March 2021

 

3/27 - Landon has pre-UIL performance after evening and most of day practice.

3/26 - Kasey had a Pom Squad dance performance.  In the dance parking lot again instead of at a baskeball game.

3/20 - 3/21 - We had several scouts over to the house to help Landon paint and put together the benches.  The boys did a good job with help and guidance from a few of the dads.

3/5-3/12 - Big Island Hawaii spring break

Friday took the kids out of school and headed to Hawaii.  We got $200 tickets round trip and couldn't pass it up. The flight was long and not great with masks, but so worth it.  We rented a place on the coast which I love.  It wasn't beach but we could see and hear the waves hit the rocks all the time on our patio.  Beautiful sunsets and just being in my happy place Hawaii.  Landon had his own room, Kasey had a loft she called her palace with 2 twin beds and a chair.  Kasey brought her rubber duck Fred who needed pictures in several places in Hawaii.

The first night we went to close restaurant where we sat outside and enjoyed food and some drinks.  The next morning we decided to go exploring near our place.  There was a short walkway in front of our place and we walked over rocks to a beach and over to some ruins.   After that we went down to south point (southern most part of US).  On the way down we  had lunch at a local restaurant that happened to have our favorite beer on tap from Kona brewery.   We hiked around some at south point, got some cool pictures.   We decided to try and hike to the Green Sand Beach.  Its a few miles hike, it was crazy windy with dirt.  After putting on sunscreen I looked like I had been riding a motorcycle in a sand storm.   We didn't actually make it to the green sand beach but it was about the adventure :)

Sunday we decided to go up to the North side to Waipio valley and to see waterfalls.   We took wrong directions getting to Waipio valley but went down a cool road surrounded by really tall trees.    We went down to observation area at Waipio valley and decided to drive down since we had 4 wheel drive Jeep.   Drive down is really steep but we made it fine.  At the bottom there were huge pot holes larger than the car and filled with water.  There was another car in front of us that looked like they had been there before.  We basically drove on the outside of the huge pot holes.  Once we got down there we walked around on the black beach listening to the ocean.  In the valley was a stream flowing into the ocean.  Greg and the kids tried to cross it but didn't get all the way across on large slippery rocks.  As we were starting to leave there were some horses that walked up to the water.  One of them was walking up to people looking for food or something.

From there we headed to a brewery for some lunch and to try some local beer.   It was raining some and of course the one time we didn't bring our rain coats.  We decided to go ahead and drive to the water falls since we were already up in the area.  We went to Akaka Falls and Kahuna Falls that were near each other.  There was about 1/4 mile circle to walk around to see them.  We were soaking wet but got to see some cool waterfalls.  We got a few pictures of us all wet in front of the water falls.

Since we were eating later lunches, we weren't that hungry for dinner.  So we ended up having ice cream/dessert for dinner 4 days in a row.  The kids enjoyed it and really so did I :)  In the evenings we had brought some wine and bourbon to enjoy.

The next morning we went to a close by cove to do some snorkeling.  It was pretty cool.  Landon and I saw a turtle and several cool fish and sea urchins.  That afternoon we drove down to Kona Brewery for a late lunch and did a little shopping.  That afternoon Greg and I went to the store for a few things and stopped at the outdoor restaurant for a drink.  Greg wanted to try a Bourbon they had.

The next morning we had a dolphin tour booked.  We headed out on the boat with captain Chad.  We saw a bottle nose dolphin, a hawaiian monk seal (who are endangered), and huge manta ray feeding on the surface.  We had not seen the large pod dolphins that they usually see.  After about an hour and half the captain got a call where the dolphins were.  He asked what we wanted to do, the dolphins were kind of far away so it would take longer.  He knew a cool place we could snorkel or we could go find dolphins.  It was just our family and 1 other guy and we all decided we wanted to go find the dolphins.   We did find then and when we got there he let us get in the water and about 150 dolphin were swimming below and around us.  Very cool.  We could hear them in the water.  Kasey decided to stay in the boat and so she got to see the spinner dolphins above the water flipping and swimming on the top.

