looking at my garden upside down

Wow! I am actually going to try catching up!!!

2009-12-10T10:02:00.000-08:00

Good grief! I had to go back and see when I last blogged!! Much too long ago. So much has been going on, now we are waiting for the new grandson to arrive, Jack Francisco Almaguer is not due to arrive until January 16th, but, we know he is too cute and is too wanted to wait. LOL.
The Dr. wants to bring him into the world a little earlier, so we just wait,,,,,,,,,and wait! Surprise is better I guess.... however, 2 hours away, is too far. We sure hope they will be able to come down for Christmas, if not we will go there. It depends on theDr.'s opinion.
Sarah and the baby are doing just fine, thank God, just being cautious.
In between last post and this, we had some good beneficial rain! It did wonders for the yard, plants that showed the strain of a long drought and heat, started blooming again (see pics). Now, Carol is faced with lots of leaves to rake and of course cutting back shrubs and canna's that were frozen this week. Endless yard work! I can't even sit out to supervise-too darn cold and windy----Texas weather!

2009-10-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

Today is our 53rd wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe the years have gone by so quickly. It seems love just gets deeper! I know the apprecation of each other certainly has grown. We've learned that skills that haven't been used before, have been a life saving, if not a special blessing.
With the upcoming grandbaby, being so anticipated, as well as another gr. grand on the way in the spring, our family just seems to get surrounded in love, we hope that the love we have for each other will continue to bless each!
Just a short note this time, celebrating our good years together.

Where did the time go?

2009-07-19T12:28:00.000-07:00

I guess it's never too late, but I am getting very close! We had a wonderful 4th of July. Just family and next door neighbors (which are like family) and grandsons room mate who again, is like family. We had it later this year, eating about 5pm. This gave time for the gr.grands to nap and the shade to be deeper. Sarah and Cipriano gave us a misting system for our patio and even installed it. I was able to cook the brisket on my own, just needed help putting it on the grill and turning it the 1st time.......quite proud of myself too! Cipriano grilled the sausage, bless his heart......it had gotten too hot for me in the sun hovering around 100 degrees.

We did all sit out and pigged out on all the good food. Best part was having the g.grands there! What cuties..........Of course, as usual, I only took just a few... I guess I was being too busy. Hopefully some of the others there got more than I did. Posting a few, hope you will enjoy.

Top; Jennifer with Gracie : Shelby and Annalise, who moved around so much it was hard to catch a good shot: Bottom 2, Uncle Adam showing off his skills with Gracie: Proud Great Grandmother holding Gracie. While this 4th is looking to be our last here.........Fun! but a tremendous amount of work. And this years heat spell has really done damage to the yard, we water nearly every day trying to keep shrubs and lawn halfway decent... Having a cool spell(under 100 degrees) just hovering near 98 right now.

Happy Fathers Day

2009-06-21T09:35:00.000-07:00

I have been blessed with a wonderful husband, who became an extra special father and grand father, and gr. grandfather! Word cannot express my gratitude. He has stepped up to the plate in so many ways. Kind hearted, a push over, and an extremely hard worker.

I believe our kids would call him strict, (even mean) but never an absent dad. The few times the Army sent him away, he still was there in our hearts. Never being selfish of time and of being so very proud of accomplishments of his kids.

He hates having his picture taken, so we sneak up on him. I went through our pictures, and selected a few that we caught, that he actually wasn't trying to hide his face. I wanted to show you all what Sarah had made for her Dad. She gave it to him in May, we framed the mini quilt of his Army patches and one she had made for our anniversary, also included one of his passions, Fishing! And one of his proudest moments, The wedding of our daughter, Sarah.

We are so blessed..........Thanks for being a special DAD.

PICTURES FOR THE PREVIOUS POST

2009-05-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

bottom pics, me with Gracie.........top 2, our garden, caladiums.....1st water lilly blossom

Middle 2; farmers market, myself with Adam

Too long to wait!!!

2009-05-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the long delay between blogs. Been experiencing computer problems, now fixed, and laziness/face book games etc. I guess that those excuses will have to do, don't want to bore you with other lame details.
We have a new gr. granddaughter!!! Gracie Nicole Griffith and of course a real beauty!! She came into this world while we were in Dallas/Ft. Worth. We got to see her the next day..........See pictures here...some where in this blog.
I will begin with a wonderful day with our kids at the Dallas Farmers Market. That is one place we wish we lived closer too. But once or twice a year will have to suffice. We got some new Caladiums for our shade garden and tons of vegetables (a little less than that.....a whole lot less........) Our favorite, elotes or corn in a cup, Yummy!!! we can get it other places, but at the market tastes better!!! After the market, we went back to Ft. Worth for a late lunch with Adam, our son.
I guess we upset Sarah and her hubby, not intentionally of course, by not staying at the market to have lunch with them, but we weren't hungry at that time. I hope she didn' stay upset for long! (Bye the way, she didn't.) The next day Carol planted the caladiums and they really look wonderful. Also see pics of them here.
I am going to try 'borrowing'some of the pictures from Adam he had taken at the marekt......he got all 'artsy' on us, nice pics. Those will appear on the next blog, (I still have to move the pics from one place to another then post!!WHEW) Now having problems bringing up pictures,,,,,,,,,,Rats!!!

busy, but wet Saturday

2009-04-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday, we went to the LILY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL in Cedar Park. The Hill Country Water Gardens has it every year. We became fans last year! They really do a bang up job. Big sales, good food and entertainment. This year we looked forward to it even more. Instead we woke up to drizzle and drove down during a driving rain. It eased off quite a bit and we were relieved, even stopping off at a few garage sales on the way. We arrived just as it opened, and quickly found some bog plants we wanted, buy one, get one free! Just as we started to the cash register, it started to rain, then pour down rain! Ugh!!!! I had gotten one of the wheeled walkers with a built in seat, (which I had resisted, but now love) so I could get around easier with out feeling I would trip or stumble, so was looking forward to the whole day.. After an hour of rain, both heavy and light, we gave up! Terribly dissappointed to be sure. I was looking forward to taking picture of the place but got just 2. Beautiful ponds, fountains, containers of all sizes and shapes (and i wanted them all) Hubby surprised me with an orange hibiscus, Mohers day gift he says.

Hope you can see in the pics. This week is supposed to rain most of the days this week, the yard will love it, so will the water bill! So we have some indoor projects in mind, just in case...........Texas weather is so darn unpredictable!! Even the forcasters don't know for sure

Random pics of our garden

2009-04-22T09:37:00.001-07:00

Top: mini rose we have 2 this color,one red

one of my attempts to take a good picture of one of the pretty Iris

one that got kinda washed out

pretty bouganvilla's

pond area
rock enclosure Carol built, daughter complained didn't show well in previous blog@

MORE GARDENING

2009-04-14T13:23:00.000-07:00

SPRING MEANS MORE PLANTING AND WORK!!!! Poor hubby has had his hands full this year, fortunatly, he loves it. I am showing some of the work, such a a new bed, new plantings, etc. The yard is truly looking good......... OF COURSE, WE WENT SHOPPING TODAY AND BOUGHT MORE SHRUBS TO PUT IN THE BARE SPOTS, NO PICTURES YET.....

Busy week!

2009-04-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

First of all, we need to thank our son an DIL for the wonderful Easter Dinner!! Terrific Turkey with all the trimmings, believe me, it was great! the 3 grands, hubby's, great grands and 2 of grand sons friends from college. The great grandbabies are so very sweet and cute! Pics show it all!

The little blonde is Shelby, rabbit ears, is Annalise. Their Nana, took time to set up a sandbox with water for them on the front porch, They had a ball searching for seashells in the sand. They also had an egg hunt...............too much fun!!!

HAPPY EASTER!!

2009-04-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

This Easter we will be going to my son and daughter in laws for dinner. How nice to be going! In Easter pasts we usually host, we have even had big picnics and egg hunts at the lake. Times change,(unfortunatly) so has the weather it seems. Last year it was a snow fall, this year they are calling for rain storms (which we can use, and need). I guess we have to wait one more year for better egg hunting, Gr. Grands will enjoy it more too.

Our dog Trouble even got into the spirit, showing us how good he would look in a basket with grass.

too bad I didn't have some plastic eggs handy!!

We continue to plant more flowers, needless to say we still have a few more places............lol Hubby digs and plants in the ground, I do the containers. Cipriano has given me caladium bulbs for my birthday, had planned to plant them the last of March, but fortunatly we waited since we had several frosts. Today we went shopping for more to plant, petunias, impatients and some coleus. They were put in front of the caladiums. I think they will look good. I planted the petunias in containers. All will be very showy this late spring and summer.

I guess I will have to get more creative about picture taking, Our yard is big!!! after the rain, we should have more warm weather, and I will atempt more.

Everyone have safe and blessed Easter.

A side benefit of the previous post!

2009-04-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

Because of finally getting some of our kids together, was, being able to get them to actually pose (somewhat) for a picture. Taa Taa............... I actually got this picture just before my camera battery died! In case you don't know, Adam is on the left, Carol, our eldest in the middle and Sarah on the right. Handsome family, huh? ONE OF THESE DAYS , IF GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS, ALL OF OUR KIDS WILL GET TOGETHER FOR A FAMILY PORTRAIT............

Happy 30th Anniversary to Carol and Becky!!!

2009-04-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the 5th, our Grand children had a special party for their Dad and Mom. Many came to celebrate with them, including Sarah and her husband and Adam. Becky's Dad and Step Mother, and her brother Steve. Jessica did the most work getting everthing set up, since Jennifer is very pregnant and Justin lives farther away. It really was a great time for every one. The highlight of the party was a slide presentation of the 30 years of their marriage. Jessica did a wonderful job doing it. Check out the pictures. One of the nicest times we have had! Congrats to Jessica for a very nice celebration and to our BABY and his BRIDE!

Happy April fool's day!!

2009-04-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

NO joke here. In fact I have stopped tying to pull tricks, darn it! So much fun, but too many of them would freak out family now...............
Really good news though. Justin, our grandson, has ben accepted into Eastman once again, plus, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music! Eastman wanted him to concentrate on just the saxophone, while Cincinnati offered all of his instruments, Sax.,flute, clarinet, oboe plus bassoon! more money too. I am pretty sure he will choose Cincinnati. He is, however keeping his options open. Last week we went to his special recital, which featured 4 instruments........totally awesome. We took video, and it turned out great. I did get some stills but I got a new (for me)computer and I will have to use the plug in...........will wait for help.....................hard to explain, but believe me I am computer stupid!!!!!!
Speaking of computer, my old one was dying a slow painful death...........hubby swore he would not buy a new one for me(he may have-but I believed him)Our son has gotten a new deluxe one and he offeed his old one to me......... I definatly said yes,yes yes!!!! He brought it over and set it up for me, and I love it!! It's so much faster than my old one. In fact, all the trouble I have had with internet access had to have been due to the old, since I havn' t lost connection with this one once!!! What a blessing!! Becky, my DIL was going to keep his for herself but, bless her heart, gave it up for me.
Speaking of son and daughter in law, They are going to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary the 6th of april............... MY HOW TIME FLIES......SEEMS LIKE JUST ALMOST YESTERDAY. Their kids are having a reception for them this weekend. Will take pictures and post them as soon as I get the camera hooked up to the computer.
All else is going fine............

I love Birthdays!

2009-02-24T08:39:00.000-08:00

Today is my 69th birthday! Feels like 39th.........lol too bad I do look 69!!! This weekend our daughter and her husband came down for their 'annual "spring clean up---birthday celebration"

As usual they did a bang up job! lots of work done! Cipriano did the most work with Sarah, hubby trying to help. See pictures. Our son and his wife came over Sunday to visit and to see what had been done. When they saw the work, they also saw the perfect gift idea, purple fountain grass to put in the "new" flower bed. They also got creeping phlox to go over the retaining wall put in by Cipriano. Sarah and Cipriano took them to Home Depot, and got us(me) new plants for our Yuck front flower bed. 3 flowering shrubs and 2 green shrubs. After they worked so hard the day before, They continued Sunday with more planting and Cipriano created an irrigation pipe for the canna's in the back. Sarah had gotten me 2 'knock out roses' which were planted and Cipriano got me 30 caladium bulbs to be planted next month.

To say thanks, we took them to Dynasty, our favorite Chinese buffet.

The flowers were from Shanna and family.........like i said, I love birthdays......we even had a visit from Justin, our grandson last night! He was down for a rehearsal for a concert. Last week he had 2 trips for auditions for masters degree.

re-united----and it feels good!!!

2009-02-03T15:20:00.002-08:00

This last Friday, we were blessed to have our son, Mark, visit our area, and us for the 1st time since about 22 years ago. We visited since, and wrote, e-mailed, chatted on the phone, but not in person!!! I guess it's been about 12 years. Much too long! We hope it will be much more frequent...........He also got to get re-acquainted with his daughter and met 2 of his grandchildren.

