of the car.  Now, I'm thinking that cables for a"car" are going to blow up my little battery if we actually "start" the car to give Ms Vickey a jump.  Scootard on the other hand was quite confident that all was going to be well and proceeded to hook the cables to the tiny battery under my seat.  I moved over to the porch and covered my ears! haha

No big bang.....Yay!!  Just the hum of my little friend ready to go for her long awaited ride.  Thanks to Scootard!  I had my gear ready to slip into resting on the back of the car.....:-)  It was currently 77 degrees and we knew we had better hit the road soon before the temperature starting to climb.

But not before putting those trusty jumper cables under my seat.  Just in case!

Ms Vickey and Maj ready to rock and roll!

Our drive way is a bit "tricky" to me with both cars sitting there.  So, I usually have Scootard turn the bike around for me and take it into the street.

By the way, I had my trusty airhawk cushion all ready to go and it did me no good on this trip.  I had not put sufficient air in it.  So, monkey butt prevailed!

Scootard was getting his gear ready to go and we were both excited about the little town that we had promised to go back to and take some pictures of.

After a 30 minute ride up the highway, we came to one of my favorite spots in the mountains.  We decided to park the bikes and just sit near the water for a spell.

 Here is a shot of the lake that had our attention for several minutes.........

It was very peaceful as it usually is and had a few people at the shoreline fishing for channel catfish and small mouth bass.

The pier looked  very inviting, but the dragon flies were out in full force along with the wasp and bumble bees. All of which seem to take a liking to me!

We did managed to sit for a few minutes....

then the bugs spotted me!   But I wanted to snap the cool pick of the pier before we left.

 And so it was that after a very brief visit to my favorite spot in the mountains, it was time to go and I was thrilled to be leaving the bugs right there at the lake. (Hopefully)

We hit the road again and decided to head toward that tiny town that we wanted to take pictures of called Coopville or Cooperton or something like that.  Well, that didn't go so well as we made a wrong turn and somehow went the wrong way.

the road we were on took us to the main highway at which point we stopped and decided that since we had not had breakfast, we should eat something.  The temperature was beginning to rise and I was starting to sweat in my gear.  It was twenty five miles  to town and we decided on Chinese food for lunch once we arrived.

We discussed the possibility of dropping in on a friend who we had not seen since our last visit to the United States.  But, both of us were full and tired from the heat and decided to just go back to the house and rest for the rest of the day.   We managed to get Ms Vickey and Maj back to the house without a scratch....:-)

But this time I took the top case off.....:-).  No more surprises for me!  and we made it back before the weather hit 90 degrees.  It was 87 when we returned....:-)

Riding along with my honey and thinking about how blessed I am to have the life that I do and to be doing that life with my man.....:-).  Who, strangely enough seemed to be wondering which direction we would head out the next time we went on a trip....hahaha. .

I, on the other hand just wanted to get out of my hot boots, into my pj's and put my feet up!

Scootard eventually settled in as well.  Before finally drifting off to sleep in front of his computer......:-)

And so ends a wonderful time (with the exception of the dragon flies, wasp and bees).   It was a blissful day in full anticipation of another adventure some time soon!   Thanks for being a fantastic road partner, Scootard....:-)

See ya'll next time!

All that's left...

The heat here in Oklahoma as been such that we could not even ride for a few days.  So, whenever we could after the sun would finally go down, we would try to spend some time in our ever fading garden.

Before EVERYTHING got cooked to a frazzle, I decided to snap some pics of what was left and what I did to remediate the the problem. You might remember from our last trip here when Chris and I cut the Crepe Myrtles back to fence height?  Everyone that looked at them said "OMG! You killed them!"...ha.  Well, having done that before and the fact that they had not even had a slight trim for almost 6 years; I knew they would be fine.  Here is what they look like now.  Chris cut the suckers off the bottoms before I shot this picture. These are on the North side of the yard. Notice my flower urn in the forefront?  Nice-eh? ...:-).  There's a story about that urn.  Hang on....

This is taken on the South side of the yard. Most of what was on the North side had to be moved to the south side because it was cooking!  Now, I know that might sound backward, but the South side has a huge Pecan tree and a couple of Oaks and Crepe Myrtles that you can put plants under.  Some still didn't make it through because of the extreme heat.  It was 106 in the shade here!

