2015 year in review 1st 6 months (mostly pictures)

I honestly haven't had much time to blog over this last year.  I like doing a year in review though they are kind of fun to look back on. I like the facebook app of "on this day" as well. It may seem like time flies by and sometimes this help put it in perspective. This may be a lot of photos for some months but there were some big events for us this last year. 

January: 

 Definitely was a cold month. Spent some time at Tecumseh lake watching the gulls

 This guy came to visit and I got a pic of him. Was up in our cottonwood tree by our house.

 Just me

February: 

 as always beautiful sunsets 

My supervisor. She didn't approve of what was on tv.

The trees had budded out. It appears they may have by early Feb as some of the ones around here all ready are budding and getting baby leaves.

Robin

 The mockingbirds doing mating dance. They'd just chased off the local mourning doves.

 flowers blooming. These were ones my MIL had gotten during a hospital stay and gave to us to plant so we were really pleased to see them coming up.

 Snowfall. We really haven't gotten much yet this year.

 

 We have some bird seed ready for when it does though.

March: March for us is my son's birthday this year he will be 17. It is also our wedding anniversary. That is on the first day of spring. 7 years this year. I normally do at least one gag gift but I haven't figured out what that will be yet this year. I take the usual traditional gift and put a spin on it. like cotton ..I got cotton balls and labeled them warm fuzzies. I don't even wanna talk about the leather one LOL I think this year though it is candy. I'll figure something out. ;) The spring months usually make for more photography for me. I just enjoy being outside.

 king of the mountain shopping cart style. Snow that had been left over that someone put one on top of at Walmart.

 more snowfall

 some of my crocheting. I had started doing wash clothes with cotton fiber yarn to learn different stitches.

 My son on his 16th birthday he had gotten Frosting-ed. :P

 We had gone to a friends house and his sisters were there and my grand baby. It was a good time.

 another stitch I learned.

 It finally got warm enough for the snakes to come out. I am always finding these lil guys around. (non-venomous of course) This one was particularly photogenic. 

 flowers bloomed more

 the trees as well

 over priced easter stuffed animals. my youngest had brought it to me and I had glanced and went no way.. then went and looked and sure enough those tiny easter bunnies were nearly 50$.

 Grackles that are commonly seen around the parking lots. I actually enjoy listening to them.

 the buds after they popped open into blooms.

 clover carpet before I had to mow it. Love it.

 The clouds were all for a tornado warned storm that came through next to us. Sent the kids inside my mom's house (it is sturdier) during tornado warning and of course...took pics LOL (We do pay attention to how close and such but that is sort of a thing around here) 

 baby's breath

 blanket I made for my daughter. This yarn is particularly soft. I made one for a friend of mine too and sent it to her for her new baby. :) 

April: another month with a lot of pics. There were a lot of snakes out that were seeking higher ground and a lot of people were finding them in their houses and we were no exception. We found two. A young rat snake on my kitchen table and a small brown snake that the cats thoroughly freaked out about. My daughters MIL found a much larger rat snake trying to slip in her window but they stopped it before it made it in. There was a lot of flooding during the spring and early summer. 

 I always love when the wisteria blooms 

 the dandelions always bring a lot of bees but we actually don't mind them.

 easter egg hunt when my youngest was in Kindergarten. We kinda helped watch the baskets because it was super windy and they kept blowing over.

 dandelion she found and put in an upside down mushroom.

 again a lot of snakes. Most I think I've ever seen in our yard.

 Despite the head shape yes this guy is non venomous. He is a a species of rat snake. Though while not venomous he is not as friendly as the regularly found black rat snake. This is the Western I believe (I'd have to look) but he is very likely to strike. (I've been bitten by them. Not painful but still you would rather not) This particular one was on my kitchen table and I nearly walked right past him til I saw movement and I stopped and looked over and he was reared up watching me. I removed him and gave him a home in our garden.

 baby's breath

 I LOVE wisteria. I am so glad my dad didn't remove it all.

 My oldest and my grandbaby when over for a visit. She has grown so much just since this pic.

