3 Birthdays

Last weekend while visiting my brother Jeffrey and his family, we ended up celebrating 3 birthdays! Jeffrey's had been the week before, but they were actually in Chicago at the time for Mr. Beach's (Bonnie's father) burial. We never actually had a cake for Josh's birthday, and Saturday was Lee's birthday so Bonnie added their names to the cake and we sang to them all at once.

Credits: Paper - Marcee Duggar; Frame - Melany Violette;Tag - Schmooangel;

Fun at the Border Patrol Check

Over the weekend we travelled to Lubbock for a memorial service for my Sister-in-law's father. He was 88.
On the way, we had to stop at the border patrol check as usual, but things didn't go quite as they normally do...Jeremy was driving. I was in the front passenger seat. Josh was directly behind Jeremy and Lee was behind me. Joel and Jenna were in the back seat.
Jeremy was prepared for the usual 'Are you all American citizens' and he was ready to say 'yes'. But this is how it actually went:
1st Officer - Where are you going today?
Jeremy - uhhhhh (then to me) where are we going? (not the type of hesitation you should have at a border patrol checkpoint!)
me to Jeremy - Lubbock!
Jeremy to officer - Lubbock.
Officer - OK - where are you coming from?
Jeremy - El Paso
Officer - Where do you live?
Jeremy - El Paso
Officer - Which side of town?
Jeremy - West side
Officer - Which street?
Jeremy - (tells him our street)
(by this time they have noticed other people in the back of the van - Josh, Lee, Joel and Jenna)
2nd Officer - is this door locked? Can you open it?
(while Josh is unlocking the door 2nd officer asks - And what are you going to be doing in Hobbs?
Me - It's Lubbock and we're going to a funeral
2nd Officer - Is everybody back here American Citizens?
They all say 'yes' as he actually gets a good look at Josh (who has recently grown a full beard and did I mention that Lee has told him he should stay away from airports? Lee says he looks like he would be named Mukkhi Farshad)
2nd Officer (to Josh) - And where were YOU born sir?
Josh - Here
2nd Officer - Here? (we are actually in the middle of nowhere)
Josh - Providence....Providence Hospital (with no trace of a foreign accent)
I guess by this time they realize we're not drug-runners or terrorists and they let us go.
As we are driving away, nobody has realized why they targeted Josh like that except Lee - who mentions something about the beard - prompting Josh to exclaim - That does it - I'm shaving it off!! And we all were almost rolling on the floor with laughter for quite awhile down the road! Funny in retrospect but kind of scary not to mention annoying at the time. I wanted to just strangle Jeremy for not knowing where we were going in the first place.

I will try to post a picture of Josh in his beard so you can see what Lee meant!

Hiking with Pa Pa

My father has been working on a new mountain bike trail in the Franklin Mountains State Park. He is just about finished with it and he took us on a hike over it Sunday. It is a great trail in a beautiful area. We hiked but it looks like a totally rideable bike trail.
Here are some pics from our hike. Josh actually took the first one.

Fantasy Football

I am now in a Fantasy Football league!! I have been listening to some guys at work talking about it for awhile now and last week I heard that they didn't have enough people and if somebody else didn't sign up they were not going to be able to form their league. So - enter me and my big mouth - - asking why they had not talked to any of us females about it? I was told "because I didn't think you knew anything about football" and I pretended to be offended saying that was chauvenistic - suffice it to say I am now in the league - called "Good ol Boys"! Our draft was Friday night online and we had to bid on players in an auction. It was really strange and took 2 and a half hours. It was kind of funny because I was on the computer doing my football draft and Lee was cooking supper. I simply got as many of Lee's players (he is also in a different fantasy football league) as I could and 'winged' it with the rest. Then I went in and traded some players because it looked like I didn't do a very good job of winging it the first time. I was even able to bench a couple of players for both of us at the last minute because they play for Houston and Baltimore and that game got postponed because of Hurricane Ike. Oh - and I won my first game - whoopie!! (Well - technically the second game because our scores were calculated for the week before after we got our players and I lost that one after the fact) Now I am watching the football players' rankings and projected points and am ready to make some more switches for next week.

