99 Balloons Golf Tournament for TEAMWorks! :)

Privyet! (My version of hello in Russian) actually, when I say it sounds more like "Preeeveeyet y'all"

We are in the throws of planning and preparing for two groups to travel to Guatemala in September, and Ukraine in October.  Ukraine in October, is kinda like Paris in fall, right? :)  I will be a happy traveler on the Ukraine trip.  Ukraine is where the heart is.

Keep TEAMWorks mission and plans in your prayers.  More on that later.

Back to the golf tournament.
It was a SUCCESS.  I had reasonable hopes for the amount of money we would raise.  But God sure multiplies and exceeds my expectations.  We had a very hot, but fun day!  And so many people came, gave their time, played golf...and worked together to raise money for children around the world.

registration ladies!

some golfers i love.  my bro and cousin. 

 silent auction!

registration

it's a hard job sitting at hole 6 watching for someone to make a hole in 1.  

it got easier with the delivery of peanut butter crackers and diet cokes.  

 bryan and adam out and about on the golf cart delivering the crackers and coke.

 caleb

joe

 john billington 

 b will

lena, christie and amanda!

kati is standing exactly where she was when that golf ball came over the trees and landed 5 feet from her :)

has anyone ever seen a cart full of bananas and beer driven by a pregnant lady with two wild passengers?  you saw it here first folks.  

cute trey bug and his dad!

lunch under the trees!  

the winners!

random summer pictures..

i am loving mornings at Mama Carmen's this summer.  i am so productive with a almond latte and a corner table!  and i apparently like to take pictures of my coffee before i drink it...

  

the hats of summer 2011...i have gotten my money out of these $12 purchases!

 looking at plants in front of my house, instead of weeds....the butterflies aren't bad either, and now that we have had rain this week, they are doing even better! 

 desserts, really into desserts...but really, this is a year round thing.  

my new keurig with all of it's fanciness...and gloria jean's hazelnut coffee brewing in it...

TEAMWorks Ukraine/Guatemala plans...and fundraising golf tournament....it's not too late to sign up!  

Go here to register!!

loving time with my sweet girl, getting her nails painted at the glitter box.  she was so good, and sat very still while they were painted and dried.  love her soooooo much.  

summer concert...George Jones...it was funny stuff, brings an interesting crowd.  

i can't help that my dad raised me listening to old country music....

and if you're at a george jones concert...you eat chicken wings...

fun summer night!

 afternoons at the lake, or as we joke, the redneck yacht club.  :)

Happy summer!

it's an oldie...

we spent a good portion of saturday helping my dad and kay unpack in their new house in the fort.  unpacking inside when it's 105 is much better than the actual move in.  it was a fun day...and i came home with this family treasure, passed down from my great grandmother hazel love.  i straightened it up, flipped through the pages turned the pages very carefully and read the names, and looked at all of the pictures...

i think the covers are made from wood.....they are very thick...i'm no book historian, but i am impressed.

lots of traces of tape on the binding...

i love all the detail, and pictures through out...

penmanship from the late 1800's is beautiful....a lost art for sure.  

 a fun surprise, a colored page!  

the binding is broken, but i've tied her up....

 with my reused pottery barn ribbon that came in handy....

i am looking forward to a snow day this winter, when i'm trapped in my house with nothing but time, so i can sit down for a couple of hours and do some more work on the pages, and reading....

i really love books, so to have this family bible that is over 130 years old, makes me SO happy.

Ohhh sweet honey and the bee!

I love my job and the hilarious things kids say.  One of my favorite sayings, taken from an 8-year-old fella last year is "Oh sweet honey and the bee!"

You can use it two ways.
1.  "OH sweet honey and the bee!" - meaning- "good grief" or "that's ridiculous!" or "UGH!"
2.  "Ohhhh sweet honey and the bee!" -meaning- "YAY!" or "Finally!" or "hip-hip-hooray!"

This week I have been saying "Ohhhhh sweet honey and the bee" because we are got our landscaping done!!  I am SO excited about it finally being completed, it was a crazy project!

We have been in our house for a year and three months.  We have quite a large area that has needed serious help.  It's so bad, that I mowed the flower beds because there was so much grass growing in them!  It's a bit embarrassing, but we've had lots of parties, get togethers, a baby shower, and family and friends in and out of here anyway! If your friends can't love you with bad landscaping, well then, they aren't really friends! :)

To begin our landscaping journey we needed a french drain, and that was completed a couple of weeks ago.  Friday afternoon a dump truck brought a load of top soil, Nate Lopez (our landscape architect and friend) brought a trailer full of plants, trees, bushes, and my brother picked up a ton of landscaping rocks.

I took some before pictures:

 notice the extra lovely strip of dirt from digging the french drain line

 sad looking, pretty much non-existant flower beds

so here we go......

 landscaping under the full moon!  

 working hard!

 my red bud tree going in!  yay!

 progress....

 i have "butterfly bushes" and we had tons of butterflies immediately, i love them!  

much better!

 my new hobby now is watering the flowers, i feel like my mother. " I gotta go out and water my plants...." :)

Doing landscaping in mid-July wasn't the smartest thing ever, but it's done, so we are happy!