Mini Vacation

Well Hello Everyone!! Long time no Blog!! What do they say...better late than never. Oh well, I'm blogging again and I hope to do better at it.

Since my last blog...(Halloween), well we have celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas & A New Year. I really don't want to play catch up so I decided just to start my blog with our mini vacation that Lonnie and I took with Kendra and Kaleb this last weekend. 

Kaleb call a couple of weeks ago and invited Lonnie and I to go to Dallas with him. He was in need for a weekend trip and he didn't really want to go by himself. Of course I'm always up for a road trip. I even convinced him to go farther south to Austin. It didn't take much convincing since Kaleb had gone to school just south of Austin from the time he was in the 6th grade till November of his Junior year. He was all excited to be able to visit with some old friends. So it was a done deal. We would leave Thursday night after Lonnie and I got done taking picture's at CLEET  in Ada.

Monday Kendra came and spent the night with us since she was working in Prague and told me that she was going to be able to go! I WAS SUPER EXCITED!! A mini vacation with 2 of my kids!! YES!!

So Thursday night at about 7:30 p.m. we were southbound to Texas!

Kaleb & Kendra

 Since we got such a late start we decided to only drive to Denton and we got rooms there. Friday morning we all got around and grabbed breakfast in the car and headed to Sam Moon in Dallas. I just love this place...if you are a girl and you have been there you know exactly what I mean. Kendra and Kaleb made it in the store before I did but as soon as I walked in I couldn't help but laugh because Kendra was like a kid in a candy shop. She was smiling from ear to ear and she already had her hands full of goodies.

One of Kaleb's requests while in Dallas was to go to Stroker's also known as Ma's Roadhouse. It's the bar site of a mini reality show.

Kaleb & Kendra at Stroker's Dallas

Lonnie & Me 

Kaleb and Ma

We went in and bellied up to the bar and ordered a few drinks.

Kaleb & Kendra

What is a bar experience without a game of pool. So we put the quarter's up and Lonnie and Kaleb decided what they were gonna bet and it was game on!!

Kaleb

Lonnie

And the winner is...KALEB!!

After a few game's of pool we decided to go over to the gift shop so the kids could get a t-shirt and koozie's and look who we found hanging out! Yep it was Bart Simpson! How could we resist?

Kendra & Bart

Lonnie, Bart & Me

Kaleb

After stopping by Stroker's we stopped for fuel before heading farther south and this is what Kaleb came out of the quick stop with for me.

What a Mama's boy. I love this kid!

We made it into Austin early evening. Downtown 6th street was our goal for the evening. Kaleb had been talking with a couple of his buddies that he had gone to school with while we lived there. They agreed to meet us at a restaurant on 6th street for dinner. The only picture's I got of all of them together was on Kaleb's phone so I don't have any to share with you. After dinner we all walked around for a while but Kendra was nursing an ear infection and Lonnie and I ...well Lonnie & I are just plain OLD so we left Kaleb with his friends and we went back to the room to call it a night.

The next day we headed to eat at one of our favorite places when we lived there. Mammacita's Mexican Restaurant. Then it was on to another on of our favorite places while we lived there...The San Marcos Outlet Mall!! We spent several hours there shopping. We bought so much stuff that I wasn't sure how we were gonna get it all in the car, but since I am the organizing queen, we managed just fine.

That evening Wade Bowen was playing at Gruene Hall in Gruene Texas. 

If you have never been to Gruene Texas it is a must! It is so beautiful and peaceful. And how lucky could we get that Wade was playing at the Hall that night! SCORE!! 

The kids had never been there before so we went into the town as soon as we got there and checked it out. Kendra and Kaleb have been interested in wine lately, so we stopped at a winery for some wine tasting. Then it was time to go get our rooms and get all prettied up for the concert. The evening was a total blast. The concert was great, the company was awesome and who can complain about Gruene Hall. Again all the picture's from that night are on Kaleb's phone. I totally failed with the camera job this weekend. Oh well lesson learned.

The next day it was back to Gruene for some lunch and shopping before heading home. And what a way to start a day...with Mimosa's.

Kendra, Kaleb, Me & Lonnie at the Gristmill

Kaleb, Kendra & Me

Lonnie & Me in front of Gruene Hall

Kendra's shopping fun!

Kaleb & Lonnie's shopping fun!

Our final must have stop was to H-E-B Grocery for some Julio's chips and Salsa!!

