Dust In The Wind

I had to work Saturday at the post office. I fought the wind and my allergies all day long, but it was clear when I got back to the PO. When I left to go home the sky was brown. It got thicker when I got home. You could look straight at the sun for awhile. It settled out after the wind died down later in the evening.

The New Dog

When Lynne calls me on the phone and he first thing she says to me is "Honey, I love you", I know I'm in trouble. One of the ladies she works with had two dogs but they kept fighting with each other. So Lynne brought one of them home. She is a pure bred Dachshund named Piper. She's a nice little dog and I think she'll make a nice addition to our family. Our other dogs have been chasing cows, so they will have to leave.

Teacher of the Week

If you don't get the Grandview Tribune you may not have seen this on the front page of section two (yes, the paper did have two sections). Lynne made teacher of the week. They had a nice article with her entire life story in it. She got a free lunch and a six week subscription to the Tribune.
If you notice the picture to the right, you will see the five new Deacons that were ordained at our church last week.

The New Car

I got the camera running long enough to get a few pictures downloaded. As you know Andy wrecked my truck. So we are trying an experiment with our new car. How little can we pay for a car and how long will it last? Well, here is the answer to part one. It's a 1996 Saturn with 147,000 miles on it. We paid $2400 cash, so no car payment and we don't have to buy full coverage insurance. It runs great. Lynne and I took it on our trip to SanAntonio and got 35 miles per gallon (better than the Explorer). Since this is the car I'll be driving back and forth to work in Cleburne, the good gas mileage will be great. As to the second half of the question... We'll let you know.

Valentine's Day and since then

My Valentine's Day was very memorable. My husband professes not to do a lot of hoopla but he so made up for it on this holiday that he says is a corporate scam for the card, candy, and flower industry. Well, he did REALLY good.
I went to work on this particular day without thinking about what day it was. I knew it was Valentine's Day but since Jeff has never really done anything for it I wasn't expecting anything. He came in from work and handed me a pot of red tulips just beginning to bloom. I jumped up and hugged him and went nuts over them since they are my favorite flower. A little later he went out to the car and came back and handed me a package with a movie I had been wanting to get. Next, he schemed with my oldest son to babysit and Jeff took me to Rosa's Cafe for dinner. It was so romantic and sweet and totally unexpected. I hope he realizes that he has set the bar for himself and now I am going to want some sort of hoopla every year. HAHA!!!

Since then things have been low key. Will and Jeff have gotten new glasses, we got a new computer, and things are rolling along. I was with Will today and we agreed that life is good right now. We might not have much but we have enough and we are blessed. Yes, we could use a little more money so the finances weren't so tight and yes, we could use another car for Andy,and yes, we could sell the old house, but over all we are in good shape and we are happy.

I hope that others out there are happy. I know I am.

A Little Ice

We had a little ice, sleet, and snow at our house last week. Not as bad as the DFW area, but bad enough.
The puppies made a mess out of the yard. They didn't know how to act in the stuff.
When the sun came out it made the ice on everything sparkle. We got a little more snow after I took these pictures, but not alot.

SanAngelo Christmas-Day 2 & 3

We ate the free hotel breakfast (Will made waffles!) and then headed to the house to celebrate Christmas with the family.









There was a crowd in Alan and Swellens little house. Kids and cats everywhere. A total of 14 people.

More of the Christmas crowd.

On the way home on day 3 we stopped in Bangs, Texas for lunch. GranMa knew of this little mexican food restaurant that she said was good. And it was. The queso was very good.

SanAngelo Christmas-Day 1

My older sister and her family came in from California for Christmas. My younger sister couldn't travel (she was pregnant) so we all loaded up the trucks and headed for SanAngelo!


The California crew had stopped at the DrPepper museum in Waco on the way to GranMa and GranPa's house, so we stopped in Dublin at the bottling plant to finish their beverage tour. (And to get a REAL DrPepper).








