TEXAS THANGS

We've lived in Houston a little over six years now. Something I've discovered about Texans is that they take their bluebonnets (flowers, not hats)very seriously. Every year about this time, you start seeing stories in the newspaper, on the news, etc. about where to go to look at them. We took a short drive last year, but it wasn't a good year and frankly, I wasn't impressed....until this year. Hubby and I took a little drive Saturday. Here's what we saw

Aren't they pretty? We also saw families with their kids dressed up in Easter type clothes. I told D. if my boys were little, they'd be right out there posing too. This was about an hour away from our house.

My mother in law put together photo albums for her three kids. They are pics from her personal collection and she had enough to divide the originals between the three of them. D. saw something on our drive that made him want to look at the albums when we got home. J. is amused at the old photos and I couldn't resist taking a pic of my own, for my online album, of course.

Bailey, the squirrel killer, guards them lol.

Happy Monday everyone.

POST 100

Woo Hoo! Should we have a party? This is my 100th post. It's not even a real post. I just stopped in to tell you my precious Bailey FINALLY CAUGHT THE SQUIRREL!!!

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't see it happen. Just went outside Friday and could see she had something. Yep, her friend she's "played" with for years....well, she'll have to find a new friend now.

Makes me not want to let her give me kisses anymore.

I NEED TO CATCH MY BREATH

Whew, what a week! Between our anniversary, Clint's birthday week (why did he get a whole week?) and my girlfriend and her daughter coming for a visit, I feel like I need a week to rest.

My friend, Pam and her daughter Natalie came for a visit. Pam was one of my best friends when we lived in Owasso in the 90's. We recently reconnected thru facebook and have spent many hours catching up. We drove down to Galveston and I was pleasantly surprised at how the beaches looked. The Strand, which is the oldest part of Galveston and a major tourist attraction is slowly recovering from Hurricane Ike. Many stores are still closed but there are definately signs of life now. Here's a pic of us at the beach

I promised her I wouldn't put it on facebook, but didn't say anything about not putting on my blog :)

I thought this was a pretty shot

Remember in January when Clint gave Jordan the little girl card and gift bag for his birthday? Well, it continued with Clint's birthday too. We do some really stange stuff around here at birthdays. We relight the candles and have the person blow them out twice. We sing Happy Birthday TERRIBLE!!! I mean, the more awful it sounds, the better it is. We've made babies cry before. Do you do anything odd for birthdays?

Oh I almost forgot. We went to the Houston Rodeo Saturday. We were given free tickets to see Brooks and Dunn in concert after the rodeo. Jordan went three times....he's into country music right now. I only knew a three or four of their old songs.

Aren't they cute?

There were a few people thereAnd finally, how would you like to meet up with this Easter Bunny? He was HUGE!!

Happy Tuesday everyone

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLINT!

Today is my son's 21st birthday.

I'm typing quickly because he's leaving in about an hour to spend the afternoon with his girl before heading back to college tonight.

He's pretty much grown now. I hoped I've instilled in him values and beliefs that will allow him to be a Godly man, husband and father someday. He's been a blessing to me since the day he was born.

Here he is in 1993 at 5 years old

And here he is as a high school senior

And just this week skydiving

Happy birthday Son. May your year be blessed and the best one ever.

I love you!

Mom

LOOK WHAT CLINT DID!

Clint's gal, Hillary took him skydiving for his birthday. Their friend's Paul and Allison jumped too. He's been talking about wanting to do this for a long time. He'll be 21 Saturday and we realized he was going to do this with or without our approval. At least this way, I could be there praying while it was happening. Paul's mom was a basket case....Clint's mom was a little more calm. It was fun watching Clint have so much fun. Jordan was mad because I wouldn't give him the okay to do it too. I figure he can wait til he's 21 and we'll go thru it all again.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY 27 TIMES

Today is March 16, 2009. Our 27th wedding anniversary. If anyone would've told me 27 years ago I'd be sitting in my home in Houston, Texas writing a "blog" for anyone in the world to read, I would've laughed at them. I figured I'd still be living in L.A. (not Los Angeles) or maybe Oklahoma City. Instead, as I reflect back, I can see 13 different homes we've lived in! Some of them were temporary. Others were more temporary than we would've like. Our first home was a little rent house out in the country. It was very cute and sat atop of a hill about five minutes out of town...just far enough out but not really out in the boonies. We only lived there five months before hubby went back to college after the oil bust of 1982. That was the last time I ever lived in my hometown. After college, hubby took a job with an oil company and that was the beginning of our moves. I won't list them all, but needless to say, we have friends all over the country. Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with many of them. One of my friends is coming for a visit tomorrow! I'm so excited. I blogged about her back in the fall (it would take me way, way too long to find the link).

In case you're doing the math, yes, I was all of 17 years old when we got married. D. was 20. I cannot even imagine my son, who will be 21 on Saturday, getting married right now. At the time, it just seemed like the thing to do. People usually look at me like I'm nuts when I tell them that.

Maybe I was a little nuts, but it's been a great 27 years and I look forward to the next 27!

