A Picture's Worth

In the interest of too much verbiage, I'm going to try to keep it short and let the photos do the talking for this post.  

You know the idiom, A picture's worth a thousand words.

The expression means that a single visual image can tell a rich story much faster and more effectively than a long written or spoken description.
• Quick clarity: A picture lets people understand a scene or concept all at once.
• Deep detail: One photo can contain emotional layers, context, and information that would take pages of writing to describe.

Friday 10/9 - Breakfast at Flossmoor, not Tiffany's. 
The dogs were 'parked' just outside the kitchen (dinning room), a command I give them while we are at the table eating.  Monita however, is planning her entry here, needing to get past the dogs.  

Driving past the new Druid club house, with Cookie riding shotgun, as we headed to Dollar General and Family Dollar on our way to the ranch.







We were in search of a long sleeve shirt/jacket for Ava because she had not packed any for her visit.  It was cooling off and was to get colder when Hurricane Isaias moves northeast across TN.  But, neither store sells clothing anymore.

First priority, ride Zorro.
Ava helped me lead him down to the barn.
Rico had started 'hollering' for him and continued to do so the whole time Zorro was gone.  


Zorro was very well mannered the whole time.  


Ava (and Patty) helped get him ready to ride.  


Waiting on the mounting block in anticipation...






...while I did a little groundwork with Zorro, the very patient horse.


The saddle was a great fit for Ava and Zorro.









We did have to switch out Ava's rain boots for her tennis shoes for better comfort and fit in the stirrups.  




Posing for some photos and then we were ready to hit the trail.  



These next few photos are from all these (videos) Patty took.  

When we got to the gate by Mike and Quanie's back pasture corner, I took these photos.  



















After you ride, you need to un-tack, brush the horse, and put everything away.  

I walked Zorro up to the paddock and exchanged him for Amiga while the 'kids' did some hunting (digging) for worms.  







They couldn't find much bait (a small worm and some grubs) but made due.  Ava's first fish was big, but they were unable to land it (video).

Ava did catch a smaller bluegill and Patty helped her bring it in while Ava netted it.  

I took Amiga out for a short little ride while the fishing was going on (video).  



Then we rode over to check out the girl fishermen.

Amiga got a little grass time while Ava came to say hello.













We went into the house to get horse hair, worm guts and fish slim washed from our hands.  


Oh, and possibly some dog slobber off the lips and face.

Ava had collected eggs from our chickens, and after a snack, we went next door to see Mike and Quanie's chickens and goats.





Well Ava was more interested in the swings than the animals.  She asked, "Is this a park?"







Then (as we were discovering) when Ava really likes doing something, it is difficult to pull her away to move on to something else.  So we have to start a timer and give her X number of minutes.  






Eventually we convinced Ava it was time to go home for lunch.  It helped that I enticed her with letting Cookie sit in back with her.  

 


Not much time was spent with R&R and we were soon loaded back in Papaw's SUV going into town.  Our first stop was Goodwill for a long sleeve shirt and jacket.  These next two pictures were taken Saturday, but shows off her new (used) clothing.  

I had asked Ava what color shirt she wanted and she said green.  I thought the one with the dinosaur was perfect, until I saw its Santa outfit.  We got it anyway. |
The cowgirl jacket was definitely a good find.



Our next destination was Centennial Park.  




Ava played on the playground climbing things, slides and swing.  


Then she saw the sand volleyball court and wanted to play in the sand.  Sure, why not?  I had planned to wash her only pair of log pants (leggings actually) that she had, anyway.  

Cookie got to run loose because the whole sand area was fenced in.  Ava and Cookie were both being silly.  

When we finally put our foot down and told Ava it was time to go, NOW, we headed home.  Cookie was again in the front seat, and looked back at us when I was unwrapping a snack for Ava.  What a face.  

  



We got home, fed the dogs and cats and then were back out the door to pick up Patty.  This sunset was happening when we arrived at Casa Grande.  My selfie with Ava wasn't bad but we blocked some of the sight.



Ava and I overate, because of all the chips they put on the table before dinner. 

We hit Food City for ice cream on the way home and then Ava and I took the dogs for a long walk which helped our digestion.

Once in our PJs, we had ice cream, watched a 30 minute kids show, and read a bed time story before lights out.  

Ava went right to sleep and I didn't need to read long before getting sleepy.  Joe had to met a very late over-nighter at 12:30 and didn't get home until after 1am.

Saturday 10/10 - It started raining just after my 4:30am dog walk.  Ava was up at 7:30 and wanted to play with Cookie.  I required she eat breakfast first.  Play had to happen out in the garage (video) because of the rain.
  






It's a good thing we planned rainy day activities for the day.  We went to Patty's about 9am to do a craft and some baking.  Ava was modeling her 'new' clothing for Pattty.


The craft was this pumpkin that lights up.  First Ava needed to paint the whole thing orange.

I showed her a little technique, but she really didn't need much help.  







Ava did a great job of not painting on the thin strip that lights up.  

 
While the orange paint dried, we moved on to baking banana muffins.

Ava smashing bananas.













Next the eggs, which she broke open and then added.



Patty showed her how to carefully measure and add all the other ingredients.



Once it was all stirred into the bowl, the beater was used to speed up the mixing process.

  

The batter was added to the  muffin tins.









 







While the muffins baked, Ava practiced drawing a face on paper.  Once it was drawn on the pumpkin, Ava painted it black.  I forgot to take any photos of it or the finished muffins.

