A New Home For Freeman

Please if you are in the area of Tulsa and you read this and know ANYONE who needs a puppy or want to add to your family...His temporary name is Freeman

Totally Forgot

You write it down. You remind yourself several times during the month. You look at the calendar over and over and still you forget. I totally forgot that yesterday was the anniversary of my first blog post 3 years ago. I can't believe it. So I'm doing a double today. Also, I'm so excited I just had to share...

My easel arrived today. I finally got my room all cleaned up and ready to set up an easel and it is now here. I was so very excited that one of my childhood dreams was to have an area to paint and now I do. Ta-Da...!!!

I immediately opened the box and assembled the thing and got all my stuff together. I started the Peaches picture last fall and have not done a thing to it since. So this afternoon I got everything just so, and painted for over an hour on the thing. I'm absolutely over the moon with joy. You just can't imagine how happy I am, really happy. Amazing. So happy anniversary to me.

Have more work to do on it. A mouth and nose might be nice.

Monday, Monday

Yes it is Monday and sort of the eve of the biggest holiday of the summer but as some of you well know a year ago was a nightmare for me, and The Hubby. I am not looking forward to another round of burning my money in the sky for a momentary, "Oh it's pretty." I have always hated fireworks, the cost and the noise and now the danger. I like having people at the cabin but not too many as I like my solitude there but this weekend the whole place is a huge MASS of people, EVERYWHERE! People, kids, dogs, cars, pop-pop, bang-bang and lots of drinking. Not my idea of fun, really! I would just as soon stay at home in Tulsa but I told the board that I would "help" with security. What was I thinking. I may have to spend most of the day at the entrance and let or not-let people in for the festivities. We found out that the invitation to some of the towns-people has been put out. I think that is not good. Our little weekend community has become a HUGE event and I thought we wanted to keep the place a little secret, this is not doing it. It also invites a lot of ne'er-do-well's to possibly have some not good intentions to our open cabins and availability. It's just my opinion and I'm entitled to one. The bottom line is that I hate this time of year. Love what it stands for but hate the masses of people and noise and the potential of injury!

Okay, I'm off the soapbox.

104 Degrees

I was a good friend yesterday and so were a few others. Last night we came back early from the cabin to attend my BFF's daughter's wedding. It was outside, in Oklahoma, on the 5th straight day of over 100 degree temperature. Actually, it hit 104 yesterday. The wedding was to start at 6 pm but was delayed while the rest of the guest were bussed there. Yes I said bussed. We were to park about three minute away and take an old school bus to the ceremony. We boarded the hot bus and made it there where other guests were huddled under one of the two trees in the shade. There were chairs but the chairs were fully in the sun and no one was going to sit till we needed to.

Finally, about 6:30 the limo drove down the drive and the beautiful bride arrived. The groom was in tears. Awwww, so sweet. I thought the father of the bride looked so very tired with rings around his eyes but soon realised that he had been crying. AWWWWW! The ceremony began and was officiated by the grooms grandfather. The whole thing had a Hawaiian theme as that is where the groom is from. Quick vows and we were off to the reception under a shady yet still hot tent. Dancing, fans, porta-potty's and really good food. The food was catered by Wing Run: pulled pork sandwiches, chicken ka-bobs, fruit, veggies and the groom's G-ma's special fried rice (with Spam-VERY yummy). The grooms cake was the shape of a roasted University of Arkansas pig! Some of the glitches was the constant power outages. Thankfully The Hubby is an electrical contractor and made a quick fix that kept the lights, fans and music on. Too bad, no A/C in the porta-potty, or hot water. Something had to give.

What can I say

Wow, what a sad day. First we lose Farrah and now MJ. The world is a much quieter place. That's all I'm going to say on the subject.


