Sunday, September 28, 2014

Summer Recap 2-July

I'm having trouble remembering things from July since I don't have many pics that document whatever it was that we did!  Anyway, we had a very low-key 4th of July this year.  In fact we missed the big fireworks display that the Choctaws put on every year because they had it A DAY EARLY!  What's up with that??  So, on the 4th we just planned a little cookout with my mom and dad.
Allan has inherited the grilling job it seems and he always does a good job!  If I remember right, he grilled steaks, hamburgers, and smoked sausage.
Me and Mom just had to sample the brownies while Allan was outside cooking.  It was a necessary thing to do...really, it was.
I think this is one of the few 4th's that we haven't had a crowd here to celebrate with us.
It's also one of the very few times that we haven't watched fireworks or shot them off ourselves.  Maybe next year we'll be back to our big celebration.

Allan has continued to work on our house and he's made a lot of progress this summer!  I'm really proud that he is such a hard worker.
We have some beautiful wildflowers on our property.  Nearly every time I go, I walk around taking pics.
Luckily we've had a very mild summer for this part of the country...lots of rain and not too many hot, hot days! 

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Summer Recap 1-June

I'm trying to do a bit of bloggy catch up this week.  We've had a pretty busy summer around here.  This is what was going on in June:
Colby's birthday was in early June and we celebrated a week early with him.
We met up with the kids at our usual halfway place after church on Sunday.  I always make the strawberry cake that he's requested for years.  We had a great time even if it was just for a short time.  I'm so proud of the man Colby has grown up to be.  Wow...that's so weird calling him a man! He'll always be my boy!  It was so funny that one of the waitresses here at Chair Crushers...yes, that's the name of this joint...remembered us.  The last time we were there was in February for Ashley's birthday and I had taken her special brownie chocolate chip cheesecake that we shared with the waitress.  She happened to walk by us, stopped and pointed, and said,  "Chocolate cheesecake!"  Cracked us up.  So, of course we sent a few pieces of Colby's cake to the back for them to share.

Next was our annual Homecoming and Rodeo.  I just love a parade so I'm always there on the church steps to watch with other church members.  This time one of my little church friends didn't have a family member to bring her, so she came with me.  She said we were Parade Partners! Too cute!  My favorite little boy was there too.  I so love these kids!
There were lots to see in the parade...Rodeo clowns, old cars, politicians, law enforcement, and of course, Rodeo Royalty and the American flag.
There's always horse drawn buggies, mule drawn wagons and church friends on horses.   There's lots of horses but these just happen to be our church friends!
And...of course what most of the children come to parades for nowadays-CANDY!  It's so funny to see young AND old both coming to parades with Wal-Mart sacks to gather up candy.  Sometimes the kids are dodging floats and horses in order to get a tootsie roll or a dum-dum sucker!
Father's Day was the next event in the month.  We made a cute craft in Bible Class for the kids' daddies so I made one for my Daddy too!  We ate at our usual Sunday restaurant.  Colby was on his way back from a wedding in Florida so he made a quick stop to visit with us and wish Allan a Happy Father's Day.
Vacation Bible School was next.  Our theme this year was "A Blue Ribbon Life" with a county fair type decor.  Our teachers outdid themselves with all of the effort put in the class decorations.  I didn't teach this year since I'm needed in the office, but I did play a part in the puppet skits each day.  That's always so much fun!
Kids love cookies and punch from the snack ladies!  Our church ladies are always so generous with the amount of cookies they make for VBS.  We always have way more than we need which means that some of the extras always end up in my office.  Funny how that always happens!
Toward the end of the month, we went to the community theater play in Paris.  This play was "Little Miss Firecracker".  I have to say that this was our least favorite out of all the ones we've gone to.  It was just the story line wasn't good or else we missed something key to the story at the beginning.  The actors did a great job but the story was just blah.  We do look forward to the next season which begins soon.  
Well, as you can see, June was a pretty busy month.  We're still working on our new house and by we, I mean Allan, as I haven't been too much help in a while.  He's working hard and it's slowly coming along!

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Labor Day Weekend 2014

Well, I have kind of neglected this little blog over the summer so I thought I would do a post about our weekend and then try to catch up with what's been going on here over the summer in the next few days.  We shall see.

I was so excited that both of our kids were coming home for the weekend!  They don't come home near often enough for this momma and lots of times they don't get to be here at the same time, so this was really special.  Ashley got here Saturday night and had already asked if we could go to Paris to eat at her favorite place.  She lives in the big city but has not found a Mexican restaurant that even comes close to TaMolly's.  So, off we went!  After eating, we wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower!
I just think this is the neatest thing!  We hung around, took pics and then toured the Red River Valley Veteran's Memorial which is on the same grounds as the Eiffel Tower.  The memorial is very impressive.  Allan and I had been there a year or so ago during the early stage of the building of it, but now, there is so much more to see!  We are very fortunate to have a memorial such as this here in our little part of the world.
It began to get dark and I was so glad we had hung around until then.  I knew that the tower was lit up at night but I'd never seen it.  It was beautiful!
Sunday was church and it was my last Bible class with the group I've had since they were 2 years old.  I'm going to miss them so much.
We went to lunch at Roma's after church and had a good visit with family and friends.  During the afternoon, Ashley and I watched a movie while waiting on Colby to get home.  We all went to church again and then to Braum's with church friends.
Monday we loaded up and headed to Mom & Dad's for a cookout with the family.  Allan fired up the grill and had some help from the kids with the cooking.
We had a ton of food!  Burgers, smoked sausage, and hot dogs with all of the trimmings! And cupcakes!
We sat out on the porch and visited, watched kids play, and drove the mule around.  Everyone had a great time!
I always have to have group pictures before everyone begins to scatter.  A lot of them complain about posing for pics, but oh, well! They'll thank me for having these pictures some day!
We had such a good time!  Then it was time for my kids to head back to the big city, which always makes me sad.  I love them so much!
I hope everyone had as good a weekend as we did!