Razr Madness

Slowly I am getting to know my new cell phone. I'm trying to figure out all the features, especially the camera - I can't find it. Oh, wait a minute! Yes! Here's the key with a little camera icon on it. Lets see...... click...

Oh my gosh, this little phone does have a camera. Am I going to have fun.

What I had to do to get this picture posted here:

1. snap pix with camera phone
2. email pix to myself from phone
3. go to PC and open my email
4. save the pix into my picture folder
5. log onto BarrBlog and create new post
6. open picture folder to upload pix

Whew .... I need a nap.

Our friends just returned from an Alaskan Cruise. Mary took this picture from her cell phone in Sitka Alaska and emailed it to me.

Learning this technology is challenging and a whole lot of fun.

Moir Family

Sister Mary is Marie's good friend at the Mother House in Monroe. She phoned today to let us know that Marie had fallen Sunday and broke her hip. She underwent surgery, had a pin put in her hip and is still hospitalized. She told Mel (I wasn't here) the Dr. came by and said Marie may go back to the convent tomorrow. Sister Mary said she is not sure about that and it seems very soon after the surgery. I plan on calling her this weekend and will find out more.

Lew, our uncle, has been battling cancer in one form or another for several years now. It seemed he would no sooner get it under control than it would pop up in some other part of his body. I think Sister Mary called there to tell them about Marie and talked to Kyle and Karen.
Lew is now under Hospice care and Kyle said Betty could not make it to the phone.

I know you all will keep both he and Marie in your thoughts and prayers and I will keep you updated as I hear news.

School Days

Children across North Texas began the 2007-08 school year this morning. This is the latest starting date in quite some time. For many of the past years, Plano and maybe a couple of other districts would begin the first week of August with many other school districts starting the following couple of weeks. Because of the early start, there was always a wonderful week of fall break in early Oct. Our legislature (pressured by the tourism industry) decided every district needed to start around the same date in late August and no school could start before the fourth Monday of this month. Yea--more vacation time at South Padre or Sea World or Six Flags in the summer. Because of the late start, there will be no break in October this year or I guess for years to come. I sure did like it then. We would go to Gulf Shores, get a great fall rate on the condo and had the beach practically to ourselves. Being the retired couple we are, we can still do that, but I think most teachers and the kids will miss this great week.

Fifty-five years ago I doubt there was fall break either. Here is the only class picture I have of my elementary years of education. Can you tell which well behaved little Catholic school girl I was? Hint: I am the only one out of uniform. Yep, that's me on the second row without my red tie. I think this is why my parents bought the picture. Once again Christine is doing her own thing, was probably in trouble with the Sisters and is smiling like she could care less! It looks like there were about 41 of us in this class. Sure am glad I wasn't teaching then when they were packing the kids into the rooms.

Birds Eye View

Have you discovered Google Earth? You can download it for free. It's fun to play around and search for just about any place you want. Above is Dodd Dr. Looks like not much going on in North Highlands tonight.

Pink Again

We renewed our Verizon Wireless contract for another two years and also purchased new cell phones. Of course I was drawn to this sleek new Razr and had to have this color. If you recall this post I just can't get enough pink. Melanie has this one too - same color. I'm still learning all the features. I understand that this phone has many capabilities yet Verizon has blocked most of them to force their customers to pay extra. Oh well, it's going to take me a while just to figure out the basics. I'm still trying to grasp the concept that somewhere in all this pink is a camera. Smile!!

Twist of Fate

The Bostics kindly invited us to Cary for lunch today with the main intention of bringing Art for a short visit. He's been wanting to see their new home and also meet his great grand dog, Sydney. We were a little apprehensive about the trip because Art can be quite unsteady in his walking and is prone to falling. But we decided we would bring him for the trip and keep a very close eye on everything so he wouldn't fall.

We had just finished up a delicious lunch prepared by Melanie and Jason. I stood up from my chair and promptly twisted my ankle and fell flat on the floor landing in the corner of their dining room. My ankle was throbbing with pain and the tears were starting to flow. Art walked over (quite steady, by the way) and generously offered me his cane as I lay on the floor. Have you ever laughed and cried at the same time?

The irony of all of this is not lost on me. All I can say is thank goodness I had not had any alcoholic spirits - I surely would have been cast as the tipsy Mother who finally had one too many.

