Country roads, take me home, Texas-style!

Spring time in Texas is indeed a beautiful place. Since I am always posting images from Oman and other countries that we have visited, I decided to post some images from my trip back home to the states. The state flower of Texas is the bluebonnet. I got off the beaten track while visiting in East Texas (not on purpose, mind you, but it was a serendipitous accident!), and came upon this beautiful scene of a field covered in bluebonnets:

An old dirt farm road to the side of the main farm property.

This is the same field off to the right side of the road. This picture just does not do the bluebonnets justice!

As we wondered through the East Texas countryside, we came across many scenes full of wildflowers. I just couldn't resist adding these pictures as well! The sides of the road were just covered in shades of sunny yellows, deep reds, melony oranges, soft pinks, lacy whites, and hues of purple and blue.

I am always taking pictures of camels alongside the road when I chance upon them in Oman, so I though I would include a typical road-side scene in Texas of cattle in the fields. As Texans, we take this for granted, but maybe not so much in other parts of the world.

To be fair, countryside scenes do not have a monopoly on spring beauty. Here are some gorgeous examples of spring flowers on the SFA campus in Nacogdoches. The azaleas and tulips are almost through blooming, but it was still a pretty sight!

Lastly, no trip to Texas is complete without a visit to a bar-b-que joint. Here's a picture of Rudy's, where only in Texas you can fill up your car and get a sit-down bbq meal at the same time! Even Rudy's has their spring flowers blooming on the front right corner of the building! Hope you enjoyed this trek through East Texas! So long for now!

Living the Carefree Life--Maybe?

After a week being back in the Dallas area, I am now in the college town of Nacogdoches, Texas, where my daughter lives. I've been keeping college sleep hours, eating college hours, and having "old-lady-upset-stomach-and-headache"hours! I am just not capable of staying up that late and eating dinner that late without the repercussions that come as we get older!

First off, we did the most important mother/daughter activity: pedicures! Then, we went out to lunch at the Shelley's Cafe, a great little restaurant in downtown Nac (short for Nacogdoches) and enjoyed a nice outdoor lunch topped off by some scrumptious desserts.

A bonus of this trip is that I have really enjoyed getting to meet some of my daughter's friends. They have seemed to have enjoyed my cooking. I tell you what, my cooking hasn't been complimented like this is a long time (sorry sweetie, you just can't compete with all the accolades I've gotten the last few days!). Here is a group of girls I cooked dinner for the other night after their Cru frisbee game.

They were all excited to be in my blog, so here you are girls, from left to right: Emily, Sarah, Katie, Caitlyn, Riley.

The next day, it was my privilege to take Caitlyn and Mycah, one of her best buds, to go scrub shopping in nearby Tyler, Texas. They have both been accepted into nursing school in the fall, and it was time to get those all-important scrubs so they can be monogrammed and ready to go by the first day of school next fall! They had a lot of fun trying on different sizes and styles before settling on what they liked best.

Because they have to have white tops and purple bottoms (Axe 'Em Jacks colors), the girls had to order the correct colors. In case you can't tell from all the grins, the girls were really excited to get this done! I'm excited for them as well, and very proud of the 4.0's they have earned so far in school. I expect great things from them in the future!

We ended up the trip by walking through the SFA Arboretum: below is their tribute to the school in horticultural "Axe "Em Jacks" form!

Beautiful plants--in tires painted purple. (SFA's major color!)

An update to this post:

The girls received their scrubs, and I just couldn't resist posting a picture of them here:

My favorite nursing students!

Congratulations, girls!

Reunited and it feels so good!

You have to know that leaving family and friends behind is one of the hardest things about leading an expat life--not only for the expat but also for the friends and family left behind. So when we get back together on those few occasions, they are really special. 

One of the things that my mom and I like to do is shop till we drop! Here's my mom in front of the cafe where we ate a hearty breakfast to start out our shopping day. I thought the name of the restaurant was quite fitting. After that, ta-ta-ta-duh, CHARGE! My charge card did get a good work out at some of my favorite retail outlets!

I visited our home church in Texas this past Sunday. I meant to take a picture of the whole group before they left, but here is a picture of the group that must talk the most because they were the last to leave! While I love my church friends in Oman, I do miss the great fellowship of our church friends in Texas.

After church, it was on to a surprise lunch visit with our best friends.  We met at at the Twisted Root Hamburger joint. Yummm----there's nothing like a good American beef hamburger! We sent a picture of us eating burgers to my hubby who is still back in Oman, trying to make him jealous!

Texans are famous for trying to find new and improved things to fry. We had french fried potatoes, onion rings, pickles, and green beans (which were surprisingly good!). They also threw in some sweet potato chips, too.

Traci and I posing in front of the "wall of fame"!

I must confess that the title for this blog came from Shawna, Traci's daughter. She wrote
on the wall inside Twisted Root's dining area in honor of our meeting!---see below

Thus ended my first few days back in Texas! Next, I'm moving on to experience a little college life with my daughter! Will I survive a return to the good old college days?

Mimi Meets Julieanne!

I am visiting back in America for the next 3 months, and so I am going to continue blogging from America and share some of my experiences while I'm here!

I have taken a little respite from my blog the last two weeks in order to spend time learning how to be a grandmother--or Mimi, as I have chosen to call myself for now. Julieanne, the cutie in the picture below, did a great job of breaking me in. There were night calls, diaper changes galore (she HATES to be wet even a teeny, tiny bit!), rocking chair serenades (from both of us, but at least I hope mine sounded more pleasant than hers!), and lots of love. She is a miracle, and I can't believe how much I love her already.

Our first meeting--instant love and comfort! I had been
traveling for 24 hours and was dead tired, but couldn't
wait to cuddle with her! I think the feeling was mutual! 

We had one fun day where her mother and I posed her for pictures--some of which she enjoyed more than others, as you can tell below!  My favorite is the "cryer" in the bottom inset--she was so unhappy but expressing herself so well! At only 5 weeks, she is also holding up her head pretty well, and at 7 weeks she has already learned to flip herself from tummy to back!

We got to spend Easter together, another great time for a photo op! Her Easter basket was as big as she was!

Me, my son, and my new granddaughter.
Getting ready for church on Easter morning
wore her out! 

Julieanne wasn't so sure about "sitting" on the sofa to get her picture made!

It was HARD to say good-bye at the airport when I left her to fly on to Texas to see the rest of my kiddos and family, but I'll be seeing her soon in Kansas for another big family event!