2022 Resolutions

Resolutions for this year are not too different than any other year.

Get healthy, exercise more, drink more water, drink less Diet Cokes, and to be more thoughtful are the normal yearly goals.  I am going to strive to be a better role model for my grandchildren and to intentionally play with them when I get to be with them.  I would like to have a closer relationship with God and try to please Him more with my life. 

I want to pick up my camera more, finish two quilts, and work on my family tree.

On another level, I read this and thought that this is important to me. 

 "To find joy in the little things.

To not sweat the small stuff

To have courage to say no to the things that overwhelm me.

But to also have the courage to say yes to the things that have been tugging at my heart."

2021 Random Items

 1. In August Chad moved to Sunnyvale. This is the closest that he has lived to me since 2004, when he graduated from high school. Fitz and Evans started daycare for the first time in September. 

2. Gunter got its first red light September 5. The land across 121 from us was bought by DG (Don Godwin) and cleaned up with trees cleared out and new fences.

3. We had a failure of a garden due to too much rain this year.

4. Diana had her paneling painted and Rickie put down wood floors for them in the spring.

5. I got new tile in my kitchen in June. It was not level. I wanted to get rid of my Ashley insert and get a propane insert to click on and off. When they removed the old Ashley, the guy broke two bricks. Rick said we should just paint everything. That is all it took. We then started our painting and new carpet. Also we redid the kitchen tile. I also exchanged bedroom suits. 

6. Several people we knew were effected by Covid. Rachel Barrier's passing was the one that hit us the closest.

7. Roger Streetman was diagnosed with cancer and has started his treatments.

8. Rick and I both got our Covid shots in January and March after having Covid last Thanksgiving. I had Covid the second time July 15. Then we got the booster shot December 23.

2021 Holidays

Because of my painting and new floors, I went straight to decorating the day after the new carpet was laid around November 8. 

Thanksgiving

Greg and the girls flew in on November 19 the Friday before Thanksgiving. Diana also went to Mansfield to pick up Marlow and Jackson for the week. Saturday we were all together. So Saturday night we had our traditional Thanksgiving meal with Turkey and Dressing. Chad and his family would come and go back and forth from Sunnyvale. We had a laid back time with Greg and the girls; in fact, Greg changed his plans and stayed one day longer so we could hang out together. They left on Wednesday. Thursday it was just Rick and I. His girls were with Sherry. We had lunch at Dickey's BarBQ at the gas station in Sherman. Chad and his family went to Tara's family in south Texas. Friday was a football playoff game at Pennington field at 2 PM. Then  Jenna's family came to Diana's so we got together with them. We played games, ate, and cooked. Our Thanksgiving meal with the Fergusons was Saturday night. We went with a Mexican fiesta. 

Christmas

Greg and his girls flew in on Sunday December 19. They got to go to Keelie's Party for the first time with me. Then the next night they got to have a sleepover at Keelie's. She got all the girls matching pajamas. On Monday Greg and Chad went together and did their Christmas shopping. We had meals and games here at the house. Tuesday night cousins opened their presents. We had started running out of groceries. So after presents were opened, Diana and I ran to Sherman to restock on groceries for the rest of the week. Wednesday night we opened presents here. On Wednesday Diana picked Jerry up at the airport so he could spend the week with us.  On Thursday we had to say goodby to the Greg and the girls. The games of the holiday season were Yahtzee and Rubicube. 

All week long different ones in the family have been getting their Covid Booster shot. Rick decided Thursday about 4 PM that we should go get ours. I took blue gel Naproxen pills around the clock. My arm got sore, but that was all that happened to me.  

Friday was Christmas Eve, our family Christmas. Rick woke up not feeling good. We did make two caramel pies - one for his girls and one for us. He got worse as the day went on. In fact, he went to bed with fever and aching all over with his body getting shocked. He missed Christmas. I went on to Diana's  house. We played our traditional Christmas games, gift card exchange, and we had a special visit from Santa Claus. Our meal was Chicken Fried Steak and Chicken Fried Chicken with all the fixings. Christmas Day Rick was back to normal. It was back to just him and I. We had a lazy day of movies and football. 

