Home Again, Home Again

Texas - the land of big hair and big hats

Gus was thrilled with the hill country hat I brought him

Back home to normalcy?

me, Crystal, and Laurie

Marlyse, Diane, and the guest of honor

3-7-16:  Celebrated Sherry Stone's "almost retirement" tonight with my LEMS peeps.  What fun to get to be with my girls again! And this time there really wasn't too much school talk!  Yay!  More retirement talk than anything.

Sherry and Crystal

yes, Sherry, work DOES suck

yep, normalcy

she seems to be super excited about her new coloring books

it always takes us awhile to get a selfie with all of us facing the cam

finally!

Congrats, Sherry!! I know you're going to totally love retirement.  Maybe we'll cya at some of our camping destinations!

got another dollar bill that is being tracked on Where's George?

tracking info up til now

Lulu checking out the fried pies at Big Jake's

Goosie and me

3-10-16:  The 2 folks above are the main reason we love Texarkana!! Enjoyed a weekday lunch with Gus and Laura.  I could get used to this.

Played Panties tonite with Cranford and Kathey.  The guys beat us --- which is kinda rare.  Sweet little Casey played some church hymns for us afterward.  I think she was trying to make the ladies feel better.  And it worked.

my baby girl and me

3-12-16:  I was invited to Hannah's Sweet 16 bday party tonight.  Really enjoyed hanging with my daughter and getting to see old friends and meeting some new!  Oh, and helping Hannah celebrate her milestone!

Kathy Sellers and me

it's prob been 40 years plus since we'd seen each other

Laura Lee and Amy's dad

my high school friend, Toni Lemley -- who is one of Hannah's grandmas

the beautiful bday girl

Enjoyed the evening.  Thanks for inviting me, Amy!

Cranford is good enough to hear twice in one day

3-13-16:  We joined Edith this afternoon at the Cowhorn Creek church service.  Standing room only! So Kathey and I borrowed a couple of "seats".

Kathey improvising on a place to sit

3-15-16:  We are excited that our good friends, Tom and Dee, have come to Texarkana to spend the week at Shady Pines with us.  And very thankful that we get to spend more time with Bill and Pam now that they've retired.  So while the guys played golf today, Dee and I taught Pam to play Panties at the clubhouse. She caught on fast and now we can look forward to playing when we get together.

Bill and Pam

they SAY they didn't plan the colors they wore today

Tonight, Cranford and Kathy came out and the 6 of us played Panties at the clubhouse.  All 6 of us were more tired than usual.  So we stopped after 4 rounds and didn't even count our points after that 4th round.  And I didn't even think to take pix! Very out of character for me.  haha.  And as further proof, I'd asked David, Cranford, and Kathey to wear AR shirts to make Tom feel "welcome" and I forgot.  I forgot to wear one and I forgot to remind Kathey.  But David and Cran wore theirs, so maybe Tom felt halfway welcome.

Wonderful day with friends and family!

3-17-16:  I introduced Dee to Dressing Gaudy today.  (Or as Edith calls it, Dressing Trashy)  We'd heard while at Hobby Lobby that there was a tornado around DeKalb and New Boston.  And I was getting tornado alerts on my phone.  The above pix showed it heading our way as we headed into the store to shop.

Hail outside Dressing Gaudy

As we were shopping it began to hail.  On the way home the hail was piled up against the side of the road like snow! I couldn't get a pic because I was driving.

But a local friend posted the above pic on facebook, so I am borrowing it.  The guys almost played golf today.  Good thing they cancelled.

3-19-16:  David, Laura and I drove down to Jefferson today.  It's a fun little touristy town that we used to visit occassionally when the kids were growing up.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be a cold, windy day so the shopping wasn't fun.  And because of the recent flooding, the train ride, boat ride, and carriage ride were all out of commission.  So it was a quick trip.

train between Laura and me

As Laura and I were heading toward each other on one of the downtown streets in Jefferson, I was just about to take a pic of her when this train came along.  So we stood there waving between the cars for a long time. LOL

WPS, Tom!

Dee is rocking her Charming Charlie scarf

3-20-16:  Played one final game of Panties with Tom and Dee before they leave tomorrow.  We gave them a "farewell" goody back with some Texarkana memorabilia.  Tom has always given me grief about being from AR.  He worked hard all week to not cross the border into AR.  So it just made sense that he get a pig snout from me.

saying "bye" to my sweet friend

I think we wore Rocky out this week

David and I feel so blessed to have good friends and family who will actually come see us in Texarkana!

