TA-DA!!!!

Admit it, this is THE coolest flower you've ever seen! It's certainly the only one I've ever had that took five years to bloom. I'm not very patient with plants. If they don't do well, I pull 'em up and replant them or throw them away. I had a bougenvilla plant that I just knew was dead two summers ago.
(notice the chewed on pot? thanks, Bailey) I thought it had a disease...all the leaves fell off, the bark turned white and it was just nasty looking. So I was going to throw it away. When I went to dig it out of the pot, fire ants came crawling out of it. I dropped it and ran so I wouldn't get stung. Dewayne asked me what the deal was with the plant and I told him it was dead AND had fire ants in it. He put it behind the garage, where things go to die at our house, and I forgot about it. Then last spring I went back to get the pot, hoping the ants have moved on, and the plant had started sprouting new growth! It bloomed and was beautiful and found it's way back to the patio. Anyway, back to the Bird of Paradise. Yesterday Jordan had friends over to swim and I panicked...."what if they hurt my plant? It's finally blooming, It's beautiful, I WROTE A BLOG ABOUT IT!!! So I gathered other pots and surrounded it to protect it from those wild boys playing volleyball

And I warned Jordan to NOT let the ball go near the plant. It didn't and I took the first picture early this morning.

Yes, I'm a little obsessed with this plant. But not as much as Bailey is with the squirrel. I took these pics of her yesterday in various spots, but always looking for it

But the squirrel isn't there....it's in the front yard. I got within five feet to take this pic

It reluctantly started up the tree looking a little annoyed that I was bothering it during snack time

Before finally getting out of the crazy lady's way

I'm really glad none of my neighbor's came out while I was standing in the front yard taking pictures of the squirrel. If they only knew what goes on in the backyard.....

Watching Bailey search for the squirrel made me think about searching for God. Am I constantly searching for God? Do I look for the little things He's blessed me with daily? Do I give up when the going gets rough? Or worse, try to handle it myself? I need to work on that.

When I wrote the original blog last month, Clint and his girlfriend had just broken up. We were heart sick for and with him. We've grown a lot the last several weeks. Life goes on. He's doing pretty well, the best I can tell (he doesn't live here). He's finished one class, started a job at the bookstore (woo hoo, discount on textbooks!! Thank you God), and to my knowledge, hasn't had anymore contact with her. I still pray daily for him to let God use him however He wants and for Clint to renew and make new Godly relationships. I think the Bird of Paradise is a symbol for us of the beauty God has given us in that He forgives us when we mess up and His mercies are new every day.

For that, I am thankful.

YIKES! I've been tagged.....

FOURS

4 jobs I've had

Soda jerk at the Rexall Drug (THE coolest place a teenager could work)
Item Processor at Liberty National Bank, Oklahoma City
Accounts Receivable/Payroll Clerk at First Bankers Trust Midland, TX
Hallmark Cards Territory Assistant, Oklahoma City and Houston

4 movies I can watch over and over

The Lion King
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The Fugitive (do you see a pattern here?)


4 places I've lived (what, only 4???)

Oklahoma City - twice
Owasso, OK - twice
Bakersfield, CA -twice
Midland, TX (only once, thank goodness)

4 TV shows I love

Grey's Anatomy
The Biggest Loser
Dancing With The Stars (but the last one was boring)
The Amazing Race


4 sites I visit everyday

4 Okies gone east
Lovemyraysons
My Life - this IS the big adventure
The LPM blog (Beth Moore, you must read it, it's hilarious)


4 places I've vacationed

The Bahamas
Yosemite National Park
San Francisco, CA
St. John, Virgin Islands

4 places I would rather be right now

Oklahoma City
Lake Eufaula (or any lake for that matter)
St. John, VI
Oklahoma City

4 peeps I tagged

hmmmm, that's kinda hard since only 4 peeps read my blog
Al's World

It's getting closer

To blooming!!

