Special Events: Our Horses • House Addition • Mustangs 2008/09 • Mustangs 2007/08 • Mustangs 2006/07 • Summer Vacation 2011 • Family Traditions

So we made our first visit to the new Bucee's that opened in Terrell this month. Its a huge gas station/quick mart/travel center that's become a big hit on Texas highways. You know what you're going to get there - food, gas, clean bathrooms, snacks or drinks, and some shopping. I enjoyed the BBQ sandwich we had and some of the items they have for sale are neat (but expensive). Its an experience, you should try it!

After DSM we headed over to Mesquite to Buca de Pepo's for a Father's Day dinner with all the kids. In the morning. Everyone was able to make it and given the size of our group, Buca is a good place for us. its family style dining and the food is pretty good. I got a Rush lunchbox for Father's Day - who could ask for me. Its always fun when we can get everyone together - wish we could do it more.

We spent the night at Hadie's house last night and after breakfast in the morning, we headed for Fair Park to see DSM"s Cinderella with Ken and Hadie. Jack and Erik and the kids met us as well given everyone wants to see Cinderella. This was the Rogers and Hammerstein version, not the Disney version so there were some differences. Its a timeless story and was well acted - I think everyone enjoyed the show.

This weekend we went up to Kalyn and Sean's house to participate in a Laotian wedding ceremony arranged by Mrs. Maloney. Kalyn had a special dress that was hand made by Sean's grandmother for this occasion. The ceremony was a traditional Laotian wedding, with prayer's and the tyeing of strings and blessings on the new couple. It was pretty neat to see how different cultures help celebrate these events. We had some really good authentic food as well and like with the wedding a couple weeks ago, everyone had a good time which is what's most important. Thank you Southara for arranging this!

Charlie attended a summer robotics camp at school this week. Mr. Munz hosts this every summer for the kids and they really enjoy it. Most of the work is done with Legos Technics using their motorized gadgets and remote control capabilities. The kids had to build a unit that had to follow a program and perform some specific activities - I believe that Charlie's team was able to complete the tasks that were assigned to them. In any case, I think he had a blast - he really enjoys Legos.

Monday morning we gathered at the hotel and pent the morning in the hotel lobby area opening presents. Sean and Kalyn made out pretty good - and should be well stocked for their house hold. Several members of the immediate family were able to join us which was nice. A little after lunch, we packed things up, and everyone headed for home to recouporate and get back to normal business. it was a long weekend, but it was fun - good memories...

We finally gathered up photos that everyone attending the reception took and some from the ceremony as well. Here's some additional insights into Sean and Kalyn's day - it was a nice party to celebrate their union after a year of planning.

The day finally arrived for the wedding. Melody, Mom and I spent the last two days running around making the final arrangements for food pickup, drinks, and a few last minute things. There always seems to be something to do. We got up early in the morning and headed over to Hollow Hill to decorate with Lynn and Wendy, - the table decorations came out great - I think they were exactly what Kalyn was looking for. We spent all morning prepping the barn, and general setup, Kalyn and her entourage went to the hen house for prepping - hair, makeup, getting dressed. Sean and his crew went to the bunk house and did the same. I tried to take some picture throughout the day - and the photographer showed up and took some as well. Things were hectic, but we got things set up, we all got dressed and prepared, and it was show time. The weather looked like it might be an issue with a quick shower coming through about 2 hours prior to the ceremony, but as luck would have it, the clouds cleared and things were fine. The ceremony was simple, just like Sean and Kalyn wanted, and then it was time to celebrate, with a happy hour in the old town area, and the dinner setup in the barn. I have to say, the day was a blur, things happened so fast. I think everyone had a good time which is what matters - a good start to Kalyn and Sean's life together.

Tonight we went to the venue Hollow Hill Farm to do a walk through for the cerimony and have Sean and Kalyn pick out their location for the setup under the trees. We weren't well organized, but we got through the walk thru, introduced people, and walked around the place to get people familiar with the venue. Afterwards, we headed for Joe T's to have dinner which was great. This was our first time at Joe T's and the food was really good. 3 days and counting until the event, I think everything is set - we'll see how we do...

