Christmas Season Texas Style

Well, here it is December 1. I put up our Christmas tree the Sunday before Thanksgiving and decorated it a few days later. Maybe I would be more in a Christmas mind set if the weather were cooler. Today it is in the 80's and I am wearing a sleeveless shirt and short pants. It is sunny and warm out. Definitely not Christmas weather.

The only ones who seem to appreciate my tree decorating skills are Chloe and Sparta.

At least someone likes my tree!

Photography

I have been interested in photography for several years now. I wish I could say that I am at professional levels now but that isn't the case. I still have a long way to go and lots of things to learn. Maybe it is a never-ending process.

I can never find people willing to let me take their pictures so lately I have been taking landscape and nature photos. Here is a sunrise photo I took a few Sundays ago down on the bayfront in Corpus Christi, TX.

I have also been taking lots of pictures of flowers. The Botanical Gardens in Corpus Christi have a beautiful display of roses, plumerias, and orchids. Here are some of my favorite shots.

 

So much beauty to behold in the world around me. The Lord is so good!

It's Been A While....

Well, who would have know that life as I knew it would change so drastically in just a couple weeks from my last post.

On March 26, 2012, at 1:45AM, my husband suffered a hemorrahgic stroke. When we got to the ER they pretty much told me he wasn't going to make it. But God had other plans. My husband was in ICU for almost two weeks, about one week on a regular floor, and then three weeks in Rehab. Then insurance said we had to go home.

I wasn't sure what to expect when we got home. We had to have a new floor put in our living room and master bedroom as we had sunken floors in both rooms and my husband would not be able to manuever the steps. Wonderful volunteers from our church and family came and put in the new laminate wood floor. Also, one of our angels at church came and poured a concrete ramp from our driveway up to our porch for my husband's wheelchair.

The stroke was on the left side of his brain so it affected his right side. He has trouble walking, he cannot open his right hand to use it and has limited movement of his right arm. Also, it affected his speech.

But, in all the bad that happened there was still good. My husband survived and is now doing therapy at home and making progress. He has lost about 60 pounds and takes medication for his high blood pressure.

God has been good to us and we still have reason to smile.

Spring has sprung in South Texas!

You know spring has shown up when the wildflowers start to bloom. Here in South Texas, when the bluebonnets and indian paintbrushes come out you know that spring is here.

On Saturday, we left after church to drive to Goliad, TX. The visit was two-fold. My hubby loves anything to do with tractors and every year at the Goliad County Fair, they have an antique tractor show. He enjoys going to see the restored tractors and talk to the owners and watch whatever demonstrations they have. This year the amount of tractors in the show was smaller than it has been but he still enjoyed it.

I usually look at the tractors but don't spend a whole lot of time there. My interest in coming to Goliad is wildflowers!

So, after I tear the hubby away from the tractors, we headed over to Goliad State Park. They have a wonderful nature trail that I love to walk and look at the different flowers, bugs, etc. Here is a Texas Powdered Skipper on a blue curls flower.

After the nature trail, we headed over to the Fannin Monument behind the La Bahia Presidio. There is always a beautiful display of wildflowers here every year. This year was no exception. The bluebonnets, indian paintbrushes, and yellow daisy-like flowers were out in abundance. And their colors blended together so beautifully.

It was a day filled with beauty, family, and nature. How much God must love us to give us all of this to enjoy!

Chloe says she enjoyed the wildflowers, too!