It's been a few years.....

 

Things have changed a lot since my last post in June of 2022. 

Kids Update 

Steven and April fostered April's niece Nova from May 2022 and formally adopted her last June 2024. She is a sweetie. Now they have a blended family of 5. 

Michael is good. Nothing much changes with him. 

Becca and her Michael are doing well. Claire is in Preschool 2 days a week, dance class, and doing soccer. She is 3.5 and pretty smart. She's already reading sentences and words. She's about a year ahead of where her mom was. 

Jessie has been busy, She got her masters, has been working as an assistant archivist, and a second job as an administrative assistant. She also got married last October, to her girlfriend Kristal. They went to Greece for over 2 weeks for their honeymoon. 

Pets 
As for our pets, since my last post we have lost our Zooey to pancreatic cancer, Sophie to old age  (she was a 17 year old little kitty, ) and then a few months ago, Daryl lost his Fuzzball, to his liver disease he'd been fighting for several years. 

Jake, Bella and Twinkletoes are still with us, for now. 

Jake is 16.5, very arthritic, mostly blind and deaf. 

Bella has a cancerous tumor in her ear canal, which has grown a lot, causes her discomfort, and vestibular issues. We are just making her comfortable, and waiting it out. She is still doing ok, we give her a steroid daily and gabapentin for her pain. 

Twinkletoes is good, she loves being outside. 

Daryl and I had a lot going on the last few years...   

September of 2022 Daryl and I flew to Hawaii, and spent a week at the Royal Kona Resort on the Big Island. That deserves a post of it's own to come soon! 

Daryl and I went to Yellowstone in May of 2023, I am going to make a single blog post about that trip too, that was so much fun!!! 

December of 2023, we sold our house in Fort Worth, and moved to Hillsboro Texas. We have a lovely home here, bigger than our old one, but only 3 bedrooms, instead of 4. However we do have a full 2 car garage, extra large. We have a formal dining room, a breakfast area, large master bedroom and bath, and decent size secondary bedrooms, one of which is my office.  We have a lovely fireplace, and an amazing front and back yard. ALSO a huge driveway, we can get 6 cars in the driveway! 

We didn't celebrate Christmas at our home that year, we were packing and our home was super unorganized. We closed on the new house December 29. and moved in on Jan 2.  We went to Steven's house for Christmas for 2023.

2024 was a rough year. 

First big change for me - on January 29th, - 653 Customer agents were told we were getting laid off at American Airlines; we had 60 days until the layoff . March 30 was our last day on payroll. 

Given we were getting laid off, I decided to go ahead and get my mammogram. I went the day after my 62nd birthday. They found an abnormality, so had to get an ultrasound and second diagnostic mammogram. Did that on Feb 19, and I got a call later that day I needed a biopsy.

Second and huge change  - Feb 29th I had the biopsy, and it was cancer.  Surgery on May 6, had a partial mastectomy, and the surgeon got all the margins. It turns out that I didn't need chemo, but did do radiation. 

Radiation burns after it was complete were awful. But I am still here, on medication for 7 to 10 years to try to make sure it does not come back anywhere else. 

The layoff was a blessing in disguise. I had time to recover and completely get my body back to normal, or as normal as possible. 

During all this cancer "fun" I still did a lot of things with our family. Zoo trips, babysitting Claire, and Daryl took me to see New Kids on the Block in July!!!!!   

After I was all healed from Radiation, Rebecca, Michael, Claire, Daryl and myself, all went on a cruise. It was mine, Daryl's and Claires first cruise!!   We went to Cozumel and Progresso. I loved it, and would truly love to go on another one soon! 

 

Also in November, I started looking for a new job. Applied in November for several positions. Accepted the first one I was offered, and started on February 3, 2025. Still in training until early June. It doesn't pay nearly as well as I was making, but I was at my old job almost 11 years. I think this will be good. They have wonderful opportunities to move up, so I wont be doing this forever. 

Nothing much else going on. I work, take care of the house, laundry, groceries, etc. Daryl works, and takes care of all the stuff outside and fixing things up that need done. 

We spent last year getting the inside the way we wanted, but now are working on outside. We did already redo the roof of the gazebo out back, as that's where Jessie and Kristal got married. And we removed 4 trees that were on the powerlines, and about a dozen of the over 100 shrubs from out back. 

