Family
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Moosie’s Garden & Dad’s Yard
My mom usually handles the flower beds and my dad is the yard guy. He’s the one who keeps it green, mows it regularly and had my brother and I, in the 100* summers of Texas, moving the sprinkler for spot to spot while we were at home. There’s nothing like running barefoot through the St. Augustine. Now the name Moosie formed for my mom back in high school. Somehow “mom” morphed to “moo moo” and then to Moosie. 🙂 Initially she thought she might use Moosie as her grandma name but she didn’t stick with it and went with Mimi. I’ve been weeding and planting and we’ve got the…
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Cross Timbers Trail at Lake Texoma
This past weekend my brother, my dad, Chris and I went to the Cross Timbers Trail at Lake Texoma to do a short backpacking weekend. My brother and dad have gone here many times with the Boy Scouts and my first trip here was in October 2008. I’ve wanted to go back ever since and funnily enough my brother had been wanting to go as well and mentioned it when we returned from the Florida Trail. We had to do some convincing for my dad since he wasn’t feel as in shape as he should be but my brother managed to twist his arm enough. We set off on Friday…
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Gayle’s Garden
After a year without a garden Chris and I now have two. Kinda. Our parents are kindly letting us help them with their garden, but I think they are rather enjoying the free labor. Ok, I suppose it is our due since we are enjoying room and board at each of their homes, but at least it is a pleasurable form of labor. Of course all of it is just making me wish I had an acre or two to plant a gigantic kitchen garden, build a greenhouse to grow all of the tropicals we used to, and to grow all sorts of interesting natives and bulbs. Until then we…
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MS = Someone Who Doesn’t Deserve It
Meet one of my best friends Michelle. We go back to some point in time during the summer of 1998 while cruising in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean. Then we went to college together for a couple of years, weathered some weird patches, and now she’s married with a nearly three year old girl in east Texas. Two years ago after the birth of Kylen she started having some vision problems in addition to some other health issues that lead to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. MS is a disease affecting the central nervous system which means it can affect movement and the use of all sorts of…
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Sprouting
I went by the plot today to check on how things were going. The last we’d seen were that the carrots were up and the potatoes were thriving. This is the shed where anyone in the garden can use tools and organic fertilizers and pesticides. It is super organized with printed recipes for making the pesticides or fertilizers, too. My mom’s onions have been up for awhile and are doing great. We’ve got five tomato plants that we bought from the store. Chris got a bit overzealous with some orange oil for bug prevention and the next day two tomatoes looked to bite the dust. So, he replaced them a…
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Zooing with Zoe
Wee little Zoe loves the zoo and we love taking her! We went out for a little adventure last week with Mimi and Uncle Chris so she could see all the animals. Her favorites included the elephants, giraffes, penguins, alligators and crocodiles. An elephant enjoying a dirt bath! Enamored with the crocodiles! I’m kinda surprised she likes them so much! Sharing a drink with Mimi. Spring is coming!! Looking at the gazelle’s. We initially walked by them and then she got excited and had to go back and check them out. I didn’t take a lot of photos and was much more in the moment instead. I’m just amazed at…
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A Conversation
First off, it should be said that since we have come home from the Florida Trail Zoe has been much more interested in Uncle Chris than before we left. I am pretty sure this is because he plys her with sugar. Alas, she has taken to wanting to do everything with “Both you guys!” Or rather “Bofh you guys!” Last week sometime I was sprawled out on the floor of my parents living room, Chris was at the kitchen table working on some fishing lures and Zoe was standing next to the glass door to the back yard wanting us to go outside. She’d just said she wanted to outside…
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Happy Birthday Ashleigh
Happy Birthday baby girl. Your mom would’ve made you the best birthday cake. Your dad would have flicked cake at your mom again. Your big sister would have probably helped feed you the cake. And we would have all been there for a grand jamboree. We miss you and love you.
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Tame, Feral Albino Ferret
We went to Kathy and Randy’s friend Dar’s house last night for their Thursday Night Drinking Club. Dar is an animal lover and feeds the local cats, an opossum and apparently one day an albino ferret showed up. It came around last night for us to see and Chris took a camera phone photo of me with it. It had a nice, outside smell to it and was super sweet, yawned a few times for us and made me want a cute little ferret. I think Leo would eat it, though.
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New Years Eve in downtown Ft. Worth
Having grown up in the suburbs of Ft. Worth I am partial to this town versus its neighbor Dallas. I love walking through the streets, checking out the old buildings and when the Tandy Center was still in existence, my friends and I would drive down to the subway that took you to the Tandy Center and we’d go shopping or ice skating and then walk around Main Street or Sundance Square. It’s an easily maneuverable city and in the past several years has seen a revitalization on the west side of the town. I particularly love the arts district on the west side and with the new shopping and…