Our family mini vacation was a SUCCESS! I had such a blast with Lonnie and my kiddo's...I just wish we could have stayed a few more days. I hope everyone had a blessed weekend like I did.

Halloween 2011

Fall has always been my favorite time of the year. The weather is perfect and the colors of fall are the best! Halloween is no exception. I use to love to dress up when I was little and when I became a mom I loved to dress my kids up and take them around town Trick-or-Treating! Heck, I would even dress up with them.

A Halloween tradition that I started when the kids were very little was that I would put on a pot of homemade chili and make cinnamon rolls! Every year they would always look forward to eating before heading out for a night full of Trick-or-Treating. Since I moved to Norman I guess my kiddo's thought the tradition would be broken. Not only could I not break our tradition, I could not go without handing out candy to the little kids. Since we had nothing on the schedule Lonnie and I decided to head to Medford to continue the tradition. Kendra started texting me the day before Halloween saying how much she was going to miss it. Even though my kids are 22, 21 & 19 I just could not disappoint.

Halloween morning I was off for a Wal-Mart run to get everything that I needed for the meal & of course a few bags of candy so that I could hand some out, even though I knew mom would have some. I got the chili in the crock pot and I put the cinnamon rolls on a cookie sheet to rise. At around 3:00 we headed to Medford! 

When I got to mom's I plugged in the chili and popped the rolls in the oven.  

Kendra was a Happy Camper!

It wasn't long after we arrived that the Trick-or-Treater's started arriving.

My mom with my Lil cousin's Brayden & Cayden.

Tommy the cat was not sure about all this Halloween Business!

After the Trick & Treating died down Heidi brought the girls back over and Aunt B came over for some good family time.

Me and my Ky Ky!

We even did a little dancing!

Ky wanted to fly so everyone pitched in to help her out.

Kaleb decided to eat all the leftover candy. I guess you're never to old for Halloween.

I hope everyone had a Happy & Safe Halloween!

Part 2

Ok now for part two of vacation 2011.

After a full day at The Grand Canyon we decided to take a tour of the small town of Williams Arizona. It was such a fun little town full of cool little restaurant's and shops. As we were walking around the town a crowd began to form because they were fixing to have a gun fight in the street. Here are some of the character's that were in the skit.

 What was funny is that when the skit started one of the men was trying to set the scene for all of us..."It was a blistery hot summer day in Williams Arizona in 1834..." then his cell phone rang!!! It was hilarious!

You can see the phone in his hand! It was so funny!

We went on to have dinner and had a few drinks at the bar before calling it a night! 

The next morning it was on to LAS VEGAS!! I had never been there in my 40 years of life. I was super excited to be going. We made absolutely zero reservations for this trip. We just figured that we would go with the flow...Well guess what? The flow was in Las Vegas for Memorial Day weekend! We could not find a room anywhere on the strip:( We finally got a room off the strip that had a shuttle that would take us to the strip for free.

 This was our view from our room...I think the look on my face says it all!

Oh well we had a lot of fun!

There were a lot of first for me on this trip including my first cab ride. 

 The shuttle from the hotel would only take us to the main strip, so in order to go to Freemont Street we had to get a cab. 

I would have to say that my favorite thing about Vegas was the Show's and Freemont Street!

We spent most of our first night on Freemont Street!

 DAY 2 - LAS VEGAS

We decided that since we spent so much time in old Vegas the night before that we would start on the strip on day 2!

This was the largest wine cooler I had ever seen!

And this is what happens when people think that they have the right-of-way!

POOR LONNIE...THAT IS A BIG TIME PARTY FOUL!!!

Ok stay tuned for the rest of my Vegas Trip there is more to come!!

Lost and Found!

Hello all!! I know, I know in my last post I said that I was back in the swing of things and would be back to posting again. Well I'm sorry that seems to have been a little fib. My life is so much different these days. What have I been up to? Well, where do I begin? I got the apartment organized and settled and I love it. Sorry I don't have pictures. Work has been crazy. For those of you who don't know what it is that we do let me inform you. We take picture's! We do weddings, Senior settings, Family session's, & events. Our main focus is on school's. We go to the schools and do their yearbook photo's and class photo's, but we also take Santa with us in the winter and in the Spring we do Spring Pic's. We currently have around 25 - 30 schools so this keeps us very busy. On top of pictures we also do Trophies, T-shirt's and this year was the first year to do our own Yearbooks. Now that school is out we can re-group, get organized again for the fall. This is what I have been doing with my time. Being the organizer that I am my talents are greatly appreciated here not to mention greatly needed. Last night we did pictures for a Daddy/Daughter dance in Moore. Today we did picture's at a golf tournament and tonight we have 2 class reunion's scheduled. Business is Good!!