I'm showing some of the pictures we took. Several of Mark and several of his daughter and her children, fortunatly we see her and the girls quite often.

Since he fell in love with his granddaughters and his job will take him to the area often we so look forward seeing him often.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-01-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

I am so behind on my blog, forgive me for talking about Christmas and such. This year, because of my stroke, all the chores, duties fell on my hubbies back. And he did them very well!

We did the shopping together, thanks to the wonderful therapist, I no longer need the electric scooter,(carts) supplied by most stores. Thank goodness! I don't like them. I simply walk behind regular carts. I fact, at home I walk without my cane most of the time. I am really working on hand use, however I seldom can read my writing, which at least most could read at one time.

Christmas was wonderful! We had ham, tamales, charro beans, guacomole veggies and dip. Sarah made cookies and fudge, we purchased pecan and apple pie, and ate more than we should have.

Christmas day, per custom, we woke early, had coffee,and opened our gifts. What fun! I believe we were truly blessed by all. We laid around, then super hubby cleaned up the wreckage, and Carol and his family came over for dinner, As usual, Sarah had the chore of making the lunch preps, along with Cipriano who made the beans and the guacomole. Hectic but wonderful. no one took pics of the food.

I am showing just a few of the Christmas pictures here, the rest will be on the next blog. I wanted to show all, but space wise, I know better.

Thanksgiving,

2008-12-02T18:19:00.000-08:00

I had to write this! First of all, Sarah posted her blog about her 1st try at cooking Thanksgiving dinner on her own........as usual, she did an excellent job!!!!GREAT JOB SARAH. WAY TO GO!!! I KNOW SHE WAS NERVOUS, EVERY ONE KEPT TELLING HER WHAT TO DO NEXT POOR BABY. She has always been a great help in the kitchen. I knew we could count on her to pull it off!!!!! And she did, beautifly.

I finished my therapy last week. I know it has done wonders for me, see no caps! I have been able to walk much better and further, just have to work more on my hand and arm strength. Which I certainly will do. Hopefully, I will be able to cook soon, hubby and my DIL have been doing very well in feeding us, too well, will have to go on a diet after the holidays!!!

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2008-11-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

TOMORROW IS SHANNA'S BIRTHDAY(THE 19TH). SHE IS OUR GRANDDAUGHTER, A SPECIAL WOMAN! I CAN'T SAY OUR FAVORITE BECAUSE WE HAVE 7 GD'S AND ONE GS WHO A VERY SPECIAL TO US. SHE IS THE ONE FURTHEST AWAY AND THE HEART MISSES HER.
AN EXTREMELY TALENTED YOUNG LADY, WHO LEARNED SEWING, KNITTING, ART, MOTHERING, LOVE AND COMPASSION. AND THREW HER HEART IN TO IT WITH ALL HER MIGHT. YA'ALL GO TO HER BLOG (PINKTREES@TYPEPAD) OR CLICK ON HER NAME AT THE RIGHT AND WISH HER HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND MANY MORE.
LOVE AND HUGS , SHANNA!!

GREAT WEEKEND/W/GREAT GRANDS/FAMILY

2008-11-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

PICTURES OF GR. GRANDS AND GRANDS FROM THIS LAST WEEK. SARAH, HER HUBBY AND ADAM CAME DOWN 4 THE WEEKEND, GOOD FOOD GOOD COMPANY!

THERAPY PICTURES

2008-11-04T09:03:00.000-08:00

PICTURES OF ME TAKING MY THERAPY. LOVE THE STEP BIKE, HATE THE TREDMILL. CAROLINE,MY THERAPIST BY THE TREDMILL IS WONDERFUL. MORE BLOG FOLLOWS

2008-10-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

hi every one. after a long break, i am going to attempt a blog. i had a stroke early this month, it affected my left side and i am left handed. sorry about the lack of caps. its easier for me. i am now getting therapy, mostly for the leg strength, but i have been working my fingers also. it seems to be working better than last week, i couldnt even reach the key board. thanks to my sweet husband, my angel of a daughter in law for taking care of me.becky has been bringing meals to us every day, she and our son. i will try to blog more a i get better.

finally, a quilt start.

2008-09-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have struggled, but I finally got a good start on one. Sarah has already seen it. She is working on yet another, but I am sticking with this one. I actually have enough done to see the end ( hopefully) My quilt is called bow tie. I have just 4 more (I think) squares to do before I quilt it. Since I was sick most of the week this week, I have ripped out more than I've sewn, (btw, don't try to sew when not feeling well) especially me!! My craft room is cluttered again, full of fabric scraps and junk. I hope you can see beyond the mess. I even showed pictures of my failures.......... Ironing board has been another work space. It's taller and easier to use than the table. Now, I have to figure out what to use for backing and how to quilt!! Poor me.

I just realized the background wasn't the best..........lol

Visit to Crawford

2008-09-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

We have gone to Crawford, the Western White House, home town many times. We even went to a protest against the Sheehan groups protest. We are patriotic!! This week (several wks ago actually) a new store opened. (most stores are now closed or will be soon) The new store is called Ft. Qualls. Its been opened by Gary Qualls the father of a fallen Marine. He had gone and ripped his sons cross from the ground. It had been planted by Sheehan. He was and is proud of his sons duty to his country, he wanted nothing to do with Sheehans protest. He would never have been ashamed of his son's duty. His store is basically a fund raising place. Filled with antiques, pictures of famous people he has met.The group he is supporting is:FAMILIES UNITED FOR OUR TROOPS AND THEIR MISSION. When Louis left for Iraq, he handed his dad the keys to his Harley, and told him to take care of it. And he is a faithful father. You can see the picture of the beautiful Harley, restored and made wonderfully beautiful sitting in front of the store. Dad had just finished dusting and polishing it. I wish I had written down the craftsmen who did the work. I will admit to not being a motorcycle rider, but I will admit to wanting to own one like this. We bought a t-shirt from him, one that hubbys neice had wanted. This is a case of wishing I could have been rich. I would have liked to give more. Nice man, good mission.

He showed us pictures on the wall of the celebreties he'd met but was proudest of one of a WWll "code talker" he had met. I wish Ft. Qualls all the best. If you should go, be sure to look in and say hi, JOB WELL DONE.

SETTLING A DISPUTE, MOM STYLE

2008-08-31T10:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I posted my pre-loss gripe to my sweet, evil, daughter. She tried to give me a sob story and a guilt trip! She didn't read it all I guess. Because I did say that I would give it the old 'college try'. Poor baby! Shanna actually gave me hope, nice suggestion! You can read the comments. I never said I wouldn't try!!!! Just listing excuses for a potential loss, covering my butt! So if your reading this, watch for the contest, I guess it will be on my daughters blog. Potential ending date is the 18th of October (time to be perfected as the month goes) I truly do want to be in the contest!!! But I will let everyone know how hard it will be for me, poor me.........
I hope this will be the last blog on this subject, except for pictures of my pitiful attempts. Keep tuned in for further developements!!!!!

stupid. stupid, stupid!

2008-08-30T12:57:00.000-07:00

If your interested in why I feel this way, check my daughters blog, sunflowerain, she issued a challenge to me, and I foolishly accepted. She challenged me to a doll quilt. I guess I was half asleep, or brain dead!!! I have this sewing machine, kept talking about one day actually making a quilt, talking about my granddaughters talent in sewing, and was sure that I could actually do it, I used to sew, a hundred years ago, but now I remember why I stopped. I didn't like it.........lol any way, I realized I used to sew and now understand that I don't any more. The sewing machine keeps eating the thread, I can barely see the eye of the needle, etc. But, never fear, I shall go on, onward into the fog.........lol .
so I won't be publishing any pictures of my efforts, at least til I complete at least a square, which I have yet to do. Lots of material to pick from, many ideas, NO TALENT.

Doing justice..........

2008-08-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

My last blog, I told you about the beautiful wedding. However, upon reviewing the pictures, I realized that I did not pick good pictures. So, to show you better ones, here they are, I hope I did it justice. Very nice wedding, poor photography. My camera ran out of juice, but you can see it was done wonderfully.

Crappy month/turns better

2008-08-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Sorry that i've been absent for awhile. This month has been a very emotional for me. Just before our Granddaughters wedding, the unthinkable happened. Our daughter suffered a miscarriage. I can't even describe the pain, for our daughter and her husband, nor ours. God has blessed them with love for each other and the strenghth to go on, and so have we.

We did go to the wedding, at which I cried, more from our loss than for the emotion of the wedding. The wedding was beautiful, the reception terrific, as was the rehearsal dinner. I am enclosing several pics here. Sorry for the pictures, limited time to take many. Kelly looked so beautiful. Blake, her husband, handsome.

We did have a disappointment too. Justin, our grandson was on his way to Eastman College for his masters degree, fell in love! (not a disappointment!) and decided to stay at Baylor for his 1st year of his masters, his love of Katie(who has a year left for her degree) made up his mind. We support him in what ever he decides to do, but can't help feeling let down by his decision. I know that he is happy with his plan, and that is what is important to us. He will be teaching at Baylor, making money (which he can use) and being with the girl he loves. Justin played the music for Kelly's wedding, beautifly.

I knew Sarah was on the mend emotionly when she issued a challenge to me! We will 'compete' against each other at making a doll quilt. No rules except having it done by the time we go to see them in October. The little stink has even been practicing!!!! I just got a space cleaned- good grief! I guess I shall have to get busy!!!! When I get some done, I will post the results here. Designs keep running through my mind, and dont stay very long...........lol I tried to convince my hubby not to go to Dallas until after Christmas, maybe not till next summer.............haha. Actually I am looking forward to it all, since I have been on a long vacation of working on crafts of any kind for nearly a year, CAN YOU SAY SLUMP? check out her blog, I was impressed with her attempt............................

Happy days

2008-07-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

Last week we broke the bank and took a trip to Buda to the Cabela's store. We have been wanting to go since Fathers day. Shanna and Justin sent Carol a gift card from Cabela's. One of his favorite stores. We just had to wait for awhile and save pennies for the gas. Actually the gas has gone down so it wasn't too bad. We had to pick up a pkg at the post office first then headed south. Austin wasn't too bad as far as traffic, but my has it grown. We noted so many new places and surprised at some that were missing. It's been over 2 years since we have gone thru. Very peaceful drive. We arrived at Cabela's just after it opened. Bathroom break, then upstairs for breakfast. Had biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage and coffee. Very good and the place was almost empty. After eating we went shopping and oooing and awwing. So many items, so little money.........lol

We went to the home decor first then down stairs to the fishing department, our first love. I found something right away, a tackle box for trout fishing. My old one was a garage sale find and totally falling apart. I like the new one so much. Carol found some fishing supplies which were depleting and then found a new rod/reel combo. A mini size which is wonderful for trout. It make you believe that you have a monster on hook. I also got a new combo, mini. Carol likes the openfaced spinning type reel, I like the closed face reel. We toured the exhibits, they have many many stuffed animals on display. Then to the aquarium where they were feeding the fish. We looked over everything in the store. Believe me, its a big store, and enjoyed every minute of it. After, we headed back to Austin. We wanted to stop at the Central Market. Austin has 2 now. Shear heaven. We had intended to go to the south Lamar store, its the newest, but missed the turn off. They don't have a sign for the street we wanted. Ben White, a major street but they just listed the hwys and I forgot to look at the map. Carol was willing to turn around but I told him just to go on to the north store, easier to get too. We found it just fine. Really crowded, barely found a parking place. They had so many tastings and specials so we enjoyed ourselves there too. Got ourselves so little neck clams to steam, plus assorted spices and of course their famous cinnamon raisin bread.

We goofed leaving, we thought we could just loop back to the freeway heading north. NOT! We found ourselves semi- lost. So we just looped back to the store and went back the same way we came in. They are building so many new roads and buildings there. Amazing. On our way back we stopped in Round Rock for another sporting goods store. Cabela's didn't have the bait we needed the other one did. We stopped in Georgetown for a late lunch at Luby's. Its very good food there and nice. We like this one better than the others nearby. We got home just in time for feeding the dog. He was soooo happy we made it back.

Best thing is....................I DIDN'T FALL ASLEEP!!! DIDNT EVEN CLOSE MY EYES. For those who know me, I usually fall asleep with in 3o miles of the house. Such a pleasurable day!! We havent done that in over a year. Just shopping, looking and eating, with out having to go right back.

SUPER 4th

2008-07-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

Hi, I guess I will be the last to blog about our 4th of July, Granddaughter Jessica, daughter Sarah beat me to it. We did have an awesome time! The men set up the canopy, tables etc. while I cooked, Sarah did the decorartions, Adam planted the flags to the gate. All of my anticipation was worth it. So many people came. Some that we had hoped would come couldn't make it. Maybe a blessing they didn't, we had 50 adults, not counting children. We even had to bring out the kitchen chairs..........lol. The invitation asked for guests to bring chairs, but many had to drive quite a distance, so we didn't mind. I am going to try to show pictures that Sarah and Jessica didn't show, good luck to me. I think I shall be smart, not push my luck, and post this before my internet goes down. Will add more pictures tomorrow. We had guests from all over, Killeen, Kyle, Cleburne, Austin, Round Rock, and of course Grand Prairie and Ft. Worth. So nice!!

