Pickles, Pumpkins, and "Pleasant" Harmony

It has been a while in between posts but I have a doozy to share today.  After reviewing some pictures, I think this post will be a little long so I will try to keep the commentary to a minimum.

We began our weekend going bowling with Jordan's RVP in Primerica, Dalton and Olga. Jordan won a contest and so they treated us to pizza and bowling and we had a blast! 

This is us just before the cosmic bowling began!

This is one of the better shots I got of Jordan.  He moved very fast so half my pictures are blurry.

 

We both did pretty badly the first game.  I was having trouble finding the right weight ball that also had large or extra large finger holes (slight phobia from getting my finger stuck as a child).  Not sure what Jordan's excuse was.  "The lanes weren't waxed properly" - excuses, excuses.

 

Jordan is "HEA" for "Heat" and I'm "ROM" for "Romey".  We tied at 76 points.  Ouch.

This is Olga and I hanging out and people watching!

I feel that I should show you all a few action shots.  Maybe a professional bowler out there has pointers, but the sequence of pictures are just fun to view.

Allllmost looks like he could slip but he didn't, of course.

Here are my "action" shots.  I wouldn't say that a "bowl like a girl" but my ball speed was only about 12MPH on a good throw (compared to a solid 18MPH for Jordan's average).

After bowling, we decided to head to the lake to see family and visit with my cousin, Mandy.  We've never made the drive so late at night, so it was harder than expected to make the journey.  We got home from bowling at 10pm and it took us an hour to pack and close up the house so we began the trip at 11pm.  I fell asleep in the car; a totally useless passenger to Jordan, unfortunately.

After a good rest and some yummy coffee Saturday morning, we watched it RAIN at the lake!  It was glorious and beautiful to watch the rain from under the pavilion.  We need the rain so badly because the lake is dangerously low. 
 

Isn't it pretty?  Not to sound dramatic, but I could watch it rain for hours and still be entertained.  Some of my favorite childhood memories are while watching a good rain from our garage.

A good portion of the weekend was devoted to the pavilion shutters.  I've been sharing pictures of these shutters for months now (at least) but they are a masterpiece designed and brought to life by Dad!

Top Left is a handle, added to help the user open and close the shutters.

Top Right is a lock mechanism to prevent the shutters from opening on their own or rattling in the wind.

Bottom is the corner with the expertly crafted trim.

Top Left and Right - pictures are of Jordan and Dad getting a board ready to be mounted.

Bottom Left - the board is getting attached.

Bottom Right - is a random chore Jordan and Dad did for Mom.  Jordan put together a stainless steel roll away cart.  Dad is supervising pretty well though.

 

 

Dad found this scratch paper with some notes/drawings about the shutters in his pocket this weekend.  He got a good laugh because my Uncle Tony had made some minor adjustments and initialled the changes as if it were an engineering change.  Tony even adjusted the measurements out to 5 decimal places as if the shutters needed the precision of a gun barrel.  This little scratch paper has so much character (misspelled words and all)!

Mom and I are both into crystals lately so she had some crystals she wanted us to hang in the window under the pavilion.  Here is a quick picture.  The large crystal actually looks dwarfed by the surrounding shutter door and tall ceiling.

Saturday we enjoyed a light lunch and got to laughing at my Mom's handy pickle holder.  They don't make them like this these days and I'm not sure how old this pickle holder is but it's great.  Anyway, just after dinner, Mandy was helping us clear the table and picked the whole pickle container up by the handle (incorrectly).  The bottom literally fell out and pickle juice went ev-er-y-where.  Here is Mandy in the moment.

I think it's especially funny that all the pickles pretty much stayed in a cube and didn't fall out too!

Later that day Mandy and I made a pumpkin cake.  I wish I had the recipe to share with you all but I'll have to find it and report back later.  (Mandy, if you're reading, send it to me please?)  Ah, this cake was A-mazing and just might replace the traditional pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.
 

I thought I was being real smart by providing some pictures as we were making this cake, but I missed the entire beginning (too busy wrestling with the Jetsons can opener) and missed the entire end (too busy smelling the deliciousness from the baking and crying from chopping onions).  As a result, here are the 4 pictures I have to share.  YUM!

We had another great meal with family at the lake.  Seriously, there is no bad food at the lake and there is always enough for an army.

Top Left - raw veggies getting ready for the grill.  Those onions kicked my butt.

Top Right - my plate after I'd started eating.  I was so excited about the food I forgot to take this picture until a few minutes into the meal. 

Bottom - I was so proud of how well behaved Abby has been recently that I snapped this picture.  She was just quietly sleeping while we all ate dinner.

 

After dinner we got the party started with a little karaoke.  Mom and Dad have an excellent selection of music and the company was great!

 



This is Mandy and I hanging out listening to the performances.

This is Mandy, me, and Mom be-poppin' to the karaoke machine.

 

Jordan and I decided that Abby either A) hated the music or B) was too exhausted to care.  She fell asleep right away even with all the racket.

This is Mandy and I on a jitney ride!  We were just perusing the neighborhood!

While we were out we snapped this picture of a friends yard.  It appears to be a junk yard but this friend actually collects discarded bikes so he can fix them up and give them to kids.  Obviously, his acquisition rate far exceeds his dispersion rate, so if you know anyone who needs a bike for a worthy cause, give me a buzz and I'll put you in connection with our friend.

This is Jordan and my cousin, AJ (other side of the family) doing some fourwheelin'. 

I've posted a few shots previously of our flowering bush we just transplanted in the back yard.  Well, I found a HUGE bush of these flowers!  They are called "four o'clocks" and it seems they can get to be rather large!  This picture doesn't do them justice because they aren't in bloom.  "Four O'clocks" only bloom in the cool hours of the day (which is well after 4pm if you live in Texas).

And after all that, we said our goodbyes and headed back home.  It was a wonderful weekend filled with lots to do, but we were glad to go home to get some rest.  Below is a picture of Abby totally zonked out on the way home.  She is pretty strange and always seems to position herself so that she is touching both Jordan and me before she goes to sleep.  Crazy pup.

 

Ya'll have a great week!