Saturday night Kalyn had her bachelorette party at Billy Bob's in Fort Worth. Bethany, Hadie, and a couple of Kalyn's friends plus Melody and I spent the evening with her to watch Clint Black and celebrate. This was my first time at Billy Bob's which was interesting. Ahead of the show, we stopped in at a small cafe off of the Stockyards Blvd and had dinner. There was plenty of music, and dancing for everyone. Good time saying goodbye to Kalyn's single days...

Haley has been working on her bug collection for the last month or so, collecting whatever bugs she could find, asking others to collect anything they could find, etc. This weekend she put it all together to turn in next week. This is quite a bit of work to assemble all this and not destroy the bugs in the pinning process (which I almost did). Overall, I think she had a pretty good collection, bugs were not easy to find this Spring for some reason, maybe all the rain was a factor. Good job Haley!

So we sprung a water leak in the PVC piping over the Easter weekend, and after getting that repaired, we decided to go ahead and remove the copper plumbing from the house and change over to PEX. The copper line is over 20 years old and is starting to go soft in areas so it seemed like the right time to do this. The plumber changed out all the lines and stops in the older part of the house to PEX which took about 3 weekends to complete. Due to the leak, the floor in the living room raised up as well due to the moisture so I had to have it repaired as well. Now that we've switched everything out, I hope we won't have any plumbing issues for a long time.

The chickens are growing fast so its time to get the coop and run put together. There was no real documentation provided with this coop so I had to try and figure it out from scratch. The company said if I provided some pictures of my assembly process, they would compensate me (and they did with a Amazon card). It took a couple hours and with Charlie's help, we got the run together that attached to the coop. Now we'll need to move it to field and set it up - the chickens will be ready for it soon.

Rodie brought over the sprayer to weed and feed the pasture and did some brush hogging. Charlie wanted to ride on the tractor and ended up doing a lot of the work by himself. Just like a real farmer out there...

Spring has to be my favorite time of the year - I love to work in the yard and get the planters ready, put out the hummingbird feeders and bird feeders, and enjoy time on the patio. We've had quite a bit of rain this spring so things are really off to a good growing season. I built a strawberry patch out of rain gutters from a pinterest project I saw - we'll see how they do. Soon the garden will be in and we'll really start the growing season.

Last weekend Haley had her last meet for the year in in Allen, TX. Unfortunately, they (the team) were just competing against themselves again which has been the case far too many times this year for them. Haley did well, but scored lower than her average for some of the events. Next year they plan to change their competing strategy and attend more non-ASI based meets where they will have actual competition since other teams at their level will be there. Congrats Haley on another season of improvement, learning new things and continuing to grow!

The chicks were moved to the Chicken Inn and Moose was immediately attracted to them. They could get face to face through the wire - I was worried that Moose when end up getting his eyes pecked but it never happened. He's just really curious about them. Every-time he goes out he has to check for them and see what's going on. He's so curious, he ended up getting in the cage so he could see what's its like from their vantage point.

So I've had the chickens now for almost a month, and I needed to get some sort of temporary run to house them until their real coop arrives and is set up for the long term. I was going to look at TSC for one of these kits. Rodie found something on Craig's list and sent it to me - I was really smitten with this idea and went to see it. A guy had taken an old armiore and removed the glass or wood paneling from the door frame to open up the interior. and added chicken wire. There is a shelf in the middle, and he cut a hole and added a ramp like a coop would have. He added a feeder, and a bar to hang a water bottle from as well plus a hole for a heat lamp. A unique setup for housing smaller chickens or similar - he called it a Chick coop. I call it The Chicken Inn. Its a fun way to watch and train these guys for then they go into their real coop which should be in about 3 more weeks. I may raise another batch of chicks in it next, not sure yet - we'll see...