AT LAST! GRAND BABY # 9

2008-07-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

HI ALL. Sorry about the lapse of blogging, THE BEST NEWS IS THAT SARAH, OUR DAUGHTER IS EXPECTING THEIR 1ST BABY, DUE JAN. 14TH. CHECK OUT HER BLOG: sunflower rain. or just click on her name, under daughter, You can see what a beauty he or she will be!!! The sonogram is great!! Grandpa and grandma are already checking furniture, clothes etc. for the baby.
This week has been very hard for us, actually 2 weeks, our gr. grandbaby was in the pediatric ICU with head trauma, with prayers, she will mend. She is now in a pediatric room, getting great care. At some point in time we can tell you what happened, but not now. Please add her to your prayers.

Catching up...........a little

2008-06-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

It's been very busy around here, getting ready for the 4th of July. That and getting bids on our roof, We had that big hail storm that had done a lot of damage around the neighborhood. I didn't call the insurance until the 4th house got a roof or is in the process getting. So I called, and sure enough...............They will do our roof after the 4th. That was our choice. We have been doing a lot of watering, a near drought here. Every promise of rain stops at town way away from here. A 50% chance tomorrow. (Saying prayers here)
Every 4th of July, except last year, we have a very large party/gettogether in our yard. This year we get to do it!!!! yeah. Every thing but ice, potatoes and eggs have been purchased. We provide; brisket, sausage, potatoe salad, beans, ice tea and margarita's, as well as water and some soda's. Guests bring chairs, a dish to share and their favorite drinks. I try to decorate some and enjoy it all...................
Hubby gets the yard in shape for company and sets every up thing while I cook. Sounds like work and it is, but something I really do enjoy. Hopefully I will get tons of pictures and video. I did get a new camera, which I am still getting used to. I will have to hook the camera up via usb, the memory card won't fit on my computer (maybe I should start saving for a new one, heh.)

Grief

2008-06-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

This is the blog I wish I didn't have to write.
Our beautiful, much anticipated, Great Granddaughter, did not live to make to our arms. She now rests in the arms of Jesus.
We can not explain or tell about our pain. Our pain was for the rest of the families pain. Jennifer, the mom, knew something was wrong, and the doctors confirmed her worse fears, the baby would be born stillborn. The grief we went through was immense. To watch her and Becky, and Joey go through the rest of the labor was more than we could stand.
A saving grace was that most of the family could be there to say prayers, give hugs and cry with each other.
The babies cord had wrapped around her neck.
She was buried Friday morning, and a memorial service and fellowship was held at Rogers Baptist Church on Saturday. After the fellowship, the close family met at the grave sight.
I must say a public 'thank you' for Scott and White Hospital for their thought fullness. The staff understood the pain and heartbreak, and provided help and assistance that was very appreciated.
Jennifer and Joey with Shelby stayed with Carol and Becky until Sunday then went home to try to pick up the pieces of their life. It will be very hard for a long time, but with family support, and their faith, they will make it.
May God Bless little Natalie Nicole.

A little about the Grandson!

2008-05-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

For those that wanted to know when I would post again, I guess it's now...........lol. Sadly I have no pictures to show. Many Pictures were taken, but not by me. I was busy with the video camera. (for those who know my picture taking, you can be grinning) The video's turned out wonderful. Saturday we all were in place when the Graduation ceremonies took place.
Justin was in the program as special music. He played flute, clarinet and saxophone, the Carnival of Venice. Each instrument had a section, and he played it so beautifully. Adam, who had never heard him before in concert was just shaking his head in amazement. The President of the University even made a comment about for those who tried to get their kids to play even one instrument, should check with Justin's parents to see what they did............... (not a total quote). We were in the Ferrell Center at Baylor with a packed house. Very little chairs left. They had the video screen up showing him playing, similar to the ones they use at basketball games. Total silence from the crowd, except for the music and some applause here and there. Then a thunderous applause at the end. We all were so excited to hear him, we all stood and yelled! Perhaps Adam or one of the others will let me download some of the pics at a later time.
Sarah has plans to make a DVD of his music for distribution this summer. I wish I knew how to make a video for play on the blog. (computer idiot here)
The next day we went to Carol and Becky's house for a big celebration for Justin. Carol cooked burgers and hot dogs, and we all went to eat in the house, way too hot outside, it was so nice, all the family that could come were there.
Wish you could all have been there.
I just wanted you all to know what wonderful weekend we had.

2008-05-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a week we have had! Tues. the 6th Hubby's niece and her friend(from California) came by. They had been in San Antonio. Niece's son was getting a divorce from his wife(who wanted to hang in to get the allotment check. He is in Afghanistan. Stephanie. went down to make sure she didn't get any thing. They hadn't been together but 2 wks over a 3 year time spread. Stephanie was afraid she would come in and lie. (she didn't show up) but that feeling that she wasn't through, was a nagging worry. Being a great mom she is, made sure it was over, over, over.

When they got here, we had such a good time!!! Penny, the friend was wonderful, she also became our friend too. We sat outside till night just talking and laughing. We toured Crawford, where they bought souvenirs and had a great time. That week was just before the President's daughter was getting married. When we got back home, I cooked a full Texas BBQ. (glad to say that the brisket was so tender, the sausage was great and so was everything else. I cooked while Stephanie and Penny went touring Killeen and Gatesville. Our son Carol and his wife Becky joined us for supper, which we ate on the Patio. The weather which had been drizzly and yuck turned TERRIFIC.

Thursday morning we were sitting outside and having coffee. They had to start the return back home that morning. While they were still here, Justin our grandson and his friend Justin stopped by. What a treat!!

Saturday our Granddaughter Kelly graduated from Temple College! She is a dental hygienist. What a beautiful girl. She will be getting married in August. I got just 2 pictures. I gave Tim, her Dad the batteries from my Camera. Hopefully Joan (mom) will send me copies of the pics they took.

Mothers day started slow, then got great!

Becky, our daughter in law, stopped by and told me I had to go with her. Of course I did, just change out of a cruddy old blouse, still in shorts. I went with her not knowing what she had in her mind. We drove to a line of stores near our Wal Mart. She took me to get a pedicure and a manicure(The 1st pedicure I had ever had!) That was pure heaven!!!!! I will go often now.................. Massage chair, great lady doing my nails and feet. I felt so pampered.

The kids all called too. Hubby had gotten me a beautiful Yellow Hibiscus the week before.

I would have taken pics of my feet, but who would see how special I felt. Thanks to Becky and Carol for being so sweet. I loved it.

Shanna, my Granddaughter in Kuwait sent me a beautiful necklace. Its a silver wire bird nest with Dalmatian Jasper bird eggs. She and her hubby sent it and were so worried that it might not make it before Mothers' day. It did, while we had company, and I was very late it letting her know how pretty and unusual it was. I had Penny take a pic of me wearing it. Not close enough but I am so proud of it. More later, internet is not being nice

Mark

2008-05-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

Today is Mark's Birthday! Mark is the second son. We haven't seen him in years. Not because we don't want too, just right now it's not possible. But I am feeling very sad(heartbroken) that we don't. I just want so bad to give him a hug, a big birthday kiss and a lot of encouragement.
You see, some might think he is in prison, not hardly! He is just a thousand or so miles from us. He doesn't have a phone that we know about, but I do e mail him, and wait for an answer. Which he does.
I can't reveal why,(don't even know all of it) but we have come to expect it. I just want him to know just how much we love him and are so proud of him. He was in the Army, and accomplished so much. I know he recieved the Bronze Star in Dessert Storm, and returned to Iraq for another tour then retired from the Army. He retired with a rank of 1st sergeant.
Be assured that this blog is not complaining or blaming. I just wanted to give him a special notice. To let everyone know that he is indeed special to us.

A night of Great music!

2008-04-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

Last night, we were treated to some VERY fine music. Justin, our grandson, was the featured guest artist at the Baylor Wind Ensemble. He played 'Concerto for Alto Saxophone, Op. 26b by Paul Creston. I did video tape most of the performance( missed the 1st movement, idiot camera person's fault), however, did get the rest. Amazing, amazing performance. Justin won the Baylor concerto competition with this piece. I wish I had a good scanner to show you the write up and picture about Justin on the back. Justin got a standing ovation after, 2 bows , tears in his parents eyes as well as mine, and a great hurrah from the ensemble. After the concert, we met in the foyer for refreshments and picture galore. Pictures show at bottom, Justin with parents and sisters. All of the family, Jessica, Jennifer(the pregnant one, Shelby who was held by the adoring and talented uncle Justin, mom Becky, Joey, Jennifer's husband and Carol (proud dad).

Top pics are Super proud grandparents, Hubby and myself, looking dumb as usual. No wonder hubby doesn't like pics. From this pic I should hate them myself.......lol

Justin with 3 band mates and friends.

I just wish you could hear the music. Believe me, you would be so impressed.

Justin is pursuing his Master's in music performance at Eastman College of Music in Rochester NY this fall. He was also invited to play at graduation by the President of the University), this spring (he won't tell me what he is playing, it's a secret)

We will have 2 graduations this spring, Justins and Kelly our granddaughter( she is getting her dental hygenist degree. Fortunatly they are on different days.

Before and after the "Storm".

2008-04-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

I am enclosing some pictures I took. Several before the "storm" and some during and after. We were hit hard Friday late afternoon. First the Wind, then the hail, then tornado's. And rain, rain rain..................

We had golf ball size hail, some smaller and some bigger. I did catch some in pictures. The hail did little damage to the yard except to strip a lot of leaves off the trees. Thank the Good Lord thats all the damage we had.

Especially since Belton area had 3 confirmed tornado's, one being with in less than a mile from our house. One touched down very near our Wal Mart (across the town from us) one out near the lake, and one that destroyed a lot of cars at the intersection of US 190 and I35. Quite a few fences knocked over along with trees. I heard one house was damaged, but unsure where. The fact that God was watching out for our town was obvious. The storm had us in the hallway for quite awhile. The hail hitting was loud!!!!. The subdivision where Carol and Becky live was with out power for hours. They came over to stay with us since our lights were on. AC running. We offered to let them stay, but Carol went over to find the lights back on so they could sleep at home. Jessica and her family were in Georgetown and called to see about everyone. Becky recommended staying over night there since the storm was nearing them..

Becky said Jennifers car was badly damaged by the hail. They were at a friends house not a half mile from us.

Saturday morning was clear and absolutly beautiful. We drove to Cedar Park to a water garden's "Lily Blossom Festival". What a great time we had. Along the way we stopped a community garage sale. We stopped at nearly all. Got some baby clothes for the new one due and some for Shelby and Annalise too. Picked up box full of yarn! was marked .50 ea pc, I got the whole box full for $3, Sarah will get most, the rest for Shanna. Probably will wait till she gets stateside to send it. Quite a few books for the gr. grands and more.

(one the way back home we stopped at one and the gave us 8 jigsaw puzzles and 4 afghans.)

The lily blossom festival was awesome! They have greatly expanded the property so it was huge. Large crowds. Free sausage wraps, brisket wraps and drinks were wonderful. The employees were so very helpful. We got the filter material for the pumps for the ponds, 3 hibiscus bushes in 3 ga. pots were 15 ea. So we got 3. 2 were varigated leaves, with red blooms and 1 was a super yellow. The had a zydego band too. We will have to return next year. I guess you can tell which picture are which.

The rest of the story!

2008-04-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

I realized that I hadn't updated everyone on the Medical side of the coin, (not the fun side). Hubby got the VERY BEST NEWS!. He is now officially in remission! All of the tests that they took showed NO sign of the lymph nodes or the cancer that had invaded them. He will be watched carefully of course. Every 3 months for labs, then 3 months later a cat scan to check. So they aren't leaving him............lol Of course he still takes BP meds , cholesteral meds, and diabetic meds, but thats all. All of those are well under control.
I went back to the Dr. Really worried about my BP, but I was way down very close to normal. I will continue to take meds for it, and have started to walk more and of course trying again to lose more weight( Still keeping the 'last year weight loss') Now I will try for 10 more #. It know it will take much extra effort, but since I actually got into sz 14 (and didn't have to suck in my stomach) I kinda like the look, so wish me luck. I found out that losing weight after a certain age is SOOOOOOOOOO darn hard. Any way, the dr. was pleased. I believe because I had the infection it raise the BP high. They did do a blood test so the next time I go (in 3 wks) I may find my body is starting to fall apart........lol I hope I am wrong.........

