October 2018

10/31 - Happy Halloween.  This year Kasey was Hermione from Harry Potter and Landon ended up being Jimbo Fisher.  We were going to friends house as usual.  Landon had been invited to another friends house but wasn't sure all the boys were invited.  He wasn't super happy about it.  Anyway, the boys his age were able to go so they went to a friends house to trick or treat and ran around the neighborhood.  They had a good time.

Greg went to FC Dallas game and I walked around with the moms and the girls.  We walked around our neighborhood while the kids got candy.  They brought it back to see what they got and trade a little.  Kasey and I went home so she could get ready for bed.   Then we went to pick Landon up before it got to late.

We had a fun evening with pizza, wine, some candy and kids having fun.

10/30 - What a crazy day.  I got a promotion at work today - it was announced.  I'm very excited about the new challenge.  Near the end of the day I got a message from my mom that my cousin David passed away.   He had cancer, he was the glue that held our family together, he was a great husband, dad, grandfather, uncle etc.  He lived life, he loved to travel, live life to the fullest and enjoy life and family.  I had been trying to decide for a few weeks if I should go visit him just in case, and I waited to long.   I always talk about family being so important, but sometimes I just don't act like it is.  I will regret not prioritizing for a long time.   Sometimes life is hard.

Landon played his last 7th grade football game tonight.  They lost, but Landon got multiple tackles and even caused a fumble.  He also made some blocks on offense that helped the team.  

10/23 - Landon played 3/4 of football game tonight.  They were close to tying the game at the end and ran out of time.

10/21 - We slept in some.  Kasey and I went to lunch at Freebirds, and we might or might not have gone to Grif's for a little dessert.  

That afternoon we went to the salon to get our nails done.   After that we watched some Flash and waited for Landon to get home from campout.

10/20 - We didn't get much done today.   We had lunch at Elkes, then Kasey and I went to do some shoe shopping then some clothes shopping of Kasey and I.  Greg had a friend over to watch football.   We all had some snacks and a drink.   Kasey and I left about 5pm to grab some Laynes and head to Frisco.  It was the opening weekend for the National Soccer Hall of Fame.   To go with it they were having Imagine Dragon concert.  Kasey wasn't sure she wanted to go, but in the end she enjoyed it.  He had some really good messages talking about depression, middle school not being food and struggles in life but important and we are  important.   

It was late and Kasey was tired, but near the end they had a bunch of big balloons and she enjoyed that part.  Good concert, and it was a great night weather wise.

10/19 - I got news today that my role at work was going to change.  I will now be managing multiple teams.  I'm excited about the challenge.

Greg took Landon to headout for his ziplining campout.  I took Kasey and a friend to the Fall Festival.  We ate some dinner, and then the kids went to play.  They didn't really need me so I went to watch them for a while and then i went to help the PTA ladies.  Kasey had so much fun.  Later that night she told me that she hung out with some of the boys, then played with one of the girls in her grade, then hung out with the boys again.  Glad she had fun.

10/14 - We got up to go look for my ring in daylight.  Still nothing.  then we headed to brunch at Ad Hoc in Yountville.  We had yummy bacon and chives waffles and fried chicken.  So good

Then we drove to San Jose to get home.

As we walked to the car, they called from Allora saying they found my ring.  What a relief.

10/13 - We woke up early since we were still on Central time.  We had breakfast at the hotel before heading to Spring Mountain for our library tasting.   We had a tasting with guy named Rick and 2 couples.  We got to taste 2001 and 2010 cabs, and 2005 and 2008 Ellivette.  We enjoyed all of them.  We ended up getting a case, and also decided to get a case of 1/2 bottles - they were 50% off.

We headed back to St Helena and had some lunch at Cook while watching the Aggies.  Luckily the Aggies won.

After lunch, we headed to Allora allotment party.    They had good food and of course wine.   Then they started grape stomping contest.  We were put in random groups.  We were called Agent Orange Crush.  We even had a cheer.  We had to take turns crushing the grapes and holding the bucket/scooping liquid.  I did both, and then realized later that day that my Aggie Ring was gone.  We called the family and they tried to call the grape stomping company.  Greg and I ran back out there before dinner to see if we could find it.  My guess is that it was in the barrel where i was scooping up juice.  We will see 

10/12 - Greg and I scheduled to go to Napa for 2 nights.  Quick trip, but our new big wine fridge is a little bare :)
We got Landon to football, dropped Kasey at a friends house and headed to the airport.

We flew into Oakland - it took forever to get to the car rental.   We started heading North and stopped off at 5 guys for burgers.  We went straight into Napa and headed to Reynolds winery.   They have a great patio, we tried several of their red wines, and a few naughty wines too.

After that we had an appointment at the new Del Dotto Paizza.  They have a very nice lobby with ton of detail, and nice garden in the back with several statues, and some of the caves are done (with hand laid Italian floors).   They even have a granite wine barrel

As we walked up Dave the winemaker was walking in. We talked to him for a minute before heading on our cave tour.  We got to taste several wines including the beast, then headed back for some snacks :)

We were staying in St Helena which was nice so we could walk to dinner.  We had dinner at Cook which was pretty good.

10/9 - Today I took off work to take the kids to the fair.   Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard most of the day.  We decided to venture out to lunch and went to Babes in Frisco.  It was very good even with crazy rain.
We came home and hung out for a little while.   Then we worked on the house some.   I got my craft stuff put up upstairs, and went through 3 boxes of books.   We are making progress.  We also mapped out the middle room upstairs, cleared space for new desk, and Landon cleaned up his legos. 

