Thursday, November 4, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Rights of Passage
Halloween Weekend - 2010
It started innocently enough...Bay decided he didn't want to dress up for Halloween this year. He just wanted to hand out candy. Then...we realized it was Youth Weekend, a junior hunter's dream! Some friends invited the guys to come onto their lease this weekend and let Bay hunt with the other kids. So after getting hime late from the football game on Friday night, they were up at 5:15 and ready to get to their assigned blind. I took the day to go to First Monday and had been there only an hour when I got the call that Bay had gotten his first deer...a doe. Since the men start hunting this coming weekend, and since Dan & Bay aren't members on this particular lease, they asked that they only shoot at doe. Not easy to figure out who was more excited, Daddy on Bailey :-)
So we all met up for lunch in town and after a couple of hours rest they headed back to the lease to finish building a deer stand and go back for the evening hunt. I settled in for some Texas Rangers action and had just texted that we were ahead 3-0 when they texted back that I needed to bring another cooler out because he had shot his second deer! Needless to say, he wasn't even around for the feew trick-or-treaters that came by on Saturday.
We woke up on Sunday to beautiful weather, so all three of us headed to Canton again. We spent a few hours just walking aorund and taking it all in...a very relaxing day. We went home and watched some football and cooked what Bay calls "ballpark food" for the Ranger game (hot dogs and all the fixins'). Settled in for the ballgame and had a few more kiddos ring the doorbell, so we dumped as much candy as we would into their bags and we STILL have leftover Tootsie Rolls!
So it was kind of bittersweet that the little man has decided he is too old for costumes, but he made that step towards becoming a man as he proclaimed himself the Great Deer Slayer!
It started innocently enough...Bay decided he didn't want to dress up for Halloween this year. He just wanted to hand out candy. Then...we realized it was Youth Weekend, a junior hunter's dream! Some friends invited the guys to come onto their lease this weekend and let Bay hunt with the other kids. So after getting hime late from the football game on Friday night, they were up at 5:15 and ready to get to their assigned blind. I took the day to go to First Monday and had been there only an hour when I got the call that Bay had gotten his first deer...a doe. Since the men start hunting this coming weekend, and since Dan & Bay aren't members on this particular lease, they asked that they only shoot at doe. Not easy to figure out who was more excited, Daddy on Bailey :-)
So we all met up for lunch in town and after a couple of hours rest they headed back to the lease to finish building a deer stand and go back for the evening hunt. I settled in for some Texas Rangers action and had just texted that we were ahead 3-0 when they texted back that I needed to bring another cooler out because he had shot his second deer! Needless to say, he wasn't even around for the feew trick-or-treaters that came by on Saturday.
We woke up on Sunday to beautiful weather, so all three of us headed to Canton again. We spent a few hours just walking aorund and taking it all in...a very relaxing day. We went home and watched some football and cooked what Bay calls "ballpark food" for the Ranger game (hot dogs and all the fixins'). Settled in for the ballgame and had a few more kiddos ring the doorbell, so we dumped as much candy as we would into their bags and we STILL have leftover Tootsie Rolls!
So it was kind of bittersweet that the little man has decided he is too old for costumes, but he made that step towards becoming a man as he proclaimed himself the Great Deer Slayer!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Countdown...
The countdown to Vacation - 2010 is on! I have a little more than 9 hours left to work today and then I am free for 10 days. We don't really have a lot planned...going to head to Fredericksburg for a few days, but just the time away from meetings and deadlines and projects is wonderful!
Since April, I have had both grandparents a.)in the hospital b.)in hospice care and finally c.)at their final resting place. Bay had a strep and staph infection that lasted almost 3 months. I had to complete a HUGE project at work documenting all assigned gear by date (for 330+ firefighters). And we are now preparing for the grand opening/ribbon cutting ceremony for the 3 building complex we moved into in January. Can you say STRESS!!!???
