CONGRATS!

February 14, 2010 By

On Saturday Feb 6th our youngest son, Colin, became the fourth member of our family to earn the Boy Scouts of America rank of EAGLE SCOUT !

It was an honor and privilege to share this exciting award ceremony with our many friends and family who came to congratulate him and support his achievement.

It was a bitter-sweet moment as we leave TROOP 497 with memories of  many, many  years of cherished experiences.   Scouting has been a huge part of our lives since Brandon joined Tiger Cubs in first grade at St. Paul’s Episcopal Day School back in I believe 1993.  Seventeen wonderful years of scouting activities.

It was difficult to put his Memory Table together, since so much of his ‘stuff’ had been relocated in our move 5 years ago to the new home, it was a bit challenging to pull it all together and remember where it all had been stashed.

Scouting has been somewhat of a ‘tag team’ effort for  Dad and I.  I got to go on the local and in-state campouts with the boys acting as chauffeur carrying several kids, sleeping in a bunk aboard the USS Lexington with no AC and 100+ weather or sleeping under the stars in the Crockett National Forest of East Texas; either in my special cot or on my special mattress in MY personal tent…it really was fantastic fun… and loving the outdoors as I do.    Dad got to enjoy the ‘High Adventure’ experiences hiking the Rockies in Colorado summer weather, freezing in drizzling rain; soaking wet in the muck of the Boundary Waters on the Canadian Border; or snoozing aboard a sail boat at Sea Base off the Florida Keys.

Scouting has brought experiences like no other activity can.  Learning life skills along the way while having a blast.  Witnessing some of the most breath-taking sunrises and sunsets that God provides.

We will continue to support their activities ourselves however we can and encourage others with son’s to enjoy the manifold blessings of the Boy Scouts.

Congratulations Colin!

Love Mom!

Filed Under: Family

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

January 11, 2010 By

It is just quite unbelievable the mishaps that have plagued my life since last Thursday! However, in spite of the onslaught I am attempting to maintain a cherry outlook and keep moving forward. Allow me to explain…Thursday, I went over to the cottage to make beds for expected guests arriving on Friday and found the furnace fan running continuously and even though the heat was on, and the temperature was set at a comfy 73, the room temperature was a very chilly 44 degrees. A new thermostat had been installed on 12/8 and when I contacted the repairman, (whom I’ve been using now for 6 years at our home and my hubby’s oral surgery practice) he assured me that it must have been caused by a power surge or glitch and if I reset the thermostat all would be well. Which I did and when I left about two hours later all seemed well.

Friday mid-day my guests arrive and as we are going through the cottage it was discovered that there was no water!? I was sure I had paid the bill so a cut-off was out of the question, (although I did drive out to verify that the meter was indeed OK). But, upon further inspection I discovered there is about a 12 inch piece of pipe behind the cottage that USED to be enclosed in the underpinning and apparently when the new underpinning was installed back in February of ’09 the gentleman who provided that work for me apparently did not see the need to enclose the pipe, therefore allowing it to FREEZE during the 13 degree temperatures we had Thursday night. A quick call to my trusty plumber and five minutes after his arrival he had it cleared and the water began flowing nicely. He secured the exposed pipe for me with that wonderful gray Styrofoam Pipe Insulation and all was well. Even so, he advised to allow a stream to flow inside the cottage during this current extreme cold spell. (So much for GLOBAL WARMING eh?!)

Oh yeah, did I mention the flat tire I had on my vehicle in between? Yeah! truly a BLACK FRIDAY if ever there was one, but it was not over….. Mercedes-Benz has this cute little ‘inflatable spare’ for some of their vehicles…mine, with it’s own SPECIAL lug nuts…! The repairman had never put a spare on a Mercedes before, and could barely figure out how to get the thing out of the trunk of the car. (Is this really happening to me?!) I nearly froze while reading him the directions on how to change and inflate the spare. What a three-ring circus! He had to take my tire to the dealer for repair and I could have it switched out the next morning. What a privilege!

Saturday mid-day I’m at the dealer waiting for my tire make-over and my cell phone message alert beeps in about half a dozen messages….from Friday evening. You see, the stone on the exterior of our home being anywhere from 6-8 inches thick over the 6″ studs sometimes prevents cell phone reception indoors, and when you go outside, whenever that is, your phone gets ‘caught up’. Mine did, finally, and amidst the messages was one from the cottage guests…apparently upon returning from Friday evening Dinner-out-on-the-town they entered the Cottage to a blazing 86 degrees! Thankfully through their resourcefulness (aren’t all scrappers resourceful?!) they Googled the thermostat over the internet and found the owners manual and re-set the thermostat AGAIN.

Ahhhh, but that was not the end of it …..wait till you hear about Saturday night!

The weekend was not a TOTAL LOSS though, BAYLOR Men’s Basketball tromped Oklahoma!! Woo Hoo!, GO BEARS!! Men’s Basketball is going to be GREAT this year!

I’ll let you know about the rest of the weekend next time, till then, SMILE!

