off the tracks

This is how our day began yesterday morning...Jack was feeding horses and heard all of the emergency personnel sirens. We didn't know until later that this is what had happened, but this intersection is only about 2 miles from our home. Luckily, nobody was injured. The accident happened around 5:30 AM and that was a big blessing - not nearly as many people up and about at that time as say an hour from then...Nothing has been released about the cause that I have heard...

A reminder to count your blessings today...

Sugar Rush

Sweet Girl Fynley came home last Monday, 2/8.
We have had her in one of our new stalls with Lexie ever since. Hopefully, they will bond over the next week or so and we can let them roam free with the horses. Last time we let Fyn roam free, the horses got curious about their new pasture-mate and ran her straight through our barbed wire fence. Not pretty.
If Lexie will stay with her when they indoctrinate her in to the herd this next time, maybe she can help steer her away from the biting fences...that's what we're hoping for anyway. She needs to stay nice and pretty so she can give Gracie lots of sugar as they grow up together...

Hard to believe Lexie was once this size, huh?

On Tuesday, 2/9, Topwater Grill in San Leon finally reopened after Hurricane Ike damages. I had called the week before to check on their progress, as I have done about every month or so for over a year, and that's the only way I knew of their re-opening, but the San Leon grapevine must be abuzz because they had a packed house! The remodel is a little different layout, but still nice and casual just like we like it and best of all, Drunken Redfish is still on the menu, Daddy!

The big mosaic mural on the dark blue wall was salvaged from the Pre-Ike restaurant.

The menu was limited for their opening night - Jack and I split their blackened catfish with crawfish etouffee on top and it was DELISH! We went back last Friday for their crab balls...more yumminess...

Gracie's valentine party at school last Friday- they made a bookmark, a beaded necklace and then they had free reign of an ice cream sundae bar...sweets for the sweets...

We turned her necklace into a bracelet...

Look at all the yummies...marshmallows, Nerds, every sprinkle imaginable, whipped cream, Hershey syrup, caramel, strawberry syrup, cookies, jellybeans, cherries...ugh...my tummy hurts just thinking about it...

...but unlike many of her classmates, she didn't go too over board...she thought it was quite a masterpiece...and after looking at what she could have done...I would have to agree!

Her riding instructor, Mrs. Robin, sent her this massive Hershey's kiss... I made her wait until Valentine's Day to open it...

...and she's still got some left!

But, look at her...I think that kiss made her even sweeter! :)

Stay tuned for a barn and horse update as well as a Mardi Gras post...Happy Fat Tuesday...for now, I'm hittin' the hay!

Blowouts, Beaches and Birds

For a while now, I've been thinking of a new weekly feature to help me "keep on task" with this blog, as Becky so ever-lovingly reminds me about once a week. :) Gracie hasn't had a riding lesson since some time around Thanksgiving due to all of the rain and one minor attack of the sniffles (so no "Saddle-up Saturdays" in quite a while). I get so busy with my chores and laundry and the 732 other things that I have to do on any one given day, that this little blog baby of mine tends to get neglected. I just simply run out of time (and doing this does take lots of time). So, I've been batting around ideas...I thought about making weekly blogs about things I was grateful for and entitling them "God's Grace" or maybe sharing a funny story from the week (the Lord knows there are no shortages of these with we three stooges!) entitled "Funny Fridays"...Then, last Thursday, Jack and I awoke to NO MORE GAZEBO. The wind had blown so hard throughout the night, that it literally decapitated my poor little gazebo. That same day Mom and Daddy came in so that Daddy could help Jack complete the other side of the barn stalls and so Mom and I moved the furniture to the porch and Jack put the peaked portion of the gazebo in our garage by the time I took this picture, but I just want you to know that this makes me want to create a weekly feature entitled "Things that make me want to cuss". So there. A real blowout.

But, we put our best game face on and Mom and I took Gracie back to Rollover Pass - the girl loves being at the water. On the ferry ride...

Hello...anybody in there?

Wasting no time with adding to her collection...

She found a stick...which means you have to write your name in the sand, right?

Right.

Then, she's off again. With her stick.

It's quiet today. Nobody but us for miles.

It's so good to see the sun for a change.

Really good.

Sunday evening, right before the Saints won (way to geaux, Saints! Who dat!), hundreds of these birds flocked to our pasture.

I guess our swamp was calling their name.

Love is in the air...Valentine's Day is Sunday...hugs to you all from our hearts to yours.

Beach+Cold=Shivery, Wrinkly Fingers (& Bliss)

What to do on a Sunday afternoon when it's cold, drizzly, and your five year old is bouncing off the walls? Take a drive, of course.

We caught the ferry in Galveston over to Bolivar...
She doesn't miss a beat...on the way home, she said, "Daddy...Mommy...I know exactly what's gonna happen now...we're gonna drive on this land, then we're gonna float on a boat and then we're gonna drive on some more land that's not this land and then we're gonna be home, right?" She's taking it all in here so she can wow us later :)

For the three people in this entire world that don't know, Jack proposed to me on the East Beach in Galveston and if there was one pelican flying that evening, there was a thousand. It was as if he had put in a special order. So, now, of course, I love pelicans. This beautiful white one was waiting to greet us at the ferry dock as if to say, "Hey! I know you!"

A year and a half later, the devastation of Hurricane Ike is still very evident.

Lots of folks are still living in travel trailers where their homes once were...

There are vast areas that used to be filled with rows upon rows of homes and now, there's only a scattering of palms...

...but they are beginning to rebuild and the communities are starting to form again...

Just beyond Rollover Pass, we found a wonderland of seashells...

She was thrilled beyond measure...

Desperate not to forget her bag of shells on the shore...

Exploring the foam...

I have no idea...the girl has just plain lost her marbles...

I like this picture...it shows her clean neck...later at The Original (our favorite Mexican ever), it becomes a gloppy mess of black beans and queso!

She's telling him all about it...

We found some oyster shells fused together and they reminded us of angel wings...

uh-oh...tired, hungry girl is surfacing...so is her big girl tooth...the other...not so much.

Heading back to the truck...

...and after a minor meltdown, another brief stop...

We stayed till almost dark. The lighting was beautiful and would have made for some great pictures if not so blasted cold...

...but I didn't do so bad with these. We had a great time and it was so nice to see the sun for a couple of hours...

On the ferry ride back, this gigananormous thing passed us...one of the newer ships for our port...Royal Carribbean's Voyager of the Seas...it made Jack and I start discussing this year's vacation...yippee! Yes, indeedy...a trip well worth having to do all my chores today!

Have a good week...