School is just around the corner, starting fifth grade in t-minus 18 days. How did that happen? I would swear he was just born twenty minutes ago, but indeed he turned 10 years old last month and he is acting so mature...seriously!
Not much for an update, but I am a bit limited on time for now.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Even the Playing Field
Yesterday, I had the wonderful privilege of being with my sister and brother-in-law for an ultrasound to find out the gender of the new baby on the way. This was a new road for us since I did not find out what Bailey was and they had not found out what Natalie was in their first pregnancy. So it was very exciting to be there and suffer through all the other stuff that the sonographer has to do before getting down to the business at hand. It was previously agreed that the grandparents (who couldn't be there)would dial in to a conference call and hear it all LIVE! But once we got in the room, the gal asked us all to turn off our electronic devices. So the moment of truth came and we found out that Natty will be getting a little brother, Todd a little hockey player, and Lauri a sweet little mama's boy. I say that only because I think boys and their mother's share an incredible bond...one that I absolutely cherish daily with my son. And as much as she loves her first born, her little girl, there is just something about a boy...
Now I can't wait to do some shoping!
Now I can't wait to do some shoping!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
My April Fool
April Fool's Day for many is a day for trickery and jokes. For me, Dan, and Bay it is our anniversary. We didn't purposely choose to get married on a silly day like April Fool's, but it was convenient to what was happening back in 2005 and it turned out to be a perfect opportunity.
Unbeknownst to one another, Dan & I had been attending the same Methodist church a couple of years before. We were attending different services; he was going to Celebration Service at 8:30 with some golf buddies and then hitting the course and I was attending the Traditional service at 10:40 which was the closest thing to my Episcopal upbringing. We were pastored by a wonderful guy, Brother Bob. Bob Johnson and his family left and moved to a much larger church near Houston a little more than a year later and we rarely got to even see him.
So in 2004 Dan & I began dating and in early 2005...he proposed at a neat little hotel in Grandbury called the Nutt House. We knew that on April 2nd, his oldest daughter would be getting married down in Houston and that we would be there that weekend for the big shindig. That kind of got us to thinking about tracking down Brother Bob to see if he might be able to do us a huge favor while we were there. I should probably clarify my idea of a wedding...
I never was the little girl who dreamed of the big wedding. And especially after my dad died, I couldn't even think of having a traditional type wedding because I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to walk me down the aisle. So since I had a son and Dan had three daughters, we just wanted it to be us, all of us. So after some e-mails and phone calls, it was official...we would get married on Friday afternoon at the same resort where our oldest would marry on Saturday and would get to have our ceremony performed and blessed by the pastor who had made such an impact on our "single lives".
So I shopped for some very casual wedding wear. My hubby to be didn't like suits and ties and after all...we were on a golf course! The guys had shorts and sandals and I had a skirt set and sandals. And then...the wind blew 40mph and the temperature dropped 15 degrees and we froze our tails off. The wind blew so hard that the pages of the Bible were flipping! It was a really interesting April Fool's joke...but we perservered anyway. We had a wonderful party a month later with all of our family and friends to seal the deal.
It has been mostly a great 5 years. We have had some rough days and we have had some of the best days. I hope that the best is yet to come. We enjoy the life we have built together. And my son very early on became "our" son officially! Those two are a match made in heaven, and remind me daily of how lucky and blessed I was when my own Dad took me as his own after he and my mom married. The two of them are the absolute loves of my life and today we all three celebrate a Happy Anniversary!
Unbeknownst to one another, Dan & I had been attending the same Methodist church a couple of years before. We were attending different services; he was going to Celebration Service at 8:30 with some golf buddies and then hitting the course and I was attending the Traditional service at 10:40 which was the closest thing to my Episcopal upbringing. We were pastored by a wonderful guy, Brother Bob. Bob Johnson and his family left and moved to a much larger church near Houston a little more than a year later and we rarely got to even see him.
