Christmas at Mammy & Papa's

We celebrated Christmas this past weekend because Kit, Ashley and Foster came in from Amarillo. Maile, Jeremy and James, Dawn and Gail came over on Sunday for lunch, then in the afternoon we exchanged gifts. It was a delightful time!! I made a "Baby Jesus in the manger" for under the Christmas tree. Both grandkids enjoyed him. It nearly made me cry when Foster (the 2 1/2 year old) said, "He's sleeping on hay." It was worth all the trouble I went to to build the manger and fix it just right!

I made personalized jammies for Foster and James. It was like herding cats, but we finally got a photo of the two of them together in their matching jammies...How cute!!

The toy nativity set was a big hit, too. Both boys played and played with it. (Precious helped!) James kept one eye on the scary stocking hanging just above the stable...

We all had a wonderful time!! Merry Christmas 2009!

Under the weather???

I noticed that on my October blog I was "under the weather". Well, it's the end of November and I've been sick most of the past 3 weeks. It's getting very, very tiring!! Maxey said I'm bound and determined to stay sick until I share it with him...

I was able to fix Thanksgiving Dinner for 8 of us: Maxey and I, Dawn (my sister), Gage (my nephew), Janie (Gage's girlfriend), Jennifer (Janie's niece), Gail (my cousin), and Jeremy (my son-in-law). It was a wonderful day!!

The minute everyone left, I came down with fever and went to bed. It was so extreme that I halucinated all night. It was weird. Friday morning (Black Friday) I was supposed to go shopping with Joyce Lange. I called her at 6:3o and told her I had been sick all night but that the fever had gone away about 4am. I didn't want to share a germ with her. She was so excited about shopping that she wanted to go anyway...as long as I promised not to "kiss her". (No problem!) We had a great time shopping, but I really wasn't myself. The minute we got home, I went to bed. It felt great to lay down!

Whatever this is needs to move on out...SOON!! I'm tired of it!!!!!!!

2009 State Fair of Texas

Last week, Jimmy & Judy McAnarney drove in from Amarillo to spend a few days with us. Judy had never been to the State Fair, so we joined the masses and rode the train last Saturday...on Texas vs OU weekend! It wasn't the best time to attend the fair, but we had a wonderful time. We even stayed to see the closing parade and fireworks. (That was even a first for me!)

Flowers galore!

I've been a little under the weather (translating: confined to the house), so I started looking for something fun to do. I've created the cutest flower pins! They're made out of folded material. They really were fun, so I made a few...

It's a double-decker!!

Our Latest Camping Trip

Joe Poole Lake isn't very far away, but being there makes you feel like you're really on vacation "somewhere". We had a delightful time camping and fishing...even though the fish avoided us. Here are a few of the photos from our weekend:

Busy, busy, busy...

How can I be so busy? I'M RETIRED!!

Dear me, it's been another 2 1/2 months since I posted anything. Time flies when you're having fun! And I'm definitely having fun!

The end of June Maxey and I celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary with a cruise to Alaska. Yes, it was "a little" early, but we wanted to go while we were both young enough to enjoy the trip. It was wonderful. Here are a few photos (which look just like everyone else's photos of their Alaska cruise) plus a few of the flowers we saw while on the trip:

In July things got crazy around here! Maile resigned from her job to stay home with James. That meant that Jeremy, Maile and James could no longer afford their house. They put it up for rent and started looking for an apartment. Meanwhile, we decided it was a good time to have a garage sale. Or two... We gathered all our valuable junk and had a garage sale the middle of July, then another one (with deeper weeding) last weekend. That was fun!!

The house rented in about a week. Maile and Jeremy had a little trouble finding a suitable apartment, but God ran a "one day special" at the Tallows that seemed to be just for them. Yippee! They moved on the 10th, and the renters moved into their house on the 14th. Look how big James is now:

In the meantime, we've decided to redo one of the rooms in our house. I had it full of exercise equipment, but I exercise at the community center and senior citizens' center now. We sold all the exercise equipment last garage sale. I wanted to set up a kid's playroom, but after a few visits from Foster; I realized that kids don't need their own room at Mammy and Papa's house. We might set up another bedroom...or get a longarm quilting machine...or both. Right now I have the room piled up with "stuff" that can't find a home since I sold 4 bookcases last weekend in the garage sale. Oh well...

I've been to a Travis Cottrell concert where my hearing was literally damaged. It was ridiculous how loud that was!! It was physically painful...with lasting ill-effects!

I've been to Canton 1st Monday Trade Days with the ladies of First Baptist Carrollton. We had a delightful day!

Maxey and I were in Amarillo the first week of August. We got to stay one day in Clarendon visiting Maxey's kinfolk; and we stayed a couple of days with my friend Suzanne; we got to visit Maxey's kids and grandkids; Maxey played golf with his buddies while I just goofed off; we stayed with Kit and Ashley 3 days and attended birthday parties for both Kit (30th) and Foster (2nd).

Meanwhile...Maxey and I decided that the pool (which takes up our entire backyard) has been in the way long enough. We are taking it out!!! We have spent the last week and a half tearing out all the beautiful flowerbeds. I gave most of the perennials to Gail, who lives across the alley. I still have 2 shrubs that I can't find homes for. That's so sad! We've stacked all the border bricks til our backs are sore. Maxey disconnected all the water, electricity and gas lines. We're ready! The pool removal people will be here tomorrow morning to demolish and haul all of it off. That's the rule in Carrollton. Nothing can be left in the ground. Then good fill dirt will be brought in, packed down, and topped with about a foot of topsoil. Then we'll have a REAL yard! Yea!! It'll take a year or so for it to look like a yard, but it will be a lot better than a backyard full of water.

I'll try to blog again soon with photos of the removal!! Here are a few photos of our progress so far...