Fire Ants!

Poor Nathan is very allergic to fire ants.  On Sunday he went out into the yard and happened to step right into an ant bed….the result was more than 55 ant bites to his legs, feet and even hands as he tried to get the ants off.These photos were taken Tuesday evening and I was told that his feet were much more swollen on Monday.  So much so that he was barely able to walk.Nathan is generally a very good natured little guy and was able to give me a good smile despite his discomfort.He will be watching much more carefully for the fire ants from now on!

Ruby Throated Hummingbirds

September is the best month in our area for hummingbirds. We have a feeder outside our dining room window and the hummingbirds are frequent entertainers as they feed. The males have the ruby throats and the females have a longer bill, but are less flashy.

I find hummingbirds fascinating and have included some interesting information below.

Physical Description

Average length: 3.5 inches (8.9 cm)

Average weight: 1/8 ounce (3.1 g)

Body temperature: 105°-108°F (40.5°-42.2°C)

Wing beats: 40-80 per second, average about 52

Respiration: 250 per minute

Heart rate: 250 beats/min resting; 1200 beats/min feeding

Flight speed: 30 mph (48 kph) normal; 50 mph (80 kph) escape; 63 mph (101 kph) dive
Plumage

Adult male: Emerald green back, iridescent ruby red gorget (throat) that may appear black under some lighting conditions, gray flanks, forked tail with no white. Smaller than the female.

Adult female: Emerald green back, white breast and throat, rounded tail with white tips. Larger than the male, with longer bill.

Coming in for a landing.

The iridescent throat is gorgeous when it catches the light. The hummers will be heading south to Mexico and the Caribbean soon.

First Aggie Football Game

Saturday was Ty's first Aggie football game experience. He has watched games on TV, but we all know that does not compare to being a part of the crowd.We arrived early enough for him to see the Corp and band march. Here Austin and Ty are patiently waiting for the band.

We also had time for some Aggie Fan Zone fun....like the big slide.

Melissa and David came up from Houston for the game and we were also joined by Heather and Austin as well as Ty. Kevin was coaching out-of-town so he had to miss Ty's first game.

The flyover by Marine Tomcats was exciting.

The crowd of over 73,000 were cheering loud for the Aggies! Another one in the win column made the evening even better.

September Milesones

It was one year ago last week that Faz and Isis Faraq came to Bryan and joined us in Sunday school. They are not our typical new members...they joined us all the way from Cairo, Egypt. Their story is a beautiful one of God's protection, provision and faithfulness to His people. Christians and all those who are not Muslim in Egypt are blacklisted, often arrested and persecuted in many ways. We will continue to pray for those Christians still in Egypt and for Faz and Isis as they continue to look for full-time employment.

Isis is a most gracious hostess, great cook and a fervent prayer warrior.Faz (on the left) shared his heart and his concern for his Christian brothers and sisters still in Egypt.We had a lovely time of celebration of one year in Texas, two birthdays and for our shared love of Jesus.

Tackle Football

The day has finally come....Austin has worked out all summer in preparation for his first year of tackle football. This week was Austin's first 7th grade football game. He started at wide receiver for the white team. This photo was actually taken before the game started. I don't know how he got the mud and grass stuck in his helmet.
Here he (#19) is lined up and ready to run his pass pattern.

He's ready to block the defender when....
Someone was called for holding. This looks like the defender had a pretty good arm lock on Austin.

Congrats to Austin on your first win. Austin will have to sit out for a couple of weeks while his chest port is accessed for intravenous antibiotic treatments. I guess it wouldn't be good to play football with a needle stuck in your chest! We will look forward to watching you when you return to action.

Photo Organization

Along with my regular work schedule I usually have a project in progress. When my mother moved out of her house, I inherited her photo albums and boxes of photos. For the past couple of weeks I have went through all of her albums making sure they are in order and also through all the loose photos. What a job! As a result I have handled literally thousands of photos, writing on the backs of those that were not labeled and ordering both her photos and my photos in photo boxes. And these were just "extra" photos not already in photo albums!Actually my mother had done a tremendous job of creating albums with all her geneology information and photos of both sides of her family tree. Three of the four current photo boxes were solely my photos which were already fairly organized. I have just made sure each photo is labeled with the year the photo was taken, who is in the photo or where it was taken. These photos, especially the older ones, are very precious to me and hopefully someone will someday appreciate the organization! I am very thankful for the new world of digital photos and the ability to tag each photo in photoshop....it makes photo organization so much easier.

Tanner's Birthday Surprise

Sally had been planning an Onya family dinner for a couple of weeks and the final date just so happened to fall on Tanner Henry's birthday. So the dinner became a surprise 20th birthday party for Tanner. Below is Sally, our gracious and busy hostess.
And a couple of photos of some Onya chicas, Diane, Julie and our hostess, Sally.

Tina, Lanie and LaJuan.

The photo below is Tanner Henry, our honoree.

Tanner led us in singing "Happy Birthday" and then blew out his 20 candles. I was impressed by the quality of the voices...much better than what I am used to at our family birthdays, no offense intended to my family!

An impromptu sing-a-long broke out, led by Diane, Lanie and Bruce.

As you can see we had a great time singing some oldies, but goodies. Have you ever seen Lanie so animated?

Thanks again to Steve and Sally Allbritton, our gracious host and hostess. Steve and I so enjoy the company of each of our friends. We had nine Onya sisters in attendance and we missed the ones who were unable to attend.