The Party's Over

I've spent two days just sitting around being a little sad. My son and all the kids left on Saturday. It took us about 2 hours to take down the Christmas tree and other decorations and to vacuum up all the glitter and stuff from the floor. After that my house was just too quiet and too clean. Today I'm going to get into the closet and re-pack and re-stack all the Christmas stuff where it will stay until next year (or the year after if we decide putting up a tree is too much trouble).

When we started this process, we were so excited about getting out all the decorations and making the house look festive. When everything was done, my nativity set was placed under the tree in honor of the birth of our Lord. Then a few days later, when I had some packages to put under there, the nativity was moved to a spot beside the entertainment center. Later, as the packages grew, it was placed on an end table. Then, when the kids needed that table for their morning juice while watching cartoons, it went to the dining room table. But of course, the table was needed for playing games, so the nativity ended up on my desk. That didn't last long, because the desk was being used by everyone to check their email and my space pages. Finally, baby Jesus ended up in the kitchen, beside the microwave. My sister looked at it sitting there and commented that there was still no room in the inn.

So, today, as this year comes to a close, and as you ponder my little nativity sitting between the kitchen sink and a bottle of Twistup, resolve to make room in your heart for the baby in the manger, who grew up to be our Saviour and Lord, and who deserves a place of honor in our lives and our hearts and our homes.

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone is having a Christmas as wonderful as we are. I have four of my grandkids from Texas here and we've had so much fun. Yesterday they played Apples to Apples all day and if you've never played it, you should try it. We laughed all day over some of the answers.

We watched Pirates of the Caribbean, which normally would be about 2 1/2 hours, but took us about 4 hours to watch with all the rewinding to see the funny scenes and any close-up view of Johnny Depp. Which explains the picture of my three grand-daughters swooning over a picture of him on a throw. I don't know why they think he's so Hot. Anyone with any taste would know Orlando Bloom is the one who's Hot!!

This morning we opened gifts, then gathered up paper and boxes and styrofoam and twist ties and thousands of pieces of packing peanuts, and dug through trash for directions, and cut two software CD's in half before realizing they were inside the package, and generally had a wild and crazy time. We still have a mess, but at least we can walk through the living room.

Here are all four of the kids with their stockings. From left to right are Josi & Joy, the twin girls who are obviously not identical. Then Brandon with his fake "bling." On the right is Kayla, our oldest granddaughter. And in the background, with us in spirit, are pictures of Bailey and Maverick.

We're going to Grandma's (my mother) for spaghetti at 2pm so I'll try to add more pictures later. Merry Christmas.

Shop til you Drop!!!

I don't think anyone in the world loves to shop as much as I do. I can go all day and look at thousands of things and not spend a penny. I just love the thrill of the hunt for some bargain that's too good to pass up. I love the last minute rush before Christmas to get one more thing for someone's stocking or to just be part of the hustle and bustle. When Jen was young, we always went someplace on Christmas Eve and we would be there until they kicked everyone out and locked the doors. We shocked Jake one year by making a 30 minute trip over a crazy mountain road just to go to Big Lots!! He was sure after that roller coaster ride there was going to be some kind of store that was worth going to.

If you ask my husband if he likes to shop, he would absolutely answer "NO". But don't believe it. He really doesn't like to shop with me because, as I said, I can look and look and not buy anything. He only likes to go if he has a goal in mind to buy. Fortunately for me, in the process of reaching his goal, we look at lots of other things. He OOOs and AAAHs the Christmas decorations and gets excited by every new nutcracker he sees. Anything Rudolph or Wizard of Oz gets him to act like a kid in a candy shop.

Which brings me to our trip to K-Mart. We were walking through Craftsman tools (thank goodness for K-Mart & Sears because he never turns down a chance to look at Craftsman tools) when we heard an annoucement that they had Martha Stewart towels at the front of the store for $2 each. If you have never seen a grown man running through K-Mart to beat a bunch of old ladies to a towel clearance sale, let me tell you, it was a beautiful thing. By the time I got to the front of the store with the buggy, he had snagged six beautiful matching towels by reaching over the heads of the shorter women. Maybe if more husbands could see it as a competition to get a good deal before anyone else, men would like shopping. Stores need to start some sort of tag team shopping or something. Mud wrestling for microwaves. Darts for dishes. Tug-a-War for tools. If Target would just let them shoot at the big bullseye!! Maybe someday.

Old Blue Eyes!!

I had to put a picture of Maverick on here since I put that video of Bailey. Maverick is such a beautiful little boy. We really enjoyed seeing him this week and getting to snuggle on him for a little bit.

Bailey Shows Off

Here's Bailey showing off for Grammy & Pop. I wanted GG & Paw to see this. He's so funny and so smart and he's beginning to pronounce words so well you can actually understand him. Enjoy!!!

Bread Pudding

I could write a book about the bread pudding recipe I got from my mother in law, Carolyn, a few years ago. I have never liked bread pudding, so when she offered me some that she had made when we were at her house visiting, I turned it down. Kirby, however, had some and talked me into tasting it. Have you ever wondered what food in Heaven tastes like??? This is as close as you can get on earth. We got her recipe and later that year when Jen and Jake came to visit us for Christmas, we made some. They both loved it, of course, and a few weeks later I got an email from Jen asking for the recipe so she could surprise Jake with a pan. It wasn't long after that she made some for her church, and she and the bread pudding became an instant success. We had already had the same reaction at our church, with so many requests for the recipe that I lost track of how many times I printed it out.

Last year, at our family reunion, one of my many cousins made cookbooks for everyone with lots of family favorite recipes and I gave her the bread pudding recipe.

Now, for the point of this whole story. Today I got a call from another cousin in Alabama who lives in an assisted living home. She has not been to the family reunion for several years because of her poor health, but she got a copy of the cookbook from her sister. One of the cooks at the home has been trying out some of the recipes and she made the bread pudding. My cousin told me that everyone at the home went crazy for it and when the cook said they needed to save some for later, they all insisted that they wanted a second helping NOW. She thought it was so funny she had to call and let me know that the recipe was a big success there, too.

So, a big thank you to my mother-in-law for a recipe that has become a legend in several states. And just in case you haven't had the pleasure of tasting it, here's the recipe.

6 Eggs
2 Sticks Butter
3 Cups Sugar
1 Can Evaporated Milk (12 oz.)
4 oz. Hot Tap Water
1 tsp. Vanilla
8 Slices of Bread
Cinnamon

Break up bread slices in a 9x12 cake pan and set aside. Melt butter and add eggs, sugar, milk, hot water, and vanilla and mix well. Pour mixture over the bread. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Bake at 350 deg. for about 45 minutes.

Presidential Candidate Calculator

Here's a link to an interesting little survey you can take and it will tell you which candidates agree with your positions on a number of issues. It only takes a minute or two to answer the questions. I thought it was pretty neat.


http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

High Tech Rednecks!!

I thought I had heard it all, but today my husband and nephew topped every crazy thing they have ever done. They actually bought a motion activiated camera to hang from a tree to take pictures of deer. They put deer feed out all the time and the deer (or something) are eating it. But they are never there to see who or what time the feasting is taking place. So, today they bought this camera to spy on the deer, take pictures of them, and time and date stamp the pictures. I have a feeling they are going to have hundreds of pictures of some curious little squirrel trying to look into the lens. If they could only get one of those predator drones, they could hunt and never leave the couch!!

