Male Bonding

Steve always said that the best father-daughter bonding time was when he and the girls worked together.  Melissa especially has some very fond memories of helping her dad with outside work. This past weekend Steve asked our grandson, Austin, to come over on Saturday morning to help him clear and burn some brush.  Don’t know what they are looking at here.  I caught them for a photo while on break from their work.Steve had a pretty good brush fire going.Austin also made sure the flocks of blackbirds didn’t stay long in our trees…..don’t worry this was just a BB gun.Austin enjoys being outside and his papa enjoys having him around to help.  There will be more chances for some bonding this winter.

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

On Sunday, we saw this beautiful butterfly feasting on our periwinkle flowers.  These flowers continue to bloom from April to November.I sure wish some of the grandkids could have seen this butterfly….they so enjoy bugs, butterflies, birds and animals.I actually tried to catch him, but no luck.  Next time Heather’s boys are here we will check out the flowers for a giant swallowtail butterfly sighting.

David and Melissa Visit

Our lives seem to become busier every year and our visits from David and Melissa are not as frequent as their earlier years of marriage. We attended a wedding together this past weekend and thoroughly enjoyed our time together.  I grabbed them for a quick photo before the wedding. Melissa asked me not to put a photo of her on my blog, but I don’t recall ever clearly responding.  I couldn’t resist.

Hodge October Birthdays

We celebrated the Hodge family (and extended family) birthdays recently. 

 

First is Kevin (our son-in-law) who will be celebrating on October 28th.  Although his birthday is first he is the youngest among the celebrants.

 

 

 

 

Kevin’s sister Tiffany was born just one year earlier on October 30th.  And…..

 

 

 

Tiffany’s sister-in-law, Sheila, was born a few years earlier, also on October 30th!  Each person with a birthday chooses a favorite dish to be served and the result is a wonderful potluck dinner.  Thanks to the Hodge family for always including the “in-laws” in Kevin’s birthday celebration.

Football Season Continued…..

Here are a couple photos of recent football action. Austin plays every Tuesday except when he is on intravenous antibiotics.  His team has only lost one game so far. Ty plays every Tuesday and Thursday and I think his team has only lost one game as well.   Both boys are thoroughly enjoying playing football.  So far it is their favorite sport!

My Wednesday Boys

Every Wednesday Nathan spends the afternoon with me and we also pick up Ty from school.  Heather then brings Austin after football practice and we all go to Wednesday evening church. Ty first does his homework and then he loves to play Wii NFL football.  In the photo above he is intent on his game.

And here he is giving me best his “front toothless” smile.

Nathan is a very affectionate and smiley guy.  He loves to play catch, work puzzles and dump out every toy I have in the toy area.  I really treasure these times we have to spend together.

Deer Season

Everyday we have deer pass through our yard.  Before dawn there are usually several laying down in the open area near our garage.  Most often there are doe with their fawns. Occasionally we have a couple of buck come through as was the case this past week. I’m hoping they stay in our area and no hunters get the chance to take them out….we so enjoy their visits.

40th Anniversary

No, it’s not our wedding anniversary, but October 3rd is the 40th anniversary of our first date.  At the very least we always acknowledge the date and oftentimes we have had a small celebration for just the two of us.  This first photo is not from 1969.  I couldn’t find a photo of that Homecoming evening.  I believe this photo is from 1972. And here we are about 40 years later…..still together and still in love.  We give God the glory for our lasting relationship.

Flag Football

Ty had his first flag football game this week.  He had a wonderful time and played a great game.  He played everything from quarterback to cornerback and was aggressive on every play.  Ty’s highlight would be catching the only complete pass of the evening.  I think we might be in for a few years of watching football with the Hodge boys!

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.