It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

Imagine our surprise when we woke up this morning and realized it was snowing! Many of you may think well ...what's so unusual about that? After all it is December! What you may not know is that we live in Sugar Land, Texas. Which is about 20 minutes South West of Houston ...land of heat and humidity! We had a few flurries here a year ago today, but in the eleven years since we moved here it's only snowed one other time ...several years back on Christmas eve. It was the highlight of our anual Christmas eve party! Here are some of the videos and pictures I took today. Grab a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy!

Scotland revisited -a video tour (part 3)

This is one of the bed and breakfasts we stayed in. Sorry! I know ...it's sideways but I don't know how to fix it. It's short so just lean your head over for a few seconds. I loved the flowers that were everywhere. I know it's hard to believe but they were all real. They have so much rain that they never have to water them. Amazing!

Here ...maybe this is a little better.

A bus tour of the world famous St Andrews golf course. Sorry, it gets a little crazy at the end and I don't know how to edit videos yet. No the bus didn't flip over ...I just forgot to wait for the camera to shut down before starting to put it away!

Putting on the 18th green

The home of the Queen Mum

Scottish heather

This is our rental car. We stopped by the side of the road to look at the beautiful hillside.

Thanks for joining us. I hope you had as much fun as we did. We'll end our tour on a high note ...with some bagpipes and wishing you all a fond fare thee well.

Scotland revisited -a video tour (part 2)

Gary in the wind by the river.

More Gary, more wind, more of the river

Couldn't get enough of this beautiful scenery.

We went on a hike that took us across a bridge that spanned this fast moving stream.

Gary and Whitney check out the view from the bridge.

This is a little alcove in the forrest where Scotland's poet Robbie Burns was inspired to write "Aber Felch" or some such thing (spelling?). Tough to read the plaque when I was moving at lightening speed. I was in a hurry to get down the mountain. Mother Nature was calling and there was water, water every where!

FREEDOM!!! The William Wallace memorial from one of the windows in Sterling castle.

This was the home of Mary Queen of Scots

This is a statue in the Glasgow museum. It's of a father and child comforting each other just after the child's mother had died. Very sad and beautifully sculpted.

It wasn't the "Y" mountain but it was the best we could do!

Check out Gary's great technique!

Whitney Lawn Bowling for the very first time.

Scotland revisited - a video tour (part 1)

An ice-cream shop near one of our bed and breakfast. Lots of interesting flavors: Ferero Rocher, Banana Marshmallow, Rhubarb Ginger, Honey Comb, Licorice -all sorts, Bounty Bar, and Chilli Chocolate. I think I'll pass on the Whisky Crunch!

The beautiful River Tay (spelled phonetically)

One day we hiked up to a dam over looking the town we were staying in.

The water as it began it's decent

Loud ...but interesting to watch

A night at the local pub (sorry ...it's little dark) but a girl who works in the pub is doing the highland fling while a man plays the bag pipes in the background.

The "Clapping Song" This is an amazing musician (can't remember his name) who was in town from Edinburgh where he plays for "Oor's Walking Tours" He followed the local talent with a fast paced, 3 hour singing, guitar, banjo, harmonica playing extravaganza! He was so funny and entertaining. He asked where we were from then started referring to Gary as "Texas"! We were so impressed with his show that we bought his 2 CD's to take home with us ...and he threw in a free t-shirt. What a deal! Gary told him that he wanted the t-shirt to wear when he plays raquetball -and the musician told him he'd be honored"

A short bit to show his skills as a banjo player.

Care to join us in a little sing a long?

"Take me Home Country Road" with Gary driving along the Scottish country side. As you will see Scotland has very narrow roads. Note the signs that say "slow" painted on the roads at each curve. This is to warn you that an on coming vehicle may be in your path. Usually the Scots drive in the middle of the road at great speeds until they see an on coming vehicle, then they try to move over. Obviously on the curves it's hard to see if someone is coming so they are hoping you'll slow down enough on each curve so you'll have time to avoid a crash! Oh boy!!!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great labor day weekend with visits from Eric, Mike, Jessica, Ben Grace and Sabrina. The only ones missing were Whitney and Stephen. We enjoyed having Mike's family here for a couple of days. They were in town for the blessing of Jessica's brother's new baby in Lake Jackson. Congratulations John and Emily on your new arrival.