Here we all are headed back to the truck for the rest of the journey.
After we got to SanAngelo we stopped at Swellen and Alan's house first. Alan was working so we headed downtown to visit him at the station.
Alan gave us the tour of the fire station. The boys wished our garage was that big. Andy was impressed by the 3 X-boxes the crew had networked together so they could play Halo.
This is one of 3 ambulances that were in the bay that day.


Always a good warning to pay attention to.













If you take a firemans picture, with a flash, while he's wearing all his gear; all you get is the reflective tape. That is Alan, even though you can't see him.








The boys got to get on the trucks. The big truck was in the shop, this is a backup.
It was getting late and I had 3 boys yelling "I'm hungry Dad!". I asked if I could be Yugoslavia, but they didn't think that was funny. So we took everyone to Cici's for all you can eat pizza.

Christmas at the New House

We had Lynne's parents and her brother's family join us for Christmas this year at the new house. We started the day with a visit from a special guest all the way from the North Pole. We had a great time with a house full of people.






Jesse played Head Elf this year and handed out the presents to the proper recipients.

Brighton couldn't wait to open her presents.

There seemed to be a cooking theme to some of our gifts this year. Here we are ready to start a new resturant.

Is he cool or what?

Updated Train Show Pictures

After the train show last month we visited the Texas Western Model Railroad Club in south FtWorth. I finally found a good way to display these pictures.
They were having computer problems, so the trains weren't running that day. It was still cool to see all the scenery and buildings.

Cool Slideshows

Misc Christmas Eve

Will has found a new pasttime when he's bored.

I think Wheezer is lonely. She's grooming Lynne's blanket.

It was foggy in the bottom the other morning.

Nany Nany Ha Ha

No, Little Sister, you can't play with it. It's mine, mine, all mine! Ha Ha!! I always got the trains to play with too. BaHaHA!!Some of the pieces are missing now. I don't know if they are in another box or not. And it was made by Hotwheels.

Andy's Wild Ride

Well, if you read Lynne's post below you know that this was her worst nightmare. Andy is fine, but my truck isn't.This is what a tree does at approximately 30 miles an hour.

And this is what the tree on the other side of the road does.

Another Milestone

I kind of felt like Jill on Home Improvement today. I took Andy to get his official license this afternoon. He then drove me home. Later this evening he left the house, picked up Kate, and went to a play at school. He called when they got to the school and then when they left. He was home within the hour. I was nervous the whole time. Not because I didn't trust him but just because he was not with me. I have lost another knot in the apron strings and I have to admit that it hurts. It just takes him one step closer to leaving the nest. I know that we raise them up to do that but it is a hard thing to do. I know this is a good thing but right now it is tough. They really do grow up too fast. I look at my son and all I see are this little guy still needing me but standing before me is a young man.

Maypearl Christmas Band Concert

We got Will there early to help set everything up and to warm up with the band before the concert started.
The Middle School Choir was up first. They sang with the High School Choir.
The Middle School Band played their three songs very well. Will played snare and cymbal on the first and last song. Base drum on the second.
They continued the tradition of letting the little kids come on stage and help direct Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.


There were several GranPas there to see their granchildren in the band.

The High School Choir sang next.

Th High School Band played last. They played a real cool jazz number to start. Then we went home. Lynne liked the nice short 40 minute show.

Cool Christmas Lights

This is really cool. Those with a high speed connection should load this faster than I did. Some people have said they can't load the video. That's strange, it works fine on my dial-up connection. Just takes an hour to load.

Whistlestop Christmas

I saw mommy kissing Santa Clause!

We took the kids to Cleburne Saturday night to see the Christmas lights at the park. The lights looked good in the park as we arrived. It was a little chilly so we didn't stay too long in the park.





Of course we took the kids with us. They are (from left to right in the train car), Andy, Kate, Will, and Jesse.





Jesse was contemplating the toy soldier.










They dressed up the old locomotive for the holiday. We didn't see any cats that night.




That's the moon crowning the top of the light tree. It was almost full that night.

A Chilly Night

It was a little chilly the other night, so the more delicate members of the household had to wrap up in a blanket on the couch.

Tragic Mishap

Apparently the military operation didn't go as well as planned.