Rewind back to last summer 2013..... Part 3

Bow Fishing

My brother-in-law took the kids bow fishing one night.  Bow fishing includes catching (spearing) Alligator Gar with a barbed arrow.  See photos below to see what these (ugly) creatures are.  The kids had a wonderful time.  

Jessie & Ison bowed the same Gar

Jessie's (small) catch

A bigger Catch

The LARGEST Gar was bowed by Melanee

It was so BIG that they had it weighed and measured to see if it was the largest catch in Texas. 

It wasn't the largest but it was a close second!  

So Awesome!!

Games

Bill found one of their family's childhood games called "Skittles" created by Carrom.  He got it all cleaned up so that we can start playing it.   After doing some research on it recently I learned this is a game created in the 1920's. It is played with spinning tops, and 12 hardwood pins.  You try to knock down as many pins as you can with the spinning top.  Points are scored depending on which tops are knocked down.  It's a blast and was a BIG HIT with everyone.  Thanks babe for finding this game for us.  

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You can find this game on Amazon or Ebay if you are interested in getting one of these for your family.

Father's Day

I was so blessed this year to get to spend Father's Day with my Dad.  It's been a few years since that has happened.  It also happened to be the last day my parents and nieces were going to be here in Texas, so we had everyone over for dinner, games and fun times spent with each other.  

Valerie, my Dad and my FIL in the background. 

I don't know what mom was doing but I just love her tongue hanging out!  LOL

She does this often when she is concentrating on something.  It's cute isn't it?  

(She'll probably kill me for posting this) 

Just finishing up dinner and dessert.  MIL in the background.

Valerie created a photo album for dad for Father's Day.  

It was awesome! 

Filled with so many memories. 

 Pretty sure my dad loves it!  

Having my parents and my nieces here with us for a couple weeks really made my summer extremely wonderful. It was really hard for my dad to be here with having to have dialysis every other day, scheduled at a center he was not familiar with. He struggled a few times and did not feel well often.  I am just so grateful that he came anyway, to visit and see our new home and our little FARMily.   I don't know if he will be able to ever make it out here again so I just feel really happy and blessed to have him here with us. 

RODEO 

After my parents and nieces left for home, we still had another week or so with Jessie before he had to go home.  We made some great memories that I will forever cherish. 

Rodeo time!  Jessie couldn't miss this opportunity since he himself is a rodeo boy back home, 

bull riding of all things! So dear hubby, Jessie and I went to our local rodeo. 

We had a wonderful time.  I was very impressed with how rodeo's are done here in Texas.  

They take the rodeo just as seriously as High School Football.  

If you have ever been to Texas you will know exactly what I mean by that.  

The rodeo grounds

Rodeo Royalty bringing the colors in.  

We had a really good time and will definitely make this a tradition.

Jessie all studded out with cowboy hat and new T-shirt!  

Pretty funny shirt if you ask me LOL!!

Jessie talked me into getting myself a cowboy hat.  

It's a comfy fit!  I like it!  

Wonderful memories were also made at Joe's Crab Shack.

Love this kid of mine!  So handsome!

And we couldn't miss out on stopping by Cabela's of Fort Worth

This is my new favorite photo.  He wanted a photo so he can show off this new hat.  

I just love the photo because it shows off my boy!  

Having my parents, nieces and Jessie visit really made my summer special.  I miss having these people around living close-by like we used to, so the times we do get to spend together seem that much more important, more special.  So thankful for Memories that will last a life time!!  

Rewind back to last summer 2013..... Part 2

On another day I took the kids and my mom to the Ft. Worth Stockyards to watch the Longhorn Cattle Drive down the cobbled streets of old town Ft. Worth.  It's a fun place to go.  Kids love it and there is a lot to see and do in the area.

Cute cousins waiting for the longhorns

Parker & Mikayla with a young longhorn

Watching a wild west show and shootout 

The Ft. Worth Stockyards is also the location of many museums, the Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Stockyard's Championship Rodeo.   

This is the Cowtown Coliseum where the Rodeo takes place

This wall mural makes it feel like Jessie is right there hanging onto that Bull

Love this one of Mikayla and Parker as well.  

Jessie being way into being a cowboy and a bull rider enjoyed the museum and coliseum.  We had a great day visiting the shops and buying mementos to remember this visit.  

The next few days consisted of roasting marshmallows for s'mores in our backyard fireplace while enjoying the beautiful June evenings, playing games, celebrating a birthday and enjoying spending time together.  

Mmmm.... Yummy Roasted Marshmellows

We had the awesome pleasure of being able to celebrate Melanee's birthday while she was here.  Aunt Valerie made that cool soccer cake.  I hope she enjoyed her special day even if she was far away from home.  