Our beany baby barn is one of our grand kids favorite things. They love being able to pick some animals to play with when they come for a visit.

Ben made a compound for the lizards to play in.

Grace wanted to add a few finishing touches to his master piece.

Even Uncle Eric got to take a break from the Army and come home for the weekend.

The Sergeant got in some PT with Grace's help. He let her jump on his back then did about 30 push ups. Pretty impressive!

Uncle Eric unleashes the giggles!

I'm not sure which was more fun ...seeing the kids and grand kids or going to Dallas to watch BYU beat Oklahoma. Either way it was a great weekend!

Trip across the pond ...Scotland!

Here are a few of the many pictures and video we took on our recent trip to Scotland. We had a wonderful time walking, hiking and climbing to the many interesting sites along the way. It's a beautiful country and the people were so nice.

The Scottish version of bowling

Overlooking one of the many beautiful Locks (lakes) in Scotland.

A reenactment at the William Wallace memorial

Whitney is wearing our clan scarf.

The sign Gary is standing by is warning of the dangers of death if you climb over the fence! Alrighty then.

I loved this little flower garden. It was so beautiful!

The beach by St. Andrew's golf course.

An Abbey surrounded by an ancient cemetery.

Castles, castles, and more castles

More to follow ....

Well Hallelujah!

I have been having trouble with my computer for the last couple of months so I haven't been able to post any updates on my blog. Today I decided to turn it on to check the status and was surprised to see that for some reason it is up and running. Whoo hoo! So ...I will post as much as I can in the time that it gives me before it crashes again!

Copper had a little bit of excitement this summer. He can add one more notch to his dog collar for yet another critter caught in the back yard. This time it was an armadillo which I believe is the official mascot for the state of Texas. I heard lots of barking and commotion early one morning and when I went out to see what he was up to I could tell he had something cornered in the backyard. On closer inspection I was shocked to see a good sized armadillo burrowed into the corner by our fence. I was able to convince Copper to come inside and chill in the laundry room for awhile to give the armadillo a chance to calm down and escape.

Several hours later ...the critter was still there so Gary and I got a couple of shovels to try to encourage him to leave already. The poor thing was really wedged in there and there was no getting him out. You may have heard that armadillo's are a natural carrier of leprosy. It's really true and was confirmed by my vet who told us to avoid coming into contact with it. Surprisingly there are no records of dogs catching leprosy from armadillos.

After many unsuccessful attempts to try and pry the armadillo out of the hole he had dug himself into I remembered ahhhh ...the secret weapon! Oh yes, just ask any possum in Sugar Land and he'll tell you all about it. I advised Gary to stand back as I turned on the spray attachment on my garden hose and let the poor thing have it. Yep he flew out of there like a Chinese rocket. Course he headed straight for my picket fence and into my vegetable garden. Yikes! Gary ran around to the side yard and between the two of us we kept scaring him back and forth under the side fence until Gary was able to scoop him up in his shovel and toss him in the back of his truck.

 Notice the 'bite" marks and scratches courtesy of Copper)

He told me to stand guard while he ran in for his keys so it couldn't escape then we would drive him somewhere out in the country and release him. I'm thinking sure ...easy what can happen? He isn't that tall ...no way is he climbing out of there. WRONG! That critter was flying all over the bed of the truck, scrambling up the side with his long claws. It was hand to hand combat and he nearly won. (Well ...shovel to claw combat!) He was strong! Luckily Gary came out just in time and threw the recycle bin over him. That seemed to calm him down long enough for us to make a get away. We were laughing as we were driving along thinking ...what if it gets out and jumps out and lands on the windshield of the car behind us? It would totally freak someone out and cause an accident. Kind of like the scary stories we used to tell at girl's camp: "The Claw"! Speaking of claws ...check out the toe nails on this guy:
Catch...



........and release!