Luau pictures!

What a Saturday! Cleaned house, watered the lawn from 5:30 to 9:00 a.m. (moved the sprinkler every 20-30 minutes), TWO classes at the gym, got gas, washed my car in the front yard, helped Kirsten's MIL move out of her retirement center, and then went to the Hope Church of Christ luau swim party.

Patsy gave everybody Hawaiian nametags and raffle tickets when we came in; last Saturday, I won a door prize as "Kisty," and this week, I won one as "Kiliki"!

Slept like a baby last night, needless to say...and even "slept in" until 5:00 a.m. this morning. (Well...kinda...May Bee started whining at 4:15, but I wasn't budging. Although I didn't go back to sleep, I was able to snuggle under the covers and listen to the BBC until five.)

The church techies were out of town for a wedding so I played Digital Photographer last night. Here's my favorite shot:

I love the look on her face, the missing tooth, and the drip *just about* to fall from her chin. This girl redefines "adorable."

He scares me. I'm not feeding him anything.

(You'd probably draw back a bloody stump at the end of your arm, if you tried.)

This picture reminds me of the comedian who joked about rich, attractive skiers who look down their noses at the novices on the Bunny Slope, sniffing, "We are good-looking Nordic people...and you are not." You can't hate 'em, though, because these people are actually friendly and nice. Don't hate them because they're beautiful!


Check out the pure bliss on this young man's face as his dad played Pied Piper of the Pool! (At one point, Coach had seven kids on this raft as he pulled them tirelessly around the shallow end. "Dad of the Year," if you ask me...especially since I've seen him read to his kids on the floor of my library...)

I couldn't stop snapping pictures of this little girl. Not only is she named BETHANY, but she's started walking since I've been attending Hope. She is growing up at the speed of light--and was *fearless* in the pool last night. She went under tons of times, and it didn't seem to bother her. In fact, her parents had to watch her because she would just walk off the edge of the concrete into the water! I think her dad is a Navy chaplain...which might explain her love of the water!


Yeah! No girlie men here. Houston would have been the best-lookin' hunk in this picture if he weren't busy being a Buckaroo in another county an hour away!

The Snack Shack crew serving Hawaiian meatballs and egg rolls. Yum. (Aren't they the cutest couple? I want them to have tons of kids...and then I want to be their librarian.)

Well, the best picture of the night can't be found here, IMHO, because no one snapped a picture of me going down the slide OR off the diving board. I was certainly the OLDEST person to do either...and the ONLY librarian. :-)

Some of these photos will play tonight at church, if I get there early enough to insert a few into the PowerPoint that plays before worship...the one that reminds people to turn off their cell phones, the restaurant where everybody will meet before Wed. night Bible study, upcoming activities, etc.

Oh, and btw...we found a way to end the grinding Abilene drought...if Kristy Coker waters her lawn, washes her car in the yard, leaves her windows down while she helps someone move across town, AND if the church schedules a pool party, it will POUR rain from the sky for hours and hours.

In fact, it's still raining!! Every time I take the dogs out to their Special Corner, I have to wipe their paws with the Pocohontas beach towel on the way back inside...

Woof.

Okay...FINALLY...some more pics from Doggie Splash Day!

Giving May Bee a cuddle:

Giving Misha a boost:

Whoa! Double-teamed!

Ol' Squinty shoulda' worn sunglasses.

Misha won a cool door prize!

Misha's winning ticket now lives proudly on our fridge!
(Misha and "Kisty"...a winning combination.) :-)

Doggie Splash Day is the second-best day of the year!

Here's how to have the best-behaved, SLEEPIEST dogs on the block in the afternoon:



Take them to Doggie Splash Day at the pool in the morning! The best $4 Mike and I ever spent. :-)



Misha won a fantastic door prize--a wicker pet bed (see above--May Bee is sleeping in it right now!) filled with goodies like toilet-seat latches so your pooch can't drink from The Pot (our potty lids stay down so we'll have to give those to some other family), Beneful food, Kong toys, biscuits, chew toys, etc.!

It was the last door prize of the day, and it's a beaut! (Like our Misha...)

And then it was off to Shotwell Stadium for Houston's scrimmage against Cisco. It was ROASTINGLY hot (98 degrees) so I left early after filming Houston a little and doing some perfunctory Aunt Duty; Hannah and Molly came back to my house for pizza. Kevin & Karen got to go out to eat by themselves which made a nice (rare) treat, and Molly and I had some fun with the dogs.

It's all on videotape. If I ever learn to burn DVDs, you may get a copy. :-)

May Bee goes to the hospital.

Well, poor May Bee had her operation...she's been fixed. (Or as Karen put it, "May Bee just became May Bee Not.") The morning of her Big Day, she wasn't supposed to have any food or water. Well, I couldn't feed & water Misha without giving anything to the puppy so we all just skipped breakfast. (They were just going *Krazy with a K* wondering why that mean lady wouldn't go in the pantry and get them some kibble RIGHT NOW, dadgummit!) They kept running to the pantry door, running back to me, bumping into my legs in a meaningful way, licking my hands pleadingly...and just plain driving ME crazy. Playing ball and tug-of-war in the backyard only worked for a little while, so to take their minds off their cruelly imposed diet, we did what these dogs like best--ROAD TRIP!
That afternoon, when Mike brought May Bee home, she was exhausted and sore and a different dog altogether. We kept the dogs separated and gave the little one lots of TLC. She curled up in her kennel, when she wasn't in one of our laps for a cuddle.A half-hearted sniff of her toy:
The good news is that she's all better. We took her to the vet this week to get her stitches out, and the vet warned us that now we need to be vigilant not to let her get overweight. He joked that he's made her more "fuel efficient." (So *that's* why women complain about gaining weight after hysterectomies! It's not a BAD thing; we're just more economical, and our food goes a little further than it used to.) :-)