Wishing Melanee a Happy Birthday

As I reflect upon this time, I remember experiencing such joy and happiness to have a houseful of loved ones.  We had such a great time together.  I will tell you more in Part 3 coming soon.  

Rewind back to last summer 2013.... Part 1

Since I have a lot of catch up to do on this blog of mine I will start by going back to last summer because it was the best summer I have had in a very long time.

In June of last year (2013) my son Jessie came out to spend the whole month with me.  I was so very excited. Also in June my parents brought two of my nieces with them and spent over two weeks out here visiting. Splitting their time between me and my sister Valerie who lives about 30 miles from me, Jessie and my nieces got to see and do so many fun activities with all of us.

Since there are so many things to tell you about I will have to break this up into different parts so as not to make one huge long post that will take forever to read.  So this post is Part 1 of Summer 2013.

The first family activity took place on June 8th one of the first days after everyone arrived.  We took the family to Mineral Wells State Park for some kayaking and fishing.  Considering it was June, the temperature was very nice and tolerable.  The kids had a blast!  Dad and Mom seemed to really enjoy it as well.  I enjoyed having everyone around and watching them have so much fun!

Later that week they went over to my sister's home to spend some time with them.  She took them to Build-A-Bear where they were able to build their own bear. 

I think it is cute that 17 year old Jessie chose a bear too.  Over the last year he has taken an interest in being a cowboy and doing some bull-riding so he chose a cowboy bear.  Don't you just love his styling outfit?  I sure do!  LOL

Jessie & his Cowboy Bear

Melanee and her Texas Bear

Parker & his Batman Bear 

Mikayla & her soccer player bear (dog?)

Aunt Valerie also took them to the Aquarium and Swimming at the neighborhood pool.  Fun times were had by all.     

At the Aquarium in Dallas.  I just love this photo!

Swimming Fun with Cousins

Thank You Aunt Valerie for making sure they had a fun time while I had to work.

This is the end of Part 1...... look for Part 2 coming up soon.  

About Lilly

Three weeks ago my beautiful 6 year old niece Lilly was diagnosed with Leukemia.  It came as a shock for all of my family.  It is so hard to watch her struggle and be so sick.  I would take it away in an instant if I could.  However, she is such a strong little girl even though she is going through so much right now.  She is an inspiration to me.

You can follow her jouney here:  http://bebraveforlilly.blogspot.com/

Please pray for her, her parents, and her little sister Emery as they make this heart wrenching journey to wellness!

Now maybe I can get back to blogging!

You might be asking why I haven't posted anything for many months? 

Well as you know I have been in school and working full time and that has pretty much absorbed my whole life for a few years now. 

But guess what?  I am now an official college graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Forensic Accounting.  Yee haw!!!  So happy to have accomplished this, which I never thought I would. 

So now I have created a task list of all the projects that need to get worked on, one of those is catching up my blog.  I have so much to tell you about!

I hope I haven't lost all my blog followers?   Hang on... I will be back soon with some updates on this past year.  Thanks for all of you who have hung with me. 

Good Deeds

I have been wanting to write about this for a long time but just haven't had the time with school and work and all that I have going on right now.  However, I feel that this story is important to share because it gave me Hope and a realization that there are still a lot of really good people in the world.

If you don't already know, I work at a bank.  A few months ago one of our female customers who is on a fixed income and can't work due to a disability came into the bank.  One of our tellers was helping her while I was helping another man.  The lady asked the teller how much money she had in the bank for which the teller informed her that she had $8.50.  The lady then informed the teller that she would like to withdraw all but the 50 cents but wanted to make sure that wouldn't cause her account to be closed.  The teller gave her the money and the lady left.

Meanwhile, I was helping a man who happened to not even be one of our customers but was only there depositing money into an account that did belong to one of our customers.  After I completed his transaction he opened his wallet and took all of his cash out and handed it to me asking me to please make sure it got deposited into that lady's account that just left.  He said it wasn't much but was all that he had at the time. And with that he left.  He wasn't a customer so we didn't even know his name.  He was a stranger helping another stranger in need.

And with that both me and the other teller broke out into tears.  What an amazing thing to do for a stranger! What he gave me to deposit may not seem like much to him, but could mean that lady may have enough for another meal when she may have had to go without.  It was really touching!  And it renewed my faith in people.

This example reminds me of a song by Alabama "Angels Among Us".   Here are a few lyrics.  

Oh I believe there are angels among us.

Sent down to us from somewhere up above.

They come to you and me in our darkest hours.

To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.

To guide us with the light of love.

I believe that man was an angel that day!  His example makes me want to be a better person!

Because everything is bigger in Texas....

Even the Texas State Flag!

Happy Wednesday to y'all!