"Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me...."

This is my birthday present from Greg. Hmmmmm, you might say.....isn't her birthday in December? Yes, it is. This fountain has been stored in the garage, just waiting for spring and warm weather. Greg put it together tonight and it is really cool.

It makes a lot of water noise, which I like.
And it looks really neat in the dark.
Thanks for my gift, honey!!!

Brinley Update

Baby Brinley's surgery went well. She gained 29 centimeters of intestine (11.4 inches) during the surgery. She will be in the hospital for several weeks. She has developed some type of infection so they are fighting that as well. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers, paula

Verbena

This is a verbena hanging basket that came from Samantha and Brandon. It is really pretty and full of blooms.

This middle picture is a more true color of the flowers. They are a pretty shade of purple.

More Funny Cats

Baby Brinley

Easter

Family and Friends,

This is Brinley Pick. I work with her mother at the courthouse. Brinley will be a year old next month, weighs a whopping 12 pounds, and has spent the biggest majority of her life in the hospital. She was born with what is called "short gut syndrome" (there is a big, long name for it but I won't even try). She has about 1/3 of the intestine that she should have, which causes problems with her food digestion. She eats some by mouth but mainly is fed by IV and through a "button" in her stomach as well. These two ports seem to constantly be getting infected so they are continually back and forth to the hospital. She has had two surgeries so far and is to undergo another one tomorrow at Cook's Children's Hospital in Dallas, hopefully to repair this intestinal problem. Her stay in the hospital is expected to be about a month if things go well. My request to you all is to say a prayer for strength and healing for this sweet baby girl, and for God's guidance for the doctors who will attend her, as well as a prayer of thanksgiving and gratitude for our own healthy children and grandchildren. We take so much for granted.

Updates will be forthcoming. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.

love, paula

Cute Cats

Madison

We got some new pictures of Madison. She looks like she has grown so much. She is happy and healthy, and now wears big girl panties. We sure do miss her!!!

This is the Valentine's shirt from Mimi and Papa.

Love you, Madi!!

Saturday Afternoon

After working on the patio, the day was too nice not to take a motorcycle ride as a reward for our hard work. We decided to go back and eat at the little place we found a month or so ago. On the way there, we pass a power plant lake, Tradinghouse. We were surprised to see these pelicans. They seemed out of place but content....

This time I had the camera with me. This place is out in the middle of nowhere. But you can tell that they have done some sprucing up lately, adding on to the original building.
Is there "good" cuss'n?
These are self explanatory.....

Some of the locals......
The required Texas longhorn skull.....not sure what the wooden thing is beside it....
Saturday nights there is a band. They were just getting set up.
Classic decor.....
Greg and I both had fried catfish. It was very good. Thank goodness we decided to head home early. Our first sign of trouble was when the radio stopped working on the bike. Guessing that we had some type of electrical problem, my comment was try not to kill it. Well, at the next stop sign, the 900 pound motorcycle died and we pushed it into a private driveway. I called a coworker that lives in the area, and she and her husband were coming back from dinner, only a couple of miles away. What luck!! They took us home, we drove to WalMart for a battery, then back out to the bike. Using the car headlights, Greg put in the new battery. His directions to me was if it started, he was hauling home on the bike and I was to follow. Thankfully, it started and we headed out. It was a good feeling to pull the motorcycle into the garage, all of us

safe and sound.

Saturday Morning

You may remember that we did a major remodeling job last summer when Greg tore off the old patio cover and added a nice new one. It extended longer than the original patio slab. The covered area with no concrete was not very useful. Greg set the forms, tied the rebar, and he got the concrete truck out early Saturday morning. I had intended to take pictures all along but totally forgot until it was almost done.

Greg talking to the truck driver. My pesky brother-in-law Tim is in the background....

The concrete had to be wheelbarrowed from the truck to the new patio area.
The almost finished product......
This extra space is going to be so nice. We have more plans but they will come with time. For now, we will put the patio to use this summer.
Greg doing the finishing work. He worked really hard on this and we are really proud of the way it turned out.