10/6 - Kasey and I hung out during the day.   We went and had Freebirds with Grammy and Gramps which is always yummy.  Then we both went to get our hair cut which is always nice.

We went in the afternoon to get some Chickfila, then went to pick up Marisa and Emma to go see Taylor Swift concert.   We went down and parked a little early at Jerry World lot 13.   We ate our chick fil a in the car and headed inside.   Jerry World is always impressive.

We got to see Charli XCX and Camila Cabello who were both good and energetic.  Then we got to see Taylor.  She was amazing,  Great performer, and I really like how she would sit back multiple times and just look around and enjoy the experience and audience.   The geek in me really liked the light up bracelets.  She had every person in the stadium wear a light up band.  They were able to change the colors, make patterns, make every other person a different color.  It was very cool.  She said at one point she did it so she could see everyone in the stadium and see when they were swaying or moving to the music.   The colors complemented the colors on the rest of the stage which was really cool

10/5 -  the Boys headed to College station for the weekend after work.  I finished work and went to have dinner with Kasey and Grandma and Pops.  We had yummy mexican food.    Kasey and I snuck in some braums for dessert on the way home.  We hung out with Patch until Kasey went to bed.

10/2 - Landon had football game today.  They lost but played well.  Some of the kids can't play because of grades so Landon played as right tackle on all offensive plays.

September 2018

9/30 - We had first girl scout meeting at the house after the renovation.  Kind of fun.  We had 8 girls and they all pretty much fit on the new couch :)

9/29 - We had a pretty lazy day.  Greg went to Jerry World for A&M vs Arkansas game.  A&M won but tried to lose it a few times.   The kids and I had lunch at home and hung out until daddy got home.   For dinner we went to try an Italian Restaurant that one of Kasey's friends family owns.  Great place!

9/28 - Landon went to a friends house for the evening.  Greg, Kasey and I went to McKinney Oktoberfest.  We had some schnitzel, some gyro with Kasey, some beer and we got Helga's strudel (no Helmets, the kids thought it wasn't as good).  Kasey got to ride a few rides. 

After Oktoberfest we went to where Landon was.  The kids played upstairs and we played some pool downstairs and had a drink with friends.

9/25 - Landon made 2 tackles in his football game, got his name called and the team won their first game.  Go Husky's.

9/11-9/26 - I traveled to China and Taiwan for 2 weeks.   3 countries, 6 cities and 2 weeks of travel for work.  I traveled to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Shenzhen China + Hong Kong + Taipei, Taiwan.  It was a good trip meeting a new team member, getting to know other team members better, working on enabling video more in Asia, tried several new foods and got to see a few sights.

When in China we often try new/different foods.  My family isn't overly interested in hearing about it, but I enjoy trying them an they are usually good.  Here are a few new things I tried this trip - duck feet, duck blood, pig kidney, cow tripe, pig tripe, frog legs, fish eye, pig blood, pig kidney, pig liver.

I was traveling over 2 weekends which was tough on the family and me, during those weekends I got to visit Disneyland in Shanghai and Hong Kong, Zhujiajiao Ancient Chinese town, got to see changing of the guard at a Chiang Kai-shek Memorial hall, & Taipei National Palace Museum.

9/11 - Landon had 2nd football game.  He was captain and got to help with ring toss.  He also got a tackle and caught a pass as well. :)

9/8 - The game was at night and it was supposed to rain all day.  So we stayed in.  Greg cooked breakfast for everyone, we watched some football, the kids played, had a few drinks, brought in BBQ for lunch, and a few people even took naps before we left for the game.

A&M played hard, there were some bad calls and we barely lost the game.  For playing the number 2 team we were still ok with the outcome.

9/7 - We got kids from school and headed to college station for the weekend to see A&M play  Clemson.   We had rented a house, and on the way down got some pizza rolls to eat at the house.  Friends staying with us got there earlier so they went out to dinner.  We enjoyed hanging out having a few drinks that night while kids slept.  

9/6 - finished up getting most middle school kids to pick up their spirit wear - this was a bit of a project.  Just in time to head to Asia.

9/4 - Landon got new desk to go with his bed delivered.

9/2 - Over the weekend I unpacked and put in the hutch all of my knick knacks, we also got several other boxes unpacked and somewhat organized the middle bedroom upstairs.

9/1 - We started the day doing some organizing for Ereckson spirit wear.   A neighborhood friend and her daughter came to help.  We bagged 291 shirts, and only had a few issues :)

That night Greg went to soccer game and kids and I went to dinner with Grammy and Gramps.  We had fun dinner and snuck in dessert :)

they also installed our last ceiling fan.  YEA!  Its been warm in the living room

August 2018

8/30 - We headed to College Station for first A&M game.  We got down there, stopped in Mexia for BBQ, got to College station,  did a little shopping, checked into the hotel and headed to Northgate.  We enjoyed spending some time there.  We headed to the game a bit early to do some more shopping and figure out how the new tickets work.

The game was good, Aggies won, it was kickoff to the Jimbo Era.

8/26 - We tried out a new breakfast place today right by the house.  It was pretty good and cute place.

We came home, Landon worked on school work most of the day.  Kasey and I did research on girl scout stuff for a while.  We took a break, Greg made us fruit smoothies, and kids and I started new Jumanji.  We had girl scout meeting planning activities for this year which is interesting :)

Landon was still working on his project so Greg, Kasey and I went to get some Mexican food.   We came home and finished Jumanji and got kids ready for bed.

