November 2020

 11/29 - Today Kasey and I put up both Christmas trees and other decorations.  We even got out Frosty and Santa/reindeer for outside.    So fun having decorations up in the house.

11/28 - Kasey's birthday.  It was going to be a rainy cold day so the kids decided not to go to the A&M game.  Greg and I got up and headed out between 9:30-10.  I went to tell Kasey happy birthday.   The day before we had given her gifts from us - she got a new ipad cover and ipad pen.  We also got her a turning 12 tshirt and black sweater that she liked.   

I had asked some of Kasey's friends to email a birthday wish to Kasey - some sent videos and some made cards. I put them in a shared album and shared it with Kasey on her birthday.  She thanked me for that.

Fredel brought Kasey a sweet gift and made her birthday cookie - her favorite cookie with icing.

11/26 - Today we had Thanksgiving with Greg's parents and sister.  Lots of good food again.   We have a few differences in dishes between the families.  My family prefers pecan or marshmallow sweet potatoes.  Greg's family prefers sweet potatoes with orange juice.    Kasey got to celebrate again.  This time she got to blow out the candle that Greg held.   She was very excited to get Robux.  She also got some paint pens, chicken nugget socks and some babysitter club books.    The kids also asked the conversation questions to this part of the family.  Fun!  Landon and Kasey also got new Christmas ornaments - Landon got AT-AT, Kasey got Minion.   

Since Kasey's birthday is end of November, she is against anything Christmas until December.   She even put in our calendar that I couldn't listen to Christmas music until Dec 1.   Luckily after getting her minion ornament, she was all about Christmas.

Overall great thanksgiving and  glad we got to spend a little time with family.

11/25 - To try and keep things safer, we split up Thanksgiving.  We had great dinner with Grammy and Gramps on Wednesday.   Good food and dessert.  Kasey and Landon asked some questions to everyone in the family from a conversation game I made for the Girl Scouts.    Separating Thanksgiving also meant that Kasey got to celebrate her birthday multiple times.   She wanted the candle in the turkey - well when you put a candle into a hot turkey the candle melts - oops.  She still enjoyed it.  She got to have pumpkin and key lime pie for her birthday.  Kasey loved her birthday presents - unicorn slippers, light up sign for her room (Greg instantly wrote beat the hell out of LSU), cute jewelry - K necklace, turtle ring, turning 12 bracelet

11/14 - I volunteered to help with the band who was going to competition.   We had 14 buses, all with the windows down.  We all got Chick fil a breakfast biscuits and water.  This was my first time volunteering for the band.  Seems like a good group, I'll likely get more involved next year.   The kids did well, they got all 1s - though when we announced that on the bus most of the kids didn't seem to know what that meant.   Overall it was fun.

11/11 - We got pictures of both Gramps and Pops in their military uniforms to be in the Veterans Day slide show.   Fun to see old pictures of them.  Kasey was a little surprised :)

11/4-5 - Our PTA president was leading to do a Turkey food drive in the community to benefit our local food drive.  Kasey and I plus another family spent a few hours at the school collecting food donations.    The next day we got together Girl Scout donations for teachers in Dallas near TI - we created 10 bags plus some extra snacks!

October 2020

 10/31 - Greg went to College Station for the game, and I stayed with the kids.  This was the first year that we didn't go down to the neighbors for dinner then all go trick or treating.   Kasey and I did some shopping and picked up Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner.   We also got big candy bars for Landon, Kasey and a few of Kasy's friends.     After dinner I went to pick up a few of Kasey's friends, took them by one of their teacher's houses, and then I dropped them off on our side of the neighborhood so they could walk around and trick or treat.     The friend's mom brought over some yummy baked treats.    Landon was home and we decided to watch the mandalorian together.  We watched the first show and some of the background/special episodes they had.   After trick or treating the kids came back, sorted candy and watched some TV - they also took care of trick or treaters.  Landon, Patch and I stayed in the bedroom away from the noise.  The Aggies won!

10/30 - what an evening.  Kasey had a pom squad performance in the parking lot of her dance studio - they did great, fun to get to see them perform.  After we went to pick up a friend.  It was Boo bowl for Allen band - most of the band members dress up for halloween.  Landon and french horns dressed up as characters from the game among us - wearing NASA shirts and he had a paper bag on his head.    It was much easier to find Landon on the field with the bag on his head.  The french horns won the award for best costumes.

10/25 - Greg and I got to go to Del Friscos last minute for Doug's birthday.  I'm always up for a nice dinner and fun to get to go with the boys.  Great food and drinks, and we tried to get a few pictures afterwards :)

10/12 - Kasey and I went to target for a few things and Kasey wanted a halloween blow up for outside.   From the front of target we could see a huge grim reeper blow up so we knew where the seasonal stuff was.   We went back to the area. Kasey loved the 12 foot grim reeper.  It was the last one so a worker said they would sell it to us for 1/2 off with no box.  Greg and I told Kasey if she used her own money we could get it.  She was all in.   We got him home and set hime up.  Kasey named him Grimmy and loved him.  12 foot tall, pointed to the sidewalk, and lit up and blinked.

