Happy New Year 2017

As this new year starts, I will have some of the similar goals (resolutions) that I always have

• be kinder - more loving
• closer to God - Pray more
• read more books
• photography
• genealogy
• lose weight
• travel to new places
• etc.....

However, this year I am going to BLOG more personal stories, including pictures. Last year, I did not take the time to blog much. So now that I put it in print, I am committed to this. 

Christmas 2016

We finally got to celebrate Christmas. We did this on December 30. By postponing it, we gained Chad and Tara. We had a great afternoon of food, games, and laughter. The games consisted of building towers with marshmallows and dried spaghetti, paper plate artwork on top of our heads, Christmas Scattergories, tossing marshmallows in cups tied to the top of our heads, and Family Feud.

It does not matter the day, just that you find the time to spend moments with the ones you love.

Christmas 2016

The End of 2016

I only have two months to catch up, which is better than I have done the rest of 2016. This should be easy. LOL

The best news is that Chad and Tara are home from Singapore (to stay - even though they came home kicking and crying because they did not want to). This mom is thrilled to death; not because I will see them that much, but at least they are on my side of the world, and if I need to get to them, I can.

We watched a lot of Friday Night lights. Sixteen perfect games that ended with a state title. The Gunter Tigers had a great memorable year. For the Lowe boys, it was a great ride. Peyton, a Freshman, and Zach, a Junior, were key players throughout the season. The final game was played at Jerry's World with me on the 50 yard line - three rows up.

December 3-4 was my time with my boys. We had Marlow's first birthday party in Mansfield, where we all got to see Tara the first time after arriving back in the states. Then on Sunday, we went to Highland Park Lutheran Church for Isabel to be Christened. Then we went to brunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in uptown.

Diana and I knew that it was going to be crazy during the holidays, so we started decorating for Christmas the first of November. We just didn't realize how crazy it really would be. None of my family were around for Thanksgiving and Diana's kids worked, so we did a Brisket meal on Saturday night for our family Thanksgiving. We played football on Friday, as we did every Friday through December.

Christmas was even crazier. None of my kids were going to here, so to accommodate Diana's kids we were going to do Christmas on December 23. However, our plans were changed because she had to have an emergency appendectomy that night. So we got to spend two days at the hospital. Christmas Eve after we got her home, we had Christmas at Brandy's with the girls. Christmas Day was just Rick and I. Our Christmas Meal came from the Jack in the Box at the Shell station on 1417 in Sherman. The Jumbo Jack ended up being our best Christmas meal during the holidays. We are rescheduling our Christmas to December 30.

After the state game on Thursday, we left Friday morning to take all of Rick's kids and grandkids to the cabin and skiing. It was windy driving on Friday, and then it snowed 6 inches on Saturday to make it great for sledding at the cabin. Sunday we went to Red River for skiing which was perfect - great snow and no lines. Monday was our driving around day and picture day. We saw bucks, does, turkeys, bison, antelope, and donkeys.

The only concert we attended during the month was Dolly Parton. She talked about God and Country, told great stories, and sang many of our favorites. It was a great three hour concert.

As I end all my post - Life is still good, and I am still blessed.

Life is still good, and I am still blessed

It seems that I am only getting a blog done every 6 or 7 months. So I guess I will just have to hit the highlights. Then someday if I ever should get bored, I can go back and write stories to go with the bullets for the last 7 months.

May 15 - Built a playground in a week in Gunter.
May 23 - Flew to Nashville for the week to take care of Anja, who had broken her leg.
June 12 - Ladies' trip to Oregon. Visited the coast, Crater lake, Tillamook, Mount Hood, and all the other sites around the state.
July 4 - Activites. Greg came in on the weekends and stayed for the shows. Lisa and Anja in Minnesota. Chad did not come in. Sold record amounts of fireworks and shut our stand down on July 3. Three shows.
July 16 - Flew to Minneapolis and rented a car to go to Crosslakes for the birth of Isabel. She was born on July 18 (named two days later). I kept Anja while they were at the hospital at their lake house.
July 29 - Rick and I went to New Mexico cabin. Barry, Vickie, Roger, and Jeanie also came. We put a new kitchen floor down and some other chores. We saw a bear, deer, and turkeys. Rick and I fished in the creeks.
August 10 - Molly Sage Ferguson born
August 20 - Rick and I flew to Portland, Oregon. We did some sightseeing for two days, then we met up with Brian to do some King Salmon fishing. We each caught one.
September 15 - Nashville Sprinkler show and visited with the kids. Ate at Puckets, toured some historical sites and homes, stayed at Gaylord for show, then went back to Greg's for Anja's second birthday party.
September 21 - Ladies' trip to Niagara Falls. Flew into Buffalo, went immediately to Canada (where we were off the grid because of no international cell phone usage) We did everything Niagara Falls, then started the driving tour Toronto.
October 20 - Greg, Lisa, and the girls came to visit. I kept the girls on the weekend while they went to a Tech game. We had lots of family time. Jared and Jenna also came to town. All the cousins got to meet each other. Pumpkin patch, park, and lots of food and family time.

Concerts
Lady Antebellum
Alabama
Tom Jones

As I end so many of my posts - life is good, and I am still blessed.

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.