Given we've had a wet winter and early spring this year, plants are off to a great start this year. In paticular, our wisteria bush took off like gang busters with the most blooms I've seen in years. Bumble bees were all over it for about a week before it started leafing out. All the other flowers are also taking off, the roses, iris, daiseys, and flowering trees. We're slowly adding more plants to the patio for this year's retreat location. I've also adding mood lighting to my fish fountain for further evening enjoyment. Last week, we had the herd of white tailed deer cross the pasture like they do some times. There were about 8 deer if I counted right. Its that time of year...

Last Sunday we took Rodie to see the DSM show, The Illusionists, a stage production slight of hand, magic show. There were seven different performers, each with thier own specialty of magic or trick - the futurist, the hunter, the trixster, the anarkist, the inventor I believe were all their names. Overall, the show was really good, some good tricks and slight of hand work no doubt. PLus the added humor they through in was pretty good. They took people from the audience to help with the show which was very entertaining, and some of the tricks like the Houdini escape from the water tank was pretty cool. Not your traditional show for a play series but still, it was really entertaining and enjoyable.

We headed back to Nocona to watch the second game for Charlie's All-star team vs. the Buffalo TX Bisons. This was a much closer game than the previous game, but as the game wore on, defense and lack of scoring cost the Mustangs. Things were close in the 1st half, but as the second half started, the Bisons started pulling away. Charlie played in the second and 4th quarters, but was unable to contribute to the scoring effort either. They ended up losing 28-17. This was their 2nd loss so the Mustangs were eliminated. Overall I think it was a good experience for the boys for the future, they will now know what to expect for next season. After the game, we drove back to Henrietta and stopped at the local Dairy Queen to drown our sorrows in chicken strips and blizzards. It helped :-)

After Charlie's early morning game we decided to poke around town and see what Nocona had to offer. I spotted some billboard artwork on the sides of a building and stopped to take some pictures. We then proceeded to locate the famous Nocona Leather Factory - know for Nocona baseball gloves. We found it and investigated, but on-line they said they only did tours on certain days so we thought we were out of luck. Fortunately, while I was wondering around their lobby and display cases with historical gloves and such, I overheard a gentleman mention they were going on a tour. It turns out, due to the events in the town this week, they were giving free tours this week - Score! We got to tour the factory and see how a baseball glove is created, it was really neat to see. Afterwards, we walked down the main street and stopped in at a steakhouse for lunch that some locals recommended. We then visited the Horton Auto Museum down the street and saw a collection of old American made cars, in particular a extensive collection of corvettes, pretty nice collection. Horton's is expanding and will have a bigger showroom for their collection later this year - we'll need to make another trip sometime to see more of their cars. Afterwards, we drove back to the hotel in Henrietta to rest for the afternoon before Charlie's next game at 6pm.

So this week we traveled to Nocona, TX to attend the Lit'l Dribbler's National (Continental League) Tournament for Charlie's All-Star team. We stayed in Henrietta, which is only about 30 mins away. Nocona is a small town well know for Nocona Boots and baseball gloves. They host this tournament every year for the championships. Charlie's 1st game was against the Anderson Chiro Owls (not exactly sure where they were from) in the early morning and the Mustangs got off to rough start and found themselves behind from the beginning. Defense was lacking and the team had a hard time breaking down the Owl's defense. As the game progressed, Charlie got playing time and did ok for his first time being a part of this. He even got fouled in the 3rd quarter and got to shoot 2 free throws - making one of them. In the end, the Mustangs lost by 12 and headed for the loser bracket, to play again around 6pm. This is a double-elimination tournament so every game from here on out needs to be a win or you go home. To kill some time, we decided to wander around Nocona and see what's going on.

Easter was a quiet one at home this year, with Kalyn and Sean staying over after the bridal shower. Jack brought Charlie and Haley over to help with the Easter egg coloring, and we watch the Final 4 basketball game where Wisconsin beat undefeated Kentucky to reach the championship game. We went to bed early for the Easter Bunny who left some goodies on the table for Charlie and Haley. Some of the family stopped by in the afternoon and evening for a Ham dinner and Mom made the traditional Easter cakes for all the little kids. Unfortunately, we couldn't get all the kids together at the same time this year but it was still good to see everyone. Happy Easter!