10/11 - on the way home we stopped to see aunt Mary.  We sat on her back patio and visited for a while.   It was good to see her and Cheri.  No hugs or good food, but it was nice to visit in the new world.

10/10 - We got 6 tickets to the A&M football games, and we were going down for as many as we could.  The kids preferred not to go.  This weekend in October we took Kasey down with us and we stayed in a place in downtown Bryan.    It was a short walk to a speakeasy bar where we went by to get a drink.  Kasey obviously had shirley temple and the rest of us had a favorite whiskey drink vieux carre.   After the game we had dinner reservations at The Republic - good steak house.   Kasey got chicken fried filet mignon - it was really yummy!   Good dinner with friends.

September 2020

 9/25 - first Allen high school game while Landon was playing in the band.  We had limited seats because everyone was spread out which is good.   We worked out a deal for Kasey and a few of her friends to sit with Greg and I sat with their parents.   Fun getting to see the band perform.  They sat across the field from us all spread out.   A few times after football games, Landon went to have ice cream with other kids who play french horn in the band.   He seems to enjoy being around the older kids.

9/15 - after a few letters from home owners association it was time to fix our lawn.  Greg got a whole pallet of grass to put on the very front and one side that's covered by tree.    Once he got it down we had to start watering multiple times a day by hand....

9/4 - We got a visit from cousin Lorenda and her husband.  Greg and I met them at Chepas for dinner.  We got dinner for the kids and grammy gramps.  We went back to Grammy and Gramp's place and had drinks and dessert out by the pool.  It was fun to catch up.  Greg took the kids home and we got a call from Gramps who was up in the apartment just in case to avoid exposure.   He had fallen on the floor.  So we all went upstairs and were able to get him up. He was fine, but thinks he might have passed out.

9/1 - Kasey had applied for KNN crew at school (group of kids that do morning announcements for the whole school).  When she applied she requested to not be on camera.  I saw the teacher in charge of this on a walk and she said from talking to the 5th grade teachers she decided to put Kasey on camera.  The teachers said Kasey had a good personality.  She started out doing more Monday segments and went in a few days a week.  Now she goes in early every weekday and does different segments.  She really enjoys it.

August 2020

 

8/26 - Kasey had her first clarinet lesson.  I was upstairs working and at first was like what is that sound.  Then I figured it out.  She was pretty excited

8/22 - We had a few friends over to cook and have wine with Allora wine tasting.  We made yummy steak sandwiches with truffle butter and a caprese salad.    Very good, good wine and good friends.  The kids even enjoyed it.

Kasey took younger friend that came over to the park a few times and they even took patch once

8/7 - Today was the last day that kids will find out who their teacher is - when you get to middle school and high school it's more about your overall schedule.  Kasey has homeroom with several friends this year so I hope she gets to be in class with them.   She will have 3 teachers - 1 for math, 1 ELA and 1 for science and history.

8/1 - Landon had his first band horn party.  They came and kidnapped him and the kids sat in a field and talked and had pizza.  This is such a big part of the band experience, I'm glad they got to get to together for a little bit and start getting to know each other.  Landon has hung out with kids of different ages in scouts, but sound like this was more inclusive.   We are excited for this new journey.

July 2020

 7/23 - Kasey had a big day.  She got to do instrument selection and picked with the director clarinet.  I played the clarinet in middle school band and I think aunt cindy did as well.  Should be fun.   Greg also went to get her school supplies which is always fun, he even picked good colors.  She also got her earpods in - she has broken several wired headphones but uses them alot so we will see how these go.

7/5 - 7/12 - We drove to Orange Beach Alabama for a week at the beach.  Long drive, I even helped drive about 3 hours there and 4 hours home.   We were staying in a friend's condo right on the beach.  The night we got there we picked up pappa murphys for dinner, then took a walk on the beach.   That night there was a beautiful reflection of the moon on the ocean.  It reminded us of being on a cruise.  I had to share with Grammy and Gramps.   

We mainly hung out.  We went to the beach every day with a cooler, chairs, umbrellas and some boogie boards.   The kids snorkled a little but wasn't to much there.   One day we went to ride go carts - really cool place we got to ride on 3 different tracks and all had fun doing that.  That afternoon Greg and I went out to beach just the two of us with chairs, towels and a beer.   I got stung by a jelly fish - not fun, but went a way that night.  