We got back in the boat and went to the front of the dolphins so we could get in again and watch them go by.   So cool to see all of them swimming with each other.    We got back in the boat and went to the front of the dolphins again.  This time about 5 feet from our boat some hump back whales came to the surface.  They were pretty close and pretty big.  There were about 6 whales so we watched them for a while.  We weren't supposed to get in the water with them, but at one point they were playing in the middle of the dolphins.  One of the whales was flapping his tail several times in the water.  So cool.   We headed back after that.  We were about an hour late and the next tour had been waiting on us for an hour.  Such a cool experience.

That afternoon we went to another Brewery in Kona called Ola.   Pretty good.  Greg was collecting brewery shirts along the way.

The next day we went to Huggos on the water for some lunch and view.  We had some beers, some Ahi tuna and the kids got some daiquiris.    we could see little yellow fish in the water right in front of us.   Doug flew in that day.  We met him in between where we were staying  at Tommy Bahamas.  We had a nice dinner, enjoyed a few drinks, good food and even got dessert.

The next morning Doug came down to our area.   We got to see some dolphins off our patio.  We headed to the cove for some snorkeling.   We then tried to go find another place we had been in 2005 where we swam with big turtles.   We didn't find it but did some more snorkeling at a cool place.  That afternoon we went back to Kona Brewery for a good lunch.   We hung out at our place in the afternoon and then we had booked a manta ray tour that night.  We had tried the previous night but there weren't any out.   We called the guy from the Dolphin tour and he was able to get us booked on another one.   All 5 of us went.  The water was a bit cold.    We went out with snorkels, and had a surf board with a light under it.  Each of us held onto a handle, floated on the water and had noodle under our legs.   We got to see several manta rays swimming around.   There were other tours out there and they would sometimes swim up under the lights.  They didn't do that with our light, but that's ok.  Not sure Kasey would have liked it.

The next day, our last day in paradise, we  got packed up and went to meet Doug for lunch closer to the airport.   We had a few drinks, good food and got to sit outside.   We were early at the airport, but got to see other friends who were coming to the island.  Wonderful trip!!

January & February 2021

 2/28 - we celebrated Grammy's birthday.  We picked up Babe's chicken and had one of our favorite meals.  Kasey made banana pudding which is one of our favorite desserts.

Landon and Greg started on his Eagle project building 2 benches for local animal shelter.

2/14 - 2/20 - We'll call it Texas snowpocalypse of 2021.  Sunday is started snowing and had enough to stick to the ground.  Greg and I even took patch for a short walk - very bundled up because it was COLD outside.  We put our ice for drinks outside to freeze, and put hot tea outside to cool down :)

School ended up being cancelled all week, along with the gym, dance, extra curriculars, and I worked from home all week.  We were very fortunate.  We lost power once for 40 minutes and lost internet one other time.  Grandma and Pops lost power for most of 2 days - Greg went to get Grandma, was almost to our house and their power came on so he took her home.  3/12 hours later they lost power again.   Some other families were in power cycles - 30 or 40 minutes on then off.  You can't do a lot of work, cooking etc in 30-40 minutes, and it wasn't really enough time to get the house warmed up.   Wind chills through the week were in the teens, it got down to 0.  Major cold, snow everywhere - the streets and everything were covered.

Luckily Friday it started warming up, by Saturday most of the snow was gone.

Kasey's shower froze but luckily on Friday it thawed and we don't think there was any damage.

We had cookie booth 2/20 and sold 110 boxes of cookies!

2/13  - Greg drove the kids and I over to Grammy's to take her some cookies Kasey had made, some flowers and a card.  Weather was a bit crazy and Kasey and I were on a Girl Scout event that afternoon and evening.  Glad we got to say hello and Happy Birthday! 

2/11 - immediate family buried Nanny today - we will celebrate her life later.  They closed school so the kids went with us.  Aunt Jody said a prayer and each of us put a yellow rose on her casket.

