In the news

As I was in a patients room this morning my heart dropped as I heard the news of a F-15 crash. I recently was reminded of the reality that only God knows the number of our days. Please take a few moments to pray for this family.

Pilot dies in F-15 crash during Red Flag
The Associated PressPosted : Wednesday Jul 30, 2008 21:08:16 EDT

LAS VEGAS — A pilot was killed and another was injured Wednesday when an F-15 fighter jet crashed during training exercises in the Nevada desert.
The two-seater F-15D Eagle went down at about 11:30 a.m. in the vast Nevada Test and Training Range north of Las Vegas, according to a statement released by Nellis Air Force Base officials.
One pilot was declared dead shortly after the crash; another was transferred to the base hospital and was in stable condition, base spokesman Andrew Dumboski said.
The names of the pilots were not immediately released.
Dumboski said both were assigned to the 65th Aggressor Squadron at Nellis, about 10 miles north of Las Vegas. The 65th Aggressor Squadron simulates enemy forces in air combat Red Flag training exercises regularly held by the base, officials said.
An F-16 fighter jet crashed during exercises on the training range in March 2007. The pilot safely ejected before that crash and was not seriously injured.
A 28-year-old Navy pilot was killed last month during a routine training mission near Fallon Naval Air Station when his F/A-18C Hornet collided with a F-5 Tiger aircraft.
The F-15D Eagle is primarily used for tactical missions and costs $29.9 million, according to Air Force figures.

Girls just wanna have fun

We have just finished of our Bible study on Ephesians! It was wonderful and my favorite thing from the whole book was this passage:

22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."[b] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Mary, Andrea (The Flying Smiths) and Lyn (The Barenchi's in Texas)

Now before you think...Who is this gal? Her hubby must walk all over her! I assure you it is not so. Mary pointed out from this passage something I loved and that I have shared with many since she enlightened me. (including Hubby)

Jess, a very happy Yours Truly and Beth Ann (Szmody's in Texas)

When you look at what Paul says for the wife to do from this passage it is to: submit, submit, respect.

Lyn and Morgan

However, look at what Paul tells the husband to do for the wife: love, make holy, cleansing and washing her, make her without stain, wrinkle or blemish, holy and blameless, love, love, love.

I love that Paul asks wives to respect and submit, but realizes that we are so delicate sometimes and gives a much more detailed list to the husband about how to treat their wife. Now I get to remind hubby that he is not to blemish me! hehe

I love magnets

See my ugly door. The white on white decor is not really my style. I'm more rustic than contemporary. So, when I see this door morning after morning it really made my coffee sour.

(I rarely drink coffee) So, after much looking through out all the local Del Rio stores I was still empty handed. No where could I find a magnet tension rod. Do you know what you do when you can't find a magnet tension rod for your lovely metal base house door. You beg everyone you know who lives in a bigger better town to look for you!
Guess who pulled through! Momma, like always, she found me a metal tension rod and shipped it to me from Ohio. If that isn't real love! Man she's great!
So there it is! All completed. Now my door curtain matches my kitchen window curtain. I love it and now even when the milk is sour I don't mind, because I have a lovely door! Granted it's all in the eye of the beholder and possibly I have a piece of lint in mine.

Hiking to Panthers Cave

With a July Birthday we always find something to do outside for Hubbie. I don't know why we haven't figured out that 100 plus degree weather is not when you should plan outdoor activities, but in TX you aren't going to find the cool mid 70-80 degree weather of Ohio in July. But, nonetheless it was fun and we had a great time.

It all started with, "what do you want to do for your Birthday?" I wanted to get a Wii for him. Great idea, right! What boy wouldn't want a Wii. Well, He wanted to take the dogs on a walk. And, that's why I love him! So a walking we went. I had heard of the Seminole Canyon (about 40 miles west of Del Rio) and I thought that might be a reasonably fun hike.

I found some info and it was indeed dog friendly. So, we decided to pack up the puppies and hike.

Notice the puppies doggy backpacks.

Momma T went with us and she was a trooper! I know it was hot and she is terrified like myself that Hub is going to fall over the edge of a cliff at any moment.

I would like to report that he did not fall in.

All in all it was about a three hour adventure. We were tired and a little sun burnt afterwards, but the dogs had such a great time. I think they thought is was their Birthday!

There where three shelters where we could take a break from the sun and rest!

Hi, Momma T!!

The reason we hiked three miles was to see this pictograph! What you don't see it? Don't worry we didn't either for about the first 15 mins. We were all bumped out because we thought the brush was covering up the 15 foot long red panther! Actually, you can see it in this picture. See the itty bitty fence post rising just above the brush, now walk your eyes up to where the tan and the gray rock meet. Then gaze about a centimeter left (cm not to actual scale). See it there very faintly about a centimeter and a half long (in the picture) and it's red..kidda looks more brunt orange. Hope you can see it!

I loved getting to spend with my family and of course documenting the whole thing with pictures. Hopefully, if you are this way you'll check it out too!

Water Hiking

My Mother in law came for a visit and she wanted to re-live a memory. She used to live in San Antonio when her kids were little and every year as a family they would float on the Rio Frio. This memory she wanted to share with me and relive for my hubby's 27th Birthday.

The idea is to rent your tube from here:

Very cute outdoorsy shop and I love the decor inside!

