Randy took vacation time this week, one reason there has been no post. We decided to get some of the unfinished projects on the house finished. The most dreaded was finishing the soffits on the west side. Chara had to work till noon, her only job when she got back seemed to be squirting everyone with ice water out of her " Super Soak-er."She is so helpful.

As you can see the roof line is pretty far up there. We had only one ladder tall enough, so they backed up the dump truck and put the other ladder in the back. Southern ingenuity at it's best going on here. They then ran a board through the top rungs to make a scaffolding. Between the two of them there was over 500 pounds on that board, they were scaring me. They got over half of it up. Next I get to paint. The debate is still going on over the color. If anyone is bored you can come help me paint!!!!

The Fortney family came out Sunday afternoon to ride horses and trim some hoofs.

Stephanie just got this 2 yr. old. She is going to break and train her. She is very gentle.

Randy trimmed hoofs. This is Penny we have had her for 9 yrs. She was Chara's first big horse.

This is Elvis standing under the tree.
Chara and Roper.

Poncho and Lefty.

Back to Junk!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember the dresser and bed I posted a few weeks ago. Well I finally got pic.s of the finished projects.This is the bench made from the bed, I painted it yellow and distressed it hard. The dresser mirror was removed, shelves added, and painted black, and we added new hardware. It is now a hutch.

The white cabinet I bought at a garage sale years ago. It was a work area in a old mans garage, covered in grease. I bought it and the hanging cabinet for $10. Scrubbed it up and painted it. We used this for years in the old trailer for storage. We don't need it now, so a fresh coat of paint and she is out of here. The table and chairs also came from a garage sale, I Painted them black.

This is Cole's new glasses, they make him look so old. Not a baby any more.

Colgate Country Showdown

Saturday night Cara participated in another competition. It was the Colgate Country Showdown. There were 18 contestants. It was held at the Simmons Center in Duncan. This is her hanging out in the green room ( that is pink).She warmed up and entertained the other contestants at intermission.

This talented young man jumped in and played lead. They had a good time just playing around.

Cara on stage she sang " Johnny and June" When we left the house that afternoon to go, her heart just wasn't into it. She had a hard time figuring out what to wear, settled for jeans and a plain t-shirt. We got there and about half way through sound check her competitive side kicked in. " Mom I can't wear what I brought it looks awful" Hmmmm... seems I mentioned that earlier. So off to Fashion Bug, we had about 30 min. I remembered this dress from last time I was in there. They had one that fit, and she liked it. Miracles do happen.

My niece Brittney Jo and Cara. She is from Okeene Ok. She has been doing this since she was 8. She has a awesome voice and is great on stage. This is the first time they have ever had to compete against each other.


This is Joshua Cole, he was the host for the evening he is a D. J. for 98.5. Funny guy. This was taken after he presented the 2nd place trophy to Brittney and the 1st place to Cara. Yes, she won. She was very excited, helped the hurt pride from last weekend. She will move on to the State level. It will be in October, with a $1,000 cash prize. Then the winner of that will move on to nationals with a $100,000 cash prize.

Ah Shucks!!!!!!!

Chara's competition was last night, this is a pic. of the ten finalists practicing to sing amazing grace together. They only ran through it a few times, each person had a solo line. The lady who helped them was awesome, she knew her stuff.
Chara performing, She sang " Johnny and June" did a great job. She did not place in the top 3, but we thought she was the best. Well really good anyway.
These are The Sweet Adelines they were one of the sponsors of the competition. Very entertaining, for a bunch of old ladies.
My grand baby Cole, he came to cheer Chara on.
This is Chara's fan. She asked for her autograph. At least she has 1 fan. LOL Even though she did not win it was an enjoyable evening. Thank you to all of you who came to show her your support.

Old trailer house

Hey guys, my blogging is getting less and less, just so busy. We are in the process of fixing up our old trailer house to rent out. ( Why? I don't know)I missed art AGAIN!! I miss seeing all my art friends, maybe next week. Anyway, yesterday both the girls were working, so that left me as Randys helper. We had to tear out the old kitchen floor in the trailer. It had gotten wet from a leak several years ago when we were in the process of building our house. We got to the point we just worked on the new house and didn't do any repair to that old trailer. Being up there made me so thankful for my wonderful house and all the work my family put forth to build it. Randy went up Wed. evening to cut out the old floor and fell through, hit a water line on his way down and broke it. So now we get to do plumbing also. So we fixed the water lines, replaced particle board floor with ply wood, then laid peel and stick tile. Then we went out and cleaned the yard so the girls can mow up there today. I kept thinking about this is how things are going to be when the girls are gone, just me and Randy. Glad I like him.

