December 2018

12/31 - We slept in some.  Grammy came over to get few gifts while Gramps was at physical therapy.   The kids went to piano and Greg and I went to lunch just ourselves.   We hung out most of the afternoon.

We actually hung up some stuff in our house :)   We hung up several pictures from around the world in the dining room, Paris pictures in the hallway, and hung up a few things in Kasey's room.

Greg made hamburgers for dinner then we watched the Aggies beat NC State.  After the game we went to our friends house for New Years party.   We enjoyed some wine and hung out then brought in the new year for both New York and Dallas.  The kids were tired so we went home after that.  Fun times.

12/25 - Kasey woke up about 1am and got sick.  Ugh.   Then they woke us up around 8am.   Kasey was super excited to get a keyboard for her ipad from Santa, and Landon got amazon and itune GC to go with his new phone.  

We spent the afternoon with Greg's family.   Great food and we had 4 generations there.  Kasey had a great time playing with her new toys as the adults visited.   Landon mainly played on his new phone.   It was good to catch up with the family and I got some good pictures of Nanny and families

12/24 - I got to sleep in some.  Greg and the kids were cooking away in the kitchen.  They were making pecan pie, chicken enchiladas, cookies for Santa and chocolate cake.   I was finishing wrapping gifts for everyone.

We went over to Grammy and Gramps for the afternoon and dinner.   We had a few snacks and drinks.   We all opened our presents and the kids played for a little while.   Then we started getting dinner ready.  We have tacos and Greg made enchiladas for dinner.  So good to hang out and enjoy food and good company.  Great Christmas Eve.

During the evening Kasey kept asking Alexa where Santa was.  Alexa would tell us and see if we wanted a fun fact.  At one point she said Santa liked to sing and so did she and she started singing a Christmas song.  Pretty funny.  Kasey decided Santa was real because Alexa knew where he was and you could track him online.

We got home and put cookies out for Santa.   We read the Night before Christmas.

12/23 - We had a fun day.  We had an early lunch at Even Stevans which is a cool non profit restaurant in Richardson.  Then we went a few doors down to try Pop bar.  Basically popcicles that you dip in chocolate and a topping.  Yum!

After that we went to see Phantom of the Opera at fair park.   Greg and I have always loved Phantom.   Kasey was a little scared, but they both enjoyed it.

12/22 - Kasey and I went to the salon, did some shopping while Landon did service project with Scouts.  Kasey had fun getting me a Blue Ray of Mama Mia, getting Landon fortnite monopoly and she got Greg a 2 foot leg lamp like the one from Christmas Story.  :)  We have fun shopping together.  

12/21 - We took Kasey back to digestive Dr.  He thinks the medicine is working but that she's growing out of her dosage.  We'll see how it goes.  That night we went out for Hibachi and then some Pacuigo for dessert.

12/16 - Today was our 18th wedding anniversary.  Landon was gone.  We got up and made it to breakfast by 9am at Eggquisite.    We did some stuff around the house and Kasey and I watched some of the CW crossover while I did laundry and worked on calendars and other stuff.

Greg went to get Landon after his campout who really needed a shower.   Greg took Kasey and a friend to ice skating with Santa.  Landon and I cleaned scout stove top and did laundry and got stuff in place then watched a little TV before dinner.

Apparently Mi Cocina was closed for their staff party so we went to Mexigo for a margarita and mexican food.   

12/15 - We had a small party for Kasey today.  We had pizza from one of her friend's restaurant, Greg and I made unicorn cake, the girls got Kasey awesome unicorn presents.  They watched a movie, hung out and played on their devices together.  They also all exchanged info so they can text each other.  So fun.  A few of the moms came over near the end to have a glass of wine which is always fun.

12/14 - Landon left for Scout campout.  They were driving down south, going to Nasa on Saturday and heading back sunday.  Landon helped plan and lead this campout which is good.  Hopefully he didn't get to cold.

I got there in time to give Landon a hug before they left.  Greg, Kasey and I went to bowl place for dinner together.   Greg had made cake for Kasey and when we got home he made icing and I started decorating, with wine of course.