In other news, the weather today was beautiful (until it started to rain late this evening). It was in the 60's all day. I noticed that lots of people put up Christmas lights today and now the trip from my house to WalMart is lit up, pardon the pun, like a Christmas tree. We added some falling star lights that we found in the closet to our front porch. I think I bought these on clearance a few years ago, but I'm not sure we ever used them. Sometimes you can click on pictures and enlarge them. If you can click on this one, you can see the dog's eyes glowing down on the left hand side of the porch. She doesn't know what to make of the tree in the living room and all these packages. Mostly she just makes lots of excited barking noise. That big white circle that looks like a full moon on the roof must be a drop of rain on the lens. Looks pretty neat, though.

BABY, IT'S COLD INSIDE

No, that isn't a typo. We came home today and found our heater not working. It was about 45 degrees outside, and about 40 degrees inside our house. I actually left the front door open for a while to try to warm up the house!! We had to call someone and thankfully, they were here within a couple of hours. We have a little electric space heater and that helped a lot while we were waiting. Anyway, it was just a bad breaker and nothing wrong with the heater itself. Still cost $85, but compared to replacing a fan motor or something on the unit itself, that was way cheap.

The Grand Boys!!!

I haven't been able to post for two weeks because of work, but thank goodness for work because we got to see the grandbabies this week in El Paso. Not too many Grandparents just happen to be in your neighborhood when you live 2000 miles away. But everytime we go to California, we come back on I-10 and pass within a mile or two of their house. This trip we found a perfect place to park when we get a chance to visit. There is a K-Mart with a huge parking lot perfect for our big truck. Bailey is getting so tall and he is talking better and better so we were able to understand a lot of what he was telling us. He is especially good at saying "Stop Pop!" He loved saying it so Pop did everything he could think of to make Bailey have to tell him to stop. We are still amazed everytime by Maverick's oh so blond hair and blue eyes. I could go on and on about them, but I'll just say that they are the most beautiful and most intelligent little boys I have every seen!! And really, I'm not just saying that because I'm their Grammy.

Making a list . . . . and checking it over and over

I love making lists. I even sometimes need a list of my lists so I can keep up with them. Christmas shopping is so much fun for me and I end up with lists of things I want to buy, lists of things I have bought, lists of things that have been wrapped (because sometimes you can't remember what's in that package), lists of what packages are in which closets, shopping bags, etc. It may seem funny, but my mother has actually lost presents before and found them in the closet months later. So, I try to keep up with everything. Besides the 14 members of my little family, I also buy for my sisters next door, my parents, my husband's parents, siblings and nephew, and a few friends and neighbors. It can get confusing, especially when you start shopping months ahead of time and have to put the gifts someplace until Christmas. Today I have been rewritting lists and trying to decide who I'm finished with and who needs a little something extra.

We have also been decorating a little, but I still need to get out the tree and other things that are in the extra bedroom closet. Last year we didn't bother with the tree because I was going to SC to spend Christmas with Jen and her family. This year, Todd is coming here with his whole bunch, so we are pulling out all the decorations. Here are a couple of pictures of some yard art we made a few years ago. I love making this stuff. You cut the shapes from plywood and then transfer the pattern with carbon paper and paint it. We made a lot of these and sold some at a flea market. If I was retired, I would set up a booth and sell this all the time just for the fun of making it. Unfortunately, these three are all we have left right now. I guess I need to check my list of yard art patterns and see what we can do about making some more!!

Wild Turkey!!

Sorry to anyone reading this for taking so long to post something new. Because of the holiday, we were gone a little longer than usual and I just didn't get a chance to get online. Anyway, that is a picture of the turkey we had yesterday and of course, there is a story to tell.

My nephew and husband were "deer" hunting and came home with this turkey. Apparently, he flew over them and landed in a tree right in front of them, so my nephew shot him. Here is another picture of him before he looked so golden brown and delicious.

I thought he was a little dry, but I guess in the wild they don't fatten themselves up just before Thanksgiving so they will be nice and juicy. Getting him into the oven was funny because his legs were long and skinny and stuck out of my roasting pan. I was told by the mighty hunters that he was shot in the shoulder near the neck, but while preparing him for the oven, I found a suspicious hole in the lower back. I'm no medical examiner, but I'd testify in court that he was probably fleeing the scene at the time of his demise.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!!

This is the table in my craft room/extra bedroom. I've been working on matching stockings for all 14 members of my family. Me & my husband, 4 kids, 2 in laws, and 6 grandkids. Today I took my husband shopping at Michaels to help me find snowflakes and iron on letters for these. He did a good job, so I rewarded him with this.

Talk about being "in the doghouse." This thing is supposed to fold/roll up and go back into its backpack bag. We looked like a slapstick comedy routine trying to learn how to do this. I read the instructions to him and he tried, then he read them and I tried. We laughed so much we decided the deer will be selling tickets to see him trying to get this thing back in the bag. Look out WV wildlife - the Doghouse is coming!!! Be afraid! Be very afraid!!

Jen, Don't Read This - It's About Wallpaper

I know my daughter is shaking her head right now and laughing. I am the wallpaper queen. I love wallpaper and I am constantly changing something. Lately I have decided that I can't stand the wallpaper in my kitchen another minute. It was supposed to look like stone blocks with ivy growing, but now it just feels like I'm in a dungeon. Also notice the cat (Duchess) who belongs to Jen but lives with me because she moved and couldn't take her. That blanket on the floor is the dog's bed which she drags all over the house. And if you are reading my whiteboard, I'm out of Greek seasoning, meat tenderizer, zip lock sandwich bags, and I need to make a backup copy of my Mother's book from her computer. I love that whiteboard. I write notes on it all day whenever something comes to my mind.

Anyway, back to wallpaper. I decided to go to Lowes and see what I could find. Here is what I'm thinking of doing. I'm going to cover the wood panel at the bottom with this plaid paper and then do the top with the yellow.

My husband thinks the plaid looks like Christmas, but ever since he chose the pink paper for the bedroom that left it looking like a cheap motel, I don't pay much attention to his opinion. I am also going to do the hallway with the same paper since it extends from the kitchen. Then I'm going to put the plaid at the bottom of the bathroom wall in place of the green stripe that is on it now (see earlier post regarding toilet seat). This paper looks soooo good with the new shower curtain. I can't wait to get started.

We Pulled Off a Big Surprise

A couple of months ago we started planning a special ceremony at the church to honor my mother, Bernice. She has been a member of the same church since 1946 and has played the piano for every choir and all manner of solo, duet, trio, etc. for over 50 years. This morning, all our plans came together and it was great. After bringing her up out of the audience and giving her a crown and some roses, we treated her to her very own version of "This is your Life." We started coming out from behind closed doors to surprise her. We read poetic tributes and shed some tears. We presented her with a scrapbook full of notes from family and friends and a certificate that said "you put the grand in grandma." Then, finally, her sister (who lives about 400 miles away) came out and it was priceless. I can't believe we have been putting this together all this time and she had no clue.

