Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend

On Thanksgiving day we journeyed to Gibsland, LA for some good cooking made by Aunt Joyce. Everything was delicious as usual. The kids and adults had fun riding the mule in the woods, Alicia even fell asleep in the back! When we got back to the lake house the kids fished off the dock with Uncle Boogie and caught quite a few.






Friday afternoon we had a great time at the LSU - Arkansas game in Little Rock, AR at the War Memorial Stadium despite the loss (31-30) and the weather. It sprinkled throughout most of the game and was very cold. Denise and Brianna loved all the cheering, face painting and dressing up with purple and gold, I think the older girls had fun with it also. Here are a few of the pics:



Afterwards, we celebrated Dennis' birthday at Bosco's restaurant with some good food and beer. At the hotel room we had cake and presents. Dennis thanks everyone for all the cool gifts.

Today, Dennis is 50!!!!!!!!

I just thought I would show you some of the 50 years of the life of Dennis. I love you, babe and Happy Birthday!

Hooray For Turkey Day!

We just want to give thanks to all our family and friends for always being there when we need you. May you all have a Blessed Thanksgiving with lots of good food to eat!

Lake D'Arbonne

We made it to the lake house after a 6 hour drive. We left Houston at noon and hit just a little traffic up Highway 59. Celeste and Alicia will be riding up with Gail and John from Austin. We were actully the first ones here. I cleaned up all the dead bugs on the kitchen floor and vacuumed the carpet while Dennis and the girls raked the leaves outside. We are all tired so I think we will all hit the hay early. I probably will not put much pics out because I have to dial in to connect. I can't believe we used to think this was fast! Harv and Sue showed up next followed by Greg, Michelle and Nanny. Looks like the crew from Austin will be later. Have a good Thanksgiving Eve!

Monday Stuffing!

Yesterday was a day full of shopping with the kids and we had to make a stop at Build-A-Bear. Brianna has become quite a shopper. She loves it! Denise could pass, too many people. The Memorial City Mall was jam packed with everyone and his brother, but we were able to make some progress and bought some Xmas gifts and dad's birthday gift.

Today was a day full of food. It was our annual holiday pot luck at work. Everyone did well this time in my department and brought quite a bit of food, enough to feed about 200 of us with leftovers. I got up early to make a green bean casserole and sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. I am part of the Social Committee and was put in charge of the Dessert room. There was pumpkin pie, pecan pie, Tres Leche cake, dulce de lece, mince pie, rice pudding, brownies, cookies, apple pie, pound cake, chocolate cake, fudge and whatever you can think of that's sweet! As for the food, besides turkey, ham and dressing there was something from every part of the world. I work with people from all over the world so there was dishes from India, the Middle East, China, Malaysia, Great Britain, Phillipines, South America and Louisiana. Most of the things I did not know what it was or how to pronounce it, but just put it on my plate to taste. My favorites were the chicken gumbo, some kind of oriental noodles and a fig dessert. I purposely didn't have any Thanksgiving kind of food because I hope to get the good stuff on Turkey day when we go to northern Louisiana to Aunt Joyce's. Can't wait to see everyone in Farmerville at the lake.

My Little Daisy

Today was the first meeting for Brianna's Girl Scout Daisy troop. She is so excited about being a Daisy. They get to wear their tunics to school to show off all the patches they will be earning. Right now their first patch is an American flag for joining the troop. The next patches will create a flower with each petal being a patch to earn. Sometime in February or March of next year she will be selling Girl Scout cookies, so get ready to buy a whole lot to support her first time selling.

Happy 20th Birthday, Celeste!

Wow, I can't believe you are 20 years old Celeste! I remember when I first met you and Alicia back in 1995 at that apartment that Dad was living in when he was single. He had just made you dinner which was soup from a can with crushed crackers on top. I thought it was bizarre but it looked like you guys liked it. I enjoyed watching you grow up all these years and I tried to be a good step-mom to you. You've become such a beautiful woman and a pretty smart one too. Keep up the good work in school. I know it's a lot of work but one day you will get paid well for it!
I hear that you had breakfast with Aunt Gail in Austin and went to church on campus. Sounds like the start of a great birthday. Have fun!

