Yesterday....

Where DOES Time Go?

I was reading blogs today and noticed I did not post yesterday. Why didn't I? Where does my time go and what do I really do each and every day? I love to brag about being retired and loving my new life, but I really do wonder about my time. Life is passing me by very quickly and I just can't seem to slow it down. Yesterday it rained again. I was going to get up and go to the store, but why get out in the rain, I don't have to. So I stayed on the computer reading, and playing the games that I love. Snood, and Zuma. I can spend hours doing that and of course I have to take care of my Webkinz. I have gotten where I don't even read the newspaper anymore. I spend all my time it seems on the computer. Oh I still do the dishes, laundry, take care of the dogs, sit outside if the I want to, watch the birds, deer and squirrels, really I just waste my time.

But I love my life. Yesterday after the rain cleared away, after I took a nap, after I watched several cop shows, I decided I still needed to go to the store. I want to get things for the 4th of July. Plates, cups, napkins, a red/white/blue theme of course. There is a brand new Wal-mart about 15 miles and it is suppose to be "special". One of a kind store. So we decided we should go take a look at it. We had heard it had furniture and more things than the other stores. It is also a "green" store. No lights were on, it was all lighted by skylights, the a/c was not very cool, but they are very energy efficient. I liked the store except for a couple things. The floors were very slick and the store is HUGE. I don't like having to walk miles to get my few things on the list. Of course nothing is close to each other. But we had fun just walking and looking. It is not a special store, it does not have a furniture section that I saw, and all I can say about it is, it was big and it was new and it was clean. IT'S WAL-MART! My cousin went with me as well as my husband and we did not do anything really. But it was nice just getting out of the house together.

But then the phone rang. My son called. He tells me his air conditioner is not working and he fears he will have to replace the whole unit. Then he tells me he is probably not coming home for the 4th because he will need to work the overtime. I am just broken hearted. The 4th is my favorite holiday. The family get togethers, the weather, the fireworks, just so much fun being together. I understand things in life happen, but I am still disappointed, very much so. My daughter has already said she won't be coming home, and my step daughter said they were going to her in-laws. My brother and his wife can't come either. My cousin is having a little get together at her house with her kids and some of their friends. So I don't know who will be coming to my house on that day. I have the fireworks bought, the food bought and will start cooking tomorrow, but why do these things have to happen. That is why I moved back "home" was to spend time with the family. But why does the family not want to get together? I see so many other people and their families are so close. They know that when the holiday comes they will all be together. I just wish that my family was like that. What happened? How did we become so busy that family time is just not a priority any more? Family is so important and I value it so highly. Oh wait, that's it. "I" value it. My values are not to be imposed on others. But I do think that is sad. I wish, I want, I need, but it isn't all about ME. lesson learned.

Yesterday....I love the thought of going back to my Yesterdays. But then I would not be where I am today, and like I said....I love my life.

Rookie Mistake

The Day I Thought I Was Going To Die

Rated E--Explicit/graphic

Well this is another one of those "while I was on patrol" stories, but again it was one of while on the morning shift. Funny I can't remember what day of the week it was but I know it was a weekend so that narrows it down to either Saturday or Sunday. And for some reason I believe it was Saturday. It was fairly early on that morning. Our shift started at 0600 and we were on the streets by 6:30. I had zone five, that was the poor part of town, I had trained in that zone, and was familiar with it. So I was patrolling my zone which was a pretty good size one. Far as area, it was probably one of the largest. Several square miles, but I loved it. The area I patrolled was called the Ville. I don't know why it was called that, had been called that long as I can remember and as long as others remembered. But we can't call it that now. It is offensive, and we have to call it Southern Heights. I still don't know what it means, but even the people who lived there called it that. There were some really good people that lived in the Ville, some very old people for it was an old part of our town. But it had seen its better days, was getting pretty run down, with lots of drugs, and violence occurring. Low income apartments had been built in that area and now were pretty much shut down. They were old and dilapidated. Yes, it had seen better days in that part of town, now seedy characters lived there, and then the really nice people that could not afford to leave their residence which they had called home for years.