8/25 - We worked on the house some, then girl scouts had an event at the natatorium.  The girls had fun swimming, going down the slides, and a few of them jumped off the diving board a few times.

That night Greg got wings and we sat at our new table and used our lazy susan.   We all hung out and watched some M.A.S.H together which is fun. 

8/24 - Kasey had a slumber party with friends.  I got home from work and we took her to her friends house.  They had fun having dinner, doing scavenger hunt, swimming and hanging out.  They didn't sleep much but they really had fun.

Greg and I took Landon to Village Burger Bar for dinner.  A few of Landon's friends were there so he went to sit with them.  Greg and I sat in the corner and a co-worker happened to be there with her family.  It was fun to meet them.

Landon wanted to play fort nite with his friends instead of go somewhere to hang out.   He got to play and Greg and I went to have a drink.

8/19 -  We spent the weekend working on the house some.  I think we have 1 box left in the kitchen.   Our fans arrived but aren't installed.  We are so close but not quite there yet.

8/17 - Today we got plantation shutters and the wine fridge was installed.  It was exciting to see the living room cleaned up so they could put in shutters.

8/16 - Landon had early football for the first time today.  Everyone but Kasey was up at 5:45am.  He headed to school at 6:30 to get ready for practice.  They wore shorts, tshirts and helmets today.  Landon (and several others he said) hated wearing helmets - they are really tight to keep them on.

Kasey loved her 2nd day and seems to be enjoying it.   Her main teacher had lunch with the girls today which is fun.

Floors got finished today - they closed up a few small gaps.   We also got Grandma's piano delivered today.  So much left to do

8/15 - First day of school.  4th and 7th grades, starting the middle school adventure.  Landon ended up wearing nicer shorts and a dry fit tshirt.  Kasey wore unicorn shirt and jean shorts.   They both seemed to have a good day at school.  Landon said it was boring, Kasey had fun with friends.  Landon was pretty lucky and has at least 1 person from his elementary school in each class.

8/8 - Today was a little busy.   I left work early to sell spirit wear at Husky round up (middle school meet the teacher).  I was at the school from 2:30-7pm and luckily was able to sneak away with Landon to walk to his classes and meet his teachers.   After that I went to have a drink with some of the moms.  Some of Landon's teachers were at the place we were having girls night :)

I left there and made it to the end of Landon's last indoor soccer game.   What a night.

8/4 - Today the boys got up early and went to shooting camp with boy scout troop.  

Kasey and I slept in a little and then got ready to go to kindergarten social to meet new families coming in and getting them ready for school.

7/30 - 8/3 - This week I took some time off as we worked on the house.   Kasey got her bed on Wednesday.  She was so excited to finally have a bed.  She was actually giddy as they were installing it.  Thursday worked all day at WW meeting and had a work dinner which was fun with Greek food and wine.  At home they delivered the new desk, upstairs entertainment unit and living room rug.  They also delivered the POD with our boxes and some furniture.

Friday morning the movers came.  It took them 1 hour to move everything from the POD in the house.  Money well spent :)   Kasey got her mattress back and the kids and I spent the afternoon unpacking several boxes upstairs.  Kasey set up and decorated her bed.  She did a great job

A good part of living in the house for a week with not much makes us want to keep the house with more minimum.  We even switched closets this week.  We'll see how this goes

July 2018

7/28 - Landon has scout leadership training so Greg, Kasey and I headed to IKEA.  We got 1 couch for upstairs, but put it downstairs since our main couch isn't in yet.  It was fun putting it together Landon, Greg and I.  Kasey was in bed.

7/27 - Landon went to the eye Dr and determined that its time for him to get contacts.

7/26 - Today we moved home.  After 10 weeks staying with friends and family we got to move back home.  We were extremely lucky to have family in town and get to stay at friends houses while they were on vacation.  At the same time it was really nice to get home.  We had minimal furniture and had to start washing and cleaning just about everything.

Today they partially put in shower glass and Landon's mirror

Patch was also very glad to get home as well even though she was taken care of very well both when she was with us and when she was with Grandma and Pops

7/23 - We got carpet in the house today - just in the bedrooms.  They also put another top coat on the wood floors.  Getting close

7/20-21 - I went to Texas PTA conference with some ladies from the elementary school.  We went to classes all day Saturday then headed to dinner and stayed in airbnb overnight.  Classes were good - some were specific to my roles and some were more parenting sessions.  They were all pretty good.  Some of the parenting ones were a bit eye opening but good timing with one going into middle school.

We enjoyed a dinner and stayed up talking, fun ladies night around conference.   The next morning we went to bread winners for brunch before heading to our last class and home.  Yum.

7/17 - Greg was determined that our bed was sloping toward the headboard.  So we measured, and it was sloped - about an inch difference.   Greg tried to make it better, sat on the bed, and the mattress fell in the middle to the ground.  Looks like when they moved it to paint but cross bars under the bed weren't straight.   We ended up putting the box springs on the floor and the bed on top.

7/16 - Today we moved back home.  At least for a little while.   We had to vacuum and dust where we could.  We will have dust in the house forever!

In our bedroom the furniture is in the middle of the room because they painted.  We moved it just enough to get in bed, so walking between furniture was fun.   