Weekend trip to FtWorth/Dallas

2008-04-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of our Wonderful trip to see our kids and attend Garage sales plus the Farmers Market in Dallas. I believe the pictures will give you an Idea of which goes to which.

Carol and Becky (bless their hearts) drove their suburban. We got to Ft. Worth a little after 8AM Saturday morning. Sarah and Cipriano met us there and we spent close to 5 hours walking around the neighborhoods loading up on some super buys. Everyone found something to purchase!!! All at SUPER prices. Carol and Becky really found great buys. I am sure Becky will post her buys on her blog, but I will still list the great ones here. They found a very very nice kitchen table and 4 chairs, 2 little tykes, a play house and a car. Plus tons of Baby clothes for the new baby on the way. I won't begin to list all, but needless to say they were very happy with the sales.

Adam, Sarah and I just picked up odds and ends. My big buy was a nice length of uphol. material and 5 big boxes of quart and pint size jars, I will use them in crafts. All the boxes were just eight dollars. Some craft paint a huge box of baby diapers, wipes and baby laundry soap. Sarah saved hers for some bonsai dishes. Adam bought a cane made of plexiglass and some odds and ends

All in all we really lucked out. After lunch at Benito's (authentic mexican food) we rested then went to Central Market. Another place Carol and Becky had never been to....It's a high end grocery. Similar to Whole Foods. Great meat/seafood, plus everything else. The Deli is to die for. Super Wine collections and Great cut flowers............That day they were celebrating cooking out doors. Chefs were cooking for customers out side, while a musician was playing guitar and singing. Very nice!!!

We went home with Sarah and Cipriano. On the way we stopped and visited Hong Kong an Oriental super market..........Another WOW place.

Next day, we waited for the others to get to Sarah's and after coffee and pastries we went to the Farmers Market. Pictures will allow you to see some of it. I couldn't get a picture of the veg. and fruit vendors. WAY WAY too crowded. One can eat a meal there with the samples they hand out. In fact this evening we had a meal using just the vegies we got there. Awesome corn on the cob, fresh, fresh spinach both steamed and in a salad w/cucumbers, onions and tomato's....yummy. I have been trying to get this finished and posted half the day, so while ahead I will post and continue some tomorrow.

A little of this and that!

2008-04-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

We had some great fun with our Gr. Granddaughter this last weekend. Nice enough to be out side and Annalise found a plastic easter egg to play with. Her Dad got up and filled it with a few pebbles so she could shake it. She saw where he had gotten them (in our chimania) and wanted even more in it. She then found out how much fun it was to remove the stones and put them on the patio floor. It was so much fun to watch her. Busy,busy, busy. We were blessed having both granddaughters here. Shelby came later( i had the camera memory card out)

The reason for the wonderful company? Our son and his wife were at the coast celebrating their anniversary. They are lucky enough to do this every year. So, we lucked out with the grands. Of course they do come often but rarely in the same day. Blessings!!

We have been planting and moving things around in the back yard. We finally planted my birthday present from Sarah and Cipriano (the stacked pots). Now we will have to move it. Our shade has extended. We probably will have to help to move the whole thing to a sunnier spot. We have hen and chicks and verbena in it now.

We drove to our favorite nursery last week and got several plants and before that to the flea market for even more. We got 2 bouganvilla(sic) the verbena and 2 nice pothos ivy to plant in a basket. Also (one of my favs.) gazania. A beautiful deep pink wave petunia basket. From the flea market another fern and 2 blue hydrangia's -2 kalnchoes.

All we have to do now is plant a few pots and some empty areas.

This next weekend, if the weather co-operates we will go to Ft.Worth/Dallas for the weekend. A huge neighbor hood garage sale event in the historical district is the highlight of Saturday. Sunday we will all go to the Dallas Farmers Market. One of our most favorite thing to do. Carol and Becky will be with us and they haven't been to the market.

This week I went to the dr. and found I have Hi BP. Much much higher than ever. I went to the doctor because of swollen painful saliva glands. Now this week I will go see him about the BP.

Carol had his appt. with his primary Dr. All is well!!! all stats looked very good. This week he has a cat scan then oncology appt. I have an appt inbetween. Fun fun!!!

Shelby's Birthday! And other great news.....

2008-03-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Shelby's party, a few days early, but fun anyway. Shelby will be 2 tomorrow. And what a cute 2 she is. She is very quick with the "cheese" smile...........so fast that its hard to beat her with a camera. Here are a few pics of the party. Shelby got a new tricycle, and as you can see she shared with Annalise. She got some great gifts and love the baby doll that when given a bottle, goes to sleep. She sang 2 songs to the baby. I tried to get a video of it but it didn't do it right.

NOW I HAVE TO APOLOGIZE TO THE MOTHER, AUNT AND GRANDMA FOR BEATING THEM TO THE PUNCH. ACTUALLY, THEY ARE A LOT BUSIER THAN I AM, SO CHECK THEIR BLOGS OUT FOR EVEN BETTER PICTURES.

I also will attempt to beat them with even more news. Justin so far has gotten acceptance from 3 Universities for his Masters. USC, EASTMAN, AND INDIANA. IF THERE WAS MORE, I HAVENT HEARD.(Justin is tooooooo busy to let his Grandma know)

I hope to let everyone know what his choice is as soon as I know.

Easter

2008-03-24T16:04:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a great Easter! Ours was a mixed bag. Carol got sick Friday nite and still isn't feeling very good. Adam, Sarah and Cipriano came down Saturday morning. We were so happy to see them. The 1st thing they wanted was Fat Ernies. I ordered them when they called from Temple. Yummy!!!! We then loaded into the truck and went to Temple to a nursery. Last week we had gone and they had spectacular fern hanging baskets (then priced at 25.) however when we went they were now priced at 39. Needless to say, we didn't buy any. We did go to Home Depot and got 2 Texas Sage plants to replace the "dead or dying" ones. Sarah paid for one, we paid for the other.

Cipriano is fighting allergies and as Sarah says, "its kicking his butt".

For supper I made Chicken Fried steak, mashed potatoes and green beans.

For breakfast Easter morning, we had biscuits, sausage, and scrambled eggs. I put an absolutly scrumptious ham in the oven just about 9am and had the rest almost ready for the big meal. Sarah did the deviled eggs. I made the Smithfield ham, which I said was the BEST I've ever had. We had potato salad, ham, asparagras, jello eggs, deviled eggs, vegies and dill dip. Ate until we nearly exploded, then we had strawberry shortcake for desert. A veritable feast. Carol still wasn't feeling very well so we did have leftovers which Sarah and Cipriano took home.

In between, Jennifer, Joey and Shelby stopped by. I had made Easter treats for the Gr grands (picture!) Jennifer cut Sarahs hair, and we sat outside it was so nice. It was so cute to hear Shelby calling after Sarah all day. The last time they were here, Shelby ignored Sarah all together, this time she became Shelby's best friend!!!

Later in the day Jessica, Scott and Annalise came over. Annalise had just woken up. Such a cutie! She has learned to say "no" very well and mean it! I did get one of Annalise and Jessica, just ONE.

By the time they arrived my batteries had died for the camera, and Sarah had used my last 2 for her camera, hopefully she will post pics on her blog.

All in all, Easter was nice, too bad 2 were sick. Cipriano, poor thing, did go out and plant the sage and moved to suckers from a crape myrtle to a better location. I did tell him to forget it, but he is the kind that would do it anyway. I believe he prefers to be working.

Just news

2008-03-12T07:41:00.000-07:00

This is just a 'kind of' boring update. Not much exciting happenings in our world but felt like if I don't blog soon all will forget me. We have been working in the back yard in between rain and chilly weather. Trying to eliminate weeds before they take over. Thistles and dandelions for the most part, hen bit is real nuisance but easy to pull and rather nice looking as a whole. It's trying hard to take over, but a little work takes care of it. I hate pulling weeds!!! Also been cutting out little tree sprouts that try to fool us. They seem to grow very near other shrubs and fence line, easy to take care of if we can get to them. Yesterday we cleaned and pulled and filled up a large contractor bag with debris in less than an hour! Beautiful day, jacket weather but pleasant.
Last week a bit of sickness hit. Jennifer had bronchitis, she is expecting and a nurse told her dayquil would help, without checking on pregnancy and Jennifer got dizzy and weak, finally went to the dr. and got some meds for it.
Justin, with all his travels, got a bacterial infection which really made him ill. He went to the 'quack shack' on campus and he was so sick his Mom had to drive to Waco to take him back to his apt. She wanted to bring him home, but he wanted to stay. She loaded him up with juices, gatoraide, and 'healthy' food and the dr. loaded him up with meds. and he seems to be fine with in a few days.
I am getting this news seconed hand so I am just reporting all this in my own words. Hope I am near enough to the story to be mostly correct.
Last week we went to the AARP tax people at a local Sr. citizens center to have them work on our tax. I did it, and thought we were going to have to pay! But I needed to have it checked and found out that we did not have to pay after all. What a relief!! The gentleman that helped us was wonderful, he explained alot and filed electronically so we could get our rebate check.
Not much further news. Trouble, our dog had been having problems with infection in his anal glands, but now is fine. We will have to watch him closely for signs of a return of the problem. Expensive but well worth it, he is our "BABY".
We both have spring garden fever. We purchased a new tree, a wax mrytlel(sic) and a shrub to go between the ponds. We had to remove a dead one. We still have to replace the Texas Sage (2) that are on the way to dying. The sage is over 10 years old and very scruffy looking. I did buy some seed geraniums to put in the front. I want to load up with tons of blooming plants, but forcing myself to wait until the Texas weather settles down. More on future plantings and pictures later.

2008-03-02T11:27:00.000-08:00

Friday night, we went to Dynasty for my belated birthday dinner. What a treat! Since we had been there, they have continued to change, for the better. They now have 2 very large aquariums across the back wall. Very pretty, and the food as usual was delicious. I wasn't surprised to see the room nearly full. After dinner we stopped by Carol and Becky's house to invite them to dinner Saturday. Becky has been attending classes all week(lasting thru July) she will be getting her proffesional certification to become a medical Coder. She is so looking forward to that. But it is extremely stressful.
Saturday evening we had crisp fried trout, twice baked potatoes and a garden salad. Scrumptios. After supper, we were surprized by Justin! He had just returned from Indiana Univ. from (so far) his final audition and interview for his masters degree. Now comes the long wait for invitations and hopefully awards to continue. Most all will offer some sort of compensation, award, so then he will have to decide. I promise who ever he chooses will be so proud to have him. We will try to keep you posted. Too bad I didn't take pictures ( a running joke in this family) He had a new T-shirt on from Indiana. Looked great on him!

Yesterday we also took the plants out of the shed and watered them, sorry looking but we should save most all. Today and tonite we are expecting heavy rain/t storms, perhaps sleet and falling temperatures. Not a good forcast for those of us who have many plants that have already started to leave out. Typical Texas weather, 80 degree on day and freeze possible the next. Fun fun!

Great Birthday weekend!!

2008-02-24T15:09:00.000-08:00

This weekend was one of the best. Our daughter and her husband drove down Sat. morning. We all went to the Home and Garden show, ( a family tradition) and walked all through the 3 buildings its housed in, picked up all kinds of "freebies" and 2 of us actually won some nice prizes. Me, a 4 pack of the new light bulbs( the kind that look funny but last for years. We have som in our living room and love them. (Sarah won one too) and Sarah one an MP3 player (which is in my name, since she lives so far away)met quite a few old friends including my Granddaughter, her husband an my G. granddaughter, who ignored me, lol. All in all had a great time.
After 3 hours there, we drove to Salado so Sarah could pick up some great Salsa that they had purchased before, and some Texas caviar dip for Dad,also walked down the street to another shop and Sarah and her husband bought me a stand for pots of flowers, I had seen it several years ago and since then the store hadn't had them. I will show pictures of it when planted. Probably several months from now.
Cipriano, our son in law cooked super for us, Fajitas, both kinds, and fresh green onions on the grill. Sarah made the salsa which was great.
Becky and Carol were supposed to come to eat with us, but Carol wasn't feeling well, so Becky joined us and brought a wonderful Banana pudding to eat.
We tried to call all the other grand kids, but they were all out running around.
The food was outstanding, we ate far more than we should have! Carol did come over later and also ate, We are so lucky that Cipriano likes to cook and is so good at it.
Becky and Carol gave me a basket of fruit and a beautiful vase of flowers. They always seem to know what to get!
This morning they let me sleep in, a little after 9AM, still in my housecoat, Jessica, Scott, and Analise came to wish me happy birthday and brought a beautiful print (framed) from the 150 year anniversary of Texas, and it really is beautiful, I think we already have a place for it picked out, again will show pictures of it when hung later this week.
Analise, just loves me to pick her up, It feels so good to have her reach her arms up to me...........makes my day,,,,,,,, she even went to grandpa this time.