Anyway, my point is that she never wanted or expected such recognition. That's what makes her so special. She doesn't even realize how special she is!! I told everyone at church that if the writer in Proverbs who wrote about the excellent wife had been my mother's son, he would have written something like this:

Who can find an excellent mother, for her value is greater than rare jewels
Her children trust in her, and they will have no lack of love and attention
She makes them feel safe and protected all the days of her life
She seeks out fabric and makes them clothing with her own hands - yea, they have A-line skirts in every color
Her kitchen is like a fine restaurant, her menu covering everything from pinto beans to lasagna - her dumplings and prune cakes are known throughout the land
She rises while it is still night to make cocoa for her daughters' friends, and no pajama party is complete without her popcorn
She stands in the cold to watch for the school bus while all the children of the neighborhood wait inside her warm house
She makes cookies and cupcakes for every school party, and serves as room mother without complaint
Her arms are strong from stirring the p-nut butter candy which spells the end of many attempted diets
She is a shrewd shopper, drawn like a magnet to clearance sales
She is generous and giving and opens her hands to the needy
She is not afraid of the snow, for her children always have warm coats and hats and gloves and sleds
Her bed is always warm and welcome to any child having a bad dream
Her family is well known in the community as she walks them to church
She teaches Sunday School and leads the Young People in music and Bible study
She clothes herself with dignity
She doesn't fear the future, for her freezer is filled to overflowing with leftovers
She speaks with wisdom and teaches kindness to her children and grand-children
She does endless loads of laundry and her kitchen floor is mopped and waxed
Her four daughters rise up and call her blessed and try to make her proud
Many mothers have done excellently, but you surpass them all
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain
but a mother who fears the Lord is to be praised

Problem Solved???

Does anybody even remember my first post where I was lamenting the fact that I could not find a toilet seat to match my bathroom shower curtain? Does anybody really care? Well, I finally solved the problem by changing both shower curtain and toilet seat. I should have done that a long time ago, but the green shower curtain was so nice. Anyway, as you can see, I changed everything to maroon and I really love this shower curtain with it's little stripes that pick up all the colors in the laundry border. But believe it or not, I can't find a rug that matches it just right!!!

OH NOOOOO!!!

My laptop has a problem, so I have been without access for several days. The battery is dead and will not charge, but even with the power cord plugged in, the computer will not come on. So I may have a problem with the cord or worse, the laptop itself. So I'm taking it to the laptop doctor this afternoon.

In other news, Kirby and I are home for a couple of days to attend the funeral of our 101 year old next door neighbor. Her birthday was last week, but she has been in very poor health for a couple of months following a stroke. Before that, she was getting around better than most 60 year olds. She was amazing because she still got up everyday and came out to sit on the front porch. She loved having us come over to talk with her and she was always good for a few funny comments. Her family will miss her and so will we. She was a great Christian woman and we were blessed to know her. Happy Homecoming with the Lord, Mrs. Howe.

On the Beach

I love this picture of Maverick on the beach. Looks like he is the only person for miles (except for that grandma with the camera). He didn't really know how to react to all that sand, so he tasted it then spit it out. As you can see from the other picture, Bailey knows exactly what to do with all that water - Run for it!!!

Myrtle Beach Aquarium

We took Bailey and Maverick to the aquarium today in Myrtle Beach and they had a great time. Bailey's favorite part of the trip was putting his hands in the water to pet the horseshoe crabs and stingrays, as you can see by this picture.

Later, he came across some yellow fish that he was fascinated by. I'm not sure why, after looking at so many different fish, he was so interested in these little yellow ones, but they were very pretty and bright. You can also see how wet his shirt is from petting the crabs!!

Maverick doesn't know what all the fuss is about with "finding Nemo" because he went into the gift shop and found him with no problem at all. He was just sitting there in plain sight.

Random Events

I am supposed to be packing for our trip to Myrtle Beach. We are leaving early in the morning, so now is my last chance to get everything ready to go. But as you can see from the picture below, I have been playing with my dining room table instead. If you know me at all, you know that I am crazy about table settings and napkins and napkin rings, etc. I love changing my table for the seasons. I found this pretty fall pumpkin spice potpourri at Walmart last night and just had to get my Thanksgiving stuff out and set the table. It smells soooo good. As you can see, my guests are four little turkeys dressed as Pilgrams.

Here is the other thing I bought last night. The sewing machine on the right belonged to my Grandmother and is probably 40 years old. I have been using it for the past 10 years and it works most of the time. But lately it has been making very strange noises and the tension adjustment doesn't work. So, I broke down and bought the machine on the left. It was one of the cheaper ones they had at Walmart, but I only really use it to make repairs or sew simple projects that are mostly straight stitches. I haven't even plugged it in yet and I'm not sure I will have time to before we leave for the beach. Maybe I should stop playing tea party with the turkeys and try sewing up the hole in the back of my capri pants. I pulled the tag off because it was itchy and now I have a hole that forces me to wear long shirts with these pants.

I hope to post some pictures from the beach this week of Bailey and Maverick playing in the sand and surf. But, of course, I need to pack first.

We finally got to see the boys!!!

We delivered our load in El Paso and Jen picked us up from a parking lot where we left our truck. Both the boys were a little shy at first, but warmed up to us within minutes. Maverick has grown so much and his hair is blonder than ever. Bailey impressed us with his growing vocabulary and showed off how smart he is by naming the alphabet letters for us. Maverick made Pop's day when he crawled over to him and climbed up on his lap, then played with his hat and glasses. We took them to Toys R Us and got them a wagon (more for Mommy, I think). At least now she can pull them all over the neighborhood without having to carry one or both of them home. And, of course, we had our Rudy's BBQ. It all ended too soon, but we will see them again in Myrtle Beach in just a week, so we can start looking forward to that. Bailey's answer to everything is "no" but when we got back to our truck, Jen asked if he wanted to get in Pop's big truck and to our surprise, he answered "yes". So we let him climb up in the cab for a few minutes. He loves Mack on the Cars movie, so I guess he enjoyed getting inside a real truck. But our truck was saying, "Mack?" "I'm an International, for durn sake!" Pop is still talking about how Bailey blew us kisses and said "Bye, Pop!" over and over as they left the parking lot. I'm just glad they only wanted a wagon. Pop would have bought one of everything in the store if they had asked for it. Hope they don't start talking before they get to Myrtle Beach!!! I just know Jen is saying, "Bailey, say Titan, Nissan Titan." LOL We enjoyed seeing Jake, too. Kirby hadn't seen him since Maverick was born. Hope we get to see him again during the holidays this year, along with all our other relatives in Texas.

Salsa

You would think as much as Kirby and I love Mexican food that I would have made salsa before, but I never have. I have made a lot of Mexican food over the years, including some delicious guacamole, but for some reason, I always just buy Pace Picante sauce to use with chips. But, today, with three rapidly declining tomatoes in my refrigerator I decided to get out the Cuisinart and see what I could do. I started by cutting up the two red and one green tomatoes and pulverizing them. Kirby and I both prefer our salsa without chunks. Then I added half of an onion that I found in the crisper in a zip lock bag. I had several hot pepper choices, some fresh from somebody's garden and some from a jar. After blending and adding peppers until I thought it tasted about right, I realized that the green tomato had given the whole mixture a strange grayish look. So, I added some red food coloring. Yuck!! Now it was a wierd pinkish color. Then I decided to add some chili powder to see if I could darken it up. Viola!! It looks even redder in the picture then it does in real life.

