Pioneer Day at Old Settlers Park

Don stepped outside this morning and came back in a few minutes…. “get your camera.”   In the park behind us was horse activity!  Meet Nugget.

Nuggets owners also own this pair of Belgian draft horses.

I’m curious as to what he’s telling her.

Aren’t they beautiful?  People attending Pioneer Day could ride in the wagon around the park.

We also saw the first Round Rock fire truck.

And the first hand-drawn pumper truck in Round Rock.  The history is quite interested and can be read >here<.

In the picture above, the man standing on the right with the sun visor is Jeffrey Gibson, the 2009 Drag Boat Racing champion.  His “puller” is parked two sites from us.  We met his this morning and learned that his pastor is a chaplain with Racers for Christ on the drag boat racing circuit.  This is his “puller.”  It has a slide out on the other side.

Back to Pioneer Days… there were many pioneer period characters re-enacting many phases of pioneer life in the history of Round Rock.

It was once green, but I didn’t find the words “John Deere” anywhere.

Inside the barn above were many antique farm implements such as this old wagon, which Don explained to me is a manure spreader used to fertilize the gardens and crops.  Wouldn’t you have loved that job?

Inside the barn were stalls with a raise walk to feed occupants of the stalls from.

Inside the barn were stairs to the loft.

“Plowing is hard work.”

I wanted to fill a basket.

We took a tour of the Palm Mansion and also took many pictures inside, but my favorite was a picture of a picture.  Click >here< for really good pictures.  Just click on the picture of the Palm Mansion to see the interior.  I wish I had taken notes from our tour guide because I can’t find a complete history of the Palm Mansion online.

Uh oh.  Potato.  One order please.  “Thank you, your fries will be ready in about 6 minutes.”  So I waited…

and waited…

and waited.  Six minutes is up!

Well worth the wait.  And still I have not met a potato I didn’t like.  In fact, this one may be my all time favorite.

Don was feeling kind of punky today, so we just hung out at the Q.  Definition of punky:  no energy; generally yucky.

Even so, we are blessed and God is good.

New Tires, Field Day, Moss, Salt Lick, Baseball

This morning, quite early, we hooked up the Q and drug it to the Firestone place to get the new tires put on.  While there, I got online and found Greenball.com where I found an email address and a contact.  Long story short, they are sending FedEx to pick up the defective tires and have started reimbursement procedures.  Praying we will re-coop some of this unexpected and unplanned expense.  God is good and faithful always.  But even if we have no success with reimbursement, God is still good and we trust Him.

Local schools enjoy a day at Old Settlers Park.

What is this?  Well, I learned something today.  (We should learn something new everyday – Clyde Baker)

This is Ball Moss (Tillandsia recurvata)  Ball moss is the grayish-green "pincushion-like" or tufted growth seen on the bark of a number of Texas shade trees. Ball moss is an epiphytic plant, meaning it derives its nutrition from the air, not from the tree. It causes a great deal of worry for homeowners who fear that the ball moss is killing their trees. Trees heavily infested with ball moss have been observed to undergo a slow decline, because the moss can smother lower limbs of a tree simply through shading of buds. In general though, moderate populations of ball moss are not harmful to a healthy, actively growing tree.

If your trees have a heavy infestation of ball moss or you simply don't like the look of the moss in your trees, there are effective control measures that can be taken.

Old Glory – imagine this picture without the wires, poles and lights.

Lunch at the famous Salt Lick BBQ. 

Friday night at the ball park.

Leslie enjoys ball park food. (Taken from several sections away while getting Don a giant hot dog.)

Seventh inning stretch.

F I R E W O R K S after the game.  Camden absolutely loves it.  They turn out the lights, of course, so I couldn’t get a good picture of his face as he watched, but it was priceless.

Well, you get the idea… sort of.    

If today is your birthday….

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! :-))

Back to Round Rock

[Scroll down to read yesterday’s post or just click >>>here<<<]

Before leaving Marble Falls this morning we drove around a little.  Don stopped for me to take this fellows pictures as he crossed the street.

I named this house ‘The Eccentric Manor.’  Who else would paint their house purple when it’s not a day care facility?

Even the cow in the gazebo has purple spots.

Before we got to Cedar Park, we took a detour at Lago Vista.  From this vacant lot, we could see much of Lake Travis.

Life is rough… for some folks.

The house next door is a piece of work in progress.  Looks like both of these houses have guests quarters as wings to both sides.

The lot where I’m standing will probably sell for, at least, a half million.