We had a brunch later, just before Sarah and Cipriano had to leave, It was sooooooooooooooo go od to have them home. Sarah will have to work most Saturday for at least a month so I am so glad they could make it.
Justin, our grandson went to New York and Michigan this weekend for his interview, and audition for his Masters. Thank goodness he made it safely because the weather was aweful, over a hundred flights had to be canceled d/ the snow and Ice. I believe they all will be lucky to have him attend. I will have to try calling him later. Our internet and hotmail has been out off and on today, frustrating!!!
We were going to go eat and Dynasty, but since we have been stuffing ourselves, decided we would go later this week.

Furniture update..............

2008-02-05T21:28:00.001-08:00

In my haste to get the pictures of my new sofa and chair posted, I forgot to tell everyone that we replaced another recliner, and a sofa that was probably 15 years old. The old couch was a floral print, that, while soiled, was in great shape. We had a pair of recliners, both burgandy. The one I did sit on constantly was falling apart, literally. But sssssssssssooooooooooo comfortable, in fact when company came over, everyone would fight to take my place. That particular recliner is scheduled for pick up, along with the sofa to a local charity. Bless anyone that can use it. A lot of love went into using it, (both of them). We just painted, ooooooooops several years ago the walls of the living room, so we looked very hard to find furniture that would blend. I think we did a good job! I know a lot of people that buy new furniture every year or so, but we dont. So I am especially proud of ours. And, I promise to eventually take a good picture.............lol

New Furniture!!

2008-02-05T16:34:00.000-08:00

This last week we finally broke down and purchased a new sofa and chair (to match finally)

We are very excited, and despite my daughters doubts, the recliner does go with it. The color is that of the chair, the sofa looks different. Its very comfortable and stylish. We got it from Ashley. They were very helpful and the price was right. Forgive the rest of the room, time was short today.

Time to actually ask!!!!

2008-01-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

My last blog contained information that, if I had asked, would have been corrected!
So here is the correction:
Justin, our grandson, is going to California this weekend not as stated before. He is auditioning at USC to get his Masters in Music performance. I think that's all the correction I need. I do want everyone to keep Justin in their prayers, that God guides him to the right University, and when he is there, give him guidence and his love.
Justin is such a sweet young man, I hope he knows how much we love him.

Little bit of everything

2008-01-17T10:23:00.000-08:00

This has been a busy week, what with Dr.'s appointments and a little bit of fishing.
Tues. hubby had his appointment with the Oncologist. And got some really good news. The last cat scan showed no sign of the lymph nodes!! Certainly not a cure, but a very nice news bit. I don't know what the blood tests showed, but they had planned on 6 chemo's and he's only had 3. They will schedule another check in 3 months. Big sigh of relief! The cramping in the leg has diminished too. Even the torment of the shingles has nearly gone. Just random aches and pains now. He feels so much better too.
As I told you, the State of Texas stocks random ponds, creeks etc. We have been having a ball going. They are challenge to catch, and great tasting. What we don't eat or freeze, we give the rest to our neighbors, who love them. Plus all the fun of going.
The fun kind of fell flat yesterday. Hubby caught all the fish, and while talking to Sarah, the phone slipped out of my hand and went rolling into the water. I tried to retrieve it but it was too far under the water. I knew it would be ruined, but was hoping to get the phone numbers off. No such luck. We went get a new phone and got one (not at all like the other), so now have to get the new one loaded with all the numbers. A job I do not like! At least we did get one. Our contract has over a year and half, so had no choice. New one is actually easier to use. No camera, V-cast etc. I was actually sick to my stomach over it. Hubby was sweeter than I expected. Could have been funny except for the added expense. Me climbing down the bank, deep mud, very cold water, and pants rolled up to my knees, Hubby telling me I was going to fall in, and having to help me out......................ugh, what a mess.
No fishing today, a norther came through last nite and very cold and windy. Not worth a chance of even getting out. It was 36 just an hour ago. Tomorrow there is a slight chance of winter-like rain mix. I think I will cook a 15 bean soup and cornbread. Ymmmmmmmmmm
Becky stopped by, she was walking Freddy, their dog. Nice visit. We were eating supper, fried trout, but kept eating and it was good.
Justin, our grandson has an audition in California this weekend. I believe its for UCLA. I know he will impress them!! In the next month or so he has auditions for Eastman, in New York, Michigan. He is trying for a Masters in Music performance. He plays saxophone. Also, flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon plus piano.

Hi ya'll

2008-01-10T16:35:00.000-08:00

Great week or two for us. They stocked the rainbow trout again, so we have been fishing! Best excuse for not doing work!!! Acually we did do some this week. Our koi ponds were so bad, full of leaves and stinking, the fish were up on top sucking air. We have hundreds of dollars tied up in them so, we decided to clean. Had to go to Wal-Mart to get the chlorine remover first. That done, we started with the smallest pond and did all five of them in one day. Yuck. Both of us still have sore muscles, but it was so worth it. I have, in the last 15-20 years, had problems getting up from the ground with out help of furniture etc. But Monday, I really had a bad problem. My left foot was sideways and I couldnt reach anything to hang on to. Yhe other leg didn't have the power. It took quite a while to finally get up. Hubby was in the pond and couldn't get up fast enough to help either. Quite hilarious really, would have been funnier if my legs didn't hurt... You have to imagine two white haired people trying to get up.................. Then later, hubby was in another pond and couldn't get a foot hold d/t the surface being slippery. Here I am tugging, him pulling, trying to get a foot hold. Fortunatly he made it and we finished all the ponds. They look so nice now. I know the fish love us too..............
So, to celebrate, we took a few days off to fish. In fact, today we celebrated even more. Luby's for lunch.........heaven.
I guess you can tell by the previous story that the neurosurgeon declared him semi- able to walk and lift moderatly, as he felt he was able. What a relief. We certainly did NOT have was any mention of any surgery. The disc is still bulging but not enough to operate on. Hubby actually feels better when he is able to work and walk some. So, with his blessing, we are released from neurology. We probably will have checks on it (the back) and watch any overdoing.
The 15th Hubby goes for his oncology check. Hopefully, a check up is all he will get. They
plan to monitor his blood w/o chemo.

We had 2 very nice visits this week, Scott, Jessica and Annalise came by and what a pleasant surprise. Annalise is walking more and more. Cutie pie.
Yesterday my DIL brought by Shelby, who is now talking up a storm. And she loves to draw! Gives names of what she is drawing, glad too, because other wise we would never know..........lol

Last year I made 2 New Year resolutions. One to clean up my craft room, which I did, and it still is, except for the Christmas decor. It's waiting to be put in the attic.
The next, to lose 20# by the next year. I MADE IT.~!!! I was 195 and got down to 175 before Thanksgiving, I even kept it off after, Christmas kinda undid some but just 3# which I am working on...........
NO RESOLUTIONS THIS YEAR. I learned my lesson............lmao

Christmas and beyond

2008-01-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful holiday we have had. Ending in a special New Years Eve, spending with the eldest son's party/dinner. Becky, our daughter in law, prepared a feast! After, we played games, starting with Gestures (which I found out I am terrible at) and ending with Scattergories. We didn't stay late, but hubby was hurting (still from effects of Shingles) so we headed home, but sure did enjoy being there with all the family. The babies are so cute!!!

Christmas was great, after our presents were opened, we prepared our lunch, Tamales, charro beans, smoked turkey(thanks to a prize Adam won) and lots of goodies. Opened the gifts to everyone and enjoyed the after noon.

Trouble, our dog, even had gifts. I tried to show everyone there, our house is small so some even moved out side, while it was chilly, it was pleasant out there. I won't try to list all, but if you know them, enjoy and if you don't, and want to know who, just let me know. As you can see, our house was filled with Christmas love.

Christmas with lots of love

2007-12-27T21:20:00.000-08:00

We had Christmas Eve with our Granddaughter and her 2 sweet babies. Lily got most of the attention, Hannah the oldest had most of the gifts to open and she was so excited! She got loaded down with plenty of Crafty things to keep her Mom and her very busy. They had gone to stay with my former daughter in law at her house during a cold spell. We got re-acquinted with the other aunts and Grandma. It was a lovely visit. Lily looks so much like her daddy, with lots of her mom and Hannah thrown in. Hannah couldn't wait to go out side and draw with her new sidewalk chalk......lol

Busy, sad and happy

2007-12-14T11:52:00.000-08:00

This week has been a hard one for the family, my sister in law passed away. A beautiful soul went to heaven. She had had a stroke a few years ago, and had been in and out of rehab centers to help her walk. Her heart just gave up. We will miss her.

This week has been a gloomy week. Rain and drizzle, with a freeze due this weekend. Hubby, in spite of me telling him not to, went out and raked up all the leaves yesterday. With the cold and wet being around, I let it go, he just couldn't. The weather was cool but nice and he got it looking nice. We took 7 big bags and 2 large garbage cans full to the curb for the garbage, but someone came and got all the bags full, which was nice! Less for the landfill. I know we should be composting it all, but gave it up do to the extra work required. We don't have a good composter so we usually just kept turning it.

Today was Dr. day for hubby, his primary care Dr. All is okay for now, the oncology appointment is in July. She ordered some pain killer for the shingles, the nerve endings are driving him crazy. Can't scratch, can't touch.

Happy that we went and visited my newest gr. granddaughter. She has grown so much! And a happy, sweet baby she is too. I am enclosing some pictures of her with her Mom. Right now she has a cold, in her chest, but Dr. cant give her anything for it. She just smiled and coo'd the whole time we were there. Hannah, her older sister was in school. Will have to wait till Christmas eve to see her.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, sorry about the quality, however, don't you agree both of them are beautiful. (grandma/gr. grandma brag)

The week coming up will be busy, baking and making candy. Yummmmm

Catching up!!

2007-11-26T13:19:00.000-08:00

I am way behind on my blogging.
So if the catching up looks haphazard it's because I don't always remember everything in order! Lol
Best news! Justin, our grandson, after trying for 4 years, won the concerto competion at Baylor. The competion is in 3 sections, Over 30 students tried, but Justin won it!!! We were there for the final competion, and Justin was just amazing. When it was announced we were all in tears of joy. He will now be the featured soloist for a concert this spring. He played Saxaphone.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Sarah, Cipriano, and Adam drove down Thanksgiving. I already had most of the dinner either cooking or ready to cook. As usual we had far more to eat than any of us could eat at one meal, but we sure tried. The next day, we had the regular special sandwiches, turkey, avocado's, tomato's, lettuce, monteray jack cheese and mayo on croisant bread. Yummy. Adam discovered this combo in Santa Fe New Mexico a few years back. It's a real treat! After sandwiches, the kids loaded up the leftovers and headed back. They beat the heavy traffic.
Adam's schools football team is in the playoffs so he wanted to get back to get ready to go to the game.
They won and will go further along in the region and area playoffs. The team has won to previous State Championships, both being in a different catagory (3AAA as opposed to 4AAAA now) I just finished sending off packages to Shanna and my sister. My sister had ordered some "worm" plant pokes, so I finally finished them.

Good news and bad news.

2007-11-14T12:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Dr. day for hubby. The Dr. reviewed the labs and MRI/catscan results and we got some good news from them. They are going to wait at least a month or month and a half for perhaps a ceasing of chemo for awhile. The catscan showed very promising results. The Dr. says they will monitor for awhile but all looks much improvement.
The MRI wasn't so good. It showed a slipped disc in his back that probably is the cause of the leg and hip pain. He made an appt. for a neurologist, but told hubby not to lift any thing! He said if it feels heavy to him, to leave it. He is still using a cane, but walks much better at least.
I just made an appt. for him for Dec. 14th for his regular clinic Dr. Let's hope they don't find any thing else.
We did go shopping today for Thanksgiving dinner. Got everything but the fresh vegetables. I am truly looking forward to having some of the family here.

Pictures of OUR NEW house

2007-11-07T16:23:00.000-08:00

Joey

Becky and Jennifer

It's NEW, PART ll

2007-11-07T16:11:00.001-08:00

I tried to get all of them working, but not possible. I just hope they all know how much we loved them for doing it for us. Best of all, after all the work, Sarah even cooked her famous spaghetti for everyone. Today, we had a new garage door installed. It looks so nice all together. The colors are quite a change from the yellow, but I really love it.
I have to give thanks for the new house numbers and new porch light from Adam. I wish them much love and appreciation. For Carol and Becky for the work, and the new door. Sarah and Cipriano for the paint and so much work done, and of course talking Adam into coming too.

For Jennifer and Joey for painting their hearts out. I have many more picture, so will add more on next blog.

It

2007-11-07T16:10:00.001-08:00

It's NEW!

