Dog Sitting

My son Robbie and his girlfriend Keslyn took off to visit Keslyn's brother in St.Louis on Friday.

Robbie asked if we would keep Thomas while they were away. Thomas in the past has had quite a bit of spunk and exitability. However we have found him to be more subdued than we have ever seen him.

Except when he bumped this ball we have for the grandchildren. It moved and it was on. I have two videos neither are great but it gives you and idea.

We have enjoyed having a dog in the house again but I don't want another dog after losing Bella to kidney failure, it's just to heartbreaking.

The kids come back this evening and Thomas will go home. Things will be back to normal.

Doodles

Since I failed to load my doodle pictures before writing this post they are loaded above what I have written to go along with them. Hope this comes out alright in the end. Going forward I am going to use a photo shop program to write and design my post then load it.

Ok I doodle while I'm reading blogs or waiting for something to load on my computer, even while watching tv. I'm no artist but it seems like something my family has always done. I remember finding doodle on the corners of newspapers, junk mail envelopes. We just grab an empty space on paper and go to work. The doodling sometimes even contains scribbles. So I guess I scribble and doodle.

My kids have said they found some of my stuff a bit scary, frightning, or upseting.

I explained to them it's just things I'm randomly doing. Scary stuff may come after watching horror movies or talking to some of my friends with a darker personality.Different things inspire my doodles and scribbles. I do a lot of Jesus, and scripture, crosses, that sort of things. When the grandbabies were born it was room designs and decor, like bunnies, birds, lettering, initials mostly. Sometimes something someone else has done I come home and think bet I could do that, and I do, in my own version of course.

Some of my best doodles are usually over another doodle that started ok but then did not come out in the end. Stuff in the doodle were to disproportionate, uneven, just not to my liking. Then I start another on or near it. Taking off from a line or movement on the paper I'm making. Sometime just a distraction will evolve in a change in a doodle to something entirely different and most times better. In this post are some of my more recent doodles, of which Stacy said she would like to have my tree of life doodle framed. She liked it. I'm thinking of taking it to the photo shop and blowing it up and framing it for her. .

Jan 5 2011

Took home some pizzas, plenty of soda and chips and dip. Ready for football. What a night! Torture pure torture. Our team the Razorbacks of Arkansas at the Sugar Bowl played a hard game. A month off before a game is the most obvious reason for us to have been off our game so badly. We fell behind in the first half and came so close to winning the game in the end, but as luck would have it it was not to be our night for our Hogs. No disappointment filled the hearts of most Razorback fans. Oh it was fun. Getting ready for the big bowl game, the hype the excitement. hearing their name on the big sports shows. We love our Razorbacks win or lose. Just wish those young men could have won their game, they deserve it for this season of hard work of the football field.
This week we had a phenomenon. Black birds fell from the sky new years night. Scaring most residents around the event. No disease only the possibility of them being frightened by the loud explosions of the fireworks for new years eve.
The birds were found to have hemorrhaged. So since they were flying at night they may have flown into each other or trees or houses or other obstacles they can't see in the night causing them grave damage and the died.
Not only did this happen in Beebe, Arkansas, but also in Louisiana. Here's where we connect the Razorbacks and the birds. I say there was an obvious omen foretelling of our loss at the Sugar Bowl, that omen.... the dead black birds.
Now what made me tell my bird tale I just finished watching a documentary called "The Parrots of Telegraph Hill". A story of Mark who spent years living in a small cottage in Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California. The story was so adorable and interesting, loving and sad. Mark wrote a book of the same name and I will probably purchase the book as I fell in love with the little birds seeing them interact with Mark. So maybe this is the year of the bird. I think I'll keep my eyes on what's going on in the bird world. It might be a view into the future. DO DO DO DO~~~~well my last name is Byrd and well it is pronounce bird so I think it's a cool idea.