The kids had Easter at home as well this year, doing their eggs, and cakes, etc. and preparing for the visit of the Big Bunny. They both have taken a liking to the small batham chickens I got a couple weeks back - naming one Bobo and John Luke. From the pictures, it looks like they had a good time and the Easter Bunny was good to them as usual. We'll see them in the afternoon sometime.

Kalyn's friend Cara threw a bridal shower for Kalyn this weekend at our house. About 10 family and friends stopped by to help her celebrate the upcoming event with a kitchen and recipe theme. They had champagne, egg casserole, donuts, rice crispy bars, fruit, etc. Quite a spread for brunch. Guys were not allowed so I don't know all the details, but from the pictures it looks like the ladies had a good time. It was nice to see several of the girls that Kalyn grew up with and went to school with together again. Her class was a good bunch. Now on to the ceremony!

Charlie's 3rd Grade Class had their annual Easter Egg Hunt in the school playground this year. Hundreds of eggs, ripe for the picking. Of course it was a mad scramble, all the kids dashing to get as many into their buckets as possible. Its one of the fun traditions that the school still honors for the lower grades and the kids always have a good time. They had a easter party afterwards I believe as well. Happy Easter!

Charlie and his All Star team had another warm up game last week to tune up for going to the national (Texas) tournament later in April. The team from Frankston came to the Martins Mill Gym and they played here. Early in the game the Mustangs were leading handily but the team from Frankston started hitting their shots in the second half, and the Mustangs defense faltered allowing too many easy baskets and not enough re-bounding. They have some issues to clean up before they head for Nocona and the tournament.

Sunday we attended the King and I at the Dallas Summer Musicals at Fair Park. I love this story, the movie version is an obvious classic so my hope was that the stage show could hold up to that standard. It was good performance, the lady playing the lead part was great in the role, and the supporting cast did a fine job. They even brought in young local actors to play the parts of the children of the king. But, the gentleman who played the King did not hold up his part as well - I felt it was a weak impression of the King which stood out. Its always fun to see these performances, I'm looking forward to the next one in early April.

The 6 chicks I picked up continue to grow and eat, and now they are getting their feathers. The are beginning to learn how to use their wings to flutter around a little, and they've started eating other things like bugs. Still don't know if we have any roosters yet and they won't be able to stay in the cardboard pen I have them in much longer. I'm going to give them full access to the entire greenhouse once I get all the plants out for the Spring which should be this weekend. They are fun to watch - interesting birds they are!

Last Friday, I came in from the backyard around 4:30pm and found that we had no water to the house - none, zip, done. I speculated that the pump was gone from what I could tell so I called a repair man who said he would be able to come out around 9am the next morning. Ok, no problem, we can make it through the night with 4 bathrooms. he showed up in the morning and yep, the pump would not run. He and I brought the waterline up out of the well and in the process, the line busted (great). History reminds me that this pump was installed way back in the late 90's when we were out here on vacation - I remember working with Russ, Mickey and Marty to pull the line out then and replace it. I estimated the pump has been down there running for about 17 years - not bad given the repairman said their expected life of a pump is about 7 years. I decided to have the whole line rebuilt with new pipe and wiring, upgrading to a slightly more powerful pump in the process. We checked the well stats and found the water level is at 52' ft, the pump line is set at approx. 63' ft., and the bottom of the well is at 70' ft The well pipe is 2-3ft in diameter, so we have about 10 ft of pump-able water capacity which he told me was approx. 2000 gallons. Good to know.

