Easter and April Updates

Good Fridays have always been monumental in some way or another. This year was no different. First Rick Ferguson had his orthoscopic knee surgery. In which he said was a piece of cake after his brain surgery. Second, we lost a dear friend, Rocky Kinnaird. We celebrated our Easter meal on Saturday night with the family with good food and fun. One of the highlights was our glow-in-the-dark egg hunt. Sunday was a good worship service,  some more great family time, and then the annual church egg hunt and games.

The next Saturday, Jerry, Diana, and I went to Fort Worth for Rocky's funeral. We made a great memorable day out of it. We started of by going to see Aunt June (94 years old), our only living Aunt. She was a blessing to visit. We then went down memory lane by driving around Fort Worth to the car lot and down to the Kinnaird house on White Settlerment. We then went to the memorial service, where we got to visit with many old dear friends.

Rick and I had a great crawfish boil at Brandy and Josh's that night. SPICY!!!! but oh so good!

April 8 Chad Harris and Meagan got married. Chad and Tara got to come in for this event. Diana and I went on Thursday to have lunch with Chad, then Rick and I went to the wedding where we got to see Chad and Tara, then on Sunday we had the family meal with everyone. The wedding was also a lot of fun because we got to visit with the Harris families and a group of Chad's friends. We had an added bonus, because Chad and Tara missed their flight (another Chad story)  on Monday morning - another meal on Monday.




During all these events we have also been getting to go to track meets, volleyball games, and baseball games of the grandkids. As I always say - Life is good and I am blessed.

Yep! Time is Marching on - Faster and Faster

I just noticed that I have not written a post since last July. Wow! A lot of water has run under the bridge. I can barely remember what all has taken place, so I will just list things:

Family life events:
Rick had major brain surgery with answered prayers in a miraculous way.
Aunt Bonnie passed away in January.
Marlow Mae was born on December 2.
Justin and Keelie announced a new baby girl for the first of August.
Greg and Lisa announced a new baby girl for the end of July.
Greg and Lisa moved to Nashville in December.
Chad was here for a few days in January.

Concerts:
Loretta Lynn
Bill Medly - The Righteous Brother with BJ Thomas
Willie, Chris, and Merle
Rascal Flatts
Reba McEntire
Three Dog Night with Nazareth
Kenny Rogers
The Grand Old Opry while in Nashville
Legends concert in Hawaii

Trips:
Phoenix with Rick for the Sprinkler show in October.
Cabin - skiing with all Rick's girls and grandkids in December.
Nashville to see Greg, Lisa, and Anja in March.
Ladies trip to Ouha, Hawaii in March.
Nascar in the fall.

In my spare time, I still enjoy several hobbies - genealogy and photography. I made six quilts last year. My flower beds are more colorful than they have ever been on the hill. I sill am very involved in the cattle business. With the grandkids, we always have a sporting event that we can attend. Plus the best part of being retired is each day I get to decide what I am going to do and where my Diet Coke is going to come from. Rick and Diana are always there to make sure that life does not get boring!

Life is still great. God continues to bless us greatly.

Oh Where Does Time Go?

I have realized that if I was still in education my summer would almost be over, and I have not written a post since school got out. So where has my summer gone?
June - the races, VBS, and a ladies' trip to Nashville
July - the fourth of July with the kids, fireworks, and a trip to Colorado
Time with Anja
Sunday meals with family and grandkids
Quilting

A few of the Tennessee highlights are - Grand Old Opry, The Ryman, Fontanel, RCA studio tour, the symphony, Andrew Jackson's Hermitage tour, the late night shuttle bus ride with the mystery woman from Nashville, and the city tour of Memphis.

The Fourth was a blast, figurative and literally. Davis & Miller sold out all the fireworks, so we had to close the north stand before the Fourth, We got to have time with the kids and their friends and family. It was great to see Chad and Tara, even though it did not seem like we had near enough time with them. Davis & Miller did all three city fireworks show on the Fourth. 2015 firework season went down in history as very successful.