We enjoyed good dinners, the kids even tried a few new things.  They really like strawberry daiquiris and pina coladas in Alabama.    Kasey gave each restaurant a rating.  They liked the first night at Cobalt.  Great food, good atmosphere and good drinks.  One night we went to Fishers which is higher end, wasn't the kids favorite - no daiquiris and no fried shrimp :)   Greg and I enjoyed it.  We also  went to a small place called Anchor - basically at a marina and outside.  The food was great, we had a few beers and listened to two brothers play live music.     We went to Cosmos one night which was also good - beer, good food outside covered seating with good social distancing.   The last night we went to Louisiana Lagniappe.  It was probably favorite for kids and I.  They had really good vieux carres and the kids liked their drinks a lot.  The food was really good - hushpuppies, grouper (mine had lobster on it), and served with twice baked potatoes.  The desserts were perfect for us, but we were so full we took them home.   We got to try 3 ice cream places - Sweet Cone Alabama was my favorite.

Friday night Greg and I joined Allora wine Zoom.  For lunch we ate stuff we had in the condo.   Overall it was a great trip.  It was nice to get away, be somewhere different, get to hear the ocean often and mostly social distance.   Elevators were the hardest part.

7/4 - We had dinner with Grandma and Pops, Spring Creek BBQ.  Yummy food and we finished the keylime pie.   They took Patch home with them because we were leaving early the next morning.  So weird being in the house without her.

7/3 - We had a yummy birthday/fathers day dinner for Greg and Gramps.   We had fajitas and margaitas from Chepas.  Grammy brought yummy pies - key lime, chocolate and pecan - yum.   Glad we got to get together before we headed to Alabama.  That night Kasey, Greg, Patch and I went to watch the Allen fireworks.  It was about 25 minutes and pretty good.  A bit windy but that made it cooler.

June 2020

 6/20 - we went and picked up Kasey from Pine Cove. She had a great time,  She said they all cried the last night because they didn't want to leave.   Her cabin won the overall cabin award. They got to sit at a fancy table and be waited on, and they were walked in by some of the guy counselors.   They also got a pool party.  The girls in her cabin have decided to start a group text - should be interesting and fun.

6/19 - We went to Zorbas with a few friends.  One of our favorite places!  Yummy Greek food.

6/18 - Greg and I went to Bavarian Grill for some food and a few beers.

6/14 - We took Kasey to PineCove today.  She packed herself and was excited to be away from us for a week.   This is her 4th year to go and she went without knowing anyone.   Greg and I drove her down and came back and had dinner with Landon at Chepas.  We got margaritas to go which has been our norm at Chepas :)

6/13 - We had grammy and gramps over to see Kasey before camp.  We had yummy Dirkins pizza and Grammy and Gramps brought some new yummy cookies for dessert.

6/5-6/12 - We rented a friends lake house since Philmont and Disney World were cancelled.  We headed up Friday and the 4 of us had dinner at a diner by the lake.   We had some cold beer and good food (Kasey and I had chicken fried steak).

Greg's parents came up that night as well.  We got the coolers unpacked, settled in and we got in the pool.   Over the week we were pretty much in the pool in the morning and after dinner.  It was a bit hot during the day.    

Pops went fishing a few times, we cooked dinners and breakfasts, relaxed and took Patch for walks. During the week I worked 1/2 days except Wednesday.  Wednesday we walking in the morning, had lunch then headed to the other side of the lake.  We rented a boat and all went tubing.   Landon went first, then both kids went, then Kasey, then I went, then I drove the boat and let Greg tube some.    Later Landon went again and went back and forth over the wake and got thrown off a bit.   Kasey rode on the tube for a long time, and then Landon got on one more time while Landon napped in the back of the boat before getting back on the tube one more time.

I worked all day Tuesday and we headed home Friday.

May 2020

5/23 - We went over to a friends house for burgers, wine and some swimming.  They are part of our inner circle during this crazy year.

5/17 - Landon turned 14 today.   We walked to get donuts in the morning,  Pops brought over a card and delivered it with a long reach arm.   We had made some small chocolate cakes to share with the grandparents.  We took the cakes by Grammy and Gramps and got a quick picture.   That afternoon Kasey made crepes with a girl scout zoom event 

5/16 - We went with a few friends to Cowboys club.  First time out socially distanced for some drinks and good food with friends.

5/9-5/10 - Mothers Day weekend.  We had social distancing meals at our house with our parents.  Saturday night Greg made jambalaya, cauliflower and peaches with red hots for his mom.  Yummy food, good company and nice weather sitting outside together.

Sunday morning we got up and went for a 3 1/2 mile walk.  We had some Laynes for lunch.

Greg made Roast, grilled okra and peaches for my mom.

For desserts Greg got pecan pie, key lime pie, strawberry pie (yuk) and red velvet Bundt cake.  Yum, dessert is really important :)

5/9 - We had our 2nd Allora wine tasting.  We enjoyed some good wine outside.

5/8 - Girl Scouts announced that Twilight Camp is postponed, and Kasey's day at the water park for selling over 600 boxes of cookies is postponed.   The boys know their Philmont trek is postponed and likely cancelled.  We are also assuming our Disney trip will be cancelled.

We have booked a week at a friends lake house in June and we have a week booked at a friends beach house in Orange Beach later in the summer.  Hopefully we can do both of those weeks.