Last Wednesday after school we took Ms. Brantley over to Hollow Hill Farm to see the wedding site. We met up with Kalyn, Sean, and Rena (Sean's cousin) to coordinate with flower needs and discuss how the venue will be set up. There's still some details that need to be finalized but the visual helps the planning for decorating, and now Wendy and Rena know what things will look like. The owners (the Gechters) have continued to tweak the farm more, adding some additional improvements which are always nice to see. More landscaping, siding, more changes in the big barn. They are always doing something it seems. Amazing what changed since we first booked this last year. Once we completed the walk through and discussed the outstanding points with Jean, we headed out for dinner and stopped at Big John's in Weatherford for a hamburger. Then we headed into the night on the long journey home.

We decided last fall that we wanted to plant a bigger corn field this year outside of the containers we use for gardening. We had pretty good luck with the six stalks of corn we tried to grow but they really need to be in the ground and really enjoy it, you need to have more of it. So, we asked Rodie to till up a spot in the pasture near our water outlet so we can tend to it easier. He spent two afternoons out running the tractor and disc over the spot to break of the dirt and grass and create a soft workable location that we should be able to plant in a couple weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing this grow. Maybe it will turn into my Field of Dreams just like Kevin Costner'?

Mom celebrated a quiet birthday at home this year per her request. Everyone either called or came over for cake and ice cream in the evening. She turned 78 this year and is doing great, keeping herself active. If I count right, I think she's up to 12 great grand-children now - wow!

Haley and her team has another competition in Allen this week, the Survivor Challenge. Again, there were no teams at her level there to compete with them so the girls were basically competing against themselves. They all did really well, and got medals and a team trophy. It seems that the ASI teams have all pulled out and are going to other events instead of their own. I've heard Haley's gym squad will be doing the same next year so they have some actual competition.

Last weekend was the Lit'l Dribblers Regional Tournament to determine who gets to go to the National Tournament (Continental Division) in April. Charlie's team had to play 2 games again and won both, earning a bid to the "big dance" so to speak. Since we didn't attend this one (we took Haley to her Gymnastics meet), I'm not exactly sure how he did but I do know he was pretty excited when he got home. He was pretty proud showing off the big trophy they got for 1st place! Congrats Charlie - see you in Nocona!

Last week I got the urge for some chicken - well, chickens. TSC was having their annual Chick Days event where they put out chicks for sale and this year I couldn't resist. I bought 6 of them. I've seen our neighbors with their chickens in their yard and they used to bring by extra eggs during the summers. My goal for these is to produce eggs as well for us. I could see us expanding the flock some as well to get more eggs as time goes on. This is another adventure for sure. Now, I have to get or build a coop for them. Should be interesting...

Charlie's Lit'l Dribbler All-star team had another warm up game this week against the Canton All-stars. it was another rough game for them, with the Eagles jumping out to a large lead and then the Mustangs had to play catchup. Charlie saw more playing time and did pretty well, but they were outmatched. The deficit was too large and they were pretty soft on defense. Hopefully they will continue to show improvement before the tournament starts later this month.

This week was spring break at school so we decided we would take the kids to the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler. Caldwell is a small zoo, and things don't change much. This year the special attraction is the bird walk, where you could go inside the building and feed domestic birds with mullet sticks. Charlie loved it, Haley - not so much, she doesn't like the birds flittering around her head or hands. It was quite funny since each time the worker would go inside the building to get more food, the Cockatoo would start screaming until he returned - they really have them trained. The only other thing we saw out of the usual was the lions were actually active while we were there. The male lion got up and came to the window and interacted with the females - usually they sleep while we visit but this time I got some decent shots of them close up. We had a picnic lunch in the giraffe area as normal, and finished up our visit in the early afternoon - a good way top spend the day!

On Saturday all the kids came over for dinner to celebrate my 50th birthday since my birthday was mid-week, this was the best time we could all get together. Melody ordered a home made cake, and we had a lasagna dinner - my favorite. I had no idea but there had been a plan hatched to have a throwback theme to my birthday this year. Everyone targeted gifts that were from 1965 or that era. It was really neat. I got movies and TV shows from 1965, 1965 facts and figures that outline events and stats from that year, candy, games, toys, vintage cars, silly straws, you name it. I also got a "Dale" call from the Mountain Dew commercial (love that). I had no idea all these things were as old as I am. My cake has a VW bus on it - that was the first car I remember my family had when I was a kid - the green bus! It was a great way to celebrate my birthday with everyone home for the evening - don't get to do that enough. Thank you all for making this a special birthday - I won't soon forget it!

