December 2009 |
The end of 09 was wild and crazy, not only
did we get a new grandson, we lost a coach,
sold one house, bought another and survived
a blizzard in the panhandle.
We drove north for Christmas and experienced
(note we did not say enjoyed) a white
Christmas. We were
reminded of one of the reasons we love
living down south.
Casey, Lori, Katy and I were having lunch in
Bastrop when we heard the news about Coach
Leach. Katy came to stay for a
few days and with a promise "not to tell
Mama" we let her stay up and watch the New
Year fireworks. |
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2010 has been an amazing, frustrating
and incredibly busy year at our house. Some
of it was self-inflicted, some was poor
planning (according to Micky) and a lot of
it was just how the ball bounced. |
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January |
Colby, Micky and I traveled to San Antonio
for the Red Raider bowl game. We ended
up watching it at Dick's on the Riverwalk
since we had never bought tickets and we
were still dealing with our anger and
frustration over the coaching debacle at Tech.
We moved to our new two-story house where we
discovered Pippen was unable to traverse the
stairs. Her legs were long enough to
make it up the steps but when she tried to
come down - she was too "short
coupled" (Mick's explanation). She has
learned to stay downstairs unless there is
someone willing and able to give her a ride.
Bethany would graduate in May but due to
scheduling and plans we celebrated during
her semester break. We cruised out of
Galveston on a cold wet Saturday and
finally saw the sun in Cozumel on Tuesday.
We enjoyed the time, if not the weather and
watched Bethany turn 23 as her dad educated
her on 401k's, employee benefits and taxes.
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February |
We headed to Bogota to meet and greet the
new grandson and see their new house. We got to attend Nati's 3rd
birthday party at her school and watch
Martin get his first haircut. We still
marvel at delivery by McDonald's. We
came home with a resolve to work on our
Spanish. Sad to say the resolve
dissolved. |
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The weather was atrocious across the area,
but extremely bad in the panhandle where our
folks were housebound repeatedly by ice and
snow. All together now - Al Gore lied! |
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March |
We made our annual trek to Vegas for the
NCAA tournament. The games were
exciting and Vegas is still a great
town (when the sun goes down). George
and Tamara were driving from Canada to Palm
Springs and they came through Vegas for one
night and we got to meet their kids (dogs)
Sam and Annabelle. They are partial to
spoiled white dogs just like we are.
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April |
In April my parents, sister, brother and his
wife met Micky and I in Thackerville.
Joni found an awesome fish fry place
just north of there and we all fell in love
with green tomato relish.
Jim (Mick's brother) retired (again) and he
and his wife moved back to their home in
Tahoka. He is working on his 3rd retirement
- don't know what it is about him and
government work - but he has retired from
the feds, the state and is now working for
the city.
Micky had a Saturday meeting in Lufkin which
is east of here. I rode with him and we went
through a national forest and saw a part of
Texas I had never seen. It was amazing
to realize it was less than two hours from
our house.
We made a trek to the panhandle Easter
weekend and got to see all of the folks.
And we got to meet the new man in Paulette's
life - her dog. He was a tiny ball
of fluff that was too cute for his own good.
Micky came up with the name Raider and it
stuck.
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May |
Katy turned two and our baby girl graduated
from college. Yeah Bethany, a four year
degree in four years. We had a big group in
Corpus for the graduation and met Michael, a
very important young man in Bethany's life.
Katy was not impressed with her first trip
to the beach, the waves kept chasing her.
The end of May we traveled to Florida. We
stopped by Panama City to meet Riley and
Ralph and visited with nieces and their
families. We traveled on to the Orlando
area. We swam in the Atlantic Ocean and
spent some time on the beaches on the Gulf side. We
did not see any tar on the beaches but we
did make a stop at Al Capone's dinner
theater one night.
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June |
In June Marvin and Linda came down to pick
up a very large fountain that our previous
owners had left in the yard. Marvin
was absolutely thrilled to have a very heavy
huge landscape sculpture to haul home,
unload and set up. Linda fancied
us up with a gorgeous door decor, we are
like white trash with class now.
We began to enjoy the luxury of a sprinkler
system and decided to go the next step - and
we bought a riding mower. Micky's
first thought was "the grandkids would love
it." Our 2nd thought was - "Oh
*&@*-
it won't fit through the gate." |
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July |
We made another trip to the panhandle for
Julie's 85th birthday and my parent's 64th
anniversary. We snuck over to
Tulia and forced ourselves to eat chili
rellenos from heaven. We visited with
Uncle Brad at the hospital, it would be
the last time we got to see him.
Our friend Sharon had a cookout for us and it was
great to see some of our friends again.
Raider was a busy puppy. His favorite
pastime was running from Paulette when she
called him.