7/13 - I got up early to go work out, headed to work.   I got to meet Greg and Landon for lunch with Patch, then I worked from home in the afternoon since Landon was leaving for campout that evening.    We got Landon off for camp.  He was patrol leader for the weekend.    

A friend was bringing Kasey home from Critter camp.  The kids presented their bunnies and Kasey got 2nd place in her group.   Greg and I couldn't get into the house because they finished the floors today.  So we went to Chupas while we waited for kasey then we ate dinner there.


7/12 - This week the kids were at Critter camp all day and Landon had something every evening.   So we were in Allen until after dinner then came back to get kids ready for bed.  Landon was doing scouts, soccer game, performance course at night and being outside most of the day at critter camp.    Needless to say he's a bit worn out and sore from the week.  Its fun talking about working out with Landon.

7/11 - Somehow I scratched my eye taking my contact out.  It hurt pretty bad without my contact out so I ended up putting my contact back in to sleep.  I went to Dr on Thursday and they said to give it time.

7/7 - Landon and Greg got up because Landon was helping with an eagle project then volunteered to help with flags for scouts most of the morning.  Kasey and I got up a little later, had showers, I made some tea.  We headed to Grandmas to see Patch.  She hasn't been feeling great today and we missed her last week.

Kasey and I then headed to the salon for some much needed relaxation time.   Then we met Greg at Stacy to order our new couch.  unfortunately its 10-12 week lead time.   We should have ordered it a month ago.

After Landon was done the kids and I went to see Incredibles 2 which was cute.  Then we came back to Grammy and Gramps house.   We picked up some wings and stayed in for the night.

7/1 - We took Kasey and her friend to GS camp.   They check every girl for lice/nits.  Unfortunately Kasey had them.   We came home, had to get plan to get all of us checked, had to clean house where we were staying and communicate with several people about what was going on.   Lets just say it made for a stressful week.   Ended up 3 of the 4 of us had it which didn't help anything.   Needless to say when we were give full all clear Friday we were all excited. 

June 2018

6/30 - We went to the neighborhood pool and met up with several families including friends from out of town.   the boys had fun playing football in the pool.   the girls had fun making up games and hanging out together.  We got pictures of all the boys together and all the girls together.  The adults got to hang out and talk for a while, several of the moms got in the pool for a little while.  We ordered some pizza and enjoyed lunch with some friend.   Great time for all.

6/29 - A friend who moved away several years ago came in town.  Several ladies went out to dinner at Wild Salsa.  We had a semi private room which was perfect for a late dinner and a few drinks.  It was fun catching up with friends, several of them our sons played baseball together when they were younger.  Fun times

6/26 - We had dinner together, and then had family time outside in the pool.  we are all thinking that we need to get a pool at our house :)

6/24 - Today we slept in some, had breakfast together, went through Kasey total breakdown and then headed to the house to work on stuff.  We have to start getting stuff moved out of the bedrooms so they can do carpet soon.   We also did some minor dusting which is hard to do.

On our way back we grabbed some pizza from Papa Murphy's.   We hung out for a while when Greg went to the store then Kasey got in the pool and really wanted the pool for herself until it was time to shower and get ready for bed.  Tomorrow we are all back to some normal schedules - me at work, Kasey has camp and Landon starts performance course to help get in shape for football.

6/23 - We left early to get the kids from camp.  We thought Kasey's pickup was 9:30 so we left early enough to get there at 9.   As we got closer we discovered it started at 9.  Needless to say we were late.  I knew Kasey would be freaking out that we weren't there.  She was very happy to see us.  She had a fun week and was ready to sign up for next year on the spot.   The counselors give the kids character traits that they see in them over the week - Kaseys were authentic, enthusiastic and devoted.

After that we went to get Landon.  He looked super tired but was also ready to sign up for next year camp right on the spot.  Landon's character traits were reliable, teachable, and persistent.

Glad they had fun.  Kasey and I both took naps on the way home.  Greg got to take a short one after we got home :)

We had the grandparents over for some BBQ for dinner and some pool time.   The grandmothers and I sat on the Jacuzzi edge with our feet in the pool.  Grammy and I enjoyed some wine.  The kids were playing and spent some time talking to us about camp.  Kasey tried to teach us some songs, but we weren't very good at it.

It was fun to all get together and hang out.  The grandfathers talked outside the pool and Greg did several things :)

6/18 - 6/22 - Greg and I had a week without kids, but we didn't really go anywhere because of all the stuff going on with the house.  I worked Monday and Tuesday and we spent most of the rest of the week shopping for house stuff.   We decided on our backsplash, our carpet for bedrooms and looked some more for furniture like couches and entertainment centers.  We will get there someday :)

That week we started staying at a friends house in McKinney.  We have been very fortunate to stay at friends houses while our house gets updated.   Greg and I got to have a few nice dinners that week in McKinney.  Once at Gregory's Bistro and one at Harry's on the Harbor.  Even being hot outside we sat on the patio Friday which was nice except for the flys.  Lots of flys.

6/17 - Today was the day we took the kids to Pinecove.  We started out slow.  Had mid morning brunch and got everything ready.  We left around noon to drive there.  The kids read in the car.  We stopped at Buccees and got a drink and snack to eat on the way.  We got there pretty early but still had a line to wait in.

We got Kasey in and settled, Greg and Landon went to his camp.  Kasey passed her swim test, got settled in her cabin with her counselor Guacs who is an Aggie.   I went with a few other moms to the boys camp.  They did their swim test and we hung out a bit then let the boys get started with their camp.

