ANOTHER frog/toad; meet Jarvis!

I know some of you think I’m crazy and the others are sure of it. Crazy isn’t all that bad, though. If I weren’t crazy then the reality of flooding and cancer might get me down. I prefer crazy and enjoying it the best I can.

Last night we took a break and went out to play cards with our canasta group. It was a wonderful night. We came home and ‘dipped’ out the basement again before we went to bed, so that we came to a total of 320 gallons we ‘dipped’ yesterday, besides what the sump pump took out without our help. Today has been another big day, but we’re going to escape to play cards, again, tonight. We need the break! I imagine we’ll pump out about as much today as we did yesterday. We got some rain today, but not so much; just enough to keep us going steady on the seeping.

While we were out last night I got this picture of a great sunset even during our stormy weather. We love it!

















When we got home there was ANOTHER frog or toad in the basement. I thought it was Jethro, but I checked his markings against Jethro and they are different. I’ll put both pictures on the blog so you can see what you think. Jarvis is the newest one; he’s the one with one leg out like he’s on the move. Now, Ruthie won’t want to come to my basement if she knows Jethro and Jarvis are down there. Likely I will find them and set them out in the yard. There is a wealth of mosquitoes out in the yard for them! Gabe must have gotten his love of creatures from me; this is fun!


























God blesses even with varmints. I’m so blessed; I get the toads/frogs instead of the snakes in the basement. God is good!

Two new best friends.

We got .7 of an inch of rain last night, so it's coming in hot and heavy in the basement, again. Yesterday we pumped out 48 gallons, so we were relaxing. Today it's a little after 4 and we've pumped over 240 already. We're going to take off and play some cards tonight and act like we don't have water in the basement. Ha! We'll come back and pump some more before we go to bed.

Pictured are our two new best friends, the shop vac and the sump pump. We thank God for them, as well as the friends from whom we bought them! Have a great weekend and count the blessings!

Rain, rain, rain.

Today has been throw herbs day. I’m exhausted from it. That sounds so innocent, but this picture shows just a few of the little cups of herbs and vitamins. I throw two of these cups per day for Don and three per day for me. Then I dump these into a packet of vitamins we order from Dr. Williams and top the packet with an empty packet. Today I ‘threw’ enough for 62 days for each of us, but I’ve only gotten half of Don’s packaged. I’ll finish tomorrow, and then we’ll have two months done.

Don had the basement nearly dry, but it was still seeping. Then it rained another .4 inch this morning. We are just shaking our heads. I think this is 14 days in a row that it’s rained here. That hasn’t happened since 1937, but they are expecting more for the next few days. The seeping had slowed so much that Don only pumped out 32 gallons yesterday, but today it picked up and he pumped out 48 gallons. Here is a picture of the water when it first started seeping. I can’t believe I was standing there with a camera, but it’s a memory! It’ll be a happy day when we look at that floor and it’s dry!

Actually every day is a happy day. We are blessed to have a basement and the ability to keep up with this water. Lots of people have lost their homes and furnishing; some even their lives in all this flooding. We haven’t had any loss of life in our town, but it’ll be tough for the farmers to recover from the loss of their wheat. The community is keeping their chins up, though. We know it could be worse, so we give thanks for whatever God sends.

Look around and count the blessings; they are abundant and we give thanks. God is good.

Coming up daisies!

How cool is this? My daisies started opening today. They are right beside the Echinacea and I pictured them the other day when they were just in tight buds, but I forgot to point out that they were near opening. You probably just thought it was another shot of the Echinacea. Anyway, today they are opening and that thrills me. I love the daisies!