IT'S ABOUT TIME!

I feel I need to thank valeriechris.blogspot.com/ for prompting my Oklahoma state tree, the Redbud, to bloom. She posted beautiful pictures a couple of days ago and mentioned the Redbuds blooming. I told her my brother in law had brought us one from his yard years ago and while it had grown into a nice summer tree, it hadn't bloomed yet. Well, take a look at this
Yep, finally has blooms on it! I told her I thought it was pouting about being transplanted to Texas and was refusing to bloom (friends, you know where this post is going). I can relate to this tree! I pouted for about three years and refused to bloom after moving down here. Oh, I tried a little bit, but gave up too easily when I didn't make many friends at first. I'm very thankful God didn't give up on me even though I had given up on him. I was convinced people just weren't friendly here and since my kids were almost grown, I wouldn't have the same opportunities to make friends like I had before; homeroom mom's, school events, soccer and baseball practice, etc. Even my old standby, church choir, didn't go over so well. Turns out, I was in the wrong church choir! I have many friends now, even the dry cleaning lady knows my name. AND, I finally found a hair stylist! Woo Hoo!!! Thank you Lord!

Look who decided it was summertime and went for a swim


Happy Tuesday!

WEDDING WEEKEND NUMBER TWO

I have a list a mile long of things I should be doing right now. BUT, as promised, here are a few pics from Heather & Aaron's wedding. First of all, Heather is the daughter of my best friend in OKC. We've known her since she was in 4th grade. Our families immediately hit if off in 1997 when we moved back to Oklahoma City because of Jordan and Bobby being the same age (Bobby is Heather's little brother). We've watched this girl grow from this

to this (with her sweetie last summer)

She is the first of my friend's little kids to get married. I teared up at the wedding, but not when I saw Heather. Nope, when I saw her MOM lighting her candle! I was afraid I was going to make that awful noise you make when you're trying to be quiet and not cry. I got it together though...no icky noises made.

We saw so many friends there. It was a little overwhelming to me because I haven't seen many of them in the six years we've been away except for a couple of times at church. But, we haven't been back to church since Memorial Day 2005. I saw lots of folks at a funeral in 2007, but that was so sad, it was hard to visit. Soooo, here's a few pics, especially for my out of towners, er out of staters and out of the countryers (I made up that word) Sadly, I didn't get many pics of the bride and groom....it was very dark in the reception (at the Petroleum Club) and I missed the cake cutting (talking in the overflow room). Here's one of Aaron taking off her garter.

I wish you could see the back of her dress. It was beautiful!

This is Clint and Matt N. They were laughing about Clint being taller than Matt because when we moved, Clint was about a foot shorter than him.
Two of my favorite friends... Kristi & Sue. We're posing with the cake. Kristi is Ryan's mom, who is Clint's best friend. We had lived here two weeks when the two of them as well as Charlett (mom of the bride) and Bobby (Jordan's best friend) showed up at my house on my birthday. It was a total surprise and probably the best surprise I've had in my life!!! They were so sneaky. Dewayne was in on it and told me I needed to be home at 10:00 because he was having a surprise delivered. I figured it was a new rose bush...we don't do flowers, but instead, rose bushes. Charlett called me to wish me happy birthday. While I was talking to her, the doorbell rang. When I opened the door, Bobby was standing there with the three of them behind him, Charlett still talking to me on the phone!!! I tear up now just thinking about it. Sue and I became good friends when she worked for me at Hallmark. Her hubby Dave, was in the pic I posted a couple of weeks ago "kissing" Bev's hubby at Falls Creek. Here's a pic of him and Clint. I don't know what they're talking about...

This is my friend, Twyla. She also worked for me at HM. She lost her son in Iraq (the funeral I attended as previously mentioned). I think this lady would give you the shirt off her back if she thought you could use it. I think of her every day.

This crazy guy is Ronnie. Most people call him Ron, but to us, he is Ronnie. He & Dewayne went to college together. He hung out with D's brother, but occasionally showed up at our apartment next door too. We had lost contact with him and were so happy when we stumbled upon each other at church one day 15 years later.

Here's the parents of the bride. Don't they look happy? They are who we're going on the cruise with in June. That's me and my bestie right there. I've shed a few tears lately wishing I could've been there with her as she planned her daughter's wedding. I'm not sure why I look like I don't have any makeup on. Maybe because I'd put on my makeup and fixed my hair at 7:00 AM, driven to OKC from Houston, then walked outside and remembered I was in Oklahoma when the wind almost knocked me over.

Finally, especially for Linda & Alicia

I had no idea the C's were going to be there. What a wonderful surprise it was to see her! We talked about the two of you and how much we miss our friends.

So that's about it. I'm calling Charlett today to see how she's doing. And LM, if you're stalking, lol, we didn't get to chat much. We'll have to make up for it at the lake this summer. I loved your pink shirt btw.

Beverly, we were in Collinsville Saturday which is 5 min. away from Owasso. If I'd known you were going to be there, I would've came to you but didn't read your comment until this morning :(

Whew, I've gotta get busy now. Thanks for staying with me in this long post.