2007-11-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

For my hubby's Birthday, he recieved from our eldest son and his wife, a new cap and a beautiful front door. They brought it over the Sunday before and if everything had gone as planned it would have been installed Mon. But you know the old saying.......... So plans were made to do it Saturday. He also mentioned getting paint and doing the house too. But, Sarah said, hey, wait, me and Cipriano will do the paint! It will be our gift. So Saturday rolled around and here were Sarah, Cipriano and Adam, our son, early and ready to work. That is, after a 'fat ernie' for breakfast. (fat ernie's is a fantastic breakfast burrito) They left to get paint, and Carol and Becky came. We chose the colors, 2 colors, one for the main and one for the shutters. I hope you can see how different it looks now. Later in the morning our granddaughter came to help paint, in the afternoon her husband came to lend a hand also. They even took the old 'flower boxes' off. You can see, they went beyond what we were thinking. I would have been happy with just the front painted, but they decided that the eaves needed painting too, as well as the sides of the house. Huge amount of work, we were NOT allowed to do any thing but look.

Quick update

2007-11-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

Carol went for his appointment today and will pass on chemo for another week. The white cell count is still low. The shingles are almost gone. He got another bunch of pill in case he gets sick, an anti biotic, but we will go back the 8th, perhaps to have chemo. At least the time was allotted. All well otherwise. He is now sleeping better.

HALLOWEEN FUN

2007-11-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

Last night we were very busy handing out goodies to some of the cutes costumed kids. So were homemade and very clever. The faces on the kids were great. Of course we had the gr. grandkids stop by also. They were by far the cutest!! Annalise as Tinkerbelle.....how cute can you get. Daddy held her, and gr. grandma can't take good pictures but cute any way............

Shelby was the duck "quack, quack" and just too cute. She had to have the sucker. We closed it off at 8:00 PM and surprisingly no one knocked after that.

Welcoming family.

2007-10-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

This last week has been interesting and nice. Carol went for his appointment and they decided that he could not have chemo because of the shingles. The Doctor changed the pain medicine because the 1st one made him sick. Carol went to get his MRI Friday afternoon and decided that he didn't like it one bit. His face was just an inch below the ceiling. Very noisy and warm. It took 45 min. for the procedure and 4 people to help him up. Monday he will have another catscan. Thurs. he has another Dr.'s appointment. We will have to see then if he will get chemo. The shingles have almost cleared up, they have formed scabs and no more have popped up.

We were blessed with a visit from my nephew from California. He was only going to stay over night then going back to Cal. We had to leave him while we went to get the MRI, but he knew that and used the time for laundry and reading. We had a nice supper, and a great visit. He is a super collector of O.T.Frasch postcards that Sarah, Adam and I also collect. O. T. Frasch was my grandfather and we all are trying to make sure we keep them in the family if possible.

David has been asked to write a book about him, and may, if he has the time.

David had his copies on his laptop and I made a huge list of further cards I would like to have eventually. Bless his heart, he also put my cards in order!

Saturday I made a Texas BBQ for lunch. Carol and Becky were invited to come too. However, they had forgotten! They had a big breakfast just and hour earlier. They still sat down and did justice to the food and Becky did the dishes for me. She redeemed them from punishment......lol.

David had to leave just about 2 pm and I really hated to see him go. He resembles my Brother so much and it was a treat to see him again. He had visited over 10 years ago.

Today we are being lazy...........

Oh NO not another one!!!!

2007-10-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well, we have a new disease to talk about!!! This weekend Hubby got a slight rash,which really was painful. It started off with just small raised bumps, to blisters. Over the weekend it became worse, and spread to the chest, the original was in the back. So, back to the VA. Glad we went since the Dr. recognized it right away as Shingles. I thought that it was like a poison Ivy or oak. Which really wasn't possible because Hubby has been pretty well contained to the house because of his back. So we have something else to worry about. Congrats to Hubby for finding out something else...................He was given some anti viral meds to help control it and pain pills.
Best part is, since we were already out and about, we stopped to visit Taryn and the new baby, Lily. First time I had held her and me without a camera! She is so beautiful, and obviously growing. Already at 7# 8oz. Lots of hair too. Hannah was home due to a stomach ache that happened Saturday. Her Grandma had taken her to the foot ball game Friday, and probably had too much concession stand food. I got to see her report cards, which were outstanding.

Home bound hubby chit chat..................

2007-10-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks we have been blessed by wonderful kids that have gone out of their way to be of help to us.
Last week, Adam drove down from Ft. Worth to take some things back to Sarah. Well, it turned out that he needn't have done it. Sarah has a washer and dryer here that had been given to her. It was taking up a huge space in the garage, I didn't tell her that Adam was coming down, and when she found out, Told Adam, please don't bring them right now. So it wound up being a nice visit, but all he took back was a table and chairs for him. I fed him good though, fried rainbow trout and the goodies to go with it.
Last night, Carol and Becky came over to offer lawn mowing services. Bless his heart, he was still feeling the effects of the crud but was more than willing to help. (Hubby is still hobbling around with a cane) Sarah and Cipriano had already planned to come down to they were going to do the lawns and the trimming. They got here a little bit before 10AM and by 11:30 were finished! Cipriano even did some badly needed edging in the back flower beds. Poor hubby had a nervous breakdown! He just isn't comfortable watching some one doing his job, but he got over it. I think I know what he was going through, I would just hate having to watch some one clean my house.lol
I made some beans, BBQ'd spare ribs, deviled eggs, guacamole and chips. This meal ( if i can brag a little) was most excellent! We had 2 cakes for the birthday girl. A tres leches cake, and a cherry cheese cake.
Happy birthday to my little girl!! She will be 27 next week. She even took a part time job starting this week, working for Linen's and Things. It will be about 20 hours a week, and she is looking forward to it. With her full time job and Cipriano's job they do nicely but they have dreams of more so she is working to help fulfill that dream. More power to her!
My daughter-in- law Joan called to let us know that her eldest daughter Kelly is officially engaged to her long time boyfriend. I wish both of them well. No long term plans as yet, both are attending college. Kelly is so pretty, Blake just wanted to make is mark........lol Congrats.!
We had a very scary day or two about our brave Gr. Grandson Jerrett. He was in a lot of pain and it took exploritory surgery to rule out appendix, but the Dr.s felt it was probably a viral problem. He is home now and many Prayers were with him guiding back home.

More Hubby update

2007-10-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

OK, we went to the ortho Dr. Who sent us down for more x-rays. Up and down the hallway! The xray's were negative, I am very glad to say. She said his pain was from the back, not the hip. Totally different area, the back can cause a radial pain easily.She asked about a walker or a cane, we decided a cane would help and she talked to the Oncology Dr. who wanted a lab done and to see the Dr. after the labs were done. So, more hallways and 2 elevators later we were at the Oncology clinic. They cancelled next weeks chemo but ordered an MRI and a catscan. The MRI is supposed to be next week or 2. Took him off one of the new meds, and ordered another month of the other. All labs were good tho. Went to the basement to get the cane and of course it was already closed, but we have an appt. to get one tomorrow. Another trip. The Dr. didn't listen and ordered a walker so that will be interesting.....any thing to get him back to walking comfortably is fine. All sounds confusing but the Dr's are very good and want to make sure that all is going fine for him. It's a hassle but I do like the attention they give to all the in's and outs of hubby's health.

Hubby update

2007-10-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was hubby's regular Oncology Dr. appt. Sunday he woke up with a pain deep in his hip. It traveled down to the ankle. It was so bad that he could barely walk, enough to go to the bathroom and thats all. By Tuesday he was in great pain. We got a wheelchair at the hospital and cancelled the reg. Oncology appt. and went to the walk in clinic. He got an x-ray which showed no damage and several prescriptions for inflamation and pain. Neither helped. Today we got a call from the Orthopedic Dr. to come in this afternoon to see if they can help. Hubby said YES, (an ususual statement from him) so we will go back at 1PM to see if they can do anything. The walk-in Dr. had called about an ortho consult so they had his name. She did get him an appt. with his regular Dr. next week. But, fortunatly, the Ortho people decided that they would see him after all. At least perhaps he can get a cane to support him. I will let you know later what happened.

New(for me) product review

2007-10-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

Last week or two ago I tried for the 1st time the Ziplock steamer bags for the microwave. They are fantastic. Since I usually cook for just 2, any thing that cuts down on the pots and pans is my hero. Corn on the cob is my most favorite. 4 minutes, along with a pat or two of butter and it's perfection. So I went for even more. New red potatoes were next. 7 min. and done! No 30 min. cooking for me. So after going to the grocery store for more goodies to try, I cooked all the meal in the microwave, corn on the cob, broccoli, and cajun style tilapia. All easy to do and NO pans to clean. The tilapia was coated with a quick spray of olive oil and sprinkled with blackened spice. 3 min. and absolutly delicious. Broccoli the same, a shake of salt, a pat of butter and voila! If you haven't tried the ziplock bags, I urge you to. I just found the glad steamer bags and will try them the next time. One thing, the ziplock has a big variety of times to steam, the glad has pictures and french names...............I shall have to figure this one out. Both have recipes but zip lock has quite a bit more. The ziplock bags lay flat while in the microwave while the glad bags are designed to stand up right. I will definatly use these bags often, especially during the hot summer months. Please let me know if you have tried either one and how you feel about them

Wedding part 4

2007-09-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Oops! I forgot an important picture, or 3 actually. The bride and her sister Jessica getting ready. She looks upset, but just a little dress problem had her worried. She needn't have been. She looked so beautiful.

The wedding part 3

2007-09-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

These pictures, while the last are not the least important ones. The entertainment for the wedding and the reception was provided by our grandson Justin and his friend Lauren. They are both performance majors at Baylor. Wonderful music! The bride and groom thanking all for coming and the beautiful (and very good) buffet provided by the grooms family.

Some of the guests and table settings. It was a really nice ceremony and reception. The toddlers there had a ball running and dancing cute to watch but the pictures were bad because they moved too fast.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures.

I guess you all can tell I forgot which pics I put in............double your pleasure.

wedding part 2

2007-09-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

One of the pictures that isn't showing right now is of Shelby and the ring bearer. Annalise with her dad Scott, she is wearing patent leather shoes and tights. She used the shoes as a teether.....lol

She has teeth which you can see if you catch the fantastic smile.

You can see the ring bearer using the pillow for his head, Mikey caused quite a few chuckle from the audience. Parents, Jennifer,the maid of honor and Michael the pastor were horrified..........

The pictures are refusing to come up so guess I will have a Part 3 later. Sorry bout that

Congrats to Jennifer and new hubby Joey!

2007-09-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

The cake table. Beautiful and delicious. Made by the Matron of Honor's father.

Third time just has to be the charm! My internet keeps going off just as I finish my blog, so I am going to make this in 2 parts. Our beautiful granddaughter and Joey tied the knot last night. The wedding was wonderful. We all wish them well and love forever. I was going to label the pics but since I am doing this in 2 parts.........hmm Top left is the special ceremony where Joey gives his new stepdaughter a ring to show his love. Shelby is just 18 mo. old but I know he will do his best for her. The other pics are self explanitory.

LOVE!

2007-09-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

At 2:30AM we were blessed with a new great grandbaby. Lillian Mae (May) Karl. 6#9oz. 19 in long. And of course absolutly beautiful. She looks so much like her big sister. The light was strange so I got too much of a glare, however I believe you can see how adorable she is. You can also see just how proud Mom and Dad are. Taryn looks just wonderful. Bubba (Gary) was exhausted, he had worked 14 hours the day before and then Lily decided it was time to join in the fun. The lady in pink is Bubba's mother.

They had kept Hannah home and she was so bored, poor baby.

What a weekend!

2007-09-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

AsIhave mentioned before, our daughter and her husband are in the landscape bus. She isn't as active as before, mostly designing, but her husband does work at it every day, some times every weekend. Our son, just purchased a new home w/out any grass. So, he asked Sarah and Cipriano to put a new one ( grass) in for him. So they came down Friday night just to do the job. Everyone went over to check it out, and decided that a tiller wasn't needed. Cipriano, with a little help from hubby, Sarah and Carol helped. Hmmmmmmmmm....Cipriano worked rings around them. He was so fast and good, he was yards ahead of all of them. The grass was supposed to be delivered around 11AM, but of course it wasn't, no fault of the company so all the prep work was done before the grass came. Carol wanted to surprise Becky with a flower bed, so Sarah drew the lines. Then the planting began. 6 pallets were delivered. I believe it was finished just before 7 PM. I was at home most of the time cooking a BBQ. Brisket, sausage, potato salad, and beans.

The flower bed was put in on Sunday, with some of the plants from our yard plus 2 Junipers and a few flowers he already had. Now they have the chore of keeping it watered. Of course just a tiny chance of rain is in the forecast.

Of course the pictures are out of order, but I think you can figure out which one is the 1st step and the end.

2007-09-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

This last week, we were sitting outside and I noticed a yellow vegetation growing out of the Taro plant. I thought, at 1st glance that it was a dead leaf coming up. When I went to get a closer look I saw that it was a bloom! I took 2 days worth of pictures and watched it open. It didn't open further so these were the only shots I got.

