Now Who Feels OLD ????

I was in Ft. Worth over the weekend with Marlie and her family and our middle daughter Amy.  We had a great time playing with Marlie's little boys and just hanging out.  Sunday and Monday were rainy and cold, but it didn't dampen our spirits.  On Saturday, we met Catherine Bowen for brunch.  She is just finishing her first year at TCU.  Why is this important for you to know?  Because both the girls were Catherine's nannies in Harlingen MANY years ago.  Amy took care of her when she was a baby and young toddler and Marlie had her as a pre-schooler.  Catherine was a flower girl in Amy's wedding when she was about 3  years old.  It always makes me feel old when I see the kids I taught all grown up with kids, but I am better now that my own kids are beginning to have to deal with the same feelings.  Oh, and Catherine's brother Zachary, aka Chandler Bowen, who the girls also nannied, is GRADUATING from college this weekend.

Baby Aaron, 11 weeks,  Marlie,
Catherine,  and Amy.

There's A Monster in My House !!!!

My Grandmother Looney taught me to sew when I was in grade school.  I have always loved it and have done quite a bit over the years.  At first it was mostly clothing, then home decorating  and baby gifts were added to the mix.  About 8 years ago I made 3 quilts.  There were actual directions and a pattern to one of them (king size), and the other 2 were t-shirt quilts made from Marlie's high school athletic shirts and her college sorority shirts.  It was fun, but I didn't get hooked.  In fact, I made the statement that I made one to prove that I could and didn't intend to do it again.  Well.....

Beachin'

Dottie

I obviously mis-spoke.  At a recent Ladies Luncheon here at "The Home", we had the pleasure of hearing one of our neighbors talk about her quilts.  She brought many beautiful ones with her and we were all duly impressed.  After lunch she asked if anyone would be interested  in lessons and I signed up.  It only took one lesson and there it was.....the monster in my house.  I am hooked! SOAP helped me rearrange the middle bedroom so I could leave my sewing machine set up and my mess left out.   Don't worry, I am still addicted to Words with Friends too.  My iPad and phone are always nearby so I can play while I sew.

Marty Kratz is the one responsible for my new addiction.  She and her husband Art are a great couple. Marty is a great teacher and such a fun person. Art is a fantastic artist.  His watercolors are so beautiful and filled with great detail. You would never know that he is legally blind.   They both teach their  special talents in their home 2 days a week.  At every lesson she shows me a new technique and I can't wait to learn the next one this week.  

I am determined to make eleven this year.  That is one for SOAP, one for each grandchild, and one for each child.  SOAP better get a second job 'cause this is going to get expensive.  Oh, I forgot to mention the new sewing machine I 'NEEDED'.  Thankfully he has become quite the housekeeper because I am just too busy now.  

Fun Long Weekend

On the 18th, brave Marlie loaded a toddler and a five week old baby into her SUV and came to visit. Logan had a DVD player and snacks and was set for the long trip.  Aaron only woke up once to be fed, if you don't count the final leg across Loop 1604 to get to our house.  Logan hit the driveway running and Aaron was quickly fed. This was the first time SOAP had seen baby Aaron in person.  He turned out to be a great babysitter.  He and Logan just about drove the tires off the golf cart.

On Saturday we loaded up 2 car seats, a pack and play and many suitcases and drove to McAllen to meet Uncle Phil, Aunt Trish and cousins Lauren and Lenzy.  SOAP was dropped off at the hotel and Marlie and I took the boys and went on to Harlingen to see many old friends.  Farmer Richard and Aunt Cheryl invited us to spend the night at their house.  They have 10 grandchildren and have baby beds as permanent fixtures in 2 bedrooms.  The Keltners, Magees, and Lynn Johnsons all came over for a hastily planned party.  We had such fun and all the grandmothers and wanna be's got a tiny baby 'fix'.  Thanks old friends!

Sunday we did early church at CFC in Harlingen and second service in McAllen.  After lunch, it was back in the car and home to San Antonio.  Marlie and the boys decided to spend a whole day out of the car and stayed over until Tuesday morning.  We had such a good time with them.  SOAP has some pictures he will post on his blog and Marlie probably has some good ones too.  Thanks to Andrew for giving up his family for the weekend.