 My youngest had gone to the Seminole childrens museum on a field trip and was so proud of having her face painted. We went to town like this after. ;D

 My son likes ducks and we thought this was cute.

 we find a lot of wildlife when gardening. A snail she found.

 ladybug that came home with us on our pepper plants. It stayed for a few days.

 birds egg they found

 napping bumble bee. 

   if you take store bought lettuce (I use romaine) or green onions etc you can regrow it by keeping the root part in a deal of water til it grows roots and then plant it in dirt.

 my roses

 Wild roses

 my bicolor rose.

May: This month had a couple big trips in it. One was a zoo trip. First one I had made in years and years. We would like to go back sometime to see parts we missed. The other was the Mid Fair in Norman. Also been years and years since I did that.

 This guy was cool. He had the moves and talk and everything down with this.  This was over by the belly dancers which I was of course super  excited about. They asked for people to come out and dance and I nearly got told on LOL My husband and son were trying to get me to. I'm not that brave right now thanks :) 

My husband had left for the bathroom with my daughter and my son took this for me and he had to tell him see what happens when you leave? She gets picked up by strange pirate men LOL :D We saw several of our friends there which was nice. One in particular I reallllly wanna go see sometime but life I think has had us all so busy it is hard. Though I hope to try to do the fair again this year....maybe. I dunno but I'd like to try.  

  mermaids at the mid fair.

 My youngest held a tarantula at this. Braver than I!

 My son

 My youngest rode one. We tried to get my son to but he wasn't having none of that.

  My son chose this one

 and my youngest this one

 she and I also got fans we stopped at Thunderbird on the way home

 Me

I always find this snake interesting though it is highly venomous and the way it moves gives me eebie jeebies. The Gaboon Viper.

 The birds have this routine down pat. Wait til the closing time or so and get whatever food gets tossed out.

 my white roses

 crayfish holes are always fun when trying to mow

 The snakes seem to know what was on it's way. We got a massive amount of rainfall as the month went on. 

Still did some craft classes at the library

 My son and daughter on a car trip. She got worn out and fell asleep on him.

 local birds before a storm

 flooded ditch beside our house. We had to dig our ditch out from our driveway to redirect flooding into the culvert.

  this is actually a pretty deep spot though you can't see that due to the water rushing.

 view of our front yard under water at night with the street lights reflecting off it. It got up to the front porch.

even the toads seem to want some mercy from the nonstop rains.

 My youngest graduated kindergarten. Some of her artwork

 My mom. We found out she had Parkinson's and she had some issues related to it but she is doing pretty good atm.

 My 2nd oldest. :) 

 The water got high enough to get into the little building on the lake.

 one of the displays at our local grocery store.

 another one.

 some more of my youngest daughter's art.

 flower at my MIL's house

 playing in the driveway in the mud/water

little tree frog

 I enjoyed doing this style I actually got a lot of compliments on it and a lot of questions of how to do it. I may do it again eventually but I found a shade of red I love. I think next time though I may try a purple/blue mix mostly.

 depending on how it was styled it showed more of one color than another. Believe it or not I only used two colors to do this. I had the blonde in all ready and had left a patch of that and my husband helped me put the colors in and they blended in some places to create the rainbow effect.

 Me heading out to mow and my son snapped a pic.

 my son. He has really grown just in the last 6 months.

 Pics he drew

 I always find the brilliant color of these interesting. These are box elder bugs.

 mulberries.

