Family pictures

Although I have 5 grandchildren I only have one granddaughter, and Megan has blessed me with my only great-granddaughter Lyv.   Lyv is  10 years old and soon to be 11, She's a very sweet and active young lady, just like her mother and her grandmother Sharon, and just as pretty as they are too.

The picture below from left to right is of Zac's family, Jennifer, Jack & Zac. Then Megan, (baby) Lyle, Myles with the baseball cap, and Lyv out front and center.  The Morris Family & the Malear's

This picture below is Christmas morning, all in their PJ's. Megan, Sharon, Lyv, Myles, James, Lyle. The Malear's & a Walker

This next picture (below) is, Suzanne, her grandson Carson, Delores, Matt (Carson's dad), and Ray.  The Powell Family

 Next is Brandon, Ody and Krystal.  The Hatcher Family

Below is Suzanne doing what she likes to do best, except for spending time with her family.

Rick doing what he likes to do best too.

                                               Ody cakes

Jack when he was a baby with Great-grandma Sandy

                    Ody likes Books

Rick at his Aunt Callie's house

                                              Sandy, which is Me. 

                           Carson with Lyle

The Malear Family and below that is Lyv with her traveling soccer team.

Below:  Myles giving his grandma Sharon a ride

Jybow died today at 3:00 P.M.

R.I.P. my sweet Jybow. She was Jimmy’s buddy and now they can be together again. Jybow never stopped waiting at the door for Jimmy to come out, but now her wait is over.

Jybow came to us in the Fall of the year that our sweet doggy PJ had passed on in August. Jybow was the same color as PJ and we saw her as a blessing sent down from heaven to ease our pain from losing PJ.

Jimmy loved Jybow and kept her close to him. She slept between the buttons of his flannel shirts, she was that small and needed much attention. She came to us as a sick little cat with crusted over sore eyes, needing a bath desperately and de-fleaing.  

After being here a week she looked much better and seemed to love being the center of our attention. She was a very smart kitten and learned how to fetch right away. I loved eating Smarties candies and I would roll up all of my Smarty paper wrappers into small balls and Jybow and I would play with them on the bed. I would toss them over to her and she would swat them back to me, but one day the smartie ball fell on the floor and she quickly jumped off the bed to retrieve it, so that we could continue to play. It was then that I decided to start slowly throwing the smartie balls a little farther and farther each time and Jybow would always fetch them back to the bed so that we could continue to play. It wasn't long that I was throwing the balls across the bedroom, thru the living room and passed the hallway and into the far bedroom. She always hunted the smartie balls down and brought them back to me. That's how the fetching got started and soon after that I could toss one of PJ's stuffed little monkeys the same way and she would fetch it back to me or to Jimmy.

Jybow became more like a dog. She followed Jimmy everywhere and stuck to him like glue. They became inseparable. She didn't like using a little box so Jimmy would let her out whenever she asked. Jimmy often laughed and said that he felt like a doorman for Jybow, always letting her in and out. She never had an accident inside and when we thought that we would be gone for an extended amount of time we would put her outside. She loved being outside, so she didn't mind at all but was always there waiting to greet us when we came back home.

Jybow was a very happy cat full of life. I fed her only dry cat food and she seemed very satisfied with that until one day after a trip, my daughter Suzanne told me that Jybow loved chicken sandwiches. I told her that Jybow wouldn't eat anything but dry cat food, but Suzanne proved me wrong. For Suzanne she would gladly share a sandwich with Suzanne. Jybow continued to eat dry cat food until about a year ago when I discovered that she had lost some of her teeth, so I started feeding her wet cat food.

We are all very saddened by Jybow's death, especially her cat friend Squeak. Squeak didn't want to leave her side today, so we both remained with Jybow until she crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. I buried her in the backyard next to PJ, Daisy, Callie, Little Harley and HopALong.

Jybow was the oldest cat that I ever had. She remained with us for about 19-20 years. I'll really miss her.

I love you Jybow!

Fishing Day Trip

 Going places by myself paid off.  Each day just as soon as Rick would make his way to town, I would get into my car and go exploring, going to places I had never been before.  It first just started out by me riding around aimlessly with no direction in mind, but just to explore new roads, then one day I decided to go find lakes and to look at their boat ramps and get all the information about docking fees that I could find.

Rick reluctantly looked at the pictures that I had taken of the places that I had been, then yesterday he decided that he would go with me, since I already had all my fishing tackle and a fishing pole loaded into the car.  