Back to work in 2011

Monday and back to the old grindstone. I like what I do. I've worked for Wal-Mart for 11 years now. The store has changed tremendously this last year. Many people could not make it through the changes. My position of the last 7 years was absorbed into another area. Fortunately for me an opening due to an advancement of our claims supervisor to management allowed me to move to that position. I've always been out with the public so this job has been a big adjustment for me, and still so much to learn. I work with some great ladies though and they have been a great source of knowledge for me.
Today we processed the fireworks and New Years party hats back to our supplier. We sell a moderate amount of these party poppers type fireworks.
Hope everyones New Year was happy and safe. My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Cincinnati, Arkansas who lost their friends, loved ones and homes.
At home we watched New Year Rockin Eve with Dick Clark and Ryan Secrest. Nodded off a couple times, then missed the ball drop cause I changed channel and was watching the west coast show for a minute. Hubby and I opened the bottle of Cold Duck and toasted the new year. The neighbor had some big fireworks he set off and I had my little poppers. Bella our dog was very upset about the noise she got scared and hid down the hall.
We're happy to be safe and have another year to be here.
We watched the Rose Parade on New Years day and I fixed hog jowl, pork chops, greens, saurkraut, black eyed peas, cornbread, and corn on the cob. MMMMMMMMM good! We stuffed ourselves and then watched the ball games.
Robbie came over in the afternoon for a visit and some grub. We had a good day.
Love to all God bless!

Day 2 2011

2011

This year may be the year I learn how to truly create the posts for this blog. Always before I had to load my photos then write around them. Sometimes if I had many photos they would stretch out and there would be huge gaps between them. Many times I lost the post all together because of the length of time it took me to retrieve the photos and gather them back together.
Then there was the fonts and graphics I wanted to use. Not possible with the options available on blog. I tried importing from other places. No success. I know it's possible I see it on other people's posts. Maybe it's that I don't have a blog page that's been created by someone who knows how to set them up.
So I'm sorry if my blog has been rather plain and simple, not as polished and professional, entertaining, or amusing as others. What it does do is deliver a message, tell a story, or bless all of you which is my goal.

Surgery Scare

On Saturday, one hour before the Razorback football game started, I became stricken with such pain in my abdomin area. After a visit to the first aid station where the paramedics diagnosed it might be appendicitis.
At the hospital I gave all the facts of how bad my pain was. Where it was. I must have described it a million times. Four days of pain and very little to eat and nothing for the pain, because of the tests I had to do in order to determine the cause. End of day Tuesday the pain had lessened significant enough to release me, (still with no diagnosis of the cause) but happy to be going home.
At home I stayed home on Wednesday to get adjusted to being able to get up and move around. Occasionally doing some insignificant cleaning up, (paperwork that got out of hand). It seemed as though I was going to be able to make it. Back to work on Thursday and it went very well. I've been to work Thursday and Friday.

A Wedding to Remember

It was a beautiful sunny day in June. We made a left off the main road and down the country path and one lane bridge to St. Catherine's chapel in the meadow.

This chapel is so quaint and beautiful. With the ivy covered rock walls and tall narrow walls and pretty stained glass windows.

The bride and her father rolled up in this old antique car.

Paul, Kendra's father walked the bride up to the

chapel and the waiting pastor, bridal party and guests.

You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful morning. The wedding started at ten o'clock.

The sun was shining brightly, and the wind was calm.

The wedding was so pretty and they were so lovely and romantic in front of the church.

My lovely daughter the brides maid of honor.

Reception held at Matt's mother's home, using the garage and tenting the driveway, and using large fans to move the air around it was cute and fun. Here they are with their first dance together as man and wife.

Father and daughter dance. This had me in tears. Kendra is very much a daddy's girl and Paul loves Kendra and has so much pride for her.

It was so precious.

Some of the family and friends.







Crawfish was delicious, this was so neat not the normal wedding menu.

Kendra threw the bouquet, and look at those girls taking off to catch it. Notice Stacy's already a step ahead of them all with arms a flailing. One of Kendra's cousins caught it.

Robbie

One thing Izzy has is uncles. She has a lot on the Rodriquez side, on her momma's however
she has her one very special uncle Robbie who thinks these kids rock the world.

It's the sweetest thing in the world seeing him holding and playing with them.

YEAH!! Touchdown

Practicing crawling with Robbie

Robbie has become a wonderful uncle. He loves his nieces. Robbie has always been good with kids.

With everyone really. He's a kind and respectful young man, and I am so proud to be his momma.

Loving my little ones

Sierra loves trying new foods. This photo is from a couple months ago. She loved learning
how to eat solid food, if you can call baby food solid. She loves sweet potatoes and carrots.
Not to sure which of them she was having here but she loved them. As her face shows. She
does much better now.



Izabbella is moving around quite a bit now. She can start on baby food next month.
Her momma is excited about it. She'll probably be turning over by next month. She
has such an expressive face.

This little toot is into everything. Sierra has learned to crawl and she is everywhere.
It is so exciting that she can crawl now and she follows us all over. She's curious
about whatever we do.