12/12 - Landon found out that they want to move him up to symphonic band 1.  He was really excited about it.  His schedule will have to move around but its a good opportunity for him.

12/11 - Today was Landon's Holiday band concert.  Fun to see and watch.  They wear all black and got to wear santa hats if they wanted.  Landon didn't.  They played well.  All 4 middle school bands played.  

12/9 - we slept in some, cleaned up the house, had simple lunch, worked on girl scout.   Landon and I went to see Potted Potter which was great.  Parody of all 7 Harry Potter books in 70 minute.   I thought I was going to pee in my pants a few times I was laughing so hard.   It was 2 guys playing parts and going through the books.  Lots of comedy in between.  Very fun.  Landon laughed out loud several times as well.  It was fun

We didn't get Thanksgiving food over Thanksgiving so Greg and Kasey made mini thanksgiving for dinner and Kasey bday celebration.   Grandma and Pops came to join us as well.  After dinner they cut Patch's nails.  Poor puppy 

12/8 - It was so nice not to have to focus on cleaning or being somewhere early.   Kasey had a party, but thew a fit and ended up losing it.  That night we had dinner with friends.  Grandma and pops came over to eat dinner with the kids and watch them.  We went to Cowboy club to have a drink  (saw Dat Nguyen and Moose Johnson :))with Doug then met friends at D Lincoln's restaurant at the Star.

12/3-7 - This was a crazy week.  I had my WW team in town.  Tuesday night we had dinner at our house.  We ordered Zorbas and had wine and beer.   Greg made his chocolate cake, cherry cobbler and homemade whipped cream.

The dinner went well, we had 17 people over and all of us stayed in the kitchen.  We decided to put food and drink along the edges which worked well so we could all stand around the large island.

Wednesday night we went out with a partner 3P and had some good mexican food.

Thursday we started with doing Day of Impact or volunteering at Big Brothers, Big Sisters.  We worked on their mailer which mom used to do a lot when she worked there.  Then several from my team went down to the basement to help organize and clean out their storage room.   The whole team took a big picture then they realized we were missing.   We finished up a few things and all headed to lunch.  All of us had lunch together in our TI shirts, and then my team stayed a little longer because we didn't have to be back for meetings until 2pm.    That morning at the office someone tried to break into the site, hit someone who called 911, broke a window and got tackled in courtyard.   Little scary but everyone was ok.

That afternoon after 4 days of meetings I had a holiday party with my contractors.  It was raining and I was tired, but I went for a little while.  I'm glad I did.  It's good to get the team out of the office sometimes.

Thursday morning Kasey got sick in the morning, and ended up with a little bit of fever.  She stayed home for the day.  Friday Greg had Dr appointment Friday.  I came home from work mid day to watch her.  Because she still had slight fever Thursday night she stayed home Friday too.  She felt fine other than getting sick and a small headache Friday morning.

12/2 - I have a work dinner at the house on Tuesday so we are really trying to get ready for it.   Kasey and I also had Allen parade that we walked in with girl scouts.   Its fun to walk and hand out candy to kids who are attending.

Kasey took the lead and started putting Christmas lights outside.   Kasey kept asking us to come help her but it took a little while.  Greg and I went out to help her and we got them up.  We decided after dinner we needed to get new blow up decorations for this year :)

12/1 - We spent a lot of the day working on the house and getting Christmas stuff up.   Kasey and went to the salon for our nails while Landon and Greg went to ring the bell for SalvationArmy.   Kasey and I weren't thrilled with what they did on our nails.

That night Grandma and Pops came over to watch the kids.  They had pizza and Greg and I went to friend's house for a Holiday party.  We had a good time visiting with friend, eating good mexican dinner and having a few drinks.  We were also outside watching the Ohio State football game.  Greg spent a good part of the day watching football conference games.

Christmas letter 2018

Hello family and friends:

I hope this letter finds everyone doing well.  We’ve had another blessed year and hope you have as well.