As the groundhog predicted, we continue to have winter weather this season into March. Anther arctic front came down and mixed with a rain storm from the west to produce some snow flurries and ice conditions again. The west side of the metroplex and North Dallas got the worst of the storm, Rick and Kelly got 7 inches up in Lewisville. At our house, we got maybe an inch or so but it accumulated in spots due to the wind from the north. Our patio in particular was pretty deep. Luckily, the front passed quickly and the sun came out early in the day to warm things up so it didn't last long. It was nice to see the snow with blue skies as well. By late afternoon most of the snow was gone and the roads were pretty dry. Not sure if this will be the last, I think we'll get one more cold spell before spring gets here.

On Sunday we headed into Dallas to see the play, Kinky Boots with Ken and Hadie. We met for lunch down in Deep Elum near downtown and had a good Mexican lunch. Then off we headed off to Fair Park for the play. Luckily, the weather wasn't too bad given we've had snow and ice recently. The play was interesting, based on a true story about how a shoe factory was revitalized by changing their product line to something unusual. The leads in the play did a real good job, but at times I had trouble understanding the dialog (sound problems or my hearing, take your pick). In any case, it was an enjoyable adventure.

So Rick and Kelly took more of the brunt of the ice and snow last week. There was enough that they were able to make a small ice mammal (I think it looks like a beaver but you make the call). I really like the part where Rick is mopping the ice from his driveway - shouldn't you use your Zamboni machine for that? lewisville was clocked with 5 inches of snow - way more than we got in East Texas. Glad everyone was able to stay safe and sound through the weather.

So old man winter finally paid us a visit here in Texas. We've had several arctic fronts this season bring very cold temperatures to the area, but we haven't had any precipitation or significant rain accompany it till now. We had an ice storm come through this week followed by some snow. As usual, Dallas was a mess but they prepared for the event better than in the past putting out a salt brine mixture on the roads to help with the freezing. Most things were shut down for a time and people stayed off the roads as much as possible. the Metroplex got the worst of it, out in our neck of the woods we got more of a dusting, maybe an inch of snow total - at least it was enough to cover things so the kids could play in it a little. Didn't last for long - we'll see when the next one hits - groundhog said six more weeks of winter!

On Saturday night, the SJ Sharks played in the NHL Stadium Series game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara (home of the 49ers). Being a Sharks fan, I had to watch this national game. The Stadium series are games staged each year at an outdoor venue, where larger crowds can attend and you have to take the elements into consideration (not so much in California though). it was interesting seeing the field turned into an ice rink and the props all around to show Northern Cal vs. Southern Cal since the Sharks were playing the LA Kings. They had special uniforms for each team, and performers in between each period - kinda like a semi-superbowl. The game was a good one, the Sharks and Kings have a good rivalry going. in the end, the Kings won 2-1 but it was fun getting to see the Sharks play in one of these events. Now I just need to get one of those cool jerseys...

Charlie was invited to join the MM Litl' Dribblers All-star team for his age group this year. 3rd grade is the first year they can compete against other schools in the state tournament. They have been practicing for a couple weeks so this Saturday they traveled to LaPoyner to play their team in a warm-up tournament. This is the first time these boys have played kids from another school I believe and it showed. The Mustangs were on their heels from the start of the game, and Lapoyner never looked back. It was difficult for the team to get any rhythm going, and they struggled to run their offensive plays. The LaPoyner boys were taller and faster it seemed. Everyone got into the game and got some experience. About all you could do is chalk this whole day to experience. They are going to need more practice I think before they start the tournament for real.