Greg and I drove back.   It rained pretty hard in a few places.  On 635 there were about 4 wrecks from people sliding from the water on the road.   We got back and went to dinner at Fish and Tails oyster bar.  We watched some baseball and had some good food and a few beers.

6/16 - Greg let Kasey and I got to sleep in after staying up til after midnight at Twilight camp.  We got moving slowly but all got showered and dressed.  We decided to go out for lunch after watching some World Cup soccer.  We ended up at Biergarden in Richardson.  We had some good food and Greg and I had a few beers while the kids had milkshakes.   We had fun.  We stopped by Starbucks for some tea.  They stayed in the car having a paper fight while I got drinks.  Interesting :)

That evening we went to dinner with Grammy and Gramps for fathers day.  We had some Brazilian food which is always good and very filling.  Fun dinner with family.

6/11 - 6/15 - This week Kasey and I had Twilight camp.  I worked during the day, actually worked out early 3 days, and we went to Twilight camp each night.  Twilight camp is one of my favorite activities in Girl Scouts which is why this is my 4 year to volunteer at it.  Its a great camp that goes from 6-10pm except Friday which was 6-midnight.   The camp is organized and activities created by older girls that this year included STEM, a fun MAZE, water activities, a relay, archery, crafts, a scavenger hunt and a night of cooking where the girls learn to use knives for cutting and learn fire safety.  We didn't sleep a ton, but it was a great week an the girls had a lot of fun.

Kasey actually slept in some days til 9:30 or 10 which is not normal.  That helped some with the late nights.

Landon was with his friend Colin.  Tuesday Greg flew to Tennessee to get Landon.  They came back Wednesday evening.  They got in and came up to camp so I could give Landon a hug after not seeing him for a week and half.   Seemed like he grew quite a bit somehow.

Landon had fun but was a bit tired when he got back.

6/10 - We had yummy breakfast with Grammy and Gramps.  We all got showers and got dressed, worked on Twilight mail some and then headed to Allen.  We got lunch to take to the house, Greg went to pick up Landon's gear from the Scout trailer, and Kasey and I started working on Pinecove packing at the house.

after that we went to get Kasey some stuff for camp at Academy, went to Grandmas to start washing Landon's stuff from camp, then headed back to Grammy and Gramps to work on mail for twilight camp.   We all got involved printing, labels, putting candy on them.

Gramps went to get Pizza for dinner which was yummy, and we enjoyed the girls working together :)

6/2-6/9 - Landon was at Summer camp for a week.  He earned First class, 4 merit badges.  Here is summary of camp from one of the leaders who was there.

Day One Summary:
The weather here is fantastic for summer.  All slept well and woke up ready for the days activities.  The scouts got familiar with the merit badge classes and locations.  We have daily inspections for our campsite, so we are learning how to keep our personal areas clean. The evening activity centered on camp wide contest for scouts while adults attended an appreciation diner.  Last night was the first of our mandatory shower nights, so everyone got a good nights rest.  The troop is working well together and is already improving on efficiency.  We are ready to take on day two.


Day 2 Summary

We had another great day at camp.  The troop is adjusting well to the schedule and learning how to get from the trading post to their class in record time.  The care packages are arriving and we are sharing them with scouts at 4pm.  Last night was troop night at the waterfront and scoutmaster vs staff volleyball.  Everyone had a great time ( including the adults).  Before going to bed, we took a few scouts to work on night navigation skills.  Everyone went to bed and we have already started classes for day 3.

Day 3 Summary 

Scouts are having a great time at camp. The weather continues to work in our favor with beautiful days and cool nights.  It was another full day of merit badge activities. We received another set of high marks for inspection thanks to our SPL and PLC leadership.  We enjoyed cooking hot dogs in camp ( vegetarian options were provided ). Our troop submitted entries into scout/scoutmaster rifle contest as well as Dutch oven dessert.    A scout is “clean” so we had our second mandatory shower night last night.  All went to bed and woke up this morning to start day 4.

Day 4 Summary 

Camp continues to provide lots of fun and new opportunities for our scouts.  Even though some are tired, I receive responsive and smiling faces from all.  We had another excellent camp inspection report and even earned extra points for our scouts direct participation in the commissioners questions.  We had a great time at the water carnival and enjoyed watermelon and cracker barrel at camp before bed.  We are well into our last day of classes where many scouts are completing their final requirements.

Day 5 Summary

Scouts had a good last day at summer camp.  All attended their final classes and enjoyed the last opportunities at free time and spent the remainder of their funds at the trading post.  Our scouts attending the mountain men program were reunited with the troop just before diner where our troop performed closing flag ceremony.  Some scouts went on a five mile hike for a rank requirement while all others started getting camp ready to go home.  We ended with a campfire where our troop earned awards and performed skits.  We held our last mandatory shower night and some scouts gave election speech’s since they will be out of town next week.



6/9 - today we woke up making sure Landon got to go home with friends from summer camp in Tennessee.  He was heading to spend a few days with a friend who used to live in town.  Greg, Kasey and I walked Patch and Landon facetimed us  while we were walking.   He looked tired but was smiling.   I told him I was proud of him for earning first class.  He said he earned 4 merit badges at camp.

We went to have lunch with Grandma, Pops, Cindy and Carlos.   We got Kasey ready for her dance recital.   She took musical Theater where they did some of Annie including Jazz dance.  Kasey had a few lines, and did well.  This year she enjoyed putting makeup on which she hadn't much in the past.

