Spring has sprung...

...in our backyard!

Don't be fooled...nothing grows in our backyard except monkey grass, ferns, weeds, and impatiens. At least the monkey grass, ferns and weeds are green and the impatiens give the yard some color.





Naughty Gnome.



Gnome Sweet Gnome Home.


And I'm worried about our Live Oak. I'm not sure, but some of the leaves look brown and I'm starting to wonder if it's dying. Could it be that Hurricane Ike has finally caught up with it?


What do you think?

ALPHABE-THURSDAY - The Letter "L"

Another week and another assignment is due for Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." This week we are working on the letter "L" and we're all hoping to get a good grade.

A few "L" words immediately came to mind.

(Click on pictures to enlarge.)






L is for LIKE. Joey LIKES to have Amber come for a visit.


L is for LOVE. Actually, Joey LOVES Amber.


Would you like a LICK? Joey shares his ice cream cone with Amber.


UH-OH! Joey hates to LOSE.


Is the LUGGAGE LIGHT enough? Amber doesn't want an extra charge from the airline. And now there's an airline that wants to charge for a carry-on bag too? Soon we'll all be carring LITTLE LUGGAGE the size of Amber's. (Got in another "L" word there.)



For a list of ALPHABE-THURSDAY participants head on over to Jenny's blog. Maybe you'd like to be the new kid in class. (No one will pick on you...promise.)Information on how you can participate in ALPHABE-THURSDAY is also on Jenny's blog.

We're off to put on our thinking caps and come up with some "M" words for next week!

Thank you Mrs. Matlock.

QUESTION: I was reading a blog called YaYa Stuff. I was a relatively new reader and the lady and her husband were in the process of adopting a little boy. I was reading the blog on a regular basis and suddenly the blog was gone. POOF...just like that it was no more. I believe I originally saw a link to her blog from a blog on ALPHABE-THURSDAY. Does anyone know what happened? Does she have a new blog? I was really looking forward to sharing their joy when the little boy arrived. Thanks.

Happy Easter Everyone!

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE.)


After church the kids had fun going through their Easter baskets and seeing what they got.




I found a yellow egg! Look at my giant chocolate bunny!




I've got Peeps! I love Peeps!




I got a carrot full of orange jelly beans! YUM!




Ms. Jill worked hard preparing the Easter buffet. The kids kept trying to eat before the guests arrived. Ms. Jill had to keep warning them not to touch the food. There was an Easter Bunny cake, decorated chocolate eggs, ham with pineapple, asparagus, and sweet potatoes.

Almost done! Family update...

As I write this Reid is down at MD Anderson having chemo. There will be one more treatment after today, and the end is in sight!

Last week I mentioned to him that he only had two more treatments. He told me that he doesn't think of it as only. For him each treatment is an ordeal. Two weeks ago he was very sick for around five days. It varies from treatment to treatment and I'm hoping this week's treatment and the last one will be better.

He had his doctor's appointment yesterday and since he's been having some shortness of breath they've removed the one chemo drug for these last two treatments. Hopefully, that will make a difference.

Tomorrow is Easter, but for Reid it means another trip down to MD Anderson for the shot he receives 24 hours after chemo.

Meanwhile, our feral cat MaMa has never returned. It's been over two months, but I still hope I'll go out there one day and she'll be back. We received a phone call Thursday evening from someone that thought they might have seen her. We drove over to the spot and looked around and called, but saw nothing.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow!

ALPHABE-THURSDAY-Mrs. Matlock, this assignment is too hard! @DayDreamnWorld

It's time again for ALPHABE-THURSDAY hosted by Jenny at Jenny Matlcok..."off on my tangent." This week's assignment was to find a word (or words) that begin with the letter K.

CLICK ON PHOTOGRAPHS TO ENLARGE.

Over the weekend the kids got out their Letter K Book and began to study. This was not an easy assignment for them. They wanted something special for the letter K and nothing satisfied them.



Finally, one of them had a brain storm. KEITH is always teasing about not appearing on his Mom's blog enough. KEITH is pretty special. KEITH starts with a K! Problem solved. So here it goes...

KEITH was born on May 31, 1969 at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Naples, Italy. He was our first born and we were living in Catania, Sicily at the time.

