Callahan Reunion

Shawn's brothers and dad came to our neck of the woods for Father/Sons Reunion 2008. They decided to raft the Ocoee and camp out. They survived both the river AND the tremendous humidity (it was THICK)! We returned them to their wives all in ONE piece, although maybe a tad twisted and whiplashed!

So here they are... what?!?... can't you see 5 gorgeous Callahan men, a raft, paddles, and a guide with huge muscles? Look harder...I promise, they ARE in there... no men were thrown overboard during this voyage...

See? Ahhh, there those manly men are, taming that white water. In orange helmets, starting in the back left is Joe (son #3), to his right is Shawn (son #1), middle is Dad Bill, front left is baby bro Jeff, and front right is Tom (son #2) and notice how composed Tom seems in every picture, maybe it was the sunglasses, wink!

The fearless conquerors! Notice the 'guide' taking a good chuckle. I think he really enjoyed having a raft full of men, no women or children, and gave the guys the ride of their lives, no mercy... included in the experience (for no extra charge) proof to the Callahan 5... why one of the bends in the river is called 'Broken Nose'!

I hope the guys had as much fun as Shawn did showing them the sights. Hopefully they will return with all their 'gals' in tow next time, we missed seeing the females of the family... all 12 of them... did I count right? I made sure the Callahan men didn't leave the state without eating biscuits and gravy. I also fed them a HUGE lunch before their send-off ensuring a good case of 'food coma' on the plane ride home! I love when my sweetheart has time with his family, he is so blasted cute!

Savannah 'Belle'

We ran away from home!

My precious daughter and I ran away just us girls for a few days. We went to a nice hotel, ordered roomservice, stayed up too late, slept in, went swimming, shopping, and got new hairdos. I love my daughter. She was born down South, like me, so I have always called her my little 'belle', or Savannah Belle. She is an absolute delight. Genuinely happy, a joy to be around, hard worker, lover of all animals, and undeniably a divine daughter of our Heavenly Father. She is brave, soft, kind, and forgiving. I am so blessed to be her mom and learn from HER example. I love you daughter, and thanks for a wonderful weekend!

please, PLEASE... don't go away...

Rain! I just love a good rain. We have a vented fireplace in our master bedroom and it exits the roof with a metal cap. When it rains, it sounds like a tin roof and is ever so soothing to me. Never mind that I already lost 2 of my 20 loblollies, and the rest of my trees/plants were starving for moisture, never mind that the grass is growing out of control and needs to be mowed asap... in the end, I love rain MOST for the sound it makes, and the way my shoulders drop in relaxation when I see it arrive, definitely one of my favorite things!!

Priceless...

My precious family is all over the place this weekend. Shawn is off rafting on his brothers/dad reunion. Savannah and Christian are camping out under the stars next door. And Ty is quite content to be cuddled here next to me watching a movie. I love a very special trait he has gotten from his dad... laughing out loud. Seriously! I rarely do it... I giggle, grin, snort... rarely allowing myself to bust out in laughter. Ty sees something funny, and the whole house KNOWS he is delighted. A child's laugh is just one of those many blessings given to mommies... wouldn't you agree?!

Always Kiss Me Goodnight

You know what I love?

A sweet husband that kisses me every morning, and everynight... never has missed!

A sweet husband that kisses me after each meal and tells me 'thankyou, it was yummy'... even if it was only leftovers.

A sweet husband that comes directly to me, before anyone or anything else, when he comes home from work or from being away from me for any other reason, to give me a kiss.

A sweet husband that smells so good and looks so handsome as he walks out the door each morning to be a tooth doctor.

A sweet husband who is so darn excited about his brothers and dad arriving this evening that he is literally BESIDE himself with joy!

A sweet husband that loves our 3 wonderful children so completely.

A sweet husband that married a shy (can be very frustrating for BOTH of us), strong-willed, tender, southern mess of a gal... and left Utah for 15 acres in Alabama, full of weeds, vines, animals, and humidity.

A sweet husband that tolerates me when I throw yet another hissy fit and am drowning in guilt, and lovingly forgives me... again.

A sweet husband that loves me perfectly even though I am far from perfect.

A sweet husband that is mine forever!