Kasey performed well.  It was a few numbers and they had fun.   At a part of it because it was Annie they took off their smocks from orphans into dance costumes.  One of the girls lost her smock but really wanted it.  Kasey went with her back stage as they tried to find it.

Greg headed to FC Dallas game.  Grammy made hamburgers for us and we all watched Justin win Belmont and triple crown.   After dinner Kasey, Grammy and I watched Mamma Mia.  We all love the music and Kasey sang and danced around for several numbers.   Fun!

6/6 - Today was a busy and long day. I woke up at 4:45 so I could go work out at 5:30am.  I came back to Grammy's to shower and get ready for the day.  It was take your sons and daughters to work day.   Kasey came with me.  She was more interested in hanging in my office than seeing all the cool demos they had in the hallways.

We found Elisabeth who was excited to see Kasey and walked around some.  Fun introducing kids to co-workers, and several of them remembered Kasey from selling cookies.    We got to see robotics, play the violin, eat lunch in the cafeteria, meet the team and hang out in the office.

Kasey did some drawing, drew on a co-workers board for the 2nd year in a row.   After lunch we hung out in my office.  Kasey spent at least 40 minutes in my office playing medical office administrator.  She was on the phone talking to patients, Drs and nurses.  She had fun and was very busy.  She was even taking notes.  She continued her pretend on the way out talking about how the phone system was good because it would tell you which Dr or nurse was calling you.  Not sure where all of this came from but it was fun to see.

I took Kasey to meet Greg and gastro Dr.  We spent some time with him telling him what has been going on with her getting sick and what we had done with allergy testing and over the counter medicine suggested by the general practitioner.   He was pretty certain and diagnosed her with cyclic vomiting syndrome.  They don't know the cause, but its similar to migraines and is neurological.   He is going to try a low dose medicine that is fairly old and mainly used to treat things like this now.   There is hope she grows out of this, and hope that this fixes her issues.  We will keep praying that is the correct diagnosis and we have a fix in place.

After the appointment, Kasey and I went to the house for a little while.  Then I took her to a friends house to play for the rest of the afternoon.   I headed back to the house to work.

This evening we had a girl scout event.  6 of our girls were there as an older troop was going to cross over from junior to Cadette.   The older girls talked to our girls about what they liked best about being a junior and talked some about their bronze award which is a big step in girl scouts that happens as Juniors.

After this our troop all went to Laynes for dinner.  We let the girls sit by themselves and moms got to talk some too!

6/5 - Today we picked wall paint colors for bathrooms and rest of the house.  We also picked grout color for kids bathrooms.  They have started putting in tile which is fun to see the progress of it.

Landon was able to get his scoutmaster conference before he left and he did his board of review while at summer camp.   He earned first class at summer camp.  We are very proud of him.

6/3 - We kind of had lazy morning.  At one point Greg and I were joined by Kasey and Patch in the bed.

We all had breakfast and got ready.   Grammy, Grandma, Kasey and I were heading to Ft Worth to see Mamma Mia the musical at Casa Manana.  It was so fun.  We listened to the music on the way there and back we enjoyed it so much.

After we got back we headed to Babes with the boys for some more yummy food.

6/2 - Landon was leaving for summer camp and a friend visit.  We had to get him to Allen by 6am.  I let Kasey sleep til 6am then we headed up there too.

After that we headed to the house to look at paint samples and get ready for the day.   Kasey and I were going to Hawaiian Falls with a friend because she sold more than 600 boxes of cookies.  We had a nice time on the lazy river, Kasey and I rode a few slides together, we all went across a ropes course with big floating things in the water, and we spent some time in the wave pool.  We enjoyed a hamburger for lunch as  part of it then headed out after that.

Kasey and I hung out at the house, took showers and then headed to swap making party and my co-leaders house.  That was fun.  The moms worked and so did the girls.

After that we headed to Grammys where she was making tacos and enchiladas for dinner.  So yummy.  Greg missed out because he went to FC Dallas game with Doug.

6/1 - I had part of work day doing community service with group at Bonton farms.  We moved mulch around, turned over and added to compost pile, and worked on cleaning up around their new building that was going up.

Really cool place, I'd like to go back and help again.

May 2018

Sadly looks like my blog entries for Jan- April of 2018 are gone :(

5/31 - Today was the last day of school.   It was Landon's last day of elementary school.  I was in charge of overall graduation stuff so I had to get up get going and get Landon to school.  Unfortunately Kasey got sick that morning.  She tried facetiming us a few times and we slept through it.  Poor baby.   Greg stayed with her because I had to go.

I got Landon to school - he read on the way and wanted to sit and read some more.   I got him to do a few pictures since it was his last day.

He headed to class and I went to work on slideshow in the gym.   The projector had to be replaced twice to work correctly.   They kicked us out of the gym and told us we couldn't reserve seats.   We helped a little with reception set up and then hid in the library until it was time to get our seats.

We had bought 4 seats for the grandparents up front and given to them at Christmas - I forgot to remind them about it.  I sat up front with them and Greg and Kasey came later and sat in the back since Kasey wasn't doing great that morning.

Mrs DeLeon did a great job with Graduation, they had an Aggie come back to talk to the students,   The kids walked across shaking hands with all 4 6th grade teachers, and Principal.  The Principal gave them graduation certificate.

Then they showed a rap video the choir kids had done, and they did the slideshow for all the kids with old and current pictures.  It was awesome and fun to see all the kids.   The 6th graders were trying to guess who the baby pictures were.