Long overdue

For an update blog. *photos at the end of blog and I don't put photos of my youngest due to the public nature of this blog. I was curious and looked and realized my last was in April I guess? Or somewhere thereabouts. As always my life stays in motion and it never seems to slow down though there are times of progress and times of feeling like things are speeding by with nothing actually getting done but really more progress than not even if the progress itself is slow.  We've gone through a lot of changes the last few months. First a family member went through some health issues and we had to do some things in dealing with that as far as helping them move their belongings etc and adjusting to just the new situation as a whole. They are ok now just in a different living situation for them and I guess in a way for the better as they are receiving 24/7 care but I know the changes are not easy for them. We normally did our holidays with them so we have to refigure things though we still plan to spend holidays with them it will just be in a different setting etc. My 40th birthday came up in September and on my birthday I received a call from my dad with the biggest surprise of all. Not a bad one by any means but quite a shocker that took me some time to absorb. I found out I had a long lost sister. We haven't gotten to talk much yet (and honestly that part is hard for me anyway as I am super shy and awkward when meeting new people. She is in contact with my dad though and things seem to be going great there which is good. :) I am impressed that on some notes we seem a lot a like but yet we have our differences. (I've been told we look alike and I can see that in the pics) I also have 2 brothers and another sister all of which I <3 :="" a="" about="" acrylic="" acrylics="" actually="" adjustment="" again.="" again="" ago="" all="" also="" always="" am="" an="" and="" anything="" are="" around="" artwork.="" as="" at="" back="" be="" been="" before="" big="" bit="" break.="" brothers="" but="" by.="" can="" care="" catches="" christmas="" closer.="" coming="" connection="" costumes="" cousin="" crafts="" crochet="" d="" dad="" days="" dearly="" do="" doesn="" doing="" don="" done.="" done="" down="" each="" ending="" enjoyed="" etc="" event="" everything.="" expand="" falling="" family.="" family="" far="" few="" figure="" financially="" font="" for="" found="" front="" frontier="" full="" future="" get="" getting="" girls="" gone="" good="" got="" gotten="" great.="" guess="" had="" halloween="" handle="" happy="" has="" have="" her="" here="" hers="" homes="" hoped="" hoping="" house.="" house="" hristmas="" i="" if="" in="" into="" is="" isn="" it.="" it="" just="" knew="" last="" life="" like.="" lived="" local="" long="" longer="" look="" love="" lucky.="" may="" me="" means="" members.="" months.="" months="" more="" most="" move="" much="" my="" nbsp="" near="" needed="" never="" new="" nothing="" now.="" of="" off="" on="" one="" only="" other="" our="" out="" own="" paid="" painting="" part.="" part="" planned.="" pretty="" projects="" put="" really="" recently.="" recently="" redoing="" refigure="" remodel="" repair="" repairs="" run="" see="" seems="" several="" sewing="" share="" she="" sit="" so="" some="" something="" south="" speeding="" still="" such="" sucks="" surprise="" surprises="" t="" take="" taken="" takes="" that.="" that="" the="" their="" theme="" there="" they="" things="" think.="" think="" this="" though.="" though="" thought="" time="" to="" trying="" up.="" up="" urrently="" ve="" very="" was="" way="" we="" weddings="" well="" while="" wish="" with="" wondering="" work="" working="" worry="" would="">

 Maple leaves I made (not a great pic but meh) 

 snow flake (I'd love to make ornaments out of these)

 spider web

 spider to go on spider web I want to add a poinsettia leaf or something and make him a Christmas spider for my MIL who collects them

 my 6 yr old made this. We had given her some paint to mess around with when I was working a painting I did for the county fair because she wanted to paint too and this is that technique where you fold the paper in half creating a duplicate print on the other side. I think it looks like the roscharch (sp?) test. To me I see a lion

 she did this one too

 2nd place on my mermaid I did for the fair

 better shot of the mermaid

 Buffalo Bill at Frontier days (I talked my son into going back and getting a pic he was pretty cool) Then he decided to go pay a dollar and team up with my grandbaby's daddy and put his older sister in the jail thing LOL :) One of these days I'm pretty sure she is going to get revenge on him for that. :) 

another maple leaf but a better shot of it

flower I thought was pretty cool

my gaming buddy (my son) we've been playing a lot of Minecraft and even got my husband into it. My youngest plays as well. :)

 a lil toad that took up residence in a hole under where the truck sits that my youngest found and lured out so she could pet it.

 fishing trip a lil fish is a big deal to a lil girl.

 thistle growing at Tecumseh lake 

 My son in his natural habitat LOL Shawnee airshow my youngest still is not overly interested in the planes so kept dragging my husband off to the bouncy  house they had at the other side. 

Found out several friends were actually sitting nearby and didn't realize it til later LOL We were all focused on watching the planes.

 chair I made (crochet dreamcatcher) Though it turned out to be too stretchy so needs to be redone or re-enforced. 

April showers bring...

