Yesterday was Mason's 15th birthday. Hard to believe he is 15 years old! We went to eat last night at Calico County. Jenny & Corbin went with us (Cody had to work late). It was very nice.









Afterward we had german chocolate cake.

My my, I'm 50 years old today. I can't believe it. I never really thought I'd be 50. No, I didn't imagine I'd die before reaching 50. I just never really imagined myself that age. That was always an age way out in the distant future. Other people reached 50, but not me. Well, here I am. Fifty years old, --and I don't feel a day over 35.

I heard this little poem this weekend and really liked it. It is so true, I believe. It's about our sin problem. And as much as I try to hide my sin problem, it is still there, --just big as life. I HAVE A SIN PROBLEM! I can't stop sinning. I hate it, I wish I didn't, but I continue to over and over everyday. And every sin is really sin against my Lord.

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Psalm 51:4

What a shame. Thinking of this, I could get really down and upset about it. I deserve hell and death. How can I escape it? I've earned it. I deserve it.

OH, but there is hope for me! Even me, who is full of sin. My hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is perfect, and he died to pay for MY sins. When God looks at me, he sees my substitute & savior. He doesn't see my sin. I am perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ! What wonderful news!!

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1



I May Try

I may try but I can’t repent,
tho I endeavor often.
This stony heart just will not relent,
till my soul God does soften.

I may try but I can’t love,
Tho pressed by love devine.
No argument has the power to move
a heart as cold as mine.

I may try but I can’t rest
in God’s holy will.
I know he appoints what is best,
but I murmur at it still.

Oh, would I, but believe,
then all would easy be.
I should, but this I know
all faith must come from thee.

Today is a lovely day. No unpacking today. It's pretty much all done and that feels so good! We do still have a storage building in Dalhart to clean out, but we will get to that soon.

I ran some errands this morning, had lunch with Cody, then walked to the library with Mason. Yesterday Bo, Mason, Corbin & I went for a walk in the park and then went to Corbin's soccer game. It was fun and Corbin was a good little soccer player!

After my birthday party Saturday night when only Cody, Jenny & Corbin were still here, Corbin wanted to 'let the camera' take a picture of all of us. So we did. Here it is.



There are mostly older folks that live on our new street, but they are very nice. My next door neighbor, Della came by and brought us a Pumpkin Dump Cake. It sure was good. She also gave me a list with all the neighbor's names and phone numbers. She said they get together and have block parties in the summer. A few days later, two more ladies, Ruby & Fran came by to meet me and invited me to lunch on Friday (several ladies on the street go on Fridays). Today Ruby called and invited me over for coffee on Thursday morning with Fran and another lady. ---I think I'll go.

I got very nice birthday cards in the mail today from Mary Helen, Gendy, my friend Gail. Thank you so much. It's so nice to know someone is thinking of you!

Today has been quite a day! Bo, Mason & I got up this morning about 5:30, got dressed and drove to Dalhart for our big garage sale. It was scheduled to start at 9:00 am, but got going about 8:15. We were trying to get tables and stuff all set up when we got bombarded with folks. Jenny was there to help and we really had a successful sale. We made about $600 and got rid of alot of stuff.

After the garage sale, we made our way back to Amarillo. When we got here Bo said he wanted to go out to eat, so I said OK. He took a shower, but I really didn't want to because I would have to do my hair and such. I just wanted to go eat just the way I was because I was tired and didn't want to take time to get ready. He said he wanted to go to a really nice restaurant, so I finally said I would go shower and change then. Bo needed to take the trailer attached to his truck by the storage building first so we did that, and on the way to the restaurant Cody called and said he really needed to borrow a tool from Bo, so Bo said ok and we had to go back by the house to get it. When we got home, there was some really loud music coming from our house, so we went to check it out. We opened the door, and BOY, WAS I SURPRISED!! The house was full of people! There were balloons, food,and a Happy Birthday sign. It was all for me! I was so shocked I was speechless for a few seconds. Bo had cooked it all up for my 50th birthday, which is Tuesday. I must say it was a wonderful surprise. Cody, Jenny & Corbin were here and Mason & Whitney and LuAnn & Richard, and my two friends, Shannon & Peggy, and of course, Bo. Whitney, Jenny & LuAnn had brought food, Bo had ordered prime rib and we had a lovely dinner and a really good cake to top it off. I enjoyed it so much and think my husband is just wonderful for doing it for me. I got some really nice cards, a very pretty necklace from Cody, and a beautiful diamond bracelet from Bo. It was great. I loved it and love my husband for being so thoughtful and my family for helping.



I feel blessed! Thank you Lord.

What a busy couple of weeks we have had. I have hardly had time to do any blogging. We had to be in Dalhart Tuesday to close on our house. I worked Wednesday here in Amarillo and today Mason & I went back to Dalhart to work on the garage sale we're having this Saturday. Even though we closed on the house Tuesday, the new owners are giving us until Sunday to be completely out, so we left all the garage sale stuff in the garage. Jenny is helping me with the garage sale and she and I will be going back to Dalhart tomorrow to work some more. It's amazing how much stuff we have collected, and makes me feel somewhat materialistic looking at it all. I really want to just simplify my life, get rid of all the stuff we don't need.

