More from Abilene

I went to the grocery store to find Jim and Susan before a potluck dinner with friends and parked right next to this vehicle with Mississippi plates. Suzassippi had arrived in Texas.

Susan and Jim
I know I have not included any scenery shots from this trip (that's Rich's forte and not mine!) but I loved these flowers on Jim's street.

Potluck with the old gang at Sherri's place. Susan and Sherri in the kitchen. We had lots of great food and even more gales of laughter. I love these friends and we have had so many adventures together.

Karen and Sherri
Being goofy. We tried many angles to get everyone into one shot and it just did not work out, though we laughed so hard it was definitely worth it.

Sherri, Diana, Karen, Jane and Jim

On our last day in Abilene, we met at the Hickory Street Cafe, one of my all time favorite places, famous for its fabulous chicken salad and zucchini bread. Aidan and Ally are sweet little siblings (at least some of the time!)

Susan, Jim and Aidan
Susan and Ally
Saying goodbye. Susan was a little teary-eyed about letting her boy go all the way to Alaska without her and staying away from home for so long.

But Aidan had no worries and was sound asleep in the car most of the way to Dallas.

Where has the time gone?!

We are leaving for Seattle this evening and I haven't had a spare moment to post! I am trying to upload a few photos before we take off and will do additional posts as I can. These will be from my trip to Abilene last week. Above, we have my youngest daughter Susan and her daughter Ally who just started day care and seems to like it just fine! We picked her up after I arrived in Clyde, Texas, where Susan, Corey and the kids are now living.

And here's big boy Aidan just home from Kindergarten. I was so happy to see their whole family!
Sweet Ally in her car seat and holding her blanket, which goes everywhere with her. She has really started talking since I last saw her and is now saying "Hi, Gigi!" Now that's something to warm a grandmother's heart!

My good friend Karen was receiving her Master's in Social Work--she's with her mom, Cleda, on the Abilene Christian University campus where we attended her special "hooding" ceremony the night before graduation. Hurray, Karen! I am very proud!

Cleda again, and Karen's beautiful daughter Kaci, at the graduation ceremony.

Karen being hooded by her thesis advisor.


Karen's son Kyle flew in from Juneau and surprised all of us. He used to live in Unalaska and worked for Rich at the Grand. We were all happy to see him and his crazy handlebar mustache. :)

Susan and Ally enjoying the fabulous luncheon after graduation.

Out for Mexican food--gotta have those fajitas in Texas--with my cute grandkids.

Some of my longtime and best friends, Kelly, Karen, Connie and Rudene.

Corey's working out of town so we didn't get to see him till the weekend. We had lots of fun hanging out. It was great to see y'all and I miss you already!

More later!

Round up

Elle has kept us amused with her funny expressions and sense of humor. She is hilarious and loves to keep everyone laughing.

Before leaving Amarillo, we stopped by the school to say goodbye to David since he had several things going on that day.

Don't call him "Mr. Williams." His students call him "D-Will," which cracks me up. We are proud of David, who was named Teacher of the Year for Amarillo High.

Elle has enrolled in Uncle Dave's Advanced Placement Economics class. We didn't get any photos but she was flirting like crazy with the teenaged boys. Daddy had better get prepared to ward them off with a stick when she gets older.

We were walking down the hallway at school and ran into Rebecca, who grew up with our girls in Abilene and shared many years of dance classes with them. Now she is married and teaching at Amarillo High. Small world, as they say.

We spent our last day with Bonnie, ran a few errands, bought a few little baby things (though it is hard to find neutral or unisex stuff any more...I guess everyone waits till they know the baby's gender since they find out so early these days) and then had to say goodbye. It is always hard to leave one of the girls when I am not sure how long it will be till I see them again, though Bonnie will be coming to the Jersey shore in June. We arrived at the airport to find out that our flight was delayed, but it didn't really take too long and Elle had a fabulous flight this time. Hurray! She was happy, enjoyed looking out the window and played contentedly. The plane was almost empty, which helped and we didn't have to worry about whether she was kicking the seat in front of her or trying to climb on it. Miles picked us up in Dallas and we were all happy to see him! I know he missed his girls and they missed him. We ordered some pizza and had a nice chat before heading off to bed after a long day.
Elle is glad to be back in her own house and have her own things around her, not to mention sleeping in her own bed. She has been so much fun!

Last night, we met my friends Dana and Kirk and their baby Daniel for dinner. We all used to work at West Texas Rehab together when I lived in Abilene. We had a great time catching up on news and Daniel is just a cutie pie.

I finally have a photo of Miles to post! He's such a good daddy and we have been having lots of good conversations.

I think this is the sweetest photo of Daniel looking at his daddy Kirk. You can see how much he loves him!

Elle and Daniel are just a few months apart and were very interested in one another.

Cute family! So glad we got to visit!