Our trip to Colorado was different than we anticipated. The main purpose of the trip was to take our ATV and Diana's to Ouray to meet up with a group of people to ride three days in the mountains. Rick and I went by the way of the New Mexico cabin. We spent time there then went on to Ouray. The day we rode I referred to as the "Trip from Hades" several times. It was one calamity after another. A few to mention are - no trailer brakes (on the Million Dollar highway), a dead battery on the trailer, smoke coming out the ATV when we started it, the check engine light on the ATV, the wrong key, two trips to Montrose, etc...We were up close and personal to the mountain - 12,000 feet elevation. At 9:30 PM after the second trip to Montrose, I said no more riding for me. Rick was the one cheated, but he was such a trooper.

We went back to the cabin, my safe, happy place. We hired a fishing guide, that took us trout fishing on Eagle Nest lake. After this we fished the streams and rivers, since we already had our licenses. We were successful. In fact, we cooked trout for dinner back at the cabin. We went out after dinner and found the elk.

We did get to see a lot of beautiful country as we drove 1700 miles on our trip through New Mexico and Colorado.

Anja 

As I reflect on my June and July, I am constantly reminded how blessed I am with family and friends that I love. Thank you, Jesus, for blessing me so richly.

This is the day, This is the day,....

This is the day,
This is the day
That we waited for....

This is the song that I woke my boys up to the last day of school their entire school career. One of the boys called me on my last day of teaching and sang it back to me.

Today is the end of another school year, and I need to brag on the grandchildren. I am always posting or talking about going to their sporting events, because they are so involved in all the sports; but today I need to brag on their academics. All five that are of school age made the A honor roll. The three youngest did not have a B on their report cards all year long. In Gunter we call this the Principal's Honor Roll. Plus there is another fact that made this grandmother/teacher smile - the four kids, 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 9th grade, all had PERFECT attendance this school year - this means they never missed a day of school.

This is the day that "they" waited for... School is out for a couple of months.

Reblooming Easter Lilies

As Diana says, I am a "wanna-be" gardener. I try all kinds of flowers in my flower beds. Last year I took my Easter lily that the kids gave me after the flowers fell off and planted the green part in one of my flower beds. During the floods last week I noticed that they looked like they were going to bloom. Yesterday they all popped open. What a special treat after the floods.

Grandparents Weekend

We had a busy weekend with the grandkids. We got Anja late Thursday afternoon to stay with us until  Sunday, while her parents attended Sam Holden's wedding. Thursday night we went to Cali's first grade play where she was a "Hobo" spider. Friday we went with Josh and Brandy to the Gunter Tigers playoff baseball game in Kennedale. Zach got moved up for the play off games. Anja did great. Brandi helped bounce her during the game. Saturday Mindi and Cali joined us, as we all went back to Kennedale for another baseball game. Anja was great again. We then all went out to eat for Josh and Brandi's wedding anniversary. Sunday was church and our normal family meal.

Game 1 with Dawn and Bill

Game 2

Sunday lunch at Andrea's with Aunt Di

Memorial Day Weekend 2015

Row, Row, Row your Boat.....or Water, Water, Everywhere...

That could be our theme song or our slogan. Not because we are on a lake, but because we have been flooded with rain for the past 13 weeks. We are officially SOAKED!

Rick and I did go on a road trip to Natchitoches, Louisiana, Friday after he got off work. We drove to Shreveport and spent the night. (We did not go a casino.) We got up and drove to our destination. It is a quaint town on a river, with very much the feeling of New Orleans. We strolled the historic district, went to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, found some to the spots that Steel Magnolia was filmed, toured two plantations, drove around the country side, and then drove back to Gunter in a flood.

Sunday, after church we tried to go to the water going over the Lake Texoma spillway with thousands of other people. We settled on the floodgates, and we will go when it is less crowded. This is the fourth time (1957, 1990, 2007, and now). Sunday is also the day that I am officially married to a "senior citizen". It is Rick's birthday. We did have several meals for him this weekend.

On Monday, we did make it to the spillway and drove some of the other roads around to see the water. We then went to Brandi's for a fish fry with his girls. This was a great ending for a holiday weekend.

Denison Dam 2015