The Birds

Last week, Jenna was sick so I took the day off and took her to the doctor. (She was just starting to get an ear infection - I can't even remember the last time one of my kids had one of those!) Afterwards, she wanted to go to Dairy Queen because it is right near the doctor's office. Since we both got big frozen drinks, I decided to drive around a bit to finish our drinks before going to fill her prescription because I didn't want to leave them in the hot van to melt. During this drive, we happened upon this incredible flock of beautiful white birds (egrets?) - and since I ALWAYS have my purse camera handy, I was able to get these pictures. As you can see, Jenna offered to help get pictures from her side of the car and I just love the picture she took - of herself in the rear-view mirror along with the birds.

The Cherry Stand

In the 1960's, my grandparents (Me Ma and Pa Pa) bought a cherry orchard on the Flathead Lake in Montana. It was an absolutely wonderful place to visit as a kid. It was interesting because a group of mostly school teachers from Texas all bought places up there at about the same time. There were the Maddox's, the Covingtons, the Reisdorf's, My Uncle Ted and Aunt Mable Newman, and my Grandparents, and I think there were others I don't remember. They were able do it because they were teachers and had the summers off to tend to the orchards. My grandparents were not teachers, but my Grandfather was able to take an early retirement. They sold their house in Andrews, Texas and became Snowbirds. The families still left up there are the Covingtons and the Maddox daughters and their husbands - who each have a place. I often wish that somehow my grandparents' place could have remained in the family, but the money matters just didn't work out that way.

Credits: Journal Block - Alexa; Cherries Jubilee Kit, Paper Alpha by Retrodiva Designs; Brads - Marcee J. Duggar; Deckled Frame - Katie Pertiet; Frame w/Bow - Lara Payton Gotta Pixel

More Treasures

It has been so much fun going through these old slides!!
This is my mother, my father's father and my father's sister playing a game of dominos in 1961!
It is awesome to have found it.
My aunt's two daughters (Jennifer and Michele) are the "80's hair" girls from a few posts ago.
I probably should explain that I have 2 cousins named Jennifer - one from my mom's side and one from my dad's side. They are actually Jennifer Leigh and Jennifer Lee. When the second Jennifer was born, my aunt Anne had no idea that Aunt Paula's Jennifer's middle name sounded just like Lee.

Credits: Paper - lizandherbabes; Tabs - Atomic Cupcake; Domino pics from the internet; 1942 Report, Elephant and Arial fonts

Scanning Slides!!!

I finally finished scanning all of my grandparents' slides into my computer - a whopping 783 of them! It is like a treasure hunt or an expedition - you never know what you will find next!! Now I have started to scan my parents' slides. They were in the same size box but are more tightly packed so I bet there are more than 783 of theirs to scan. My neck and shoulders are telling me to stop but it is so interesting that I can't!!
The best thing about getting them into a digital format is that I can put them all on DVD's and share them with the rest of my family - which I will be doing soon!!!

The Wonders of Modern Technology

This happened during our trip to Detroit in July. It was incredibly frustrating but we were able to get on the next flight out!!

Credits: Paper - Creative Victorian Designs; Tag - Nini's Notions; Fiber - Atomic Cupcake: Journal Boxes - Broken Jar Creations; Myriad Pro Font

Then and Now

Again, while visiting my Aunt last weekend, she had this old picture of Jeremy and Andy. I couldn't resist the opportunity to do a 'Then and Now' page!!

Credits: Ribbon and Stripes Template - Scrapbook Max; That's Super, VAGRounded BT, and X-Files fonts; Scrapbook Max Software

The Girls

Here is another picture taken during our visit to see my Aunt Anne...

Credits: Moulin Rouge Kit by Molly & Max; Frame - Katie Pertiet; DymoFontInvers and Arial fonts

Another Fishing Trip

I've been scanning my grandparents' old slides into my computer again and found some more pictures of my grandfather fishing. He loved to fish! But, somehow my dad did not inherit that love of fishing. I am so glad they took these pictures back then!

Credits: Gone Fishing and Fruity Kits - Atomic cupcake; Playbill and Papyrus Fonts; Adobe Photoshop Elements Software