No More Words

...or at least not too many words.

Here is a picture post of events from Spring Break up 'til now (with captions).



Have baseball gear, will travel.


It was cold, overcast, and drizzly.



Cold, overcast, or drizzly...it's Spring Break. We WILL eat outside on the patio and we WILL swim.







Watching movies, reading, relaxing. Sweet Cousins.







Finally, it warmed up enough to ride Sea Doos and swim and blow bubbles in the water.






A boat ride; relaxing for some, but not everyone.


Bloom where you're planted.



Not what I would've planned for Mother's Day, but good nonetheless. See previous caption.


Team swim party.




Hanging around at home, trying to clean the living room rug after our sweet puppy ruined it.


Zac with his hair cut and braces. He looks older.

Time Marches On.

Having a Wonderful Christmas Time

That would be the reason for the lack of posts lately.

By the way, I hate that song I used as my post title. It's one of those tunes that, at first, seems happy and benign, but then wraps itself completely around your brain and chokes it to death, much in the same way a wisteria plant can kill a 100-year old oak tree.

The festivities always begin, for me, with Thanksgiving. I've already told you that this year's Thanksgiving was the best ever. Part of the reason for that was the planning the girls in my family did for our annual trip to Salado, which we ditched, incidentally, for something much, much better. Usually, we go to Salado, in central Texas, north of Austin, for shopping, visiting, dinner at neat restaurants, crazy gift exchanges, game playing, movie watching, Christmas card addressing, shopping and more visiting, always with a few adult beverages mixed in for good measure and extra good visiting.

We wound up going to my aunt's lake house in Marble Falls instead. We did sneak in a little side trip on Thursday to Salado. It was really sad. The stores had hardly anything in them, there were only a few people, the great Mansion restaurant was closed up, and worst of all, the candy store was gone!!!!! They had the coolest candy store, called Sweet Nut Things, with all kinds of old-fashioned and interesting candies like candy cigarettes, bubble gum that looks like pebbles, gummy rats, individually colored m&ms, and lots of neat little toys and doo dads. I think that was the saddest of all for me, that the candy store was gone. We decided we would not go back.

In order to completely change the weekend so as to not compare to Salado, we did some completely different things.The weekend at the lake was almost like a dream. We had snacks, beverages, movies, a gift exchange, a hot tub, lake scenery, MASSAGES, manicures, dinner. Friday night was the official kick-off dinner at a restaurant in MF, Russo's. It was fantastic, I had the pepper-crusted salmon, which was a special of the day. After dinner we went back to the house, not to leave again until Sunday! Long story short, the massage was spectacular, the food/snacks/beverages prodigious, and most-importantly, the company beyond compare. You know, I have lots of girlfriends, but none, anymore, who I'd like to spend the entire weekend with except the girls in my family. Alas, I forgot my camera, so there is no photographic evidence of the revelry! However, Jake did lose his first tooth on Wednesday night after I'd left.



When I left the lake on Sunday, I brought my mom home with me. We had a great trip home. We listened to talk radio and the 70's channel on XM. When we got home, the Christmas lights were decorating the yard and George and the boys had cleaned up the joint. All of the laundry was done--not folded and put away--but done. They'd worked hard for me while I was relaxing all weekend.

George and I, both, worked Monday and Tuesday, so Mom stayed with the kids. We ramped it up into high gear getting ready for Christmas. Mom kept the kids Monday night so George and I could get some shopping done. We were going to get a bunch done on the 11th, but if you've been reading lately, that was Sneaux Day. We got everything finished that night.

The next couple of days were pretty low key. We went grocery shopping Tuesday, went to Christmas Eve services at church Wednesday, had lunch at Piccadilly after church, the boys worked on a gingerbread house kit (well, mostly Jake; Zac got in the picture just to irritate Jake), sent George back to church for the 5:00 service (he had to help serve Communion), and prepared our traditional Christmas Eve buffet.




The buffet came about several years ago, even before Jake was born, I think. We lived in Longview at the time and my mom was with us for Christmas. I was going to fix something nice for Christmas Eve dinner and asked Zac what we should have. He said, "Just make me a buffet of everything that I like." Zac has always been a good eater, so that was a tall order. I pared it down to appetizers: cocktail weenies, chips and salsa, guacamole, tamales, taquitos, veggies and dip, and cheese and crackers. Pair that with sparkling cider for the boys and wine for the adults, and you've got yourself a traditional Christmas Eve feast.



The rest of the night was the usual. The boys went to bed around 9:00, Mom went to bed around 10:00, George and I stayed up all night wrapping presents. At one point, both Zac and Jake wandered into the living room for water. Luckily, Santa hadn't come yet, so nothing was spoiled. When we finally went to bed, we took Zac with us. He was having a hard time sleeping. He tossed and turned and cried all night. He was so anxious that he couldn't sleep and was afraid he would ruin Christmas for Jake because Santa wouldn't come until he fell asleep. All was saved when he finally fell asleep around 3:30! Nice. Three and a half hours of restful sleep. Everyone was up about 7:00.

The rest of the day went as usual. The boys played with the Wii Santa brought, tried on almost all the new clothes they got, and cracked open the new art supplies. George made a delicious lunch of stacked green chile chicken enchiladas-New Mexico style. I took a nap.

Here is a quick picture wrap-up:

Santa calls the boys on Christmas Eve. Yes, Zac believes. As long as you believe, Santa still brings you gifts.



We had been threatening coal for some time with this one.


Zac finally got some American Eagle clothes. We got him that. Santa was NOT taking this credit!