Just a quick flower update. It's taking it's sweet time but the Bird of Paradise is getting closer to opening up! Probably about the time we go on vacation in August, it will be in full bloom.

I'm sure you were all wondering about it.

Welcome to my blogspot blog spot

Okay Linda, you asked for it and here it is. My spot where I spend way, way too much time. But I figure if I wasn't sitting here, I'd be watching TV or reading a book or taking a nap....might as well look productive.

I made one of those signatures you talked about last week. Let's see if it looks okay.

FINALLY!! the day I've waited for!

So far I have four readers of my blog. All four of you know how hard it was for me to move to hOUston (I like to spell it that way). You also know it's been 5 and a half years since I left my church, family, friends, job and choir. The road to finding a church home was very bumpy. We've been going to The Met for three years and I've been in choir there 18 months. I've made several friends and don't feel "alone in a big room" there anymore. We're doing a big push for new choir members and last night THREE of my "new" friends came! I didn't know they were coming and by the time I jumped out of my chair to hug them at the door, I realized how thankful and happy I was at that moment. For the first time, I felt like I BELONGED there! I can't tell you how happy I was. I was probably glowing all evening long and our leader probably wondered why I was all smiley (wait, he's from Oklahoma too and understands me). So, thank you for praying for me and listening to me whine. Reminds me of that old verse my Mom would say: Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold. Y'all are my gold friends.

Still waiting for the plant to bloom. I go out and look at it everyday.

How my son is like this plant

Ya'll know it doesn't take much to amuse me. But I'm really excited about this plant! I planted this Bird of Paradise in spring 2003. The first summer, it had three leaves on it. It's grown and spread but hasn't bloomed. I've pulled the weeds from around it, watered it, read books about it, kept the crazy bush next to it trimmed so it will get sun. I've even thought about moving it to a sunnier place. But it hasn't done anything but grow larger. I looked at it yesterday, and by golly, the thing is about to bloom! I couldn't believe it. This plant reminds me of my son, Clint. Ya'll know what's been going on in his life lately and I feel like he's about to bloom. I've watered him (baptized him), read books about him (Dobson & Leman), tried to keep the weeds from growing (I don't think the weeds were my fault), and even moved him into an apt. with different roommates. But now, after the heartbreak and hitting bottom, he's about to bloom! I can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. I couldn't be prouder of him.

I don't know how long it will take for this flower to open up, but I'll post it when it does. I wish I could say I planned for Bailey to be looking at the plant, but she was really looking for her obsession....mr. squirrel.

Oregon's not so far away...

She's down to five lives

I named this blog "Thoughts from the cat" because I like the picture of the cat better than any pictures of myself. Silly, I know. We adopted Minnie from the Oklahoma City animal shelter in 1999. She was a scrawny little thing and Dewayne even asked me why we didn't get a kitten that looked like she'd live through the night? I actually prayed for her the first night we had her because I was afraid she was about to die. She's had a few mishaps: caught her tail on fire when she was walking around the kitchen counter. I was on the phone and looked up in time to see her tail on fire from a candle! I threw her into the kitchen sink and squirted her tail to get the fire out. She didn't like it much, but it was better than the alternative! Then once she got her front paw closed in the door and let out a scream like I'd never heard. After we moved here, she jumped from the upstairs landing down to the front door. She's never done anything like that again until today. I heard this "thud" and went to see what it was. I couldn't see her anywhere, but her collar was on the staircase. She came meowing up to me and when I turned around, she ran up the stairs like lightning! Then she jumped over the rail and ended up on the shelf at the top of the stairs (picture). Then I saw what was up...she was chasing reflections on the wall from passing cars. Silly kitty. I guess in her excitement, she fell off onto the stairway below her. She mostly sleeps all day so this bit of activity was unusual. The picture of her in the window shows where she sleeps 23 hours a day. Here she's looking at a baby lizard on top of the blue thing in the flower bed. I don't think you can see it (another post maybe?)