I was a Rookie. I had not been out on my own for very long. I knew the "rules", I had gone through the academy, I had made good grades. I was even pretty text book smart! Hey, I even had a college degree to boot. But that just didn't seem to matter this day. For I had Rookie-itis. I think it might be the same thing as "buck fever" for deer hunters. You get caught up in the moment it seems. Today I got "that" call. A burglary in progress. Two men had broken into a house down in the Ville, way down in the Ville and I was going to go. But someone else beat me there. That figures. And the bad guys had already left. But they had a description of the vehicle and direction of travel. I knew that area pretty well and I knew there were not too many ways in and or out. So I started going to where I thought I might catch up with them. The other officer starts calling out the description of the vehicle. A newer model white pickup occupied by two white males. Zoom, they went right past me. Man I slammed on the brakes, whipped around and started after them. I radioed headquarters stating I had the suspected spotted. Ok,this is a felony. They broke into an occupied dwelling house, burglary 1st degree, felony. I know how to do a felony traffic stop, I KNOW HOW TO DO IT. And you are suppose to have two cars to do it. Wait for backup, that is what you do. So just follow them till backup can get there. But we are going fast, I am not thinking very clearly, what do I do??? I turned on my lights and sirens. The driver of the vehicle pulls over. I have my car pulled behind him, offset a little to the left, I get out of my car and tell the driver to step out with his hands up. I have my .357 drawn and pointed right at him. The driver steps out and walks towards me with his hands up. He takes about three, four steps and then all the sudden the passenger jumps out of the truck. I yell at him to stop! Get back into the truck! He starts walking towards me. I order him back into the truck now. He looks right at me, his eyes are that piercing look, the look of I don't care what you say. His hands, that is what you watch, they slap towards his chest as he yells, what are you going to do? Shoot me? Well shoot me Bitch! Go ahead, kill me, what's wrong Bitch, can't you shoot me. Now I have to tell you, I WAS SCARED. The eyes, the body language, the verbal language, I knew I was not in a good position and there were two of them. I glanced at the driver, I told him "Don't you move!" He said, "I won't". I yelled at the passenger again, "Stop!, Get back in the truck now." He kept walking towards me, he kept yelling at me, "Shoot me, go ahead, shoot me @#$@!$. As he walked towards me I thought....I have about two choices, either I will have to shoot him, or I will have to get out of there. What that means is to get myself out of the kill zone. I got back into my car with the door still opened, put the car in reverse and backed up. I was still in my doorway, drawn down on the suspect when my backup arrived. Rick pulled in behind me and jumps out of his car. He runs up to my car and I quickly tell him what is going on, and now all the sudden the passenger acts like nothing is wrong. His whole attitude has changed, his talk, his demeanor, everything. Rick tells the driver to get his hands on the truck and don't move them or he will shoot his ass. (sorry! you all) and the driver looks at him and says "yes sir, I won't move!" We then approach the passenger who is starting to act a little froggy, Rick holsters his gun and grabs the guy. I holster mine and the next thing I know Rick has the guy in like a bear hug, spins him around and I yell, "take him down Rick!" Like I must be a cheer leader or something, how stupid! and Rick and the guy just fall straight down. Rick on top. I remember that sound to this day. Rick is a pretty good size guy and the passenger was not THAT big. Bigger than me, but not nearly as big as Rick. And I remember the sound of that guy's breath leaving his body. Ooossshhhh, all his air has been knocked out of him. We grab the guys hands and handcuff him quickly, and then yank him to his feet. We put him the car and then arrest the driver as well. As you have probably figured the passenger was pretty drunk, the driver not, but still caught up in the situation which is not good for him! And of course I got a talkin' to by Rick. I kind of got yelled at like, what the @#$@ are you doing not waiting for backup? Don't you know how to do a felony traffic stop? Yes sir I do. Then why didn't you do it? I don't know, I was afraid he was going to get away from me I guess. Next time you better do it right. Yes sir.

That was pretty much it. Still to this day I second guess myself. Would I have been within my rights to have shot him? He was unarmed. This was before Pepper Spray and Tazer guns. But I truly fear that if he would have gotten close enough to me he would have grabbed me. He would have tried to take my gun. I KNOW this, I feel it, I felt that day I would have died if he would have gotten close enough to me. Was I a coward to get back into my car and back up? Was I coward to not have shot him? Let me tell you, police work is not for the weak. You have to make split second decisions, and then you get to spend your next 20 years thinking about the should of/could of's if you're lucky. That was a day of life experience. No textbook could have prepared me for that. It would have been nice if I would have done what I was taught, it was a Rookie Mistake. Thank you God for being there with me. That was a close one.

