The water Harley

We have a new toy for the lake.  Well, we traded one toy for another.  When I got home Thursday, John told me he wanted to take the boat to one of the marinas here in Dadeville to see if we could get a good enough deal to trade it in for a SeaDoo.  We started talking about it at the end of the summer last year, and he talked to a couple of people about it, but none of them had the right deal.  This time, they did. 

When we first got our boat, we were really in the market for a pontoon, but honestly, the ski boat was such a deal, and we weren't finding a pontoon that was, we didn't think we could pass it up.  And we had fun on it.  It was such a huge hassle, though, to get it in and out of the water.

We do have a launch in our "neighborhood" and we launched it and loaded it from there once, but because our road is a curvy and only one lane, getting the trailer back to our place was not easy.  We don't have a great place for turning a trailer around, so John had to back it from the launch to the trailer.  Not fun.  We usually kept it in dry storage at a launch about ten miles from the trailer, but that meant going every weekend, hooking it up, taking it to launch, taking the trailer back to the unit, and then doing the reverse every Sunday.  A couple of summers ago, we did leave it in the water at Danny and Linda's boat dock.  Talk about gross when we pulled it out!!  Lance and Jess were up that weekend, so Lance got the fun job of helping John clean it off.  With the SeaDoo, we can launch it at our place with the four wheeler, so it is much, much easier and quicker.

We took it out yesterday for about an hour.  I've ridden on a PWC only a handful of times, and I had never driven one until yesterday.  At first I was a little nervous, but once I got the hang of it, I.  LOVED.  IT.  I would have NEVER taken the boat out by myself, but I won't have any reservations about taking the water Harley out by myself.

Until next time...KEEP DREAMING!

Gorgeous weekend!

Of course, any weekend at the lake is gorgeous as far as I'm concerned. :) We got there about 7 Friday night, so we didn't do much. At least it wasn't yet dark, so we got to enjoy some porch time. Saturday was so nice! I went out on the dock about 10:30 and ended up dozing off, so my face got a little red. OOPS! I try not to let my face burn anymore. My amazing grill master did steaks Saturday night, and as usual, they were fabulous. We cleaned off the table on the porch and dined al fresco. Heavenly! While we were eating, I saw the ducks swimming a couple of lots down. I can't wait to see them up close again. The only negative was the pollen. When I swept the kitchen floor, there was a very distinct yellow tint to the dirt I swept up. And the furniture had a nice yellow coating. Joy. I have only six more weeks of school before I can go to stay. All, six weeks and three days. We have professional development days on May 29-31. Yuck! We're taking our trip to Memphis the first weekend in June, but once we're back from that, I plan on being a Winston County resident as much as possible! Guess that's it for now. KEEP DREAMING!!

Open for Business!

John and I went to the lake a couple of weekends ago to really get things up and running for the summer.  Or that was kind of our original plan.  After spending a week or so working on the bathroom at home, we decided that we were going to do nothing for the days we were at the lake during spring break.  Nothing is pretty much what we did.  And it was great!

We left on Saturday morning to go up, and so by the time we got there, it was early afternoon.  We did only what was necessary...unloaded the truck, turned on the water, flipped the breakers...and then we enjoyed the late afternoon quiet.  Better enjoy it now because there won't be many weekends when it is quiet.  Even though the water was still quite cool (I dipped a toe in), a few brave souls tubed.

On Sunday, we went to visit Billie, and then we took her back with us to spend the night.  Even though she wouldn't remember it now, she has a great time.  She fished and caught a nice size bass, and that tickled her to death.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of her and her fish so she could put it on her bulletin board at the nursing home.  Maybe we can take her back another time or two over the summer, and she can catch another one.

John did some fishing and had some good bites.  He caught a couple of bass and one really nice stripe.  He hung two (maybe the same one??) but he couldn't get them in.  It took about ten minutes of work to get the one he did catch.  He got three crappie too.  Those are in the freezer waiting to be fried up.  YUM-O!!

We left on that Thursday morning for home.  Talk about depressing! We had planned to go to Memphis with Susan and Tim, but the weather got pretty yuck with lots of rain, so we rescheduled that trip for June. 

As soon as I get home and we load up, we're heading up for the weekend.  This will be another do nothing weekend!  John deserves to rest after the hard work he put in on the bathroom.  :)  Maybe the fish will be biting again.

I'm gonna go get my stuff ready so I can be out the door as soon after the bell rings as possible because I am ready to be lake bound!

Remember...KEEP DREAMING!!!!

Not quite the last hurrah

I came to the lake yesterday to get in a few R&R days before school starts back.  Originally, I had planned to come up yesterday and stay until NEXT Sunday, but Connie and Libby are going to see Layton on Monday, so I'm going home Sunday so I can go with them.  The plan right now is to come back on that Tuesday and stay until that Sunday.  That will be the last hurrah for my summer.  :)

After I got everything unloaded and put away yesterday, I took my camera and went down to the dock to get some late afternoon shots.  I love sunsets on the lake.  And I really love the way the sun is peeking from behind the cloud in this one.  One of these days, I'm going to invest in a really good camera and take a photography class.  Photography is a hobby I'd really like to develop.