We have had these plants in our ponds for years and I have never seen a bloom! I am not sure if it is common or not, but we feel blessed. For one thing the leaves are huge, and now the bloom. It is an invasive plant. It sends out runners, which plant themselves all over. We just clip them out usually, but miss a few too. They need the moisture so if they land outside a pond they don't survive very long. The small pond is a favorite and we definatly take them out of it.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Let me know if blooms are usual.

Best News

2007-09-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

The best news is that this house in now paid for! We made the last payment Monday. We haven't gotten the mortgage papers as yet, but I had to brag. I took a long time, but the payments were so low that we never even tried to pay off early. Plus, after the interest rates were nearly paid off, our former mortgage owner decided that we should now get a new mortgage. This former owner was the Gov't. and it was in our contract that when we were able financially able we had to re-finance. I guessed we had no choice so we did. At a ridiculous cost. We watched this house being built. And we had to get a new survey too even tho we were the original owner. Interesting but very worth while. It has held up very well. I am still very proud of this house. It was our first home.

Getting old fashioned

2007-09-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

I finally got my wish. I missed my clothes line. We took our old one down over 15 years ago. We(I) decided I didn't want to mess with it any more. I was workin full time and hanging out clothes was too much to do. The dryer did a better job too. However, I missed the smell of clothes that were dried out doors. So, when Wal Mart reduced the price of an umbrella clothes line last week, I bought it. Hubby dug the hole and filled with stones and cement yesterday. He can mow over it or put it away when we have a party. This morning I hung the 1st load of clothes on it. I won't be hanging everything but towels, jeans, rugs and sheets will be perfect. I can't let the dryer be alone...........lol

Awesome concert!

2007-09-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

Last night I was treated by my son and his wife to one of the best concerts. Carol and Becky even drove. Hubby decided to stay home and listen to the football games. He missed a great one!!! Our grandson belongs to the Baylor Jazz ensamble and they did a fund raising performance. It featured all the old 'big band' hits of the 30's and 40's. The students transcribed the original hits and played them exactly as performed by the original bands. Justin had 2 solo's and he just amazes me with his talent. He did one with the alto sax and one with the clarinet. All songs were familiar to 90 % of the audience, which was sold out. The last song was "Sing, Sing Sing with 2 professors playing the Gene Krupa style drums. Another professor did the clarinet solo. It was the long version and stunning. For the encore, they did "In the Mood".
After the concert and the refreshments, we got to see Justins apt. Very nice digs.
We got home just after 11PM. A very worthwhile time spent. (I did try taking a pic. but it was too dark.)

Last weekend we spent helping Carol move. We started Thursday mid day and finished up on Saturday with clean up. They are now in their new home surrounded by hundreds of boxes and weeks of work to empty and put away everything but it will be worth the effort.

The rest of the time has been spent with everyday chores and TV...............

Our team did beat last night!!! We could have a winning year this year after 3 long losing seasons. We even gave up our season tickets. However, we can get in free to any of the home games on our "Big Red Cards" (for senior citizens) so we can go when ever we choose.

The picture I thought wouldn't come out, did, at least better than I thought so will post it. Justin, our grandson is the seconed from the left, front row.

New spot to plant!

2007-08-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

In spite of the heat, we have carved a new flower bed. Actually, hubby did! And we just extended one. We have such deep shade that the grass wasnt growing, so we moved the old edge out a few feet. We aren't finished yet but it sure does look nice. We even bought ourselves a fountain to put there. Today we started it and it is very pretty. We are going to finish it by putting rocks around the base of the fountain and ferns and probably impaitience in the spring. Too late to plant now.

We will move the lirope to behind the rocks as with the others. Then mulch. All projects for the spring. A gardner's work is never ending.

Good news

2007-08-14T19:48:00.001-07:00

Today was Doctor day, and we actually had some good news. The catscan last week showed that the lymph nodes have shrunk dramatically! This Doctor explained much more that previous visits. All the Doctors have been great, but not as forth coming with explanations. She explained that he had massive lymph nodes that were near his stomach and behind his chest, plus his spleen was enlarged. They are disappearing. They will continue with chemo and rituxin for at least 4 more treatments, scheduling them about 3-4 weeks apart. Then we will go from there. At least the treatments are showing results!!! So we are very happy with the news.
He also had an appt. with the foot dr. today. Since he is diabetic the keep a close watch on his feet and the circulation in his legs. Everything is good there.

This last week we have been in very hot weather, having to water finally. The lake is still flooded so no fishing yet. They have been letting water out of the dam 24-7 but its still 35' over normal readings. Only one lake here is open. And its a lake we don't go too. Fall fishing is just around the corner. I hope that we can get in a few days.

Our Grandson stopped by to show off his new car. He is 21 and a student at Baylor but was able to buy the car on his own credit! It's a Nissan Centra, fully loaded. It's 2 weeks old with less than 2000 miles on it. We are proud of him. He works 4 jobs, has been taking summer classes, and doing very well w/them.
Our Granddaughter has worked through her problem with her health and is working again. It hasn't been easy but she is doing well also.
Son's house was sold at last and they will close on it the 23rd. They will close on the new house the 28th. Fourth time was the charm!

Catching up!

2007-08-10T16:29:00.001-07:00

I put this blog off and now I have to try to remember all that happened. I won't do that again! The 24th we drove to visit Sarah and Cipriano. It was Cipriano's birthday a few days before. We went to Trader's Village, a very large flea market. It was nice, but way too hot. I did buy 8 new drawing paper tablets and 2 not so good ones for $5. Wonderful find. Several were water color pads. Most of these pads sell for 6-8 each so I did get a bargain. After that purchase, the heat started to get to us! It's located next to an airport and little or no shade. They took us to a nice Mexican restraunt and had some great fajitas. After we went back to their apt. and got ready to make the drive back.
Our eldest turned 50, and we finally got to celebrate last Sunday. Justin, our grandson, played in the orchestra for our local theater production of "The Music Man". I went along with Carol and Becky. Hubby stayed home but he sure did miss a great production. After, we joined with hubby at Dynasty, a super Chinese food buffet. The food was soooo good! I know we all ate too much. After, C & B went to visit with Jessica and family then came back here for coffee. A wonderful day all in all. We have been working trying to catch up with the garden before it takes over. I like a english garden effect but not with weeds............lol. Hubby had an appointment and didn't have treatment this time. The 8th he got a catscan. Next week we will find out what happens next. Hopefully he won't have any more chemo for awhile.
Our eldest granddaughter's birthday is today, but we went a day early to wish her the best. We took a big bunch of beads to Hannah and she was having a ball with them. It was nice to visit with both. Taryns husband was at work. I found out that his b'day is tomorrow. Too bad I found out so late. I already had to edit this once because I left some things out! I will have to be more diligent in keeping up with the blog!!!

Current news. Our Gr grandbaby has been so sick this last 2 weeks. She is just over 18 mo. and had a UTI along with other problems and they checked her for kidney problems. And she has a condition that allows the urine to go back(reflux) to the kidney. It is not too unusual but can be a large problem if she doesn't grow out of it. They put her on a low grade anti biotic and another type of med to help her. Thank goodness the dr. knew what to look for. So please put her on your prayer list.

Is Texas Drowning??

2007-08-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

Any one who has paid any attention to the weather here in Texas knows that this has been an extremely wet spring/summer. Our local lake is still WAY TOO HIGH. It's still in flood stage, even though they are now letting water out like crazy. We went out and took some pictures. I am not sure but I believe a larger boat would not be able to go under the bridge. There is now one access to the lake to put a boat in. I wouldn't even try. I am convinced that a water logged tree would rip a big hole in it. One can see quite a bit of debris floating.

The picture of the lights above the water and the park sign is where we normally launch the boat.

More of our Annalise

2007-08-04T14:40:00.000-07:00

The last time I talked about our Gr.Granddaughter I was bragging about her smile, and proceeded to post pictures with out any. LOL But this time I caught all the wonderful smiles she hands out. Two different days. What a sweetie pie!

To the Birthday boy!

2007-07-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

Fifty years ago, you brought such joy to us. A very sweet, loveable baby was born. Perhaps it was hard on you because we experimented. Both of your parents had no idea how to raise a child, so we just prayed, and lo and behold God granted us our prayers. Good looks. We aced that one. We think you were and are an extremely handsome. Talent. God doubled our wishes. From the beginning when you first started drawing your tiny figures were so easily defined. I wish we could have saved some of your drawings. You never failed to amaze us with your artistic talents. And, to put icing on our cake, God granted you the music talent. To hear you play your trumpet, then the guitar has blessed everyone that hears you. You have the most amazing voice which you have used to glorify God's word.

Good nature. A sweet young man, who, while not a mean person, has always stood up for what is right. A weird sense of humor has always made us laugh.

Good sense. God blessed you with a wonderful wife. And you had the sense to make sure she was yours. Good sense with your children. You raised them right.

We asked God to watch over you and he has. You are our blessing! Happy Birthday to our baby boy ( your stuck with us and we could not be prouder)

Super smiles.

2007-07-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

We are so blessed. Our granddaughter, Jessica and her husband Scott along with the sweetest gr. granddaughter often go for evening walks. Blessed because our house in near and on their way. They often stop by for a visit. Annalise is the gr. granddaughters name. She is the one who smiles with her whole body. She coo's, and laughs and makes faces and brightens our lives. Often, they have to wake her from a nap in the cool evening strolls. She wakes up with a smile! We seldom see her fussy except when she is hungry or super tired. It's so much fun watching her grow. She is as sweet as any one could want. Parents aren't big TV watchers so she love ours........lol All the lights and sounds. We have to keep trouble(our dog) penned up because he doesn't know what to do with any baby. I believe when they are a little bigger we should be able to let him out more, with a lot of close watching.

am looking forward to seeing her crawl. She is creeping now but its a slow process. She isn't in any hurry. Check out our granddaughters blog: momtobe@blogspot.com

She and hubby are great picture takers and she is so good at sending us VERY Cute pictures. I need to find or make an album just for the picts. Loving is having a cuddly, smiling baby in your lap...................

A Grand visit from my Gr. grand.

2007-07-05T16:29:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, my daughter in law and granddaughter (with Shelby the ggdaughter) A very nice visit. Shelby was all decked out for the 4th. She had been to the parade with her dad. She was so busy cleaning off my coffee table. Then she decided she wanted everything her way and threw a sweet temper tantrum. I took the pictures of it so I can blackmail her later..........lol

I am so glad the messy floor doesn't show.

A touch of update

2007-07-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

I know other bloggers are wishing I would get off the subject of hubby's health. I wish I could too.
Today he went in and took yet another blood lab. The Dr. noted that his white cell count is again way too low. Gave him a prescription for an antibiotic to take for the nexts 7 days. And a series of injections to hopefully raise the white count up. He had one today, one tomorrow and one Mon, Tuesday he goes for another lab and meets with the Dr. again. They will decide what to do from there. Never can tell. All other labs were fine. Actually he still feels fine. I am the one wearing out............lol

Happy 4th of July

2007-07-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

Actually I am a little depressed today. I just hate not having family and friends over for our BBQ. I know we did the right thing by not having it. Our yard is so wet, we would have had a mud bath when it was over. No rain so far, we drove through a little when we went sightseeing to the lake but none here. We did go to the parade, which was nice and to the concessions set up in the park. The crowd seemed to be as big as ever.
Later we went to eat some fried chicken and out to the lake. It's 28' high. Neary to the spillway. All the lakes are WAY above the normal levels. Only one boat ramp on the whole lake is open. There were quite a few boats on the lake today, I suspect they were from the marina boat slips.
Several friends and families called too. I think we are all having withdrawls from lack of a picnic..........lol
I read Shanna's blog about the bbq and nearly cried..............
I figure we will have to have a similar picnic later this year. Maybe that will make me feel better.

2007-07-01T10:49:00.000-07:00

I wrote the family all the updates but will let you know also.
Hubby went to the Dr. Wednesday and they decided it was best if he finished the complete regimine of his chemo before he has his catscan. So, the did a job on him. One dose of rituxin at 3 hours per dose, then 2 seperate doses of the chemo. nearly 6 hours of treatments. Other than being a pain for him it was a total loss of a day for me. I can be with him while he has treatments but have to leave while they add the chemo for any one in the room. So while the door is closed I have to be out. Not bad since I smoke and have to go outside, but the walking and waiting is a real bother. Also, they feed him lunch, I have to go to the cafeteria. He has a very comfortable chair, TV and nice conversation. I guess I complain too much but I was a very long day for me. He had a shorter dose for the next 2 days so I stayed home. Saturday we went to to my daughters friends wedding. The last of their crowd. She looked so beautiful. The complete traditional gown with a train and beaded veil. Sarah and Cipriano drove from Arlington where she works and we met them in Waco for dinner before the wedding.
Justin, our grandson and his friend came by Friday night. They were playing for a wedding in Salado.
I am celebrating 2 days rain free!!!! About time.... We aren't through with the rain yet but at least a break for now.
For the 1st time in over 10 years we cancelled our famous 4th of July BBQ. With 40-50% chance of rain, the chemo treatment, and Hubby having to go back the 5th for more, we decided not to try. We will have to have a big one this fall. Grandson and neighbors were upset.........I guess they will have to get over it.