There were wildflowers there, so I took a few pictures

While focusing on this flower, all of a sudden, this insect just backed right out of it.   Through the zoom lens I could see the spikes moving and then, suddenly, there was a bug!  So cool!  I’ve never seen a bug like this.

We continued until we found a public access area.     

There wasn’t much activity on the water.  Just this boat and…

this sail boat.

This little vacation cottage was across the lake.

We got back to Round Rock about noon and rested this afternoon.  At 5:00, I picked up Emma and Camden and played with them until Leslie got off work at 6:00.

Tomorrow, we take the Q to get new tires.

For now, watching a little TV playing on the computer.  Fireworks just went off over at the ballpark.  Our team must have hit a homerun!

Marble Falls, Texs

At 'Eccentric Manor'

We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

National Day of Prayer

Billy Graham's Prayer for the Nation:

Our Father and our God,

We praise You for Your goodness to our nation, giving us blessings far beyond what we deserve.

Yet we know all is not right with America. We deeply need a moral and spiritual renewal to help us meet the many problems we face.

Convict us of sin. Help us to turn to You in repentance and faith. Set our feet on the path of Your righteous-ness and peace.

We pray today for our nation's leaders. Give them the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to do it.

You have said, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."  May this be a new era for America, as we humble ourselves and acknowledge You alone as our Savior and Lord.

This we pray in Your holy name, Amen.

Kris update 3

May 5, 2010

Hello to all you wonderful prayer warriors!

We haven't been able to update you lately; between a computer breakdown and other responsibilities, it's been a struggle.  But we are updating now and there is yet more good news.

First of all, Kris's condition has not really changed all that much and she remains in a coma.  But that is not totally disheartening really, when we weigh everything else.  Russ sent us a few photos of her car last night.  When I saw them, I realize now that she is clearly so lucky to be alive.  The right side of the car was mashed all the way against the driver's seat.  Given the force of the impact and Kris being thrown to the right, it is an absolute miracle she suffered no broken bones other than a fracture at the right eye socket and, of course, the damage to her head.  The entire point of impact as far as she was concerned was on the right side of her head.  With that in mind, I still believe God is healing her completely before she wakes up, which means it may be a while.  There are so many situations where an injury-induced coma can last for months and months, and the person will just one day wake up.  I have to hold on to that.

Now the good news is: she is breathing completely on her own now that she has been given the trachea tube.  Oxygen flows to it but her breathing is all on her own!  That's a wonderful sign.  A spinal tap was done Sunday evening because there was some fear of meningitis, which we are told is not uncommon due to the invasiveness of all that she has been through: head trauma and surgery, carotid artery re-attached at the base of her skull, collapsed lung, etc.  There is always a chance of some infection.  She has had a slight temperature for since we were there and she is being treated with antibiotics.  So, all in all, things truly are progressing, just very, very slowly.

Russ keeps us updated and we do so appreciate that.  He has a great weight on him but, thankfully, he does have help with Andrea and, of course, Joshua is like a little rock.  We are also updated each day when we call the ICU directly.  The various nurses-on-duty assigned to Kris are all very patient with us and answer all our questions once we give them our code word.  They have been so kind and will even place the phone next to Kris's ear so that I can talk directly to her.  I keep hoping the nurse will suddenly say she's awake, but it helps me to be able to know she can quite possibly hear my voice.

While there is no hurry to move her from the ICU, I was told yesterday by Kris's case manager (another understanding soul who answers our questions) that the time will come when she will be moved to a long term care facility.  There she will receive therapy and rehab to keep her muscular condition well-toned and everything else moving.  This is important for the long haul, and Russ will be looking at several places around the area. 

As I said in an earlier update, our plan is to honor all of our commitments and then go directly back to San Antonio in the the motorhome.  Then we can stay there as long as it takes and help with her care.  It occurs to me now that it must have been in God's plan that we put our home in Sebring up for sale last fall.  Kris said (when George was diagnosed last December with prostate cancer) she wished we could move closer to her so she could look after us.  How ironic; we may be helping to look after her!!!

Well there you have it, dear friends.  I can tell you quite honestly the power of prayer is awesome.  It is completely what sustains me now and gives us the hope that Kris will wake up soon.  We are able to be here in PA with son John now, too, who is remarkably coming through the last of his radiation treatments.  His chemo ended about three or so weeks ago, and he is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, praise the Lord!  Prayers for him have been awesome as well.  Our hearts are so full with love and appreciation, there are just not enough words. 

God greatly bless you all and just know that we thank you.  Philippians 4:6-7 has become the Bible passage I lean on now.  It's that marvelous peace we hear so much about!

Blessings,

Carol and George