This morning was so cool. Don was downstairs vacuuming up the water and he stopped and came up and said, “Come look; I want to show you something.” I said, “Should I bring the camera?” He said, “If you want.” That was my clue that it was worthy of the camera, since he didn’t say, “No.” I got down there and he told me to look behind a little seat we have down there holding the sump pump. It was a little toad! That wouldn’t mean much to most people, but this is Gabe’s Grammy. Gabe found that way cool desert toad when we took him to the reserve. Then when he was here the toad got away, so I thought sure it was Gabe’s toad, Jerry. I got several pictures of him and then I did my best to catch him, but Gabe is way better at catching toads than I am. Alas, he got away. He’s still in the basement unless he can jump up to that escape hatch where he must have entered. That’s about 6 feet off the ground, so I don’t expect he can make that jump. I hope he doesn’t starve down there, but I don’t know what he’ll eat. I’m keeping an eye out for him; maybe he’ll get weak and I can get him.

He’s not Jerry, though. I compared his picture to the picture we have of Jerry in Gabe’s hand. They have different markings. I sure thought it was the same toad, though; tan with red spots. God is so creative to make all those little tiny differences! I’m naming this one Jethro. If I catch him, I’m taking him to Gabe. Trish will probably make us let him go, but we can enjoy him for a while. Maybe there is room for him in one of Gabe’s wild animal habitats. (In the pictures, Jerry is the one in Gabe’s hand and Jethro is the one on our basement floor. If I had caught him he would be in a box, NOT in my hand. No doubt that’s why I couldn’t catch him: I would have had to touch him!)

Okay, so you know how little it takes to entertain me. Besides all that fun we got to walk today for the first time in 2 weeks. It did rain again, but not much. Don only pumped 32 gallons out of the basement today, so it’s slowing a bunch. Whew! More rain is in the forecast, though. God is so good. He doesn’t fool with skimpy; He does everything in abundance. Rain in abundance is so much better than drought in abundance. We’ve learned to deal with the challenges of it and the crops are doing great with it. We’ve learned; isn’t that cool? It’s hard to teach old dogs tricks, but God can do it! PTL!

New treasures that God gives!

You aren’t going to believe the pictures on the blog today! We live on the edge of town, so that is one picture. It’s the wheat field catty corner from our house. We have houses on every side of us, but out through that corner from our driveway is a wheat field. Often there is a bunch of black cattle up by that fence. So, while we are in town we are right on the edge.

The next picture is a little FAWN that is living down the street (6 houses from us). The wonderful guy who lives there is a farmer and he found this little fawn, evidently deserted by its mother, so he brought it home and they are bottle feeding it! He is in a little pen in their back yard. He scratched his nose up before he figured out that he can’t get out of the pen, but other than those scratches he is so beautiful! I think he’s really cool, so, of course I had to have a picture of him for the blog!

The next picture is one of Gabe’s friends, I’m sure. I was out pulling up weeds and made a trip to the dumpster with the weeds. On my way back I saw this little pile of mud and was wondering how it got there when I saw it’s TAIL! It turned out to be a little wee turtle full of mud. I still don’t know how he got there, but he waited for me to take his picture. I know that Gabe would love to capture him, but I settled for taking his picture. A turtle in camo!

When we woke up this morning it was raining, but it’s been dry and sunny all afternoon. Praise God! We have rain all around us and more predicted, so we don’t expect it to be dry for long. The basement is still seeping, but it has slowed down a lot. We thank God for the break and for the equipment and ability to keep it under control! God is great and good to us!

MD Anderson appointment is July 10.

Check on the growth in our yard and garden. They love the rain! We are grateful for it, too. We hear of the droughts in so much of the rest of the country, and the fires in California and are reminded that this rain is such a blessing! Normally, we would be in a drought and worried about fires in the local farm fields that could put us at risk since we are right across the street from a farm. With all the rain we’ve had, no fire could survive around here!

The pictures on the blog are: the redbud in the back flower bed with a big bunch of lavender at the base; the second and third volunteer petunias with the first one; and the daisies almost ready to bloom beside the Echinacea that the butterflies haven’t found yet. I have to hurry out there because the mosquitoes will win; soon I’ve got to get out the spray and go spend the day in the yard before the weeds get out of hand, again. I’ve got to get the garlic and do a bunch of pruning, too.

We actually got a bit of a break today. It did rain, but only .2 inch and it didn’t make the water coming into the basement increase; it just kept it from maybe stopping. Don only pumped out 100 gallons today, so that’s really good.

