Congratulations!

Well, my computer shut down on me in the middle of this post and it didn't save it - so, I will just have to start over!

First - I want to say congratulations to my son, Josh for passing his CDL driving test! He passed with flying colors last Friday so, CONGRATULATIONS!

Now, onto the beach....! We have been going to Crystal Beach for so long that the kids consider it a second home. They know their way around the entire peninnsula! It's not that big and very family friendly.

This is a picture of the "pink" house we stayed in for so many years. It's called the "Disch House" on the realtors' lists. It's a really nice, clean house with three bedrooms but it only sleeps 8. We have just got to the point where we need at LEAST 4 bedrooms for privacy and then the single guys get the couches!

This is a picture of my kiddos and my mother (Mema). Notice Matt is usually alway in, or close to the water and Joshua is usually somewhere with a shovel. He's just starting a hole in this picture and Matt is helping Becca make a castle. This is directly in front of

the beach house and the tide is going out. Matt is 7, Josh is 6 and Becca is 2.

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The next picture is the same day, later in the day. Notice where the shovel is. Josh dug himself a BIG hole. I have another picture somewhere of Becca standing in the hole and it is deep!

(I want to apologize for the way these pictures and typing are set up. When I preview and/or publish this, they are never in the same place as they are during the setup! - I haven't figured it all out yet!)

Anyway, we usually just hang out on the beach or run up and down the peninnsula during our week. There are a lot of little souvenier shops and shell shops to visit and we usually visit each one every year "just because it's what we do"! There's a grocery store/gas station/gift shop/Ace Hardware store in the middle of Crystal Beach where we do most of the shopping. Their prices are not jacked up like you would expect and are very reasonable. There is a Super Wally World on Galveston Island where we stock up on paper products, but for food, the grocery store is not bad. We always take too much food anyway and wind up taking the majority of it home. I think my kids could live on ice cream for this week. We probably buy 1 container of BLUE BELL (it HAS to be Blue Bell) ice cream every day. Oh, and cones. Also, the ice cream trucks roam up and down the beach all day playing that annoying song "Do Your Ears Hang Low". Every time we hear that song ANYWHERE, guess where our minds go!! S

o, during the really hot time of the day, we go to the grocery store or take a nap or play games or watch tv or (This is my favorite) PEOPLE watch from the porch. There are not many people on the beach during the week when we go because we usually go off'-season, but we check out the ones that show up! Then, the #1 favorite thing to do is watch people get stuck in the sand. You can't believe how many people drive their cars into deep sand. So, our 4 wheel drive truck comes in handy. The boys have pulled countless people out of the sand over the years. Sometimes, they get a tip, mostly just a thank you!

I can almost hear the ice cream truck.....SORRY - no snow cone trucks here!

Countdown!

Ok - I wasn't "officially" going to begin the countdown to "The Beach" until July 1, but Inquiries touched a nerve so I'm starting today - - - only 64 days left till we leave on our annual beach vacation! I try to hold myself in check until at least July - too much anticipation and all.

We have been going to Crystal Beach, Texas for probably the last 21 years and I grew up going to the beach down around Sargent, Texas where my grandfather had a trailer house on the Intercoastal Waterway just 1/2 mile from the beachfront. The trailer was about 1/4 mile or so from a drawbridge that would lift up every time a barge and tugboat came down the canal and tooted its horn. My brothers and I would run out to the edge of the canal on the dock when we saw a barge coming and pump our arms up and down like kids do to make truck drivers honk their horns and the captains of the tugboats would normally toot their horns - kept us entertained and it never got old! We would swim in the canal but we had to be careful not to put our feet down because the crabs would pinch us! We spent the days crabbing and fishing and swimming and running around with our cousins who also lived in the same area and had a dune buggy! The trailer was also just a few docks down from the bait dock where boats would come and unload all kinds of marine life and the owner would also buy our meager catch of the day (now that I think about it - I don't think what he bought from us was actually edible most of the time!!!) from my brothers and me. I know we caught flounders and such, but mostly we caught "croakers" which make a croaking sound when you pull them out of the water - hence the name. One time, I caught a puffer fish! It was really neat. Then, one time a dolphin stayed in the canal for almost a whole week just swimming up and down. That was unusual - the dolphins usually didn't swim in the canal. I remember laying in the trailer which was hot and cramped and tiny and PERFECT every night listening to the waves lap along the shore and then I could hear the small rush of water from the barges coming through and the hum of the tug's motor and the sound of the crickets and the smell of the water and ..what memories!

