Sunday Sunset

Just happened to glance out the front door tonight and ran to grab the camera. The sky had changed a lot just in the short period of time that it took me to cross the street and walk into the neighbor's yard but it was still very pretty.

Yesterday was cool and damp so we decided to run errands in the truck instead of on the motorcycle. Spent most of the day looking at things for the house. Bought a couple of presents. Rented the movie Hancock last night and spent a nice, quiet evening at home with Will Smith, cheese, dried sausage, fruit, and a bottle of white wine. It has been a very relaxing five days off work.

Snake in the Attic (like Snakes on a Plane)

Brandon was NOT happy at all when he found this portion of a shed snake skin (it obviously belonged to a nice sized fella) while he was alone in the attic. I really didn't know he was so scary where snakes are concerned. He warned us that if he should run into the snake that came OUT of the skin, he would be exiting the attic through the ceiling and not through the ladder that he ascended through.

Productive Friday

The boys spent most of the day on Friday at the house, rewiring the dvd player, tuner/surround sound, and cd player, moving them from the corner of the living room to the new cabinet under the new tv. After deciding what wiring, etc. they would need, they left for the electronics store with mom's credit card.....now that is trust!!!

Jeremy bought a nifty small light for $5 while he was there and it really came in handy. It was hard to keep the pictures from having too much light so I just did the best I could.

Samantha and Brandon had their share of excitement the night before Thanksgiving. Being a pediatrician that sees germ carrying children, Samantha must have picked up a bug from one of them. She couldn't keep a thing down starting at 8 PM, which is bad enough in itself but being 6 months pregnant didn't help at all. They finally made a trip to the emergency room about 2 AM. Samantha got rehydrated with a couple of IV's, and she spent her Thanksgiving Day resting in bed...no turkey for her. But she was feeling much better by Friday evening and we are so thankful for that!!

Brandon spent a lot of time in the attic, which is NOT a good job. He came downstairs, itching from insulation and he had injured his elbow on a nail jutting out from the roof. Poor dear....

I HAD to get a shot of this......Brandon dusting this wall at the house....he wasn't exactly the cleanest kid when he lived at home.....I got the job of playing with Jonathan while they worked.
They did a great job, and we really appreciate them spending their Friday after Thanksgiving working at the house for us. We owe them a dinner.

Sometimes I feel this way.......

Have a good one!!

...and Happy Birthday to my co-worker and fellow photographer, Kit.....

Salado

We left Zabcikville and had breakfast at the Bluebonnet Cafe in Temple. We had a relaxed breakfast, sitting and talking over coffee after we finished, planning where to go next. Our next destination was Salado, a quaint village full of shops and bed/breakfasts.

Another church along the way.

We drove around this time into areas of town we had never been before. They have an amphitheater in a park that we will have to visit some time to see a production. We stopped to walk around and look at these great rock tables. I would LOVE to have one in our backyard!!

We walked through several of the shops, even bought a couple of Christmas gifts.

One of the shops had a fountain/fish pond out front........And in the back of the shop, they had this bird aviary. There were two small gray doves and a white one. Wonder if they would just let me live at this shop???? Remember, we are on the motorcycle. It is cool but getting warmer by the minute so we stopped on our way into Salado and bought some ice and zip lock bags to keep our meat purchases cool in the trunk. And we had to do some fancy arranging to get our Christmas purchases packed in it as well. But when we left, everything was snugly in place.

We drove on to Round Rock, thinking we would drop in on the kids (we KNEW they would love that) but they fooled us by already being here in town for the holiday. We went home through Georgetown, Walburg, and Bartlett, small towns along the way back. At one point, we got back on the interstate but luckily, at that point, we only had about 30 miles to get home. The traffic was starting to get bad.

It was by far one of the funnest and laid back days we have had in a long time!!!

Zabcikville

OK, try to pronounce that!! On our bike trip, we headed south to Lott and then were planning to go to Temple to eat breakfast. I have heard of Zabcikville for years but never been there. The town is renowned for a large, locally owned meat market. There are only two building there, one a deserted gas station and the other is the meat market/restaurant. Jack Zabcik founded the town with other Czech families and the 1990 census reported less than 40 people call Zabcikville home. But I can tell you one thing, when we got to the meat market/restaurant around 9:15AM, there were at least 20 people waiting in line!!

I have never seen to many types of sausage. Supposedly there are 14 varieties, not to mention the homemade bread and kolaches, peppered bacons, steaks, and about anything you could want that comes from a cow or hog. It took us a while to decide what we wanted plus standing in line.

