Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Annie, The Potter





This is Annie and her dog, Geppetto. Annie used to live in our apartment that was over our garage when we lived on Monticello in 1996 - 2001. Annie came with the house when we bought it! Annie was already renting the apartment and we let her stay. She called her apartment her "tree house", as it was perched up near the tree tops that were in our yard. Annie makes pottery and she had just graduated with a degree in pottery. I love ALL of her pottery she makes. One day when Bob and I came home from work, Annie was standing on the balcony of her "tree house", throwing off pieces of her pottery onto our driveway and smashing them! We thought she was trying to chase her boyfriend away! She told us that she was "cleaning house" -- getting rid of any of her not-so-perfect pieces of pottery that she had made. I loved ALL of her pottery and I didn't want to see any of it smashed. I managed to rescue a few of her not-so-perfect pieces and I love them and use them. Annie collected her broken pieces of her pottery in a large bucket and I did use some of those pieces to make this beautiful flower pot. I still have the flower pot and it reminds me of Annie. You can see her website at www.earthtoannie.com I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you bought some of her pottery too!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Bob and I are Very Spoiled!

Bob and I are VERY SPOILED! We have a wonderful luxury car, but Friday we had to rent a car for our trip to Tulsa (or cancel the trip). It was my granddaughter's birthday, so I certainly wouldn't CANCEL the trip! Bob took our car in for some repairs last Thursday when he heard noises that disturbed him. The car needed a new arm and t-rod. We thought we would have the car back on Friday in time to take our trip, but the extended warranty that we planned to use to take care of the costs of the repairs, stated that an inspection was needed before the auto repair place could release our car to us. And they couldn't do the inspection until Tuesday. We asked my friend Kem to take us to the airport to get our rental car, as she asked us to do the same for her a couple of months ago. That's what friends are for, right? We got into our rental car -- the white car shown in the photo above -- and away we went. Bob asked me if I had directions to Ed & Judy's house where we were staying and I said, "Just put the address in the . . . ". I realized then that we had no GPS in the car! A few miles into our trip, Bob's cell phone rang and he was digging it out of his pocket while he was driving. I was wondering why he didn't just answer it with the Bluetooth. NO BLUETOOTH in the rental car! I got out my book to read and Bob said, "Wish we had thought to bring some CD's." We didn't have our XM Satellite radio with a million stations like we have in our own car. I told Bob that we are very spoiled! I started thinking about all of the other ways we are so spoiled compared to other countries and the homeless people that are right here in Dallas. I am a very lucky girl and I thank God every day for his abundance he gives me.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Weekend in Tulsa for Carson's 7th Birthday




Bob and I drove to Tulsa to be with Carson when she celebrated her 7th birthday. We arrived on Friday night and stayed with Ed & Judy, Christy's parents. Caty had been at church camp all week and was to come home on Saturday, so Bob and I were at Corbin & Christy's house bright and early at 6:45 a.m. to sit for Christian (and their dog Sitka). Carson wanted to go with her parents to the camp to see it, as she will be going next year. Christian got a new motorized jeep so he spent a lot of the time riding around the back yard in it while Bob and I were there. After Corbin, Christy, Caty & Carson got back home, Bob and I had a couple of hours to ourselves before we took the girls to see "Monte Carlo". Cute movie!

Saturday evening, Corbin's family, Christy's sister Tracey, her son Nathan and daughter Danielle, Christy's parents, Ed & Judy, and Bob and I all went to Dave & Buster's to celebrate Carson's 7th birthday. After dinner, Corbin gave each of the kids cards for the games. Even Christian who is three, knew how to play those games and win lots of tickets! The tickets were exchanged in the gift shop for TOYS! The adults followed the kids around while they played the games. Carson loved the large Plexiglas bin loaded with stuffed animals and she was determined to win one of them! She kept running her card through the reader and I thought she was wasting her money, but she kept at it and FINALLY won a BIG, blue stuffed animal! One of the workers came to her when he heard all of the whooping and hollering we all were making when Carson pulled the stuffed animal out of the shoot. He asked her if she would like to go INTO the box with all of the stuffed animals! I told him it was her birthday. Caty and Christian went into the box too. They were only in there for less than a minute. Caty saw her opportunity and took a BIG, yellow tiger to the shoot and put him half-way into it. When she got out of the box of stuffed animals, she played the game and won her BIG, yellow tiger! Carson and Caty took turns playing the game and they won FIVE HUGE stuffed animals! The kids also used their tickets in the gift shop for MORE stuffed animals! It was a FUN evening! I think Carson had a GREAT birthday! If you would like to see more of the photos I took of our weekend, here is the link -- share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EbMmLJq3aKP5Y