The Mason County Cancer Benefit was this past Saturday and once again we all participated. Ashlyn was in the Kids Against Cancer team and they raised the most money of all the teams there. I was so proud of them! This year, we raised the most money since we started these 4 years ago. I was amazed! It was a beautiful day and I was glad we could be there to remember our loved ones affected by cancer.
Here are some photos from the day:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=205988&id=755340907&l=51c3817d65
Sunday we had a surprise visit from some of our East Coast family - Marissa, Drew & Reagan came to Fredericksburg and we got to have lunch with them and visit with them at Oma's house. The kids had fun with their cousin Reagan - she was sad when we had to go.
Here is a pic of the kids playing with Colten's airplane that he won at the cancer benefit:
Here they are helping Oma bottle feed her lamb, Blacky:
This weekend, we are planning on camping out with the Cub Scouts for a fishing derby that our district is having on Saturday. The forecast is looking iffy, though for Friday night - I'm pretty sure we won't be camping if there's a good chance of rain. Hopefully the weather is good Saturday and we'll be able to go for the day at least. Wish Colten luck in the derby!
Have I mentioned how gorgeous the wildflowers are this year? Well if not, they are wonderful & I am enjoying every drive to Fredericksburg and Mason lately due to the colorful roadsides. It's something you can't capture with a camera, but I've tried! Our neighbors were so gracious to let us check out the amazing scenes in their pastures and I captured this pic of the ranch house from their road. The blueish tint in the center is ALLLLL bluebonnets.
Here are some more pictures I took during our sightseeing this weekend - this is all in Mason County and not far from the ranch:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=201421&id=755340907&l=039bbf31a8
Hope everyone had a Happy Easter! Ours was busy as usual, with Mom and Dad bringing their camper over Friday night, a BBQ with friends and neighbors Saturday and Sunrise Service Sunday Morning. We had Easter lunch with Oma Reeh, Danny and Lyla, and Carol (missed seeing the other side of the family due to a misunderstanding) and then went driving around looking at bluebonnets. The wild flowers really made a showing this year so I had to get the quintessential spring Texas picture:
I had to bribe the kids with Sonic treats to get them to cooperate without too much complaining :) and they did finally give me a good picture!
We took a jeep ride to look at the bluebonnets, too. Here we are on Loeffler Ln:
Here's a link to more pictures from the weekend on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=199466&id=755340907&l=c5ea04f9a0.
I hope you can see them - I'm starting to run out of space on picasa (where I had been putting albums) and facebook doesn't have a limit.
This Thursday, I'll be going with Ashlyn to pick out her classes for high school next year... yes HIGH SCHOOL!!!! I'm freaking out a little bit about that!
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On a more somber note, I want to ask a favor. My manager (the one who so generously lets me work remotely 4 out of 5 days of the week) has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Fortunately, due to a bout with jaundice that it caused, it has been diagnosed in the early stages, giving him a much better chance of survival than usual. He's in his 40's and has two kids close to Colten's age. Please pray that his treatments go well and is able to recover completely from this. I appreciate it.
The kids had off from school Thursday & Friday last week for OFYP (optional flexible year plan days - if they're doing good in school, they get extra days off) so we decided to go to Enchanted Rock that Friday and it was a lot of fun. Our neighbors came along and the weather was perfect and there was hardly anybody else there. We had a picnic lunch after going up the main rock and then headed to the other two smaller rocks that afternoon. We found the tree that John used to do his homework under and took a family picture - here it is:
Here's a link to more pictures from the day:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=197089&id=755340907&l=23ade715d5
I'm so happy we had a weekend full of warm weather finally! We took a couple of jeep rides and did some yard work and saw all the bluebonnets that are about to pop up and found that the sweet smell around the ranch that is probably make us sneeze is agarita bushes (nothing else in the pasture is blooming yet!). Our peach trees in the yard were blooming and full of butterflies, so I snapped a few pictures:
This is a picture of a jeep John is getting for free. Thought it looked kinda sad, good deal I guess! Our neighbor that John is leasing from had this on his property when he bought it and the previous owners were supposed to take it and never did. John asked him about it and so he gave to him for pulling him out of the mud one day.
And we all survived Spring Break with no issues, so I was glad about that.
John & the kids are off in College Station this week. John is taking fire school there and it's spring break for the kids, so they're staying with Rena. That leaves me home ALL by myself for a week, whoa! So far all has gone well and I'm hoping it stays that way. My plans for major cleaning on Sunday after they left were diverted, though, when John brought home a dog. He responded to a DVFD call that they needed help landing a chopper at the Doss Country Store and learned that one of our neighbors was flown to San Antonio from there. His wife had her dog with her and didn't know what to do with it, so he volunteered us to watch it for her. So Sat & Sun we had an indoor dog and it was kinda fun at first when we were all there to play with it, but then after John & the kids left, it followed me everywhere and barked at every noise (cars driving by for church, the heater coming on, dogs & cats outside, old house creaks...) and would only sleep if I sat on the couch with it. So I didn't get a whole lot done. I was definitely ready for the next sitter to pick her up that evening! Here's a picture of the kids playing with Stormy:
Well, the derby went alright, but John & I were so busy getting things ready & checking cars in, we didn't get a chance to add graphite to Colten's car's wheels, which apparently is pretty key to doing good, and so he didn't do so well. However, I think he had a really cool jeep! In fact, I'm privy to the knowledge that he won the award for most realistic looking car (judged by some boy scouts), so at least he'll get something!
