Arayna's Art

You have probably seen Arayna on this blog from time to time and may have wondered more about her.  Let me introduce you to her right now.  She is a friend of Anna's who we all happily adopted into our family a couple of years ago.  She is incredibly creative, artistic, courageous and strong.  She is a lovely young woman who also happens to be tough as nails (did I mention she is in ROTC and is now officially in the army??)

And... she is an artist.  She entered college as an art major, despite never having produced any art up to that point!  I find that to be incredibly courageous.  She knew she had an interest and she definitely possessed the courage to follow her dream.  How marvelous!

Do you happen to recognize this scene?

Let me give you a hint...  :)

Our pond!!  I just love the way she captured the beauty of our pond with the autumn colors.  Of course I love her pond scene, but this one below sure captures my imagination, as well.  It is even more stunning in person.

And Arayna's talent spans more than one artistic form... check out her wire sculpture below!

She also works with fibers and has an incredible eye for decorating.  She truly is a talented individual and we look forward to seeing all that she will accomplish in the future.  Arayna, we are proud of you and all of your hard work!

Long overdue May wrap-up

Is it the end of May yet?  Whoops!  Well, here is my long overdue May wrap-up.

You may remember we had that whirlwind weekend... then on Memorial Day we celebrated Arayna's birthday (a little early).  We gathered at Mama and Daddy's for a celebratory dinner.  Arayna got to choose her favorite meal and she chose meatloaf and baked potatoes.  We don't have that very often and it was yummy.  Mama added in her carrot casserole, which is one of my all time favorites.  I'll have to post the recipe for that one of these days.

Happy Birthday, Arayna!

ummmm.... bacon!

Arayna cleaning up the leftover meatloaf

how on earth does she stay so thin???   :)

The next day I had lunch with some dear ladies as part of a send off for Tracey.  We four hadn't had the chance to get together like this for years and we sure enjoyed catching up.

Sheryl, Tracey, Laura and Nancy (holding Kaylor, her cutie-pie granddaughter)

Kerry received his new Stetson from Daddy and we begged him for a photo.  He obliged and even had his 'truck' as part of the background.  :)  It looks great on you, Kerry!!

Tracey and I ran into a couple of 'folks we know' on the walking trail.  Since it was nearing the end of our time together (before Tracey moved to NC) we stopped for a photo op.  Mama cracked us all up trying to hide behind me.  Too funny.  :)

me with my wonderful walking buddy, Tracey

I love these two so much...

Jonathan got a new bike just in time for summer.  He is pretty proud.

And I just like these photos of Marvin taking down our flag after dinner on Memorial Day.  He will always be my hero.

Lovely Arayna

Arayna is a dear friend of Anna's that we have all happily adopted as part of our family.  Arayna is also a freshman at Truman and is in ROTC.  The ROTC ball was a couple weeks ago and Jackson went over to take photos of Arayna and Shane all dressed up and looking magnificent.  :)