Rock A Bye

Pretty In Pink

This is what I did this evening...saw a beautiful baby.

She belongs to a friend of mine.
Weighing in at 5lbs and 4 oz. She is only five days old.
She is the tiniest thing I have ever seen.
Isn't she pretty?

Yesterday was not a good day for me. Had to make a quick trip to OKC
to help my daughter with a very stressful situation that was costly and stupid.
But even with all that she and I were able to clean out both bedrooms, her closets
and clothes, well at least the shoes and organize things a bit.
Today I HAD to make it to the grocery store and that took all morning.
Then it took a long time getting everything put away.
I HATE going to the grocery store.
But I did manage to get everything on my list and of course then some.
After nearly $200.00 I still have not shopped for our big
4th of July shindig.

Laundry needed to be done,
got it.
And I had to take feed out to my parents for the horses,
did it.
Spent time seeing the baby,
Loved it.
Talked on the phone with my favorite friend and cousin,
Needed it.
Going to bed NOW,
want it.

Class Last Night

Fun In The Park

In class last night we decided to go visit the local park

and shoot pictures. Just get out of the classroom.

We got there and found a lady taking pictures of a girl

for her Sr. Pictures. So we needed to stay out of her way.

So we decided to take pictures of flowers.

Just mess around with the camera and take shots.

That was fine with me.

The flowers are pretty but the temps were hot!

Anything is better than sitting in a classroom though.

We even had willing volunteers to take pictures of.

This lady is a hoot. She keeps us all laughing and makes

the class a lot of fun.
But my favorite part of the class is about 8:30. We have decided

we take the class up the street to Los Cabos.

I love Mexican Food!!!

These are the night lights in the big town of Bristow.

Population??? 300. I don't know.

Ok, the stats show 10,000.

So to Bristow, OK

SALUTE!

Big BangTheory

4th of July Is Coming

12 More Days!!!

(correction...10)

Oh I just love the 4th of July and we are now living in the country where I can shoot fireworks!!! This weekend I had my grandson, niece and nephew so we had to shoot a few fireworks left over from last year. My parents always buy more than they and the US Army needs to blow stuff up. But I love it that way. So we did a practice run yesterday and last night just to see how things were going and to let Caleb have a little taste. He informed me he knew everything he needed to know about fireworks, punks, and stuff like that. I doubt that he does, but you can't successfully argue with a six year old. You know experience is the best teacher and I fear he will learn the hard way. Now if you have read my past postings you know I was kind of the same way, but we won't go there now will we?

So today I decided I needed to go get some more fireworks. Well, not really some more, just some. I didn't have any, just my parents, and I was needing a good firework fix. So we ran up to my Uncle Bill's place where his son has been selling fireworks for years. Daniel sells them to us at a very discounted price (Thank you Daniel and Uncle Bill, thank you ever so much!) and that allows me to buy MORE stuff. And this year is a three day weekend with the 4th on Friday. So the way I figure it, the 4th will be for three days. Get it? We will have to celebrate for three days in a row. Which is only fair because I sat at home by myself last year on the 4th and cried. I was not around family on my favorite holiday, was not shooting fireworks, and I don't know why I wasn't there. That may be my brains way of protecting me from bad memories....forget.

So of course you have to have some Black Cat fireworks. Oh yes, you must have them for the 4th or it just isn't American.

And then some Jumping Jacks. I like these too. Of course you can buy them by the pack, the little individual package, but why? I buy them by the brick.

Of course smoke bombs are a must. Most kids shoot the little smoke balls, but not us. We shoot the mega smoke bombs. These are muti-colors, and we also have the white smoke military smoke bombs. They are cool too but I don't have any pictures of them. Mom and dad have them at their house.
I mean just look at this stuff. The red/white/blue flag is nothing but missiles. It is like a giant Saturn missile. It measures about 2'x3'. It is huge. Then I have the other two big giant blow up things that the flag is sitting on. I have a tall mortar shooter called Sweet 16. I have not had that one before and Teresa said it was really good. Of course I have Night Crawlers (like the old fashion black snakes, but you light a fuse and the snakes just grow.) for the kids. Do you remember how hard it was to light the Black Snakes? Just took too much effort. You had to use a match or really get the punk going good and usually you just could not do it with the punk. I got three of these semi-truck looking things that whistle, spark, and flame, they are for Caleb to shoot. They are pretty cool. Mom and dad got a bunch of those. Then we have the old Cracklin' Ball that is pretty cool and fun for the younger kids. Texas Whistler, or Chasers or whatever you want to call them, I grew up with them as a kid. I love them. They shoot down the road, whistle then blow up. I always loved them because you never knew for sure where they were going to go. Better be on your toes! I got a couple 2 color Space Ships, some M-2 crackers and one of my other favorites is the Strobe Lights. I love the 4th of July. Any one want to come over for brisket and the fixin's?

