May Wedding

Last November we began to hear about Tyler Shaw from Arkansas and now he is our son in law. Bree and Tyler met in class at UT Southwestern where He is is in the Physician Assistant program and she, the Physical Therapist. They married May 7th in Haskell at the First United Methodist Church where Brian was music minister when Bree was born. Brian walked her down the aisle, gave her away while Casey presided, and then performed the ceremony. Bree and Tyler had prepared the words they wanted to use in vowing their love and lives to one another.
Friends and relatives honored them with a shower April 10th at the Bevers House and then in Greenwood, Arkansas May 14th. May 21st, Tyler's parents held a reception in Dallas, mainly for the classmates and friends who couldn't come to Haskell. We do not have the photos from the photographer yet but have some taken my ameatures. I have posted these in a Picasa album and will add the professional ones when I get them.
Tyler's 4th semester began on May 16th and Bree's begins tomorrow, the 23rd. They will graduate December, 2012. They are giddy and giggly. Each of their families is blessed to see them so happy.

October 2010

I am enjoying life but seldom sit down to blog. I doubt that anyone visits here and I doubt that my future will include much time "recording" thoughts or activities on this computer screen.
The essentials do not change. They aren't new and there are lots of very capable people communicating them to whoever will listen. Blogging is one means of expressing the essentials. I hope people searching through blogs will discover those with information that is more than interesting or entertaining because there are those that share what is vital to life.
Unbelievable, tomorrow is the first day of November. I may have Christmas decorations on the shelves and in the windows in just a couple of weeks. I find it much more enjoyable to get them out of the boxes and arrange them slowly, over a couple of weeks, rather than frantically unwrapping and depositing them on a weekend. I savor the memories of past moments each one stirs as I pull the tissue paper away and spy an object that has been a silent observer of our Christmas celebrations over the past twenty to thirty years. Or perhaps the treasure I found just last January when the 75% Off Sale tempted me and I succumbed. The holiday can be so busy and demanding that our energy is pulled from us against our will as we try to keep up. I don't want Christmas to be like that. I plan to enjoy.
We went to our first costume party last week and I have posted a few pictures. I hope you can tell what I was...
A special treat , my mother's brother, wife and part of the family came for a visit last week also. We visited Friday night and Saturday at our house. We had a great time. Pictures of these days are also posted. When I was growing up, my folks took my sister and me to visit Uncle Leo, Aunt Fran, Linda, Dianna, and Michelle several times a year. These are wonderful memories. There are miles between us now and we don't see each other often. We should change that! I read recently that we are made to live inside, not alongside each other's stories. I think this is surely true for families.
I hope you have a blessed November and December. I hope what I call the essentials are obvious to you. I hope you are warmly acquainted.
Our recent activities are posted at the Picas Web site - just click on that icon.

April 27, 2010

Brian finished the first chicken tractor so they are out of my house!! It was a beautiful day. Tonight we grilled burgers and at in the sunshine with my folks. As soon as that sun fell behind the tall trees, it was cool. Daddy finished shelling the pecans in the afternoon. I took some pictures of the prolific roses.

Chicks Are Growing

16 chicks are growing - in my den, in a large cardboard box. I have to give them a new layer of flooring every 2 hours. I roll it all up and discard every morning. They are really growing. These pictures were taken the first day and they're heavier now. We have a very busy week with Brian either singing or speaking at different functions and then Team Impact will be in Aspermont for a county wide three day "revival." So, may not have them outdoors till the end of the week. They are fine but would probably enjoy being outside.
I hope you are having a wonderful April. God is so good. His grace is continual, His mercies new every morning. How exciting and comforting to be able to wake up every morning, sit down to read His words for us that day. The world is teetering but He is sure. He is pure. He is our Father and He loves us. Praises unto Him.

Husband

Very short post:
I've got the best husband in the world.
Just the way he is....

A Beautiful Day

It was a perfect day for outside work. I made it through several flower beds on the N side of the house but have lots more work. Brian progressed well on a small, moveable chicken house. He looked on-line but came up with his own version. It can house 8 chickens, has 3 nesting boxes, two roosting bars, and a screened in run. We can move it across the yard allowing it to stay on one patch of grass for a day or two and then move it a little further along. I'd been talking about getting chickens. When Daddy heard me, he got excited about it so Brian got busy. I snapped a few pictures of Brian, the yard, my mom as she enjoyed a can of peanuts and my dad as he cracked and shelled pecans at their back door.

Notice the stylish jeans in this one...

Happy Spring

What a beautiful day!
I did, however, have to travel to Abilene and sit for a bit in a dental chair and now my right 1st bicuspid is in a little box in my purse. Why would a tooth just crack in half, right down the middle?? It has been hurting for a year but last week much more intensely. I felt like some meat was hanging between two teeth and tried to use my fingernail to remove it but discovered my tooth was thoroughly cracked. I have had very little dental work, only 2 cavities just last year. After Casey was born, my OBGYN, Dr. Dillard, told me that if he had to judge the most painful delivery he had seen, none would have been more painful than the delivery of Casey. I am not a wimp. But dental work scares me silly. The nurse had said on the phone that should the tooth need to be extracted, he might suggest I go to an oral surgeon who would sedate me. That sounded fine to me. But, he didn't skip a beat and after he poked my tooth and saw it was cracked to the root, he immediately began rubbing on the topical anesthetic. "What are you doing? I garbled. He never removed the tools from my mouth and explained that the tooth had to come out. I was able to convey that I was a little surprised because I understood he might send me to the surgeon. But, he was sure that while I would feel pressure, it wouldn't be painful. After 2 shots and a few minutes, it was out and though it hurts a little now, there was no pain. I will spare you any pictures.
Before we went to Abilene, I decorated the tales at Cornerstone for the ladies' meal. I used small limbs from our ornamental plum tree and small bird nests I purchased at the after Christmas sale. They had been tree ornaments. I am sharing them as a Happy Spring Greeting.

Fresh Commitment

If you have know me very long, you've seen me on a diet. But not in the past few years. I think I did start a diet a couple of years ago but its life was very, very short. Recently, Brian and I both committed to losing weight and exercising. We enjoyed a few days of walking at the park while the weather was nice and then just a couple of days on the treadmill inside before each of us had the sore throat and cough. We've lost only a few pounds each and we can't exercise yet due to congestion but we are excited about getting healthier. I am posting here just to give me more reasons to refrain if tempted with unhealthful food but don't plan to post boring updates until we have reached our goals. It is a beautiful day and a good, sweaty walk would feel so good. I pray we will soon be snot free enough to get out in our tennis shoes and shorts. We each want to lost at least 25 pounds. And, everyone remember to join the rest of the country in turning the hand of the clock forward this weekend.