 Relaxing on the dock is another hobby of mine, but I've pretty well developed it.  I think I'm almost at pro status.  I spent about three and a half to four hours basking in the sun today.  It was hot, but being able to take a quick dip makes it bearable.  After having left the pups inside, they've been stuck to my side/lap since I got out of the shower.  :)

After supper I'm going to sit on the porch with my book (and the fan) and enjoy the quiet.  And probably an adult beverage too...



As always, keep dreaming because you never know when those dreams just might come true!

Fun with the fam

We had a mini-reunion at the lake this weekend.  A few weeks back, Tisha called and said Connie was missing her big brothers and wanted us to all get together sometime soon.  Since Billie is in the nursing home, we don't make it to Hartselle very much.  Usually on the weekends that we were up there, we'd see most everybody at some point, but I don't think we've really seen Tim and Tisha since Christmas.  We ran into them one Sunday as we were leaving the nursing home.  I know we haven't seen Libby, Jay, or the kids since Christmas, and it's been even longer since we saw Luke.

We decided that this weekend would be a good time to get together to visit.  We still didn't have everybody there, but it can be hard to get everyone's schedules to mesh.

Connie, Zac, and Billie got there first.  We were so excited to see Billie come crawling out of Connie's car!  John said on the way up Friday that he wished she would come.  Not long after they got there, Tim, Tisha, Libby, and Gavin got there, and then Katy, Phillip, and Sam were right behind them.  Danny and Linda came up a little later, but Danny wasn't feeling the best, so he rested.

We didn't do anything special--John grilled burgers, we sat and talked, Phillip and Katy took Sam and Zac to the water and let them swim.  Billie really seemed to enjoy herself.  She was a little confused about whether it was Katy or Jessi, who Libby had married (she kept wanting her to have married "the Caldwell boy'), and who the boys belonged to.  Connie said that when she got her back to the nursing home, she told everybody that she'd gotten to spend the day with all her kids and her grandkids (almost all!) and that she'd gone fishing.  :)  She didn't fish one time, but hey, if she thinks she did, then that's fine with me!  She has fished out there tons of times.

Sam sure had a good time.  He swam for a while, and then he played with his tractor and was covered in dirt.  Bama chased a beagle around the yard, and Sam "barked" and ran after them, laughing the whole time.  Then he decided he wanted to walk, so we walked.  We went from one end of the road to the other and back to our place.  On the way back, he saw a mud puddle.  He stopped, looked at it, and looked up to me.  I looked at him and said, "Sam Pate, no."  He then proceeded to jump right in the middle of it with both feet.  I couldn't do anything except laugh.  I mean, what little boy doesn't like mud??  He also got to ride with Pop Pop on the four wheeler.  John had gotten it out earlier in the day.  Katy was sitting on it, so Sam climbed on with her.  We had walked down to Danny and Linda's dock for a minute, and when we came back up, Katy told Sam to ask Pop Pop for a ride.  In his cute little voice, he said, "Ride please, Pop Pop."  Of course Pop Pop couldn't tell him no.  I'm not sure who loves whom the most.  :)  Katy gave him a quick bath and then they left about dark.

I love the time we have to spend together with our families.  The memories are priceless. 

Keep dreaming!!

Duck duck GOOSE

The ducks will come to the dock/shore anytime anybody is around,

hoping somebody will share a snack with them.

The geese get their fair share of snacks, too.

This is the first week I've been able to come to the lake and stay so far.  Between my trip to the beach, dentist appointments, baby showers, and getting pampered, I've not had time.  I knew I better grab this week because Mr. Thomas Layton Caldwell could be making his appearance at any time.  IF Jess goes the whole time, he'll arrive three weeks from today via c-section, but she is hoping she doesn't have to wait quite that long.  Yeah, three weeks isn't long for most people, but poor Jess...she is so swollen and miserable.  But she looks beautiful, despite what she thinks.  :)

Mom and Dad came up Saturday, and we grilled out for Father's Day.  John put a pork tenderloin on and let it slow cook for a couple of hours. Oh my!  It was delicious!  As a matter of fact, I'm having the leftovers for dinner in just a little bit.  :) 



We had a nice, relaxing visit with Mom and Dad.  Fortunately, it wasn't miserably hot.  Once we just knew we were about to have a downpour, but it went a little west of us.  My poor elephant ears sure could have used a good rain!

I sat out on the dock for about three hours today.  It wasn't TOO bad...a nice breeze would blow every once in a while...but it would've been much nicer to have floated for a while.  We still haven't put the ladder back on the dock, but that's okay.  John hasn't been able to take care of it.  I could have walked over to Danny and Linda's dock, but I was just too lazy.  ;)  I may have to tomorrow. 

Not much new to share for now.  But always remember to

KEEP DREAMING!

Good times

Best Friends

 

Sun worshipper?



Duuuudddddeeeee