Blogging friends

I've been blogging now for about 2 1/2 years. When I first started blogging, like many of the rest of you I did plenty of blog hopping and reading different blogs from all over.  Yeah--spent a lot of time that way!

As time went on I established my favorite ones.  Maybe there was some connection of people, maybe something we had in common, maybe it was because I stepped out of my comfort zone and commented on their blog & they responded to me, maybe it was those who commented on my blog.

Sometimes for some reason you just "feel" a connection with certain people causing you or them to reach out a little further than causal comments.

Those of you who are around me hear me in conversation refer to "My blogging friend from ___"  I find myself saying this quite a lot.  I feel very fortunate to have gotten "acquainted" with quite a few bloggers and consider them friends!  But, the truth is, other than my family and very few others that I actually do personally know;  I have never met any of the other of my blogging friends.

Until this weekend!!

Last week I got pretty close....if you remember I posted about meeting some of Alison's family.

When I made one of my "house tour" posts, Patty made the comment "we're coming to visit", and I responded that would be awesome,  and then she said "Seriously"!!  I still can hardly believe it.

They arrived Sat. afternoon, and we had some friends/family out for a potluck for supper that night.  The question was asked, "when did you meet"?  uhhh, TODAY!!

We joked about the fact that they were stopping by to meet us on their way home to TX after visiting in CO!
Really they were on a road trip and heading on east & south, but they did go out of their way to come see us!

 

Can you think of a more appropriate place to have our picture taken together than beside the computer?!




We had some family and friends over for a potluck on Sat. eve,

We spent some time inside eating...

My younger sister--and our friends aka big Opps, I MEANT older! "sistah" Cyndie & Dan

The middle sister--Gay and Patrick.  Yes, she's the one who makes those delightful comments, and is the mother of THIS delightful blogger, my niece

 And with my mom

On the porch eating;

Alisha & Ryan, Derek,  Becky & Paul & Leon at the end

On the steps eating....

My friend Shelley from HERE; with her delightful mischievous little grandson

Outside eating on the play set;

Gay's youngest, Jackson, & her oldest grandaughter Felicity, with Kaela in the middle.

In a tree eating;

 

Her Grandson Latham--

And outside under the trees in the cool breeze visiting, too full to move

and the sun went down on another day of country memories

Andy & Patty--we are so happy you came to meet us, and spent some time with us.  We so enjoyed having you as our our first guests in our country home, having you in our Sun. a.m. gathering, sharing you with our friends & family--both here and Sun. evening at Russ & Lanae's too.
We hope you have a wonderful & safe rest of your journey "home"!

Words, Numbers and Generations

So I'm really bad. I had a whole house full of company Saturday evening and Sunday noon, and did not take any pictures myself. I have to rely on what my girls took.

Instead of photos, I'll have to give you words and numbers.

We had all our kids home except Jana and Laura. That's 10 kids-5 spouses and 5 grandkids. --That's 20

Wades parents, his grandmother, his brother, his sister, husband & 3 kids. --That's 9

Leon's Mom, 2 sisters, and 1 brother--That's 4

My Mom--1 and Jim's Mom 1----That's 2

1 single guy friend (Martin)--Add 1 more

Leon and I--Two more makes a total of 38
That's who all we had here for supper Sat. evening.

Sunday noon we were 10 less, -- 28 for dinner.

Barrett and Jessi with their 2 grammies and 3 of their great grandmothers.

Front, L to R--My mom holding Barrett, Wades Grandma Velma, Jessi and Leon's Mom; Edith.
Back, Me, and Wades mom, Ruth.

We might have missed getting alot of other pictures, but we did get a few special ones!

My view this morning

The rain quit, and we have sunshine! Yay for spring!

Jessi bear

 

Happy (belated) birthday--I hope you have lots of fun playing dress-up Jessi!

Work boys, work!

Thankfully Friday and Saturday were sunny. We've had alot of rain and everything is lovely green, but we were hoping for sun and warm with all our weekend company


I got a load of wood chips to use for landscaping...now if it would just quit raining long enough to get my yard work done!


My brick-laying son built us a new fire pit for bonfires!


And some stood (or sat) around and watched him..


NICE job Ryan!! Thanks!


We roasted all our hotdogs & enjoyed the fire.


Play kids, play!

Well, some of them weren't kids, and some of us didn't play, but it was fun to watch anyway. Hopefully they had fun.


These were kids, and they were playing. The little ones loved the outdoor space, and I hardly saw them inside!

More to come.........

Did I mention....

How much I love being able to see sunsets out here in the country?