So in 2004 Dan & I began dating and in early 2005...he proposed at a neat little hotel in Grandbury called the Nutt House. We knew that on April 2nd, his oldest daughter would be getting married down in Houston and that we would be there that weekend for the big shindig. That kind of got us to thinking about tracking down Brother Bob to see if he might be able to do us a huge favor while we were there. I should probably clarify my idea of a wedding...
I never was the little girl who dreamed of the big wedding. And especially after my dad died, I couldn't even think of having a traditional type wedding because I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to walk me down the aisle. So since I had a son and Dan had three daughters, we just wanted it to be us, all of us. So after some e-mails and phone calls, it was official...we would get married on Friday afternoon at the same resort where our oldest would marry on Saturday and would get to have our ceremony performed and blessed by the pastor who had made such an impact on our "single lives".
So I shopped for some very casual wedding wear. My hubby to be didn't like suits and ties and after all...we were on a golf course! The guys had shorts and sandals and I had a skirt set and sandals. And then...the wind blew 40mph and the temperature dropped 15 degrees and we froze our tails off. The wind blew so hard that the pages of the Bible were flipping! It was a really interesting April Fool's joke...but we perservered anyway. We had a wonderful party a month later with all of our family and friends to seal the deal.
It has been mostly a great 5 years. We have had some rough days and we have had some of the best days. I hope that the best is yet to come. We enjoy the life we have built together. And my son very early on became "our" son officially! Those two are a match made in heaven, and remind me daily of how lucky and blessed I was when my own Dad took me as his own after he and my mom married. The two of them are the absolute loves of my life and today we all three celebrate a Happy Anniversary!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Hey, it's 2010!
Yeah so I really do stink at blogging consistently. But in my defense, I have been truly swamped and it looks a little bleak for the rest of January. We have some huge stuff going on within the fire department including the opening of a brand new station that I got to buy TONS of stuff for and the moving in and opening next week of my new office and warehouse space. We have been short one person in our division for most of the year and have been trying to cover extra duties and I am just plain worn out. All the time.
I am suffering again from this never ending chest cold (been lingering since Thanksgiving) and Texas is seeing some of it's coldest temperatures in my lifetime that unfortunately have not produced snow yet for Bailey. unless you count the flurries on Christmas Eve...which he does not!
Christmas was a dream... Dan and I had 10 days off together with the kiddo and we did a whole lot of nothing! I highly recommend that kind of vacation. We decorated the house, did some baking, shared with neighbors, and hosted the family on Christmas afternoon. I made a huge beef tenderloin for the first time and did surprisingly well with it. It was a much needed and appreciated break from the craziness at work.
I have decided to accept a challenge from one of my favorite bloggers, MoJoy, and choose a word of the year. You know, something that will appropriately cover all the different facets of my life. After a lot of pondering, I have chosen FINISH as my word. I think it speaks for itself. There are so many piddly things that only need a little attention to be done and I want to do that this year. Wish me luck as I now FINISH my first post of the year. Maybe it won't be the last!
I am suffering again from this never ending chest cold (been lingering since Thanksgiving) and Texas is seeing some of it's coldest temperatures in my lifetime that unfortunately have not produced snow yet for Bailey. unless you count the flurries on Christmas Eve...which he does not!
Christmas was a dream... Dan and I had 10 days off together with the kiddo and we did a whole lot of nothing! I highly recommend that kind of vacation. We decorated the house, did some baking, shared with neighbors, and hosted the family on Christmas afternoon. I made a huge beef tenderloin for the first time and did surprisingly well with it. It was a much needed and appreciated break from the craziness at work.
I have decided to accept a challenge from one of my favorite bloggers, MoJoy, and choose a word of the year. You know, something that will appropriately cover all the different facets of my life. After a lot of pondering, I have chosen FINISH as my word. I think it speaks for itself. There are so many piddly things that only need a little attention to be done and I want to do that this year. Wish me luck as I now FINISH my first post of the year. Maybe it won't be the last!
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