I'm still at TI but my job has recently changed.  I have taken on additional responsibility and I'm now the director for training and technical documentation across the company.  I'm very excited about this new challenge and look forward to what it will bring in the coming years.  I traveled to China for almost 2 weeks this year, Houston to meet some of my new team and I'm headed to California and Tucson for a few days to meet more team members.   Next year I will travel some more but mainly domestic.   I still did a lot for PTA that was very heavy in the fall.  I did spirit wear at the middle school which was interesting if nothing else to be allowed there during lunch for a few days ;).  At the elementary school I did fundraising, took on corporate sponsorships,  and still helping with the web page.  I'm also still co-leading Kasey's Junior girl scout troop.  Its been fun this year because we are having the girls plan the badge work and then present it and get the other girls involved.  We even did some badge work at TI this month which was fun.   I'm still enjoying working out at the gym in Plano - such a fun group and working out always makes you feel better.

Greg has gotten a lot more involved in Landon's Boy Scout troop.  He's in charge of adult training (administrative side), he works with all scouts and adults to set up board of review - each scout has to talk to group of adults in interview type format before receiving their next rank.  He's also taken on being clubhouse coordinator for our neighborhood.   Its been interesting :)  Most of all he's home helping get the kids where they need to go, making sure we have dinner during the week, and helping out where he can.  We've still been going to A&M football games this year at least home games.  We enjoyed renting houses for games we went to which makes it nice to get kids to bed and let the adults hang out with some football and a few drinks.

The biggest thing from this year is that we remodeled our house this summer.  We completely redid the kitchen, redid all floors, painted most rooms and redid the kids bathrooms.  It was a major project that took 10-12 weeks.  Since it was summer we were very fortunately to have several friends who let us stay at their house while they went on vacation.   With this project we haven't traveled anywhere this  year as a family.  That's been weird.  

Over the summer, both kids went to sleep away camp for a week at Pine Cove. They had fun.  Landon also went to Tennessee with Scouts for summer camp.  Afterwards he went to Knoxville to visit with a friend that moved away for a few days.  Needless to say Landon was gone most of June.

In October, Greg and I went to Napa for about a day and half to get away for a bit and go to an allocation party at one of our favorite wineries - Allora.   We needed to fill up our new wine fridge that was part of the kitchen remodel :)  We had fun at the allocation party.   One of the activities was wine stomping - competition between most of the people.  We stomped grapes, filled up a jug and took turns helping.  Somewhere along the way I lost my Aggie ring.  We tried to find it on the grounds that night and the next morning but no luck.  Later that week we heard back from the grape stomping company.  Luckily they had not gotten rid of the grapes and found my ring.   It took a little while to get back but I was very thankful to have it on my hand.

We are looking forward to traveling somewhere next year as a family

Kasey is now 10.   She's in 4th grade.   She's taking hip hop with one of the other girl scouts and still taking piano.    She's still doing Girl Scouts and is a Junior now.  She's been helping since last year to plan and give some of the badge work which is a nice change for the leaders, and good for the girls to take on more responsibility.   Kasey has now decided she doesn't like Hallmark movies anymore, but she's watched the entire series of the Flash and really likes that.  She loves unicorns, has been encouraged to believe in the magic of Christmas, and puts a lot of importance on her friends.   There is definitely more drama with girls, but we will get through it.  Kasey is very spirited and will be a good leader some day.   This year she was pretty vocal that Christmas music and decor should not be until after Thanksgiving - I think mainly because her birthday is around there.

Landon is now 12 1/2, and in 7th grade which is the first year of middle school for us.  Landon played football this fall - he played right tackle and linebacker and he enjoyed it even though the team didn't win to many games.  He's also in band which is a big deal in Allen. He's playing french horn and was just notified that he'll move up to the next band starting spring semester.  He was pretty excited about this but will cause his schedule to move around a bit.   Landon has made a lot of progress in Scouts this year.  He is done with his Star (after Star he will have Life and Eagle) requirements and working to finish up scoutmaster conference and board of review.   He was patrol leader for his patrol the last 6 months.  Now he will be one of the quarter masters working to take care of equipment and trailers.  Landon and I really enjoy watching superhero TV shows and movies together.  He plays Fortnite and online games with his friend likely to much, but he enjoys it.

We hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year.  May God Bless you this 

coming year.