After the ceremony we got a few pictures and headed to the reception.   They had donuts and water which was really fun.  We took several pictures and kids were excited to be there.

They gave the kids writing samples from every year at elementary.  Pretty cool.  Also Landon got Presidential Academic Excellence award from good grades.

After that Greg took Kasey for light lunch, and Landon and I went to lunch at Pane Vino with Grammy, Gramps and Grandma.  After lunch we had small dessert at Griff's which is one of our favorite places.

That afternoon Landon went to a friends house for a few hours so Kasey and I headed to the salon for some relaxation time.

5/30 - I worked from home so I could go to short meeting and Kasey's 3rd grade party.    Somehow it was planned outside and it felt like 100 degrees outside.  The kids got Rita's ice and got to run around on the playground.  They had a good time.  The parents sat in the pavilion chatting and trying to stay cool.

At the same time Landon was at his 6th grade end of year party that I helped plan.  They were at pinstack bowling, eating pizza, playing games and having fun!  I think the kids had fun and had some flexibility what they could do which is nice.

5/27 - Kasey got sick late at night :(   I made a mess but eventually got it cleaned up.  We got up and got to see the kids helping aunt Mary cooking breakfast.  Warmed my heart.  We had breakfast, got showers and headed out.  We got back to Dallas.  Kids took showers and got ready for piano recital.  We had to stop by the house on the way up for clothes for Greg.

The kids played well at their recitals both solo songs and a duet (luckily they survived).   I headed back with Myers to get some of our stuff we didn't want left in the car.  Then we headed to a friends house that was out of town for the week and was nice enough to let us stay.

5/26 - We slept in a little but not to much.  Greg slept with Kasey who moves around a lot and I slept with Landon who also moves around a lot.   We got up and had breakfast downstairs then headed out for the day.

We took the neighbors for a tour around part of Texas A&M campus.  We parked by dorms, showed them where we lived, took them to center of campus and by the century tree and ole sol ross statue.  We tried to go to the MSC but it was closed for Memorial day weekend.   We then walked by Kyle field for a few pictures which is always fun.   Our kids haven't really gotten to go through campus like that when its empty before because there are so many people around on football weekends.

After that we headed to the Chicken for lunch.   Good food, the kids got to play pool and dominoes, and the adults got to hang out watch A&M baseball and have some beer.  Good times with friends.

After lunch we headed to aunt Mary's for some family times.  The kids had fun with cousins, we got to spend time with family, have good food and be entertained by the little ones.  Very fun time!

5/25 - Today we took the kids out of school so we could make it to our neighbors wedding down in College Station.   We left after lunch and got down in time to change and hang out a little bit.  Then we headed downstairs to have a drink with some neighbors.  The kids had shirley temples and the adults enjoyed happy hour.

We all headed to the wedding.  The ceremony was outside and it was a bit warm, but it was beautiful.   Always fun watching a bride walk down the isle with her dad.

After that we went inside for the reception.   We had a really good time.  The food was good, we had a few drinks, I got to dance with Greg and Landon (even though he didn't want to).   Kasey enjoyed trying to catch the bouquet and seeing the dancing and cutting of the cakes.    We all enjoyed ourselves

5/24 - We snuck out and went to see Deadpool 2.  Funny movie.  One you need to see multiple times to catch everything.

5/22 - it was kind of a long day for both of us.   I did PTA stuff all day.  Worked on website with someone new helping, attended first Ereckson PTA meeting, had lunch and got Pedis with some of Norton PTA moms, then I went to signing day for my mentee down by fair park (cool ceremony where seniors in high school share what college they are going to with family and friends).

That night after kids went to bed we went to Alamo drafthouse and had a few beers.  It was very nice outside and we enjoyed being out for a little bit.

5/21 - Kasey performed in talent show today.  She did a little skit with a few friends from girl scout troop.   They had fun.  Kasey was the narrator and did a good job.   They performed the duck song which I have no idea where it came from.   Glad she had the guts to stand up and do that and had fun with it. 

5/20 - Kasey got up around 7.   Greg and I slept in some.   Landon was coming back at 10 so Greg went to go pick him up.  Kasey and I got ready for the day.  Gramps had brought come kolaches and donuts.  Landon was able to finish his requirements for First class.  All he needs to do is have scout master conference and board of review which he should get done before the end of summer camp.

We all had lunch together, Kasey came up with nacho bar.   Chips, cheese, taco meat, tomatoes, jalapenos,  & lettuce.  It was pretty good :)

After that we hung out a bit, did some laundry, and got packed up.   We headed out in the afternoon to Grandmas.   We got tickets for Landon and I finally to see Infinity War.  We left early to get some stuff from the house.  Good thing we did since my work shoes were at the house along with the kids backpacks.

Landon and I enjoyed the movie even though the ending wasn't positive

We headed to Grandmas for dinner and to get the kids to bed.   Fun weekend!

5/19 - We slept in some, at least Greg and I did.  Kasey was up by 7.  She helped Grammy make bacon, eggs, and biscuits.   We all had some breakfast and got dressed slowly.   Kasey, Grammy and I went to Michaels to get some art stuff for girl scout camps - swap stuff and mail stuff.

After that we met Greg and Gramps at Snuffers for some yummy lunch.   That afternoon Greg went to FC Dallas game, Kasey and I worked on some camp swaps and nametags.  Kasey wanted to make flip flops for her swap and decided not to because it was to hard.  She then decided to make a beach them with foam.