Nothing New

More of the Same

We have had a great day today. Nothing special really, just more time with the kids, and I love that. My mom called this morning and told me my niece and nephew were very sad for their puppy died yesterday. He had Parvo and died at the vet office. My brother's wife rescued three puppies from the middle of the road, then my other brother took one of the puppies home to his kids. Well come to find out the puppy was sick (as were the other two) and they died. My sister n law and her kids were devastated by the loss of this new addition to the family. They/we are all animal lovers and anytime we lose one it is very hard on us all. I even cried and never met the little guy. But knowing that it upset the kids so much bothers me too. So having said all that, we decided to meet at McDonald's for breakfast. Then my nephew told me he could stay the night and that was great news. We went to Wal-mart and bought some water toys and of course CANDY, and other junk. My niece and parents came to the house and we hung out here for the entire day. Caleb and the kids all play pretty good together. Plus my parents had fireworks so the kids could shoot them too. We are finally living in the country once again so we can do that. We also had to stop off at the fire work stand so Aunt Lisa could check out a few other things and found a few things we needed in addition to what we already had. Aunt Lisa is the fire work queen, a little/big pyromaniac and loves the 4Th of July almost as much as Christmas.

We had bought little swimming pool/slide/basketball thing for the kids to play with. I got ripped off, but they got wet and had fun. My mom got to watching the movie Polyanna and it is a long movie so I had to entertain the kids for quite a while. Dad and I decided we needed to go eat lunch at about 3:30!!! I needed to kill about an hour and half and felt confident I could do it. We ate and were back within an hour. Darn it. So we went back outside and shot more fireworks. By 5:00p.m. mom was ready to go home and was out the door. My niece went home too but Nephew gets to stay the night. So tonight he has had more candy, deer jerky, mountain dew and junk than he has had in years. He will never go to sleep tonight. Then he has to get up and be ready for church in the morning. I am then sending Caleb and Scott back to Caleb's momma in the morning as well. He has things to get done and I think I am going to buy more fireworks!!!! I love the 4th of July and must prepare. I am so glad I am retired and never have to grow up really.

Look Who's BACK!!

He's Back!!!

And Grandma sure has missed him.

We had been out feeding the deer some corn and peanuts when he decided to pick walnuts from the tree.
Oh wait, then there are some bird feathers on the ground. Either there is a naked bird flying around somewhere or the dogs got a bird....yep, the dogs got a bird, found the rest of it later! Gross.

And if you can click on this picture to enlarge it, please tell me what kind of bird this is? A mixture between a cardinal and a blue bird??? It is a bright blue bird with a red/deep red underside. It is beautiful.This is the tree that lost all and I do mean all it's branches in the ice storm. Kind of interesting how it leafed out. Plus all the Canna's that are growing at the base of it.
Caleb has a bowl of corn, peanuts and sunflower seeds to feed the deer. We feed the squirrels in the morning and the deer in the evening. She has been coming in to eat twice a day. But today someone is having a party, loud music, and fireworks, so I doubt that she will come in to feed.

found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut just now, just now I found a peanut, found a peanut just now. (remember that song?)

Spilled the peanuts and corn on the table, not part of the song, but oh well, no big deal.
Throw the corn over the fence handful by handful. Makes it a lot more fun that way.

Oh heck with that, throw the rest of the bowl of food over the fence.

We met up with my niece and nephew for lunch and after eating, then playing at McDonald's we came back to the house to play in the creek.
She is always in a dress, a skirt or something girlie. But that does not stop her. She will be six the beginning of the month and he will be 7 at the end of the month.
They played in the little creek very nicely together. I was proud of them both.
Rudy and Caleb played in the creek together too.


They both played in the water and then....
Someone got her dress wet. Guess who that was...

And Callie loves giving kisses. To anyone she can corner. Watch out for that long, wide, cold, wet tongue. Oh yum, good kisses.

The Phantom!

The Phantom was GREAT!!!!