Rocky and his friend, Snickers from Shady Pines

Bill Boy texted me this pic of my 5th grade class at Fairview

and 6th grade

little Daniel

Laura and Daniel

3-22-16:  David, Laura, and I went to Little Rock so Laura could do a little shopping.  When we stopped to eat at Chuy's I thought to myself that I needed to text Bill and Pam and see if they were in the vacinity and could join us.  Decided to wait til I ran to the rr and when I came out, there they were!  So we enjoyed lunch with them and Laci's Daniel.

playing "swat Uncle David's hand"

Enjoyed our daytrip with Laura Lee and our lunch with Bill, Pam, and Daniel.

3-24-16:  Woohoo!  Gus finally let me teach him how to play Panties!  And so far he's ahead of me.  It'll take us 2 or 3 visits to finish this game.  He caught on pretty fast and now all our kids can play.  Look out family get-togethers!!

Bethany on the left

3-25-16:  This morning when David and I had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, one of our former students -- Mario Starks -- took care of our check.  How sweet was that?! We always loved that kid.  Afterwards I got to pay it forward a LITTLE bit.  I swapped some stuff at Dressing Gaudy and had a little store credit left over.  Since we'll be leaving town soon, I had them apply it to the lady checking out next to me.  She said, in her best southern accent, "oh, aren't you preeeeeciouuus"?  LOL, Made my day just to hear her say that the way she said it.  I love being back home where people talk right.

Our morning started off so sweetly, and then we rec'd some sad news.  Our fellow volunteer at SLRSP, Shari, called me to let us know that Bethany from the state park headquarters passed away last night.  Tho, she'd been home just 4 days from surgery, the news was shocking because we all thought she was doing well. What a sweet, happy soul she was. RIP, my friend. Blessed to have known you.

3-27-16:  Easter Sunday!  Just before we got up to get ready for church this morning, Edith called and wanted to go to the ER.  She's been feeling poorly and has been weaker than usual.  So she called an ambulance to take her there and I met her up there.  After a morning of tests, they determined the antibiotics she's on are the culprit, but she must stay on them a few more days. But at least it wasn't her pacemaker which is what we thought it might be.  She's going to turn 97 later this year.  So proud of how well she takes care of herself!  She's a trooper for sure.

Laura, David, and Gus

my babies and me

Met Laura and Gus at TaMolly's this evening and had a fun visit with them.  Laura has been packing up today in preparation for another trip to India this week.  She's super excited to get over there where the hubs is.

Lisa and Janet

3-28-16:  Lunch with my college peeps today.  Always fun catching up with these girls!  They make me laugh!

Lisa showing off her new Beatles lunch kit

She'll be going to see Paul McCartney with her son soon.  So she got this new lunch kit for the occassion.  She's a trip!

And Happy 60th to my Bestie, Jerri!  This is the year our graduating class of 1974 turns 60!  Hard to grasp because not too many of us have grown up yet.


3-29-16:  Well, David and I are spending the day on Flightaware.com because today is when Laura heads out.  We can communicate to her when she's in the airports in Dallas and Newark.  But once she takes off for India, it'll be hit and miss until she comes back home.  Email works well and phone calls can happen sporadically. It's great to follow her flights on that app or site and know that they've arrived safely.

Lacey and Joseph

Jakeb and Joseph

James tells me this guy isn't real

Tonite we met Jakeb, Lacey, James, Joseph, and Gus at Amigo Juan's.  This whole month has gone by without us being able to see that busy little family.  Just love this bunch! They are beautiful inside and out.

not their first rodeo

James is steering the lion while Joseph is roaring

love!

We dropped by to say "cya later" to Cranford and Kathey. Wow!  They had a sign up for me!  How special.  Now their daughter, Amy, and her family might've thought it was for them since they were visiting from Idaho.  But.......

why, thank you......thank you very much

notice Cranford got the tops of mine and Kathey's heads even though we were jumping up and down to try to get in it

finally

Kathey pointed out all the hello's and goodbye's they've been dealing with and that happily in Heaven we'll have no more goodbye's.  PTL!

3-30-16:  Laura's flight landed safely in India this morning.  Rocky has been stressed about it.

Said our "cya later" to Edith today.  Always soooo hard leaving this sweet lady. She is truly an inspiration!

Rocky looks pretty content with the attention he's getting from Ava and Chloe

And Emily, Chloe, and Ava came out to visit while David, Gus, and I played some cards.

 Looking forward to seeing our grandkids and other family/friends in Wichita.  Plus we always like to be in Kansas in April for tornado season.  Yikes.  We must start planning a little better.


Have a safe and healthy Spring!


Thomas Jefferson, Lagabhag, and Juan