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!

Labor of Love

I have been working on a {not so small} project for my family. I have been patiently scanning, editing, and uploading a lifetime of recipes from my grandmother's recipe box.

One by one. Precious word by precious word. The tastes of my childhood all written down. Old recipes that are hard to come by. So I am diligently trying to capture all of my grandmother's beloved recipes all in one place where we can all enjoy them. To enjoy the memories we have of each recipe that was made with love. Each card is aged and well-used. And each one is so special. Written down for many more generations to use and pass on.

It's been a tedious project, but worth the effort once it is finished!

My sweet cousin, Gary Wayne scanned a ton of old photos for me as well and it is fun to look at my grandparents so young! So, little by little we are capturing a lifetime of memories and it is nice to know that we can all look back on those old pictures and marvel at the lives of our grandparents.

I really loved this picture of my grandfather during WWII on what appears to be a ship {He is the 2nd from the left, standing}. It's just neat to go back and look at all of this kind of stuff.

Oh and to find cute pictures of my daddy <3 nbsp="">

It's truly a labor of love and time consuming, but its always worth it to help and preserve your past!

Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed...

One fell off and broke his head. Ok, maybe not his head, but he did dislocate his elbow and crack his growth plate. My little nephew, Barrett had a little mishap on Friday. He and his cousin Rendi were of course- jumping on the bed and he fell off and the rest is history. Poor little guy! He was a trooper though and such a big boy through it all.

In the ER waiting (ahem, for NINE hours), he looked up at Brad and proclaimed "this isn't going to end well." And bless his heart, it didn't. Luckily, they were able to pop his elbow back in, but not without much screaming and tears.

He's got a new cast to sport and he of course, got Gator colors. That's my boy!

 Love this little guy and I'm glad that he's not having to have surgery on his little arm. What a brave boy he was!

Needless to say- no more monkeys jumping on the bed!!

Mama G- this post is just for you :-) xoxo

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!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

"Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game." ~Babe Ruth

Tuesday, I got to go to not one, but two very special baseball games. One game was for my cousins Brandon and Colton. The other was a t-ball game for my nephew, Barrett. I am so glad that I got to go watch all my boys play!

 "Life will always throw you curves, just keep fouling them off...the right pitch will come, but when it does, be prepared to run the bases."~Rick Maksian

 "You owe it to yourself to be the best you possibly can be- in baseball and in life." ~ Pete Rose

 "Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead." ~ Jackie Robinson 

"Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world." ~ Babe Ruth

 "I see great things in baseball. It is our game--the American game." ~ Walt Whitman

 "There's no crying in baseball!" ~ A League of Their Own

 "I swing big with everything that I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." ~ Babe Ruth

"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." ~ Jim Bouton