I love our new home, I love the town, and love that I have made some very good friends. 3 ladies and myself have gotten quite close, and I am so happy about that. We see each other often, and even started a small bible study group. 

So much more has gone on in the almost 3 years since my last blog post..  But it would make this one a lot longer than it is!!! 

Next posts Hawaii and then Yellowstone!  

Glimpses of life..

 Just a few photos from the past several months..   God has been good to us. 

Our oldest son, and my husband.. they were cutting boards for our son to build shelves for his house.
06-21-2014

Fathers day gifts 2014
Our Jessie made her dad a sharpie decorated bowl.. we baked it, and the design now is permanent.. she also filled it with pralines she made herself.

I got a beautiful new desk for my work area..   Working from home full time, I don't have the perks of an "office space" like those that work in an office.  But I now have an amazing desk, super comfortable chair, foot rest, decent monitors and great computer..  I am happy.. (would be a little happier if I had more room to move around.. my chair when I am sitting in it backs all the way to our foot board of our bed) 

Spent an afternoon at the mall with my beautiful granddaughter.. Build a bear, carousel ride, Chick-Fil-A, we had a good time. She is such a sweetie pie. I love her so much.

This is the pug Raylen made at Build a Bear.. his name is "Puggy"

Raylen and Memaw at the Mall..  with Puggy :)

Rebecca Michelle turned 19 this month. That is her boyfriend Michael beside her/.

Not a very pretty cake, but they said it tasted good.. Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting.

In May we celebrated Steven's irthday.. .Steak dinner at home..  My whole family together..

Our Birthday Boy.

Raylen and her daddy..    She is so fun.

Sanderson - Memorial weekend 2014

 Last weekend, Daryl, Jessica and I went Sanderson. 

Daryl had work he needed to do on the house in town, and at the property. 

We left our home around 2 pm.. got to Sanderson about 10:30. 

On the way down we saw several critters..   We are used to seeing lots of Deer along the roadside..  

This time we saw several rabbits also - and a couple of them we nicknamed Kamikaze bunnies.. they seemed to run straight in the roadway to our car.. We never hit one.. but they were close. 

We also came across a skunk sauntering across the road.. he was just taking his time, as if daring us to hit him.. Daryl slowed down enough so Mr. Skunk got on across the road without injury to himself, or stinking us out..  

We had hoped to be able to see the meteor shower that was expected.. but for the first time in all the times we have ever been to Sanderson, there were thunderstorms that night, and too many clouds to see anything. We even stayed up, having driven away from the town, and all the lights until past 3 am..  Not a single meteor did we see..    We went back to the house and all crashed.. sleeping in till about noon the next day. 

It was SO hot on our first full day there...     

Thermometer hanging on house in town..  

Daryl worked around the house, and in the barn for a while. 

Making repairs on the air conditioning.. or "Swamp Cooler" as he called it. 

Also worked on one of the four wheelers that was in the barn at the house in town..

While he worked out in the barn.. I cleaned the bathroom, and swept and mopped in the kitchen. It was really pretty filthy.

Then I went to visit the "naaayyybors"  

 

At one point it started raining..  the goats all went and jumped in the boat on the left of the photo below.. it was under an awning, and I guess they felt safer there.  Daryl said maybe it was an Ark. ;) 

We went down to the property for a while that afternoon. 

We usually stop by this little opening, in "Isinglass Canyon" to gather Crystals..

this trip was no different. 

When we got down to the property, Daryl went right to work on the four wheelers that were there.. 

One was missing a wheel.. 

The other one would not run.. dead battery, and other issues. He spent quite a while working on the two of them. 

He got one running.. but not well.. kept dying. At least he made it back up the hill in front of the cabin. 

While he worked on the four wheelers.. Jessica and I explored a bit.. and made friends with yet another critter..  

She has beautiful hair...    I credit our Indian heritage for it. 

We did a little shooting with the 22 rifle.

Loading the rifle

Jessie getting instructions

This is the cactus  that grabbed her foot, when she went to investigate the cactus she had shot..  I think they were trying to get revenge. 

The clouds were building up.. tons of lightning and we were concerned with the rough drive out of the canyon area in rain.. so we left shortly after this. 

 This is the "House" in town.. it's a mobile home, with an added on enclosed porch and utility room.. and a BIG barn..  