The sad part of the story is that I chose today of all days to start my "serious" low carb diet. I don't have a tortilla chip, cracker, frito, piece of bread, nothing to try out my salsa on!! Guess I'll go next door and see if I can bum a chip from my sisters.

You won't believe this!!

Since we didn't get to see the babies during our three trips through El Paso, we were resigned to seeing them at the beach in two weeks. Then on the way home from Beaumont we got a message from our dispatcher asking if we could go back out on the road on Monday and deliver a load on Wednesday in EL PASO!!! We called him immediately and told him we would be happy to go to El Paso, again. It is unusual for us to go that far west more than two or three times a year. But three times in a month?? This time we plan to turn off all communication with dispatch. We will not leave El Paso without kissing our grandbabies (and getting some Rudy's BBQ).

Best Laid Plans . . . . . .

We have passed through El Paso twice in the last few days, but, alas, could not stop. We made our trip to Rancho Cucamonga, then heading east, we passed through El Paso at 2 am on our way to pick up a load in Freeport, TX, which strangely enough, was scheduled to deliver on Monday in Commerce, CA. We didn't think Jen & Jake would appreciate the 2 am visit. So, here we go again, heading west, passing through El Paso on Sunday afternoon, but having no time to spare because we were supposed to be in Commerce on Monday morning. We arrive at our destination in Commerce (a sub of LA) and lo and behold, the customer cannot take the load because their tank is full. "You come back tomorrow," they say with a Spanish accent. So here we sit in a Ramada Inn in Commerce, CA, still loaded and waiting to deliver tomorrow. We will have to pass through El Paso again heading east sometime Wednesday, so we shall see how things work out for our visit with the boys. Meantime, we play the waiting around game, which mostly involves watching TV and eating snacks from the machines in the lobby.

California or Bust!!

I'm actually excited to be going back to work for a change. We've been off several days because of Kirby's bike rally and his brother coming to town. Usually, it's hard for me to have to leave again knowing I won't be home for a week or so, but this time, we are going to Rancho Cucamonga. We love taking a load to California, but even better, we almost always come back to Texas by way of El Paso. That means we can stop to visit the GRAND-BOYS!! And Jen & Jake. I hope everything works out, but I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch. Just my luck they will send us north from the LA area to Oregon to get a load or something crazy like that. But 9 times out of 10 we come back to Houston on I-10 and pass within a mile or so of Jen's house. This will be our first trip out there since she moved in April. We were out there in February of this year and usually make it out there a couple of times a year, so it's about time. I guess I'd better go pack up the car and fill the cat food & water dispensers. California here we come.

The Boys are Back in Town

Kirby and his camping buddies came home this afternoon and we have spent the last few hours cleaning up the camper and washing all the laundry. They had a good time and enjoyed the menu and food I prepared for them before they left. I tried to come up with food that would be easy to fix in one pan, then I pre-cooked and/or chopped or sliced everything that I could. Kirby likes his things to be organized, so he appreciates having everything needed to prepare a meal listed for him. They especially enjoyed the sloppy joes and frito pies (some people call them walking tacos). The only thing they said they didn't have enough of was my cole slaw.

My brother-in-law has to go back to Texas tomorrow afternoon. I think he has really enjoyed spending time with his brother and with my nephew. I asked him today which one of them was the craziest and he said it was a toss up. Anybody who spends time with the two of them would agree.

Lamps & Lamp Shades

Anybody need new lamps? I really didn't either, but couldn't pass up such great bargins. I went to Lowes for some other things, and they had Waverly lamps and shades on clearance. I got a $40 lamp for $8 and a $25 shade for $5. The small green lamp matches my guest bedroom. I got that lamp and shade for about $9. I'm actually going back today because they had two really pretty green candle stick lamps that I passed up and now I'm thinking I could find a place for them. Jen & Allison, do you need some lamps for Christmas?? They also had some floor lamps that I didn't really look at, but now I'm thinking I might have missed a good deal on those, too. Oh, how I love to shop, even at a hardware store!!!

These two lamps at the bottom are lamps I already had, but I bought the cute shades for $3 each and painted the lamps to match.

Road Trip!!!!

This is Kirby and his brother, Charles, anxious to get on the road for their big Labor Day adventure trip to Ohio. We have spent the last two days getting all their food ready and packing the camper with everything they need to survive 4 days in the wild. I just hope the wild can survive them!! My "wild hog" husband spent last night color coordinating his doorags and biker shirts (which I then had to iron!!). Can anyone say SPOILED ROTTEN??




That's the Hillybilly Hilton behind them with its new orange and black paint job. It originally only had one pale green stripe across the window area, but they decided it needed to be dressed up a little. They even carried the orange and black theme onto the hub caps!! Do men ever grow up??

The camper now has air conditioning, a refrigerator, a generator, and a microwave. If they ever redo the plumbing, we will have a shower. It has a toilet, but I'm not sure where it flushes to and I didn't want to ask. Some things are better left alone.

How fast is that again???

I am the proud owner of a new modem and I can't tell you how much difference it has made on my computer. I got this computer Christmas and really couldn't tell much difference between it and my old one, so I just assumed that you could only go as fast as your internet connection and getting a bigger, better computer didn't really matter. Then we got a notice from Suddenlink that they were going to double our internet speed for the same price. I couldn't wait to see how much better it would be, and I was shocked and dismayed to find that, if anything, my computer was slower than ever. The last straw was when I realized that I could get videos and things much faster with a weak wireless signal on my laptop than I could on my super duper home computer with Suddenlink's new faster speed. So I called Suddenlink. And if you have ever called the cable company, you know what that was like. Endless waiting, punching in my phone number several times, explaining my problem to three different people before I got the right one, scheduling a tech to come out two weeks later, etc. But while I was on the phone with them, they had me go to www.speedtest.net and check my download speed. My computer registered 146. The guy on the phone said there was a problem and that it was Suddenlink's problem, not my computer. So, today, the tech shows up and the first thing he tries is checking the signal coming into the house (which was fine), so he switches modems. My download speed on the aforementioned website is now 6386. Was my computer slow or what???? So, now I can actually watch a video without waiting for it to stop and start over and over and over. Wonder how long that modem has been bad and I just didn't know it?

Be it Ever so Humble . . .

I've had some requests for pictures of the finished roof, so here it is. I let Kirby choose the color and now he wishes he had picked a darker roof. I like the roof color, but I want to paint all the dark brown on the house a different color. I was thinking about blue, but now I've changed my mind. I guess I need to go to Lowes and get some paint samples.

We had a long two weeks of working so that we could take this week off and I am really looking forward to being home. Of course, Kirby and company will be gone to their bike rally so I'll be on my own (boohoo). I'll be doing scrapbooking, eating chicken and more chicken (Kirby likes beef), watching old movies and probably shopping a little. OK, shopping a lot.

