Stop and smell the Bluebonnets...

My yard is in mourning.

I rent the house my grandfather had built and lived in for almost 40 years until he and my Grandma bought a new one. It's a great house. I really love it here. It's the only place I've ever really been able to come "home" to.

My grandpa loved flowers. He was a simple man. Not simple minded, he just enoyed the simpler things in life. Flowers was one of them. He always saw the beauty in them. Every year he'd plant bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes all along the street for everyone to enjoy. He got more compliments that way.

I've always had bluebonnets out here, even though they weren't planted. Bluebonnets are wild flowers and once they grow in one place they always come back.

My grandpa died last fall. It was probably the hardest thing I've had to get through. He was like a father to me. I miss him so much and think of him daily. There are so many things that remind me of him... a hard days work, giving your last dollar to someone just because you know they need it worse than you, anything that says "Made in the USA" (grandpa ALWAYS bought American, even if he didn't need it), and of course, bluebonnets.

It's springtime and the bluebonnets are out in full force. Except in my yard. I have one. One lonely bluebonnet that braved the massive storms and flooding we had last week. And it's still there. Proud and true in all it's glory saying an unwavering Semper Fi to the hard core Marine and family man who took the time to appreciate the beauty in the world.