I've worked all day long on the scrapbook of our trip and I'm only halfway through. It's tough to try and cull out a few pictures out of over 500 for to make an impact. I spent from 10 am to 4 pm today cutting and pasting and I've only gotten to Dublin. I still have the 3 days spent there and then the 6 days from the ship. I HOPE, hope I finish it tomorrow. I'm on a mission to finish.


Yesterday I finally got to visit my Daddy since we've been back. I was sure that I was not contagious anymore so felt safe to see him. He's doing pretty well after the hip replacement and seems to be getting around fairly well. Bro said he's sleeping a little too much during the day and having a hard time sleeping at night. He's doing well with his physical therapist and but had a little glitch in his showering schedule. Something broke off in the shower but we were able to get our remodeler out there and fix it pretty quick. Daddy showed me the bill from the hospital for his surgery...WOW...over $62,000. Thank goodness he has insurance!


Tuesday I went back to my painting class and added some more touches to the potato picture. Hopefully I'll be through with it in the next couple of weeks. What do you think so far.

Words

Seems like the past few posts have been nothing but pictures and this is not a picture blog although I do love pictures. We have been back home for five days now and it just doesn't seem possible. We had the weekend to recover and sleep but it is extra hard to overcome jet lag when you're sick too. It is the funniest thing that while we were gone for two weeks and over 5 hours difference in time, that I still woke up at 4:30 or 5 every morning no matter what country or ship I was on or in. It seems that my body sleeps the adequate amount of time and I wake up. Very strange, but I still slept a lot on Saturday.

Saturday afternoon, after I woke up from my extended nap, I was laying around in my lounge clothes, hair in a rats nest, sleep in my eyes when then the doorbell rang. I answered and there were our friends KF and BB. A little background here...KF is The Hubby's oldest childhood friend. They have known each other since they were 5 years old. KF was married to Gail, our friend and yet another of The Hubby's oldest friends and my best friend. Gail passed away 3 years ago at the tender age of 49 very suddenly. About a year and a half ago The Hubby decided that it was time that KF started dating again so he setup KF with one of their high school classmates, BB. They are still dating and very happy and Saturday they showed us just how happy they are. I knew it was coming but not sure I'm ready for it. They are engaged. They are great together and very happy. Last fall we took a week trip to NYC with them and had a great time. They travel very well together and in fact leave on Friday for an Alaskan Cruise. I think that is wonderful for both of them. BB never had children but KF and Gail had a son and daughter and the daughter has two little girls so they have fun with the grandchildren too. I'm really glad for KF to find happiness again. I am truly happy for him. I will always miss Gail but hurray for the future of KF and BB.

Happy Birthday

This is a Happy Birthday to my dear baby girl. A is 24 today...I can't believe that. Here's to my beautiful girl. All grown up now. I'm very proud of her. She is following her dream and is happy. That's what you want for you children. I'm so proud of both of my girls. They are leaving a wonderful and memorable mark on this world.

Flowers of Ireland

Ireland and Queen Mary 2 cruise...we're home

We're back. Yes we finally are. The last day was exhausting trying to make our way back from New York. We disembarked from the Queen Mary 2 to sit at JFK airport for about 5 hours for our flight to Chicago then home. A couple of hours into our wait we accidently found out that our flight to Chicago was canceled due to weather. Great! Now what do we do. We had 21 people in our group we needed to shuffle to find flights for. We were lucky I guess to be able to find flights to Dallas, spend the night then fly out at 6 am home the next morning. So here we are. The flight to DFW was not without its drama as one of our group suddenly got sick then had seizures on the flight. The call from the pilots was made for doctors, nurses or EMT to aid. The lady at the center of the scare had her husband at her side and their daughter sitting at the middle of the plane. When we finally landed the paramedics came on board and took her immediately to the hospital. I am very happy to say that she is going to be fine but probably won't fly for a long time. It was explained to us that sometimes when you get off a cruise ship and fly immediately you can develop the vertigo and a little swelling of the brain which is what happened in this. She was sent to the hotel and was told to not fly, so rent a car was their next stop. Scary stuff... now on to the trip.

