Hello, Summer!

It may be hard for some of us to believe that it hasn't been here for months already, but summer has officially arrived!  Fortunately for those of us here in North Texas, we're getting a little break to celebrate - it's not even supposed to hit 100 this week, and we actually had rain the other night . . . it's a veritable Nor'Easter!

Meanwhile, for a person with no job & no kids, I seem to be staying awfully busy . . . so much so that I've been worse than ever about not at least mentioning a couple of really important birthdays here on my blog.  So Happy Belated Birthdays to two of my amazing siblings - Joe at the end of May, and Mary last weekend . . . along with the ever-awesome Jaybird at the beginning of the month. Coming up tomorrow is the lovely Miss Kayleigh's birthday AND Mom & Dad's Anniversary - I'll be out of town (yes, again) so won't be around to send greetings . . . so please consider yourselves greeted - LOL!

I'm a little ticked right now since my CPAP's on the fritz, I dropped a 10 lb. bag of ice on my toe on Sunday, and last (but certainly not least) things aren't looking as good as I'd like for Jann to come visit soon.  I mean, if she's willing to brave this Africa Hot weather we're having, why can't the airlines just cooperate . . . what is with the airfares?! When I flew out there in April, it cost less than half what it would right now -  and it just goes against our religion to pay as much as they're asking these days.  I found one flight that I still can't believe . . . Alaska Airlines actually offers a 14 hour trip (beginning at 7:00 am), with two changes of planes, at a cost of only $1,317!!  Seriously?  I'm guessing that flight gets cancelled fairly often since there are several other options at significantly lower prices, fewer stops, and shorter travel times.  I truly don't know why they'd even put that on their schedule!!

But I know she'll get here eventually, and I'm looking forward to lots more great things this summer - beginning tomorrow when I head to East Texas for my annual scrapping retreat - WOO HOO!  Speaking of which, here are a couple of the layouts I've done recently . . . there aren't many since I've even been too busy to scrap.  But I plan to remedy that situation this weekend!

 (As always, layouts are linked to my Flickr gallery, where full credits are listed.)

Brothers Forever

I've been having a few technology issues (not entirely resolved, but better) which have made it difficult to get pictures & layouts uploaded and posted.  But while things are at least temporarily in working order, I wanted to do a quick post about some super folks I got to see with on one of my recent trips. 

Ever since I began dating Dave & was blessed enough to have John & Liz come into my life, I have been regaled with tales of the adventures (and sometimes mis-adventures) of them and their beloved friends from their college days in Arkansas.  Through these many years, I've come to vicariously know some of the most amazing, brilliant, charming, and colorful group of folks you could ever imagine - and when I was finally able to meet them in real life last fall, I was definitely NOT disappointed!  Every single one of them is just as delightful as I was led to believe, and I was so happy to get to go back to Henderson last month to spend more time with them. At one of the get-togethers honoring Jimmy Chaffin (the most recent of their crew to be honored as one of Henderson's Distinguished Alumni),  I was able to snap a few pictures . . . here's one I turned into a scrapbook page:

Thank you, John & Liz, for staying in touch with your old pals for the past 60+ years and for so generously sharing them with the rest of us!!  xoxoxo