CHRISTMAS DINNER

This was our Christmas dinner we just wanted you to see that we were not starving for dinner. We had a good time but not like home, ya know.
Dee sent us a box of goodies and we polished them off. We have received a lot of gift cards and a newspaper subscription. We have been blessed so many times this year. But none of this would be possible if we did not have a Saviour that loved us so much. Any one reading this open your heart and ask Jesus to come in. Then you will really know what Christmas is about.

WEEK OF CHRISTMAS

As you can see our beautiful flower is still blooming. This is the second stock and I do believe it is more beautiful than the first, but maybe it's the season.
I'm sure you are wondering why the picture of the candy. This is one of our many Christmas gifts the Hencoski's sent it to us from NJ. As you can see it is all from the 40's. We have cigarettes and a licorice pipe. You name it we got it. Then Matt and Molly sent us a box of our favorite chocolates, Esther Price from Dayton OH. We are going to have to use some self control, me thinks.

Our flower

The first picture is the first stalk that bloomed, you can see the other stalk. It grew fast just like the first one. You can see it is starting to come out in bloom too. I had to cut the old blooms off, so we now have an ugly stock left.
A juvenile whooping crane fitted with a radio transmitter died last monday at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. It is the first mortality since the 23 died from the drought. The dead bird was sent to the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison Wisconsin where it will be examined for cause of death. They travel 2400 miles from Canada to the coastal bend area where we are located. The cranes have teetered on the brink of distinction since 1940 when there were only 16 of them. The drought has depleted the blue crab population, this is what they feed on.

whoopers

The whooping cranes are back to visit again. I read in the paper they like fresh water from the rivers, so the drought has been very hard on them. 2008-2009 they lost 23 because of the drought. This year they were expecting 300 so we don't want to lose any of them. It is hard to realize there are only 300 out there. We have had 3 days of rain and I am not complaining. If this blogs I sm caught up till next week. If not I'll have to wait till tomorrow and try again.

The brginning

Sure pray this works this is the third time trying to get this to go thru on the blog. It is so frustrating when it doesn't work and publish. My cousin Jeanie and her husband Ron brought this big bulb, in this tiny pot with 2 tablesspoons of dirt on it to me when I had only been out of the hospital about 4 days. She gave me 10 minutes of instructions as to how to take care of this thing. I thought why would anybody bring me all this work when I was trying to get myself ready to leave for Texas. I had so much healing and learning to do and here is this flower. But I have apologized to her several times it has turned out beautiful and still getting pretti We have really enjoyed it so much everyday. Our manager's wife loves flowers and she is watching it to. Only God has kept it alive and showed us another one of his great creation. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

Our amaryllis

Just wanted you to be able to see the different stages the flower is going through. We can see a change everyday. It is so neat to watch, we just love it.

Our beautiful flower

We are enjoying our beautiful amaryllis. Lowell takes pictures twice a day. This is belief that only God can create something this beautiful. See the other fat stock coming up beside the blooms. It should be coming out real soon. This guy has been growing everyday trying to catch up with the first flowers. Don't know if he will be as tall and have as many blooms or not, but we shall see. More on them next week.

Our Tree

As you can see the parade got me moving to get our decorations out. Took all the energy I had to get these few up. My Christmas spirit is not the greatest this year. We had church in the park today and had I think about 20 people or so. Went reallly well. We enjoyed it. We also had our $2.00 banana split party this afternoon, tasted really good too. So another busy day and I'll probably play cards too.

Christmas Parade

We had a Christmas parade in our park. Anybody that had a golf cart could decorate it and get in the contest. The motor cycle with Santa Claus won first prize. Then they sang Christmas Carols on the porch.

Senile

That is one big piece of something and that is what we followed, he was finally able to pull over and let us pass. Unless you have been to Ohio and drove on the Horseshoe Bend road you won't appreciate this little stretch of road in La Grange Texas. Sharp curves and right straight down on my side. I enjoyed it though guess it is the kid in me.

Senile

The top photo is one of the pictures I missed to post on the way down here. This is Shaeffer, Sadie and Sophie Marks grown up kids and his horse.
The next picture is in McAllister OK. They are statues of the cattle drive going thru there, really neat but no place to pull over. We had a delay on the way down. Clear up in front of this big roll of hay was a big piece pf something anyhow we all slowed down for miles. We always figure the Lord is slowing us down for a reason.

ON OUR WAY TO TEXAS

The doctor released me on Wednesday Nov 11 and Lowell got us ready to leave for Texas on the 13th. Amanda fixed us breakfast that morning sausage, eggs and french toast, so proud of her.
We headed for Iowa Lowell thought we could sneek in 2 days before the cold weather hit Iowa. We had the honor to see the new church it is fabulous. This is the worship center seats 1100. They are so thankful for what the Lord has done.
We stayed our 2 days and headed for Missouri to see Mike we had a real blessing we got to see all of his family. Then we stayed a few days and headed onto Aransas Pass Texas. We had a real good trip mighty tired but glad to be in Texas.
They had us come to Thanksgiving dinner even tho we were not signed up. Had a great time so good to see our friends here.
Looking forward to finishing healing and resting. Lowell has been through so much and taken such good care of me and still is.
So we cannot thank the Lord enough for all His blessings.

The rest of the party

We went from the party to the hospital, I had major major surgery during the night (surprise I might add). This put a damper on our trip to Texas. I lived through it and we are so thankful. After 12 days in the hospital almost dying twice I was in no shape to do the blog. Ersta not only nursed me back to health but taught her Dad how to take care of me. Dee was the laundry woman and the kids all brought in meals so wonderful. Dolly wore a poodle skirt and AJ was an adorable dinosaur for halloween.