Happy Mother's Day

We actually began celebrating Mother's Day on Friday when a lovely flower arrangement arrived at the bank in Fulshear from Lyndsey and Kayla. Then Travis and I took Mimi to Houston for niece, Kylie Seitz', graduation from nursing school. Travis even survived the trip with me as a passenger in Houston rush hour traffic downtown!!

The celebration continued yesterday as David suggested that he and Lance take out their wives and families, and included Travis, me, and Mimi.

Travis and I took time to visit with MeMaw at Garden Villa for a while. She was watching her beloved Astros as we arrived. She is doing well, looking good, and seems to like her new surroundings. She said they aren't treating her badly with rehab....just getting her to walk some. Richard and Claudia had added a digital photo frame with lots of pictures of their family, so we went through most of them as they randomly popped up. They had even included Norris and Sallie's wedding picture. Today would have been their 66th anniversary.

We then joined the family for an enjoyable evening at Los Cucos in El Campo where we just 'camped out' for about 3 hours. I received an array of great cards from the kids and grandkids and Travis. It was relaxed fun and good visiting....and more food than I could eat, so I will make the celebration continue on to supper tonight with leftovers.

Travis and I joined our friends at Larry's for breakfast this morning for a nice fellowship. Travis had given me a gift last night that I enjoyed showing off this morning....new necklace and earring set. And the vase of roses is still beautiful.

Email and Facebook posts have dotted yesterday and today with Mother's Day greetings and wishes. I feel very loved and appreciated. Thanks to you all for a very special day.....

Barn Party

The Muegge family (the family we purchased our present home from) hosts a wonderful barn party every spring, and we are fortunate enough to be invited. The meat is furnished by the host, and guests bring the rest. Travis cooked his famous bacon-wrapped jalapenos and a pot of navy beans. I don't think the jalapenos lasted ten minutes after we put them on the serving line! He was being asked all evening for his recipe.

I know a few more of the attendees each year, but enjoy spending time with my lovely friend from El Campo, Mary Lou Birkner. We caught up on kids, grandkids, and things we enjoy. But with the first LOUD chord from the live band we knew our visiting time was over. We collected the navy beans that were left and headed for the car. We know a few more people a little better now that we have mingled in the casualness of the barn party.

If I Knew.....

Ohhhhh, if I knew which critter did the dastardly deed, I would exact the same punishment on it!

When I took Emma outside this afternoon I didn't see the Momma or Daddy Redbirds anywhere. Nor did I hear their familiar chirps. When I checked the nest, I saw it was empty. Then I saw evidence of the massacre. The poor little babies were just starting to get really fuzzy feathers. It could have been the owl....he was eyeing the Daddy yesterday and was perched just above the nest. He did fly off to a yard a couple of houses away, but he could have remembered where to come back when 'the human' was gone. Or we have lots of squirrels in the neighborhood and in our yard. I was just soooo disappointed.....I wanted to see them grow into the lovely birds like the Momma and Daddy.

Bird Watching

Emma is always ready to go outside as soon as I come home in the afternoon, so I put everything down inside and let her head for the grass. I have been taking her out on the leash most of the time so she won't wander off. She was in such a hurry this afternoon that I didn't stop her to put the leash on her. We both walked around a bit enjoying the beautiful sunshine and temperate weather. The birds (and we have lots of all kinds) were singing and flying around.

One bird was flitting near the house with his chirpy warning to stay away from HIS bush. He is a beautiful redbird whose hatchlings are in a nest in the bush. Apparently Momma bird was away gathering food. Daddy bird was doing his best to keep us distant.

I started looking around for Momma bird, I was startled to see just above us a great big OWL! Emma would have been an appetizer for this huge bird if I had not been standing there! I didn't think he would wait for me to grab my camera, but he obliged for several shots. I have never been so close to an owl before! He really was a magnificent creature!

In addition to these lovelies, I saw a red-headed woodpecker, swallows, wrens, and some I don't recognize. At other times of the year, we have tree ducks, doves, and even buzzards. Oh, and I can't forget the dozens of hummingbirds that found my red trumpet bushes this year! It's fun watching the birds when I have a little time.

It's Quiet

Just a note or two before retiring tonight.....

I came home to the dog today. And after letting her out for her break, she ran back into the house and retired to her domain where she has been the whole evening.

Travis is flying with Lance, so the house is quiet....no splattering grease, no clacking keyboard, no weather channel, no Astros commentary, no snoring.....nothing. No one to remind me that I have to get up early in the morning. Does it sound like I might miss him....just a little?

Ahhhh, the quiet.... but, you know, it was good to hear his voice on the other end of the phone a little bit ago letting me know where he would be this evening.

Baby, The Rain Must Fall

One week and 550 miles - that's what it took to almost empty the new little Jetta. We filled it up Friday evening with 13.5 gallons of diesel, and off we go again. If we get near the same mileage (almost 41 mpg) we should not need to fill again until next weekend. I can sure live with that!!!

I worked in Fulshear Saturday morning. With the frequent morning downpours, we didn't have much walk-in traffic, so I got most of my odds and ends finished. When I left for home, it began to rain again, but not too heavy.....until I got almost to East Bernard. By then, it was raining very hard, so I pulled off into a service station parking lot. I had my iPhone weather radar and watched for a slack time in the rain. I stayed in East Bernard about an hour before the rain subsided enough to allow me to continue toward home.

Once home, I had a message from Lisa to call her. It was still raining a little, and I figured I would have better reception outside anyway, so I just stayed in the car. The rains came again, and I was able to escape from the car to the house after about half an hour!

A couple of hours later...and much more rain....I ventured out to retrieve Taylor from a birthday party. The rain had quit, but the waters were still rising on some of the streets. My new little Jetta does pretty well as a boat! When Taylor and I got home, the rains came again. After another trip to and from town for a play, we saw the water in our almost-dry creek had almost reached its capacity. My guess is that we had somewhere between 8 and 12 inches of rain around our house. I know our 5 inch gauge would not have held all the rain.

Today the waters have started to recede a lot, but the creek is still full. The corn plants close to our house must have grown 6 inches overnight! Our new grass area turned much greener with all that water. Even if it was a little much packed into a short time, we are so thankful for the rain that no one is complaining!!

Easter Comings and Goings

Travis and I took the Jetta out on the road to El Campo Sunday afternoon to see who we could find at home.

We stopped at MeMaw's for a long visit and watched some of the Astros' game. We left her a container of Travis' wonderful baked beans.

From there we went to Mimi's house and visited a while. We did some computer tax adjustment and left some baked beans for her to enjoy, too.

Mimi tried out the back seat of the new car as we went to Kim's house (Lance was flying back from Augusta, GA.) Heather and Crystal showed us the new puppies - 4 chubby little darlings - half Bassett Hound and half Labrador.....interesting. Heather demonstrated her softball pitching technique. She is taking lessons so she can start pitching for her team.

We took Mimi home and stopped by Lisa's house. We were entertained by Taylor on the guitar and Casey on the drums of Rock Band. They are pretty good! David came home from the farm in time for us to enjoy a good visit. Before we left, we talked him into a demonstration of his self-designed and self-built log splitter. That is a really great machine!

We came home to a wonderful voice mail from Laure wishing us a Happy Easter. Travis called them back and talked to Laure, Tommy, and each of the kids (I had visited with Laure quite a while on Saturday.)

It was a wonderful Easter day. We spent it with family in a way we have never done before.... and I really enjoyed it.