This is the first year that Dawn has lived close enough to us to be able to celebrate her birthday. Ben Wheeler is only 8-9 miles away. Victor invited us and Marty and Amy over for dinner and desert to help Dawn mark the occasion. Its always good to be able to get together now we're all in the same vicinity. Plus, who can turn down multiple choices on cheesecake and German chocolate cake!

We spent Valentines Day this year at home, nothing fancy. The kids had a Valentines Day party at school - Charlie's class went to New York (virtually) for their holiday making suit cases to hold all their cards and t-shirts to mark the occasion. After school they dropped off candy, and flowers for Grandma. Melody and I spent the day with a stop at Lowes, picking up rain gutters and strawberries to try and make a hanging planters project. Our narcissus flowers are blooming in the yard - hopefully spring won't be too far away. We had a nice dinner at home, and watched some Valentines movies on Hallmark. Then we switched on NASCAR and had cheesecake and strawberries - a nice way to spend the day.

So Kalyn turned 23 this year and was home the weekend before her birthday. We had dinner, and cake and deserts to celebrate. Unfortunately due to a camera snafu, I did not have my memory card in the camera so I got only a few shots. She was at home on her birthday and went out for dinner and desert with Sean - Happy Birthday Kalyn!

Last weekend we celebrated Mickey's birthday - the big 57. We took him out to dinner for Mexican food and then came back home for cake (or rather pie) and presents. He had razzle berry and chocolate cream - yum yum. As usual, he had plenty of helpers for the presents - its the kids favorite part of the birthdays. Happy Birthday Mickey and here's to many more!

Kelly and Rick traveled down to Houston to see Kelly's sister spend the weekend down south with her family. They also took a trip to the Houston Zoo while they were down there. Here's some excerpts from their visit there - now I want to go down there and see it!

Mom spent the last two weeks with Hadie visiting the kids up in Nebraska. Stella Jane arrived, and Mom got to see Chris and Lisa and the kids as well. This time of year it can get pretty cold up there and the weather didn't disappoint. A couple cold fronts came through and dropped temperatures really low. Last weekend Ken drove up to Omaha on Friday and of course, Saturday night a snow storm came through and dumped several inches of snow right before they were to head for home. Luckily a snow plow came through and they were able to follow it out of Courtney's neighborhood and get to the Interstate. Mom said the snow was all the way through Kansas and finally disappeared in northern Oklahoma. It was a good trip to see great grandkid #16? Do I have that right?

Charlie's Lit'l Dribbler's team participated in the year ending tournament to determine the places for the season. They played two games and won them both - putting their team in 1st Place for the season. They all got trophies! It was a pretty good season for Charlie, he's showing improvement, and his skills are getting better. Still has some work to do if he wants to continue to play but that should come with time. Congratulations Charlie on a great season!

On Saturday Haley had a gymnastics meet in Garland, the "Lights, Camera, Action" meet. Jack and Erik spent the day with Charlie at his basketball tournament and Melody and I went to the gymnastics event. We brought along Haley's friend Katelyn as well for the day. Haley had a good day, scoring well in all her events. She placed 1st in one event, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the others. Overall, her team did very well and scored first place overall as a team. ON the way home we stopped for diner at Jack in the Box and had tacos - yum, yum.

We spent the night at Kalyn's house last night and got to see the new house being built right next to theirs - not much room between the houses :-). We also went out for breakfast this morning at a local small airport diner called the Beacon. Its fun to see the airplanes come in and land and take off while you're eating. This visit we tried the breakfast buffet and its was pretty good. Saw a really sporty two seater airplane on the line as well - must be a high performance plane from the looks of it. Plus there was a rather large prop plan on the line as well - someone flew in the extended family for breakfast I guess...

On Saturday morning, I headed for school and Melody spent time with Rick and Kelly. Kalyn drove over from Fort Worth and they headed for some wedding dress shops to try on some different dresses. They went all over Dallas looking at different dresses with nothing really hitting the mark. They called it a day and I met them in Fort Worth for dinner with Sean and Mr and Mrs. Maloney.

