Fire bugs!

This has to be one of my families favorite past-times.







One of our favorite things is to gather around a fire. To me, there is something calm and relaxing about this. Sitting back and watching the different colors coming from the fire. Feeling the warmth emanating from the center. Hearing the crackle, hiss, and pops coming from the wood.




This is an all-year long favorite of ours. when it's cool outside, it helps to warm us. When it is hot outside, it serves as visual entertainment. I guess we have a little bit of a fire-bug in our veins. It's even fun to gather the wood to start the fire pile. The reward definitely compensates for any amount of labor done to create the perfect bonfire!

Clouds

I never noticed until I was looking through some of my pictures that I have a few of some clouds.

To me, all of them seem to have an ominous tone to them... considering that these were the precursor to Hurricane Ike, ominous doesn't even start to describe what I feel when I look at them.

You can almost see the sun through these. The clouds were moving very fast and went from complete blackness to the sun shining through them. This was probably about 12 or so hours before the storm really hit us.

In this one - you can see just a hint of blue through the sparse openings in the clouds. It gives you that touch of hope.

I am thankful that we made it through the whole ordeal and came out alright. I had a few friends who weren't so lucky. It is almost 7 months since the storm, and they are still rebuilding.

Jubilee Continued...

Friday night was the fireworks show for the Jubilee. This was almost cancelled. Right about 5:00pm, a heavy storm moved in. There were people running for cover, holding on to canopies, trying to make sure nothing blew away. The rain was pretty heavy and turned into pea-sized hail for a few minutes. Within the hour, though, the storm moved out and everything was back to normal! The sun was out, it was warm, the weather cooperated very nicely (after the storm). We walked around for a little bit, ate some crawfish, walked around some more, and then watched the fireworks.

The next day was good as far as the weather was concerned, just a little cool in the morning and a steady breeze throughout the day. It warmed up rather nicely, though.

Even though I spent most of the time working at our booth, I still had a good time. My kiddo even got to go on a helicopter ride (twice!!). He really enjoyed that!! He did the rock-climbing wall, the bungee swings, and just pretty much just ran around having a blast!

Overall, it was a good day!

My New Niece!!!!

Welcome to Alyssa Danielle!!!!

Born 3/29/09

8:25am

7 lbs. 15oz.

21"

El Paso, TX

Congratulations Jenny & Danny!!!!