A little sentimental-Christmas decorating and stuff...

I drug all the boxes down from the attic on Sunday afternoon and all I accomplished was making a big mess. :) Actually Britni usually does the decorating. She has a knack for arranging things and making it look really neat. I worked on the fireplace mantel Monday and Tuesday and it doesn't look half bad. I hung the stockings Wednesday. I have to embroidery Rainey's name on hers and I need to make one for my son-in-law to be. I finally got the tree out of the box on Wednesday night. It is one of the 3 piece prelit trees and I told my husband that it looks pretty good just like it is-without ornaments!! hee hee I worked on my village Tuesday and Wednesday evening. You know I can't quite get finished because there is always something that I need. I need a couple of light bulbs for the village so maybe by Sunday I will have everything together. When the kids were all still at home I would separate their ornaments into a pile for each child and we would turn on Christmas songs and decorate the tree together- maybe even taking a break to drink some hot chocolate or a good old Coca Cola in a Christmas decorated bottle.

My mother loved Christmas- the true meaning and everything about the Christmas season. I remember her bustling around- decorating, shopping for gifts or making homemade gifts (which were the best)and buying ingredients for pies, cakes, candies and the big Christmas meal. So...as I put the tree up by myself I got a little teary- even though she has been gone for 19 years, 4 months, and 5 days- it is the special times that make me miss her as if it were yesterday. She didn't care when we had our Christmas get together as long as all of us were there together and with five of us children with families of our own- that was sometimes hard to do.

One year for Christmas (I was about 5th or 6th grade)- I had seen this outfit in the Sears catalog. It was a white lacey dress with a red sash. Then it had a black skirt that you could actually wear over the dress for a different look and then red corduroy pants where you could have a pant suit. Surely some of you remember the pant suits. :) Well...anyway...when I got up Christmas morning there was the whole 3 piece ensemble. I was so excited and so proud of that outfit. Only years later when I was digging through my mother's box of scraps did I realize that she had made the entire outfit herself. The fabrics were the same as those in the catalog. She was an excellent seamstress and the outfit was perfect. I will never forget that sweet gift- not so much the clothes- but that my mother took the time to get just the right fabric and spent time sewing the outfit at times when I wouldn't see her so that it would be a totally wonderful surprise for me on Christmas morning.

Hi Ho Hi Ho- it's off to work we go

It was back to the grind today. Nineteen school days until the next break. hee hee Today wasn't all bad. I had a grand time rubbing it in to all of my little longhorn students that - yes the Texas Aggies beat the longhorns 38-30. Whoop!!

We have also begun reserving, plotting and planning for the grand event that will take place in June. We were somewhat disappointed when after we had cussed and discussed dates and contacted the church and the florist and the musicians and the receptionists- to find out that the airport is already booked for that day. Anyone know of another building appropriate for a wedding reception? Kylie feels like the activity building at our church is a little small, but we may have to work with it!

SAWED OFF!!

Gig 'em!!
Texas A&M 38 longhorns 30
Whoop!!!

Kylie and Steven are engaged!!

Home Again/Proposal

We are home again after a wonderful Thanksgiving with family. We went to College Station on Tuesday evening and spent the night with Chuck, Britni, Chandler and Rainey. We spent Wednesday running errands around town and trying to fake Kylie out as to where everyone would be headed that evening. Kylie thought that Chuck, Britni and children were headed to Mt. Vernon for the weekend and Robert, Austin and I were headed to El Campo to Robert's mom's. The plan was already in progress for us to meet Steven's parents at Victor's in Katy. Kylie left in the afternoon headed to Katy. The rest of us headed to Katy later that evening- actually about 45 minutes later than intended which meant much stalling had to go on in Katy. We finally arrived at Victor's and met up with Jean and Alan who had told Kylie that they would be attending a surprise anniversary party for some of their friends. Steven and Kylie arrived at Victor's and his mom was outside. She pretended that she didn't know that they were planning on eating at Victor's and then told them to come to the back room to say hello to the anniversary friends. When they opened the door- surprise- we were all there, cameras in hand. Kylie didn't seem to be able to process what was happening until Steven got down on one knee and popped the question. She said YES!! So mark your calendar's for June 28, 2008.

After dinner we headed on to El Campo and spent a couple of days with Robert's family and ate ALOT!! My mother-in-law, Jeanell, Britni, Rainey and myself got up early Friday morming to hit the sales at Walmart. BRRR!! It was cold but it wasn't extremely crowded so we found what we were looking for and then went home to eat breakfast.

Saw 'em off!

Gig 'em, Aggies!!

Myspace Graphics at WishAFriend.com

Kylie and Steven are engaged!!!

Yes- he popped the question last night. It is official- Kylie and Steven are engaged. We met his parents at Victor's (Mexican food restaurant) in Katy and it was a total surprise to Kylie because she thought we were all headed to El Campo to Robert's mom's. hee hee The ring is beautiful. Pictures to come later!

Happy Birthday, Kylie Blair!!!

Our precious gift from God!!

Happy 22nd Birthday, Baby Girl!!

This was one of the best days of my life, 22 years ago for today(November 19th) is our middle daughter's birthday. God gave us such a wonderful gift that we did not deserve - a beautiful baby girl. Kylie Blair is 22 years old. Wow! It really wasn't that long ago that we got her! She was 2 weeks past her due date, but when she decided to come, she came rather quickly!! No time for an epideral. Yikes!! But she was definately worth the wait and the pain.

Kylie will graduate from Texas A&M University (Whoop!) in December and will attend nursing school in the fall. Her plans are to be a labor and delivery nurse.

Kylie Blair, I love you so much precious girl. You are so beautiful, intelligent, determined, head strong, tender hearted, sincere, honest, humble, dedicated, and so much more. You are such a precious gem (Stevie Jym). heehee I hope you have a wonderful day, my princess. I thank God for sending you to me. I am so glad that you are my daughter!! God sent us the very best when he sent us You!!

Grandmother's Club

Now I will tell you about a very important club. Yes- the "Grandmother's Club". I joined several years ago. As a matter of fact it was 4 years 8 months and 17 days ago when a precious blonde haired blue eyed baby boy with velvet skin was born. That was the day that Chandler grabbed ahold of my heart and has not let go. He is so wonderful that it sometimes brings tears! It just keeps getting better. "Granna" sounds so sweet when he says it- sometimes with his hick drawl. :) He'll say "Granna, you want to play with me?" Well, of course I do! That was why I was put on this earth!! We play with cars and trucks mostly and sometimes with his Thomas the train set. Last year for Christmas we gave him a pair of black cowboy boots and some Wrangler jeans. He loves to wear boots and jeans. I dug Austin's little cowboy belt with his name on it out of his baby/little boy storage box and Chandler always wants to wear Austin's belt when he comes. I think he took it home with him this last time.
I love his little feet. I love to get his socks off and kiss them. He thinks that he is getting too old now for me to kiss them but I still try. Robert says I might as well kiss Chandler's feet since I worship the ground he walks on. That Robert- he is a funny and wise old man. I could go on and on and you know I will come back to it. I have two more reasons why I joined the club- one with red hair and then the princess. Britni and the children spent last week with us and when they started to leave last Monday he said "Granna, do you kiss my picture when I'm gone." hee hee I sure do little precious, I sure do!!!

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard

Here goes...

Well, some of my family and friends are doing it- so I thought I might as well give it a shot.

I first would like to say that I have been so blessed- a wonderful husband who has put up with me for 27 years and together we have 2 beautiful daughters and the most handsome son. We also have the most precious grandchildren ever. But I will get into that another time.

I guess I will "save now" and enter my first post in the blog community. Until next time...