Over the next 2 weekends, there were more shopping trips to try and nail down a dress. Finally, we ended up at David's Bridal and found something that I think fits Kalyn wedding style perfectly. Now for some alterations, and we'll be set. Well, we still need to locate bridesmaids dresses - more shopping it looks like...

Last Friday night we drove into Dallas and met up with Rick and Kelly for a Mavericks game against the Denver Nuggets. It was a good game, with the Mavericks showing off their new guard Rajon Rondo to team up with Dirk and the rest of the crew. Most of the game the Mavericks were out front and the Nuggets really didn't threaten the lead at all. Everyone had a good time. Afterwards we went and spent the night at Rick's since I was schedule to attend an 8am class on Carrolton, about a 15 drive from his house. Plus Melody was planning on spending Saturday in town helping Kalyn shop for a wedding dress.

This week it was time for Courtney to have her baby. The due date was fast approaching and the DR. decided to induce. I believe they were in labor for about 12-15 hours, but on 1/15 - Ms. Stella made her much awaited appearance at 5 lbs. 8oz and 17 inches. Mom, Dad, and sister couldn't be happier. Mom and Hadie are flying up to Omaha in the next couple days for a visit to peek in on Stella. Welcome to the family!

On Saturday evening Haley had a gymnastics meet in Keller, TX. Teams from East Texas Twisters were the only level 4 teams at the meet during this session. They all seemed to do pretty well - but Haley had a small misstep on the Pummle horse where she landed short off the jump (almost hit her back on the horse). This was her first event of the evening and she landed wrong and twisted/sprained her ankle. She continued to participate in the other events and did really well but she was unable to do her floor exercise due to the ankle hurting. Luckily it was only a sprain so she should be back to normal in a few days.

On Saturday Lit'l Dribblers started up for the new year. Melody and I were not able to attend but Jack got some good pictures from the game. So far, the team seems to be showing progress this year and the competition is getting tougher. We'll see how the rest of the season goes...

On Sunday, we had planned to try and have everyone meet in Fort Worth at an outside skating rink so we could do the traditional Xmas ice skating we've tried to keep going and then have everyone meet up at Kalyn's house. The weather wouldn't cooperate. Temperatures were forecast to be in the 30's for the day so we scrapped that plan ahead of time and re-directed to have everyone meet for dinner in Dallas, exchanging our remaining gifts in the process. Given the date and the fact we'd all be together, we decided to celebrate Charlie's birthday as well. We are at the Spaghetti Warehouse in the West End of Dallas. After dinner we had a chocolate chip cookie cake and Charlie opened his presents. Haley also got to open her birthday presents from Rick and Kelly since they couldn't make it to Haley's birthday in December. Then to cap the evening off, we had a Chinese fire-drill exercise moving Christmas gifts from each of the cars to the appropriate other cars in the parking lot while it was freezing outside. We all then went home to open our gifts and "text "everyone picts of process - we're such a 21st century family - really cutting edge don't you think :-) You can see the Xmas picks back in 2014 events.

Happy Birthday Charlie! Sorry we couldn't go skating this year.

We started 2015 by watching the replay of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade as usual. The weather and floats looked especially good this year, it was a little cold and overcast here in Texas. The floats, bands, and flowers brought back some fond memories of California. Following the parade we tuned into the scheduled college football games for the day starting with the Cotton Bowl (our home town game in Arlington, TX). I wanted to see how the first College Football Playoff would turn out - the Rose Bowl hosted Oregon and Florida State, and the Sugar Bowl hosted Alabama and Ohio State. We watched 3 games back to back to back which was a lot of football (thank you Mom and Melody for humoring me all day). The games were OK with Oregon blowing out FSU and Ohio State coming back to beat #1 Alabama which I didn't expect. I thought TCU should have been given the OSU slot at #4 but OSU earned it as it turned out. Now we'll await the Championship game on the 12th!