Oh! The call from MD Anderson came today; we have an appointment there at 8a.m. on July 10th. We’ll probably go there on the 9th. Tricia’s baby is due right about that time, so we’ll stay here as late as possible unless the baby comes early. If the baby comes early, then we’ll go as early as possible to have a chance to visit a bit with Don’s sister, Doris, and her two new grandsons. We’ll make more concrete plans as the time gets closer, but it all depends on Tricia’s baby at this point.

We are so blessed! Our 15th grandbaby is on the way; we have a yard full of flowers and thick grass, no threat of fires, and the strength to deal with the leaky basement. PTL! Ruthie said it rained all day in Springville today, too! God is good! Thanks for checking in on the blog. I love you all.

Wet week coming.

This isn't the greatest picture, but it's the best I could do with the height and time I have. Anyway, it shows you that my magnolia is blooming, and I'm happy with it. It has about 7 blooms on it, so it's responding well to the rains! The grass is growing so that we could probably sit and watch it if we weren't busy vacuuming and pumping water out of the basement.

Today we went over 2700 gallons that we've vacuumed and pumped out of the basement in the last 11 days, or however long it has been. That doesn't include what we've pumped out that we couldn't measure. It's a lot of water. I know this ground is so refreshed. It must be a bath that God knows we need. The mosquitoes are delighted. I'd rather have the bull snakes than the mosquitoes, but I didn't get to pick any of this. This is all God's idea, and I'm thanking Him for sending what we need instead of what we think we want.

Today was a relatively easy day. Don did all the work in the basement and I took a nap. We ate lunch after church at the Mexican restaurant. Jo Ann and Frank didn't stay as she was really tired from their trip to the city on Friday and Saturday. They were replacing electrical equipment that lightning destroyed a couple of weeks ago. David and Dorothy didn't stay for lunch because David is really struggling to breath with all this humidity; he didn't even make it to church. It's been a hard week for them. We went on to the restaurant and enjoyed ourselves even without our best buddies. The preacher and his family (our next door neighbors) just got back this week from their vacation to California and they sat at the booth next to us, so that was fun. We love them like they belong to us, so it's really good to have them home.

Did I tell you about Don falling in the basement one day last week? He had that big goose egg sized bump on his hip, but he managed with it really well. Finally, today the goose egg turned into a big huge bruise that spreads all over his hip and rear. I thought he was indestructible, but I guess he's not. He's really good with the water management job, though; good thing, because it looks like we've got plenty of more water coming. Even last night we had some rain; only 15/100, but it keeps going into the water table. I'm learning more about this than I ever wanted to know. God wants me to be so smart.

I cooked beans today to last a couple of weeks. I make a batch and put them in the freezer in smaller containers so that I don't have to cook beans all the time. I also brewed a batch of Essiac tea, so I'm done with that for the week. I've got a whole harvest of garlic out in the garden that I need to get, but the mosquitoes make me skittish of the garden and I'm procrastinating. There's always something to keep me busy. I guess I could dig it up and throw it away, but I think Mom won't let me do that.

God will give me direction. He takes care of us and blesses us beyond measure. Count with me! (Who would have thought us two old people could get 2700 gallons of water out of the basement? And, what if we'd been traveling somewhere? That sounds like 2700 + blessings to me. We're here to do it and ABLE, and we HAVE a basement! Maybe I sound like Pollyanna, but I'm thrilled!)

Back to the yard!

Today the water Don has pumped out has been down by about 1/3; we didn’t get any rain last night. If we don’t get any tonight maybe it’ll slow down even more tomorrow. Whew! We have hopes. He says he feels like he’s growing webs between his toes; he is starting to talk with a quack. The blisters on my hands from squeezing out diapers last week before we got the second shop vac are about healed, so we’re surviving this!

I even took time to go out and take some pictures before the mosquitoes carried me away for dinner tonight. The first one is a volunteer petunia. We get those every year and I’m always glad to see them. This is the first one. The second one is the little robin nest that blew out of the tree the first night we had those awful winds and the huge rain that flooded the town and started us in trouble in the basement. The last one is my Echinacea. I always love the Echinacea until the butterflies lay eggs on it and the worms scoff it down. For now, I’m enjoying it. Of course I could put some powder on it to keep the worms off, but I like the butterflies, so I let them have the Echinacea.