We decided that as soon as school was out it would be a good time to schedule our vacation. We loaded up in the tahoe on May 25th and headed for Vegas. We just kinda took our time getting there. We spent our first night in Texas.

 The next day it was off to New Mexico and Arizona!

We spent the night in Williams Arizona. The next morning it was up early to catch a train to the Grand Canyon. 

The Train ride was so much fun. They had singing cowboys to keep us entertained and on the ride home we even got robbed by some outlaws. If you have never seen the Grand Canyon you need to at least one time. It is amazing.

Just kidding!!!

 For the sake of a lengthy post I am going to split our vacation up into several posts. Stay tuned for the rest of our trip! 

I'm back and better than ever!

As I mentioned in my earlier post my life has been somewhat under construction! There have been 4 HUGE changes in my life! 

Change #1 - I have recently gotten divorced after being married for 22 years. I am not going to go into detail about the divorce, but I do want to say that marriage is work & and  needs to be cherished by both people. Communication is crucial. Appreciate the person you are with & and  let them know how much you appreciate them everyday. DON'T TAKE THEM FOR GRANTED!!!

Change #2 - I have met a great guy who treats me like a queen! He totally spoils me & and I totally let him! LOL! My children have met him & they tell me they like him. They say all that matters to them is that I am happy & that he treats me good.
Change #3 - I have a new job! I am very excited to get started & get things organized. 
Change # 4 - I moved to Norman, Ok. on Tuesday! I have a lot to do to the apartment & you know me... I will keep you posted on the progress.
I hope that this next statement does not offend anyone...but I have not said one thing in my defense since Chris filed for divorce. This is MY BLOG and this is my chance. Believe me coming from a small town I know how people can focus on other people's hurts and failure's. I just urge you not to judge people. You have no idea what has caused people to make the decisions that they make... and guess what? It is not your job to judge. The only person that I think has the right to judge me and any decisions that I have made is my GOD. I have had a heart to heart with my GOD and  I have asked for forgiveness for all of my sins and it is all between me and him and no one else! I'm sorry again if these statements offend you but these are my true feelings.


Stay tuned to my blog for my new life journey's!

Under Construction

Yes it's true this site is currently under construction. Please be patient with me this site isn't the only thing in my life that is under construction. I will totally explain everything in my next post. Please stay tuned for a new and improved blog! I hope you have a great day!

Christmas at Fosterville!

Every since I was a little girl Christmas was a big thing for our family. My grandma on my mom's side LOVED Christmas. She went all out!!! Back then people just put up a tree and their stockings, not my grandma she put up a tree in the family room and a tree in the den! I absolutely loved it. We also had Santa come to grandma's house on Christmas Eve. I know this might sound weird, but until this day I get this certain smell in the air  and I think...SANTA? I swear I know what Santa smells like! I can't explain it but I know that smell! It's crisp and clean and fresh! Well needless to say the tradition has not faded! My mother as well as myself go all out for Christmas. I put up two large trees and several small trees. I am not really happy with the way these pictures turned out. They don't do the decorations justice but I have not blogged since Thanksgiving and I just wanted to get this done. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us here in Fosterville. Enjoy our home!

And for all of you people with pre-lite trees... BITE ME! I don't have one!
This is my absolute favorite ornament! My Grandma had a whole strand of these Winnie the Pooh lites and I cherish the one that I got. (Yes it is very worn but it is my favorite!)

A few years ago I wanted to add my grandma to my Christmas even though she has pasted so I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a picture ornament for all of the people in our family who have past that we would love to be spending Christmas with if they were here on earth. Here she is... The most beautiful woman I know... My Grandma Marie!

Here is the tree skirt that I made all by myself!

Now here is both sides of the fireplace!

I put greens around everything hanging on the wall.

Even the little pictures on the side tables.

Excuse the Hubs in his regular spot!

Now moving onto the entryway.

Ok here is the kitchen.

That snowman was also my grandma's. It play's Frosty The Snowman! I love it!!!

From our home to yours. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!