The hospital did not have a photographer come and take baby pictures, so I have no newborn pictures of KEITH. I was flown to the hospital on Thursday, May 29th because the doctor didn't think I would last until the scheduled Tuesday Medivac flight. He was correct. I went into labor on Saturday and KEITH was born a few hours later. Jim had flown up that day for the weekend and arrived at the hospital and was told that I was about to give birth. KEITH was born within twenty or thirty minutes of his arrival.

I know this sounds crazy now, but at that time there was a rumor going around that babies could incur damaged eye sight from a camera flash. Being a very diligent first time mother I limited the number of pictures that could be taken early on. We do have a few slides of KEITH taken within the first week or so, but I haven't gotten them scanned with my slide scanner yet. So, I'm using the earliest regular photographs that I could find.

This is KEITH at three months old. By this time we had moved from Catania and were living in base housing at the US Naval Air Facility at Sigonella, Sicily.



Like all proud parents we wanted a picture for the Christmas card. This is the one we took ourselves and used Christmas 1969.



This one was taken in November 1970 shortly after Troy was born.



I think this one was taken around the same time.



And since KEITH wanted a post about him I felt it was necessary to include the obligatory bathtub picture. That's KEITH on the left and Troy on the right. This was taken in May of 1971 shortly before Jim was discharged from the Navy and we returned to the states.



This was Halloween 1971. KEITH was Superman and Troy was a devil. By this time we were living in Parsippany, NJ.



This is KEITH's pre-school picture. If memory serves me correctly he went to the Paige School in Parsippany.



Here are KEITH and Troy in June of 1974. We were living in Virginia Beach, Virginia when this was taken.



This is KEITH's second grade school picture. I wish I could find a picture of KEITH holding a book under his arm. From 1st grade on he never went anywhere without a book. He loved to read. Even before he learned to read he'd follow us around begging us to read to him. "Somebody please read to me. I don't know how to read yet." Talk about a guilt trip. We read to him as often as we could, but it was never enough. He has always loved books. I thought for sure he'd be a librarian someday.



This is his fifth grade school picture. By then he was attending Kings Grant Elementary School in Virginia Beach.



KEITH was in his Junior year at Cypress Creek High School in Houston, Texas when this picture was taken.



And this was in 1993 and KEITH was teasing his brother by pretending to be him. At the time Reid was in high school. KEITH had already graduated from the University of Houston and was working for the state. He has always had a great sense of humor and whenever KEITH is around we're all usually laughing.



This was December of 2000. Years ago I made an Advent calendar and when the kids were young they used to argue over who would get to put the day's ornament on the tree. As they got older it became a joke. I still hang it up each year and to this day they try to beat each other to the calendar.



And this was on Tuesday as KEITH left to go home to Austin. Once a month he works for a day in Houston, so he comes on Saturday and leaves on Tuesday. His cats come too!



Here he is getting Mittens and Katie in the car. One thing I'm very proud of is that we managed to instill a love for animals in all our kids. Mittens was a cat I found and KEITH agreed to adopt and Katie was a cat Keith found.



KEITH loves living in Austin and has been there for a couple of years now. We still get to see him pretty regularly. He's been very supportive throughout Reid's illness. When he found out Reid was in intensive care he drove all the way to Houston for the day to see him. He calls often to find out how Reid is doing and to lend us moral support.

Yes, KEITH is definitely my favorite K word!

It's official...I'm getting old!

Not really, but on a particular day I can be ancient.

Yesterday we drove up to Warrenton, Texas near Round Top. Twice a year Sleepy Hollow becomes Coney Island for a while when cattle and horses are kicked out of their fields and everything from fine antiques to honky tonk takes over.

We drive over for the day from Galveston County and usually take I-10 to Sealy and then cut over to Belleville where we stop at the local bakery for a second breakfast. This is a tradition for us that began many years ago. Yesterday there must have been a bikers' convention going on at the bakery. We saw some pretty fancy bikes.

I kind of liked the Eagle on this one!



For years we've gone this way and usually stopped at some fields along FM 1457 in Shelby on our way into Round Top. There were fields on both sides of the road and at one time they were mobbed, but last October I noticed the one field was completely gone and there were just a few people set up on the other side of the road. I didn't even stop and I guess other people didn't either because now that field is gone too.