Goodie bags,

2007-06-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

We took the baby items over to Taryns house today, the pictures show Hannah going through the bags, she was so excited to see them, Taryn and Hanna together. I hope you can see how wonderful Taryn looks. We brought some pictures for her wall too, she was excited about them too, The beer sign will be gone she said, I didn't care about that.................

Bubba was there and all 3 of them are looking very well. I think Bubba was a little uneasy around us but he is trying very hard, we could see that, and, since he obviously love's Taryn and Hanna and it's being returned, we pray for them.
I have to edit this blog......... Hubby said he didn't think Bubba was nervous at all. As I think about it, he is probably right. We have alway gotten along with him, the nerves were probably him trying to keep me happy about the dog. I love dogs but they have a pit bull that isn't sure if I belong.......she seem friendly enough and beautiful brindle markings but I have to pass by her way to close.....................a little chicken blood in me. Bubba stood between us and helped hubby carry in the goodies. I may have made Bubba look bad and it wasn't my intention at all.

Oh well,

2007-06-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

We tried again with the garage sale and it was a huge bust. I think everyone in this county must have tried to sell all their worldly goods. Hundreds of sales, and of course there weren't any near us and we had little visitors. I think my DIL said we made about .05 an hour..................lol
Our area is usually a good area to have a sale but certainly not yesterday. Of course we weren't counting on getting rich, however it would have been nice to make some. The weather was ok for the most part, at least we didn't bake. We did have a very brief bit of rain but it stopped quickly, by then we had called the Salvation Army to please come and haul it off. And they did, in a way it made me feel better because they had told me to have it ready and they would pick it up about 2:30 and they didn't make it until a little before 4. The driver had told me they had a "garage sale" to pick up and it took 3 loads, the whole house full of furniture and all to take care of. Furniture usually sells very quickly, theirs hadn't, so I felt much better that others had had just as much problems with a sale as we did. My craft sale items we kept to take to the store where I put my items at. They have a sidewalk sale twice a year and use the money to supplement expenses. So my items will help boost the budget for them and make my "stuff "useful. The granddaughters donated the baby items gladly to our other granddaughter for her baby to be. No one kept any of the "clean sweep" goodies back. I was proud of all of them, and myself. Its nice to have areas that are no longer packed up with ' junk'.

Wishing for luck.........

2007-06-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

I think we are going to get lucky for once. Saturday looks like it will be perfect for our garage sale. We spent the morning moving most of the stuff in the garage around and emptying the craft room. It actually echo's in here...............Saturday our son and his wife will come and help set the sale up. There are some great stuff to sell and 95% will go on huge discount from previous sale. I will have to fashion an eye catching ad

Wonderful housefull at Father's Day

2007-06-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Father's Day, started slowly. I fixed an old fashioned breakfast for hubby, Then cleaned house a little. Carol, our son, called and offered to bring lunch, Bush's fried chicken, yum which we accepted readily. They came, with our walking gr. granddaughter who is a wonderful charmer. Just after we ate, Jessica came with her husband and our other gr. granddaughter, who isn't walking yet, but she acts like she could............lol 1st is 18 mo. 2nd is just over 5 mos. Annalise is one who smiles with her whole body. Pictures show gr. grandpa and Annalise, then with a little jealous Shelby so he wound up with both. One on the couch is Carol and Becky, getting love from Shelby and one with C&B with Jessica and Scott with Shelby.

All in all it was a great day to enjoy all the family, too bad the rest couldn't make it and too bad it was raining.

Being a DAD

2007-06-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the Dads in the family, Carol, Tim, Scott.

I wanted to let everyone know what a great bunch of Dads we were blessed with. Starting with my love. He is a wonderful father. He is not a lovey dovey type of man, but the pride he has in his kids shines thru. He is an old fashioned type of guy, no babysitting or taking care of the youngones. He changed a diaper once, because I told everyone he couldn't..........lol
His idea of being a father was to provide, to be there and to let everyone he knew just how much he loved em and how proud he was of them..........not necessarily to them.... He figured they knew. And he wound up being the proud Dad of sons who are GREAT Dads.
Our eldest son is a Dad to 3 kids. He is the one who taught them how important it was to be church going, belonging to sports, dance, music. And is also being a super Grandpa.
2nd son is the Dad to 3 girls. He didn't do as much with the first 2, oh, he paid child support but contact wasn't what he did well. ( I know he will read this, and he knows it's the truth) The eldest were what was left over from a divorce and I guess he gave up. The youngest daughter was blessed with full contact and he did very well with her.
3rd son(who never really wanted kids) married a woman with 2 little girls, and he officially adopted them and became an out standing dad. So we certainly are blessed with all the most wonderful DADS. I didnt even mention the granddaughters husbands who have became Dads too. Some have failed while others need a small halo.
I am so impressed with our men who are Fathers. I hope that everyone will know how much I love them all

Fiasco

2007-06-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

I NEVER thought I would ever say in June, in Texas, please no more rain for awhile. Friday, we got up early and set up for our garage sale. Our son Tim came and helped us, which we needed, 9 tables! all stacked deep. We had fairly brisk sales for awhile, then the clouds got heavy, the wind picked up and we started to put every thing back. One of our neighbors came over and help hubby pick up the tables, with everything on them, and put them in the garage. We had a canopy with 3 tables in it but the wind got up! We barely got it down before the rain hit. This was just before 11AM. Needless to say the garage sale was officially over. It took 8 trips to the house just to take the clothes in....
Other neighbors helped take in furniture that rain wouldn't hurt, to the house. It took nearly an hour to put things away.
So, we talked to all the family and decided to have a bargain sale the next day, Saturday morning, Carol and Becky said they would come over to help us- I set the alarm clock and dragged my self to bed early. I wasted my time because early in the morning, lightning, thunder and more rain hit hard. Becky called and asked if we were still planning to have the sale just before my alarm went off, I heard the rain and told her, no way.
To make a story short, we didn't have to get up early, and the whole garage sale turned into a fiasco.
If the rain holds out we are going to try again next Saturday. It's a 30%chance of rain then, maybe it will NOT rain, we sure hope not. Strange weather!!!! We all agree that we will give nice discounts on all the remaining stuff. Sad thing is, other than clothes and baby stuff, we didn't even get to get all of Carol and his families stuff put out.

Some charity may wind up with some great things......................

Garage sale

2007-06-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

Our garage sale is starting to come together. Good grief!! I didn't realize just how much craft stuff that we had to sell. We got the garage, the attic and the one shed cleaned out and loaded into the garage. I had quite a few boxes/ containers that had to be sorted. Hubby arranged all the books in half boxes to sell. Usually we have had part of the garage in use, but this time we will have over 10 tables to use so we will keep the garage closed. If any one in central texas would be interested in good craft stuff, let me know. Most of the items are wood, with a few odds and ends thrown in. 90% is good quality stuff. I still haven't gone thru the kitchen but some may have to wait until the last minute. It's HOT! The garage is a one car job and just hold the heat. It will be morning or late evening working hours..................... The craft room still waits to be moved out, probably Thurs. I will try to remember to take pictures of all of it, good bad and ugly................

Happy shopping!

2007-06-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

We had an excellent Saturday! We left just before 7AM and drove to Ft. Worth. Adam met us with a cup of good coffee. We chatted for a while and walked up the street to a garage sale. They had hundreds of books...............my downfall, lol. But I bought just 2 at .50 ea. A Georgia Bonesteel Quilting book. I don't yet quilt but I so want too. And a cook book which I can never resist. Then we went to Central Market, it's a gourmet food store. I absolutely LOVE it. It
is rather expensive but worth going too. I am glad that the nearest store is 60 miles from here. The best thing about it for me is the bulk spices. They have spices that are rare or unheard of. It's ideal for those recipes that call for just a teaspoon full. You can buy just what you need very cheaply. Coffee and tea is also bulk. I have to keep telling myself to behave...........lol
They also have the BEST raisin/cinnamon bread ever. We got 3 loaves, 2 for us and one for Sarah.
Adam drove us to Sarah's place ( we hate city traffic) and Sarah and Cipriano drove us to Dallas to the Farmers Market. I fully intended to take pictures this time but of course I didn't. It was very crowded and HOT. We walked thru the plants and flowers then headed to the vegetable and fruit section. All the booths were full. We got a 'cup of corn' the name in Spanish is eloytes which I am sure am misspelling. It is hot steamed corn, dished into a cup, then added to is is mayonnaise, ranch cheese, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese. You stir it up, and enjoy. The adventurous ones add hot sauce. It is meal in itself.
We strolled thru the barns and got samples of many of the fruits and vegies. Cantaloupe and watermelon, pineapple, tomatoes and cucumbers plus strawberries all of which tempted us too much.................
We bought fresh onions, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe and enjoyed ourselves so much.
We went back to the nursery and Cipriano and Sarah bought us a beautiful hibiscus and a flat of caladiums. We didn't even have lunch, it was too hot and we were full of cup of corn and samples.

Sarah got us back home safe and sound and we went up to her apt. to get our purchases from Central Market and the gifts she had given us........ 2 DVD's of Justins recital, she plans to make more for the rest of the family but her machine is slow and she didn't get the rest done. An emergency radio that you can wind up and use when the lights go out. Hubby got a coffee cup too. We headed back to Adams for a potty break and left for home just before 4PM. It was a long but wonderful day. Of course I slept all the way to Waco where we stopped at a Sears store. They had a one day sale of items that we wanted. Of course they were sold out of one of them and substituted for another. They had a set of solar lights for the garden and they sold very fast, but I did get a rain check for it. They had a 75' garden hose but we took the substitute on that one. $15 off their "lifetime" garden hose. A very good deal.
On to home finally and we were so glad to be there. Trouble was happy too, he had to go out! and be fed. Poor baby. We have to thank the kids for making it so nice for us.

Medical update! A good one.........

2007-06-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

Hi all, I have tried to not let the medical problems dominate this blog, but I had to share a little good news.
The Dr. saw hubby Wed. and said all the blood counts were getting much better and couldn't find the swollen lymph nodes at all. So, after one more rituxin treatment, that day, the Dr. is going to give him a break. He won't go back till the 27th of June. And depending on the labs, may wait until after the cat scan in Aug. So we have a little breathing space.
We are actually going to have our garage sale next week end, depending on the weather.
Saturday we are going to go to DFW to see Adam and Sarah and do a little shopping.
Then Sun. we will mow the grass, and take the boat out of the garage and start unloading the sheds and the bedrooms. Full out big job!! But if all goes well, we may make a little pocket change as well.

It's a weaher event again

2007-06-04T16:11:00.001-07:00

Oh, I do love Texas weather. Yesterday afternoon, we were sitting out side enjoying the sun. Out of nowhere we heard clap of thunder, a strong one. We had a few clouds about and off in the distance you could notice the dark ones, but not near us.

We went in the house, me on computer(where else) hubby watching westerns (again, where else). Listening to the radio, they anounced that N. Bell county was under a T. Storm warning. Not near us at all, moving east said the radio. Thunder again and closer that it should have been, so I began to shut down the computer. If yours is like mine, it takes it's sweet time. Hubby called out that it was raining, HARD. He rushed out to roll the window up on the truck, my puter finally shut down, I unplugged and rushed out to get the patio seats. They were already wet but not soaked. Then the Hail hit!!! quarter to 50 cent size. Really coming hard, bouncing off the house, the truck and everything else. I tried to get a picture out the front door but mostly the flash caught the hail. Then, ready to take another and a flash of nearby lightning flash and I missed another chance to get a pic. I wasn't going to even think about trying for another. The hail lasted another 5-10 min. then began to rain. We got less than an inch this time but the lightning kept up till nearly midnight. Our dish for our tv went out twice, but came back fairly quickly. The rain had slowed down, so we just veg'ed out.
Today we went to check for damage and fortunatly none was noted except for leaves from the tree that had been knocked off by the hail.

One of my fav.celebreties.

2007-06-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

The PX at Ft. Hood has quite a few "Big Names" either signing books or making public appearances. I like to get their autograph's I've gotten a bunch! The last one is Brian Kilmeade one of the stars of Fox & Friends. He is the sports guy and had his new book. Hubby even got in the picture, he admires him too. Funny and certainly nice, it was a pleasure meeting him. I can't read what he wrote, nor figure out what his signature says, but thats OK.

George Forman will be here this month too, several authors, but none that I read. I am quite a reader so I like getting them autographed.