More Thanksgiving

Austin's motto is "Keep Austin Weird." I think they took that idea from Seattle. It is a liberal city, but liberal in a crunchy granola way, which is a little more bearable for a conservative like me. Anyways, one of the things they do, and we really like, is Christmas decorate the cedar trees along the highways. 2222 is the highway in particular Rick, Jason and I saw that first January; we loved it but were amazed the city allowed all the decos (but goes well with the theme of "Keep Austin Weird"). Just something fun, festive, different and weird.

After Christmas last year when all the Christmas decos were marked down I bought a bunch of tinselly garland. Friday we all went out to decorate the cedars along Abbottsbury going up into our subdivision. Everybody was helping, but Braden was the only one with a camera and took these pics.

 

James enjoyed riding on the scooter, which he called a motorcycle, and also riding in the truck. His Grandpa Mike has a truck he loves to ride in. Get out of the way, Evil Knievel!

Rick and James

Jason and James

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

This year the ticket prices were so high that only Jason came out.
Braden, Anika and their 2 sons came also.
Rick invited Akanksha and her family of hubby, son, and daughter.
I made the same dinner I have served for 10 years, so I have it down. Still a lot of work, but I quite enjoy it.

I picked Jason up from the airport on Wed at 10am, and his plan was to go straight to the Tangers Outlet Mall in San Marcos. I still had a few things to do for Thanksgiving dinner, but decided going on Wed was a better deal than going on Black Friday. So off we went. Jason said because we didn't spend much time there in Aug, Thanksgiving he wanted to shop a bit more. He did buy 2 quite expensive shirts.

Today Rick, Braden and I went out at 7:30am to get some milk and juice. We saw a flock of turkeys, 15-20, at the bottom of the hill on the golf course. Made me happy to see them; I was afraid all the construction and activity would scare them off and they would relocate. I did tell them they should be thankful to be there and wandering around (since yesterday was Turkey Day).

Scott and Jessica

Scott and I were talking on the phone last week and he happened to mention the jeep, and asked me if Dad (Rick) drove it much. I said no, it's not all that comfortable a ride. He said I could sure use it this winter on the snowy, steep drives in Old Park City up to Montage. So he called Rick to see if he could use it this winter; of course the reply was yes. He and Jessica bought tickets and came here on Thursday and left this morning to drive back to Utah.

It was really fun having them for the weekend. We didn't do anything too unusual - shopping at Kohl's (I had $10 rewards to use and they bought sox), 2 Christmas movies at our house, Farmer's Market to get Kombucha and gluten/dairy free baked goods for Jessica, played Yahtzee (in the first game Jessica got 4 yahtzees and the unbelievable score of 551), Torchy's and Rudy's.

Cheryl was here on Mon thro Wed, then Scott and Jess; Jason, Braden and Anika on Wed/Thurs. It's so nice to have people come and see us since we are so far from family.


Rick saying goodbye to the jeep and please don't hit the truck! They left this morning at 6:45am.



Rick and Scott

Scott and Jessica

Rick jumps in pool

Rick hadn't gotten to all the leaves in the pool for a few days and went out this morning to scoop them out with the long pole. Somehow he lost his footing, started to fall into the pool, and just did a slow shallow dive. I was standing and watched it all happen in slow motion. The water is so cold I was afraid he would have a heart attack, but instead he swam to the edge and got out, laughing the whole time.

I ran in to get towels; he thought I was running to get the camera to video it. I'm not that mean!! Just stood to make sure he got out ok, then ran for towels.

Quite funny.

Yikes, it's Thursday already!

Thursday, and my last blog post was week ago Wed.

I had a busy week. Started the ortho treatment on Monday by getting rubberband spacers between some of my teeth. I go in today and get bands put on. My jaws definitely hurt more, ears ringing more, and starting to get headaches. I'm very nervous about this whole process and if I should even be doing it. But I guess I am. Rick says he wouldn't go thro the misery. I know it will be miserable.

My sister Miz Chero (Cheryl) came on Mon evening. Acutally, Rick and I drove halfway and met Anika. It took us 1 hour, and them a little more. We did go on I-45, which probably cost us $10 but we missed all of rush hour, woot woot! (as Alyona would say).

Cheryl and I went shopping (she has lost a bunch of weight and is looking really good). She had a hard time accepting the reality of her new size, which is smaller. We made marshmellows to see if she wanted to do them for RS Christmas Dinner chocolate fountain. They were fun to make and taste so much better. I don't like marshmellows buts these were good. We walked on the paths in our subdivision. (The paths are short, but it will be nice to walk on them, I have looked forward to the HOA finally getting them finished.)

Yesterday I drove to San Antonio to take her back. I felt bad because Anika had to bring the two little boys before, and I don't mind driving. We left a little after 12 noon and got there in good time, but then I left at 2:30, and with stopping to get a hamburger and gas, went thro Austin at 4:10 - just in time for rush hour.  Oh well, the joys of rush hour. I was just surprised it started before 4pm. I decided I'm also not going to live my life around rush hour.