7th Heaven

Aaron 8 days

Our 7th grandchild, Aaron Robert Thomas, arrived on Friday, Feb.11 at 12:02 pm.  He weighed 8 lb. 6 oz. and was 20 in. long.  He came very quickly and easily, thank goodness.  I made it to the hospital with less than an hour to spare.  He is beautiful and healthy and the family is all doing well.  Mom is feeling fine and up and running.  Dad is an old pro and handles any situation with either boy with ease.  I think the best way to describe Logan is neutral.  He doesn't seem to mind Aaron being around, but isn't very enthusiastic about him either.  Marlie said he asked to be let out of the car a day or so ago when baby Aaron was crying.  I would have paid to see that.  SOAP hasn't met him in person yet, so we are going up this week for some Poppy and Nonny time with the little boys.

Big brother kiss....from a distance

Also this week is the 15th birthday of #2 granddaughter.  Happy Birthday Lauren!!!  

Very Important Visitor

A snack just after arriving

Flat Stanley has come to visit from Mr. Wayne Johnson's Life Skills class in Manor, Texas.  He will be staying with SOAP and I in San Antonio for a while.  During the time he is here he will 'visit' many of the tourist sites in town and report back to the class.  We have already seen the Alamo and the River Walk and shopped for an appropriate outfit to wear to the rodeo.

Hopefully he will be going with us to Ft. Worth VERY soon.  We are anxiously awaiting a call to jump in the car and go for the birth of our 7th grandchild.  Aaron Robert Thomas should be coming any day.  As cold as it is, he would be wise to stay put for a few more days.

Shopping for boots




                                                                                                                                     .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Weekend with the Sisters

Cute rain boots

I am back from a great, but wet and cold weekend in Blanco and Fredricksburg.  The Sisters met on Friday for food, fun, shopping and a little bowling.  We had a fantastic time and I got to see some old friends and make quite a few new ones.  Camping was at Miller Creek RV Park in Blanco.  I would recommend you have a self contained bathroom if you are going in warmer weather and are going to need a shower.  They have a cowboy shower.  That's CO-ED with NO stalls or heat, for the uninformed.  The owner said the women usually wear their bathing suits. Needless to say there were no takers in our group and the gals with newer trailers and bathrooms had a lot of friends.  

After shopping at Fredricksburg Trade Days on Saturday, we invaded the Blanco Bowling Club.  What a hoot!  It's a vintage bowling alley with 6 lanes and pin boys.  The food was the typical yummy bowling alley fare featuring chicken fried steak and hamburgers.  We played 9 pin.  None of us were familiar with the game.  All six on the team get 2 tries to knock down the 9 pins.  I am embarrassed to say how often it took all six of us to get the pins down.  We decided the lanes were so old that they were warped and that our skills, or lack thereof, had nothing to do with the horrible scores.  The pin boys had a pretty easy night.

All but about about 6 of the gals who came

Everyone hooked up and headed home this morning, looking forward to the next trip.
                        

Just in case you missed it....

If you slept through New Year's Day or don't care at all about football, you might not have noticed that TCU won the Rose Bowl.  It was a great game.  The Frogs and Coach Gary Patterson are a class act and certainly deserved this huge win.

Christmas #3

Last Sunday morning we headed to Conifer, Co.  to see our oldest daughter and her family.  The snow was beautiful but I could have used a little more oxygen than you find at 9000+ feet.  SOAP and I had a great time shopping and eating out with the kids and celebrated Chloe's 15th birthday with her on Tuesday.  Chloe got to choose what we did on Tuesday.  Silas got a little tired of hearing "It's not your day".  Wednesday was the boy's day and we ate at the food court in the mall.  They thought the Cheesecake Factory was just too fancy for them.  Conifer is a beautiful little town just a few miles southwest of Denver.  SOAP made me a little nervous driving up the snowy, winding roads but he kept the rental car on the road.  If you get to Conifer visit the Angry Llama Diner and have a hamburger.  The diner is owned by Journey Community Church pastored by our son-in-law.  BTW...no dog sledding this time.  They were all booked up.....really.