I realized these last two weeks that Kirby and I have a favorite Mexican restaurant in every city between here and Los Angeles. Every time we get a load assignment, we look at each other and say "Lupes" or "Mazlatan" or "Panchos" or "La Carreta" depending on which direction they send us. We used to have a favorite Chinese place in Kingman, AZ that we went to so often they brought our drinks and Kirby's red peppers as soon as we sat down. We didn't even have to tell them what we wanted. They had the best crab rangoon!! We just don't go through Kingman much anymore. I guess the point of all this is that we love to eat and figure if we have to travel all the time, we might as well enjoy the local food. I guess I should write articles for travel magazines or something since I'm out there anyway.

In case you wondered, the dog is taking antibiotics again, but longer this time, in hopes of getting rid of the lump under her eye. She looks really good right now, but still has a week of meds to finish up. Hopefully, the lump won't come back again.

Tomorrow I'm going to help load the camper for the big trip, so I'll take some pictures. I want them to paint a logo on the side of this thing that says "Hillbilly Hilton" but so far they aren't going for it.

Sitting & Waiting

Today we are in Kingsport, TN waiting for a load that goes to Seabrook, TX. That's in the Houston area and of course, we will be getting there just in time for the hurricane. We hope to be in and out of there before the hurricane comes, but if the traffic is anything like it was last time they had an evacuation, we will still be on the interstate when the hurricane is over. My in-laws spent 24 hours in the car last time and went about 60 miles. That hurricane turned toward Beaumont and missed Houston completely, but you never know whether to stay or get out of town. Anyway, we just had lunch and our load should be ready in a couple of hours.

Yesterday, we were in West Chester, PA, and it was about 65 degrees. So nice compared to the over 100 degree days we have been having for the last few weeks. I guess if you could live up north in the summer and then move south for the winters that would be the ideal life.

In my last post I was telling everyone about my husband's new camper. He thinks I will enjoy camping now that we have all the comforts of home (including a new generator so we can make our own electricity). I politely informed him that as far as I am concerned, we camp out in this truck 10 or 12 days at a time, so I don't consider camping out in another truck on my days off a real break from my job!! Unless he plans to set up that camper in the parking lot of a Garden Ridge, I don't see myself spending much time in there. I also informed him that the only fishing I intend to do is with a fork at Red Lobster. I catch them already breaded and fried.

It's about time

Here is a video I got from my mother-in-law. I think you will really enjoy. This kid is so adorable. http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9e7c4b40cf5a13cea6ca

Now, for what I've been doing. I just realized that it has been a long time since I updated my blog. The house is finished and the roof and siding look really good. We only need to do some touch up paint on the window frames.

We have been really busy the last few days. Kirby and my nephew Tom bought a 23 foot camper from a man who had been using it at a hunting lease. It's in pretty good shape for a 1976 model. We have spent the last two days working on it, rewiring and painting it inside and out. There are still several projects we will need to do (like replacing the old seat cushions and mattresses and putting in an air conditioner), but they should be able to enjoy it when they go to their bike rally in Ohio Labor Day weekend. I've been making curtains for the 8 windows and will probably make covers for the cushions eventually.

Kirby's brother is coming up here from Waco, Texas, to visit the end of this month, and he's going to the bike rally with them. That means I'll have a whole week all to myself and I plan to do some cleaning around the house, but mostly I'll be shopping and reading.

We had our annual homecoming at church today. The visiting preacher was 86 years old and he did a fantastic job. He really made me laugh when he talked about his obituary. He said someday when you see in the newspaper that he has died, don't you believe it because he has eternal life through Christ. He has his cemetary plot already paid for and the marker has his name on it, but at the bottom he has "I'm not here, but thank you for stopping by." My sister's group, the Miracles, sang and they were great. Then we had a wonderful pot luck dinner after the service, too. It doesn't get any better than that.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Godley, Texas. It's a little south of Fort Worth. I have about a million things to do before we leave, including taking my dog to the vet. She has a knot on her face under her eye. She took antibiotics for it a few weeks ago and it got better, but it is coming back again, so I hope they can figure out what is causing it.

I love watching other people work

Here is the crew working on my siding. They finished the roof yesterday, but you can't see it very well in this picture because the sun is shining on it so bright. They spend a little time working out in the sun, then they are on the front porch asking if I have any more of that sweet tea. I have used up all the ice in my icemaker two days in a row. But I'd rather be making the tea than working on that roof. The siding is ivory and the roof is mocha tan. I think when it's all finished we are going to paint the front porch the color of that blue ladder. It looks good next to the wall. We're going to replace the porch rails and the gutters eventually since right now everything is painted dark brown. All that will have to wait, though, cause today we are leaving and will be gone for a couple of weeks. I won't even be here to see the finished siding!! But I can already tell it's going to look good.

Chairs

After months of looking for a new chair for my living room, yesterday I bought this one. We don't have Craig's List in our little town, but we do have people who sit by the side of the road and sell furniture. This chair is a beautiful Broyhill with a matching footstool that I got for $125. The old chair, which I have been begging Kirby to get rid of for years, had no padding left in the arms and the front was completely torn up by the cat. Not even duct tape could have helped it. So, we moved the old chair out to be disposed of and moved the new chair in. After taking turns sitting in it last night, we both decided that we loved the chair and it's very comfortable, but it just isn't our old chair.

So, this morning, Kirby took the old chair to have it recovered. We could have had the old chair recovered any time during the last two years, but we thought that we would rather have a new chair than to pay the price of a new chair to cover the old chair. Well, our thinking has changed. Our old chair is the perfect size and shape for our living room, and we just can't part with it. Now, we're willing to pay twice the price of the Broyhill chair to get our old chair covered. Here is the fabric Kirby chose (since it was his chair). Anyone who knows him will say this looks like something he would choose. The fabric is on the lower left corner. The upper right corner is our couch and you can see that they look really good together. I'm not sure at this point where the Broyhill will fit in, but I'm sure we can find a spot for it.

In other news, the roofers showed up today and have gotten a lot of work done. And Lowes is positive the vinyl will be here Wednesday!!! We shall see.

Contractors and Lowes Woes

About two months ago we decided to put a new metal roof on our house. It took two weeks of calling people to even get someone to come give us an estimate. Then, we had two guys show up at the same time. One of them seemed very upset that the other one was here, and then he called us the next day and said he was too busy to do our job. I thought contractors would expect you to get more than one estimate, but I guess he didn't. Luckily, the second guy gave us a price we agreed on and we gave him some money to get started. Since then, we have been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. First he had to come back and get some more measurements. Then he had to get a price from his supplier on some material. Then he had another house that he had to finish before he could start ours. Then it rained. Then he went out of town for his daughter's ball game. Then he just didn't show up for no reason. Then he said he couldn't get the materials delivered. Then they finally delivered the materials in the late afternoon, so it was too late to start. Now, he says he will be here on Monday.

