I got home from work last night and my kids told me to go to my room and rest awhile. I'm good with that. So after a little down time they came into my room. My oldest presented me with this mini book.

Real age not to be reveiled. I have three wonderful kids! Oh my goodness! Tears are flowing. My heart is about to explode! Next I went down stairs and found a yummy surprise! I just can't believe how caring and loving my children are! What a great surprise!!!!! Each one better than the other! This one should be in a magazine!

My daughter was so discrete. If she would have put all the candles on, there might have been a fire!

Smiling

If your not from around here then you probable have not seen tobacco growing in the fields. Well I was born and raised in Missouri and all I had been around was mostly corn and beans. They plant the tobacco up on raised rows so that the soil can drain. I saw this field being planted this past spring on my way to work. It's not planted for seed but from little seedlings. I sure didn't know this. I thought it was from seed like corn and beans. I noticed when driving around the country side how pretty the little tobacco fields looked. Well not pretty to some folk but the farmer daughter inside me notices these things. Ha ha Mostly they are very clean and weed free. The soil looks very sandy. It looks like a good place for some young kids to be playing. I remember playing in my grandmothers garden. She would be weeding and I would be making roads in the fine powered dirt. Hey don't laugh. There wasn't lots to do as a kid at the grandparent's house.

Notice how the bottom leaves are gone. They "pull" the bottom leaves to harvest. About every couple of weeks or so until there is just a skinny stalk left. I will have to show you more pictures as the harvest goes along. I think this is so cool! I know, I'm nuts.

Here is a pic of my back yard. Not much room for a cook out.

Isn't this iron window the bomb!

Ha ha you silly goose. My sister and I visited Tyon Palace last week when she was here for a visit. I never get bored visiting the palace and the gardens. Although it was a little hot. OMG!! It was a lot hot!!!! We both looked like we just got out of the pool. I'll spare you the pics.

I can't image living back in the 1700's. WOW no AC! But if I was the governors wife I could just get a servant to fan me. Also if a friend visited you they would stay for up to a month at a time. Of course it took them days and or weeks to get to your home. What would you do with visitors for weeks or months? I say after 3 days they should start paying rent. Let them go down to the river and get their own bucket of water. And they better dump their own chamber pot!

No, not my back yard.....This was my view the next day.

I had 3 trees taken down. Now I have truck ruts and big holes all over my yard. Anyone who knows me knows that I am very picky about my grass. The minute my dog goes to the bathroom I follower her with the water hose. Ugh! Luckily mother nature can recover quickly.

Looking at this old school house reminds me that our school starts next week :( It's been a really great summer but I did miss the little varmints. Ha ha. I will have so many stories to tell my little kids and lots of pictures. Then there are all the hugs that I love. All those cute smiles. All the little gifts of cards and dandelions. There sweet eager faces and new hair cuts. Then... oh no! Snotty noses and colds! Eek!!

While driving through Estes Park I was so excited to see animals in the wild and so was everyone else. Everytime there were animals of any kind there would be a traffic jam.

Doesn't this car look like it just appeared out of the clouds, driving down from heaven? Crazy I tell you!

More...

I have just returned from a super fantastic vacation! I went to 5 states. Wow...My first visit was Pikes Peak in Colorado. OMG! 14,110 feet. That was so cool. It was a little scary at times. There weren't any railings on most of the way up. I kept looking over the edge for smashed cars. The temperature was 45 degrees. Big change from the 90 plus degree North Carolina weather. You know there was a women named Katharine Bates, back in the day that wrote America The Beautiful after climbing Pikes Peak