Thank You God For East Texas.......

October 30, 2011

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT EAST TEXAS....

You know, when we first bought our lake house 10 years ago, I just loved it.......We still had our Dallas house and I always had the guarantee at the end of the weekend that we'd head on back to town on Sunday evening, which meant I had grocery stores on every corner, a gas station right up the road and I didn't have to shop at Wal-Mart....EVER.

I'll never forget the day Chuck came home from work and said we were moving to the lake full time......AND it was all happening the next day!  I'll never forget the panic I felt in the deepest, darkest pits of my stomach; the dread of "what am I going to do living in the country 24/7" and "but where will I get my hair colored".........I was anything but happy.

After a year of waking up each morning asking myself the question "What am I going to do today??" and a lot of tears; A LOT OF TEARS......I finally did what my Dad and Mary Engelbreit (a great artist and illustrator) always said......"I bloomed where I had been planted."  I got involved with everything local.  I started volunteering at Meals on Wheels.....I started learning how to play golf.....I tried to like Wal-Mart....and the tears became fewer and I found when I did head back to the big city to visit family, I couldn't wait to get back to the safety of good ol' East Texas........Those Dallas drivers had become "idiots" after I left!

This time of year in the piney woods of East Texas is one of my favorite times of year.  There is always a Fall Festival....an Autumn Trails Festival....the Annual Tomato Festival; Scare-on-the-Square Festival, along with the Scarecrow Festival.  You have the Butterfly Festival and the Yamboree Tator Trot; the Peanut Butter Festival and lets not forget the Eat-A-Bug-Family Arts Day.......well....you get the point.  Everyone has a smile on their face; no one is in a hurry.....and everyone despises Obama, with the exception of the old man at the tire store.

I love living in East Texas.

I have also learned that sometimes we are "planted" someplace for a reason.  By connecting the dots of our past, we can see clearly "why" we were planted where we were......

For me, it couldn't be any clearier.......

Good Golly, Little Miss Molly.....

October 26, 2011

Our Molly

I know there are some of you out there that  HATE it when pet-people like me talk non-stop about our perfect, adorable, lovable, captivating, winsome, cuddly, too-good-to-be-true pets.....

Well, too bad....cause that's exactly what I'm going to do today.

Cause our sweet little Murphy and Molly visited a new veterinarian today.....since our old veterinarian died suddenly and unexpectedly a month ago......RIP Doc Reed........

And poor Molly bled like a stuffed pig when they drew her blood.....

Which broke my heart.......so I took them on a field trip to the pet store.....

And tonight...........tonight she's feeling super puny....

Sleep tight, sweet Molly......tomorrow will be a better day.

ROADTRIP!!.....

October 16, 2011

R O A D T R I P

Remember those 4 crazy chicks who went to Washington and New York back in the Spring?  Well, they're On The Road again.......this time we're in San Marcos, Texas.....home to the largest outlet mall any of these Calloway girls have ever drooled over.....

And after making at least 2 drink stops......3 bathroom stops due to the 2 drink stops.....and 1 gas stop, we finally made it the 4 1/2 hour drive to San Marcos.

By this time it was too late to head to the mall, so we checked into our conveniently-located-to-the-outlet-mall hotel, and then headed to downtown San Marcos to check it out.  And this is what we found....

Anyway, after SMOKIN' the rest of the girls in Mexican Train domino's last night (I just had to mention that), we turned in early to rest our FEET for today.

Unfortunately, it didn't help cause my aching feet are SCREAMING at me right now.

Connecting The Dots......

Thursday, October 13, 2011

These sweet people above are our friends, Norm and Sue, who live in Brenham, Texas; a neat little town in South Texas also known as home to Blue Bell Ice Cream.  Norm and Sue used to be our neighbors here on the lake in Mt. Vernon for many years but deserted us a few years ago to be closer to their kids.

Chuck and I have been blessed in so many ways over the years and we consider Norm and Sue one of those blessings in our lives.  We've laughed together; we've traveled together; we've argued together; we've confided in each other........we're family.

Something Steve Jobs said back many years ago has stuck in my head every since I heard it......."You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.  So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.  You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever."  Well, I don't know about Steve Jobs, but I know my trust isn't in my gut or my destiny or even karma.....my trust is in my God.  But Steve did have it spot-on when he said you can't connect the dots looking forward....only in looking backwards can we see how the dots in our lives connected.  I see quite clearly how my God placed Norm and Sue in the dots of my life and how very blessed, BLESSED Chuck and I are to count them as family.

I love driving around this neat little town.......It has great little antique stores and architecture that is so much fun to photograph......thought you might enjoy seeing a little of it too!

Enjoy!!

Molly sleeping all the way home......

Did I Pick Your Photo???

October 4, 2011


So.......did I pick YOUR picture??

It was a close Murphy's Mom Blog race.......the picture of the older man and the woman in the swing were ONE vote apart......but the HOT older dude won out!!

So....what next??  The winner will be announced in about two weeks.

Fingers crossed.......Chuck sure is wanting that gift certificate to Wal-Mart!!!

And a GREAT big shout-out THANK YOU to everyone who voted and helped me decide which picture to send in!  There was such a tremendous response and no one insulted my amateur photography skills, so that made it even better!

Thanks everyone!!!!

Hey My Bloggerites, Help Me Pick A Picture....Please......

CHUCK-CHUCKLE OF THE WEEK

LIZ:  "Hey Chuck, just got a call from the cardiologist.  You've been given a new lease on life!!!"

CHUCK:  "REALLY??  WE WON A NISSAN?????"

LIZ:  "AGHHHHHHHHHH........"

Photo 1

This weekend, as a chick whose camera is permanently attached around her neck, I attended a Photo Walk through the great metropolis of Sulphur Springs, Texas.  Each year on the first weekend of October, a "Photo Walk" is hosted in towns all around the world for obsessed people like me who are just "snap-and-shoot" photoholics.  Fifty of us turned out and walked around the square of this quaint little town with our various cameras glued to our hands trying to find the "perfect" picture that stood out from the other 49.  We have till Monday night to post our favorite picture online and, if picked, win stuff like gift certificates to places I've never heard of.

So, I thought what better way to pick a favorite picture to post for this contest than to have YOU pick.  So, if you'll take a second and "Reply" to this email with which photo below you think I should send in, you'd make me tickled pink!!  If you think they all suck, then just don't reply.....it would hurt my feelings.

So "Thank You" in advance for being such awesome Bloggerites!

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7

Photo 8

Photo 9

Photo 10