So, we headed over to Round Top and down to Warrenton. The weather was beautiful. It was cool in the morning and I actually heard a couple of people complaining about the cold weather. It didn't last. By afternoon it had warmed up, but was still pleasant. And it wasn't real crowded yet. Once everything else opens later this week it will be mobbed.

I did manage to snap a few pictures along FM 237 in Warrenton.







The police were there to direct traffic - Texas style. I took this one through the truck windshield. Just ignore the dirt spots.



I am getting old. On this particular day my back was bothering me for some reason and we stopped often to rest. I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked to have seen.

On the way home we stopped at La Bahia for a quick look. Now I know what happened to Bambi's father.



And this guy was in a field right across the street. He seemed a little curious.



Not too many Blue Bonnets in bloom. Perhaps they're late this year due to the colder winter? I saw a few along the side of the road, but not enough to stop the car and get out to take pictures.

What I've noticed in recent years is that some fields have gotten much smaller or have closed down as new places open. I used to enjoy stopping at The County Line Show right off of 290 on FM237, but it's been getting smaller and smaller each year. I read in the Show Daily that it was recently sold, so maybe it will grow again.

So what did I buy?

A few odds and ends, but my best find were these tiny, little toy soldiers for my boy dolls! Oh yes, and the little toy guns too.

And you'll never guess what I saw at Cole's in Warrenton. A vintage Ferris Wheel in Ginny Doll scale! The thing was huge. It was mounted on a large board and would have fit nicely on the dining room table once we removed the chandelier. As I recall it was $800+. I'm nuts, but not that nuts!

And here's a You Tube video of Warrenton shot in the Fall of 2008. I believe this was filmed while the vendors were setting up and before the shows actually opened, but it gives you a good idea of the size of this thing. Be careful...it made me dizzy!

ALPHABE-THURSDAY - "J" as in Jeans, Juice, Jelly, etc

It's time again for Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." Head over to her blog for a list of participants and information on how you can join in on the fun.

This week we are working on the letter J. (Click on pictures to enlarge.)

The boys put on their JEANS and headed to the kitchen for peanut butter and JELLY with JUICE.



Then they went out in the backyard to play and saw JACK Rabbits. They decided to take turns trying to JUMP over the picnic table like a JACK RABBIT. (Boys will be boys.)



OOPS!



Once again, Ginny Ellen showed up. This week she had her favorite J word for the boys.

Easter Crafing...

I'm afraid it's back to the drawing board with this little project. I decided to get crafty and make a string Easter egg. Actually, I am experienced. Around twenty years ago I made one and it was adorable. Over the years I guess the humidity here made it soft and I tossed it a few years ago.

I thought I remembered how to do it, but googled just to make sure. I was surprised to learn that this is a very good project for children. Let me warn mothers everywhere...I'm 64 and I made a big mess. There was liquid starch everywhere. The shirt I was wearing turned to cardboard.

In case you've never heard of string eggs I'll explain how they're made. You blow up a balloon, knot it real well, and then soak a ball of crochet thread in starch and start wrapping the balloon. Use the entire ball. Then hang it up to dry. Sounds easy...huh?

OK, I wrapped my balloon and much to my surprise I ended up with a beach ball instead of an egg.



I guess I knew that was going to happen, but I was kind of hoping it would elongate over night and become an egg. I did this late at night and figured the convenience store probably didn't sell balloons, so I plunged on ahead. I'm an instant gratification type of person and once I started I had to keep going with my round balloon.

I ended up giving this one to the cats to play with, but they weren't even interested. You'll notice the balloon is still there and hasn't been popped by cat claws. I clipped it to the hangar and hung it on the fireplace just to take a picture to show you. No, I'm not using it as an Easter decoration.

I went out and bought more balloons and crochet thread. It's back to the drawing board with this project. With a little luck I'll have one made for next Easter. My plan is to cut it open after it dries, decorate the edges, and put a little Easter scene inside. Unfortunately, the craft stores are running low on cute, little Easter items for the scene. My original egg was adorable with little rabbits, chicks, and eggs inside. I should have kept it. I always regret throwing things out.