And here is where I sit most mornings with my "cup -o-joe".  We had some ministry friends over this past weekend and was able to sit outside for breakfast for a short 45 minutes before our meeting started.  It has been raining for 4 days now and was drizzling outside the past Sunday.  Everyone was so glad to see rain, that they wanted to sit outside anyway....:-).  So, we wiped down the table and chairs and ate breakfast on our new furniture.....:-).  It was quite nice, actually.  I still have the thought in my mind to try to plant some creeping thyme in those cracks that the Pecan tree has made...

The pictures loaded in some kind of a random order than what I wanted.  But anyway, here is what is left of my Petunias in this pot.  Petunias will bloom all summer long except for in extreme heat!  So, I decided to help the "view" of this pot with some "perma posies".  Chris's idea.  It was cheaper than having to keep replacing plants that kept dying on us!  Not bad though.....:-).  These are the bird baths that I purchased in British Columbia last year.  I had to remove the water as it turned into a serious breeding ground for mosquitos who LOVE my 0+ blood!  Anyway, the rich purple flowers that you see are the perma posies that I stuck in the pot along with what was left of my Petunia which are the pink flowers on the left.

We spent a considerable amount of time trying to find something for Chris's rock garden.  It is only a tiny section of the garden that sits right under an oak tree.  He planted some small Coleus, Stone Crop(??), and Impatient.  All of which were wilting terrible.  So, I stuck some daisy in it...:-).  But I might change those out for something a little less..."loud".

This is a close up of one of my Crepe Mytle that was starting to bloom. In the background pot is a Geranium.  I have found that I really don't care for those as they require constant attention....

Under the Pecan tree is a yellow Rose that is still in the pot.  I didn't take it out because every Rose with the exception of one that I put in the ground started to die on me!  You can barely see the little yellow roses because I stuck a couple of Blackeyed Susans in the pot with them...Sorry about the blurr....:-(.

ok, back to the North side of the garden.  You may remember this little statue of a girl reading a book that I purchased in Canada last year.  Well, I think I have found a final place for her (at least temporarily...ha), by the child's gate that we snagged at an antique store on our last visit.  One of the rose bushes that we purchased is in the pot on the ground.  You wouldn't know it was a rose for all of the damage that the sun as done to it. I don't know what the plants where that I stuck in with that one. And the pot on the stand is what is left of the Petunias that were growing there.  I stuck some Gerbera Daisies in the pot with them and cut them back some....
.

Here is the remaining rose bush that was thriving a bit and then started to wain away last week.  I thought I would help it out with some pick flowers that I found.  The color matched almost perfectly.  I have been debating about painting the old fence, but can't seem to decide on a color for it.....??  Any ideas??

And this is the center of the yard toward the west fence.  the tiny lights come on at night and look very pretty when we are sitting out there.  The motorcycle people seem happy enough...ha.

The story about this urn is that we read that if you put empty water bottles in the bottom of your pots before filling them with dirt, it cuts down on a lot of weight when and if you have to move them.  The challenge that I have found is that: 1. You need plants with shallow roots to do this. 2.  If you are using plastic urns like I did, it will get a bit warmer inside.

Anyway, all of the urns had Geranium, Vinca, Verbena and Lobelia.  The Lobelia which were deep purple (almost blue in color) started to cook away.  I trimmed them and some of them began to bloom again, but others just died.  I replaced with a couple of these purple flowers.  I have no idea what they are, but you saw a close up of them in the birdbath.  I also incorporated some of these tiny carnation looking flowers.  The pink helped the urns not to look so sad.....
  

this very old vanity that my daughters used when they were pre-teens was finally put out into the yard since they are both in their 30's now.....:-).  It used to be yellow in color, but just in the short time that it was outdoors, it has faded and started to crack.  I think it adds some charm to it....:-).

 My youngest gave me the angel statue with the children a few weeks ago for the garden.  She has been moved several times trying to find the right spot for her.  The drawers used to have trailing petunia in them until they were all killed by the heat and ended up in our compost bin....:-(.  I have no idea what the flowers are that I stuck in a remaining pot  sitting on that vanity, but I thought the deep purple was a nice touch.  It put some color in that part of the garden.

I might repaint it next year a yellow color of some sort.  Haven't decided yet.....

 You may also remember these motorcylce people that we picked up on our way back from Texas several weeks ago.  This is "Willie the wild rider".....

and "Reckless Ranita"  his riding companion.  I had to double check and make sure she actually had a top on before purchasing her.....geeze...

And this is where we sit in the evenings watching the sun go down and waiting for all of those lights to start coming on.....:-)

  Hope you enjoyed the tour....:-)