New Paint...

You may think I'm crazy because I only painted the dining room a little over 2 years ago, but I was so tired of the red. I convinced myself that I liked it, but it never really did anything for me. A few weeks ago I realized that the color combination I had going on, deep red and butter yellow, was a little too old fashioned for me. I'm not looking forward to my next birthday, which is a milestone birthday, and I don't want an "old lady" house that only makes me feel older!

So.. Out with the red and in with the gray! A bit more modern, don't ya think. Gray and yellow is a much more youthful combination. The name of the color is "semi-sweet," which I think describes me perfectly. Those of you who know me well understand that the name is just as important as the actual hue. My #2 dream job is to be the person in charge of naming all of the colors. Not just paint colors, but ALL of the colors everywhere!

The walls are still in need of some accessorizing, but that will come in time.

I'm going to be sad when I have to take all of these tiny pumpkins to work tomorrow. I promised my art class that we could paint pumpkins this week. I have enjoyed them.

Happy Halloween!

Autumn decor inside. I only spent about $7!

I will probably need to buy more candy. I'm expecting at least 500 kids for Trick-or-Treating this year!

The spider almost looks real!

Bully wanted to dress up this year.

Who Dat!

Derek and I went to the Superdome on Sunday to watch the Saints play the Jets.  We had awesome seats in the lower section in the end zone corner.  I hope we can go back again this season.  The Saints are now 4-0!

JSU's marching band, the Sonic Boom, is in the background.  That was very interesting.  I have never seen so much booty poppin' and shakin' in my life!

LB & Me at Abita

The tour only lasted about 5 minutes, but the free beer lasted for an hour!

Everything was on tap at the serve yourself bar, even root beer!

Waiting on Daddy

Saturday in Biloxi

Giant Elephant Ears

I'm really surprised at how tall they grew.  I will definitely plant more of these next spring.

Four Years Ago

Flowers in the Front Yard

White oleander, droopy after a heavy rain.  I didn't realize that oleander produced seed pods like these after they bloomed.

Red canna along the side of the garage.

Salvia... 

with knockout roses in the back ground.  The rain beat them up too much to photograph.  Maybe next time.

My "New" Classroom: BEFORE

This will be a real creative challenge.  I may not be in this portable next year, so I can't do anything permanent like painting the walls.  This is just about as "blank slate" as they come.

Stay tuned for the AFTER!!

Vacation II: Orange Beach and the USS Alabama

Surprisingly, I didn't have the whitest legs on the beach, but I was a very close second.

Check out these guns!

Under a B-52

Wildlife on the Island

Upon check-in at our hotel, the lady at the counter informed us of some beach rules.  This time of year is sea turtle nesting, and anything left on the beach might get in their way.  We didn't see any sea turtles though.

This is a gopher tortoise having lunch by the pool.  There were traffic signs all over the island for "gopher tortoise crossing."

Mom was good at spotting manatees in the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge.  We saw two while we were there, but this smaller one was the only one present when I had my camera.

I snapped this osprey one evening during a walk on the beach.

Sanibel Island, Florida

Mom and I recently returned from a vacation to Sanibel Island, FL.  We had heard that it was one of the top shelling destinations in the world.  This place sure lived up to the hype.  We soon discovered that June is not the peak time, as you can tell from the oh-so-crowded beach in the photo below.  The water was beautiful and warm, and there were so many shells that we had to wear our shoes almost the whole time. 

A white ibis hunting for food

Sunset on our first day

Looking for shells after supper

Mom doing the 'Sanibel Stoop'

I will post more photos tomorrow.  Blogger is being a little slow at the moment.

Flowers

These are my favorite day lilies right now.  They are bright orange with a triple bloom.

Here is the blooming mother-in-law's tongue.  The flowers remind me of fireworks.  I hope this doesn't mean my plant is about to kick the bucket.  Sometimes plants put on a big show right before they die.

School's Out!!!

I'm on vacation until August!  Are you jealous?

Late Spring

My hostas were late bloomers this spring.  I thought most of them had been eaten by the moles in our yard, but today I noticed 3 trying to peek out from under the leaves.  Now all of my hostas from last year have come back.

Have you ever seen a mother-in-law's tongue have a bloom?  Well, mine has one!  It looks a little like an unopened bloom on monkey grass only much larger.  I took some photos, but they wouldn't upload correctly.  I think this bloom is trying to keep its presence a secret.  I'm going to try to capture this elusive creature on camera again.

Horsing Around

After the cookout on Saturday, we rode over to Skyla's place to see her new house/riding arena and play with her horses.  I think I have all of their names down, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Cindy feeding Dolly.

Skyla and Seis.

Mom scratching Ruby, her favorite.

Derek and me feeding them "candy."

Dolly

Dad's Birthday Cookout

Derek is a great supervisor.

Ellie can be a good supervisor too.

These girls are always looking for an "Oops" moment.

Group photos are common with this bunch.  I think this turned out to be the most interesting one to date.  Everyone is doing something different.