A Great Weekend!!

Nearly every single morning Louis Dean and I sit outside on the kitchen deck with our morning coffee - often late morning - and talk and watch for a bit as we 'stupor' before we do our devotional readings.

And every morning there is something to see.

We are using one of Louis Dean's real bono fide cameras - as in not my iPhone - for some pics.

This flower was one of them. I did not get a picture of the beautifully colored caterpillar with the rows of dainty white feet, but it was on a stem of this flowering plant and it was awesome.

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It looked something like this.

We never know what we are looking for nor what we will see - but we always see something!

This morning, for instance, Louis Dean woke up before daylight and took his predawn coffee out to the deck. He said he saw a possum walk slowly across the top of the fence and disappear. He turned his eyes back to where he first saw it - and there was another one. Guess they were going home after a night of foraging.

One morning I saw a sleek brown rat.....not my favorite sighting!

Then this afternooon, Summer and I saw birds come out of a hanging birdhouse by the front porch.

One of them flew right over to the stone mail box and looked at me for a split second.

And tonight I saw a big fat frog as I was working on the driveway putting pebbles in cement mortar along the front step. 

There's always something to see if we watch for it!

Saturday was a 'Get 'R Done' kind of day.

Summer and Louis Dean and I made one last trip to the small storage unit she had rented and we unloaded the last of her stuff to store.

I went with them but I was next to no use at all.

You can see how small that space she rented is......and you would not believe how much Louis Dean  managed to pack in it! He tells me - with pride - "Guess who taught me how to do this?? Jeryl Doggett!" 

That was his father in law - Ellen and Ruth Ann's daddy. He learned so much from him and is now teaching Summer some of his 'tricks.' He truly understands physics!

It was late afternoon when we got back to the house - and Summer and I were ready to eat and maybe watch a TV show or something - but Louis Dean wanted to put the trailer hitch/bumper thing on her van. Have I mentioned that her van is named 'Percey?'

So they did that while I watched back to back episodes of Midsomer Murders and switching out laundryand ironing the whole time. When they finally came in, Summer had to go to bed - she was worn out! Louis Dean was still going! So we sat out and had some wine on the driveway and watched a program when we came in. He can still run circles around just about everyyone....including me!

But Sunday morning he was finally feeling the aches and pains of working all day Saturday!

He took his coffee into the music room and turned on Tennessee Ernie Ford singing gospel music while I dressed for church. I went alone and met Amber, Mike and the kids there. 

It does my heart good to go to church.

I picked Louis Dean up afterwards and we drove over to the Bells where Jesse met us.

Granddad stayed with the kids while we met up with Summer and Benjamin at the movie theater.

It was our day to see the last James Bond movie and it was amazing.

All four of my children and I are big movie fans. I remember going to see Jeremiah Johnson with Summer and Jesse at the drive in theater. We watched that movie over the years more times than I can count. Amber and I have watched all of the Daniel Craig Bond movies together and more than once or twice! So it was a fitting thing for all my children to go with me to see this one.

What a perfect film to end the Bond era. It was really GOOD!!!

We all went back to the Bells for an afternoon of football, cake and grilled burgers.

Granddad and the kids watched a movie, too, while we were gone!

I think Granddad liked it more than they did!

Paw Patrol was one of his favorites back when they were little, but he watched Frozen and Bubble Guppies and anything else they wanted him to watch with them.

Amber planned this day to gather her siblings and celebrate my 73rd birthday which was September 24th. They had planned on surprising me on my real birthday weekend but Amber found out while I was in the hospital that I was going to be at the ranch instead! That's when she told me about the intended surprise. I plan my life a month ahead (and sometimes more - all my bee meeting dates for the year are written down in my calendar) but she assumed that since I was having surgery a week before my birthday that I would be home!

This was even better!!

A Bond movie, all my children together, birthday cake......

and a Cowboy win in football!!!

It was a PERFECT day!!!

Loved that I got a pic of us together!

Jesse is continuing to heal from his motorcycle accident and I was so happy to have all my children with me at the same time.

This is the gorgeous Halloween garland Amber made for their front door.

She has such a beautiful home!

And it was so sweet of her to make this day happen.

Tuesday was a long anticipated day - Sabrina and Rayne are flying back to Texas and will be here for a few months!

I was watching Facebook like a hawk waiting to see this pic!

I flew into action and made a batch of pumpkin muffins and some really good sugar cookies!

While they cooled, I picked up the western shirts I had bought for her from the cleaners and packed the jeans, jacket and goodies in a bag for Summer to take to her when she picked them up at DFW.

Summer was so happy!

She was up early to get to her dental appointment as well as the foot doctor.

She's having to wear a boot for a few weeks but nothing is going to stop her from enjoying Rayne!

She sent me this video after they landed and were heading out.

Louis Dean and I will be meeting them on the 23rd at the Bar J Guest Ranch in El Dorado, Arkansas.

She may be out of pumpkin muffins by then so I best bake another batch before we go.

We've had so much excitement around here lately!

The rest of this week will be all about finishing up some home projects and not gallivanting around so much.