The people that bought our house were there working on it today. Kind of made me sad. They had stripped all the wallpaper in the two back bedrooms and hallway. I know it will look nice when she is finished though. --Sad thing was I was just a visitor there. But I am going to really like living in Amarillo, --if I ever get to just relax and stop unpacking boxes!

Mason was a big help to me today. He's really a great kid.

Hey! Well, we are finally beginning to get settled in our new place. I have been so busy I haven't had time to do any blogging, and still have tons to do, but oh well. I worked today and it was nice not to have to drive 80 miles to get there. I even came home for lunch!

There have been lots of fires in the panhandle lately. Last weekend while we were moving, the winds were really blowing! Like 40-50 mph. Some fires got started and the winds really accelerated them. Whitney and Mason got here from Stanton Sunday afternoon. Whitney had planned to go on home to Canadian, but ending up having to spend the night with us due to road closings because of the fires. They say they have burned over 1,000,000 acres. Wow, that's alot. We used a horse trailer to move alot of our stuff, and with the wind blowing so hard, everything was covered with dust and dirt.

We will go back to Dalhart this weekend to finish moving and start cleaning. Also, I'm planning to have a garage sale the next weekend, so I've got to start messing with that. One thing I found out is that we just have too much stuff! It's funny how we accumulate things over the years and really don't even need them.

Well, we are liking our new abode. It's very nice! Come see us sometime!

Whew! Packing is alot of work. Mary Ellen & I have been very busy packing up the house for the last two days. I just didn't realize how much stuff we have. I am really NOT a pack-rat kind of person. I don't like clutter, so I can't believe how much 'clutter' we actually have when you start packing it up. Of course, we've lived here for 10 years, so what do I expect! All this kaos in my house makes me somewhat nervous though. But it'll be OK and will all be back nice and neat before too long.

We put a table out in the driveway today with various items, and a sign that says 'FREE, TAKE ME!' It was funny to watch people stop and look thru stuff and take a few things. One dumb thing I did was leave my scissors out on the table by accident, and yep, you guessed it. Somebody took my scissors! And I was using those scissors to cut tape for the boxes. LOL. Funny now, but not at the time.

Well, it's getting late and I've got another big day of packing tomorrow. Talk to you guys later!

Bo & I had a busy weekend. First I went to Amarillo on Friday to look for rent houses. I looked at several duplexes, apartments, and a few houses. I was very discouraged at what I was seeing....not really much available and not much for the high prices. Also most houses and duplexes wanted a one year lease agreement. We only need to rent for 6-8 months hopefully. So about 4:30 I decided to just give up for the day and head back to Big D. As I was leaving town, I saw a Realty office that said 'property management' on the sign. I decided to just stop in and see if they had anything. It just so happened they had one place available. It was a townhouse and 'very nice', the man said. So I headed across town to look at one more place, wondering if his idea of 'very nice' and mine were even close.


I thought it was a good price, compared to what I had been looking at all day, so really didn't expect find much. It WAS in a good area though. I found the place, went inside and to my surprise, it WAS very nice! The owner had just bought it (for investment property) and done alot of work inside, so it looks great! and he would rent it to us on a 6 month lease and month to month after that. I called Bo and told him about it and then told the realtor we wanted it. Yay! That was such a relief. Now we have somewhere to go. ---Now I've got alot of packing to do. Ugh.

Saturday we drove to Plainview to take Mason to meet the grandparents. He's staying with them this week. We all ate lunch at a Mexican Restaurant and visited with them for a little while, then headed back to Amarillo, did some shopping and came on home.

Then Sunday we went back to Amarillo to meet Mary Ellen at the airport. She came for a visit and will be here until Thursday. After we picked her up, we went and ate at Joe's Crabshack and it was very good. Then we did some errands and got back to Dalhart again about 5:00.

Well, that's about it for now. I am going to have a busy week!

Still waiting. Bo talked to the house owner yesterday, and he said he should have an answer next week. The friend of theirs and her husband are discussing whether or not they want the house. Either way, I think we are just going to rent a house for a few months. Moving twice will not be fun, but oh well.

I worked in Amarillo yesterday and had alot to do. It seems with working only one day a week, the work kind of piles up and it's hard to get it all done in one day, but I think I got it done. After work, I made my weekly trip to Walmart. Their groceries are just so much cheaper than our local United, but I don't usually get to buy cold or frozen items because I have to drive 1.5 hrs back to Dalhart. --Just a few more weeks and I'll be just a few minutes from Walmart! That'll be nice and there will be lots of other nice conveniences too. But I know I will miss Dalhart, and even the drives back and forth to Amarillo. Although I get tired of the drive sometimes, I do enjoy it sometimes too.

Yesterday I finished up my latest audiobook on the drive. It was 'Snowflower and the Secret Fan.' It was an OK book, but not one of my favorites. It was about two old friends in China.
I learned alot about old customs in China and that was interesting. One of the old customs was footbinding of young girls. Ugh. That must have been awful and so painful! The ideal foot was only 3 inches long. Can you imagine? Here's an article about it if you're interested ...or just bored. (How do ya like that picture, Jocelyne?)

Now I've got to figure out what book to listen to next. I'm thinking about 'The Secret Life of Bees' Anybody read it? Any other suggestions?

Ya'll have a great day!