I LOVE sausage so it was very hard to make a choice. We finally decided on jalapeno sausage for the grill, thick sliced peppered bacon, garlic bacon, dried sausage, and the small dried sausage sticks like you can get at gas stations except these were much cheaper!!

We didn't get any of the cheese but it looked yummy!!

I had to use all my willpower not to get one of these. But I knew we were heading on to get breakfast. Yum!!Greg had to stand in line a while to pay for the goods but it was totally worth it. He opened the package of dried beef sticks before we got back on the motorcycle.

Greg says we will be making trips to Zabcikville on a regular basis.......

Thanksgiving Eve

I took the day off on Wednesday and we had no real plans other than to spend the day together. We headed out on the motorcycle. It was a bit cool at first, and the skies were overcast.

There are so many quaint little churches out in the country.

And country people are very patriotic.

I love the old churches with cemeteries beside them. I only wish we had the time to stop at them all and look through them. I always wonder about the lives of the people at rest there.

Busy Saturday......sort of....

Today dawned cloudy and cool. Greg had two basketball games to referee at Robinson, and then mid-afternoon, he had to change gears and officiate a couple of girls ASA softball games. I went up to the game for a while to watch. Then I went back home.

Marci and Jeremy brought Jonathan by for me to watch while they did some shopping, planning to look for a new Christmas tree. While they were gone, I started a big pot of chili and then took Jonathan by to see his great-grandmother, then back home for his bottle. I had a few things I needed at the grocery store so we ran to get them. I had kinda forgotten how it is to hold a baby and shop.......but he was really good. When we got back, he played on the floor, cooing and sometimes screeching. He has become very vocal.
In the car seat, ready to go.

Greg got home from his games a bit after 6, and we had some nice, spicy chili for dinner. We even watched a couple of pretty decent movies on tv. It was really a nice, laid back sort of Saturday.

Saturday

Surprise!! Greg's basketball games got cancelled so we had a free day. I suggested we go downtown to Lolita's and have a mexican breakfast. We both got huevos rancheros, with two fried eggs, potato chunks, bacon, refried beans, and flour tortillas. I didn't move fast enough for a before picture but I got this after picture. Greg didn't like his breakfast at all!!!!!

Then we went just a few blocks to see Tito, Greg's barber. THAT didn't take long..... :)

Turns out, Texas A&M is in town to play football against Baylor. It is an Aggie tradition for the corps to march through downtown. They stretched for blocks and blocks.

Finally, the band.

Tubas

The mounted corps.

Once the parade was over, we stopped at Ninfas and had lunch. This time, I snapped off a picture in the midst of the meal, spinach enchiladas.

Later, we hit a couple of home improvement stores, Academy and Sports Authority, and finally the grocery store. It has been a full day. Maybe we will go get Mexican food for supper..... :) And better yet, Baylor beat A&M!! Sic em, bears!!!

Zow!!

I feel like the fuel police. This is at another truck stop that is on my way to work.....

What was I thinking?

Greg asked me a couple of weeks ago if I could help chaperone a field trip for his kids. I was thinking "great, I can take the day off from work". Then last Thursday it dawned on me. "Your field trip doesn't happen to be next Tuesday, the 11th, does it?" Yep, you guessed it. I spent my day off with a bunch of 5th graders at the symphony. Although I really did enjoy it. It was the Baylor Symphony and the music had an "animal" theme.

This little gal is a cutie. She told me that Greg told them that I was a good cook (sounds like he prompted them well on what to say). She told Greg "your wife is nice" on the way out the door. I am not sure what this symbol means but I have noticed that all the kids do it when posing for pictures.

The Baylor dance group joined the Symphony, all dressed as an animal, similar to productions of Lion King that I have seen on tv.

The Baylor Bear came out to join this young man as he played the bassoon.

Waco Hall on Baylor campus holds 2,200 and I think it was packed to capacity with kids and teachers.

This young man was all too happy to pose and make faces for me. This was his "mad" face.

More requests for pictures in the bus on the way home.

Veterans Day

A special thanks to our military serving here and all over the world, past and present. God bless them all!!

This dapper young man is my dad. He was a veteran of World War II, serving in the US Army. Dad didn't talk a lot to us about his time in the military. I do remember him talking about being in Italy and marching all over that country.
Thanks, dad, for the sacrifices you made for our country.......and the ones you made for me!