One thing I learned from all this water is that I don’t have to have a French manicure to live. I’ve worn one for the last 11 years. There was no way any manicure was surviving this water, and I like just a coat of clear polish just fine. As I live and breathe; another revelation! In the last year I’ve retired from make up and manicures! It took cancer and a flood to get through my vanity; what a crying shame, but I’m learning!

God is good and I give Him thanks for all our rich blessings!

Cool dudes!

I haven't had a chance to make more pictures, so you're looking at a collection of these cool dudes the day we went to the reunion. I look at these pictures and am so very proud of them. Garrett is in the yellow shirt and Gabe is in the orange shirt. Garrett will be 11 in December and Gabe will be 13 in November. They are both very caring and sensitive guys. They love each other as cousins and sure have a lot of fun together. I think back to cousins who were so much fun when we were kids and I'm pleased for these guys to have great time to spend with each other. It was funny listening to them as they played; they called each other 'Dude.'

I look back over the pictures on the blog and realize that I really have a wonderful collection of pictures of our family and friends. I'm so blessed to have not only the picture collection but the collection of family and friends! I am wealthy with meaningful relationships in my life. We've had great times in just the last few months and I treasure the pictures and memories.

The leak in the basement has slowed some, but we still are pumping out hundreds of gallons. We've lost count, but we're keeping track on paper as best we can. Lots is pumping out with the sump pump that we aren't even counting. We are so grateful that our leak is filtered through the ground and not flood water just rushing in with all the debri it carries! Lots of folks in town are dealing with flood waters, and I'm so sorry for them. Of course after the flood waters are gone, they are gone, whereas our leak keeps coming as long as the ground is saturated. We're working with it and getting the job done. We'll be glad to have a break tomorrow, and hope it comes for us! If we don't get more rain, maybe the leak will stop soon. We are both tired of this adventure, but thank God for the positives in it; we've learned so much and we've had the strength to endure it.

We are disappointed that we haven't heard from MD Anderson, yet, but it's all part of God's plan. WE think we should go rushing right down there, but God isn't in that big a hurry. He wants the basement rinsed, I guess. Whatever He wants; I'm good with it. I'm just so glad He gives me rest at night and wonderful friends and family during my waking hours! Thank you for being here with us. I love you.

Reflections of a Grammy.

Okay, you can tell I haven't been out taking pictures; I've been in the basement pumping water! We got the most yesterday, but it has slowed a bit and we only got about 2/3 today what we got yesterday at this time. It was dry long enough outside for Don to get out and mow the grass today. It's been growing so fast with all the rain! I cut off the iris greens and raked them as much as I could quickly do, but it looks rather like a tornado went through the iris patch. They're hardy! I had to hurry because the mosquitoes were really after me and I hate that!

The pictures on the blog today represent fun time for me. The first one is little Elena. I was so proud to get a picture of her smiling! She smiles a lot, but just when I get the camera clicked, she drops the smile. So I got lucky with this one.

The second one is Sadie and Garrett feeding the prairie dogs at the reserve. We aren't supposed to do that, but everyone does, so they come up looking for you to feed them. It's too fun to not do it. I'm sure there is a good reason to not do it, but it didn't weigh stronger than the thrill of feeding them.

The last picture represents so many great memories. Gabe had seen a lizard on that rock and the three of them went chasing it. Look at Gabe's stance. He is such a hunter and he catches just about everything he chases. He missed that one, but I thought he was going to get him. The other two are great supporters. The three of them were so much fun to be with. It's a treasured memory for us to have had them with us for a few days.

MD Anderson Cancer Center hasn't called to make an appointment, yet. I promise I'll let you know the minute I know what we're doing. In the meantime we're counting the blessings. I was looking back over the blog, and am reminded of so many good friends and wonderful family. Plus I have all of you people who care in my life. Wow! That's a lot to count! Thank you, God!