2/9 - Landon had winter band concert.  I got to go hear his band and the top high school band which was pretty cool.  Greg stayed home because Kasey was coming home from dance.

1/30 - Greg and Landon built a trial bench to see how it went building them for his Eagle project.

We also started cookie booths today.  We set up with 2 sneeze guards that we borrowed from a local retail store, put the cookies behind them and helped customers.  We sold 135 boxes of cookies which is the highest I think we've ever sold.  Anything over 100 boxes is awesome.

1/27 - Greg's grandmother passed away today.  We got to see her at Christmas, but no one had gotten to see her much in January because of restrictions.  

1/10 - It snowed a little bit in Dallas.  Not much but fun to see snow

1/8 - Girl Scout cookie season started.  Not quite the same as other years.  Landon and Kasey made a flyer for neighbors so they could order cookies and mulch through QR code and we could deliver.  Several people ordered that way, and some just ordered when we came by later in person.  Kasey's goal was much smaller this year because we didn't know how it would be.

12/31 -1/2/2021 - We spent new years at home for the first time in many years.  Partially because of COVID and partially because we had to get up super early the next day to fly to Miami.  We were heading to Miami to see A&M in bowl game.   We got to walk along the beach some, ate some good food including some Cuban food, and went to bowl game.  We got a suite for 8 of us to separate from others and gave kids some more space to hang out.   Aggies won which was good.  

December 2020

 12/31 -1/2/2021 - We spent new years at home for the first time in many years.  Partially because of COVID and partially because we had to get up super early the next day to fly to Miami.  We were heading to Miami to see A&M in bowl game.   We got to walk along the beach some, ate some good food including some Cuban food, and went to bowl game.  We got a suite for 8 of us to separate from others and gave kids some more space to hang out.   Aggies won which was good.  

12/25 - We had Christmas morning just the 5 of us (Patch got Christmas as well).  

The kids, grandma and I went down to visit Nanny.   We didn't get to hug her but got to visit with her a little bit and get a picture with her.  She seemed to be doing ok, but had a hard time hearing us.

Then we went to our house for lunch with the family.  Cindy and Carlos were in town.  We had good food, got to open presents and took a few pictures.

12/24 - We went over to Grammy & Gramps place for Christmas eve.  We had yummy tacos as usual and opened gifts with each other.  Fun time with food, drinks (gramps found how to make margaritas like he used to :)) and family.  Glad we were able to be together.

Kids played new game Grammy gave them.  We watched Kasey's holiday dance performance and Landon's band concert online.  Kids decorated cookies at Grammy's house for Santa.

12/11-13 - A&M game was cancelled because the other team had issues with COVID so we stayed home for the weekend.  Friday evening was a bit busy but fun.  Kasey's dance studio was recording her winter dance number in downtown McKinney.   Landon had a band celebration with a food truck.  After we got both kids where they needed to go, Greg and I headed back to McKinney square.  We sat down at pizza restaurant on ordered a drink before going to get Kasey.

Kasey  joined us for dinner.  Then we headed home so she could change and we headed to Allen football playoff game.   We got to see Landon perform then Greg and I brought K and twins back to the house.  We watched Mandalorian.

After the game Landon went out with horns to get a bite to eat and be social.

Saturday we went for morning walk.  I found a little dog by itself.   I brought it back to the house and called and texted the number.  The dad was working on the yard so didn't get the messages.  We got him back home.  Patch was not happy having another dog in her backyard.   We had Laynes for lunch.

Kasey and I went to deliver some donated toys for our local area then went to Kohls to find her some Christmas pajamas to wear to dance this week.  

Sunday it rained all day and was cold so we had a lazy day!

12/10 - We had to help Landon pick classes for next year.  Interesting process.  Let's just say that Greg and I had some wine during the process.  At any rate, Greg mentioned signing Landon up for dance which we didn't end up doing. He's going to stay with band, he thought about doing football but decided not to and did sign up for a volunteer class to help younger kids.

