Summer Joy

I keep telling Hubby I'm a simple girl. Here's proof right here. This little pantry door shelf makes me obscenely happy.

It arrived today and I installed it. And suddenly it felt like my pantry was twice as big. Which is really saying something because it is basically a linen closet in my kitchen. Our house has 4 bedrooms, 2 floors, and close to 2500 square feet. But for some reason, the architect thought that we needed only a space about the size of two kitchen cabinets stacked on top of each other to store our food. ????  I can only assume that they think everyone eats out for 90 percent of their meals nowadays.

I have decided after living here and dealing with these size pantries in our last several houses (when it has one at all) that I don't want another house with no pantry. It will either need a large, walk-in and dance sized pantry or a place that can be converted to one.

But this little hanging door shelf helped tremendously. And once I filled it, I was able to do some organizing.

I found a few things I didn't know I had. And that I had extras of a few things that I didn't realize I had. For example, that jar of pickles against the back wall. I would have sworn I bought more but when we had hamburgers the other day, I couldn't find them anywhere. Even taking stuff out and moving things around. I decided I had fooled myself.

Imagine my surprise when they were right there, hidden beneath the tuna and behind the cans of tomato sauce. Corralling all the vinegars/sauces/oils in that bin was another very good idea I found while talking myself into buying that shelf. It was a little more than I liked but it is made to be sturdy and holding quite a bit of weight so I got it. Not to mention how nice it is to be able to see everything.

Rugrat is a simple girl too. Sometimes. For about $10 more than my shelf, we found this on sale at Big Lots and got it.

It is just her size (the water comes about to the top of my hips) and she has literally asked to swim in it every day since we got it. Even when it was raining outside on one of the two days it has rained this year in Oklahoma. I'm joking of course. It's rained on four days. ;)

Anything making you obscenely happy this summer so far?

My Birthday 2017

 For my birthday this year, Mom and John came to visit. They had been trying to make a visit for some time and had stayed too busy with all the various things they have going on. But that just meant I got to have visitors for my birthday so that was okay.


We ran around downtown for a while.

Then we ate at The Garage for lunch and headed home for cake.

Rugrat has begun to take an interest in taking pictures with my camera so we've given it to her for the last few occasions and let her take care of the photos. Sometimes it works out okay...

unless she's photobombing.

I think she and Chick took turns this time.

It was a fun birthday. I really don't need much to enjoy it -- just frosting really and extra sleep is nice too.

Beautiful Oklahoma Sky

Random Cat Photo With Legos

Rugrat made a tower with cars in the parking lot. But Calista decided it was a bed. So I guess she was like Godzilla -- you know,

if he had been a she

and orange

and furry

and sleeping instead of growling and stomping.


I might be stretching that metaphor a bit.

A Mother's Day Trip to Dierks

 Mother's Day saw us making a trip to Dierks to see this guy graduate on the Monday after.

Although Rugrat was hyped to go, by the end, she was ready to go. Sitting still for long periods is not her strong suit. Nonetheless, she made it through and we got to watch him turn the tassel.

Easter 2017

 Easter was pretty low-key as usual due to the fact that we just got back from LTC the night before. And I was pretty tired still. So tired I forgot to get a picture of everyone in their Easter finery. But these were still waiting for them in the morning.

And we found out after evening service that night that Rugrat had gotten Gold in all her LTC events. That was a pretty good Easter surprise and made our day.

Valentine's Day 2017