Chloe and Amy at the Cheesecake Factory

Silas and Titus

Christmas #2

We spent Christmas with Marlie, Andrew and Logan in Ft. Worth.  Logan understood quite a bit of what was going on, so we really did have fun with him.  He loved looking at the tree and showing us his favorite ornaments.  Christmas morning he was excited about his presents from Santa and more than helpful to the rest of us by opening our presents for us.  After breakfast we bundled up and went to the Gaylord Texan to see their fabulous displays and ICE.  ICE was 9 degrees but the rest of the displays were nice and warm.  Logan was especially thrilled with the trains.   I think a visit to the Gaylord should be on everyone's list of things to do next Christmas season.  It certainly will be on ours.

Inside the Gaylord Texan

Charlie Brown's Christmas all in ICE

Beautiful ICE nativity

Logan would have watched the trains all day

Christmas #1

SOAP and I are doing Christmas in three parts this year.  It just seems easier for us to get to all the kid's houses than for them to all come here.  After all, there are just 2 of us and we travel pretty light.

This weekend we went to McAllen to see Phil, Trish, and the girls.  Lauren and Lenzy opened our presents and Lenz managed to finagle to open another one as well.  She also charmed SOAP into buying her a tiny white dwarf Lions Head bunny.  He is such a pushover where the grandkids are concerned.

At Phil's church this morning we had great home-made tamales and the church was beautifully decorated.  Lauren played and sang during the offering and Lenzy accompanied on bass.  Lauren is all into the performance and the crowd and Lenz is very serious about her playing.  It's hard to believe they are growing up so fast.

Christmas #2 will be with Marlie, Andrew and Logan.  #3 will be with Amy, Michael, Chloe, Titus and Silas in Colorado and may involve some dog sledding. There could be a real story there....

Grandchildren for Dummies

The Dummies books are very accurately titled.  I have read several and not learned much I didn't already know about each subject, except for the one on computers.  Please don't misunderstand. There is a lot to learn from the books, but one usually reads up on subjects they have a real interest in and therefore usually know something about.  I am certain there is some very useful information in the books about Quantum Physics,  Living Vegan, and Raising Chickens, but I really don't give a rat's hairy little behind about any of those subjects.  I do have an interest in grandchildren, and one thing is sure to be found in Grandchildren for Dummies.....although that particular book doesn't actually exist.  That one thing would be found in the first chapter, and that one thing would be that you have to have children before you can get the grandkids.

Well,  SOAP and I have three children.  Chapter one is covered.  Our children are Philip, 40, Amy, 37, and Marlie, 31.  All are married and have my grandchildren.  Phil has two girls, Amy has one girl and two boys, and Marlie has a boy and another boy due in February.  The grandchildren are all pictured in the Halloween blog.  SOAP has pictures of our kids on his blog, but I need to put them in mine as well.  After all, they are the ones that deserve the credit for the grandkids.

Marlie Thomas and Amy Cheshire

                                                  

Philip Corzine

Thanks, kids.

Is E I E I O a Word???????

Hello.  My name is Anne and I'm an addict.  I am officially addicted to Words with Friends.  It's not totally controlling my life.  I still make the bed, sew, cook, run errands and do everything else that has to be done, but the phone is never out of reach.

I have decided to call it continuing education.  Every game ends with a few new words I never dreamed even existed.  Actually, some of them haven't existed for long.  With all new technology comes new words.  The new Urban Dictionary also is full of new 'words'.  And of course there is entomology, zoology, agronomy, astronomy and a bunch of other ologys and onomys that I am not fluent in.  Also, the rules of the English language that we learned when I was in school don't always apply.  It is amazing how many words there are where 'u' doesn't have to follow 'q'.  And there are more 2 letter words than one can even imagine.  Thankfully, you can plug in letters and hit 'play' and if it is a word, off it goes.  If not, you just try till you find one that works.  The education part comes when you look up the weird set of letters that you just scored 38 points for.  Oh, BTW, I got 103 points on a word this week.

