Mississippi, Buddy, & Garage Sale...Oh MY!

I've just realized I never post my "4th of July...Oh MY!" post to facebook, so I'm posting that one and this one at the same time.   A LOT has happened since the last I blogged...

Mom & Dad went on vacation to Colorado the last week in June.  I've decided we are now going to send a letter of warning to whatever state they go to on vacation.  Last March, they were vacationing in Hawaii and a tsunami struck the island.  This year, they were evacuated from their hotel because of wildfires.  Apparently, my parents cause natural disasters to occur.  Just kidding, but I did tell them to never go snow skiing...  They had a fabulous time in Denver, Colorado Springs, Dillon, Pueblo, and a few other places.  They brought Nick & I some goodies including shirts and hoodies.  LOVE them. :)  They flew into Little Rock on Sunday, July 1st.  They met up with my cousin, Emily, and her daughter, Mady, to bring Mady home with them.

Facetiming with Dad while they were on Pike's Peak.  All the smoke from the wildfires.

My dear, sweet, talkative cousin, Mady, lives in Mississippi and came to attend a G.A. camp my sister is the director of.  She's as cute as a button, was the flower girl in our wedding, and is as talkative as I am.  LOVE her to death.  As mentioned in my last post, I got to visit with her, my sister, and my parents on the fourth.  Then, on Friday, July 6th, I took half a day off from work to get to spend the rest of the day with her.  My sister brought Mady to Mount Pleasant, and we all met up with Nick to eat lunch at Pete's.  My sister then went home to New Boston to unpack, wash clothes, then repack for a weekend trip to Mississippi.  Mady and I went back to mine & Nick's house.  I finished packing, she played with Satchel for a bit, then we headed to New Boston as well.

Mady fell asleep on the way to New Boston.  Camp wore her out!

My parents, sister, Mady, and I all headed to Mississippi after everyone was home from work on July 6th.  Nick had to stay home and work.  I felt like that was the longest trip to Mississippi I've ever been on (and we've been plenty of times in my life).  We were detoured due to some construction and a wreck near Little Rock, Dad was pulled over for a stupid rule that none of us knew existed, and the detour consisted of a lot of time on a two lane roads with slow moving vehicles.  We FINALLY got to my cousin, Jan, and her husband's house a little after midnight.  I was exhausted!  But, the weekend with family was a lot of fun.  My Aunt Sue & Uncle Richard celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday.  Tons of us traveled to the party and enjoyed getting to visit.  We ate, visited, then had to hit the road back to Texas on Sunday.  Lots of traffic and detours again, only this time, the air conditioner went out too.  But, it started working again, and all was well.  I arrived back home around 9:00 to start another work week.  It was a fun weekend with family though!

My Aunt Sue, Uncle Richard, their children, grand children, and great grandchildren.  Wow!

Had to put a picture of my cute cousins!

Thursday, July 12th, Nick & I went to eat dinner with Joe, Melanie, Tovah, Owen, & Nick's aunt, Rhon.  We ate at 1-55.  Rhon came down to go on vacation with Joe & Melanie to Colorado.  She was absolutely ecstatic to travel there.  Melanie asked me a while back if I would design a camping shirt for them to wear while in Colorado.  I was able to, and she surprised Rhon with the shirt at dinner that Thursday night.  They all loved them.  I made purple shirts for Rhon and Melanie, and a gray shirt for Joe.  Nick & I have been keeping Joe & Melanie's dog, Buddy, while they've been gone.  He's an interesting puppy, to say the least.  As Melanie says, "He has ADHD."  I really think he does.  He has been all over the place, and Satchel has been none too happy to have him in the house, but it hasn't been too terrible.  We had a bit of a hiccup on Tuesday.  Buddy decided he wanted a snack.  Two RAW, boneless, skinless chicken breasts later, and Nick had to call a vet friend of his to figure out what to do.  Nick ended up getting Buddy to throw-up the chicken.  It was not a pretty sight, and I'm glad I was at work when all of this happened.  "Disgusting" is what Nick said.  But, other than that, the week has gone well with Buddy.  Joe & Melanie will get home on Sunday, and I know he'll be super excited to see them.  We'll be excited to see them too.  We've been getting fun updates all week about what they were doing, and pictures of Rhon being awed by the mountains. :)

Buddy amazed (and slightly scared) of the tower fan in our bedroom.

It's like a circus with these three in the same house. :)

The t-shirt I designed per Melanie's request for their camping trip.

I spent last weekend cleaning up and organizing the garage.  I'm preparing for a garage sale that I want to have in September.  Lots of fun... NOT!  We visited Efurd's peach shed, had ice cream, and then had dinner with the Mayben's on Sunday.  I LOVE Efurd's and their peach/strawberry swirl ice cream.  I also bought a jar of pickled okra (my favorite!).  Mitchell requested that I bring banana pudding for dinner, and he'd provide the rest. :)  We dined on ribs, chicken, corn, and baked beans.  It was DELICIOUS!  Then we drove around on the ranger, visited with the Gilberts, then headed home.

This weekend is going to be lots of fun.  Bray family get together at my parents' house, and Joe & Melanie will be getting home from vacation.  I'm sure I'll do some cleaning, and Nick will do lots of work.  His business is doing great, and we're praying it continues to thrive!  I love how happy he is when he gets home at night.  I can tell this is what the Lord wanted us to do for sure!