In the meantime, we have been trying to get some vinyl soffit from Lowes, which the roofing contractor is supposed to install for us. First they sent three boxes of the right color, but the wrong kind of vinyl. Then they said the right stuff would be here Wednesday. Then they said Thursday. Then they said for sure on Friday. Now they say it will be August 6 before we can get it. Once they sent a box that turned out to be aluminum instead of vinyl. Then they re-ordered it and promised it would be here in two days. Sure enough, two days later we had another box of the same aluminum they sent the first time. Then they said they were ordering it from a different supplier and for us to call Monday and see what the status is. The man who does the orders at Lowes is named Bourbon!! Maybe that is part of the problem. Do you think that is his actual name or some kind of descriptive nick-name?? I'm beginning to feel like I'm on an episode of candid camera or something. I almost hate to go up there Monday and hear what the story is now.

Tick Bite

A few days ago I was getting ready to take a shower and Kirby noticed a tick on my shoulder. He pulled it off, but I think I may still have the head embedded. I read all about it on the internet because I always heard you had to burn them off or smother them with nail polish or vasoline. Those are old wives tales apparently. One doctor even said not to worry about the head being left behind because your body would take care of it. But I keep thinking of that fly movie where the fly has the human head and cries "help me!" I can just hear my shoulder talking to me.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture of your own shoulder? I must have taken 15 pictures and some of them didn't even have the tick bite in them. Anyway, I noticed while I was attempting to look at the tick bite with a mirror that I can just barely make out my smallpox shot scar on my left arm. Do they even give those shots anymore? Years ago, all school kids had to get one and some poeple have really bad scars from them.

I guess I'll go put some antibiotic on my tick bite and a bandaid.

Top Five

I was challenged by my daughter to list my top five album openers. I spent some time thinking about what songs I really listened to over and over and these are the ones that made my list (in no particular order). I'm sure Jen will remember some of these playing in the car.

Year 1981
Album Heavy Metal
Song Heavy Metal
Artist Sammy Hagar

Year 1966
Album The Monkees
Song Theme from the Monkees
Artist The Monkees

Year 1983
Album Sports
Song Heart of Rock & Roll
Artist Huey Lewis & the News

Year 1983
Album An Innocent Man
Song An Innocent Man
Artist Billy Joel

Year 1978
Album Even Now
Song Copacabana
Artist Barry Manilow

These are all old, but I guess I don't listen to anything anymore like I used to. I'm sure I wore these out and bought them again at one time or another. I think what I liked about them was that every song on the album was good.

PUNKIN

Here is my dog Punkin's latest obsession. His name is Roger and she chases him all over the house and sleeps with him and won't sit with us in the living room unless Roger is there, too. I guess this is what happens when you don't have children at home anymore. You treat your dog like a child. Really sad, isn't it? We love the way his tongue rolls out when you squeeze him. Of course, he squeaks, and that really gets her excited.

Besides playing with the dog today, I had to go report for Jury duty. What fun!! I tried to tell them that I drive a truck and when I call in to see if I'm needed, I may be in Texas or New Jersey or somewhere. They said if my number comes up to just let them know I'm out of town. I don't know why they bothered to give me a number. Anyway, the judge who spoke to us informed us that real trials are not like "Law & Order." They don't solve the case in less than an hour and DNA does not come back the next day. I couldn't believe we sat for two hours in a crowded court room to hear that. He also informed us that some cases settle out of court. Imagine that. I hope you have the opportunity to serve your community as a juror real soon.

Reunion

As you know, we were in Myrtle Beach this week for a family reunion. Here's a picture of my Mom and step-dad with Mom's newest great-granddaughter, Katie. It was pretty neat this year that Mom was the oldest member of the family to attend the reunion and Katie was the youngest and she just happened to be Mom's great-granddaughter. We really had a good time and I'm so glad we made the trip. But, it was a nine hour drive home, so I'm not going to spend much time on here tonight. Just wanted to add this picture and say how blessed our family is with healthy, beautiful babies.

Suntan Products

Since I've been at the beach this week, I've been wearing mostly capri pants. But I had some shorts I wanted to wear and I thought my legs looked so white that I would put on a little self tanning lotion one night. I put it on my legs and on my upper arms so I could wear a tank top without the top of my arms looking so white compared to the bottom of the arm. Anyway, I put it on and waited about two hours before I went to bed. The next morning I got up and took a shower. My tan looked pretty good, not dark, but not as pale as a ghost either. Then I went to make up my bed and realized I had solved a long standing mystery. I know how they created the Shroud of Turin!!! Luckily it all washed out of the sheets.

Blustery Day at the Reunion

These are our condo beds. I must be in the nursery because I have "Shark's Tale" comforters and dolphin border. My sister brought the cat pillow from home and it perfectly matches her comforter in the condo.

Yesterday we had our Mullins family cookout under a tornado watch!! The wind was blowing so hard that you needed three hands to eat anything. If you set your drink down, it blew over. If you took one hand off your plate to pick up your hot dog, your plate blew out of your hand. We had just enough time to bring all the food out and set it on a picnic table near the pool, serve everyone a hot dog, then begin to cut our cake before the worst of the storm hit. We frantically loaded everything into a shopping cart and hauled it upstairs to my cousin's condo, covering the cake with a plastic patio table as we dashed through the rain to the elevator. We had about 50 weiners left so we pushed the cart from condo to condo trying to get rid of the leftovers. We should have knocked on the doors of people we didn't know!! We did have a good time and had about 40 family members there, so that's pretty good.

Tomorrow night we have our main meeting which includes a meal and a program, including me talking about truck driving, as well as other family members sharing things about their jobs. We'll have people talking about our ancestors and we'll give certificates and Bibles to the new babies born since last reunion. And a good time will be had by all.

If you ever plan a family reunion at Myrtle Beach you should all get condos at Water Pointe I, located at 4619 Ocean Blvd. in North Myrtle Beach. This place has the perfect set up for a large group. There's an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, a kiddie pool, and a hot tub. We also have several tables and lots of chairs all enclosed under the building so you wouldn't have to worry about the weather. Too bad we had our cookout at a different building. We'll know next time.

Family Reunion

After months of trying to make up her mind about going to Myrtle Beach for the family reunion, my mother finally decided she would make the trip. At the last minute, we were fortunate to get a condo on the beach. So, early tomorrow morning, my sister, Judi, my mother and step-dad, and I will be on our way. A year ago, I had hoped to have my son and his family and my daughter and her family all there, but that didn't work out. So for several months, I was planning to go by myself. Then my sister decided she would go with me. Now, there will be four of us. It should be a lot of fun. One of my sisters lives in North Carolina, near Myrtle Beach, so her family will be there. Lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. will be there. One of my uncles is in Florida with my cousin, who has been in the hospital for a couple of weeks after an aneurism. He is in serious condition, but improving, so we will be keeping him and my uncle in our prayers through out the reunion activities. I'll post some family pictures when I get a chance.

Todd's New House

We were only out 5 days this week, but they were very busy. We delivered a load in Texas and then we had a chance to go through Austin to see Todd & Allison's new house. We saw it on Thursday while it was still empty. On Friday, they signed the papers and started moving in. Wish we could have been there to help. We packed a few boxes with them on Thursday evening, but I'm sure they could have used the extra help on Friday. Anyway, they got completely moved out of their old house and into the new one late Friday night. I can't wait to go back and see it with furniture. It's almost double the square footage they had before, so they will probably need some new stuff. It has the most windows I've ever seen in a house, and they are large windows. I'll have to take pictures when I get a chance.