No news, just more water.

The storms that I was running from when I wrote the entry for the blog last night brought us another 1.7 inches of rain. Our dry basement was covered except for one little corner this morning. It's been coming in as fast as Don could pump it out all day. He's pumped out over 500 gallons that he picked up with the wet vac and no telling how many he pumped out with just the sump pump alone. He's worn out. He slipped on that slippery floor this morning and fell flat on his back, so he'll be really stove up tomorrow. He hurt all day today, but we gave thanks that he didn't break a bone!

I worked all day getting herbs and vitamins packaged for the next month and getting them ordered for the next 6 months. That order will come in soon and I'll get busy packaging them so I'll be ready for whatever is in store for me at MD Anderson.

MD Anderson hasn't called me yet for an appointment time. I know you are all wondering about that because I've had no less than a half dozen people call to ask me if I'd heard today. Now that I'm in a hurry, they are in no hurry. I work until I go to bed, but they quit at 5; I guess they have to go home and work until they go to bed, huh? Anyway, patience is a virtue. God is driving this plan, so He knows how it all works and has the right timing in mind and in the works. I trust Him.

The pictures on the blog tonight are all from the reunion. The first is John, our nephew, being 'forked' by Uncle Phil. You haven't had the best laugh in the world until you've seen Uncle Phil 'fork' someone. Be ready if you eat with him! The next one is my cousin, Suzanne, holding Elena. Suzanne and I are a year apart and we were close always because we spent all the summers that I was in the states visiting around at our grandmother's and aunt's houses, making all the vacation Bible schools; between all the family we made about 7 vacation Bible schools, so that was most of the summer. She handed all her clothes down to me, so that was wonderful, too! Then we were roommates at Lipscomb, so she's more like a sister than a cousin to me. The kids always called her Aunt Suzy, so that's Aunt Suzy holding Elena. The last one is my sister, Ruthie, holding Elena. We're all so grateful that Elena is a feather because she's so easy to hold! Click on one of the pictures of Elena and notice that pretty little bib with roses on it; my precious friends, Tom and Linda ROSE sent that little bib and some other 'rosy' things that are still too big for her. Isn't that a precious little bib, though? (Thanks Linda and Tom; yes, that's the same Linda who writes on the blog a lot.)

It's not storming, yet, but we have a chance for storms and more rain tonight. What a weather year this has been. It beats tornadoes all over the place, though, so I'm giving thanks. I'm so thankful for the sump pump and the wet vac; they sure beat my little wet vac and diapers that we started out using to get up the water. I'm shutting down and unplugging the computer, so that I don't have to get up during the storm to do it; there have been so many folks losing appliances, computers, etc. with lightning strikes, so I'm doing the ounce of prevention thing in hopes of not getting hit.

Thanks for caring and checking on us. I promise to post every bit of news that we get and our plans as they develop. Right now we are just hanging loose, getting as ready as we can for whatever shoe falls next, and thanking God for taking care of us all the way.

Whole new plan!

Sorry, but no time for pictures. We just got home from all day in Oklahoma City with the doctor. The thermogram showed that the cancer is hot, so we've got to take another approach. What we've been doing isn't getting the job done. So, we have contacted MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. We'll be going there for tests and treatment as soon as possible. Don't anyone be horrified. This is only another bump in the road of life. We'll get over it. God has a plan and we'll work it the best we can, thanking Him and giving Him praise and glory all the way. We don't always understand, but we always believe and love. I love you all for caring and looking and I knew you'd be looking to see how it's going if you realized today was the day for the thermogram.

We came home to a DRY basement, but a new storm is hitting right now. I've got to get off this computer and shut it down before lightening strikes it. God is good, but His storms are mighty, too! PTL!

Water management, not flooding.