Then this cool kids Patrick took us up the river a few miles to "Sevens Point". I think that is were we went maybe he called it "Stevens Joint" either way. He dumped us off and said we would see him in about 3-4 hours. Hubby asked how much walking would be involved and he said "fair amount of walking".

I assure you when a teenager says "fair amount of walking" it really means, "The girls will float about 40% of the time, 30% will require hubby to drag us along because the wind is blowing against the current and we are being blown up stream and the last 10% is pure water hiking.

I had a lovely time and think we should go back at the next big rain.

(some kid I don't know, but I wanted to give you the idea of floating)
Mother in law got to relive the memory and had a fairly good time. She didn't enjoy walking in her broke flip flop and flipping over in her tube and going completely under!

Hubby was there, lost interest about half way through and decided it was time to leave. Which really means he just pulled us down stream a lot faster. The 4 hour tubing session was completed in less than 3 hours due to my hubby's gusto!

All in all, I think you all should go!

Christmas in July

Merry ChristmasOh, I know it is not Christmas yet, but I must confess every year around this time I find myself longing for cooler weather and Christmas carols. I usually begin to sing along with Bing Crosby and The Rat Pack.

I recently found these Christmas Cookie invitations that Laura and I made last year, and thought I should share them with you all.

We started a Christmas cookie exchange party three years ago! It our one big party a year to invite all our friends over and enjoy the followship of great gals.

(Last year we had a token male guest.)

We actually cut fresh pine to attached to each of the invitations. So, hopefully if you are reading this you can make plans to attend this coming year. Looks like the cookie exchange will be at my house and I'll be hosting because Laura is moving to North Dakota. I think she'll probably continue the tradition as well.

Hope to see you in December!

Baby Boy Burp Cloths

I am having a "Shower in a Box" for a friend of mine in a few days. Let me explain what a shower in a box is for those of you with the luxury of all your friends and family around all the time. You may think this would be annoying from time to time to have all your family around, but let me assure you... You are blessed!

A Shower in a Box, is an idea I got from another friend here on base. Since everyone is scattered all over the globe and can't possible attend a shower this is a great way to show the gal you love her and her bun in the oven. The hostess (that's me) will ship any packages and party supplies you would need for a baby shower and then send out the evites. The idea is to have all the baby gifts arrive on the same day.

For this shower I am going to include streamers and noise makers in the box. I have also heard of sending the "diaper cake" as the baby shower cake. Very cute idea, doncha think!

So, because of all this baby stuff going on in my head, I decided to make baby burp cloths. I got baby cloth diapers...you know my new obsession with cloth diapers... and decorated them all fancy to make a one of a kind burp cloths. It took a few practice runs to come up with the style I like best. I think I may be quiting my job and opening a Burp Cloth business!

I would love you hear your stories of other "Shower in a Box" ideas. Please, leave a comment and tell me what you think!

...and I want it painted black...

I see that red door and I want it painted black, no other colors I just want them painted black...Oh, sorry I was just lost in a song.

I do have a bit of an obsession with spray painting things black. No! I am not morbid or depressed, I just think some things really do look better with a little coat of black spray paint. I must have been suffering from my OCD a lot one day when I decided to spray paint everything that was black, black. Yes, that is what I did. I gave everything a new shinny fresh coat of black paint. I'll admit it started with spray painting the mail box black. But, then it grew. I removed all the door handles and spray painted them black.

Sliding glass door handle with a new coat of black spray paint.Light on the car port got a fresh coat of paint too. It didn't really help it look any better I still think it's ugly. I took down this black name holder thing and yes spray painted it black.

Then I went inside with my can of spray paint. I looked around and decided if I spray painted the return air vents black, then people probably wouldn't notice the black mold growing in our duct work. So, I took down several of the vents that would look better painted black, placed them outside in a well ventilated area, and spray painted till my hearts desire. I absolutely love them!

If you get brave and also want to spray paint items black please take note: Gasoline is amazing! Gasoline will remove black spray paint from not only brick, but also siding. You can have everything all cleaned up before hubby comes home from work and wonders what in the world you are doing!

Popcorn ceiling cheerfulness

When we first moved onto base I painted almost every wall in our house, my Mother in-law can assure you I did. However, I had a little problem with painting the walls because the ceilings were textured and I am a firm believer in the magical use of an edger.

I love this little edger! I have used it several times as you can see by the many coats of paint on it. I just change out the brush pad and move to another paint color. However, with textured ceilings and an edger you get these horrible little wavy lines all along the ceiling where the edger gets slammed into a ball of texture. At our first house, I went back after I painted the walls and touched up every little wave with a fine paint brush. Not only did I touch up the walls where the cream paint didn't make it flush with the ceiling, but then I had to also touch up the balls of texture that had cream paint on them. It was tedious and neck breaking!

So here is the solution I came up with, at Home Depot I found this chisel to scrape the texture off the ceiling. It knocks off the texture in such a small width that you don't even notice the difference.

Until you paint that is... because with a smooth ceiling you can glide your edger along.

Awww see how easy! See that nice straight paint line! No wavy crazy line to stare at and find yourself dizzy from following it around the room. So there you have it, it you have textured ceilings and live on base like I do, please barrow my chisel and scrape off the texture. And, NO...no one will know you have done this, you won't get in trouble. (unless you go blab to someone or my blog gets out to the housing authorities) If anything the next couple to move into your base house will thank you. And, I am sure your walls will thank you too!