Xmas Count Down Begins

Today you could actually tell that the Xmas shopping has begun. We went to the annual Nutcracker Market and there were so many people there it was hard to see what was being sold in some booths. I believe I have gone to this shopping spree every year for probably the past 15 years. I even worked it a few years. This year though it seemed more crowded. I bought our tickets at Randall's grocery store before we got there and what a lucky thing, because the line for tickets at the door looked like about 1,000 people. We bypassed that and went inside where there must have been 50,000 more. We managed to do our shopping and bought a few things. Less than I ever had in the past. It was just too crowded. They kids enjoyed it, especially all the samples of food. We left here and I went to drop them off at the Residence Inn for a birthday party sleepover. They are going to have so much fun. I will be able to catch up on some reading and sleep. Tomorrow is Celeste's birthday. I can't believe she will be 20, seems like only yesterday I was meeting her at 6 years old!

Weekend Changes

It looks like we will not be making the trip up to Arlington with Dennis to watch Alicia play her last two games. Good luck, Alicia. I know you will play your best and hopefully next year will be a better year for the team. The little girls have been invited to a birthday party sleepover at a hotel with an indoor pool. That is a great idea, but I feel sorry for that mom! I will finally have some free time this weekend to catch up on my reading, house cleaning or Xmas shopping.
When we got home this afternoon we found Dad smoking a Cuban cigar that one of his customers had given him. The smell was so strong, I had to spray Lysol all over even in the house and he was smoking in the garage! Thank God he doesn't make that a habit!

School pictures are in!

Happy Veteran's Day to everyone. The kids got their fall school pictures and they came out nice. Sue, I have your 8 x 10 pictures for your wall of fame whenever the remodeling is done on the house.

Denise - 3rd Grade

Brianna - 1st Grade

Rain, rain and more rain

We finally got some rain today and it looks like we are going to get more for the next few days. We needed it, I need to give the water sprinkler system a break. With this rain comes cold weather though and I don't look forward to that. I do enjoy a roaring fire in the fireplace and a good movie at night. This weekend it is supposed to get into the 30s so maybe the opportunity will come up. This is going to be another volleyball weekend but this time it is in Arlington at UTA. Their last game is on Saturday. We will probably spend the night with Gary and Rebecca in Ferris. The kids will be excited to see their Aunt and Uncle. Today I took them to the doctor for their yearly physicals. They got the giggles when they had to wear hospital gowns with their butts showing in the back. Than they giggled more when the doctor said they could have the nasal-spray flu vaccine instead of the injection. They are all caught up with their inoculations so there was no shots this time so we celebrated with ice cream.

Long Weekend

This has certainly been a long weekend. Dennis and the girls started out Friday night by going to Huntsville to watch Alicia's volleyball team play Sam Houston. They lost, but the kids had fun. Lisa, her fiance Herman and Naya were at the game also.
The next morning on Saturday we drove to Port Arthur first to my parents house. My dad is doing great. He is walking around with a walker and looks very strong walking on his legs. I'm sure he wouldn't want me to put a picture of him in his pajamas so I didn't take any pictures of him. It looks like he will be walking on his own soon. We talked my mom and my brothers, Orlando and Leonard to go with us to the UTA-Lamar volleyball game. It has been probably more than 25 years since I have been back to Lamar's campus. Not much has changed except for the buildings have been revamped. The Setzer Student Center still looked the same, but McDonald gym is now where the volleyball team plays instead of the basketball team who play in the Montagne Center.

We walked around campus and took pictures, even with the Mirabeau Lamar statue. We found a TV so Dennis could watch the LSU-Alabama game and than went to watch Alicia play. It was a very exciting match, but Lamar won on the fifth game. Lamar has a very good team, they actually won the Southland Conference title last year. We got to see Alicia again before we went back to Port Arthur. We got to my parents house just in time to watch the end of the LSU-Alabama game which they lost in overtime to the Crimson Tide 27-21.



We have had a rat in our house for the past few days and it has been very scary to walk around inside in fear that it might jump out. We tried the glue traps and they didn't work, the rat had torn himself off leaving his hair on the glue, so before we left for PA we set up a trap with cheese. When we returned on Sunday the trap had worked. Now I can walk around the house with no fear!


Have a good week!

TGIF!

Thank God it's Friday! I've had a long week and welcome the weekend. We ended Brianna's soccer season with a party at the Backyard Grill with her coach and team. She got a medal and another trophy to add to her collection. Her and Denise may one day catch up with their dad's collection!
Dad, Denise and Brianna went to watch Alicia play at Sam Houston in Huntsville. Unfortunately, they lost. She is playing on a not so good team this year, but most of the team are freshman so they will get better. At least Alicia is getting a lot of play time. We'll see her play tomorrow also at Lamar in Beaumont.