We have learned so much from this flooding experience. We are ready to leave the basement and our friends in charge in case it floods again. We've learned that we don't have to attempt to keep it dry as long as the water is seeping due to water saturation. We just go down every few hours and collect what is there with the wet vac and then pump it out with the sump pump. It's a pretty easy process. We were trying to keep it dry all the time, and that was like trying to clean up the kitchen after Thanksgiving with a cotton ball, only more back breaking. It's just a matter of managing the water with the right tools. When it quits seeping, we can vacuum all that's there and it'll be and stay dry under normal circumstances. We'll leave the wet vac down there handy, as well as the sump pump. It'll never again shake us like it did this time because we know how it works, now. We probably won't have this much rain for another decade, anyway.


Tomorrow is the day I go for my follow up breast thermogram. I'm looking forward to the consultation with this expert. I'll post what we learn on the blog tomorrow night.


The pictures on the blog today are more from when Sadie, Garrett and Gabe were here. That was such a fun time for us, so I treasure these pictures. The first one is of the three of them sitting on a big rock, overlooking the heart rock. The second picture is of the three of them beginning the little climb up to overlook the heart rock. Garrett is wearing the navy shirt and Gabe is wearing the striped shirt. Gabe and Sadie are brother and sister, two of Tricia's 5 children. Garrett is Gretta's oldest and the big brother to baby Elena. The last picture is Gabe holding his proud catch, the desert toad that he named Jerry. He's really a cool toad. Click on the picture and you'll see that he has RED spots. I couldn't be prouder of these kids. They are entertained by the adventure and beauty of this earth that God gave us. They get along great and have huge hearts. We had a wonderful time making a trip with them and having them with us here. I guess you can tell that, huh? Amongst the counting of our blessings they are right up there at the top with all the rest of our family. I'm pleased to be able to show them to you. Thanks for looking and counting blessings with me.

Count it all Joy.

Tonight's lesson was taken from James and it reminded me that we are to count it all joy, even problems. I've been all wrapped up in the flooding basement, so it was good for me. We've learned so much from this flooding experience!

We were trying to keep the basement dry. We figured out that the water is coming, and coming, and coming as long as the ground is this saturated. What we have to do is accept that and pump it out from time to time to keep it from winning. When it quits seeping in, THEN we can get it dry, again. We've got fans going, so air is circulating. We can get it nearly dry, then we just leave it and go back and do it again. It's a doable thing. Staying with it like I was last night is not the way to go. I took a 3 hour nap today, and we're going to bed early. The basement is only the basement. It's not everything. It's purpose is to provide shelter in case of a storm and I sew down there and the kids play a lot down there. As long as we keep it where it's okay to be wet for brief periods, it won't be a big deal. I value that basement as a storm shelter. The kids love it for playing. All the kids in this family treasure times spent down there when this house was Grandma and Grandpa's house.

The pictures on the blog today are from the reunion in Tennessee. My sister, Ruth, and my brother Jim:

Me, with Elena, and my brother, Jim:

Elena working her magic on her great Uncle Phil, Ruthie's husband:

Precious memories; treasured moments; counting the blessings and thanking our God with praise to Him. Thank you for looking; I love you all.

I know that God loves a clean basement!

I haven't had time to download the pictures I took of the basement leaks this morning. It started leaking around 7 this morning and I've been down there ever since. That's 18 hours. I'm bushed. I'm going to write a dab for this blog, go power plate and then take a look at what has happened since I left it. If it's too scary, then I'll vacuum up some more water. If it looks like I can take a bath, then I'll do that before I look again. I'd like to go to bed, but I don't want to get up to an inch or more of water in the basement. I keep thinking it will stop seeping, because it hasn't rained since this morning. I don't get it. All I know is that it's God's basement. If He wants it clean, then I've got to stick with it. I don't want mold to get started down there. Don says that will take days, and he went to bed. He worked until a couple of hours ago and then he just gave out. He really wanted me to go to bed, too, but I refused because I still had some energy. I figured God gave me that energy and it was for the basement. I can always sleep.

Okay, the pictures on the blog are about this flooding. The first one is the road around the park. I stood where that water is and took a picture of the lake and the dam to put on the blog once. Now, the road is covered with lake, and it goes WAY past that, too. Just last week Gabe and Garrett and Sadie were down to the left of the guard rail in a little swampy area catching frogs and tadpoles. It would be over their heads, now.

