It’s ALL ABOUT ME!

As promised yesterday, here are pictures of Wilson’s back yard treasure:

I’m at a total loss for words. This is the end of an era…. a good era.

Update: This news was so shocking to me that I called to find out when their last day is. I found out that as of 9:00 THIS MORNING, they are CLOSED. C-L-O-S-E-D. No last chance for pizza. No last goodbye. No last pitcher of beer. NOTHING. Sigh.

Wilson is part Rat Terrier and part Pekingese. According to the lady who sold him to me, he is 3/4 Rat Terrier and 1/4 Pekingese. The Pekingese must be in his underbite and attitude! Anyway, Wilson is always digging in the back yard searching for things I cannot see. There are 2 places that he is particularly fond of and I’ve wondered what he has been digging for! Late this afternoon, he finally captured an elusive treasure. It was the strangest thing have ever seen. Ok, maybe not ever, but in a long long time! He found a creature — an odd looking thing! This creature is about the size of an overgrown field mouse. Actually bigger than a field mouse, but smaller than a rat. It has a long nose and an odd face. The eyes are hidden….. or maybe they are just so small you cannot see them. It also has what appears to be a red nose (I say appears because it could be blood!).

The oddest thing about this creature are it’s front paws. The front paws are wide and have long claws. The paws look almost human as they appear to have prints!

I was so facinated that I grabbed Sue’s camera and ran outside to take some pictures. Sue held moved the creature around with a stick so we could get better pictures. Of course, knowing my luck, Sue went back to Daddy’s house and took her camera with her so I don’t have any of our pitures to blog. I will post one as soon as possible. Here is a picture I found online:

I was so facinated by this creature that I took some time to find it online. From what I can tell, it appears that my “creature” is an Eastern Mole. The literature states that an Eastern Mole’s eyes are covered by skin and fur and may not been seen. If you wish to read more or see pictures of this interesting mammal, go to this webpage.

Hopefully I will be able to get pictures of “my” creature tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, Daddy! You are the best dad ever, and I hope you have a great day! I LOVE YOU!

Sue, Caitlin, Kelly, and I were driving home from town today when Sue decided to take a few pictures. We got so tickled that I thought we would have to stop and gather ourselves. Like I said, Sue and I always have a great time!

Kelly, Caitlin, and Jennifer rode in the back seat. Here they are as we cross the bridge.

Sue takes a picture of her and me. See that look of fear in her eyes? Maybe it is because she knows I am going to color her hair tonight!!!! Or….. it could be because it is me behind the wheel.

Wait! Is that a COP passing us???? Too bad we were laughing so hard. We realized that he must have been behind us watching the flash go off in the car over and over and over. It’s a good thing he didn’t pull us over. We were laughing so hard that we would have been given field sobriety tests!

Now that the danger has passed, we continue taking pictures. I wonder where the county cops are hanging out.

Sue just can’t quit posing. We’ll all her “Granny” from now on.

Here’s Sue in another memorable pose. After this picture, I was laughing harder than I have ever laughed in my life. I was glad the cop had already passed us! Sue was laughing so hard she got strangled!

Sadie wanted to join in the fun!

After Sue’s long trek down to Alabama, she wanted to unwind a bit in the pool. Here’s Kendrick, Russell, and Sue in the pool (sorry Caitlin and Kelly — I didn’t think to get the camera while you were in the pool!)…..

Sue and the kids make a current.

Russell and Kendrick give their best “bikini” poses.

“I am not a crook…..”

Russell shows off some cool pool dance moves.

“Uh…. did you say no peeing in the pool????”

Otis wants to swim!!!

Sue is coming down for a 10 day (or so) visit. I am so excited, I can’t wait on them to get here!!! I promised her that I wouldn’t force her to go shopping this time, so we are going to have a nice leisurely visit. Russell and Caitlin will have fun swimming with me at my house. I’m so excited!!!

7:30 a.m.: Sue is just north of Chicago. She left her house at 5:30 a.m. (Yes, this is Sue we are talking about, and yes, she did leave her house that early!) I hope they don’t have any trouble coming through Chicago at this hour on a Thursday.

9:30: I just talked to Sue and she is 40 miles north of Champaign. They didn’t have any trouble coming through Chicago and are trucking it South! Come on down!!!

10:50: They are now 20 miles north of Effingham. They are going to stop for gas and lunch and continue the merry (ha!) trek.

12:52: They have 3 miles from I-24.

12:53: They are 2 miles from I-24.

12:54: They are exiting onto I-24 now. Sue reports that she just passed up a hitchhiker. He was wearing a “nice green shirt”. She is about 37 miles from the Kentucky state line!!!! Come on down!

1:29: Sue just called. She just crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky. She is putting the gun rack in the back window of her car so she won’t look like a tourist while in the state.

2:34: She is currently 7 miles from the Tennessee state line!!!!!!!!!!!! COME ON DOWN!

10:23: Sue and Company (Caitlin and Russell) arrived around 5:45. They made it here in record time. We had a nice dinner ready for them: fried ham (fried ham, cheese and bologna… but I digress!!!), fried okra (garden fresh), purple hull peas, cornbread, onions (garden fresh) and tomatoes (garden fresh). I’m so glad they are here!!! We are going to have a blast.

I came home from work today to a surprise! There was a little yellow card on my doorknob with notifying me that “your eletric service has been disconnected due to no-payment of your account.” WHAT?!?!?!?! Non-payment? I always pay my bills! That’s the rule. Suddenly I started to wonder if I had paid that bill. Or did it somehow get overlooked? I grabbed my checkbook register and scanned it. Yes…. there was the record of check written to the electric company. Right beside it was the little checkmark idicating that the check had cleared.

I frantically called the electric company. It was after 4:00 in the afternoon and it was 93 degrees outside. The inside temp must have been over a hundred! I was sweating bullets — literally and figuratively! The lady at the electric company was very nice and worked to figure out what had happened. It turned out that the check I wrote was applied only to the shop. For some reason we have 2 electric meters: one on the house and one on the shop. I always write one check to cover both meters and it has never been a problem before. This time, it was a problem! An electric worker was sent out and reconnected the power. Actually, what he did was reinstall the meter! Apparently, when the power is turned off, they take part of the meter!!!

I did receive a cut-off notice from the electric company a couple of weeks ago, but since I had already mailed the check, I threw the notice away. You can bet that won’t happen again! Anytime I get late notices on anything, I will call to get the true status. Lesson learned!

Jessica continues on her quest to furnish her new apartment. She moves out the weekend after Jennifer — both girls are so excited. This weekend, Jessica bought flatwear, a comforter for the bed, and she also found the perfect couch:

Both girls are counting down the days until their respective moves!!!

Today was the fourth Sunday in July which, in our family, is a standing date. The Fourth Sunday in July is our family reunion — has been for as long as I can remember. So, today I trekked down to Cullman for the festivities. Used to be, the reunion was quite the event — almost every member of the family came and it was quite fun. Now, as the family ages, spreads out, and moves on, the reunion gets smaller and smaller. Still, it is great to see all the cousins, aunts, and uncles.

The food today was great…. the best I remember in quite a while. There was corn, butter beans, potato casseroles, baked beans, and more desserts than you can shake a stick at!!!! My favorites were the fried squash and the chicken and dressing!!!! YUM YUM!

I could only stay for 45 minutes because of another committment. I am the chairman of the social committee at work and we had a bowling event sheduled for today. Jim and I went, and we had a great time. All in all, it was a busy weekend, but FUN!