June

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Dinner companions

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backstage

About all those dance pix

I've posted quite a few dance pictures in the last few days.
That is because
a) I love them
b) I love the people in them
c) I am really loving dance these days
d) dance is on my mind (because the girls are at regional competition this week)

What (d) means to this blog is that there will be even more dance pix posted in the neat future.

The End.

Even more dance pix

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Dance dance dance

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Rehearsal practice

The little girls int he pictures below practiced long and hard all year for their dance competitions. Still, the week of their dance recital, they practiced even more. It proved effective. Their performance was wonderful. I rather expect the same for the regional and national competitions coming up fairly quickly.












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More dance pix

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Sisters

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Coloring

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Cousins

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Friends

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Princesses

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Recital

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on the subject of Sunday afternoons...

...


some of my favorites were spent riding around  a small town in Louisiana in a certain pickup truck with a certain guy listening to America's top 40 on the radio, drinking Dr. Pepper and eating nacho doritos.

When word came last week that Casey Kasem had died, I first checked my sources. After all, it was here on this blog that I spoke of Morgan Freeman's death only to learn he is alive and well and still making movies.

The voice of the top 40 countdown of my youth really has passed on. With he and Dick Clark gone, I feel a void that last beyond New Year's Rockin' Eve. Things may never be the same for me.

I wanted to see the ball fall in NYC so I watched as much of the  show as I could stand. I didn't make it to the end. It's just not the same without the historic host.

I no longer care much for Dr. Pepper. I only occasionally eat Doritos. The pickup truck is long since become a memory but the cute guy is still spending Sunday afternoons with me.These days, we are sadly, spending them without Casey.

A perfect Sunday afternoon

I am writing this from a comfy chair in the Hub's office aka man cave. The baby daughter is taking a nap on the sofa with two of her three canine acquisitions. The third is resting beside me. Across the room, the Hub is editing old pictures on his computer. (I am not sure why he is doing this, but I am thrilled...)

I have done work on a quilt, a scrapbook and more than a little laundry.  I have downloaded two songs on Itunes. The smell of stargazer lilies is emanating from a bouquet in the breakfast room, adjacent me. There is a fan blowing in my direction. It is quiet aside from the noise coming from the fan, which I find comforting just now.

It is a perfect Sunday afternoon.

In the past week I've been able to spend time with almost every single member of my family. They are all more well and happier than they've been in a long time.

There is melon chilling in the refrigerator and tomatoes in the little kitchen garden that are almost ripe. We have been discussing summer vacation. There are ideas in my head that I need to jot down concerning the cousins camp I plan to host for my great niece and nephews and maybe even the holidays.

For now though, I am content with beings I love so dearly sleeping and working nearby and the sound of the fan blowing on a Sunday afternoon.

straight to the heart

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The handsome little gent I am holding in the picture to the left is my nephew Kassidy. It was taken the summer of 1991. If it does not depict the first time I held him, it is at least one of the first times. I told him, on his birthday that just passed, that when they put him in my arms, he slipped into my heart. It is true.

He was an absolutely delightful baby and he remains so. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma a few weeks ago with a degree that will serve him well as he works in the family business. His awards and accomplishments and accolades are astounding, even to an auntie who knew he would be going places.

Indeed it is the places he has been going and will go that is at the heart of this blog post.

Between his graduation and reporting for his first post graduation employment, he took a trip to Africa. It was a missions trip. It was not his first and almost certainly will not be his last. You see, this smart, handsome, accomplished young gent has a heart for missions.

It it is his heart for Christ that drives his trips, his outlook, his direction. The same is the subject of his blog, the link to it I share here. You can read more about him and his great adventures there, lest you think I am just an overly proud aunt.

P.S. I am an overly proud aunt!

my prize

I read somewhere (it was on Pinterest, I think, but am not sure) that just inside the entrance to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World there is a kiosk where one can get silhouettes done.Every time I see my grandbaby in profile I think about having her silhouette done. I have thought of trying to do one of her myself but realize it is beyond any skill level I have with sissors, even especially good and/or sharp ones. When I read about the kiosk at Disney World, I quick decided to try and get the grandbaby's adult traveling companions to have one done of her for me.
I asked. They agreed. They didn't forget.
The result you see above.
I am thrilled with it. The chin she inherited from her grandfather's side of the family is my favorite part. That and he pony tail. And her cute little nose. Well,the whole thing actually.
It now sits on the mantle looking like it has always belonged there. It hangs just across the room from silhouettes of my children, which I also love.
I can cross another thing off my wish list. (at least until I have more grandchildren...)

the day after Recital

the  more I reflect on it, the better it gets.

Some of the dances I had seen at competition but some I had not. Several of my darlings performed over the course of the evening.

I held my newest great nephew from intermission until the last number.

The grandbaby and her ballet class danced to "Let It Go" her new favorite (along with half or more of the civilized world, it seems) and "Hard Knock Life" from the musical "Annie."

She and her fellow dancers were costumed in things that have not seen much life since she disavowed wearing smocked garments. (It was bound to happen and though she put her foot down a full year before her aunt, I had to concede and stop making them for her to wear.)

The finishing touch to her costume was an apron that belonged to her Mimi's grandmother (who would be her great, great grandmother.)

I was slightly less gratified than Mimi regarding my sentimental attachment to the costumes.

My great niece Lilliann, my grandmother's namesake, who I call "Buttons" performed splendidly, as did the grandbaby's sister, but then, she always does. "Sissy" has been in competition dance for most of her life and it shows. She's front and center at recital, from the opening number to the finale. This year, the theme was "Turn it Up." The grandbaby danced with her sis, adding yet another proud moment to an evening full of them.

You can see from the pix I've included just how grand an evening it was!

Pawpaw

Today is the 112th anniversary of my Papa's birthday.
He has been gone since 1988 but I miss him still.
On my way home today I will pass places that hold fond memories of him.
The picture above is of the South Canadian River. He worked just up the north bank of the river as a pumper. The location afforded us access to the river where we swan and fished and seined minnows and picnicked.
The pump house near the banks of the river was surrounded by aromatic cedar trees. The roads leading up to it were of river sand. Red clay rocks caused the bends in the road that wound around in a crooked circle to the wells that were gauged and otherwise attended by Pawpaw. By the time I could see over the steering wheel of his ancient black truck (from my perch atop a wooden coke crate) he would let me steer (and eventually drive) the roads on days I went to work with him.
He got up before daylight and sipped coffee with much cream from a metal thermos. My sisters and I were allowed sips, but not large ones, else he said hair would grow on our chests.
I am not sure any of us were any happier ever than we were those days down on the river.
Why we never go back there and revisit those places, I don't know.
This is something I need to add to my to do list.



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at the mall

We went to the mall to pick up a Pandora bracelet for the baby daughter's 25th birthday. The grandbaby was supposed to help select charms. In the end, she picked out way more than charms.
A book, a dress, a Build-a-Bear kitten and some See's candy later, we finally make it to the Pandora store for the birthday gift. Perhaps we should have done our shopping on line!

my little pearl

We celebrate the baby daughter's 25th birthday by going to a favorite cajun/seafood restaurant. She had her heart set on a crawfish boil and that's just what she got. I thrilled it worked out for her. She's been putting in long hours at a summer job and with several very intense projects for school. Hitting the quarter century mark is a big deal, especially under such circumstances as hers where hard work and the demands of law school and working for the first time as a summer associate in a law firm.
She's made us all proud and so we were happy that she was happy to celebrate her big day with the family.

We