And here comes another Thunder Storm...

I'm going to change the name of this blog to storm clouds, lol....We had a thundershower move through this morning and here comes another one this afternoon. I've heard that Victoria has almost beat their normal avg rainfail for the the year...that was for the year and we still have 4 months to go until the end of the year...And to think this time last year we were in a drought and everything was brown and crispy critters...

Michael and I ran KitKat over to the vet for his yearly vaccines. Kit does not like riding in the truck and it wasn't a fun half-hour there and half-hour back. Nothing like a yowling cat in your ear!! He seems to have survived and I got a few photos of him laying around this afternoon.

Just another Ho Hum day at our place...

Here are a few photos I took today. I didn't do much of anything today but take photos and play on the computer. Another Ho Hum day at the Naranjos!

Lantana. I used the color accent on my camera.

The Hummingbirds are back...this is a rubythroat.

A storm rolled in this morning while I was taking photos. It was beautiful and my photos don't do it justice!

Silver Leaf Sunflowers...These are considered wildflowers but they only like certain soils and we are blessed with them all over the place right now...Some of them are over 12 ft tall...it's really cool!! I used the color accent setting on my camera for this photo.

Toadly Ho Hum!

If you can believe it this is the only photo I've taken this weekend, lol. This little toad was on the front window sill last night catching bugs and tonight he was back. Fred called me from the living room and said my friend was back and beating himself against the window, lol...He had an even bigger buddy on the front walk but by the time I got the camera he'd taken 3 hops and was hiding in the chili pateen plant, sigh!! What an exciting weekend watching toads, lol.

Michael was out riding his tractor yesterday morning when he came running and screaming SNAKE!! Good boy!! He was scared out of his wits and I took off outside in my nightgown with the broom to see what and where...Fred came out with his snake boots and gun, lol what a sight we made...we looked for about 20 minutes but never found it!! I've been doing frequent walks around the yard looking since then but haven't see any....I asked Michael what did it look like and the only thing he could tell me is it had "red eyes"....sigh...I don't have a clue and pray it wasn't a copperhead...and I'm glad Michael has seemed to pay attention to all my lessons regarding snakes and ran and got me...

We really haven't had any excitement other than that this weekend...it's been raining and storming off and on so we really can't do much outside...we did work on the property yesterday for a couple of hours...Fred tried to play bulldozer with the tractor and didn't get to far, lol...he was trying to clear a path around the swale hole so that Michael and I could walk to the creek but after about 100 ft into the brush he hit water so that didn't work...time to get some bullrock in and just fill the swale hole in....We then took our 4X4 mule back to Freds Dads house and headed over to a neice's house to help her son break a Pinata for his birthday...After that we left and went to Victoria for dinner...in our grubs and all, ewww...The first restaurant we went into we couldn't even get waited on...and after a couple of people that came in after us got waited on we got up and walked out and we weren't a happy family...so we went to a different one and thank goodness service was GREAT!! After that we came home and I went to bed, Fred stayed up until 3am watching movies, ugh!!

Today we went to town and took Michael into TSC and Target to play with the toys, LOL...Yes we take our son into stores to play and not buy toys...pretty sorry aren't we? Michael loves it though and runs from toy to toy checking them out...Once in awhile he'll ask if he can take it home and we tell him No we are just here to play....Ah Well we're cheap and if it's fun what the heck!! So that has been our whole weekend...pretty Ho Hum if you ask me!!

Michaels Room, YES!!

My son is going to be totally disgusted with me!! Fred came home early from work today and had to run to the Shop. I asked him to take Michael and he said NO!! GRRRR I was a bit peeved with him but thought ahh well maybe he needed sometime to himself...Well 5 minutes after he left Fred came back...He asked Michael if he wanted to go and of course Michael said YES!! Mamma said YEEHAW, lol....Fred must have felt a bit guilty or maybe because I told him I wanted to do a toy overhaul in Michaels bedroom...But guess what I took the green garbage in the room, after collecting all the toys from all over the house and went to work!! It's storming out and we are having a rain diluge but I haven't even noticed, lol...I was having so much fun. Anything not used lately, broken, or over grown went......I got one green trash bag full and everything sorted and taken care of, now we'll see how long that will last! But it looks much better and I even managed to vacuum the house!!

Michaels room before Mamma overhauled it!! What a Mess!!

Michaels room all cleaned, sorted and picked up!!