As you can see from this photo our little darling likes to try new things like drinking
from a cup. She wallows it around, puts her tongue in the cup and tips it up and back.
This doesn't have anything to drink in it but she hasn't quite fiqured that part out yet.

Little Izzy is amused by seeing the toys on her bouncy seat. She leans forward and
reaches for the them. They really motivate her to reach for things and challenge her
senses.

Granny cannot help but be in love with these girls. They are learning so much so quickly. The girls have told me that they'll be forgotten about now since the babies are here. My family is growing and

so has my love. My heart feels ten times larger now. It's hard to put into words the joy I've had since their arrival. Till next time Debra

Valentines Cards,Birthdays, and a Baby Shower

Aaaah! Love is in the air. Yes it's Valentines Day coming up again. I love it. My love and I have been together for over 25 years now and are still very much in love. We always do something special together to celebrate Valentines Day. I heard of a special dinner going on for couples at a local resturaunt MEZA LUNA. I plan to look into it it may just be our something special we do this year. More about this in later posts.

Above the picture is of some Valentines cards I purchased to send out to some very special people who I love, and want to acknowledge how special they have been in my families life. We love them. I did not however purchase enough of these so I was attempting to make some of my own. This picture of some hearts and things came out pretty cute. I especially love the 2 hearts ones, they look much better than the photo. Again a work in progress, I have a few days.

Birthdays well this year we won't be celebrating a birthday that we have done for years. Tonight when I came home from the Razorback ball game my daughter Stacy told me Tony's aunt Cora passed away. Joyce her daughter called to let us know. Sadly we will miss her. She was a beautiful spunky woman. Loved people and was straight forward with everyone she met. She will be missed.

February is a month of many birthdays for our family Tonys Grandma Daisy has a birthday. His dad Harold , and his twin brother Jarold, a cousin Coleman have birthdays in February. Our daughter Denise celebrates her birthday in February. We'll be a little busy the next few weeks with all these birthdays to celebrate.

Then it's on to the baby shower!

Yea!! Denise's baby shower, February 23, we're having it at the Jones Center which is a wonderful family center created by Harvey and Berniece Jones, he was a huge trucking magnet from Arkansas. He and his wife created a trust that funds the center so all the events to families are free.

This is a look at the shower invitations she picked out. We are getting together on Saturday to work on them and hope to have them done and sent out soon so people have time to plan and prepare to be there. We want all her family and friends to be there.

Life is full and I love every bit of it.

Thanks for stopping in. Remember God loves you and he is with us always. God bless you and the loved ones in your life. Debra

Sale!!!

It's a sale at Hancocks fabric in Fayetteville they are having a sale with 40 to 50% off lots of fabric. I picked up some fleece on sale for baby stuff.
I could have spent a mint in that store but I took Bella with me so I had to get back to the car.
It was a lot of fun.

Slippers

I found a pattern and learned how to make

these cute little slippers for the babies.

They are so easy! It took me longer to cut

them out than to sew them.

A Day with Family

The Byrd men all together. Oh and it was Tim's 51st birthday also. Happy Birthday Tim!!













Here's my nephew Brian with Sierra. It was so good to see him and his lovely family. Just a year ago October we were in Seattle watching him and Heather wed. Now they're back with their addition to the family. Little Gabrielle. She's beautiful. I never did get a photo of all three of them together.









Grandma, grandpa and baby Gabrielle


















Here's Heather and Gabrielle as they took a minute
to pose for my picture.

















Give out. Poor little darling it was all just to much
for her it was nap time. Don't you just wish you
could do that sometimes.
















Here's daddy Brian and his little girl, mmmm! those
hands are delicious.

Grandma's with their first grandbabies.

Our little darlings, new cousins meeting

There was so much going on the girls kept

looking everywhere.

Terry with Nathan's son, what a darling little boy.

Getting ready for our visit

Granny's think all pictures of their grandbabies

are beautiful

A little nap before we go

Grandpa had his nap to.

Our sweet family from Washington came home this week. On Sunday we got together with nephew Brian and his wife Heather and their sweet baby Gabrielle. Lots of Brian's friends were

there and it was our first chance to see Gabrielle. So adorable. The photos are a few taken at the

get together. It was held at some of Brian's very good friends, who's home was lovely and we so thank them for having us. So there we are it was a fun afternoon. Sorry some of my pics are out of order. This blog thing loads them backward but oh well. Had fun loved seeing the kids.

Love to all Debra