Now as Preacher's Wife qua chief cook and bottle washer, I am off to deal with the ort that wasn't shoveled into a maw. Then it will be time to close my eyne and dream of having a groat left over after a trip to Hobby Lobby tomorrow.

Grandchildren at Halloween

Logan as a sweet chicken and Monkey as Himself.

 

Lauren as Herself.  She really wears a mic quite often.

Lenzy as Dark Alice

Chloe the Scarecrow

Titus the Flying Monkey

Silas is obviously not into the Wizard of Oz with the rest of his family.

Lazy weekend

All weekend we have lounged around and watched some sort of ball being thrown, hit, caught, passed, fumbled, shot or dribbled.  SOAP got sick in Albuquerque and even stayed a day longer because he was too miserable to get on the plane and come home.  His appetite is not all the way back yet and his get-up and go has got up and went.  It has been unusually quiet around here.

The TCU game was the highlight of the weekend.  Very late last night we beat UNLV in Las Vegas and remain undefeated.  Two of the previously undefeateds went down earlier in the day and when the BCS polls came out tonight we had been upped to #3.  GO FROGS!!!!

The Rangers looked good yesterday, but tonight was a huge disappointment.  Although baseball games can turn on a dime, I'm not holding my breath.  The Cowboys went down in flames...AGAIN!!!!  The Spurs are doing OK.  Just ask Tony.  He signed a new contract for 50M.  They lost to New Orleans, but we couldn't be too sad because our good friend, Monty Williams, is the new head coach.  Monty is a former Spur and the youngest head coach in the league.  We wish the best for his beautiful family.  Basketball is an extremely long season so it's way too early to worry about the Spurs.

My new favorite game is Words with Friends.  I currently have 5 games going.  Hopefully it will keep my mind sharp.  Certainly it is teaching me new words.  Did you know 'ut' is a word?  I didn't.  Maybe I should look it up and see how I can use it in my next blog.

Lest you think I wasted the entire weekend, there are now three less boxes stacked in the front closet.  What was an enormous pile of  really old family pictures and assorted other memorabilia has now been consolidated into just one box.  Well, one box, a huge trash bag, and a box for each  of the kids.  SURPRISES coming your way soon.....Love, Mom.

Oh, Puhleeze!!!!!!

As if there isn't enough really irritating stuff to read on line this weekend with the election coming up and all, this picture was on line today with a heading about layering this winter without looking bigger.  Does anyone else see a problem with this picture?  I immediately see two major ones.  (1)  If you add these gals sizes together you don't even get a double digit.  (2)  I'm not quite sure a mid-weight jacket and a scarf should be considered layering for a real winter.

Who thinks up  these fashion articles?  I remember one about carrying the really big purses to detract from you hips if you are bottom heavy.  They used super models to illustrate their point in that one too.  Needless to say, I didn't run right out and buy the biggest purse in the store because I OWN A MIRROR!

And what about 'Plus Size' models?  Yes, some are actually a size 14 (not a big girl in my book), but they are also 6 ft. tall and hard as a rock.  Not to mention they are in their 20's.  Where are the gals that look like me and most of my friends?  I want to see what that outfit looks like on Aunt Bea before I order it, including the EasySpirit shoes.

MINE!!!!!!

SOAP is a great guy.  He has been a faithful, loving husband and father and a very good provider for nearly 42 years.  He loves to decorate the house and pays the utmost attention to the yard.  Most women would love to have a man that looked for ways to spend time and money on their home, although I can see the advantage of having a guy that doesn't really have an opinion on the interior decor.  His list of attributes could go on and on,  HOWEVER.......he is still a guy.

