Day Trip to the Metroplex

Dan and I drove to Lewisville Sunday morning for a bar-b-que with some friends. One of his good friends from high school was in town from Michigan, and two of his other good friends from high school were there as well. It was nice to be able to catch up with them since we don't get together as a big group very often. It was also fun seeing all their kids. Between the 3 of them, they have 4 girls, and another one on the way (...which may have put on a little added pressure for Dan and I to get started on the whole 'kid thing').Here are most of us girls minus Kristi, who refused to be photographed 9 months pregnant, and her little girl, Tatum.

After we left there, we headed to the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine. It's a huge hotel on Grapevine Lake. The Dallas Cowboys were hosting a fundraiser for the North Texas Food Bank. We went last year and had such a good time we decided to go back. They had 25 chefs from local restaurants who provided the food. There were also former & current Cowboys players and coaches. They had live music, dancing, a silent auction, and a raffle. It's really fun because the Cowboys players are mingling around just like you are, so you can stop and talk to them. This may not be fascinating to most people, but I rarely get the opportunity to talk to them in a regular conversation setting so I love it! I talked with the wide receivers coach, Ray Sherman, and as you can imagine, he's excited about coaching Dez Bryant! I also gave Deon Anderson, the fullback, a little lecture. He got in some trouble a few months ago with a gun and I reminded him to be good! Hopefully he'll take my advice :)

I was so excited to meet George Teague again. About 10 years ago, I was selected to be on a Cowboys draft special on TV featuring George Teague. I was picked to ask him a question that I submitted, so while most people know him as the player who attacked T.O. on the star at midfield, I remember him from when I was on that TV show.

One of my favorite players, Jason Witten

As always, my husband was great! He isn't as starstruck by the players as I am, so he is very sweet to take my picture with them, hold my purse, hold my drink, and drive me back to Abilene after it was over. It was good to get away because the pressure of giving my 3rd graders their state mandated testing in math and reading this week was starting to get to me. It was nice to be able to spend the day relaxing with my husband, our friends, and of course, my Cowboys!

What's keeping me motivated these days...

These are just a few of the things that are keeping me going these last few weeks of school:

It's finally baseball season! We're looking forward to heading to Arlington for some games as soon as we can (and I'm playing fantasy baseball for the first time...so different from fantasy football, but still fun).
The Cowboys schedule just came out, so now we can start planning our road game trip. After our trip to Kansas City to see them play last year, we decided to make it a yearly tradition. I'm trying to convince my husband if we drive to Houston to see them play the Texans, that technically wouldn't count for the 'official' road trip game since we wouldn't be flying and we could still fly to another away game for the 'official' road trip game. Wish me luck!
Well, have you figured out where we booked our summer trip to yet? If you guessed Maine, you're right! We officially got our plane tickets to Boston. We're flying in there, driving to Kennebunkport, Maine for a few days, and then we'll drive back to Boston and spend some time there before we head home. It seems strange not going to San Diego and while we'll miss it, it'll be fun to try someplace new. I'm looking forward to lots of good seafood and blueberries!
And I get to spend time with this special lady this summer...we've got a big trip to NY planned to visit family and friends. Plus we're hoping to get away to New Mexico for a few days to visit my brother and sister-in-law. We started an annual mother/daughter trip last year and we're continuing it this year. Thank goodness for wonderful husbands who let us take them!

Ahhhhhh, I feel better now. After long days at school in the spring, I need to remind myself of the good things yet to come. And as always, count my many blessings!

Texas Stadium Implosion

I knew this day would eventually come but I still wasn't ready for it. It may have just been a building, but it was filled with so many memories, as cheesy as that may sound. Going to games has been something my dad and I have been doing together for over 10 years. I've seen over 50 games in that stadium, most of them with my dad. Although once I got married, Dan started coming with me as well. I went to some with my brother and even dragged my mom along once.

Last photo in front of the stadium

I wanted to be sure I got in that parking lot when it opened at 2 AM since they were only allowing the first 5,000 cars. So I got there around 10:30 that night. Even though there was already quite a crowd they didn't actually let us in the parking lot until 1:40 AM. The traffic around the stadium was just like game-day traffic. It took me almost 30 minutes to go half a mile. But, I got in the parking lot so it was worth it! The atmosphere was like a tailgate party. Lots of food, drinking, watching big TVs, tents, playing loud music. I tried to get as much sleep as possible in the car knowing I had to drive back to Abilene. My dad knew a guy from his work that was also there so we met up with him around 5:30 for a little bit. After a few donuts we got ready for the implosion. I knew it was going to be difficult to watch, but I didn't know it would be as sad as it was. Oh, and if you're wondering-yes, I cried.