Between The Hubby and I, we took over 600 pictures so I will try to cull out some them to share and forgive me if I'm not to witty or pick a few blurry ones. The Hubby and I both got sick on this trip and are trying to recover, mine a head cold and his pharangitis and upper respiratory. YUCK!

This is us on the tour bus. We spent a lot of time on the tour bus and usually the minute we sat down and started moving The Hubby would nod off, every time.

Our first place to stay, Hotel Dunloe Castle in Killarney. This place was stunning. I mean absolutely stunning. I could have stayed the entire two weeks here and never leave.

This is the view from our room. I was in heaven. We also got a little floor show from the stallion of the group and his little filly. I have pictures but will not post. I was standing at the outside door and the big guy ran up to the filly, snorted and mounted. This was only 10 minutes after we arrived to our digs.

The view every morning. Did you know that in June the sun does not go down until about 11 pm in Ireland and it rises about 4:45 or 5 am. I didn't realize that.

The outside of our temporary abode.

The inside and some of our traveling companions.

This wonderful bar was not used but just a pretty to look at.

Muckross House

This was on the grounds of our hotel. An old castle, I'm assuming the original Dunloe Castle.

Our day tour around the Ring of Kerry.

We visited an actual sheep farm and were able to watch the sheering of sheep. The only thing we didn't like here was being swarmed by midges that bit. I still have a few places on my hand. The red dye on the sheep is their branding.

This was a trip to Muckross house via ;jaunty car or jaunting car.

Muckross House

Irish stud farm.

Japanese gardens on the farm.

Think I'll paint this.

Finally we are on the ship. What a day but way cool, at least the first 3 days or so. Queen Mary 2. I really got tired of gray water with white foam and waves and waves. Thank goodness for the patches. There were a couple of days where I walked like I was a complete drunk but had not touched a drop. On a sad note, one of our group had a major kink in her arrival on the boat. We had to fly from Dublin to Heathrow/London and then take a tour bus to South Hampton to catch the cruise. When the airline, Aer Lingus was putting the luggage on the plane the baggage handlers decided that we were overweight on the luggage and took hers off and left it sitting. That meant she arrived on the ship without her stuff for a 6 day trip. She was so upset and rightly so because all she had was her carry on and the clothes she was wearing, a t-shirt and jeans and tennis shoes. What a nightmare but we all pulled together to attire her and she was able to find clothes to buy. She was a trooper.

Our balcony. The room. Yeah they brought us champagne.

Ahhhh...we're moving...6 days of moving, back and forth, back and forth. Actually, it wasn't too awfully bad but I did get tired of walking like an intoxicated person.
Let the party begin! I was wrong, really wrong. I have dubbed this cruise, Branson on Water. This trip, I think may have been more for the older set as there were walkers, canes and wheelchairs in abundance. Don't get me wrong there was a nice night club we danced in but the majority of the population on this trip were over 65. EGADS...



The insides...it was beautiful.

Our dining room...The Britannia Room

The tour of the main kitchen.

Sunrise. We had sunshine the first day then nothing but clouds and no land until the last day. Finally we have sun.

There were several lectures during the week and one was by Erica Jong who wrote The Fear of Flying. I didn't do the lectures but The Hubby did a few. I wanted to read and do nothing which is exactly what I did. We did attend several of the shows after dinner several times. They had dancers and singers and a live band and there was a club G32

where we danced to the sounds of the DJ Graham Cracker (yeah I know) and a Caribean band called Fusion. The Hubby was in heaven.

Spent most of my time here reading and journaling. There were several areas to play games, read, write, jigsaw puzzles and visit.

We awoke at 5am to shower, dress and catch some breakfast before we disembarked. After breakfast we spied the Statue of Liberty in the fog. Finally we're home.

We took over 600 pictures so it was hard to find a select few to share here. I will share more later of some of the flowers from the gardens we saw.