Super soggy yards. Oh yeah and flowers. I am convinced someone is sprinkling miracle grow on my yard. :P I mowed just like all my neighbors did (except the empty house next door) before the rain and theirs look relatively ok while mine is beginning to reach jungle status again. What is up with that? My youngest tells me I can't mow all those wishes down! (the dandilion fluffs) Sadly I don't think the city would buy that logic LOL I have my garden started. Some cherry tomato plants (I need a couple more I seriously could almost live off those and green onions) and a strawberry (my youngest has picked the first two off of it) and now some corn, heirloom tomato, lots of cucumbers though I want some zuchinni, soybean, and a purple pepper. Here is hoping. I am also working on regrowing some veggies like onion, romaine lettuce, and a pineapple that were bought at the grocery store. The onion and romaine are doing great and the pineapple I've not started yet. Will see how it goes once I do. I want to eventually get a grape vine and have it grow across this branch we have out front. I would like to get some things that come back every year really. 
I've started my allergy shots. We'll see how this goes. So far so good. My son goes in for his testing soon. I've been able to get more fresh fruits and veggies going at home  and I'm going on walks and such again. Doing my dancing again. Have to get my foot looked at though because it is taking it's toll. In general staying more active which I do anyway as the weather warms up. We're thinking of starting walks around the airport on the days I get my shots done. I have to stay there to make sure I don't have a bad reaction and all anyway and then we are right by there. 
The finished version of my blanket. Bigger than it appears to be here. It now belongs to my youngest. I had fun and it is so soft. Warmer than it looks too. 

I have an art project I need to start on really soon. Will start out as a pencil drawing and may evolve into something with color. Then it will be getting about time to start on projects for the fair and such. 

The other day we had a bit of a surprise. As most people who know me are aware of I really love animals. I do catch snakes and such (and release them of course) and this time the snake came to me. I was in my kitchen and had turned to walk back out when something on my table caught my eye. I stared for a minute (light was off and wasn't expecting to see anything really) and the something flicked it's tongue at me. Took me a couple of seconds to realize there was a snake laying on my kitchen table. I will say he picked the right house because most people I believe would have freaked and it wouldn't have ended well for the snake. I just had my son get the camera..looked at the snake to make sure it wasn't venomous...and took it outside. Which while it wasn't venomous it did have a nasty attitude. Very bitey. It is a kind I've had before (someone caught one and took it to a pet store and they couldn't keep it so they gave it to us a long time ago...that one was bitey too.) It is a rat snake but not a black rat it is a juvenile great plains. Very colorful. They are beneficial in that they eat pests such as mice. He can stick around. He isn't going to be getting into the pantry and such.  (picture taken before I released him) 

Anyway there was a quick update. The month of April has been super busy. We pretty much have something going on every single day this month. My calendar is full. Next month I have two birthdays coming up (my oldest turns 21 and my grandbaby 1) and a wedding. Also school ends and I am hoping appt. wise things slow down. I've started sorting and spring cleaning so am going to be busy with that for awhile. 