Bre's graduation was Sunday. It was very nice and simple. Thanks to everyone who came. Sherry K. took pic.s of the ceremony, when I get them from her I will post better pic.s. These are just some fun pic.s the girls wanted to take. Bre and Sarah are fun loving girls, and big hams so there was a lot of opportunity for some cheesy pic.s. If you left early you missed the cake fight, this was the outcome for Bre, the floor got the worst of it.


Bre has always been full of life, she was a joy to have. I will miss this stage of her life. It will be interesting to see where life takes her from here. What ever she does, she will bring life, and noise to it. I pray she continues to grow spiritual, and that she will be a blessing to others. Congratulations to my baby girl!!! Be blessed.






Note: Cara will be on News 4 Thursday morning between 6:00 and 6:10.

Top Ten

Well she made the top ten. The finals will be Sat. At the Edmond, Santa Fe auditorium. It starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 at the door or $10 in advance, if anyone is interested in going let me know, I will order tickets. For this phase half the vote will come from the judges and the other half from the audience, you will be given a ballot when you come in. It should be fun and entertaining. All ten of the finalists are very talented. There was a wide range of styles, country, blues , pop, and some theater. Cara was the only one that played her own instrument, I think that helped her get in the top ten. All ten will be interviewed and will sing a group song Thursday morning on channel 4. Not sure if Cara will make it, she starts a new job Monday. Will let you know. Anyway Congrats to Cara!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Junk

Randy and I bought this dresser at an auction several months ago. He finally had time to work on it. The drawers needed repair. He pulled the mirror off of the back and added shelves. It is now going to be a hutch. He took this old bed and made a bench out of it. We have finished these projects and hauled them to the store, but forgot to take after pic.s. I hope to get some pic.s on Monday. Maybe they won't sell until then. The girls helped me haul the furniture to the store, when they can no longer help me I will have to give up this business no way I could do it without them.
Chara starts a new job Monday, as a phlebotomist in a Dr. office, it is only part time, just what she was looking for. We go back to OKC for the semi-finals today. Wish her luck. She still hasn't decided what song she is going to do.

Sunday is Bre's graduation. I makes me kind of sad, the last one is finished. Pic.s of all to follow.

Craw Fish

I went to a craw fish boil Saturday night. I had never eaten one before neither had Chara. She was helping Les take them out of the ice chest to put in the cooker. They were still alive.

We put whole red potatoes, corn on the cob, small onions and lemon halves in with the craw fish and shrimp. There was also a spice mix added. All was cooked together and dumped on newspaper on a table. Everyone stood over the trash can and peeled and ate. Les showed Chara how to suck the goodies out of the head before you ate the tail, I passed on this part. The craw fish was O.K. the shrimp was wonderful as was the corn, very spicy. The young people played horse shoes and a short game of basketball, then Chara entertained us on her guitar. It was to dark to get pic.s of her singing. We had a good time. I may try cooking this sometime it was fun.

And we will call him George

These are the new kittens, the girls seemed to think this would be fun. And they have. We got the little orange and white kitten about a month ago. He is Bre's kitty, his name is Cooper. He is very active and into everything.
We got the little black kitty about 2 weeks ago. He has a white tip on the end of his tail, I wanted to name him Tipsy nobody else liked that name. This kitten belongs to Chara. She had a black cat before named Poison Claw. He met a very sad end. So we got another black one, he has had several names since we got him but nothing seemed to stick. So I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George......

Early Birthday Party

Thanks to all my wonderful sisters who came to my early party. You all never fail to make me smile. The games were great fun and the food was fabulous. I will work at remembering all the fun we had, on your 50th birthdays!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday.

I went to W.F. Texas with my friend Lou yesterday. She showed me the best western wear store, we will be going back. I have been running with the girls for the last 4 days. It was nice to get off with a REAL person, Lou is always a fun date.

While I was gone Bre had Chara take her Sr. pic.s. They went down in the gully behind the house, who knew it was so pretty down there. I think they turned out pretty well. This is just a few, they took about 100, I don't know which ones she will use. She still needs to touch them up. Not that I think they need it.

Then later they were off to rope. The pic. of the horses was taken Sunday when they were out roping, Charas friend Robby let her ride his roping horse. She definitely enjoyed roping off an experienced horse.