This time Rick wanted to find an old fishing hole that he had gone to as a kid of about 14 years old.  He had been there several times with his brother Robert and  his cousin Harold, and to hear him tell the stories, it was a place where you could catch all the white bass that you wanted during the white bass run in the Springtime.  The place was on the Dix River between Lancaster and Danville, Ky. off highway 52.  As I remember corrected, Rick & I had gone searching for this place once before, but yesterday we found it and it was on Rankin Rd all the way to the end of the road.

It was like a jungle now, with a rocky path that made it unstable walking for me since I now need a cane to help with my balance and with the pain in my back and left leg.

Rick went in there first and found a cleared spot near the waters edge and to tell me that he thought that I would be able to make it.

We each grabbed what we could and headed for the river.  It was kind of an unsteady walk down to the waters edge for me, but I made it and it was a beautiful spot and really not far at all.

Here we are fishing.  It was very hot and humid out there in the sun, but the view was fantastic and worth the walk, the heat, and most of all just being somewhere with Rick made it all perfect.  That he took the time out of his busy everyday schedule to spend some time with me meant so much to me.  

Rick found a shady spot for me to get me out of the heat.  Picture to the left.

This pretty patio by the river was very unique and we both thought very beautiful.  It was flush with the rocks below so that you can fish straight down from it if you wanted too.

This turtle kept an eye on us as we fished, swimming from here to there.  It would disappear for a while and then reappear from time to time.  This is a popular fishing spot, so perhaps people feed her from time to time.  Or maybe it was a boy turtle.

We  had fun, or at least I had a great time even tho it was hot.  I got a little sun on my legs and my arms turned a little red.  I didn't sunburn and neither did Rick, but in the shade the mosquitos were plentiful.

In one of the pictures above, Rick had cut a branch of a tree and make me some shade, just as a joke of course.  Rick loves to joke around and making me or anyone laugh is what Rick truly enjoys.

Rick & Sandy

 

Making mowing more fun

Do I look happy?  Does Rick look happy?  This should make mowing more fun and much faster to get done.  Of course we still need our riding mowers and weed-eaters to fully get the job done, but as for the flat areas it will only take this Badboy about 15-20 minutes to mow my lawn and about an hour for Rick's lawn, saving us a lot of time to do other things, like going fishing.  I hope it won't be a purchase that we will regret.  

 Not having to turn a steering wheel will be easier on us, and I love that I won't have to shift to go in reverse.  It seems that I was always shifting my riding mower and I was thinking seriously about buying a riding mower with the foot lever for reverse, but I think that we made a wise choice instead.  Rick needed a new riding mower, but I only wanted one for myself so that I wouldn't have to shift anymore, so buying two riding mowers would have actually cost more than buying this one zero turn mower.  Of course now the fight will begin.....who is going to get to mow with the zero turn?  I think I will win most of the time because I can no longer weed-eat, so I can be mowing while he is weed-eating.  Of course he will probably only weed-eat every other time like usual, and then I won't get to mow.  I guess then I will just sit in the shade, drink water, and play games or text my girls while he mows.    

I haven't got to mow with it yet and I will need some practice operating it first, but it doesn't look too hard.  Since Rick operates heavy equipment at work sometimes that uses levers, he didn't have any problem adapting to the new mower.  I have to walk with a cane lately because of my back, so we'll see if I even get to mow at all until I get better.  

What???

I don't know how this happened, or if I shared it with anyone on Instagram, because I don't know how to use Instagram very well being new at it.  But I saw that it had been saved to my laptop, so here it is.  I don't know what all those arrows in my head are supposed to mean, but maybe I have been shot by Cupid..........

Bikes of all sizes

I'm taking a break right now.  I've been outside for 4 1/2 hours mowing and weed eating, but I'm not finished with the weed eating yet.  I just needed a snack so I decided to post some pictures that I took of our rides in the last two days and also of some more flowers.  I took the pictures of the flowers while mowing as I passed by them.

I love riding whether it's on my trike or my small moped.  The moped is more fun because it is so easy to maneuver in tight places, and it's light enough to take it anywhere, and it doesn't use much gas.  We all started with full tanks of gas left over from a previous ride and came home with the gas hand showing that our tanks were still full.  Rick even opened up the gas and looked inside and sure enough, it was still full.

Here I am.




And here are Tommy & Rick resting on a shady bridge.  I like to stop here to watch small planes fly over and to watch turtles swimming around in Silver Creek, and chipmunks playing on the piled up drifts of wood that are caught under the bridge.  I saw three turtles yesterday, all different sizes swimming around below the bridge.