Eventful Springtime

Well last month raced by as is this one in a way. I pushed myself the most I have in awhile and am still recovering some from that. I know I posted last about the zoo (which was a big deal for me as I suffer from anxiety problems and agoraphobia) I still have to plan ahead sort of (which still would leave us unsure of how I'd be on that day) and I have to spend time recovering after but at least I am able to have more hits than misses at this point in time. The next thing we did was the Norman Medieval fair. This was actually a self test in two parts. My anxiety for traveling and my social anxiety as it was extremely crowded. I found out later my oldest was there with some friends (who knows who else) and completely never saw them. We did run into a couple of sets of friends. One set that we were surprised to see (though it was awesome to see them...actually they saw us first) and another set that we were to meet there. I am amazed we found each other but very very happy. I finally got to meet someone who I absolutely adore and I have to say they are as awesome in person as I thought. :) Just hope to get to spend more time with them in the future because we didn't get to see each other very long there.   The fair was great in itself too. I used to take the kids but it had been a long time since we went and my son was too young to remember. My youngest has all ready said she wants to dress up next year so we'll have to work on that. I kinda want to too.  I found the belly dance troupe right off and stayed there for their show. My hubby was teasing me when they came out into the audience to pull people up to dance that he was going to tell on me. I was like nope. Don't you dare!! Not ready for that yet LOL. I was still walking around in a daze from so many people.  Then he left to take my youngest to the bathroom and my son was there with me still about the time a Captain Jack cosplay came up. This guy was GOOOOD. He had the body language and movements down and the voice was so dead on. The look was awesome too. My son was like take a pic take a pic and I was all embarassed so I gave him the camera and apparently by then we'd caught Capt. Jack's attention LOL so he called us over and did a couple of pics with me. Made my day. I told Hubby see can't leave me alone for 5 min I'm over here picking up pirates. ;) My oldest and my friend both caught pics with Deadpool which I think was awesome too. We did a lot of walking in circles. My son was all not wanting to buy anything til he found the perfect thing. So we kept going. My youngest rode the camels but my son was like nope LOL Couldn't talk him into it. (The youngest is 5 almost 6 and my son is 16)  Surprisingly my youngest even held a tarantula. Wasn't even phased. O.o Not sure I could do that. Finally we get over to a tent with furry stuff. I spot this rainbow hat that comes down and has paws. I said ope I think I see "IT" he looks up and OMGGGGG yes that was it. LOL He found the "one" thing he wanted so then my youngest found one like it in purple and black and I think pink or white. They love them. I found a couple of fans for me and the youngest (it was sooooo hot we sunburned)  and everyone was buying hip scarfs. I found a bright green one. Something I use a lot is my hip scarves though I haven't in a bit since I had been so sick. There were so many people wearing them that everyone was jingling which cracked me up. We ran into the wandering monk. I think he may be there a lot. Listened to the guy playing music on the glasses. It was a good day all in all. We stopped by Thunderbird lake on the way home but were too tired to stay more than a few moments. I am sad to say one thing is with all the walking I did it has aggrivated my  "good" foot. ...meaning the one that hadn't just healed from being broken. I have planar fascitis (sp?) it is reaching the point that from what I was told  I may need surgery but surgery will only help for awhile and may result in recurring surgeries. :/ I am going to talk to them though and see what they want to do. Maybe there are alternatives. Don't want to jump the gun and conclude the worst. 

We did take my youngest in to the allergist and after being told time and time again that her health issues were allergy related....they are not. (on a side note we are looking for a pediatrician her reg dr has missed so much stuff like that...she is the one saying allergies the allergy testing confirmed it was not) We were told she is really just catching a lot of viruses at school. I asked if we should worry about her immune system and were told no basically she is building up an immunity to them..... we'll see. I am hoping next year won't be so bad. My son and I go this week. I am going to start allergy shots. (thankfully my youngest doesn't need them and I don't think my son will either. His aren't too bad he just wanted to know what he was allergic to for sure so he could avoid it if he can)   I 've all ready been told I need the shots but I put them off before because you have to go in weekly and at the time I thought I was going to lose my insurance and you really can't just stop once you start unless you start having bad reactions to the shots. So now I find out if I have to redo the testing or can just start the shots. I am sick of suffering through cedar pollen season so badly. It shuts me down essentially and I've started developing sinus infections and bronchitis a lot with it.   
We had a good easter. Pretty quiet but good. We went to my MIL's house and had dinner. Too cold to do much so I hid the plastic eggs today. Yesterday my youngest wanted to hide and find the real eggs. My son was all comfy where he was so didn't participate til today. I don't care how old my kids are they still get baskets and can participate...I still have a basket for my oldest and grandbaby to give them and my 2nd oldest came by for a visit and got hers before she left for vacation. It was good to see her and her fiance. She is getting married next month. :D  
There has as always been a lot of other things going on but I prefer not to put those on here as they are more personal for other people.  
I finally got to see the new Hobby Lobby store. They have some stuff I'm interested in but I think my yarn I may continue to get at Joanne's or Walmart. I finally finished a blanket for my youngest using baby blanket yarn. It is soooo soft. I've been learning new stitches making wash clothes (which have thus far come out really good) Here soon I have some actual art projects I intend to start.  

Anyway getting tired and tomorrow is a crazy hectic day for us so I will leave with some pics for now. 

These first few are of a storm that rolled through after producing a tornado in Moore. The sirens had gone off in the next town over

 

The blanket I made when I was still working on it. It is much bigger now.  I hope the full pic shows up as it shows up just partial here right now.  I was using an extra large crochet hook for it.

Captain Jack  (I wish his friend would have done the pic with me too LOL She snuck off to the side though)

I got two pics but I liked this one best.

My son and his rainbow hat (on top of the ballcap he had on LOL)

Youngest holding a tarantula

and her hat I didn't even notice she picked one to match her shirt til later.

The camels