Obviously my kids do too, because they will be out playing, come running to the house telling me to "come quick Mom"!

Tonight was one of those nights & Kaela came running to get me. I handed her the camera to take to Kara & off she went.

Great job with the photos Kara!

Where to start?

We had a wonderful weekend.

A really full weekend.

I have so many pictures I'd like to share of our weekend that I really don't quite know where to start, so I guess I'll share this one first.

I've said before that one of the best things about blogging (and facebook) is connecting with people and making friends that you might never have the chance to meet otherwise.

One of the best things is making "virtual friends" that you MIGHT get the chance to meet someday because of it!

Last week one of my blogging friends contacted me to let me know that her parents and daughter were going to be in our town for high school graduation of their nephew, and they would like to connect with me for Sunday a.m. arrangements.

I was delighted! I hadn't had a chance to meet any of my blogging friends (ones that I don't personally know already) so although I didn't get to meet A. herself, the next best thing was some of her family!



Here's me with my two youngest, Kaela & Kara & A's mom with her grandaughter Kyla. She is right in-between in age of my girls.

How very fun to meet you, and have you with us Sunday a.m. Thank you Alison!

Rather incredibly this coming weekend I'm going to have the chance to finally meet another one of my blogging friends. Patty & Andy are coming to visit for the weekend and I'm just ecstatic about it!

Stay tuned!

Birthday, Graduation and family time

These girls are just 3 months apart in age, and have been friends from the beginning. When they were little we have quite a few pictures of them together. As they got older we've tried to get pictures of them together every year on their birthday at least. This picture was taken when Relyssa turned 16. Lorene was Relyssa's maid of honor at her wedding, and now tomorrow we'll add another photo memory of the two of them together. Now that they're out of school--"All grown up"-- ( :P) and Relyssa married, photo's of the two of these friends together are going to be much more infrequent.
Happy Graduation girls!


It's a busy weekend for us. Relyssa and Lorene's graduation reception on Sunday afternoon.
Derek's birthday yesterday.



All our kids/grandkids but Jana and Laura are "here" this weekend, staying in various places, but we're planning on lots of together time later today and tomorrow.

Last night I had a birthday supper for Derek. Ryan & Alishia joined us, and then Dalayna & Wade came by on their way into Kearney where they were meeting up with Wade's parents. Later Mark & Relyssa stopped in on their way thru just in time for cake.



♪♫♪♪♫♪ "Happy happy birthday--from all of us to you--♪♪♫♫♪♫♪ We wish it was our birthday, so we could party too"!♪♪♫♫♪♫♪

Oh yeah, that's right--We DO get to party too--alot!


"Can I just have a NICE picture"? HA, right!

And what do you mean I "only" have 8 candles on his cake? Can't you read short-hand?
Two stands for twenty!

26 years...in the blink of an eye.

About as fast as he could blow those candles out.





After they were gone then Jeanne & Floyd came out for a while. Nothing makes a place feel more like home, than to have all your kids arrive!

Bonfires seem to be a regular around here--definitely an attraction. This mom/grammie has to remember to keep a full supply of marshmallows on hand as the kids seem to think that they go together!

This afternoon & evening promises to be crazy, loud and fun. We're looking forward to sharing our time & food with our kids & their in-laws, as Jim & Mark's mom and Wade's parents & grandma are joining us too. My mom & MIL, & Leon's two sisters & our friend Martin.


Woops, that reminds me, we've got homemade ice cream to get in the makings for tonight too!

Anyone else want to join us?

More Music

Kara and Kaela have been taking piano lessons just a little under a year now. This spring was their first time at public performances.
Their teacher, Jane entered them in a talent show in March and the girls worked hard learning their pieces & memorizing them. Both girls played two songs and although they didn't place, they did a wonderful job on their playing


Kaela~ along with her first public performance, she had to go first.


~Kara


I believe the judges were music students from the collage here.


The crew who tallied the scores & wrote out the certificates


Yesterday the girls had their first recital. When Jane told me who she was having the c0-recital with, I thought it was pretty ironical that it was with a teacher (Karen D.) that my sisters and I had taken lessons from when we were teens. Also a couple of my older girls had lessons with her too!
Yeah, I goofed, I missed a great photo op!


~Kaela


~Kara


~My nephew Nathan


As I was zooming in on the kids playing, I noticed the reflection of their hands.
I thought it was pretty cool. A while back someone else did this for one of the photos on our photo challenge blog.



And this last picture? Well no piano or violin music here, But I think maybe this qualifies for melody for the soul.


Our oldest son, and the flowers he brought me for mothers day.