Then, when Matt was born, my mom and dad started renting a beach house in Crystal Beach, Texas which is just east of Galveston Island on the Bolivar Penninsula. To get across the shipping channel you have to ride on the ferry boat. Crystal Beach is kind of like the beach equivalent of Red River and the mountains! It's fairly small and family oriented (most of the partying is over on Galveston) and very community minded. We stayed in the same house every year until a few years ago when we kind of outgrew it. The kids were all older and brought friends and we needed more bedrooms and bathrooms, etc. The kids thought the house was "our beach house" and didn't understand form many years that we just rented it every year! Now, we're in search of the "perfect" family house for the years to come. This year, we have one rented that has a pool table in a game room on a top story of the house! With a panoramic view, no less! I hope it is as nice as the pictures imply. We've gone through our share of "dud" house the last few years! We were spoiled in the "pink house" as the kids called it. Anyway, we'll see - looks promising!

Last year, we had the joy of introducing Antique Cowgirl (my precious daughter-in-law) to Crystal Beach! I was kind of nervous at first because Josh loves the beach and I was wondering how it was going to be if she didn't like it down there (believe it or not - some people don't!) but, the first day there, my fears were all washed away! She took to it like a fish to water and never looked back. It was such a joy and privilege to watch them play at the beach. Then Matt kept everyone entertained with his "driving skills" in the golf cart on the beach and Sarah and Becca serenaded us on the porch in the evenings. It was great. The house we stayed in was a dud, with the exception of the porch which was FANTASTIC, but everyone made the best of it and it just added to the memories.

This picture was taken on Crystal Beach around 1991 or 1992, before Becca was born. That's Josh in front and my mother (Mema) holding onto Matt in the water. No, the water is not blue or clear and the beach is kind of brown but I love it there!

AAH! I'm officially anticipating now.... I think I'll add more to this in the next post - it makes it all the sweeter!

Five Golden Meme

Okay! Here goes. I've come to the conclusion that I'm a pretty boring person!!!!:)

The rules:
1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read the player's blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.


What were you doing five years ago?
Well, pretty much the same thing I'm doing now! EXCEPT ---ALL my kids were still home and we were homeschooling . (I am still homeschooling but only 1 instead of 3) !! I was still learning the ropes of THE GATE (pre-Ooh La La) and just enjoying being a stay-at-home homeschooling mom.

What are five things on your to-do list for today?
To-do list for Friday:
1. G-sales in Norman with Becca.
2. Wal-mart in Norman while I'm there. Gotta conserve that fuel!
3. Work on furniture for my booth
4. Pay bills
5. LAUNDRY catch up

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. Bluebell Ice Cream - anything with chocolate and nuts!
2. Brownies - thick and crusty and warm
3. Chips and salsa
4. Raw veggies and Ranch dip
5. Cereal, with milk

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1. Pray for wisdom!!!
2. Pay off all our debts.
3. Trust funds for the kids.
4. Buy a HOT TUB!!!!!
5. Bank the rest and try really hard not to change our way of life.

What are five of your bad habits?
1. PROCRASTINATION of all household duties especially dishes and laundry!
2. Lack of organization
3. I tend to talk too much around quiet people or when I'm nervous.
4. I would rather go outside and "play" than take care of "business"!
5. Did I mention procrastination?

What are five places where you have lived?
1. Oakcliff, Texas
2. Buckingham, Texas
3. Richardson, Texas
4. Lubbock, Texas
5. Foster, OK

What are five jobs you've had?
1. I worked in the billing department for the laboratory at Medical City Hospital in Dallas.
2. Dallas Market Center, downtown Dallas as a clerk.
3. Kerr-McGee Refinery in Wynnewood- Engineering secretary.
4. Union Carbide Corp in Pauls Vally - secretary and shipping clerk
5. Ooh La La!! occasionally!

