Labor Day Weekend

Who doesn't love a three day weekend? I know this girl sure does! With David occupied in North Carolina at the beach for a wedding, I headed home for the weekend. My sweet friend, Becki's baby shower was this weekend. I enjoyed getting to celebrate her and her upcoming arrival.

{Mindy, Becki, and I}

Big thanks to my friend Johanna for taking this picture. I was horrible and didn't take the first one. Go figure!

The rest of the weekend was pretty laid back. But so perfect just being home. After the shower I took the boys down to the creek to go swim. Thanks to the super rainy season this year, they haven't gotten to go swimming all year. They were absolutely in heaven! They truly love to swim down at the creek.

Give Brutus a ball and he will swim all day. He's a weird bird but I wouldn't have him any other way.

Speaking of birds, I got to experience a phenomenon this weekend that I have never noticed. I asked my dad, and he has never noticed either. But it's one of those things that would be easy to miss. There were so many hummingbirds flying around daddy's cotton field this weekend. They were everywhere! I had no idea that they fed off of the cotton blooms. It was very awesome. I watched them fight with each other, fly across the field dipping and chirping. They are really fascinating creatures.

I got excited earlier this week when I finally spotted a male at my feeder. I have only been seeing the female and I have been patiently waiting to see if the male would show up. Guess he was trying to be all sneaky!

If I had known I was about to hit the hummingbird jackpot, I might not have gotten so excited.

Spot the hummingbird!

I also spotted old peg leg on one of my drives.

Looks like this poor fellow has had a rough life. I named him Capt. Jack Sparrow. Get it? hardy, har, har

Saturday night, we watched some football. I missed the Florida game :-( but we did catch the Clemson vs Georgia game. That was a good one!

Barrett came home with me and the next morning I helped him catch crayfish and explore outside. Poor Brutus came on one walk with us. Needless to say, he was ready to get back to safety!

I took the boys on several rides around the cotton field. JJ was the only one that didn't fall off/jump off of the 4-wheeler. Guess the other two just didn't have it together!

We rode around and checked on the bees. I didn't know they were there until I drove up on them. Thank goodness I didn't disturb them. That could have gotten ugly!

The area around the Chipola and Apalachicola Rivers produces the best honey- Tupelo Honey. The movie Ulee's Gold starring Mrs. Timberlake (Jessica Biel), was filmed in Wewa, St. Joe, and Apalachicola and has a story line that involves tupelo honey production. Just a little FYI. Since it's not the right time of the year to make tupelo, the bees feed off of various other blooms for their pollen.

Anyways, it was good to be back in Calhoun County and to see my family. Hope you all had a great Labor Day as well!

Wait- It's June Already?

Where did May go? 2013 is clicking away like a champ! Here is a little recap of things from the past month.

First off, Brandon GRADUATED from high school! How is that even possible?

I am sooo proud of that young man. He was the Salutatorian of his class (he takes after me, because I was for my class as well). So I will take all the credit for that one. Ha! No really- he is such a hard working, smart, good kid and I love that boy. Congratulations Brandon! It was so much fun getting to celebrate him and this major milestone in his life.

Someone else celebrated a milestone in May. My sweet, sweet mom had a birthday!

Like our matching outfits? :-/

I got to travel with David's mom and two of his sisters to Atlanta to attend the Living Proof Live event with Beth Moore.

I'm so glad they invited me to go. I had a great time and got a great word from God while I was there. If you ever have the chance to attend one of these events- do it!

My brother took me on a fishing excursion on the Chipola River.

My tomato plant is rocking it's socks off with 'maters. And other backyard related happenings. Lots of flowers, lots of birds, and lots of ball throwing going on out there!

New life abounding with the birth/hatching of my resident house finch that decided that my geranium was the perfect place for her nest. I've been keeping an eye on these four little guys.

When I checked on them this past Sunday, they had finally made their debut.

I can't wait to watch them grow and finally leave their nest. Did you know that a group of house finches is known as a "development"? Just a fun fact for you. Ha!

Guess it is now confession time. I have a new hobby. And that new hobby is ornithology to sound all fancy. But in reality, it's just bird watching. And guess what? I don't care if that makes me a nerd, because I love it and find it fascinating and fun. And thankfully David was taught at an early age to love the study of birds by his Aunt Sybil. She would take him around to look at birds all the time. He pulled out his old field guide of birds that she had given him and what did he find?

He spotted an Eastern Phoebe at my family's farm back in 1991. I'm sure Aunt Sybil had taken him out there to the farm because we used to have an albino hawk out there that all the local bird enthusiasts would come and watch all the time.