Blessings to you!
Katherine

Filed Under: Bluebonnet Cottage, Family

Another ‘Season’

December 2, 2009 By

When it comes to SPORTS…I don’t think there is ever a time that you’re not in some ‘SEASON’ or other.  For instance,  Football Season ended on a Friday with a Final/Last game and Basketball SEASON began the following Monday with practice and a FIRST game on Tuesday!  2009-11-24-Basketball

It was  a lot of fun to watch the shifting of gears from an outdoor field, pads, helmets, gloves,  and cleats; to tennis shoes, gym shorts, and tee-shirts.  Colin gets a lot less ‘playing time’ in basketball since this is his first season to participate, but he’s learning the ropes quickly, or should I say ‘hoops’.  A bit reluctant initially, but I think he’s warming to the sport and feeling more comfortable on the court with each practice and game.

We are pleased that Colin is with most of the guys from the Live Oak Classical Academy football team and Coach Barker is continuing his shepherding of them.  It’s a great peer group of  Christian young men in training!

It’s so important during the High School years that your children have the ‘right’ friends in their peer group who can encourage each other in their faith and help hold each other accountable for their behavior;  on the field, on the court, or on the bus enroute, or just hanging out with each other.  We are thankful that Colin has the opportunity for this positive influence and experience to help him on the road to adulthood.

I hope you had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving with your loved ones!

thanks for stopping by!  Katherine

Filed Under: Family

Deer Season

November 16, 2009 By

2009-Colin's-Deer

It’s that time of year again! It is just amazing how fortunate our Colin is when it comes to hunting. Seriously! For the last three years Colin has bagged his deer on his FIRST time out! And this year was no exception.
The spread on this trophy animal is larger than either of the other two by far. And he was in wonderful condition so we’re looking forward to some excellent meals this winter. We will donate a large portion of it to the local food bank since it is just the three of us so he is well appreciated.

Of course, Colin is decked out in his finest hunting gear! ( HA HA!!) If there’s one thing clear about Colin, he really doesn’t care what people think about what he wears…you won’t find many deer hunters in shorts with their boots on. . . Go figure!

Filed Under: Family

Gift Bottles

September 23, 2009 By

Here’s a great idea for recycling those Starbucks Cappuccino bottles….

Altered-Starbucks-bottles

These first appeared on stage with SU founder Shelli Garner at convention in August, and I just loved the idea.

Our son Colin likes to have a Starbucks bottle a couple of times a week, (I figure it’s better than carbonated sodas and a change from the sport drinks) so I started collecting them and decorated three of them for my workshop last night for my door prizes.

–I used Whoppers to bring out the Chocolate Chip elements in the Autumn Meadows Designer Series Paper. You can find it on page 13 of the 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog.
–I used the ‘Rockin’ Dauber’ technique with the pine cone image of the Autumn Days Stamp Set (pg 92, 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog) inking the image first with Pumpkin Pie and then rocking a sponge dauber with Close to Cocoa Classic Ink on the edges for contrast.
–I then used a sponge dauber and our great new Shimmer Paint in Champagne Mist for an added touch.
–I used Sticky Strip to adhere the bottle band to the jar for extra stick…the last thing you want is for your band to come off when you hand it to someone, so a little extra stick goes a long way!
–The lid is covered with a 1 3/4″ Chocolate Chip card stock circle that I used Crystal Effects to adhere to lid. I figured this was easier than painting over the Starbucks label and simple and quick as well. Who wants to wait for paint to dry?

These cute bottles can be made for many occasions, holidays (think jelly beans at Easter or candy hearts for Valentines Day) and lots of different events so find a friend or someone who drinks them and ask them to start saving bottles that you’re RE-CYCLING!!

They were a huge success and shows once again what you can do with scraps.

I hope you’re having a wonderful week, Waco is really enjoying cooler temperatures with gray skies overhead and moisture that is sorely needed.

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by and see what I’ve been up to. Our trip to Durango, CO, that hubby and I went on this past weekend, was simply wonderful and relaxing. I think we’ll go back again soon.

Katherine

Filed Under: 3-D Projects, Family, Stampin' Up!

Bandie!!!

August 19, 2009 By

2009-Frisco---TreeMeet my ‘Little Friend’!  His name is Bandie.  He was brought to our ranch a few weeks ago by a friend of our son Brandon, to be ‘released into the wild’…yeah RIGHT!   As you can see, Bandie has other ideas about what and where the ‘wild’ is, and about where he belongs.

Currently he is living out at the barn and doing a fine job of housekeeping by keeping bugs and stuff picked up.  He is most curious with a capital C!  He literally never stops moving unless he is asleep.

Here he is discovering one of the trees in the backyard near our pool.  I think he might have been investigating the tree top for bird nests since the humming birds were diving at him something fierce until he came back down from his little jaunt.

He is about 4 months old right now (he was three when he came) and I suspect will be entering puberty sometime this fall…we’ll see if he hangs around until then.

He is really very sweet to play with, he loves sucking your skin, doesn’t matter if it’s a finger, forearm, or leg, just skin.  (Not sure what that’s about!)

Filed Under: Family
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