Showers of Blessing

The pictures are in reverse order. Finished to the beginning. I will get them rearranged when I have another moment.







Today we were blessed with showers, or some might call it a flood. Whichever - it was just what we needed. We had our tank dug out and enlarged. Then we built a dock. Now the Saturday that we started the dock was the coldest and windiest day of the spring . The wind chill was in the low 30s. Greg, Rick and I looked like we were headed to the ski slops. On Sunday when Rick and I worked it was much nicer day. Monday when we worked it was beautiful. We have been praying for a hard rain since we put the last piece of pipe in. We put tires in for one kind of fish, and Rickie made two trees out of 5 gallon paint buckets, pcv pipe and concrete for another type of fish. Both of these looked funny in a dry tank. We have had two little showers that did nothing for our tank, then Wednesday God blessed us with 6 1/2 inches that not only filled the tank, but let it run over so that we could even see how the runover would work and the position of the dock in relationship to the water. We are pleased with our project and very thankful for the showers of blessings.

Sam - stood up today!

Greg wrote a blog about the "landline" telephone; and how it has changed our lives. Well, I thought about how the internet has changed our shopping habits. Here it is Saturday morning, and WE are shopping online. Now you have to realize that Sam Walton and I have been dating for about 30 years. We have a ritual that we meet on Saturday mornings or around lunch time. However, Diana is out of town; and I do not go there without her unless I absolutely have to. I guess you could say that we have been having double-dates with Sam. Anyway I do not like to go to Sherman by myself, so a few of the items that were on my list I bought on the computer. My pets needed fleas pills, so rather than find a vet that would sell them to me without actually taking Princess, Missy, and Sachmo in - I just bought them online and saved $40 bucks. I did say that we were shopping online. Yes, Rick was on his computer buying a special Bermuda grass seed with four different kinds in it. Just FYI, grass is really expensive if you have not priced 25 pounds before. Next I made plans for my next travel experience next month. You know I probably should have gone to Sherman by myself. A date with Sam would have been cheaper.

Ways to Import Pictures

The layout of pictures is a little "qwirky." This is for the class that I am teaching.

Image >Layout >none Small picture
The picture was taken in Orveto, Italy of a Drumo or another ABC (Another Beautiful Church)

This picture was taken in Pisa, Italy. I did not rotate it for this because I am showing examples of layouts. This layout the image was on the left.

This picture was taken at the Pont Du Guard in Nimes, Italy.
The layout of the image was in the center.

Another Beautiful Church or a Drumo. The layout of the image was to the right.

Good Friday

Good Friday has always been a special day to me for various reasons. Our parents got married on Good Friday many years ago, and were married for 49 years. The last day that we talked and visited with our dad was on a Good Friday. He passed away the next day, the Saturday morning before Easter Sunday. While my boys were growing up, I went to Falls Creek as a sponsor for about 9 years straight on Easter weekend. I have many great memories of the sleepless nights, the shaving cream fights, the water balloons, and the shuffling of kids back and forth for athletic events somewhere. The Good Friday in 2002 was the first time that Rick and I went out together. This past Good Friday was no disappointment. It just so happened that it correlated with National Sibling Day, which just so happened that our brother is in town for his yearly visit. So the three of us plus Chad hung out together. We went to Sherman and did our Easter shopping. We visited our aunt. Then that night we went to Babe's with our family and Keelie's. It was so much fun watching them with four kids, which brought back memories of us out with our four children.

Classics

This week my cousin sent me a CD with 400 pictures of my Daddy's side of the family for my genealogy project. The picture of Daddy in his G sweater from Gunter High School is the one picture that I am the most proud of. We had never seen this. Daddy was a very good-looking kid. 

This is another picture that we had never seen. Diana and I are dressed as twins with very stylish haircuts. If you look close you can see Chad Michael and Justin in this picture.

39 Years of Loy Lake

The next 10 days are going to be very busy. Everyday is an eventful day with something major going on from Jerry coming in from China, Keylyn's second birthday party, and Redneck weekend. However, Wednesday is a very special day. Diana and I get to judge at Loy Lake. It is not the judging that makes this day so special, it is what Loy Lake means to me. I counted up that I have been involved in Loy Lake for 39 of my 51 years.

Loy Lake represents 4-H and FHA - two very important events in my life. When I was 9 years old I got to join 4-H. This was the beginning of things that became very important to me - cooking, sewing, and crafts. My mom was determined that we would learn to sew. There were several people very instrumental in teaching us how to sew - Margarete Hunter, Jackie Barrett, and Jean Norman. Margarete was also responsible for our crafts and needlework . She taught me to knit, crochet, and embroidery. Mother took care of teaching us to cook and can. Then when we got to high school, Ann Black, our homemaking teacher, continued to reinforce these valuable traits. Ruth Massey and Aurelia Holcomb were two other ladies that were very instrumental in this learning process through the 4-H club.

Now there was more to Loy Lake than just this. On Wednesday of the designated week, your projects would be entered. You would wait and wait and wait and wait to see what ribbon your projects would get. If you were really lucky, you might get a Grand Champion or Reserve Champion ribbon.  I do remember some of my projects that got the big purple rosette - an Easter Egg tree made out of blown egg shells, a set of crocheted beaded jewelry, a kerosene lamp with a flower arrangement around it, several dresses, and a suit.

Thursday was equally exciting. Jack Harris used to drive the school bus with any of the middle school through ninth grade students or older that wanted to go to Loy Lake about 5:30 in the afternoon. There would be a BBQ dinner and a horse show. This was really big. Then when you got dating age it was a big thing who would invite you to go to Loy Lake with them. Yes, I do remember who I went with my first year.

Because of the positive experiences I had through these years is the reason that I went on and got my degree in homemaking. I started teaching in Van Alstyne, and I started reliving the Loy Lake experience through my students. I was really fortunate to have great students for many years of homemaking. As a teacher, I always took many projects to Loy Lake and would have success with the projects. I took students with me to work the show and enter projects. I would spend three days out there.  Many memories were made.

After I went into another area of education, I was then given the opportunity to judge the crafts. Although I have seen many changes through the years, it is always great to go back out to Loy Lake, if nothing else just for the chance to go back down memory lane one more time.

The End of the "Done" list

Well Spring Break is officially over. It was a restful spring break that was not too eventful, but that is OK. Borrowing a line from a book I read, "I woke up each day." With this - each day is a blessing from God. We ended up the week by adding a few more things to the list.

20. Baseball games of grandchildren - Friday and Sunday.

21. Worked with Rickie on the corral.

22. Finished the front flower bed.

I have no regrets or disappointments in Spring Break 2009 by doing the "done" list instead of the "to do" list.