I had not ever seen the show/movie or anything about Phantom of the Opera. I had no idea what to expect and I was not disappointed. The story was good/cute/beautiful/touching/ and other adjectives! So if you have not ever seen it and get the chance I will recommend it to you. The music was good, the singing was good and overall, my night was really good. So from the Jobes home...two thumbs up, a score of a 10 and would I go see it again, yes probably I would.

Phantom of The Opera

Click on the Title and it takes you to a You-tube of the Phantom of The Opera. We are going to see it. I hear this is one of the very best shows to see. We have held season tickets for the past three or four years just so we can see some of the featured shows. I have seen The Lion King, Wicked, and then several other shows such as Annie, Momma Mia, Hair Spray, Johnny Cash, and so many others. We are really looking forward to this and hope it holds true as to how good it is. I will give you an update tomorrow.

PS. Three inches of rain this morning, one inch yesterday, and about five the day before. This is getting really old quick. Keystone Lake is 21' above normal. Not good, not good for boating and other recreational things and with the 4Th of July coming up, it could hurt tourism around here. Hope you all are not drowning, nor in a drought!!!! Sure wish I had saved this water up somehow, I will be needing later this summer no doubt.

That Little Stinker!

Confession Is Good For the Soul...NOT.

(Rated E for everyone!)

Ok, I am not sure how to start this story, it was not my normal "one night while on patrol" type of story. It was actually one Saturday while at work on the afternoon shift a hundred years ago. Yes, I was a Rookie. The low man on the totem pole, the peon, you get the picture. And it is never fun being that person. Saturdays were pretty slow, none of the brass was there so the station is always a lot more fun. I always liked working the weekends, more quiet, more relaxed and a whole lot more fun. One not so fun duties of a police officer though was to assist the animal control people. I don't like that part. We had to go out and removed injured or dead animals from the road, I hate that. I don't want to touch a dead animal. I don't want to touch an injured animal, it might bite me. I don't like dogs (except for mine) for I am scared to death of them. I worked for a vet in college and have been bitten more times than I care to count. I don't like it. So helping animal control is NOT one of my favorite thing to do.

This Saturday I am called to the station by the sergeant and told to come get the .410 shotgun to kill a skunk. I went to the station and told the sergeant to please ask someone else to do it. He said I am not asking, I am telling you to get the shotgun and go shoot the skunk. I said why? He did not do anything to me and I am against killing this animal just because. He said are you refusing to do it? You better think about that. Well I knew a threat when I heard one, I am not totally stupid, and I might be a little bit of a slow learner, but I knew better than to refuse to do this. So I said no I am not refusing and went to get the shotgun. I drove out to the animal shelter to meet up with the guy. We go out to his truck and he tells me there is a skunk in the cage and when he opens the trap door I am suppose to shoot it. I tell him, I don't like this. What if the skunk sprays me? I will stink and I just don't see any sense in this. Now I do understand that skunks carry rabies. I have horses, I know about this stuff and skunks are not generally good animals. But I just don't like killing something for no real reason. He tells me to wait till the skunk gets a few feet away from the cage and then shoot it.

Well I decide I guess I better get this over with. I load the shotgun with the five shotgun shells they gave me. I am told I should be able to kill it with a couple shots. The guy takes the skunk out to the middle of this field like area, removes the tarp/covering thing from off the cage, and raises the door. Of course he is hoping that I wait for him to get out of the way before I start blasting the little devil, and for the sake of paper work I do. In fact I feel I need to wait till the guy gets completely out of the way. Like back to the office far as I am concerned. He tells me to go ahead and shoot it. The skunk has come out of the cage and is just out by a few feet sitting there. Shoot it now he tells me. So I shoot, hit right behind it. I see the dirt fly and I see a scared little skunk take off for the woods. He yells at me, you better shoot him again, I think you missed. Dah, ya think??? So I shoot again. BOOM!!! I miss again. The skunk is running faster and faster towards the woods. Well I would be running faster and faster too if someone was shooting a shotgun at my backside. BOOM, I shoot again and then again. I have now shot four shots at this poor little rascal and have yet to hit him. I have shot the dirt all around him, I have waited for him to get a really good head start on me so I don't get sprayed, and I MIGHT have waited just a little too long. I get to laughing, the animal control guy gets to laughing at me, it is no use. I am not going to be able to shoot this skunk and kill him. He is too far out of range by now. And besides, the little stinker stuck his tongue out at me and wiggled his fingers in his ears yelling nanny nanny poo poo at me just to get one last gig in at me. I figure if this guy can out run me from shooting at him, he deserved to live another day. I swore the animal control officer to secrecy and he promised. Now I have to go fill the paper work out. Anytime a gun is discharged you have to get a time and temperature reading from headquarters and fill out one or two forms. You then draw a little diagram of the big bad officer shooting the poor little skunk. So I did. Yes I had a girl policeman stick figure shooting a long barrel shotgun at a little poor skunk laid over on its side dead. You have to show where all the shots went etc and all that junk. So I did the only thing I could do knowing I was going to be in serious trouble for not shooting the skunk. I had to lie. Now please don't think bad about me, I am not a liar, and I didn't really refuse to shoot the skunk, it was just harder than I thought. He was running away, and he was little, and I did let him have a little bit too far of a head start and my heart just wasn't really into it. So yes I was wrong for lying, I am very sorry I did it, but I put on the diagram that I killed the skunk. Then I was asked why it took four shots....I lied again. I said I had to make sure that he was really good and dead. They never asked me to shoot another skunk again. Do you think they bought it?