It was so much fun to have her here. It seems like one person in the family takes it upon herself to keep the family together and doing activities, and that person is Cheryl. But really, I have the 2 best sisters.

Scott and Jessica are coming today, I need to pick them up from the airport at 4:25 on US Airways. They are coming here to get the jeep. Scott talked his dad into letting him use it this winter. It will be fun to see them, they are the only ones who didn't come this summer.

Thanksgiving coming up and I'm planning the dinner. I do the same one every year and have for 10 years. We have Jason, Braden and family, Aksansha and family coming. Nice.

3 Sisters Rock It!

Miz Chero, Squirt (Miss Kris) and Miss U (me) are going to start a website/blog and the name is going to be something like the above.

Acutally I think Cheryl is going to go by Grandma and I'm not sure what Squirt will choose, and I will either be Nano or Miss U. But the other names are our childhood names.

Here are some topics we will blog about: Elder care, grandparenting, parenting, cooking/recipes, crafts/invitations/home deco, health, exercising, weight loss (which we are all 3 trying to do), etc. I said probably not politics, but there might be a little of that.

The name idea came because when Miz Chero was at Squirt's helping with mom after I left in Sept, they played racquetball at Squirt's RecCenter. A 30something at the desk had curly hair like Cheryl's but it looked really cute and Cheryl told her it was cute and that she had curly hair also and had been her trial in trying to style it. The woman said something along the lines of we just need to like our hair and rock it!!

So we 3 sisters are going to rock it!!

Polar cold blast sweeping the nation

The Polar Plunge, as I saw one weather website describing it, is going to hit Tues and it will be a doozy. Extreme cold in the northern Plain states and upper Midwest and cold in the Northeast, flowing south. Austin will be partakers of some of this, with highs in the mid 50s and lows down to 36. At least it won't be -4 or whatever in the upper Plains states. I'll check on my outdoor succulents and see which ones can be covered and which need to be brought closer to the house.

The days are getting shorter, the nights longer. It makes me want to snuggle into my house, curl up with a fun movie (WISH we got Hallmark - Scott says they are advertising 50 days of Christmas!) or a good book, some soup (a la Alyona) and hibernate.

I suppose I had better get out tho, Kohl's sent me another 30% off.
It must be used.

Handouts

Yes, I think we should raise taxes

More pics

Paige and ggrrls grocery shopping - Sat evening at Walmart - crazy!!

Jason

Chris and Alyona

 Walking on the main path in the woods, after the bridge and towards the first of the meadows. Keep going and end up at Danville park; Rick and I walked it many times to Larry's Marathon (gas station and car service center).

Creek at Blanton Woods, the edge is slowly being eroded as big rainstorms pull the trees and foliage right off the hillside. Before we moved the path going down actually fell into the creek, and people formed a new path. Incredible to see the huge trees with their roots over the edge.

Indiana

Alyona, Chris, and Jason inspecting one of the benches that Chris built for his Eagle project; Scott painted them for his, along with other improvements to Blanton Woods.

The scenery was so vivid no pics will ever do it justice. I filled my phone with photos.

Just can't say how much I miss being able to walk in these woods most everyday; it's my meditation and spiritual renewal time. Jason, Chris, and Alyona walked quite a bit with me - I was so happy to be there.

Lots more pics - more to post later!!

Pics, and pics, and pics....

Claire, doing her goofy thing. She always was a weird sitter, and Squirt hasn't retrained her*&?!!

Squirt and mom with Jasper. He loves mom and enjoys sitting and sleeping with her.

Squirt has a lot of cute arrangements in her yard and house. I loved this bench with the succulents in pots and then growing below. Her neighbor builds things like this to sell; she went over and looked at it so many times he just gave it to her (she has bought a lot of his stuff).

Pics from my trips in Oct

Hattie trying to decide which ice cream to buy

3 ggrrls on Nano's bed

Climbing onto the couch where Papaw was sleeping

                                                  

3 ggrrls with Papaw

Back home again...not in Indiana

I am truly exhausted and am happy to be back home...at least until Christmas.
But it was fun to meet in Indiana, see all the old sights and sites. We walked in Blanton Woods, which made me very happy. That must be one of the places I miss the most, walking out my door and into the woods, as it were.

We did our best to "eat our way thro Indianapolis," which seemed to be Chris' and Jason's goal. Alyona did much better, just a little of whatever but concentrating mostly on her salads and apples. I can try to follow her example.

I have an orthodontic appointment this morning, house to clean (although not messy by any means) laundry to do, mail to catch up on, got to dig into our health insurance and get it sorted out, including what to sign up for in 2015, grocery shopping and other things I don't even know I need to do yet.

Building in our subdivision continues like crazy, and I hope they just get it finished quickly. It has changed the look and feel and I don't like it. If I were to look at this house now I would not be as excited.

Pics from November to follow.