WHEN MY BOYS START GROWING UP DOES THAT MEAN THAT I'M NO LONGER 24?

*COMMERCIAL BREAK: COMPUTER'S ARE STUPID. SOMEHOW MY 'PUTER ATE MY TEXT FOR THIS POST. I WILL NOW RE-WRITE IT. IGNORE MY ATTITUTE.*

Blake, our middle child, graduated this month from the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor.

Now, that might not be interesting to many of you, but to me? It's totally worth blogging.

Blake is an amazing person, someone you would be blessed to know - everyone that knows him would tell you that - he's simply awesome in ways that most of us strive to be every day.

Okay. The pictures.

I'm going to give you a description of the photos and leave it at that. No more "text" except for pic descriptions.

Let's start with the flowers that were in our room when we got to Killeen the day before the ceremony. They were laying on the bed with a card and note from our dear son.

I felt like Barbie - flowers in the room.

I'm the one that found the vase.

Frank Two Pies aka Frank the Tank, enjoying the room.

Blake's sweetheart of a friend comp'd us the room and it was such a blessing.

Thank you, again!!

Clay was lovin' the TV - there was a basketball game on - I was really glad that we didn't have to watch HGTV or some nonsense like that.

A very proud mom and a very proud daddy with Blake after the ceremony.

Blakers and Clay. Clay is a sophmore at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

I get to do this one last time in three years.

Whoop.

Uncle John (the Tank's brother), me (John is always asking for my kisses), Blakers and daddy.

Craig *he's there in spirit - he had to stay in San Angelo and catch bad guys and couldn't come*, me, Blakers, Clayman and daddy.

The whole family.

Sorta.

I knew you'd want to see yet another picture of me, Blake and daddy.

I aim to please.

This is a picture of Brat, Blakers and Will.

Brat (short for Brittany) is like Blake's best friend.

Will is Brat's understanding boyfriend.

We all love Will.

Brat is like a daughter to me. She's wonderful.

Ahhh, Uncle Emil, Blake and Aunt Melinda.

Melinda is my cousin and one of my fave fives on my phone.

They live in Belton where UMHB is and they were always there if Blake needed anything and actually, they made it so much easier to leave him at college his freshman year especially, knowing they were there.

Melinda and I have been close all of our adult lives and they've both been "Uncle" Emil and "Aunt" Melinda to all of our boys. They're wonderful.

This is a picture of Greg and Laura's precious daughters. I have momentarily (yeah, right) forgotten their names, but they were at the PAR-TAY that their parents threw for Blake at the fitness center after the ceremony.

Friends of Blake's from the fitness center digging into the amazing food that was prepared!

Blake and one of the patrons of the center.

She adores Blake.

Look at the smile on Blake's face.

Enough said. Let's move on.

Brat with her baby.

Oh, wait, that's not unmarried Brat's baby. I'm sorry, Brat. Editorial mistake. ROTF

This is Greg, Blake's boss, who threw the party along with his precious wife, Laura.

I only got to speak to him for a few minutes, but in that short time I could see why Blake admires him so much.

He's standing with the sweetheart (for those not in the know, when I can't remember someone's name, I call them sweetheart. It works better in person and not so well when blogging.), and Blake's good friend, that comp'd us the room at the hotel. Of course, I adore him!

There was so much food at the PAR-TAY. It was amazing.

They had set up grills out back and bar-b-qued chicken and ribs! Shut up! I know!

They went to so much trouble putting on this celebration that I was humbled to think, no, to know, that they think so much of Blake.

In line for some of that amazing food!

What a special day it was! Everyone had so much fun celebrating this milestone of Blake's! I hope by looking at the pictures you felt like you were there with us because I would have LOVED to have had all of my readers there!!

I love you dearly, readers! Thank you for being so consistant and supportive of my blogging efforts!

XOXO, Jan

WHAT? DO I HAVE A SIGN ON MY FOREHEAD???

I've been tagged again! Yep, I get to stop what I'm doing to tell y'all six fascinating things that you might not know about me.

I don't think I need to list "I can be sarcastic at times". What do you think?

I adore my tagger! She's a precious woman that I am happy to be tagged by. *note: does it bother you as much as it bothers me to end a sentence with a preposition like I just did in that last sentence? BUGS ME TO DEATH. I'll be up all night.* I just couldn't think of a clever title for this post.............."I'VE BEEN TAGGED!".

I think that one's been used.

So, the rules are for me to link back to Summer Sunday's blog, which I just did.

Okay, got that part right.

Now, I am supposed to list six other bloggers that I want to know more about so that they can tell all of us six fascinating things about themselves.
It was tough, but I chose:

1. Rowdy Robin at A Robin's Nest
2. Sweet Susi at Star Dust & Moon Beams
3. Mahvelous Mindy at Rockin' M
4. Sweet Tina (it's so who she is!) Sweetina Veronica
5. Darling Deb at the Junkin Yaya ......okay, one more......
6. Always giving Abbie at The Vintage Moth

Whew. That's finished......except now I have to email everyone and tell them they've been tagged - I'm always cementin' friendships.

Okay. Six things that you might not know about me.
This is not going to be easy because I'm rather humble and not one to brag, but, heck, I've been asked, so here ya go......

1. Through my mixed media art I support seven poor families. I am that good.

2. I swam the English channel last year. Naked.

3. I have translated the Bible into five languages.

4. I have personally given birth to 16 children and they were all boys.

5. The walls in all of my bathrooms are painted yellow. (think about it)

6. And, last but not least, none of what I've told you is true. The only truth is that I love blogging and hopefully I made someone laugh as they read this list because I really love to make people laugh.