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August |
This month put my countdown to retirement
under the 2 1/2 year mark. And
yes - there was celebrating.
Jamie finally got his dream job - teaching
history. Natalie transferred to the
school where Jamie is teaching (Yes she is 3
and in school - which is normal in
Colombia.)CRP sign-up kept Micky traveling for
training and meetings and staying late at
the office trying to keep up.
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September |
Yee haw!!! My folks got their land back into
CRP. We celebrated our 18th wedding
anniversary and Katy came for the weekend.
She was very independent "I do it
myself" and then suddenly, "I need help, I
need help, I need help."
Voni and Gary stopped by on their way home
from a doctors visit in Houston. We did the
traditional jalapeno poppers and fajitas.
They are always a good excuse to cook
(and eat) :-)
Uncle Brad passed away, he was the last of
the Seaton brothers.
We faced the football season with a wariness
and (on my part) a lack of enthusiasm. It
took me a lot of years to buy into the Leach
system but I had learned to enjoy the unique
presence of Red Raider football. I was
prepared for and expecting to be
disappointed - and ho hum.
We took a cruise with James and Mendy.
We had gorgeous weather and a great time.
We tried "Windex" in Progresso and spent a
day at the beach in Cozumel. We
laughed, we visited and we tore up the dance
floor. |
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October |
Micky continued to travel with the new CRP
program with trips to Amarillo, Lubbock, San
Angelo, Waco, Austin and many other places.
Too bad he doesn't earn air miles in the
government vehicle.
We
made another trip to Thackerville and met my
folks and Marvin, Linda and Colby. We
planned to eat some green tomato relish -
however we had a little oops and ended up
having to "settle" for fried pies.
I know they weren't as good as Granny Wood's
pies - but we didn't leave a crumb.
And Bethany got a job!!! She said it
wasn't the job of her dreams - but she is
gaining experience and was quickly addicted
to that regular paycheck. |
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November |
We met Bethany at the Centex Hangar Dance
the weekend following Veteran's Day.
As Bethany said, "this might be the coolest
thing we've ever done." People were
dressed in clothes from the 40's, the
Sentimental Journey Orchestra played and
swing dance was king. Dance contest,
seamed stockings and military uniforms -
WOW. Bethany got the autograph of the
sailor in the famous D-Day photograph where
he kissed the girl in Times Square. This is a link to one performance
of the evening.
Bing Crosby
I finished my shopping for the South
American crew. All four have birthdays
between October and January plus Christmas.
Since no package can weigh more than 4.8
pounds (or they charge a huge import tax)
shopping, packing and shipping can get
creative.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday we went to
Hawaii. We tried to convince my
parents to make the trip with us but they had no interest in an 8 hour plane
ride. We spent one whole day at the amazing Peal
Harbor Memorial. We drove around the island,
bought lunch at the shrimp trucks, watched a
surfing competition and enjoyed many
sunrises and sunsets. Our
friends from Canada met us there for part of
the week - making it 4 Novembers in a row
:-) |
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December |
Jamie
turned 40 and his son turned 1 - do the math
- know how old Jamie will be when Martin
graduates!!!! He worked very hard
keeping his birthday a secret from his
students, but somehow they all knew . . . .
hmmmm. Seems Nati announced it on the
school bus. She was very proud
her dad was getting old.
We met Bethany the weekend before
Christmas in Austin at Casey and Lori's.
We ate steaks and homemade apple pie.
We had a video call with Jamie and his crew
and got to sing Happy Birthday to Martin.
The
weekend of Christmas we will be in the
panhandle with our parents and
we are not hoping for a white
Christmas.
Mick's aunt Jerinne and Katy plan to spend
the last few days of 2010 with us as we
welcome 2011 and wonder . . . can the
Pirate really be a Turtle? (If you
don't understand this - you are not a Tech
fan).
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2011 |
We are planning on 2011 being a slower
paced, more relaxing and way less expensive
year. However, Jamie and Luchi and
their kiddos will be here for the month of
July. Also my parents will celebrate
their 65th anniversary on August 1st.
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We will be going back to Vegas in March -
just can't seem to break that habit. Marv
and Linda will meet us there - their first
trip to Sin City. In November we are going to cruise with George and
Tamara, our friends from Canada, to
celebrate my monumental birthday and
honestly - going to do it just because we
can and to make it 5 Novembers in a row. |
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Our folks are aging but they
continue to do so gracefully and with a
sense of humor. Hopefully setting an example
for us. Our kiddos allow us to run and
play - AND if they roll their eyes, they are
kind enough to do so where we can't see it. |
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We are truly blessed with health, home and
happiness. But our greatest blessings
are our wonderful family and amazing friends.
We wish each of you a wonderful holiday
season and a memorable 2011.
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