Just a tease...

Look for a new story Monday or Tuesday...maybe! I will be thinking of a good one for you.

LOOK AT THIS!!!

Oh What a Special Day!

This is my mom and dad.

They have been married for 53 years.

Mom NEVER lets me take her picture.

So today when she said ok, I took about 30!

I had this one made into an 8x10 for me!

A family portrait.

That is my step brother, wait...

I think I AM THE STEP SISTER.

Because he is the GOLDEN child.

My Brother Buddy!

I love him too.

Father's Day Weekend

Happy Fathers Day To All Dads.

Today has been a really nice day. We had my aunt and uncle to the house for a special lunch. My uncle loves steak, we just bought a half beef, so why not try out the new meat? We grilled steak (sirloin and T-bone) fixed baked potatoes, green beans and home made bread. How does that sound? It was a GREAT day. I had offered to take him to Mexican Restaurant, but he wanted steak, so steak it was. I think he liked it too. I know we had a nice time not only eating with two of my favorite people, but then we sat around looking at photo albums that my aunt has put together. I saw pictures of my grandparents, great grandparents, my dad and uncles that I had not ever seen before. I LOVE looking at photos from the past. I saw great aunts and uncle from Arkansas, that is where my grandfather was born and raised. I love the history of my family. My grandmother passed away when I was three and I love hearing stories of my family. I have not lived in my home town for 30 years, I miss my grand father who lived to be 95 years old. He has been gone about six years and I still miss him terribly. You are not suppose to have favorites, but I do and he was it. That was a man of honor, love and Christ like. My grandpa McAllister was a man that I respected, loved, and honored all my life. And he raised three wonderful boys into men. My dad and uncles are three men that share in the values that my grandfather had. I am so blessed, so lucky to have great men in my life and I value that. That is why I wanted to move back to the Tulsa area to be near them and the rest of the family. My two brothers are McAllisters and they too are wonderful men/husbands/fathers. My grandfather left a legacy for us to be very proud of. I hope my own son will share in those values as I have tried to instill them in him. I think he has them!

After my aunt and uncle left, we ran a quick errand. A cousin of mine (by my former marriage) is a single dad and he has raised three kids on his own. His mother died on Christmas Eve many years ago and Todd was always one of my other favorite people. I posted about him a couple months ago where I was taking pictures of an old friend and his black lab while they were at the river...???? Well I had never gotten the pictures to Todd. So today I had one made into an 8x10, another 5x7 and then some 4x6's and wallets. I thought the pictures were pretty good and thought his family might like to have them. Since I was so late getting them to him I thought it would make a great father's day gift, my husband bought a frame for the 8x10 and we delivered the pictures. He was very touched by the pictures and that just made me feel so good. His son thought they were really cool, and wanted to see them, and that made me feel good too. Most boys (young men) don't react to pictures like that. So now I am planning on taking a family picture of the kids, grand kids and Todd. I can't wait. That will be so much fun trying to make it all work. I love a good challenge and I am so excited about doing it. That was a fun hour.

