This is a butter bell. A little water goes in the part on the left. The butter goes in the ball on the right. The water seals off the butter and it will stay good on the counter for up to a month. Pretty cool, I thought.







I got this honey jar at Honeyville in Colorado.

Courtney at her first shower for baby Sean.

Vacation in Colorado

Mountains in N.M.















Four wheeler riding in Colorado. I got of incase the four wheeler started to flip, Greg didn't want me to go with it. How sweet.

This is the area we camped.

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Me and Greg at the Big Texan in Amarillo. Don't we look happy?

This weekend Dawn and I went to Canton to trade days. Her birthday was a week or so back and I told her I would like to go somewhere with her for her birthday. We stayed on what is called "The Mountain" in a bed and breakfast. Actually, it was a bed and bath, because they didn't serve breakfast. Our room ended up having two beds, so we called Courtney and she came and stayed with us, too. These are pictures of our room.

This is a picture of us eating breakfast before we went out and faced the HEAT.

I got my hair cut Wednesday; it had been six months since I had it cut. I was driving down the road and decided to take a picture, because I can never make my hair look the way the beautician makes it look. She can make it so flat and straight and when I fix it and go out in the humidity, who knows what it will do.

The picture on the left is a snap shot of Courtney when she was about two, I guess. I went to www.picnik.com and did some editing. On this website are many special effects that can be added to pictures. This is a free service, but if you want more you can pay and get more special effects and options. It is a lot of fun and I look forward to taking my old pictures that are losing their color and fading out and restoring them.

Wednesday was Greg and Gary's 50th birthday. Today Mrs. Pearson cooked lunch for them. It was sure good eating.

My cute little chicks have turned into grown chickens. I look forward to fresh eggs.

This is Chisum, named after John Wayne in the movie "Chisum". His nick name is Happy Dog, just look at that tail and the smile.

Man, oh, man it has been a long time since I have posted anything. That doesn't mean nothing has been happening, it just means I haven't had time to sit down and post. Since school is out I am in a frenzy trying to get ALL the things on my to do list done. I have three pages and panic a little when I realize summer is almost half way over. Here are a couple of pictures from last month and I hope to have new ones soon.

Courtney and Darrell at my mom and dad's house on May 10. We were celebrating Mother's Day, Dad's birthday, and Darrell's birthday.

There isn't really a pooch there yet, but it won't be long. Courtney keeps complaining about not showing yet and I keep telling her "just wait".

Miscellaneous

No baby pooch yet.

These are the baby chicks I bought three weeks ago. This is when I first got them. They have grow tremendously. I will include a picture of how big they have gotten soon.

I was out of town for the weekend and Greg actually washed a load of clothes and hung them on the line. I took a picture for proof.

Last Sunday at church

Last Sunday Todd, Janice and the boys were in for a visit. Micah had been saved several years ago, but never baptized. So, they wanted to baptize him at our home church in a swimming pool. I was glad we could all be apart of the baptism.

Planting at Mike and Linda's

A few weeks back we went out and helped Mike and Linda on their farm. Since their car accident they haven't been able to do a lot so we went and helped them plant green beans and potatoes. Can't you just taste a big pot of green beans with new potatoes floating around in them? The top picture is Linda and her cast and the next two are Greg and Mike hard at work. The day before we came out to help, Mike was running the tiller with broken ribs. I think we came to help just in time.

Greg's new truck

This is Greg's new truck. We went and got it Saturday. I have been driving it this week, but next week his business insurance rolls over from his old truck and he will take over the drivers seat.

He is passing his old truck to me which is fine. The car below is what I have been driving, a 1993 Honda, so, a 2002 truck will be an improvement.

Spring in my yard

Bluebonnet Azalea

Oops, pepper

Something

Dogwood

Something else

Clover flower Dogwood tree

Mike and Linda Haley's truck

The DPS officer told them if they had been in a newer vehicle they probably wouldn't have made it.

Though Mike was belted in he still hit the steering wheel. Notice how the outer edges of the steering wheel are folded back. Everything on his body that went around the center column broke, that's why he has so many broken ribs.

Thursday, March 5, Mike and Linda had a head on collision and thank the Lord they both survived. Last we heard Linda had a broken rib and foot. She had an appointment with a specialist today. We saw Mike Saturday in the hospital. He is out of ICU, but in a lot of pain. I don't think I have ever seen someone in so much pain, but he told me it was better than it had been. He has all but two ribs broken, a laceration on his intestine and a bruised liver. He had a horrible gash on his forehead and part of his scull was missing ,but it did not get to his brain.

He was grateful for the accident though, because they found an aneurysm that they wouldn't have found it it hadn't happened.

The accident happened on the farm to market road that goes from Burkeville to Toledo Bend. They were coming around a curve and there was a car in their lane. At that point they could not see a driver. The lady in the car was bent over looking for her chap stick. Mike swerved to her side of the road to miss her and at that instant she raised up and jerked back to her lane. Seeing this Mike headed for the ditch and so did she. They hit head on in the ditch.

The latest news

This was Greg's snack the other night. I prefer using our camping coffee pot so I can brew it to our taste. The electric pot just brews it the way it wants to.

The two pictures below are what we had for supper Monday night.

This is a potato salad like Mrs. Pearson makes. New potatoes are boiled and then you add lemon juice, olive oil, green onions, and mint. The mint, I grew myself.

These are greens I grew in my yard. I think they are mustard greens. It is exciting to eat something I grew myself.

I went to Tyler last night and spent the night with Courtney and Darrell. She wanted me to go somewhere with her. It is a secret, but if you look at the sign it may give you a hint. In case it is to small to read it says "Stork Parking".

Scout Day at Sam Houston

Today was Scout Day at Sam Houston State University. We left at 6 a.m. and returned home at about 7 p.m. Thirteen hours with 6 middle school girls. We attended two classes. One of the classes was on bullying and the other was about music. The man giving this class was a D.J. and was very knowledgable about music. They had fun and so did Mrs. Christopher and I. I enjoyed being back on campus and reminiscing about my college days there.

Today Greg and I went to Galveston to check out the damage from Hurricane Ike. While there I found the beach house my family use to own when I was little. It sure use to seem larger. It looks a little sad, but is still standing after 50 years. This part of the island didn't seem to have a lot of damage. On the seawall Murdock's is completely gone as well as the restaurant that was next to it. The Flagship Hotel is a wreck and has holes in some of the walls. One of the ramps going up to the hotel is completely gone and the other one is almost gone. The 61st St. pier is gone and almost every single store on the Strand is closed. There was a line drawn on one of the buildings showing the water level and it was over the top of our truck. Other than that the main damage we saw on the island was just where people were cleaning out houses that had had water in them. I had it pictured a lot worse than it was, but of course it has been four months. The real damage was on the Bolivar Pensisula as you can see below.

These were two houses on the beach in one of the subdivisions.

These four pictures are just various houses around Crystal Beach. There was more left there than I had pictured. Gilchrist was a different story though there was only one house left in Rollover Pass. There was debris every where as you can see below.

This is on Highway 87 just as you turn on to it coming from High Island. Use to there were sand dunes here and you couldn't see the ocean much. Now it is just flat and sand is everywhere. On the entire peninsula that is what looked so strange; very little greenery just sand.