From there, we took a load to New Jersey. We used to go to Rahway a lot, but not so much lately. There is a restaurant called Rising Star Diner on Roosevelt Ave. where I love to eat. They have the best brocolli and cheese omelet. They also serve a great steak with mushrooms and have a really good salad bar. I don't know what they do to the mushrooms, but they are delicious.

If you ever travel to New Jersey, check out the world's largest light bulb. It's located at the top of The Thomas Edison Memorial Tower and Menlo Park Museum which was built in 1937 in the Menlo Park section of what is now the town of Edison. The World's Largest Light Bulb is thirteen feet tall and weighs eight tons. The tower marks the spot where Edison invented the light bulb. An interesting Edison story is that Henry Ford has Edison's last breath in a bottle in his museum in Michigan. Supposedly, he got Edison's son to sit by his death bed and catch his last breath in a test tube. I'm not sure what he intended to do with it, but the tube is on display at the Ford Museum.

More BBQ

After that last post about BBQ, I thought it was pretty funny Saturday when we decided to get out the grill. Unfortunately, our grill had begun to rust pretty badly in the bottom and the burners were not working properly. Kirby went to Lowes to see if he could get replacement burners and came home with this.

I knew when he left we would get a new grill before it was over. But, the best part of the story happened later. We spent about two hours putting the grill together. It was so hard to reach some of the screws you had to put in, and so hard to hold all the pieces together while getting a screw through a hole that you couldn't see. Anyway, we worked and worked and finally had a beautiful new grill. Then we went to hook up the propane tank and realized our old one was empty. So an hour later, after a trip to Krogers for gas and some buns and chips, etc., we have our tank hooked up. All the burners fired right up and we were good to go. By this time, we are both starving and completely worn out.

After coming inside to clean up and get the hamburger meat, we decided to just fry the burgers in a pan on the stove so we wouldn't get our new grill dirty!!! They were very good burgers and we ate them with Chili Cheese Fritos (our favorite).

Tonight, we will actually christen the grill. A neighbor is having a cookout and we are going to take our grill because theirs is much too small. I have made a big pan of jalapeno poppers (we split the jalapeno, stuff it with cream cheese, wrap it in bacon and grill - gooooooood stuff) and Kirby made two Key lime pies. I'm making myself hungry. Better go get ready.

Barbeque

I just realized that the entire 10 days we were gone this trip I only got on the internet once for a couple of minutes and I didn't add anything to my blog.

For some reason Kirby and I have been hungry for Barbeque this week. We have both eaten at Rudy's and love the sauce and the sides (creamed corn and new potatoes). This week, we stopped at a little ramshackle place called "The Shed" in Ocean Springs, MS off I-10 at exit 57. The building looks like it should be condemned, however, the food was fantastic. I love sausage and chicken, Kirby loves brisket, so we had all three. The sauce was a little too sweet, but still good. Like Rudy's, they serve it with slices of white bread. The potato salad was ok, but the macaroni salad was better. Kirby liked the beans. The place is decorated with hand written signs of all kinds that contain little bits of wisdom and humor. It was fun to sit at the table and read the walls. A lot of people have hung up dollar bills with their names and towns written on them. I don't know if the waitresses got a tip or not, but the walls were covered with cash. Next time we stop, I'm going to take my camera with me.

Having said all that, I come to the real point. We stopped at Famous Dave's tonight and I have to say it is fast becoming our favorite BBQ place. Their sausage is so good it makes my mouth water just thinking about it. They have 5 different sauces ranging from honey mustard mild to so hot you can't eat it. Of course, we like the Texas style!!! It's spicy and sweet (sort of like Rudy's). What makes me go back though is the corn muffins. Melt in your mouth corn muffins.

Rudy's and the Shed share the same style of service. At Rudy's, you get in line, get a tray to carry to your table and get your own drink. At the Shed, you get in line to order, get your own drink and when your food is ready, they come out calling your name and bring it to the table. Famous Dave's is a sit down restaurant where they wait on you and bring you anything you ask for and keep your drink filled for you. Thank you, Dave!!

Jen, there is one in El Paso!!! But you will probably have to call in an order and pick it up (they have a pick up window). I'll bet you wouldn't have to wait in line. http://www.famousdaves.com/

Houston, we have a problem

Here's another picture from the El Paso airport. I knew before I left El Paso that it wasn't going to be a good day. To begin with, they were asking people to give up their seats in exchange for a cash voucher and a later flight. By the time they boarded the plane, we were about 20 minutes late taking off. This wouldn't have been a problem, except that I only had 30 minutes to change planes in Houston. Even if the gate you are going to is right beside the gate where you land, you can't change planes in Houston in less than 10 minutes. I landed at gate C84 and needed to be at gate B76 in less than five minutes. I informed the Continental agent who met our plane of my problem and he advised me to get there as fast as I could. As fast as I could, considering I had to wait for their shuttle bus to take me to the other terminal, was about 20 minutes. Surprise, surprise when I arrived at gate B76 my plane had left without me.

At this point, I had a new understanding of Bailey and being 2 years old. He doesn't throw things and fall to the floor crying because he expects to get anything by doing it. He does it because it FEELS GOOD. I wanted nothing more than to knock the phone and computer monitor of the Continental agent to the floor, then fall down screaming and kicking in the middle of gate B76. I knew it wouldn't bring back the plane I had missed, or get me a cookie, but it just seems like it would have felt good.

Continental booked me on a Northwest flight to Detroit, where I was able to make a connection to Charleston, WV, on a propeller plane!!!! I didn't know they still had propeller planes. The stewardess was at least 65 years old, so maybe nobody has told this crew that they are no longer in service. FYI, the airport in Detroit is very nice, but they have this weird tunnel you have to walk through to get from terminal A to terminal B where the walls change color and lights flash to some kind of oriental music and you feel like you are underwater. They also have this really neat fountain in the main terminal that shoots water out of holes at different times and makes pretty patterns and splashes. So go through Detroit sometime if you get a chance.

Finally, I arrived in WV at about 10:30 pm and guess what??? My luggage didn't make it. So I filled out a missing luggage form and drove home. I was actually sort of surprised that my luggage didn't make the flight from Houston that I missed. I figured that would have been the greatest irony. My luggage did arrive today, so alls well that ends well, I suppose.

El Paso

Here are a couple of pictures from today. One is Bailey riding the merry-go-round at the zoo and the other is Maverick smiling at the camera. They are two beautiful boys. We had a good day. We went to the zoo and then picked up McDonalds for lunch. We made a quick trip to Burlington Coat Factory and Bailey got a new Thomas train (he really needed another one) and Jen got a rug for her kitchen. We had a really good supper of chicken and rice that Jen fixed. Then Bailey let us watch Shrek before he went to bed. I got to rock Maverick to sleep, which is one of the best parts of being a grandmother.