"Goodnight, Jan."
"Goodnight, readers."



XOXO,
. . . . .Jan

BLOG WINNER A-A-A-N-N-N-N-D DON'T FORGET TO LOOK UP!

May's blog giveaway was this precious stamp set below - oh, how I love it!

I did the drawing last night with the help of my best friend, Annette (she picked the number - always helping; that's just who she is), and the *excited* winner was CAROL O'CONNELL of Vintage Crafter! Yea for Carol!! And, she's from Canada which I think is so cool (well, until I get to the post office) - I'm making friends all over the world with my giveaways and that's the most wonderful thing! (I wonder how far away my farthest away reader lives???)

Oh, and don't forget that I have decided to have a giveaway EVERY MONTH!

Big WOO HOO!!

.....And, now the second part of this post............a fascinating story follows. LOL

Frank the Tank has been out of town this week so I've been in charge of watering his babies......his tomato plants (oh, please). So, I'm standing there watering them, probably not the right way, the gentle way...........I simply laid the hose in the container and let it fill with water and then moved to the next container. (DON'T TELL!) Anyway, I'm standing there just thinkin' about important stuff...you know, stuff like 'do these tomato plants make my butt look big?'...'what excuse can I think of to get out of making dinner? "oh, darn, Tank, I was with the tomatoes so long that I didn't have time to cook! *shrugging shoulders pitifully* I guess we'll have to order in" '...'this chore is great for fluffing'...and, pondering such serious dilemmas as erectile dysfunction.

Okay, I'm just kidding. (Well, not about how I watered them...) What I really noticed was the view towards the highway and how green the plowed and planted front field was and how gorgeous the hills across the highway are and how blessed I am to have that view. And, as I was thinking these things I thought about all of the things of beauty we miss because we don't look up! Like the hills across the highway - not something I see very often because I don't look up.

So, I went inside and grabbed my camera so I could share with you some of the beauty that is all around me. Now, you may not think my "views" are beautiful because we all define beauty in our own way. But, my views are awesome to me - they're bits of life that make me smile (fyi - glitter is a bit of life, too:) and a LOT of them make me smile because they make me think of God and how He is the one that has given us all the beauty that is around us!

I took the picture of the oh, so revered tomato plants, the view towards the highway and now I'm going to show you the view to the left of where I was watering the revered ones - you're looking at the barn area. When I look that direction I am flooded with memories of the boys when they were growing up!

And, so, these are the round bales from one of our hay fields. They'll feed the cattle during this drought and through the winter. The boys and their friends used to climb up on them (the hay bales, not the cows) and play 'keep away' while running down the rows and jumping from row to row! They also make a great background for target practice (so they say).

A close up of some of the barns (you're missing the hay barn - hey, hay barns are important AND they're honkin') and the pens. Oh, my gosh, talk about God's beauty! A lot of the beauty is in the memories of the parties we've had down at the barn - behind the small barn that eventually became my first studio. And also, looking at this area is a reminder that the barn was built in 1890 and that the ranch has been a working ranch owned by the Thomason's since 1890. Wow - now that's vintage and I LOVE vintage!

Oh, this is so cool! I see this beauty every time I take the curve coming up our lane - the wicker settee, fence gate and yard chandelier hanging in the ancient pecan tree. I love this little bit of "me" that you see as you're approaching the house and after you've seen the beauty of the pink bicycles lined up along the fence at our entrance...

See? The yard chandelier! Doesn't it make you smile?

Beauty.

Oops! I need another yard chandelier!

This little sitting area is just outside the fence that runs around our yard. It's crazy *meaning more pink on a ranch*, but it's so me:)
As I was walking around the front yard to get this one last picture for you I passed the front door....my lovely front door that no one ever sees because everyone that comes to our house uses my studio door (go figure). I think my front door is beautiful and I was so glad I looked up and saw it as I walked by!

Ahhh, my favorite place in our yard....the swing. I love to sit in it and gently rock back and forth as I look out at my favorite view.

I always look up and see this view! It's my special place where I can be calmed when agitated, blessed when I am troubled, cooled down after a long bike ride, and simply at peace while I am gently rocking back and forth.

You know what? There is beauty all around us; we simply need to look up from our busy-ness and see it! Even a parking lot is a thing of beauty to me if I find a rusty smished bottle cap! Texture, color, faded color, vintage buildings, children, all of God's people, and let me not forget the horizon - what do you see when you look towards the horizon?

I simply adore all of you, my readers. There's such beauty in your comments.

xoxo,

. . .Jan

"ENTER - ENTER - ENTER!!" ANOTHER FABULOUS BLOG GIVEAWAY!

I promised you monthly giveaways, remember???

I had so much fun two months ago with my very first blog giveaway that I have kept it up and we've gone monthly! Wooooooo Hoooooooo!!

I think it's fun that one of you will win something *most of the time just for leaving a comment*, but, actually, I think I have more fun than y'all do! I love reading the comments - it's like finding something in the mailbox (snail mailbox) that's not a bill when I open my email! Instead, it's full of comments! I LOVE that!

All you need to do to enter May's blog giveaway is to leave a comment on this blog post. That's it! You'll have a chance to win this darling clear stamp set that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE! I have it myself!! Such cute stamps you don't know.

We call this "stinkin' cute" in Texas!
The drawing for the winner will be in ONE WEEK on WEDNESDAY, MAY 13th!

Be sure and tell all of your friends about this giveaway! The more people I have enter my giveaways, the more excited I'll be about having them every month!!

Thanks to all of you that support my blog habit! I love you dearly!

XOXO, Jan