New Year's Eve - we went to Justin and Keelie's for food and games. The game was a new one, Dutch Blitz. We made it to 10 PM there. We came home. I watched a Hallmark movie to make it to 2022.

Another year has come and gone. I was blessed greatly. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

2021 Fourth of July

 "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" was no disappointment this year. We had 19 days of food, family, fun, crafts, and FIREWORKS.  The weather was great for firework season. We added a water slide this year to our activities. My four grandchildren had swimming lessons, and we also took the kids to our friends' swimming pool.  Diana and I fed 14 to 22 people each meal. The boys did 4 private shows and 3 city shows. Because of a shortage of fireworks, they did not get all the order in; so what we did have, we sold everything out. Randy's stand closed about 4 PM on the fourth and brought us their leftovers. By the time the boys got home from their shows, we had sold everything in the stand out. It was a great year with great stories. Chad inherited an Instant Pot and several bottles of wine from a customer. We had cousins to come visit so we even had some extra "family" time. Missing this year was my jeep and 'the girls" (the mannequins).  They may have had Covid. Hopefully, everything will be back to normal. 

2021 - Oh, The Places You Will Go!

 Traveling was just a little more challenging this year than normal, but we did make the best out of the situation. We did get back on the road with these adventures.

1. We did 16 weeks of football, so that was 16 weeks on the road. Only the trip to Sul Ross in Alpine allowed us to spend several nights. We did go on to Big Bend National Park, Davis Observatory, Terlingua, and looked for the Marfa Lights. 

2. In May we made two trips to Nashville. One was a road trip with Rick to see the girls play soccer. We stopped in Memphis at the dog races/casino going and coming. Greg drove us around Liepers Fork and Franklin. Then three weeks later Diana and I flew to Nashville to see Anja graduate from Kindergarten at her school. We rented a car. She and I drove around and did our own touring.

3. Our early ladies's summer trip was to Oklahoma, Eureka Springs, and Branson. We went up adventure highway with our normal stops, then we crossed over to Tulsa making stops along the way. We then went to Eureka Springs for a trip down memory lane. It was a little sad in how many places were closed. The Crescent Hotel, however, did not disappoint. Then we went on to Branson where we did all the touristy things - The Titanic Museum, the train ride, two music shows, and a fine-dining experience at the college. My favorite of Branson was the Sight and Sound Theater - The Jesus show. 

4. In June, Rick and I did our church mission trip to Woodward, Oklahoma (Cynthia Bruner's hometown), where we worked on a cowboy church. We visited Riverwind on the way up. We sheet rocked on this trip.

5. Rick and I made two trips to the New Mexico cabin. The first trip he and I did all the normal touristy things - Angel Fire, Taos, Red River, and Santa Fe. We did not see much wildlife and no elk this trip. He decided that we would go back with Roger to paint the cabin. The second trip was a work trip with daily trips to Angel Fire to the paint/hardware store. The boys had to fix the spray rig and then learn how to use it. When the house was finished it looked great. Jack and Short are smiling down at their cabin.

6. Rick and I had one last Sprinkler Show trip wit TMC. It was to the JW Marriott Hill Country north of San Antonio. We did go downtown one day and visit the historic sites just for old times sake. On our way home, we went through Gruene, Texas to see the famous dance hall and the Gristmill Restaurant. Also on our way to San Antonio, we drove by the Magnolia Silos in Waco, so that I can also mark that off the bucket list. 

7. Our last trip was our fall ladies' trip. This year we flew into Baltimore, Maryland. We traveled 1600 miles in our rental car, covering Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the corner of Virginia and West Virginia. We toured historic villages with our own guided tour guides (LOL), covered bridges, historic homes, and battlefields. We did the driving tour of Gettysburg and Antietam. We visited historic Harpers Ferry. This was a great historical trip as always. We did miss out on Fall foliage this year, We understood that it was just too wet this year.

