Monday, July 20, 2009

weekend getaway

If you know me very well, you know I'm a homebody. Usually on my vacation time I'll make a quick trip to see family, or pretty much stick around home and take care of business and be lazy.

My sis-in-law and a couple of friends and I left Saturday morning for a little weekend getaway to the Palo Duro State Park. It's outside of Canyon, about 20 miles from Amarillo, and probably about a 5-6 hour drive from the DFW area, depending on your driving/stopping habits. The strip from Wichita Falls to Amarillo is punctuated with several small towns along the way. There's Electra, Vernon, Quanah, Childress, Memphis, Clarendon, and Claude. Depending on your mindset, it can either be a desolate strip of road, stretching for miles between towns, or you can recognize it as a piece of Americana, or more appropriately, Texana. As we paused at the red lights along the way, you could see the side roads that in their hey-day probably bustled with people on Saturdays when Panhandle folk came to town to do their shopping.

(bus·tle 1 (bsl)
intr. & tr.v. bus·tled, bus·tling, bus·tles
To move or cause to move energetically and busily.
n.
Excited and often noisy activity; a stir.

We went to see Palo Duro's musical theater production of Texas, and see it we did, along with about 1500 other people. A 600' cliff is a scenic background to the outdoor stage, and the cast includes children and horses. Quite a few of the performers come from the Panhandle colleges. I took this picture trying to adjust my camera, but it gives an idea of the setting. Silly me, I didn't turn around and click the back side of the stage. Oh well, another trip! (check out the link and you'll see some good pics)

We went to Grooms to see bronze sculptures of Jesus' journey to the Cross. One of the Linda's in the group particularly requested to see this (turns out we had 3 Linda's when you count that Kay's first name is Linda though she goes by Kay), and it was well worth the little drive on down I40, going east from Amarillo.

One of my interests is old cemeteries. What can I say, I like going through them. Many years ago, when the kids were young, we were driving along a dirt road to get to a main road, and stumbled across a cemetery that had 4 headstones lined up that were in the shape of tree trunks. Thus my introduction to Woodmen of the World, a fraternal organization that has life insurance. Since then my eyes are usually drawn to these distinctive markers, found in even the most remote locations. Well. In one of the little towns, on one of the little side roads, was a monument store. You know what I'm talking about, those places that sell the headstones. From the highway I was able to see at least a couple of the tree trunks standing tall among the rest. What's this???? They sell Woodmen of the World markers???? Bear in mind, most of the ones I see have dates from the 1800's. We made a u-turn, and went back to look. I'm thinking, what are these doing here? Is this a burial ground for old markers??? Since these had names and dates, one of our group suggested that maybe all of these markers were either samples or mistakes. The store was not open (probably by appointment only or something), but I jotted down their phone number. I just may have to see if any of these are for sale. Think it would freak anyone out if I put one in my back yard?


Wednesday, July 15, 2009

wednesday morning


We had a couple of birthdays in the family this past weekend, with Lily turning 7 and Ashlynn turning 3. They grow up so fast, don't they?

And I've been helping Elizabeth with the bumper pads and crib skirt for Little One. Shouldn't be too long till they're finished.

News in the flower bed. I have a lot of buds on the mums I brought back from Troy's yard, and one has actually opened up! For some reason I didn't expect them to open till the Fall. I guess I think in terms of them being a cooler weather plant, and we certainly haven't had the cool days.

Almost time to get up and around. Sigh. How long till retirement????

Friday, July 10, 2009

too cute...

I don't usually link up to a lot of advertising, but this is too cute. Way to go, Evian! (Not to be tried at home!)



(If you know how to shrink this a bit, let me know...)

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Woo-hoo! I won!

Remember I posted a link to Sherry's blog about a give-away she was doing in honor of her 200th posting? Well, I was the lucky winner! It was meant to be, I know it. I've had my eye on that cookbook for a bit, and it just called to me.

You may notice next to my wonderful new cookbook that there's a little paperback called God on a Harley by Joan Brady. It's one of my favorite quick reads, having read it several times, and Sherry rides her very own Harley. I thought I'd let it share picture privileges.

I think Brunhilda must have had an eye on the apron. As soon as the mail came today, she jumped up and got dibs on it. I must say, she cuts a fine figure in it, don't you agree? She's had her other duster over her dress for about 15 years, so for now I'll humor her and let her wear it. But when she's least expecting....watch out! (edited to add, now that she has a new duster/apron, looks like I'll have to spring for a new hat...this one looks rather sad.)
Thanks, Sherry!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

in all things, give thanks...

This morning as I headed out to work, I was a block away and realized I left my cell phone at home. Hmm, do I go back, or just go ahead and have one day that I'm not connected to the world? I had plenty of time, so I went on back and got my phone.

About 20 minutes later, morning traffic is flowing pretty smooth. Picking up a bit, but not a beating. As I topped a rise, I spotted something in the road, but didn't have time to swerve and miss it. Ka-plump! Whatever I ran over, it sure wasn't an aluminum can. Pretty solid, probably metal. With my tire ka-plumpin', I slowed down, and eased to the far right. Fortunately there was an exit handy, and I got off, pulling into an empty parking lot. Imagine my chagrin when I saw a hole the size of Texas in my right rear tire. But, you can also imagine how thankful I was that I had made that turn and headed back to the house for my cell phone.

Fortunately for me, since David's a teacher and out for the summer, he was able to be there within 10 or 15 minutes, changed out the tire with the spare "baby" tire, and I was on my way. John had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I needed new tires, so I stopped at Discount Tire on my way in to work, and got a whole new set, along with a rim to replace the one I ruined. And, as a bright little ray of sunshine, I'm getting a new GPS free because I got 4 tires!

I know God looks out for me everyday, but today I think He chose to remind me that He's here. Yes, I'm a Pollyanna and look on the bright side, but for the part of town I was traveling through, I'm glad I had my cellphone, it was daylight, I got off the freeway with no problems, and David was handy. Thank you, thank you, thank you.