It was getting late, already after noon, so we scurried home to eat lunch, walk dogs, and put on our swim suits.  





Pawpa got in the water to swim and play with Ava while I took photos and (videos) and then sat in the hot tub.

However, once Joe got too cold, he went to sit in the sauna and shower so I got in with Ava because of course she wasn't ready to go. 






Ava played another 30 minutes and was getting better and better at 'swimming' and holding her breath under water.  She was not ready to go, but started to get cold, so a warm shower appealed.  But then she was not ready to get out of the shower when it was time.

We had to rush to get packed, out the door, and drop the dogs at Patty's; so we would get to Murfreesboro by dinner time.

Layla is in that 'bashful' stage and was leery of us at first.  She climbed into this basket after a bit, her safe spot I guess?










I wanted to pick her up and squeeze her, but respected her personal space and waited till she was ready to come to me.

To make this room more appealing to potential buyers, Dan and Vale had converted their dinning room into a sitting space and moved the dinner table into the kitchen.  It's nice and cozy.  








Daniel picked up Chinese and treated us to dinner.  Then Ava, Joe, and I went for a walk (in the rain) and looked at Halloween decorations.  I had no problems falling asleep tonight.

Sunday 10/11 - After a very tasty breakfast of sausage, eggs, and pancakes that Vale made; we all loaded up into our respective SUVs and headed to Dan and Vale's new house.  This photo is of us following them into River Landing Subdivision in Murfreesboro.







This is their new house, street address 4962 Sandringham.  But their mailing address will be different, and the street name may change.  

This is a view of their house from the street corner, a nice lot location for them.  
This next shot shows the back of their house, as Ava was heading home from the park. You can also see that their neighbors house is very close to theirs.

All houses along the street are very close together, which is why the corner lots are so nice.  

I posted this map when we visited this neighborhood April 18th and had marked in red the lot where their house (sold to other buyers) was being built.  
Now I have marked in yellow the lot where their new house is, just down the street.  
This second map is a current depiction of this end of the subdivision and marked in yellow is their lot.  As you can see, the lot right behind them is not going to be built on, but is now depicted as green space.  Also the little playground is now on the opposite side of the street as the retention pond. 




Notice their street name in this second map is Lambourn Lane.  Often developers will use different temporary names for each side of the street for construction crews.

This is a view out their great room patio door.  The roof to the far left (appearing above the por-ta-potties) is a pavilion with picnic tables, right next to the playground.

 







The kitchen island and great room.  We spent a good amount of time exploring inside the house.  All four bedroom are upstairs.  


Dan and Vale counted closets, cupboards and drawers; and took many measurements, trying to plan and visualize how their stuff would fit into all the space.  









At some point Layla got a hold of my phone and took several photos.  This is the only decent one that came out, a selfie with Joe photo bombing.
 

The girls were getting antsy, so we went for a walk and to check out the playgrounds.  As we were headed to the amenity center, Ava turned back to go to the closer playground, and Joe went with her.  Layla and I continued on our way.  Here we are checking out the bank of mailboxes.  The pool is behind those evergreen in the distance.









Eventually we joined back up at the house, but headed out again to see the swings at the pool playground.  Ava made a bee-line towards them (with my permission) as soon as she saw them.  

Joe was running out of steam and getting antsy to head home.  I left him with Ava and walked the equivalent of three blocks, back to the house, to get our SUV.









I drove to the poolside playground and continued play.  Before long, Dan drove up with Vale and Layla, picked up Ava.  They all headed back to their house...

...and we headed home to Fairfield Glade, by way of Patty's, to pick up the dogs.

I fed the cat's their can food early because they had not gotten it on Sunday.  Right away I noticed something was wrong with Monita.  Her head was tilted to the left, she was leaning to the left, and she would sometimes stumble and fall over on her left side. She barely made it into the laundry room to eat, and she couldn’t get up on the feed station.  I put her bowl on the floor.  While I was cleaning the litter box and caring for Dan’s cats upstairs, Monita had licked up all the juice and then wandered off without even eating any of the meat of the canned food. In this photo, taken an hour later, I’d added a little water to it and offered it again.  Babe (on the floor) and Mama Styx (over head) were hoping for seconds.

It seemed like Monita might have had a stroke.  I took a look at my heartleaf philodendron, which sometimes has the leaf tips chewed on, or with teeth marks.  It is poisonous to cats but they don't eat it after tasting it.  There were a few chewed on leaves with the tips missing.  But when I did some research, she did not have the symptoms of oxalate crystal poisoning (pawing at mouth, swelling of lips, drooling and vomiting).  It also said not to induce vomiting.  The last time she was poisoned by one of my other house plants, she had all those symptoms plus convulsions and a few seizures.  In time the poison worked its way through her system and she got back to normal.

So I chose to give it time and keep a close eye on Monita.  I could not get to sleep, tossed and turned for 90 minutes, so got back up to read some more.  Poker Joe even got home and went to sleep before me.  UGHHHH!

Love this 'blast from the past' Facebook memory.  We girls enjoyed us some sister time, about four years ago I believe.  I absolutely love the crisp fall air and pretty colors.  However, having the house windows open this time of year, I usually just hear the drone of leaf blowers.  It gets very annoying and blocks all the beautiful sounds of nature.  As a reminder, I'd like to say that mulching your leaves is better for your yard and raking them is better for your fitness and the environment.