The Roller Coaster Continues

In all the years I've lived in Texas I have experienced the extreme changes in weather that can happen but I do not recall the changes happening every few days like it has this season! This weekend was absolutely gorgeous! Temps Saturday were in the upper 60's and on Sunday we warmed to 75! Then the bottom fell out Monday morning dropping the highs to the upper 30's for two days. Forecast says we will be in the 60's again by Thursday and possibly 70 by Friday AGAIN then back to upper 50's by the weekend. Geez!

Saturday was lovely. It was a little slow to warm up but the sun shown bright and there was no wind. I enjoyed my coffee on the patio and let the dogs play. Vanessa and the kids came over for a bit. After they left I decided to take advantage of the pretty weather to ride. It had been over a month since I rode Diamond because of weather and holidays. I think he was as excited as me to be on the trail.

I don't usually go to the park on the weekend because that is usually their busiest time but I decided it might be nice to meet up with some other riders and went anyway. I was pleasantly surprised that there was only one horse trailer at the trailer head but several cars which meant lots of hikers.

I did see some other riders from a distance but never met up with anyone on horse back. I was a little disappointed that I didn't see any wildlife. I usually see a deer, armadillos and occasionally turkey. But not today. On the last part of the trail on our way back an owl flew in front of us! I was thrilled!

We caught up with the hikers when we were nearly back to the trail head. Diamond is keeping an eye on them!

Then as I was driving across the spillway of the lake I got another treat when I saw some pelicans! I stopped the truck, put my zoom on my camera, opened the door of the truck and stood up to take these pictures.

It was about 5 in the evening and some of them were sleeping.

There is also an eagle that has been spotted at the park but I didn't see it the day I was there. I am hoping for a chance to see and get a picture!









On Sunday the kids came over for lunch after Church. That was almost a disaster. As I was preparing lunch I needed the oven. So I turned it on. In a little bit my mother brought it to my attention that something was smoking. Then I remembered!

A few weeks ago I had a problem with mice in my oven and had set traps. They were so small that they weren't tripping the traditional mouse trap so I purchased some sticky traps. Yep you guessed it. Even after the mice quick appearing I had a sticky trap in the broiler part of my oven and I had forgot about it....that is until I saw the smoke! I quickly turned on the vent-a-hood and turned off the oven but the smoke increased. I hollered at Doyle but he didn't hear me so I sent Kennedy to get him. He comes in there, sees the smoke and a look of alarm is on his face. I said "before you panic, I forgot I had left a sticky trap in the bottom of the oven." Now think about what I just said to my firefighter husband of 28 yrs. Telling him not to panic! He quickly assessed the situation. He opened the broiler drawer and smoke billowed out into the kitchen. There was fire! He tried squirting with water but was forced to use a fire extinguisher to get it out. The smoke alarm went off! What a mess. We opened windows and plugged in fans to get the smoke out of the house. I was very thankful for such a warm day and more thankful it wasn't Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner I was fixing! The smoke cleared enough I could finish up preparing lunch. All of lunch was salvaged but unfortunately my new stove wasn't. After lunch Doyle took it outside and cleaned what he could inside. He said he didn't trust me to use it for preparing food anymore and ordered another that day. That was an expensive lesson learned the hard way!

It was so beautiful outside. I played with the kids while Mom and Vanessa helped clean up the kitchen.

Aren't Kashton's eyes beautiful! He's such a pretty little boy!

 I took the kids for a walk. It was so warm that Kennedy wore shorts and a tank top! She really does lover her brother! Do you like the one sock on...one sock off?!

Kennedy wanted me to take a picture of her by herself.

Then Kennedy wanted to take a picture of Kashton. He prefers to keep moving!



The Arctic front moved through about 3AM Monday morning with very strong winds. When I awoke at 7:30AM the temp was 34. It dropped to 31 before it came back up and topped out at 35. We were in a wind advisory until noon but the winds stayed strong most of the day making it feel much colder than the temperature.  Last night the temp was 15. It warmed to 37 today but still felt very cold. Forecast says it will be in the 60's by Thursday and 70 by Friday then it drops back to the 50's for the weekend. UGH! Please get me off this roller coaster!

Have a good one!