I saw Emmitt Smith break the rushing record, the Triplets get in the Ring of Honor, and George Teague tackle T.O. at midfield when he was taunting the star as a 49er. I saw Troy Aikman's last game. I watched them lose some heartbreakers and win some nailbiters.
I made some new friends in that stadium.I got to be on the field for 2 games.
I had a poster on TV.

Besides seeing my Cowboys play in that stadium, I created so many memories with my dad that I will always cherish. I walked into that stadium for the first time with my dad and I left for the last time with my dad. Now I guess I'll go create some new memories in the new stadium and who knows...maybe 40 years from now I'll be at yet another stadium implosion!

Thanks for the memories, Texas Stadium!

Trips to the Metroplex

This last week was a busy week because I made two trips to the Metroplex within 3 days. My husband took me along again this year to go to a big food show in Ft. Worth. It was on Wednesday at the Ft. Worth Convention Center, and it's just booths upon booths of food samples. I literally ate from when we got there around 11 until we left at 1. He walks around and talks to all the vendors and tries out new items for his restaurant. And me? I just eat everything sweet I can find :) They put us up in a hotel in Sundance Square the night before so we took advantage of the free room and had a nice little mini-vacation. We ate at a restaurant we'd never been to called Reata's. It was really good, and we can't wait to go back soon. They had a patio on the roof that we ate on. It was a nice night and for a moment I felt like I was in San Diego!


Then I headed back to Dallas on Friday for the Texas Stadium implosion. I went to Plano first for a little bit to see my mom. It's been awhile since I'd been home so we had a good time even though we were short on time. We ate at Luby's (a personal favorite of mine even though a lot of people don't like it!) Friday night and did our usual drive-thru McDonald's for an ice cream cone. Then we got up early Saturday for breakfast at Mimi's and lots of shopping. We somehow managed to spend almost 4 hours in Target and Ross alone. I tried to sleep a little when I got home because I knew I had a long night ahead of me but that didn't work out so well. My mom and I had dinner at Fish City Grill. She wanted me to try the Oyster Nachos and Fish Tacos. They were both really good, but I still think my husband's fish tacos at his restaurant are better! Then it was back to McDonald's for one more ice cream cone. I got to see a couple of my favorite boys, Peyton & Paxton, that my mom baby-sits for that night. They are so much fun, and I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had to try to get some sleep before I left for the stadium. It was a good week followed by a good weekend!

3-day weekend

I love 3-day weekends and this one was no exception! Thursday night my parents were in town for the evening so we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. They were on their way to New Mexico to see my brother and sister-in-law, and they decided to spend the night with us to break up the 7-hour drive. After dinner, mom and I did what we do best-went shopping. When we came home we discovered my dad had stopped at Dairy Queen and had got 4 blizzards for all of us. And since my husband's enthusiasm for ice cream is not as high as mine, I got to have his blizzard, too! Don't worry, I didn't eat 2 in one night...I saved the 2nd one for dinner Friday night. It went perfect with these peanut butter cookies I had made and these jelly beans I was stuffing eggs with. :)

Since I didn't have to work on Friday, I met my husband up at the restaurant for a late lunch. I had his fish tacos which were amazing! Then I got my hair cut and went shopping for all the ingredients for Easter dinner.


On Saturday my sister-in-law, Heather, had a cookout out at her place. She lives out in Eula on what I consider a 'tiny farm'. She has chickens, geese, 2 donkeys, a horse, and several dogs and cats. After we ate, my other sister-in-law, Michelle, and I took turns riding the horse. I decided we both needed to buy a horse and take them out there so all 3 of us could ride together. Dan...not so fond of that idea. But I did surprise him by not falling off the horse!

Sunday afternoon we had Dan's family over for Easter dinner. Dan cooked a brisket and I made all of the side dishes and homemade strawberry shortcake & brownies. Michelle brought her dog over and Charlie had a great time with his little dog cousin. We somehow forgot to take pictures of people and got sidetracked by the dogs so these are all I have of Easter dinner.


This 3-day weekend with our families was fun and busy, but we still had time to remember the real meaning of Easter. We are so blessed to be loved by both a God who sacrificed everything for us and an amazing family who love and support us.

What Charlie's been up to

With the exception of the wind, the weather has been really beautiful here lately. So Saturday night as I was getting a few things ready for Easter dinner, I decided to leave the back door open so Charlie could go in and out. I knew he was taking his favorite squeaky ball out there because I could hear it. I decided to go take a break and see what he was doing. This...

....is what I found. Apparently he was trying to bury his squeaky ball (which doesn't make sense because he rarely digs holes). Either way, I thought it was funny even if it did make a hole under my swing. I think the funniest part was when I took the ball away to go wash it off before I would let him bring it back inside. He stood by the sink and cried while I washed it off in the sink. I think he thought I was hurting his precious toy or something. Oh Charlie...he keeps us laughing!