THEN we came home and had to go to a neighborhood party. Kind of like a block party, but only two of us neighbors came. I wish the others would have dropped by for it would be nice to meet every one, but it's ok. We weren't too excited about going, planned on staying 30 minutes and came back home 3 hours later! The neighbor that was hosting the event invited her sisters from OKC. She had four show up with nieces and nephews, plus the other neighbors so a fair amount of people were there. We had a very nice visit getting to know these people. You know me, I love meeting new people and these ladies were fun. From a large Catholic family of 9 children I heard stories of many kind and it was fun. I felt very welcomed and it was nice since this is the neighbor that had complained about my dogs and we got off on a bad foot. But it seems maybe, MAYBE, some fences were mended, and we at least were able to sit together and enjoy the company of one another.

Tomorrow, we will eat at Mazzio's with my dad (you can get free diet coke-soda-on Sundays and dad LOVES pizza) so that is his big meal planned. He could have had steak....??? Then we will go out to their house and hook up their new converter box, antenna, VCR, and DVD player. This is a person who can not hook up their own stuff trying to do all this??? Oh well, if I can't figure it out then I know my brother or sister in law will fix it. And if not, I bet my 10 year old nephew can!!!! Tomorrow will be ANOTHER GREAT DAY. After all, my dad is a McAllister and that makes him one of the best dads in the world!!! Happy fathers day everyone, especially MY dad.

Look Who Came to Visit Today

A Great Day For Visitors

This doe came right up to the fence to eat. I feed the squirrels corn, peanuts and sunflower seeds. I am guessing she likes it too. I threw an apple out last night and I think she ate it so she came back for more this morning. The neat thing is she also came back tonight for dinner. The dogs do not scare her. She ran off because "I" was yelling at the dog to leave her alone and quit barking. Rudy just goes crazy and kicks dirt with his hind legs, throwing it everywhere. It is funny. She just does not get bothered by them at all, however she does drive them crazy!!!

So after I raised the window and kept softly yelling at the dogs to leave her and to come back to the house, then she finally ran back into the woods.

We also had some finches stop by for a snack. They seem to like the new feeder that Scott bought me. It holds a lot of food and other birds like it too. (And so do the squirrels, they have already torn it up once!)
Then I found this rose and decided I need to take a picture of it because it won't last long I am sure. This poor plant is nearly hidden by shrubs and other plants.
Of course Zoe is watching over things. She is getting old but is still the best dog. She doesn't get too excited about things, but she sounds terrible when she growls. Even in play, she sounds mean. But not a mean bone in her body.
Now these two are just silly. This brother and sister play together all the time. You would think Rudy (right) being the larger male would be dominate, WRONG. Callie is. She is also quicker and louder! Pretty isn't she? So is he, that just is not a very good picture of my handsome boy. I call him lover boy, for he is a very big baby and loves to be loved on. Sweet sweet sweet.
I also have a hummingbird feeder on the patio. Today was overcast, very cool (comfortable, about 72 or 73 all day!) with storms coming in again. So I think that is why everyone was in eating and in such good moods all day. I have several hummingbirds that come to feed and it is neat to watch the boss ones drive the others away. I wonder where the nests are and if I could ever find them. Scott says he can if given a couple days to do it. Don't know that we need to know that badly.

Thought this picture was a little better, and just different. I can't get a really good shot of the hummingbird though, darn it. Maybe I can learn how in my photography class????
And just another because I have a ton of them. I love the hummingbird and feeder. I mixed up some more juice today and filled it full.

And of course the squirrels came to feed as they do every morning. One of the squirrels comes within feet of me and takes a peanut then goes and buries it. Good grief, why doesn't he just eat it?

And this little one plays in the brush pile. He is not scared of me either. But the dogs do chase them off. They come in the yard to eat at the bird feeder, rather, under the bird feeder and the dogs just can't stand it. Sometimes they let them eat for a while then they give them a good chase. I fear one day the dogs will get one. Mainly because they can double team it, or triple team it if you get what I mean. Zoe will chase a squirrel!!! Probably will till the day she dies. She's such a good girl.

And this little rascal was jumping from tree to tree. Why? Because he can. He was not really going any where, I think he was just doing it to torment the dogs, or to keep me from getting his picture. He might be on the FBI witness protection program and doesn't like his picture plastered all over the Internet. So if you recognize him please do not disclose to anyone his where abouts. His family wants to stay here where they can be safe and well fed.

Plenty of room on the patio for a "come and sit for a spell" for any one that wants to come and join me. I can fix you some coffee or even a diet coke. I am retired you know so come on!!!!