Love,     Dana, Greg, Landon, Kasey & Patch Myers

November 2018

11/30 - We had our neighborhood winter party   Fun with food, drinks, neighbors and Santa.  Landon and a friend were bored so they walked home.  We got a few fun pictures in the big snow globe and Kasey got some with Santa.  We brought a neighbor friend with us because his sisters had several other activities that night.  The kids had some fun too and got to go on a few hay rides.

11/29 -  I took a day trip to Houston today.   I had to get up at 4:30 am which is tough when you stay up just past 1am.  Luckily I stayed at mom and dad since they are closer to the airport.   It was fun to hang out with them the night before.  Mom and I had some wine and hung out with dad while he's recovering.    

Mom was nice enough to take me and pick me up from the airport! 

11/25 - after the crazy game we were pretty wired and stayed up after 1am.   needless to say we weren't getting up to early.   We got back home about 2:15pm and Kasey and I had girl scout meetings that went from 2:30 til about 5:30.   Its fun to see the girls leading and planning badge work this year.   They are doing a great job.

11/24 - We slept in some, all got showers, ate breakfast and headed out.  We went to park in our parking lot and walked to Northgate.  We got to the Chicken just in time to get a table.  We got some beer, kids got powerade, we got some dominoes and hung out.   Not long after that we saw Cindy walking in.  We all ordered food and ate before the lines got crazy long.   The kids played several different domino games with the kids.  Johnny football came in trying to keep his presence unknown which was hard, but it was cool to see him.

We went to hang out on the porch with Tracy and family for a bit until we walked to the game.   It was a crazy game.  About 30 seconds left and we threw an interception.  It was already late so we started walking out.  Such a bummer.  As we got downstairs there were TVs showing that they ruled the quarterback's knee down so we still had the ball.  Then somehow they ruled that there was 1 second left on the clock to give us one more play.  We got a touchdown and extra point to tie the game.  We are standing downstairs with many Aggies who also thought the game was over.   As we went into overtime the game ended up going to 7 overtimes before the Aggies won.  The kids got to be part of the nail biter and be nervous through 7 overtimes.

11/23 - We got up and got ready, then headed to aunt Mary's to visit some more.  Everyone was a bit tired.   We had left overs for lunch.   Our cousins were leaving to head back to Vegas and we were driving to College Station to meet our friend for the weekend.

We headed out in the afternoon and tried to do a little shopping in College Station.  We checked into the house we were renting.   We had a beer or two, turned on football and hung out.  The boys went to get food and beer to watch football.  The kids played some pool with Doug, I got to read my book that one of my sorority sisters wrote.

11/22 - Today was our first Thanksgiving without our cousin David.  He was kind of the rock of the family and did so much for everyone.  It was a tough day but a great day.  We had so many people around that it didn't seem to different.  Lots of kids playing together from 2 years old to 16 years old.   We decided this year to have mexican food.  We had several pans of enchiladas,  tamales, and tacos.  So yummy.  Of course as usual we had been eating snacks most of the morning, but we still ate well.  We also ate lots of dessert - we had a ton and somehow ate most of it.   It was a great day.

In the evening after several people had gone home we sat around my aunts table.  It got more emotional with the small group, but we were all thankful to be together.   Sad that David wasn't with us and sad that my parents couldn't join us.   We got some good pictures of all the kids and families.  They will be great for the calendars.

11/21 - We got up and got ready to head out.  We had to take 2 cars to get Patch and her crate to Grandma and Pops house.   Mom and dad still didn't feel well enough to travel :(  

We grabbed some food on the way out of town and headed south.  There was some traffic getting out of Dallas and several crazy people on the road unfortunately.    We made it down to hang out with family for the afternoon and evening.   It was great seeing family.  We ate yummy leftovers, had some drinks and caught up.  We didn't stay to late so we could get back and get the kids to bed.

11/20 - I worked Monday of Thanksgiving week, but took off the rest of the week.  We had many errands to run on Tuesday and were leaving town Wednesday.   I got a text from mom to call her with a picture of my dad.  They had been having a very rough week.  VERY bad stomach bug.  Dad hadn't eaten for a few days and fell trying to help mom.  Needless to say they didn't feel like driving or riding in a car for 4 hours.   We were all sad that they couldn't travel and go with us.

