Easter Cold Snap

Lynne and I went to the old house Thursday night to mow and do a little clean up. The Old Blush rose was blooming nicely.
There was one Iris blooming and all the rest were on the verge of coming out.
And then... Saturday morning it started snowing before 9 o'clock in the morning and snowed all day long. It melted as soon as it hit the warm ground, but stayed for awhile on the grass, trees, and roofs.
It was really pretty. Down between Hillsboro and Waco they had over four inches of the white stuff. I don't think we had that much.

What's Growing In My Front Yard

These are pictures of things I found growing in my front yard. I don't know what the blue flowers are but there are clumps of them all over the yard.

I believe this purple one is Vetch.

And this is a Wine Cup.

Another that I don't know the name of. They are very small though. There were some smaller pink and red ones that I couldn't get a picture of.

And of course these are the Blue Bonnets. The hillside is covered with them and the photos don't do them justice.

And finally, here is a Wiener dog in her natural habitat; a field of flowers.

Mediterranean Tour

It was foggy as we started our tour and headed out for the day.
Our first stop was Athens and the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.
This cool sculpture was made out of old truck parts.
This guy didn't seem to mind everyone staring at him.
We need an aquarium like this at home!
Never miss an opportunity to play Pooh-sticks.
We stopped next in Corsicana (named after the island of Corsica). We stopped at the frontier village and toured the log cabins and displays. There were some unsavory characters there. We then drove thru Italy on the final leg of the journey and then ate supper in Waxahachie before heading home.

Saturday- Part One- The Baseball Game

The Maypearl varsity baseball team was in Glen Rose for a tournament this week. We went Saturday morning to watch the final game. Drove all the way to Glen Rose to watch Maypearl play Venus. That's Andy playing center field.

Here he is on deck waiting to bat.

Getting the signs from the coach.

And striking out. Just kidding. It was a sacrifice fly to right field. He did get an RBI out of it. Not long after this the mercy rule went into effect and they called the game. Maypearl won 12-0.

Saturday- Part Two- The Trains

We then headed north toward Mineral Wells. Clark Gardens was having their third annual Garden Railroad day. Last year we went and it was cold, rainy, and windy. This year it was hot, dry, and still.
These locomotives were brought by the live steam guys. The track they run on is 7 1/2 inch gauge and you can ride on them. They couldn't steam them up because of insurance reasons but the green one was running on compressed air.
That's Lynne, Jesse, and me on the right. They had a short track to run the trains back and forth on.
He ran this one for us. It has a Honda gas engine and hydraulic drive. It sounded about like a lawn mower going back and forth. It cost more than the Saturn I just bought! Wouldn't one of these be fun running around the house?
This one was battery powered. It had a sound system to make it sound like it was really running. He had a remote control to run it with.
Here are a couple of shots from the permanent garden railroad at the gardens. The boys took all these pictures.

There was a Shay locomotive running on the high line.

The garden railroad club from the D/FW area was there set up in the tent. They had 5 or 6 trains running in the floor. Granma saw a great wreck after a kid kicked one over.

Saturday- Part Three- The Flowers

Oh yeah, there were flowers at the garden too.

There wasn't alot in bloom yet, but what was in bloom was really pretty.
We'll have to go back latter in the year when the irises, daylilies, roses, and other flowers are all in bloom. The gave us a list of what was in bloom when.

On the way home we drove by and saw the largest cedar rocking chair in the world.

Lunar Eclipse

In case you didn't know there was a total eclipse of the moon tonight. We didn't get to see all of it here. By the time it came up in Texas the eclipse was half over. The picture above was taken with my digital camera on full optical zoom (only 3X). The digital zoom pictures were just orange smudges.
The next two pictures were taken full optical zoom through my binoculars. They're a little fuzzy. It's hard to hold everything still long enough to get good picture in such little light.
Thanks to my little sister for posting on her blog that this was coming up. I called her after I had taken the pictures to see if the moon was up in San Angelo yet and she had forgotten about it! Good thing I called her.

Independence Day!

If you've never read the Texas Declaration of Independence you can find a copy of it here. It was written and signed in the village of Washington on the Brazos.

Dust In The Wind

I had to work Saturday at the post office. I fought the wind and my allergies all day long, but it was clear when I got back to the PO. When I left to go home the sky was brown. It got thicker when I got home. You could look straight at the sun for awhile. It settled out after the wind died down later in the evening.

The New Dog

When Lynne calls me on the phone and he first thing she says to me is "Honey, I love you", I know I'm in trouble. One of the ladies she works with had two dogs but they kept fighting with each other. So Lynne brought one of them home. She is a pure bred Dachshund named Piper. She's a nice little dog and I think she'll make a nice addition to our family. Our other dogs have been chasing cows, so they will have to leave.

Teacher of the Week

If you don't get the Grandview Tribune you may not have seen this on the front page of section two (yes, the paper did have two sections). Lynne made teacher of the week. They had a nice article with her entire life story in it. She got a free lunch and a six week subscription to the Tribune.
If you notice the picture to the right, you will see the five new Deacons that were ordained at our church last week.

The New Car

I got the camera running long enough to get a few pictures downloaded. As you know Andy wrecked my truck. So we are trying an experiment with our new car. How little can we pay for a car and how long will it last? Well, here is the answer to part one. It's a 1996 Saturn with 147,000 miles on it. We paid $2400 cash, so no car payment and we don't have to buy full coverage insurance. It runs great. Lynne and I took it on our trip to SanAntonio and got 35 miles per gallon (better than the Explorer). Since this is the car I'll be driving back and forth to work in Cleburne, the good gas mileage will be great. As to the second half of the question... We'll let you know.

Valentine's Day and since then

My Valentine's Day was very memorable. My husband professes not to do a lot of hoopla but he so made up for it on this holiday that he says is a corporate scam for the card, candy, and flower industry. Well, he did REALLY good.
I went to work on this particular day without thinking about what day it was. I knew it was Valentine's Day but since Jeff has never really done anything for it I wasn't expecting anything. He came in from work and handed me a pot of red tulips just beginning to bloom. I jumped up and hugged him and went nuts over them since they are my favorite flower. A little later he went out to the car and came back and handed me a package with a movie I had been wanting to get. Next, he schemed with my oldest son to babysit and Jeff took me to Rosa's Cafe for dinner. It was so romantic and sweet and totally unexpected. I hope he realizes that he has set the bar for himself and now I am going to want some sort of hoopla every year. HAHA!!!

Since then things have been low key. Will and Jeff have gotten new glasses, we got a new computer, and things are rolling along. I was with Will today and we agreed that life is good right now. We might not have much but we have enough and we are blessed. Yes, we could use a little more money so the finances weren't so tight and yes, we could use another car for Andy,and yes, we could sell the old house, but over all we are in good shape and we are happy.

I hope that others out there are happy. I know I am.