12/5 - Today we got together 6 girls from our Girl Scout troop to decorate stockings and Christmas trees.  We had Christmas music and the girls had fun decorating - we all had masks on and were spaced apart.    

Christmas letter 2020

 Hello family and friends:

Oh what a year 2020 has been for everyone!  I hope this letter finds you enjoying the holidays and being excited about the end of the year.

I'm still working at TI, my team finished a year+ project this year and now we are working on to new projects for next year.   I'm enjoying my team and got to make multiple positive changes with the team this year that I'm excited about.   I'm still enjoying work and I'm very thankful to have a good job.  We have been working at home since mid March, and are just starting to very slowly go back to the office.  Obviously no traveling this year and don't see that changing much for a while.

For volunteer work this year I'm managing the web site for high school PTSA, co-leading Cadette Girl Scout troop, and VP of membership, co-chairing the web site, and leading 6th grade graduation at the elementary school.  This is my 10th year volunteering at the elementary school - it will be weird to no longer be there next year. I am also trying to volunteer some to help out the band.   

The Girl Scout troop finished up their Bronze award right as we were going into quarantine.  The girls created stuff animals for fireman and first responders to give to kids in tough situations.   We have met a few times outside, virtually or spread out.  Most recently we had the girls decorate stockings and little christmas trees.  We played Christmas music, opened the doors, and kept masks on and girls spread out.  It was fun.

As with many other things this year Greg and Landon's Philmont trip got cancelled.  Greg and the kids still walked  3 1/2 miles pretty much every day from when we went into quarantine until the kids went back to school.  He's still very involved in Landon's Boy Scout Troop doing adult training and organizing board of reviews. He's still doing clubhouse coordination for the neighborhood which has been pretty quiet this year. 

We've still been going to A&M football games when they have them.  With only 25% capacity its pretty easy to spread out.  

Right before quarantine we went to Broken Bow Oklahoma again with the grandparents.  It was no nice to have that before we were all at home.

We did take a few trips over the summer.  We rented a house at Possum Kingdom lake - we had fun being somewhere else with the pool, and we even rented a boat and went tubing one day.  All 4 of us went tubing which was really fun.    We also spent a week at the beach in Alabama and rented a condo right on the beach.  It was really nice and we were able to stay away from people pretty well.  The elevators were the only tough part.  That's about it for this year.

Kasey is now 12 and in 6th grade. She is getting taller and less than an inch shorter than me.  She's taking hip hop and jazz with a friend, and she's also still ding Pom Squad where they perform multiple times during the year (this year that means in a parking lot and they just videod the holiday performance they will share with us before the holiday). Kasey is now in band playing the clarinet - she's taking private lessons and enjoying it.  We actually took her aunts clarinet it to get fixed because she enjoys it.  The girls bridged to Cadettes in Girl Scouts and achieved their Bronze award right before quarantine started.   This year at school she's in KNN crew who are in charge or morning announcements.  Kasey is on camera doing More segments and other things.

She enjoys watching YouTube and playing Roblox. She  has a few friends that she hangs out with when she can.   Kasey has created a new style - she used to not like black clothes.  Now she only wears black leggings and different shirts (she prefers black shirts too).

Landon is now 14 1/2, and  a Freshman in high school. He has grown tall and thin and is about an inch shorter than Greg.  Landon is playing in the high school band so he marches at Varsity football games which has been fun.  Parents of kids involved in the game get to buy tickets on Mondays of home games.  Everyone is spaced out and its outside so we've felt safe.  The band is fun and reminds us of  music that was played when we were in high school.  They have performed at football games, participated in Regional competition (they got all 1s (the best score you can get)), and even had an end of year performance.  The directors were very excited to get to do that.  He's enjoyed getting to hang out with other kids that play his same instrument.  This year in Scouts Landon has started working on his Eagle project.  Its not approved yet but he's spent some time on it and working on the proposal and even a prototype.   Landon really enjoys playing online games and watching YouTube.   

We hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May God Bless you this 
coming year.  We are ready to move on to 2021!


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

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.