Jake is quite an artist and loves all kinds of art supplies. He also loves his new Old Navy clothes. Santa didn't get to take that credit either.

UpdatePalooza

Since we last spoke, Internet, we've had a lot going on. Lessee, where to begin...

The day after Zac's cross-country meet, George had some surgery on his leg. He had a laser ablation and phlebectomy. Those links only really show pictures of the procedure. I got to watch! Woo Hoo! George didn't mind that I was in there (neither did the doctor). I reminded George that he got to be in on both of my c-sections. George said that he HAD to be there; he had a very important job to do (cutting the cord). Well, in the middle of the laser ablation, the doctor turned to me and asked me to turn up the power on the laser. Good thing I was there.

It really was cool watching. They used these tiny, bent crochet needles to pull out the lower veins. It wasn't bloody or gross. What was funny, though, was about mid-way through, they had to use more anesthetic on the lower leg, after they had already poked a bunch of holes to pull out the vein, and the anesthetic started shooting out of the holes like a fountain.

Anyway, that all went off without a hitch and they were able to do more than they thought.

The kids rode the bus home with their friends. I wasn't so worried about Jake making it to the bus since the teachers make sure the kids get where they're supposed to be, but Zac was different; they just dismiss the kids and they get to their bus. Well, Zac's friend rides bus 30-something, but it's been out of service for about a month, so they've been on a substitute bus. Naturally, when Zac went out to get on with his friend, who is in 8th grade, so they don't see each other when school lets out the regular bus was back and Zac couldn't find it. I got a call from a FRANTIC boy around 2:35. George's procedure had just completed and we were still in Baton Rouge. I called my friend, Tammy, to see if she could go get him, but she was at the gym and didn't have her phone with her. Her father-in-law was at her house, but he was just leaving for a doctor's appointment. I called my co-worker, April, and asked her to close up the office, go get Zac, and take him out to Tammy's house. Of course she did, but while April was on her way, Tammy got the message off her phone, and from her father-in-law and met April at the school to get Zac. April went back to work and Tammy made it home with Zac. He was devastated; he thought he was in trouble for missing the bus. We had to talk him down a bit (I don't know where he gets it), but all was well.

Since the kids were taken care of for a little while, and George and I were in BR, we went down to this industrial supply place to pick up a 55-gallon barrel for the trash can dinner we were doing with our friends on Saturday.

**Side Bar** The trash can dinner was planned right after George scheduled his surgery. The doctor's office said he could resume normal activities the next day after the procedure, so we took it literally. **Close Side Bar**

We got out to Tammy's to pick up the kids and visited for a little bit, then went home. Luckily, Tammy gave us a gallon of gumbo to have for dinner, because right when we drove up, the people who were buying George's jeep pulled up in our drive way. They weren't supposed to be there until Friday, so we didn't have any paper work or anything ready yet. I put the gumbo on to warm up and got to work on the bill of sale. After all of that was finished, we finally sat down to eat at 8:00! I was grateful for the gumbo, otherwise we would've had PB&J for dinner.

I'd like to say that we took it easy on Friday so George could recover a little, but he had some stuff to do at work, so I drove him down there to do that. Then we went to Academy to see about some athletic pants for him to be able to wear more easily than jeans while he has to wear the compression stocking on his leg and also to get some new uniform pants for Jake. There were no pants for Jake, but George got a couple of pair. We had lunch at a seafood place in BR which was pretty good, except the cocktail sauce was too vinegary. I had to work that afternoon, so I dropped George at home so he could relax a little. But only a little.

Okay...I'm back to this and it's now Dec. 2.

Here are the pictures from the trash can dinner.






Resting...but only for a minute.


Who woulda thought eating out of a trash can could be so good???


It was a blast. We got to Chris and Tammy's house around 3:00 and stayed until around 10:00 that night. The food was great and the company was even better!

Next was Thanksgiving. I think it was the best ever. As usual the food was great. My family did not enjoy the chocolate green chile pecan pie, though. I take that back; my cousin Rhett, who just graduated from culinary school, liked it. I'll post some pictures of Thanksgiving at the end.

The best part of that long weekend was all the visiting, planning and fun we all had. Naturally, I'm really only speaking for myself and my family, but it really seemed like everyone had a great time. My brother, his wife, and their brand new not-so-little boy stayed until Friday, as did my sister, her husband, and their not-so-brand-new little boy.

I realized that my grandpa turned 88 this year. I really thought he was only 84 or so. Both ages are really old, but 88 is dangerously close to 90. I'm so grateful for every day that I have with my grandpa. He is THE SWEETEST MAN ON THE PLANET. That is no exaggeration.


When we left the lake from Thanksgiving, we went over to George's brother's house in Kyle. His nephew is a football coach in Mason and their team played in a playoff game Friday night in Kyle. They lost the game, unfortunately. Luckily, his wife is no longer a football widow. I guess they'll gear up for baseball now, but I don't think the practice schedule is quite as intense. It was good to see most of that side of our family. Zac and Jake had an absolute blast playing with their cousins. Actually, I think they're all 2nd cousins. George's nieces and nephews are almost as old as he is, so all of their kids are the same age as ours.

Things have settled back into a routine around here. I've got TONS of laundry to get folded and put away and the house to get cleaned up. I'd like to put up our Christmas decorations this weekend. I'm not doing anything until this house is clean.

Pictures from Thanksgiving:



The newest additions to the family. We seem to grow exponentially each year!


Someone's always got an opinion about something.


Always more than we can eat...and these are just the LEFTOVERS!!