My ankle is still painful and swollen. Art is back at Brighton Gardens in as good as shape as when we picked him up.

Melanie and Jason, thank you so much for a great visit. And sorry for the little crisis I caused - I need to take lessons from Art, I suppose.

This and That in Nature

Don't you just love this picture of Sarah Kate? Of course you can tell it was taken several years ago, but I just thought it was one of the cutest picture I'd ever seen when John sent it.
I remember thinking how cute it would be on the front cover of Better Homes and Gardens or Good Housekeeping. I did send it to one of those magazines and got a reply thanking me but saying they had all their covers planned for the year. Oh well, their loss!



One evening a few weeks ago Mel called me out to the patio where he was about to fire up the grill. Lo and behold we had had a visit from Charlotte. Click on the picture and see her amazing handiwork. I was anxiously awaiting the next morning when I thought I could get a great picture of the web with the sun at my back and maybe morning dew on it. Have you ever experienced that amazing sight--beautiful! In the morning the web was gone (Mel did move the grill carefully away from the web before lighting it). Haven't seen it or Charlotte since.

Once Jill gave me a pack of sunflower seeds and I decided to plant them on either side of the pool. The tiny little seeds grew and grew and before I knew it, I had gigantic flowers as you can see from the picture. They were pretty enough but the problem was with bees. They would come during the day and swarm all over the sunflowers then fly across the pool to the other ones. We had bees everywhere in the yard. I finally ended up knocking the flowers down one night when no bees were in sight. I'm sure the bees and the giant who was waiting for those gigantic stalks to grow to his house in the sky were sad.

Class of '67

This weekend is Tim's 40th high school reunion. We went to one of the events last night at a pub downtown. Sometimes these gatherings can be awkward for the spouses, but I enjoyed the evening and just did some people watching. I knew a few folks already and met a few new ones, too. We both had a great time. Tim enjoyed catching up with some long ago acquaintances.

Three Amigos

Austin/San Antonio Weekend

Karen, my former biking buddy and good friend, moved to Austin. Her daughter got married this past weekend so Mel and I went down for the wedding. Jill and Robb married at St. Francis King of France Church and the reception was at the Bob Bullock State History Museum. The young couple will settle in Raleigh where Robb is a lawyer. Jill just received her masters from Harvard and will be job hunting once settled. We had a fabulous time at the reception and got back to our downtown hotel quite late. At 4 a.m. we were evacuated because they had found an empty fire extinguisher on the tenth floor above us. It wasn't much fun to walk down those flights of stairs. I bet we were all a funny looking group wandering around the Omni Hotel block in downtown Austin--I, along with others, was in my nightgown and robe!

Karen and Chris at the reception.

The Bob Bullock State History Museum, site of the wedding reception.

The state capitol as seen from the museum.

After we attended a brunch at Karen's house on Sunday we headed to San Antonio. This is my friend, Frances, who we visited. You all have probably heard me mention her. We met through church and one of the ministries in which I'm involved. She is a very dear person and everyone who meets her instantly forms a bond with her. She has so much going on in her life (dialysis 3x a week, etc.) but is always positive about life and her many blessings. We had a wonderful visit with her, then stayed overnight and visited with former neighbors and friends, Jack and Mary Louise.

We took a scenic route through the Hill Country coming home and checked out small Texas towns and a state park that we hope to visit this fall.

At the Lake

Recently we visited friends at their beautiful home on Lake Norman, about a one hour drive south near Charlotte. Pam and I first met over 20 years ago when we both moved to the same neighborhood here at the same time. What's funny is that we both moved from Houston. Now we may go months without any contact but we still manage to stay in touch several times a year.


This particular Sunday we rode on the lake on her jet ski which was a blast. I noticed lots of people tubing and that looked like fun too. Many years ago I used to water ski and loved it so much. I would like to try it again one of these days. Actually, I think I know someone who could water ski barefooted. I was never that good.

1919

Today Art is 88 years old. This picture of him and Tim was taken around 1950 in Roanoke, VA. Art was 31 years old.

Tim took the day off from work to take his Dad to lunch. Then they went to Dillards to purchase a new pair of his favorite shoes, black Reeboks with velcro straps. Then they went to the audiologist to have his new hearing aids adjusted a bit. The roles have reversed. Tim takes such good care of his Dad and wants to make sure everything is to his liking. Dad and son .... what a bond. (click on the photo and check out the belt buckle)