The biggest issue with traveling this year was keeping up with your mask and knowing when and where you had to wear it. We said that we are starting the counting over for all 50 states since we have been to all 50 states. I counted up after this trip I have been to 38 states at least two times.  

2021 Sports - Take me out to the ballgame

It is good that I like sports. This year has been a fun-filled successful year for sports all across the board from college football to 3-Year old tee-ball.

Peyton had a spring and fall season this year with Hardin Simmons at Brownwood with 16 games - 6 in the spring and 10 in the fall. Our average day was 14 hours. The farthest we went was Sul Ross in Alpine. We did go on to Big Bend country- a place checked off my bucket list. I did search for the Marfa Lights. We did visit Terlingua. The Davis Observatory was still closed because of covid. Peyton had a great season getting defensive player of the year.

Cade started the year with basketball. He was the point guard and very fun to watch. Next we went to baseball. The Gunter Tigers did not disappoint. They made it all the way to the final four at Dell Diamond - State playoffs. We lost the first game. During playoffs the team got in pitching trouble, and the coach put Cade in to finish the game. He did awesome, so he became a closing pitcher at the end of the season. The Gunter Tigers also made it to the state playoff game at AT&T Stadium or better known as Jerry's World. We lost to Franklin which was a better team than us. We did play with them for three quarters. We were 15-0 going into the game. We had to beat Holiday and Roosevelt to get there. Canadian got beat out this year. Until the last game we never had a close game.

Anja and Isabel played spring soccer. So Rick and I did a road trip to Nashville to see soccer games. It was  a rainy day, but good times. (Diana and I also flew back to Nashville in May to see Anja graduate from Kindergarten. 

Cali played volleyball and basketball, as well as, participating in track and field events. 

Last Fitz and Evans had their debut with sports with soccer. Chad signed up Fitz for 3-year old soccer with him being the coach, which ended up him coaching two teams. The last game of the year Fitz was sick. Since he did not have enough players, he put Fitz's suit on Evans and let her out on the field to fill a spot. 

Take Me out to the Ballgame, Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks..... 

Forget the peanuts and Cracker Jacks, just keep me in plenty of Diet Cokes and sunscreen.

SnowMageddon 2021

     Valentine's Day, February 14 was technically the first day of the SnowMageddon, even though we had already had some very cold days before this date. On Wednesday, we called off our night church services because of the anticipation of some very cold temperatures. Cade's baseball games were called off for Thursday and Friday, as well as, Peyton's college football game on Saturday. The temperatures were already below freezing on Thursday and will stay below for the next 10 days. 

    On Sunday, the church services were also canceled. During the afternoon the snow began to fall. At 6 we had our first problem. Rick had been warning renters and children on how to prepare for these temperatures, but Brandi had the first mishap. She had a frozen pipe that flooded her house. So she had to cut her water off and start hauling water in ice chests. We had about 3-5 inches of snow - enough to cover the ground. For the next week, school would be canceled along with everything else. The night temperatures would be under 15 with a low of -2 one night. On Tuesday and Wednesday we received another 3-4 inches of snow. Supposedly this was the lowest temperatures in 70-80 years, and the second longest period of days below freezing.

       We experienced rolling brown-outs, where we would have electricity for 15 minutes and off for 45 minutes. Everyone had a different story. Some people lost power for days, some lost water, and some lost neither. We totally lost our internet and television for 5-6 days. We did lose our water at the end for about 24 hours, but we had already put water in the bathtub "just in case." The grocery stores were very similar to the early days of Covid. People were hoarding up water, bread, milk, and eggs. 

    We did try to save a baby calf, Popsicle, but the extreme temperatures were just too much for him. In all, we lost a total of three brand new baby calves. Mindi had one sink to freeze. Marci's place all froze up. The church and school did not fare so well. The school had many burst pipes. The church just had a few. Rick and I swept water at the church one morning. Rick stayed busy for the entire 10 days helping with problems. 

    I was blessed during this time. I enjoyed the snow and birds. I had enough groceries and Diet Cokes on hand that food was never an issue. I managed just fine without television, stores, and going somewhere.