So, I have a partner in crime who doesn't mind me watching my birdies all the time. We even have a date this weekend with a painted bunting at Ft. Pulaski in Savannah. And I can't wait! He has seen several of them there (they aren't normally found in my area) and I hope that I can get a glimpse of one too!

Image via Great Florida Birding Trail

I added the picture, just so you can see why I am excited. How gorgeous is that bird?

Ok...that's enough about my bird nerd self....

That about sums up the month of May. I'm sure June will be gone before we know it as well!

It's Never Too Late

Or maybe it is too late to share a few Christmas photos with you all! Whether it's too late or not, that's what I'm offering ya today. I don't think I ever even posted a picture of my Christmas tree. #epicfail

So, here are a few shots of my tree. I was really excited to put up a Christmas tree again this year, since my last one I put up was 2010. So I was overdue to pull all of my stuff out and get crackin'. Sadly, I lost a few large ornaments due to all the moving those things endured.

It's really hard to take pictures of a Christmas tree in the middle of the night, I tell ya! It was way more beautiful in person than these pictures give credit for. I boycotted the ribbon on the tree this year, simply because it made me mad when I went to redo the bow for the top and it ended up looking like it had been maimed in some horrendous accident. Nope. Just me and my lack of Martha Stewartness.
David got into town on the Friday before Christmas. So, we were able to have a little Christmas time on our own.

 If you notice, Oscar is very interested in what David is doing. He's waiting to open a present himself!

 Finally, he gets his opportunity to open a present. I'm sure he was very thankful to David to let him open his present!

Oscar had been a bad boy a few days prior to this. While I was at work, he got into the presents under the tree, found the ones I had wrapped for him, Moxley, Brutus, and JR (yes, I wrap dog toys and yes, it's weird, but they love opening them!). Needless to say, when I got home, there was wrapping paper everywhere, two bones eaten, and the stuffing pulled out of a toy. He got put on the naughty list :-)

Oscar was all into the opening of the presents this day, until he realized that all David had gotten was a toothbrush. Not interested in that one!

Ok..guess due to picture overload, I will break this up into several posts. So you may see the next one today, or you know, June sometime.

December: The Month of Celebrations

December is always a busy month with all of the Christmas festivities that happen. However, my family has taken it upon themselves to make December the month of birthdays. Add David to the December birthday list, and you are partying all month long!

First to celebrate this month is David. He rang in the big 3-1 on the 4th. I had every intention of traveling to Savannah this past weekend to celebrate his birthday, but I got knocked to the ground by an ugly cold. Therefore, my sweetie decided to come to Thomasville to help make me feel better. Which I am glad that he did, because I would have hated for us to not celebrate his birthday at all.

Because I was sick, we never even left the house all weekend. But that didn't stop me from making the birthday boy a cake. He requested a lemon cake- which of course I have never made before. So I tried a recipe. I have to say it was a bit blah in my book. But then again, me whipping up a cake high on cold medication and sleep deprived might have contributed to it not turning out all that great!

Happy Birthday David!

With David claiming his birthday present, that now means I have zero presents under my Christmas tree. I really need to get cracking in that department!

Moving on along the party train....

Next up is my brother Brad. I went and stayed in Blountstown to help celebrate his birthday, as well as my father's and my cousin's birthdays. But I guess Brad was the main attraction for the evening.

Check out my mother's ghetto cake. Guess how old Brad was turning?

Let's see... left over candles from Barrett's 2nd and 3rd birthdays + 2 regular candles = 34.

Git 'er done, Cathy! Ha!!

 After the birthday cake, the real fun began. Barrett got to give his daddy his "birthday licks" and let me say he took his job serious. He was only allowed to do it, if he could count to 34...and he could! So his choice of weaponry was the wooden spoon. He had an intensity that I have never seen come out! Think he enjoyed getting daddy back for all the times he had been in trouble :-) I have a feeling Brad's feeling a bit sore today for those licks that didn't land on his wallet. Cause Barrett didn't hold back!

With my dad's birthday coming up on Thursday, Barrett has the opportunity to get the birthday licks in. He's already proved he can count to 59. So, be ready, Papa!

We finished up festivities with some fire fun down at the campsite down at the creek.

 My father and my two cousins, Brandon and Colton, sure have made it um, festive down there.

My father brought in a lovely Christmas tree to the location and promptly decorated it with colored lights and pine cones that he spray painted. I accused him of spending too much time on Pinterest!

And oh yeah- you see that lovely manager scene? The boys thought it would be a nice addition to the scenery. SMH... the camel even lights up! That's my father, ladies and gentlemen and I wouldn't trade him for anything in this world!