The other picture is the little bull snake who made the mistake of going into our garage yesterday as we backed out to go touring around to see all the flood damage. I'm not real fond of snakes, but they don't freak me out like they do most people. My brother always had snakes around, so I find them interesting. However, when they go into my garage I find them threatening! So we chased him out and killed him with the hoe. I didn't know he was a bull snake until I looked him up on the internet. If I'd known I would have just thrown him out into the yard and let him get mice for me since we don't have a cat. He'd have probably gotten birds, instead, though. Anyway, I didn't have time to run look him up on the internet, so he got the hoe. Sorry, Gabe; I know you'll hate that I killed him.

Okay, I've rested enough. I'm going to go power plate and then take a look in the basement. I'm thanking God that the snake didn't come into the basement with me down there working. I'm thinking I might ought to take a hoe down there, you think? I'm thinking a shop vac won't help me much. No problem, God won't want snakes in the basement, so He'll take care of that for me. Ha! If He sends a snake to the basement, I'll KNOW He wants ME OUT OF THE BASEMENT! I find them interesting when I'm in control, but I'm thinking I'm too tired to be in control and the basement would be really small if I was down there with a snake. I'm glad God cares about even small things like me! Still counting . . . not in any order, just counting lots of blessings.

Relief from the flooding!

We got only .2 inches of rain last night, so the basement was DRY when we got up this morning. That's the good news. The rest of the good news is that we can move even if it is like 90 year olds in pain. That was a tough day and I'm so grateful that we got a break today. We went to the Kozy Diner for breakfast and then drove around and looked at the damages from the flash flooding in town. The bad news is that it was devastating for some; so our water in the basement was a small thing. We aren't out of the woods, yet, as there are lots of chances for rain in the forcast. We had intended to go to a baseball tournament in Wichita Falls, but we are afraid to leave the basement with the ground so wet, plus we aren't moving very well. It's a good time to stay home and rest if possible.

We drove to Altus and viewed the full Lake Lugert, and then went to lunch at the Western Sizzlin. Lake Lugert has been so near empty for the last several years; it is beautiful to see it full and water going over the dam. We ate lunch late, so that'll be as close as we get to supper. On the way home we stopped to see our friends Jo Ann and Frank; Jo Ann had her knee replaced nearly 2 weeks ago and she's doing great, so that was a good visit.

I have a load of clothes in the washer and will go to bed as soon as they are done. I'm bushed. Rest is good and I'm ready for some.

Today's pictures on the blog are of Sadie and Garrett and Gabe when they were here with us last week. The first one is Sadie wearing Poppy's hat. The second one is Sadie and Gabe sitting on the 'heart rock' with Poppy and Garrett leaning against it. The last one is Sadie and Garrett looking on as Gabe proudly displays the desert toad that he caught at the reserve. Treasured memories for us!

God is great and I thank Him and give Him praise!

Flooding!

Oh, my goodness! I sent pictures from our lake last night. We got up this morning and our lake was way out of it's boundaries! We had water beginning to come into our basement and we've been all day shop vacuuming it to stay ahead of it. Joan brought over her brother, Floyd's, shop vac, so we had two to use. We had made over a hundred trips up the stairs to empty those when David and Dorothy came over to bring us Subway sandwiches for dinner. They went and got their sump pump and hoses so we could pump the water out of the basement instead of having to tote it up those stairs! We still have to vacuum it, but we just empty it into a big plastic bin and then pump it out the escape hatch of the basement. It's also slowing as it comes inside, so if we can miss the rain all around us, then we'll get some sleep tonight. We are under flash flood warnings, and also there is a 70% chance of rain! God knows what we need and what we can handle, so we give thanks for the strength to get through today. I'm thanking him for the diapers I've hoarded over the years. I must have squeezed a million today into a hospital bath pan and toted it up the stairs. I filled 3 washers full of water which I squeezed out of diapers before we got the second shop vac. Both hands are blistered in 3 places; I think that means I'm a pansy and haven't been working hard enough. I'm sure God is a fanatic about clean basements. I keep being concerned about getting the house clean and He wants the BASEMENT clean. I thought it was pretty clean, but I guess he wanted it rinsed good.