I just put him on a plane to Albuquerque, where he will stay until Monday.  That means there will be 2 days and 3 nights that I will have complete possession of the remote control.    Granted it is the weekend and we pretty much agree on the shows to watch.  Of course tonight it will be the Rangers in game 6.  Tomorrow is a day full of college football capped off by TCU vs. Air Force.  GO FROGS!!!!!  But, even if we want to watch the same programs, I would like to watch the whole program without interruption.  Mute, back-up, pause, guide, mute again, surf through commercial, guide again......what is it with men?  I think it's a control issue.  Hence the name 'remote CONTROL'.  The only time I can get my hands on it when he is here is when I notice an entire commercial playing or the guide not changing pages.  When that happens I know he has dozed off and if I am quiet and quick enough I can grab it and keep it until he wakes up for a snack.  It's going to be a quiet and peaceful weekend.  I may even sit in SOAP's recliner.

Whirlwind Social Life

When we first announced that we were downsizing and moving to HCR (Hill Country Retreat), several of our old friends teased us about going to the retirement center.  Many of those friends have visited us here and now can't wait  until they can come join us.

'THE HOME', as I like to call it when SOAP has a senior moment, has a lot to offer.  Just last week we had covered dish dinners on 2 consecutive nights! One night was for our neighborhood, The Parks.  It was to celebrate the end of construction on our 2 streets.  Our house was the second to last to be completed and I can only imagine what the rest of the neighborhood has had to endure over the past year.  The other night was for the entire HCR community to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of HCR.  We had a DJ and as the saying goes, a good time was had by all.   Did you know that one can line dance to big band tunes and 50s oldies?  I must confess that never crossed my mind until last weekend.

Last month I was asked to take a spot as a regular in the 3rd Thursday Neighborhood Bunko group.  Now that's a fun group of ladies.  We take turns hosting and have either appetizers or desserts and then the twelve of us spend 2 hours having a ball yacking and hollering and getting to know each other.   At the end of the night a few of us (not me yet) walk away with a small cash prize.  The gal that I am replacing had already done her hostess duty this year so I don't know when my turn will come.  SOAP and The Boys will have to find somewhere else to be on that night.

Ladies Luncheon is on the second Tuesday.  We usually have a theme and a speaker and table decorations to go along with the theme.  I am on the decorating team.  Each month two of us are in charge of the centerpieces and table settings.  November is my month.  The theme is something about plants you can keep indoors in the winter.  My idea was pots of dead plants since that is what I am best at.  We went with little pots of ivy instead.  This afternoon will be a busy one.  Donna is coming by on her golf cart to pick me up so we can go down to the ballroom and count the clear plastic tableware.

Sounds Like a Politician to Me

I'm sorry.  Did I miss something?  What did SOAP just say that wasn't pretty much a repeat of my first blog?  Was there any new or believable content in his latest blog? Any good stories?  Sounded like a lot of justifying and defensive posturing to me.  As one of the many Sunday morning hosts asked one of the White House staff this past week, "Is that the best you can do"? 

Learner's Permit

Seems like I need to take a course on blogging.  I had some comments that needed approval and didn't realize it.  So sorry.  I'll check more often now that I know where to look.  Also, I haven't gotten the  picture posting process down either, but having SOAP teach me is more than I can deal with without a drink in hand. Since I don't drink more than once a quarter, it could be awhile.  Marlie once asked me a question and when I referred her to her dad, her response was "I don't want to know that much".  That's how I feel.  He has done a great job of learning how to do this stuff  and is amazingly tech savvy for an old guy, but he is not the instructor I want.  Maybe some day I will relate the story of the scene that took place when he tried to teach me how to back up my little trailer.

Bye Bye Birdie

I'll just start by saying that I expressly told SOAP  not to put that gawd awful picture of me on the blog.  Now for the story.  At no time did I ever want to keep the bird.  I hate having birds anywhere near me.  Maybe my parents are to blame.  They let me watch the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" when I was very young and the image of the evil flock has stayed with me.  Birds give me the creeps.  I won't even go into the aviary at the zoo no matter how many of the grandchildren are in there. The only reason I sent SOAP for the cage was to save one of God's creatures from being eaten by a hawk or our neighborhood owl.  That is only slightly more than I would have done for a snake.  I googled how not to let it die on my watch and got rid of it at the first opportunity.