11/18 - We slept in a little bit.  The kids woke up after 8 but were hungry because we didn't really have dinner.   The kids and I got dressed and went downstairs to get some food while Greg showered.

We took our time and headed home close to 11am.    We picked up Patch from grammy and gramps.  We watched the cowboys for a little bit - they would play well, then not play well.  Somehow they won with a near miss field goal.

We did some chores, hung out in the afternoon and went to an early dinner at Mexigo.

11/17 - We got up and of course the kids wanted to sleep in so we needed to wake them up.  We got ready and headed out.  We took Patch to stay at Grammy and Gramps house and we headed down the College Station.  We ran  by Chick fil a to grab some breakfast on the way.    We got down there and met Doug at Wings n more for lunch since we haven't been there all season.

We tried to check in after that but rooms weren't ready.   We went to do a little shopping then went to hang out and watch football in Doug's room.   We finally got checked in that afternoon - they left a new girls by herself checking everyone in at 3pm.  Um....

We went to part near Northgate and went to the chicken to have a few beers.  Kasey watched the snake because it was moving a lot, and Landon was letting me listen to the music he's playing in the band concert that is coming up.  Overall we had fun.

One of my sorority sisters was there at the seats next to us with her family.  It was fun to catch up and get to talk to her.    Aggies won, yeah!   After the game the boys went for a drink and I took the kids back to the hotel.

11/15 - Kasey's art was chosen to be shown at watters creek tonight.  We were bad parents and forgot to go by to see it.  She was very sad.   Bad parenting day :(

11/11 - We got up and showered then headed home.  Landon got back from his campout about 9:30am.  He went with a friend until we could get home.    We got Patch, got home, picked up Landon.   Landon took a shower and the kids practiced their music.  Greg and I went to the store, got lunch and picked up a wine shipment (that they almost sent back accidentally).  We had lunch and started cleaning up the house.  Greg went to help his dad work on his house.

Kasey invited a friend over, and Landon found some friends online to play fortnite with.  We went to MiCocina for dinner.  The kids are both really tired

11/10 - We got up because the A&M game was at 11.  Some of the group left early to meet friends,  The rest of us went together early to the game.  We grabbed a beer heading to the stadium.  The boys went into the club and Kasey and I headed to the 3rd deck.   We noticed that Nothing Bundt Cake was there and it was chilly so we got one of those and some hot chocolate.  We sat at a table thinking it was a little warmer hanging out.  We watched a few tasty videos as well.   We headed to our seats and it started sprinkling - there was 0% chance of rain when I woke up.  It wasn't bad but we were not prepared for rain.

We got to see the flyover and start to the game.   Greg brought us some food from the club after the first quarter.   He disappeared later to go have a drink in the club.  The aggies beat Ole Miss.   There was a guy near us that  kept yelling at everything.  Eventually it gave Kasey a headache.

We went back to the house to relax for a while.  We had some wine, watched football, charged devices and maybe took a little nap.   Then we headed to dinner.  We tried Porters steakhouse.  It was pretty good and nice to enjoy a good dinner.  They had no kids menu but Kasey had no problem with 8oz filet, ceasar salad and some mac and cheese.   It was a good meal.

After dinner we came back to the house to hangout with some more football and wine.

11/9 - I got home while Greg was picking up Landon from school.  Kasey and I packed the car.   We were dropping Landon at another scouts house before they headed to Texas motor speedway for the weekend.  Greg, Kasey and I were heading to College Station for the weekend.    On our way out of town we stopped at Chick fil a to grab some dinner.   We didn't get down there until after 8pm.   We went to the house and pretty quick got Kasey into bed.   Greg started a fire, we opened a bottle of wine and I started reading a new book.   It was so relaxing.  I really needed that.

11/4 - We didn't have a lot to do for the weekend which is unusual.  We spent some time on the house.   We went through all the boxes of books and got them into the bookshelf upstairs,  Kasey organized most of her toys upstairs and we got the desks in the room.  Its not 100%, but making good progress and we got through all of the boxes in the dining room except the DVDs.  I even put the kids sports and school pictures into a mock album.

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.