Formal Introductions

This is Jack, our new goat!

Jack be nimble,

Jack be quick,

we HOPE Jack won't jump over the goat fence!

7am wake-up call

... so much for a lazy summer morning. Got a call from the post office, 'live animals have arrived, pick-up asap!' So excited... in fact Savannah was the only one that would go with me in my gleeful state. That's my GIRL! We rushed to the P.O just to find out that they weren't even open til 8:30am, that'll take the glee right out of a couple gals. So we went inside and decided to wait. Thankfully, my favorite postfella, the one that said I had beautiful eyes (noted in prior post), came out to restock shelves. I asked him if he had a 'box of quackers' in the back. He giggled and said, "nope, but I have a box of squealers". Here's my chance... I asked if I could relieve them of the noisy critters now, or did I need to wait til 8:30. He gladly brought them right out. There were already several people buying stamps out of the machines and dropping off letters that HAD to know what on earth we had in the box! A little more attention than Savannah or I necessarily wanted in our ratty tat clothes, no makeup, and unbrushed hair, no joking... but we were too excited to care at that moment.

Here's is my sweet 7am riser with her favorite duckling. It is the smallest and loudest. She tends to find the little runts and spoil them. She calls it pipsqueak! Very appropriate. Anyone want to come see them? They grow fast!

taking thankful notes...

The best things about today: rain, creative sister-in-law Alisha, fresh blackberries that I can't quit eating like candy, little cousins laughing and playing together, and most of all... my sweet little niece, Carden, who is the perfect blend of everything wonderful! Happy Birthday! Of course I know you love me too & I am your favorite aunt, right?!, Carden??! OK... I'll gladly settle for being one of your THIRTEEN favorite aunts... did I count right? (I snuck Jess in early cause we're not going to let her escape this chaos now!)

I love you, you are MY favorite Carden in the whole wide world!!

Loved to 'Life'

In a recent post, I told you about our two new kittens... Snickers and BooBear. Snickers is doing very well and already a great 'hunter'. BooBear on the other hand has had some real struggles. She was the runt of her litter and is a third of the size she should be. We took her to the vet and had several tests ran on her but nothing obvious was wrong with her labs. But strangely, and much to the surprise of our vet, BooBear is an 'it', don't remember the official name. Can we pick 'em or what?! So BooBear has been quite sickly and on at least one day we thought for sure she was going to pass. But not with Savannah taking care of her. The vet said if BooBear made it through the next 3 weeks then she would probably be OK, not normal size, or the usual rough and tumble healthy, but she should survive for a good while. Savannah has pulled her through thus far. We should be able to vaccinate her by months end and not sure how to 'fix' an animal that is neither male/female, but we will let the vet figure that out. I just know we don't want billions of kittens in our future. So for now, we are head over heels in love with our little odds fighter. Isn't she just beautiful... since calicos are USUALLY gals, we just make it easy on ourselves and call her SHE!

So Blessed!

We hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th. We sure did! We worked outside 'fine tuning' some of our last projects in the heat and then we have given ourselves permission to head 'inside' to accomplish things, at least until Fall.

In the evening, we went over to our neighbors home to visit, eat... a lot, and enjoy fireworks. We were so blessed to meet several new families, some of which we had previously met their wonderful children. Now I can say I KNOW why the children are such a delight... the parents are just as incredible.

The food was delicious. I MUST get the recipe for Texas caviar! We offered to bring something too, but wisely, our hostess declined because she had already read my previous post and was not feeling adventurous enough to sample my cooking. We brought a watermelon.

Funny spin of the night was a spontaneous trek back over to OUR house for a tour. Yep!! You that know me, KNOW that I like things just so-so... but in my defense... it was a Friday, AND a holiday! My house was a disaster. Yet my numerous tourists were ever so gracious and oooohed and aaaahed in all the right places, giggle. Glad to report that noone broke anything jumping the trench by the Barn and our little 'caravan' returned safely back over to the neighbors. The kids did a wonderful job with the fireworks, no injuries, some very scared goats though... and then we all returned home and slept well to the sound of a good ole country rain.

Dinner anyone?

So have you ever heard me describe myself as a less than great cook?

Nuf said!