PHOOEY, THEY LOST

Our boys basketball team came up two points short of victory last night. I guess this will be the end of J's cheerleading. They arrived at the game last night all painted up, conch shell in hand.

However, this school district wasn't nearly as much fun as ours....shirts had to go back on and conch shell had to stay outside (he would blow into it and make a really loud noise. He teases Bailey with it all the time). At one point, we were losing 16-5 but came back to tie it, then go ahead, only to lose with 5 seconds to spare. The gym was so crowded, they stopped the game and made everyone find a seat in the stands which meant the "cheerleaders" weren't nearly as obnoxious as usual.



It is HOT here today!! I'm so happy!! I just came in from watering the flowers and telling them it's time to get busy growing.



I'm so excited about our weekend. We're heading to Oklahoma City tomorrow for the wedding of our dear friends' daughter. We'll get to see many friends we haven't seen in years. Since hubby's family moved from our hometown, our visits to OKC are few and far between. Usually just a drive thru actually. I can't wait. Pictures to follow Monday.



I found out this morning a dear friend may be coming to see me at spring break. It's been a while since we had company other than family. When we first moved down here, people came quite a bit. It's been pretty slow in the past couple of years though.



Have a good weekend everyone!

I NEED A MORE FILES!

So sorry I've been away without an explanation. Here it is:

I noted last week I was thankful about our upcoming cruise. (yes Bev, the O's are going with us) I'm a planner when it comes to vacations. I buy guide books so I'll have something to read while waiting in the car etc. I scour the web for articles. But mostly I spend a crazy amount of time at tripadvisor.com on the message boards. This cruise has six ports plus Puerto Rico where we are leaving from. That means seven files full of facts and opinions plus one file just for cruise info and another file just for flight info. Speaking of flight info, hubby flies a lot and has tons of flyer miles. Well, he HAD tons of flyer miles until I cashed them all in a few weeks ago to pay for this flight. Yep, three free tickets to Puerto Rico. The fourth ticket, we are getting free from using credit card points. Hubby uses that card for all work expenses, hotel bills, etc. That's the one that was giving me fits on Monday. First of all, don't ever book your airfare on Monday, wait til Tuesday. If the cost is going to go down, it will be on Tuesday. For some reason, Monday I decided I'd better check the price for the 4th ticket.....holy moly, the price had gone up $150 since I'd last checked!!! PANIC!!! This is not supposed to happen this way. That means it was going to cost MORE points than we had and the flight was almost full!!! What to do, what to do??? I spent most of Monday online trying to figure it out. I didn't sleep well Monday night. This was not going to go over well with Hubby if we'd have to actually pay for an airline ticket. That was whole reason for chosing this cruise from PR instead of Galveston (an hour's drive away). So Tuesday morning, before taking Bailey to the groomer (pic to follow), I logged on just to see if the cost had gone down. Nope, still $659 instead of $487 like it had been for months. After dropping Bailey off, I had to take my truck in for oil change/maintenance. It's about 20 min over there and I began to pray. I pray a lot in Houston traffic, but this prayer was a panic prayer about how I was going to figure this out. I thought I had all the answers to planning this trip and suddenly, I had messed up somehow. No sooner than I'd said "Amen" did I have an idea "call the rewards program and talk to people who actually know what they're talking about". Oh, thank you Father for that brilliant idea. I mean it....it was brilliant! I couldn't wait to get home and call. Problem solved. I can book now, save points for 90 more days, then submit the charge for reimbursement. Yea God! So I went ahead and booked the flight. But then when I got to the page "select seat". I got the dreaded "we cannot assign a seat for this flight" message. Oh no! That usually means the flight is booked and you are not guaranteed a seat. Can you imagine what that news would do to hubby? I can hear it now "well, Clint doesn't actually have a seat on the return flight, but I'm sure he'll get home from Puerto Rico somehow". LOL, right. So I heard the voice of reason again "call the airline and talk to people who actually know what they're doing". This post is getting too long, but bear with me. I got connected to the nicest person. When I told him what I was trying to do, he at first sounded very concerned....until I told him my hubby is "elite status". Those are the magic words. He not only got the seat assigned, he also moved us around so we all sit together coming and going! Yea God!!! I was only able to choose seats that were showing up on my screen. But he was able to see seats I couldn't. There's a lesson here: No matter how things look to me, God has the whole picture in his sight. His computer screen is way better than mine!!

Sooooo anyway, that's where I've been the past two days.

Here's Bailey after her trip to the beauty shop. Watching for squirrels, of course.

Have you read the Book of Esther lately? I remembered little about it until I started my Bible Study. You can easily read the entire book in about an hour....go read it. Fascinating!

Happy Wednesday. Oh I almost forgot. Our high school boys basketball team is one game away from going to state. This team came out of no where and has only lost 6 games. Jordan is in full cheer mode....no shirt, paints numbers on his chest, you know one of those obnoxious students at the games. Pictures of that tomorrow.