Paint

My son and his wife have their house up for sale so yesterday we got a gallon of paint at Big Lots for $3.50 to do some touching up on the front of the house. They have some green trim that we are restoring to the original off-white. Anyway, the paint is a little thin (as you would expect for $3.50) but after we painted yesterday, it rained last night. This morning I went outside and found that some of the paint had washed off!! So much for really cheap paint. I think we will use it as a primer and then go to Home Depot and get something a bit more durable. We are supposed to rent a storage unit today and take the things we have boxed up to storage. They are trying to empty out everything they can live without to make the house look more spacious for the new buyers. Hope that works. All I know is that everytime I take a vacation and come to visit them they have a big project going on around here. Is it just coincidence??? I don't mind, though. There's nothing like going through someone else's closets and throwing things away. A real sense of accomplishment without giving up any of the junk I have in my own closets.
Yesterday morning we had a surprise visitor. Jen will remember him from Bellmead, Jeff Winget. He and his wife were here for the Republic of Texas Bike Rally in Austin and they stopped by before returning to Waco. It was nice to catch up with some friends from years ago. After his description of the bike rally, I'm sure Kirby will want to be here next year.

Austin, Texas

I made it to Austin and I'm here at my son's house. The flights were pretty uneventful and even though I did have to walk too far in the Houston airport, I made my flight on time. I had about 35 minutes and got there with about 10 minutes to spare. Todd and his two step-daughters picked me up at the airport and we had breakfast before coming to his house. Since then the girls and I have been lying around telling ghost stories and funny stories. I'm sure they won't be able to sleep tonight after one of my really scary ones. I think we're going to watch "Night at the Museum" tonight, so that should be fun and get our minds off "The Grudge" and "Scary Movie". I think tomorrow we are going to Waco to see Kayla and Brandon. I'm going to try to do a lot in the next few days because I don't get to see all these grandkids very often.

Stonehenge

Kirby and I drove 7,900 miles in the last 8 days. That's a record for us in the truck. Our previous record was about 6,500 in 7 days. And just in case you are wondering, they did not build a bridge to England. This particular stonehenge is on the University of Texas campus on Odessa, Texas. It is almost an exact replica except that it is slightly shorter than the original.

I'm leaving tomorrow morning to fly to Austin to visit my son and his family and then to El Paso to see my daughter and her family. I'm really excited about this trip and I'm sure I'll have lots of great pictures to post.

Motorcycles

Here are a couple of the bikes we've seen this week. Some of the paint jobs are pretty awesome. We've had good weather every day except for Thursday. It was cloudy all day and rained a little in the evening. Kirby's fishing trip was very successful. They brought home a lot of fish that we froze to take home. He even caught a shark. Our sightseeing tour was cancelled. This makes the third time I have tried to go on this tour. In October we tried twice and it was cancelled both times because they said there was a chance of thunderstorms. This time they cancelled it because of the traffic. There really were a lot of bikes here this week, but I think it was pretty silly of them to cancel our tour. Bike week ends tomorrow and I'm sure there will be a mass exodus from the area. People will have to get home for work on Monday, I'm sure. We are staying one extra night to try to miss the crowd, so we'll be going home Monday morning. I'm always glad to get home, but I hate leaving the beach and I dread the long drive. Maybe someday we will move down here and we won't have to leave to go home. That would be great.

Bike Week

This is the view from our condo in Myrtle Beach. Everyone always talks about how beautiful Heaven will be, but I think Heaven must be a condo at the beach where you never have to go home and go back to work. The sound of the waves is so soothing. I love just watching the waves break on the beach and the little birds run from the water.



We've had a lot of fun the last few days. We started our vacation by spending the night with our son-in-law's parents in Ft. Mill. They treated us to a great seafood dinner and an evening filled with laughter. The next morning they sent us on our way with a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, etc. I can't wait to go back to visit them again!! Thanks, you guys.

We left there and made our way to Myrtle Beach for Bike Week. We have a condo with my nephew and his wife and one of our neighbors from WV. We've had such a good time. It's great to be able to ride on the back of Kirby's Kawasaki, go to all the bike displays and T-shirt vendors, then finish the day eating at one of the many, many restaurants here. I've had some successful shopping trips. New purse, new sandals, new laptop bag, and some gifts I'm saving for Christmas. I found my granddaughter a really neat birthday present, these elastic panty hose things you put on your arms that look like you have tattoos. She'll love them. Hope she gets them before she reads this!!

Kirby is on an all day fishing trip today. Tomorrow we're going on a jeep tour of the Myrtle Beach area. I'll try to post some pictures. You have to see some of these bikes!!

The Perrys

Tonight Kirby and I went to a gospel concert at our church. My sister's group, the Miracles, sang a few songs, and they were great. They stopped traveling and singing together a few years ago, but still get together once in a while for special occasions. Tonight they did a couple of their best songs and they still make beautiful music together. Then the Perrys took the stage and put on a wonderful concert. They have some of the best singers in all of southern gospel music in their group, as well as a legendary piano player. If you have not heard this group live in concert, make the effort to see them. You won't regret it. Their website is www.perrysministries.com

At Last!!!

Today we finally got the entertainment center that we ordered three months ago. We love it and it was worth the wait, but for the past three months we have had our TV sitting on a coffee table against the wall with the cable box on the floor under it. I sat down to check the remote and all the connections and it was amazing that you could change the channels without pointing the remote down at the floor. That has been such a pain. But now the TV is much higher than it was and my neck is not adjusted yet. It felt like I was having to lean back to watch it.

We are leaving in the morning for Myrtle Beach so it was perfect timing for a major piece of furniture to arrive!! We had to rearrange all the furniture to get the new cabinet in, then put all the furniture back, and disconnect and re-connect all the wires to the various TV components. The side cabinets actually have lights in them, but I didn't even attempt to get all that hooked up. It was enough to just get it set up and get the TV on it. Now all I have to do is pack for two people, load two motorcycles on a trailer, prepare two cats and a dog for a week without Mommy, pay bills, go to the post office, go to the bank, go to Walmart, I'd better get this computer.

Only in Texas

As you travel along I-45 in Texas, you suddenly see a giant statue standing beside the road. It's Sam Houston, the man who defeated Santa Anna after the Alamo, became the President of the Republic of Texas and then Governer of the State of Texas. The statue is 67 feet tall and made of reinforced concrete. It's located in Huntsville, Texas, which is better known for its prisons. In fact, if you visit the prison museum in Huntsville, you can see "Old Sparky" the electric chair. There is something a little disturbing about that, but as I said, it's Texas.

Good Eats

People always say that truck drivers know the best places to eat. Today we found one of those places. We have been to Odessa twice this week and both times they sent us back to the Houston area. On a little backroad in a town called Crane, Texas, there is a cafe that has the best Mexican food we ever ate. They do Mexican buffet on Tuesday and we really enjoyed it. Kirby ate so many chiles relleno that I was sure he would be sick. The beans and rice were delicious, too. They had my favorite, chicken floutas. All I can say is mmmmmm!! If you find yourself on Texas Rt. 385, stop at Charlie's Cafe. They have a different buffet menu everyday.

We also stop pretty often at a bbq place called Soulman's outside of Dallas. Last night when we went by they had on their big sign out front "Doing our Part in the Fight Against Anorexia." Of course, we stopped to support this important work. The sliced beef and sausage were both great, as usual. If you ever go to Soulman's, try the cabbage cooked with jalapenoes.