I think I have cabin fever, lol...Once again we are experiencing afternoon heat showers and I just can't seem to get motivated, blah!! The house is a disastor zone and I really don't care. I did do the dishes but that is about it. I so need to sort through Michael's toys and get rid of quiet a bit but can't do it with him here, sigh! I've tried that before, BIG MISTAKE!! I downloaded a new free digital kit, thank you Helen, and decided to play with it...Below is the digi layout I came up with...it's just not the same as paper but when your in a blah mood and don't feel like messing with the paper layout you can do this....and if you mess up you just delete and redo, lol....Well off to read a book!

Everything is bigger in Texas...even the spiders!

This was an article that was in our local Sunday paper and I was reading it and laughing my butt off...I thought I'd share it with everyone!


Everything is bigger in Texas ... even the spiders
August 25, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
Aprill Brandon: Life Happens


Oh South Texas, you never cease to amaze me. You've introduced this Yankee girl to so many wonderful things, such as tamales, cowboys dancing to hip-hop and a soul-crushing heat and humidity combination.But most importantly, you have introduced me to the fact that there comes a time in the life of a 20-something where you need to grow up and face your fears. See, I don't know if you've noticed this or not, South Texas, but your bugs are approximately the size of Delaware. And unfortunately, I happen to be the world's biggest arachnophobe ever. This combination, as I'm sure you've guessed, is extremely unhealthy, causing me to instantly age five years every time anything remotely feeling like a cobweb touches me.
Now, in the past, I have managed to get over my other phobias, such as Hiltoncinemaphobia (fear of Paris Hilton movies) and fifteenthofeverymonthphobia (fear of opening my credit card bill), rather easily. I simply ignored both of them. But this one is a bit trickier.
Ever since I was little, I've had a fear of spiders. And when I say fear, I mean sprinting to the next town over every time I encounter a daddy-long-leg.
Some might call this fear irrational, but to that I say, who will have the last laugh when spiders finally do all band together to take over the world? Me, who has a bunker and three years worth of food prepared, or you, who thinks spiders are harmless?
Irrational indeed.
They say that the roots of most phobias can be traced back to a traumatic experience in childhood. If that's the case, then I place the blame of my phobia squarely on the shoulders of my older cousin Yolanda, who told me at the age of 4 that spiders crawled into my mouth at night and laid eggs, which would soon spurt forth thousands of baby spiders that would leave via my ears. I still have not forgiven her.
On top of that, I no longer live in a region where spiders are of an acceptable size. I live in the south, where mutated, giant, freak spiders abound. Now trust me when I say I am not exaggerating, but I've seen spiders down here approximately the size of a basketball. Seriously, I once saw one eating a cocker spaniel. Down here, the spiders are so big that if you try to kill it with a shoe, it will wrestle that shoe away from you and hit you in the head with it (true story, it happened to my co-worker's cousin's babysitter's aunt).
Back when I lived in Ohio, I was beginning to come to terms with my phobia. I had even developed a way to kill them without coming into their "attack zone." When I saw a spider, I busted out my bottle of Febreze, which has a spray range of at least three feet, and I would keep spraying the sucker until he drowned. But down in the south, if you try those kinds of shenanigans, all you get is a fresh-smelling and extremely angry giant arachnid.
And so the time has come for me to just suck it up and get over my fear. From what I've heard, the best way to get do that is to expose yourself to the object you fear as much as possible. Of course, that is a bunch of hooey that I will never, ever do. That's just what the spiders want me to do so they can eat my face off. But I think I have come up with a compromise.
I am completely willing to leave the great outdoors to the spiders. They can have it. And should I go outside, I will avoid them at all costs (like running away screaming and arms flailing like a little girl when I see one). In return, the spiders have to stop coming inside. That's my territory. No more hiding out in the shower and only appearing once I have soap in my eye. No more hanging out on the ceiling, backed into a corner where even a broom can't smash them. And absolutely no more of that hiding behind the trashcan and dashing out when I least expect it, causing me to have a mild heart attack.
See, I think a solution like that, using reason with these creatures, is much more rational than actually coming to terms with my fear. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go to the store and stock up my non-perishable food items for my bunker.
Aprill Brandon is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6514 or abrandon@vicad.com, or comment on this story here.

Silly Faces

I can't believe I'm doing this.....

Last week due to being busy and not getting anything done I decided to leave my photo blog group...boohoo...but my Friend Helen suggested that a few of us do a photo challenge of our own....so each week we are going to do a photo challenge and this week the challenge is silly/funny faces....I wanted to make it fun and silly....

Now what I'm about to show you may make you laugh or cry...he he he....Michael and I had a funny face photo shoot today....I've decided we need to have more funny faces in this house as my son doesn't have a clue on how to make a funny face...Ekkkk....

I hope this doesn't break your computer monitor, LOL...but here goes>>>>>>>>