Is today a crazy election day or isn't is? At least we are near a close. It was a relief when I was out of the country for 3 weeks and the Japanese really didn't say too much about it all. Actually nothing.
I have been so disappointed by the content of campaign ads and sad to see how far some people will stoop with their character assassination attempts and that people don't stand up and take notice and say "Hey, this has gone too far!"
We teach our children not to lie and cheat and bully each other in schools. What are we missing here? With all they are hitting us with now, I can imagine anyone feeling comfortable relinquishing their lives and freedom to BIGGER government  when they are so dishonest. We, as a people, deserve to be treated with dignity and we must treat others the same.

It has been such a nice thing to get to know Aris. Since Jason has been staying with us again, we have enjoyed seeing more of the two of them. Aris is in college or we'd see more of her. There is such a difference in height between the two and that is just fine with my grandson Jude who has a bit of a crush on her as she is more his size. At 4, he is quite tall.

My Grandkids in Japan

I had a a wonderful visit to Fukuoka, Japan. It was my first trip overseas alone so I was trying to keep it all together with all the changes etc. I loved being back in Japan and with my Grandkids and Titus and Mia. They made it all possible for me.
So much has changed there and it did take me a while to get out of my "shy" mode but I finally did. The people there are still just wonderful. I took early morning walks on the beach nearby and started making friends with the older people that also walked each day.  They even started bringing me little gifts. Japan has Thrift shops now, an abundance of blonde and red haired Japanese people, There were so many small changes but a lot happens in 20 years, I think I just spent the first few days comparing.
My grandaughter loves cooking shows on Youtube and has the earmarks of a future chef. Deren showed me his school and I met his teacher. I marveled at how he speaks and writes Japanese and does so well in school and then comes home to get his homeschooling done in English. He is a very talented child. I was a bit taken back by the fact that kids go all over alone as it's just a lot safer there. I kept thinking, should  they be doing that? It seems kids just are more independant in a way.
I could never get over the fact that kids aren't really belted in the car while driving. That makes me nervous but I really didn't see any accidents while there.
It was hard to take the plane, leaving my wonderful family there and the island that had won my heart. I just wanted to stay longer. I missed my home but it was so hard to leave. I was sniffling and drying my eyes for hours while crossing the Pacific.
Something always happens to redirect me however, I had a window seat and when needing to use the restroom, could not wake the young man next to me. If he was not a Sumo wrestler, he was that size and he was actually taking up part of my seat. I tried to crawl over him, which turned out to be a disaster as I ended up falling and  hopping in the aisle in the dark all tangled up in headphone wires. It was dark and I caused a big stir and everyone had a good laugh.

Well, here are a few pictures.

Happy Autumn days

Just a few pictures of happening around here

with Goldendoodles and such. They do keep us busy!

Bentley and the Texas A/M Guide Dog School Dogs

Bentley is the white Doodle in front. He is about to turn 1 year old this January. 

My Three Sons

I have 3 sons. I have to keep reminding myself that. Tim, the accountant/medic/student  doesn't surface much. He is a busy guy on the other side of the Houston blob. Titus is firmly imbedded in Japanese life and I do hear from him a bit more but am forgetting what he looks like fast. Jason is just still finding his wings and pops in every now and then for a visit, good food (keeping our refrigerator clean) and a place on the couch. I think the food is the main draw. Well, Jason is presently here camping out in our little office loft. We can't find the printer as I suppose it has become the makeshift pillow of the moment. The lighting is a bit of a problem as the lamps have become clothing racks for his American Eagle attire.
Ah well. I keep  reminding myself that I really do have THREE sons. Where are you boys????? (excluding Jason that is- at least for the next week).

Life

Our backyard here is huge. At the moment it lacks character as the previous owners prefered "bland". It is basically just grass and crawdad hills. I am busy working on it hwever. After the last 2 deep freezes, everything just looks brown and gloomy. We do have a very large Red tailed hawk that has adopted us. He overheard me talking about putting in a bird feeder. That will attract his dinner. We call him Henry. He is very interested in us. Come to think of it, maybe he likes our tasty homegrown crawdads. We are going to put in a bird feeder.

We have a beautiful Red Arabian horse. At least we hope he's ours, He was living on a cattle ranch with another colt. The other colt died and we were given Red as his owners couldn't feed him. He had  a rare parasite due to drought conditions and living with cows. He was in need of urgent care so we took him in. He is looking so good after 2 weeks of good grain and hay. I love to watch him run. We are going to begin training him very soon and the children should be able to ride him by the end of summer.
One plus is that I have my own fertilizer factory. Sorry Home Depot. I won't be buying that from you anymore.
I planted 2 rose bushes today. It seems that the new fantastic hybrid for Texas is the Knock Out Rose. I took my trusty red shovel and dug up 4 banana trees to make room. This property evidently had bald cypress trees a one time and when  I dig down, I hit the remnants of the trees underground., Digging isn't easy. Hmmmm....maybe our house is on an ancient Cypress Bog since we are so close to Spring Creek. I will start looking for arrow heads too. I used to do that as a kid and found quite a few digging around the river bottoms of the Feather River in Northern California,
Awwww..... I love life!