Kasey and Grammy were working on making a dessert.  We heard popping sound and then the oven kept buzzing and showing an error.   When Gramps got home we pulled it out and unplugged it.  Needless to say we couldn't make the dessert.  Kasey improvised.  She had cherry and pineapple filling that she covered in vanilla ice cream and cool whip.    She let it melt then they froze it again.   It was actually not to bad :)

After Greg got back from the game we took a Lyft to Taste of Addison.  We met Doug there.  Doug and I both saw friends from work there which is fun.    Taste of Addison isn't what it used to be.   There aren't very many restaurants, none of our favorites left, and the music was just ok.  Sad, we've been going for years.

5/18 - Kasey had a fun birthday party from 3:30-9:30pm - they went to American Girl Doll store for dinner then to friends house for dessert and fun.  Landon left for campout so Greg and I got to have dinner just the two of us.  We headed to McKinney and tried Harvest.  We were able to sit at the bar and eat without a wait.  It was pretty good and good break.

We headed back to the house, moved around a few things.   Greg went to pick up Patch and I went to get Kasey.  We all headed to Grammy and Gramps to stay.  We got Kasey to bed.  

Mom and I enjoyed a bottle of 1978 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon.    We were a bit tired and headed to bed earlier than my normal. 

5/17 - Today was Landon's birthday.  Greg ended up staying at the house, got up early and brought up donuts for Landon's birthday.   Greg took the kids to school and I headed to work.

Greg took Laynes to the kids for lunch.   We met up with Grammy, Gramps and Grandma at Spring Creek for some BBQ to celebrate Landon.  Then we got to have mini bundt cakes for desserts.

We let Landon use some of his birthday money on his video games.  He was so excited.  He even said it was the best birthday ever :)

5/16 - We've been moving, packing, recycling and getting rid of many things in our house.  Oh my the things you accumulate when you live in a house for 18 years and don't clean out more often.  Anyway the demolition in the house started today.  We spent the morning looking at carpet, tile samples, meeting stair guy, talking to AV guy about ethernet and speaker solutions for the living room.   During this time they were piece by piece taking apart the kitchen :)  It will be a journey, but I'm excited where its going.

I kept Patch in the room with Kasey and I.  Of course she woke me up like 3 times in the middle of the night acting like she wanted to go out but she didn't.  Kasey also kept putting her arm on me and woke up early to go potty.   Needless to say it wasn't a restful night.

5/13 - Mother's Day.   We had a nice lunch with my mom, Greg's mom and grandmother.  We ate at Saltgrass then headed to Grandma's house for some dessert.  She had made chocolate cake and gotten ice cream that Landon wanted and I wanted.   We were also celebrating Landon's birthday with family.  He's getting to the point that he doesn't want much for his birthday which makes it hard on all of us.

After that we came home and spent the afternoon and evening packing the house.  We might never get done, but we have to...

5/12 - We are supposed to be packing up our house, but our weekends and weeks are very busy.   Today we started with Girl Scout crossover.  The troop crossed over from being Brownies to being Juniors. We had the girls go across a zip line at a park to cross over.  My co-leader and I also went across the zip line.  It was fun.  After that we headed to the pool and had some pizza, snacks and dessert while the kids swam and had fun.

Greg spent the afternoon at FC Dallas game.  Landon headed to a friends house to swim for the afternoon, and Kasey and I headed to the salon for some relaxation.    After that we headed to Landon's basketball game.  The boys won.  From there we headed to the neighborhood spring party which is always fun.  Food trucks, kegs of beer, good music and fun activities for the kids.  The kids enjoyed running around.   Landon asked about 9:30 if we could go home, I think he was tired.

5/11 - Today was the spring carnival at the school.  We had In and Out burger and the kids got to run around and play.  They had bounce houses and games and cake walk and fun music.   The older kids were running around the gym while most of the kids were outside.

5/10 - Kasey got her braces off today.  She was so excited and her teeth look really good.

5/6 -  Kasey had a fun birthday party today riding horses.  The girls really enjoyed it.

While Kasey was at the party Landon played final flag football game of the season.     The boys didn't win this one, but they played hard.  The other team had several plays where they threw long passes for touchdowns, and we had a hard time scoring.

That evening Landon went to do swim test for boy scouts so he would be ready for summer camp.

5/5 - We woke up early to get ready and have breakfast.   We got to see some more animals up close including some flamingos which was really cool.  Then we went to feed the giraffe's and let the girls ride the carousel before we left.   I think the girls had a good time.

We got back to get ready for Landon's friend birthday party.   We had pizza rolls, a gaming truck and the boys swam for a few hours.   I think they had a good time hanging out and making up their own activities at the pool. Luckily no one got hurt except Kasey had a small nose bleed.

That evening Landon had a football playoff game.  The game was close and the boys pulled it out to win the game.  They all played well and played hard.

5/4 - I took the day off and Greg and I helped out during the day for the Boy Scout garage sale.  Greg helped move several things, I helped organize a bunch of the clothes and got lunch for everyone.   I left early to get kids and Kasey and I got ready to head to the zoo for a Girl Scout overnight.  We had to get gas and food for several of the girls.  We headed to the zoo and ate there before going in.

We got a personal tour of part of the zoo which is cool.  We got to see flamingos, reptile house, several of the birds, and the bug house.  Then we headed to the children's area where the girls got to pet an albino rabbit and a lizard.  They also got to run around for a while which they enjoyed.