My sweet brother.

I have two sisters, one older and one younger and one younger brother. My brother was a guy's guy. He has always loved motorcyles, boats, trucks, radios, and he lived his life having fun, working hard and loving and taking care of his family. He was the only son, only boy and my dad's best friend... all of our best friend. He loved to make things pretty and green and keep them that way. He used to tease us (his sisters) all the time. He's very handsome and has been told he looked like Tom Cruise. I have been told that I look more like him than I do my sisters, and without makeup I do... I always said that I would have been a better looking boy. He was always laughing and was very funny, his favorite word to say was "flip". Ahh he could make me laugh and was quite the gentleman. I remember when I had one of my daughters and my life was very hard, I got a very sweet card from him, and he said all the right things to make me feel better and make me smile. He was my hero so many times in my life and oh how I love him!!!

So it is with great sorrow and saddness when I learned that he passed away tonight.

I love you Don and pray for peace and God's tender mercies to attend us as we learn to cope without you. May you rest in peace dear sweet brother of mine.



This is Don with his wife Rae Jean when they came for a visit for his birthday in Oct of 2009. It was his first visit to Arkansas and he was so excited to see the beauty of the state. The Old Mill was his favorite place that we visited.

Family picture of my parents and siblings...

An Eventful Summer

Our house is Sold and the people that are buying the house want to close June 28th. That means we have to move on June 26th. We are busy looking for a place to live. I didn't realize how hard it would be to find a place! It is hard to downsize and live somewhere else. I have some issues about where I live and I guess I might be rather odd or a bit OCD. Is is too much to ask for a place to be clean?
So today the search continues... Celeste, Baby Lizzie and I are out on the hunt again.

Today I go to the Doctor to find out if I have to have foot surgery. An eventful summer!

More exciting news is Derek our youngest son is going to Dubai for 3 months to over see the landscaping for the tallest building in the world. It is an awesome opportunity for him. Way to go Derek!

Happy summer blog friends!

Blog updates

I have not entered anything on my blog for a long time, not because there isn't anything going on in our life... just haven't wanted to.

I started taking piano lessons a few weeks ago. It has been years since I quit piano lessons. I think I was in 5th or 6th grade. I took for 4 years and really didn't like to practice and I didn't like the dreaded piano teacher. My mother warned me that I would regret quitting... and I do. Julia gave me piano lessons for a Mother's Day gift and I find it exciting to practice and pass off each piece. It is nice to learn the info all over again. Life is funny though, my teacher is one of my Mia Maids that I taught when I first moved here 22 years ago. She is patient with me and all my bad piano playing habits that I have acquired.

Aubrey and Kyle came this past weekend for a visit. We had a great timeand went shopping for Aubrey's maturnity clothes, Aubs and Celeste got pedicures, we went to the new Yogurt shop a few times, went swimming, went to breakfast and had barbeque with friends. It was a nice weekend!

I am sporting a really awkward (and ugly) air boot. I tore a tendon in my left foot. Not really sure how or when I did it. I do remember last summer Doug convincing me to prepare for a half marathon (yes it is the same 1/2 marathon that Doug ran and fractured his leg and was on crutches). I was doing quite well with that and got a little to over active and remember pulling something in the left foot. It has hurt since then and no amount of physical therapy and ice has helped it. Probably looking at wearing the thing for 4 more weeks, then check it and probably do surgery then wear it another 6 weeks or so. So I will sport this all summer. I took it off last night and my left leg is much thinner that the right leg now. Wonder if I could get velcro and use it on my whole body?

We plan on a vacation to Utah this summer within the next month. We are all getting together for a family reunion at our eldest son's house. We are excited to be together again. Hopefully the weather in Utah will stay cool for the summer. I am excited to get out of this heat!!! While on vacation I have some high school friends that I haven't seen in a long time and we are planning a lunch date. I am so excited for that too! Also Julia is moving into her new home in a few weeks so I want to be there to help her out.

Our house is still for sale. The market is picking back up so that is a good sign. We are getting rid of "stuff" and it is so liberating. Celeste and I did a big garage sale a few weeks ago and got rid of furniture and just stuff. Now to sale the house and we will be set! Our plans to downsize will be complete.

Can I just say I love summer, spending time with kids and grandkids, I love sitting by the pool, and I love to eat fresh fruits (melons are my favorites) oh and ice cream/yogurt. More blog info to come later.

Have a great summer!