House in the town of Sanderson

  

Sunday morning we got up a bit earlier.. still not early enough to go to the one restaurant in town for breakfast.. they closed before we got there. So we ended up getting hot food from "Stripes" gas station. The stove in the house doesn't work, so I couldn't cook anything there.

We then visited an antique store, and met a really nice guy named Travis, he and his wife Kate live in an old Masonic lodge. We visited with him a bit and he told us about a little store in the town we were unaware of. 

So we went in search of it, and visited Appolonia at her little grocery store she has in a small building next to her home. It's called "The Bunkhouse"   She had a little bit of everything. Told us if we needed anything let her know, she was making a run to Fort Stockton to stock up on stuff the next day.  She is an asset to this little town.. the only other grocery store closed down a while back.

We got our food and took it back to the house, where we ate, and Daryl tried to make sense of the 30+ keys his dad had hanging on a rack. 

After we ate we went on down to the property..  Daryl drove by his Uncle Paul's cabin before we went to he property that his dad left to him, and his siblings.

While we were at Paul's, we were visited  by some hooved critters..   Daryl and I had walked around the building, leaving Jessie at the truck, she came to us, laughing.. we didn't know at what until we walked near the front.  Our truck was surrounded by cattle. 

There were about 6 or 7 in all.  But these two were my favorites. 

After visiting a little with the cows (meaning mom took photos, and Daryl and Jessica just watched me be silly, talking to cattle)  we headed back to the property..  Daryl put out mouse bait in the cabin , because the day before we had found the cabin was BADLY infested.. unsafe to even breathe the air in there. 

While he did that he let Jessie take one of the handguns and go on a hike. 

She felt very pleased he let her have the responsibility of carrying the gun..  And she looked pretty cute too, with her holster on..  

After he finished with his chores, we did some more shooting.. 

I prefer the handgun I think to the rifle, but the 22 rifle had a scope which made hitting the target easier.

 I learned how to load the 22 magazine. 

and reload, and reload.. we went through a lot of bullets. 

Then Daryl decided he wanted to shoot the shotgun. 

Jessie and I had been shooting this one patch of "prickly pear" cactus, and he decided to use the shotgun on it..    While we only had "maimed" the poor cactus.. Daryl took a few limbs off.. haha. 

He hadn't realized the kick that shotgun would have though..  

When we finished shooting, it began getting really cloudy again, and we were concerned about rain yet again. so Daryl and Jessie packed up stuff in the pickup..   

On our way out, we drove by many deer running around, and several rabbits..  I actually got a shot of one of the big jackrabbits we saw..  hope you can see him in the photo below. 

We left fairly early on Monday.. well early for us..  

On our way out of town, I got a photo of the "Snake Days" banner..  It was being held the next weekend. 

Sign when you get into town - Sanderson, Cactus Capital of Texas 

While we were there, it rained, but to the west, on our route home, it had rained a LOT more...

This is heading north out of Sanderson, towards Ozona..  

Debris from flooding

Parts of the road were washed away..    

We saw the parts that were washed away, in pieces on the sides of the road..  

More pieces of the asphalt..   

On our way down, I had jokingly said why do they need flood gauges.. it never rains..  I'll never assume that again..   This flood gauge was demolished by the rushing waters and debris..  

On our way down to Sanderson on Friday, every creek and riverbed we saw was dry..  on our way home on Monday, they were all full, and rushing..  The area had probably 5 inches of rain or so..  

More pieces of roadway along the sides of the road..  

We got all the way to Fort Lancaster when they had the road we normally take to Ozona all closed off..   Due to flooding. So we had to turn around, go back down to Sheffield, and make a detour to I10.  Made our trip almost an  hour longer.. kind of wish they had signs up before we got on that road letting us know it was closed and you couldn't go all the way through.

But we made it home before dark. Unloaded the truck, relaxed and then Daryl and I went for supper at Ihop. 

I love visiting Sanderson..  Wish the mice hadn't made the cabin so miserable. We would have spent more time there. But we will be going back in a month or so.

I am not sure what Daryl, and his siblings plan on doing with the property. I know it will take a lot of work on both places to make them habitable. The house in town needs a lot of repairs, and the cabin at the "ranch" is uninhabitable.

But we did enjoy the visit. As we do every time. Just the view when we are down by the canyon is worth the 8+ hour drive...