My new cables for the camera came today, so I've got pictures galore. I'll give them to you 3 at a time. Today's pictures are Gabe and Garrett mesmerizing Elena; she thought they were awesome; can you tell? Then there is a good shot of the two of them before we left for the reunion. Then there is one of Gabe, Garrett and Sadie getting to ride in the rumble seat of Uncle Phil's car. How cool are they? Tomorrow I'll show you more great pictures.

God is great; praise Him, and I've lost count of the blessings, but I'm just starting over counting.

From our Hunter Lake.

Pictures on the blog today are pictures I've caught over the last month in our walks around Hunter Park Lake. We see the turtles sunning almost every day. It's fun to see how many of them stay even though we're walking in the area. Usually most of them slide off into the water when they hear us. Often there are 6 or eight on this log, but only two stayed long enough for me to get this picture. The yucca plant was in full bloom; I love those plants for some reason. We used to have a bunch of them growing in our yard when we lived in OKC; I should get some more. They are hardy and I love them. I love low maintenance plants. The last picture is of the blue heron. He is out there almost every day, too. I love him, too; he usually stays even though we are there, so I think he might like us, too. When we lived in Oklahoma City, 20 years ago, there was a creek that ran behind our house. There were great blue herons who lived back there with us, so these herons feel a little like family to us.


Today was quiet around here with no kids. We did our walking, which we hadn't done since we left for Branson/Louisville/Nashville, so it was quite a trek. We waited too late to go, so it was really hot. Went before breakfast, but that's too late at this time of year. We're going to bed at 9 and getting up EARLY to walk in the morning. Hot is good because cancer doesn't like it, but too hot brings on a migraine, so I have to find a balance. What a trick; that's pretty much the trick to life: finding the balance in everything. I'm not good at balance; I'm good at over-indulging. That's why it's a good thing I don't smoke or drink; too bad I did sugar! I don't do sugar anymore, so I'm working on cleaning up my habits.


I have to tell you this: I decided the birds were through with the nest, so I took the nest down and set it in our flower box out front. Then I cleaned off the door where they had turned it into the "bottom of a bird cage." After I cleaned all that off, I swept off the porch. As soon as I got inside I heard them out there chirping! I went to the window to see a little female hopping around, inspecting the nest and picking up pieces of nesting that I'd swept into the yard! What a hoot! I wonder if she'll use the nest in the planter box or rebuild on the door! I'm amazed at those birds. God's amazing. I'm counting and thanking Him for small and great wonders; join me!

Home, again; tired.

We took the kids home today; stayed and watched Sadie play ball; went grocery shopping and made it home. She's a good little catcher and a precious granddaughter. We are so blessed!

We are absolutely exhausted, though and heading to bed. I'm putting a picture on today's blog of a gorgeous calla lilly Gretta had blooming in her garden when we were there last week. It's nothing compared to all the kids, but it's a flower I could never get to grow and it's sure gorgeous! God bless us all; thanks for reading about us.

Fun day at the reserve and in the lake.

Actually, nobody went to the lake, but Gabe, Garrett and Sadie went to the edge of the lake in a little run over type swampy area and caught gobs of frogs, some tadpoles and a fish or two. They got way dirty and loved it, I think. Before that we went to the reserve and had a great day. I'm too tired and it's too late to go into details, but we had lots of fun and that's the bottom line. Tomorrow we take them home and go to Sadie's softball game. It'll be another long and fun day.

I never found my camera cable and Gretta says it's not at her house. So, I ordered another one from the guy on ebay, who has become my cable supplier. UGH. I hate when I can't get to my pictures to share with you. I got good pictures of the reunion and great pictures today, but I just filled up the card on the camera with good stuff; can't share until the end of the week. So, the pictures on the blog today are some I took of Elena when we were there last week. She's a dolly and Sadie and I enjoyed picking out the pictures to use tonight. God Bless!