A very special thanks to Tim and Jeremy. They came over early to help out with the wheelbarrow work. We couldn't have done it without them.

Little League Fun

I really thought we were done with Little League but Greg was called upon to umpire Friday night at Robinson. I knew a few people there, as well as a few of the girls playing. But mostly I just went to watch Greg and take pictures. Better than sitting home alone......

.......sort of.......

Greg wears more gear when calling behind the plate than you can imagine........

Happy Easter!!

I hope no one is offended by this post. But if Kristy can show pictures of her daughter's bubble blowing nose I figure this surely couldn't upset too many people.....I just thought it was the funniest thing. Especially when you think of what effort these people went to to get this JUST right.......

Easter Greeting

Happy 50th Birthday Gus Silivos!!

Happy birthday to a terrific brother-in-law!!

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Kate!!

Happy Birthday to a precious little niece!! Thanks Ashley for blogging her life, and Kendall's,

for us to enjoy.....

Picture snagged from mom's blog......I love the fact that she has learned to stick her tongue out!

Waving Willie

This gentleman has been a common sight around Waco for many years. Lately, he stays mostly in the downtown area where I work. I have no idea what his real name is, he just got stuck with being called Wavin' Willie by most folks around town. I have no idea what his age is either. He walks many miles each week is about all I know. He waves and whoops and hollers and spins around but bothers no one. He will speak when spoken to but continues on with his waving. His clothing is always clean and neat. He sits quietly when eating at restaurants but as soon as he steps out the door, the waving begins again. Seeing him always makes me smile.....


This is an article that appeared in the paper last week, about the same time that I shot these pictures from the window of my office.

Hats Off To The Waving Man
By J.B. Smith Monday, March 10, 2008, 08:36 PM

I hadn’t meant to write about Waving Willie today. But I saw him this afternoon on the sidewalk at Franklin and Seventh, and he was in fine form. He flailed his arms and flapped his hands like leaves in a storm. Then he ducked low, spun around on one foot and let out a whoop for the passing traffic.

I’ve never learned his real name, though we at the Trib have tried to find out in the past. He looked about the same a decade ago when he first startled me with his peculiar routine.
He appears to be well-fed and clothed, with his buttoned-up flannel shirt and wide-brimmed hat. He never asks me for money, just greets me with waves and whoops.

I assume he lives around here somewhere, maybe with kin, maybe at some group home or institution.

When I talk about the characters of downtown, he is one of the best known. After a while, you learn to wave back and not to get flustered when he keeps waving.

Top O' The Mornin' To Ya

South Park Greg and Paula

We don't even watch South Park but making us into characters was too inviting. This is Greg as a referee.....And this is me........

Our characters are not as good as Jeremy/Marci's are on his blog.....

My Desk

Hmmm.....I just realized my desk looks kinda like the frig.......

Happy Birthday brother, Bruce Kelly!!

Refrigerator Challenge

Does anyone have a refrigerator with more stuff on it than this one??

Saturday Afternoon Softball

The camera had the zoom lens on it for the afternoon games. I don't always have good luck using it but figured it was time to figure it out. I took lots of pictures to practice and they were pretty good. I was mostly happy with them. I may post a link later but am having trouble with Blogger tonight for some reason. I can't download but one picture at a time so it has been slow going.

Morgan looks sort of like a chipmunk on third base because she wears a protective mouthpiece. We were witness to a very unfortunate accident last year where a Robinson batter hit a screamin' softball that hit the girl playing third square in the mouth. She was carried off the field and to the hospital, with the coaches coming back onto the field to search for as many teeth as they could recover. It was a scary situation.

There were two late afternoon games back to back. The first team was no competition at all. The second one was a little more exciting, but the Robinson JV won the game.

Silly Sophomore girls.......

The Robinson JV won the Robinson softball tournament!!!

Our favorite softball player......

Greg the Umpire

Greg's games were noonish so we went back up to watch him. He was behind the plate for the first game......

.......and calling bases for the second........