Five people I tag
There's no one left TO tag in my little world! Everyone I know has been tagged. Carry on!

Sunny Days

Sunny and hot has returned in full force I think! We got about 3+ inches of rain on Monday - so much so that our laundry room and bedroom flooded with water from the back yard! We caught it pretty fast and just dumped the dirty towel hamper in from of the water coming in under the door! Anyway, I took a picture of our pond last week and then I took one Monday evening after the

rain. You might say the pond is full! Everything was so clean and

green after the rain - except the pond - it was pretty muddy. The

pond has only gone over the overflow dam once since we have lived here and that was last year. It was almost over the top of the regular dam. The pond used to be surrounded by pecan trees as well as other varieties when we first moved here in 1980 but the beavers took care of most of them within the next 5 years until we "relocated" them. There is still one beaver that we know of living here but, it hasn't caused too many problems. It likes to dam up the creek that is just west of the pond (where the overflow pipe drains into Wildhorse Creek).

We made our weekly trip to town yesterday. Hannah, Rebecca and I went to eat at the new Chinese Food place (YUM YUM) and then did a little shopping (they shopped - I watched) then went to "tweak" my booth at Ooh La La. We had a fun day. We ran into Dawn and the three young ones and got to visit with them at the restaurant and the shop. We're trying to limit "town" trips to one, maybe two a week. We live about 40 miles (one way) from Wal-Mart in Duncan so, we're trying to adjust! If we run out of something - we run out of it. Bummer!

Short post today - I need to get to working on furniture for the shop since it's sunny. I want to leave you with some funny poetry from a bood by Shel Silverstein. A friend of ours gave a book of his to Rebecca a few years ago, then we found another volumn at a garage sale. His poems are funky and goofy - not your typical poetry! We thought they were pretty funny. Anyway, blessings to all of you. May your day be profitable in the ways of the Lord!

Well, I was going to copy the page from the book and post it, but BLogger is not letting me add another image right now. So, I will just type it. Shalom!

Peckin'

The saddest thing I ever did see

Was a woodpecker peckin' at a plastic tree.

He looks at me, and "Friend," says he,

"Things ain't as sweet as they used to be."

Catch-up -- Again!

I was told yesterday that I was not "current" on my blog (!) so I will try to catch up! This has been a crazy, event-filled week for us. Tony's bobtail truck went "down" Thursday before last (the 5th) and he took it in to the Rush Truck Center at Ardmore. They thought they would have it fixed by Friday at noon. WRONG! They had trouble finding what was wrong with the wiring - then, after 2 days - they decided it was the computer. So, they had to order a computer for the truck. Then, after the computer got here, they didn't have the tool they needed to install it in the truck :o. They had to ORDER the tool to put in the computer in the truck that Peterbilt. (Yea-I know, bad poem - does anyone get it?) (The House that Jack Built) ANYWAY, they finally called yesterday last afternoon and said it was ready. So, back to Ardmore to get the truck.

Tony had a week's vacation - good if you work for someone else, bad - if you're self-employed! So, during the week we had Bob the Builder come out and install some new doors on the front and back of our house. He came out one day with Solomon, and then brought the doors and Sarah with him the next. Sarah worked really hard.....at staying out of trouble for talking with Rebecca all day! She wound up helping Rebecca clean out the barn so we can pour concrete for a shop. She did help her dad, too.

Bob working on the door - -Sarah & Becca trying to stay out of trouble ---Becca's "innocent" face

Anyway, our daily schedules went out the door this past week. However, I really did enjoy getting up in the morning and going for a ride on the Mule with Tony and then again in the evenings checking the animals and checking for new grass growth (a whole 'nother subject") and driving the trails he's created in the forest. One evening, we drove past a gopher hole - just in time to see the gopher pushing his head out of the hole with a load of dirt to cover up the opening! Tony reached down and scooped the dirt out, uncovering the opening again and, sure enough, here came the little rascal again. We watched him for about 10 minutes - covering and uncovering the hole! I didn't have my camera like I usually do (of course) so we took his picture with Tony's cell phone. It turned out a little dark. So, I don't have a picture of the gopher but I do have a couple I took later of some of my favorite flowers to share.

Hope to see you all tomorrow! At church and at the graduation!