And now for my deep pink hibiscus followed by various pictures of  a Rose of Sharon that is growing near my driveway.  The pictures of the Rose of Sharon are all taken from the same big bush.






And of course I can't forget my trike.  This picture is different than any other because it shows my new reflector strips on each fender.  Rick thought these would make the bike safer, so that cars at night would be able to tell that it has those two trike wheels sticking out farther on small country roads.  He's always thinks of things like that.  He's very safety conscience.

Just what I'm thinking

It's much cooler and breezy today and I suppose that's because of all of the cloud cover that we have today.  I like it.

I haven't done much today, as yesterday, but I did drive Brian to Lexington for a doctors appointment this morning and I did go and check on the clutch cable for the Suzuki motorcycle, but it wasn't in yet.  They said it would be in by last Tuesday, so I waited until today to go over there, but it still wasn't in.  Oh well, things happen.

I'm undecided today as to what I should do with Little Harley.  Should I keep her or not?  I'm still debating what might be the best for her, and I'm swinging towards having her placed in a better home where she can be allowed to come inside whenever she likes.

Isn't she sweet?  I love her beautiful blue eyes.  She's a year old now and has had her first litter of kittens, so she isn't fixed just yet.  Someone is looking into that right now for me.  It's a good friend, bless her heart.

Today would be a good day to ride my bike.  There are some thunderstorms brewing but if they are anything like yesterdays storms, then they won't last long.  Over to the side here is what I look like while I am riding my bike.  It's not a pretty sight, but it's me just the same.  Wave when you see me passing.

I think in this particular picture I was a passenger on the back riding with Rick, on his bike.

The clouds are slowly passing by now and the sun is peeking through, and it is starting to get hot again.  I'm waiting for Tommy to call.  He wanted me to drive him to Walmart so that he could get himself a new pair of jeans.  Tommy is one of Rick's older brothers.

I don't think I ever showed you Rick's new white toolbox for his truck, so I'll put it below.  It replaced his old leaky black toolbox.  I wrote about it back around July 15th or there around that time, but I failed to get a picture at that time.  This one only has one solid lid instead of two lids.  I like it better for that reason.

I hope everyone has a nice day today.  It's cooler and a nice day to get out and walk, or to get some kind of exercise.

Four Generations

Looking to the future

I had a good day yesterday which I spent with a girlfriend, also named Sandy.  We ran lots of errands in her convertible, which is a little two seater Saturn Sky.  She was even given a free car wash from a friend of hers in Lexington.  They cleaned the whole inside and the outside too, and her little car looked so good when it was done.  This is the car wash that I need to take my car in to.  
We talked and shared things about what is going on in our lives at the moment and in our pasts.  Sandy is a Libra like myself, so we get along great, and we have from the first minute that we met.  She is in the process of a divorce, which she doesn't want,  and Steve left me again the day before yesterday, which I didn't want either.

I met Sandy through her dad who is a retired military man from two branches of our military services, Army and Navy.  I met her about 6-7 months ago when her daddy asked me to go with him to look at a new house that he was buying for her.  He took Rick and I because he wanted our opinions on the house, so when we walked in the realtor asked who Rick and I were, and we jokingly said that we were the Inspectors, and were let in.  

Sandy's daddy wants me to move into the house with his daughter, but I have my own house and although Sandy's is a beautiful new two story home, on a very nicely landscaped lot,  I would have to pay rent which would be an added expense for me, so I think I will have to pass on this one.  Besides I like living here.  I just don't like thinking about the needed maintenance and repairs on my house.  That's my only worry at the moment.

My life is finally beginning to look up, or maybe it is just the needed warmth of the sunshine that is giving me the strength to go on alone.  The days are getting pretty and the plants and trees are showing signs of Spring.  My outlook on life is changing, and I think for the better.  I enjoy alone time for myself now, which is something I have never enjoyed.  I do like hanging out with friends and the freedom it brings.  Maybe one day I will meet someone who is compatible, but I'm not out there looking.  God will send me someone one day, or maybe He has other plans for me.  I'm leaving that all up to Him.  The last time Steve and I broke up I prayed about it and turned my life over to God and left it all up to Him.  He brought Steve back to me, but Steve is gone again and there is nothing I can do about that.  I was more prepared mentally this time, knowing that our time together would be short, and that he would leave me again, but I was determined to enjoy every minute of the time I had with him while he was here, and I did until the day he left.  You can't hold on to someone who doesn't want to be with you.  I learned that lesson a long time ago.

Now it is time for a new chapter in my life, and I'm ready to move on.     

Last week: Cumberland Falls