Back at home, Elle is sitting in her little chair reading her books.

Who could resist that smile?!

Sarah and Miles are renting a house while they remodel another one. I am not sure where my kids (especially my sons in law) get the energy to do all these projects but they are very good at it. We walked through the house yesterday and they had completely gutted it and begun just about from scratch to make a new home. I admire Miles' ability to look at a big ole mess and envision what it could be. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Today, Sarah and I took Elle to the play area in the mall because it is, once again, rainy. I am really annoyed about this Texas weather. Anyway, I know I am not biased or anything but Elle was by far the cutest baby there. LOL She is such a little ham and was flirting with everyone who passed her by. Later, she had to push her stroller rather than sit in it and was doing everything she could to make us laugh.

Tonight we are meeting Miles' parents for dinner and then I am heading for Abilene tomorrow. I can't wait to see Susan, Corey, Aidan, Ally and all of my old friends. And maybe it will be HOT there. Sarah and I decided that the bad weather will probably just follow me from place to place. I imagine it will be pretty here in Dallas as soon as I leave and the rain will migrate to Abilene, what do you bet?!

Friends and Fun

Today a couple of my old friends came over to Bonnie and David's to visit with us. Mona (above), Rich and I went to high school together in New Jersey many years ago. When I moved to Texas the summer after 10th grade, she moved to Clovis, NM and we visited back and forth via the Greyhound bus a few times. :) She ended up in Amarillo as an adult, married Alex, and they have two sons, Stuart and Andrew. We have stayed in touch over all this time but now that I have kids in Amarillo, we actually get to visit in person once in awhile. It's always good to catch up! We were laughing about how when we were 15, we never could imagine being this old. LOL

Mona with Alex and their youngest son, Andrew, who is 6'5"!! He had to bend in half to hug me. :) He is about to graduate from high school. Stuart also dropped by and both boys brought their girlfriends. What nice kids to take time out to go see their mom's friend. I am sure they had better things to do today but they were very sweet to hang out with us for a bit. Elle loved Andrew and was flirting with him the whole time.

This is my friend Debbie, who is originally from Amarillo and moved back here sometime after college. My first job was as a social worker at Providence Hospital in Waco, TX. Debbie was my social work intern from Baylor University. Since we were only a couple of years apart, we became friends during her time working with me and she actually took my job at the hospital when I moved on. It is great to see her when I come to town!

Sarah
I'm happy to be with my two girls. The youngest is missing, though! Will see her next week.

Elle has been more clingy to her mom since we've been here. I think it's a combination of her age, being in a strange place, not feeling completely great, and being out of her routine. But she sat with me and read books for a little while tonight. So sweet! She will turn herself around and plop down on the floor but hasn't quite got the hang of sitting herself on someone's lap yet. She loves to point out the ball in her book.

After she'd had enough of Gigi, she moved to Mom and Aunt Bonnie.

We had a nice day visiting with people and made a taco salad for dinner. A Texas staple! I hadn't had one in quite awhile. David was busy at his parents' house, helping them cook for a dinner they had with special guests.

I can't believe our time here is almost done and we will be heading back to Dallas tomorrow evening!

Amarillo (where's the hot sun?)

Sarah and Elle having lunch.

It's early Sunday morning in Texas but I think I am still on Alaska time and haven't been able to sleep very well. It's the first chance I've really had to catch up on the blog so here we go! Thursday I was up at the crack of dawn and back to the airport in Seattle, had a smooth flight to Dallas, spent several hours just hanging out in the DFW airport because there was no sense in Sarah picking me up only to have to turn around and come back. Soon enough, Sarah and Elle arrived and we found our way to our gate to await our flight to Amarillo. I was thrilled that Elle seemed to remember me, came right to me and let me hold her. She has really grown since I last saw her at Christmas time and is just as cute and funny as can be. The flight to Amarillo is not long, right at an hour, but she was not happy with having to be confined, bless her little heart. Sarah is now a little worried about a three hour flight to New Jersey in June. Bonnie and David picked us up and we had a nice dinner at home and time to visit before heading off to bed.

Elle playing with her toys.

Elle has been missing her daddy and asking for "dada" regularly throughout the day. Here she and Mommy have a little chat with Daddy back in Dallas.

The weather has been cool and overcast, not at all what I was expecting. We didn't venture out at all on Friday. Bonnie and David are both high school teachers and the yearly TAKS standardized tests were being given this week. David worked all day on Friday but Bonnie only had to go in for part of the day and they were both able to come home and have lunch with us. We thought about taking Elle to the park but it just didn't seem like a good enough day for it. She started out the trip with a runny nose and congestion and her pediatrician back home had sent some meds with her. Friday she seemed to be getting worse and worse so we made a trip to the nearby Urgent Care Center. It ended up being a fiasco that I won't go into here but we are hoping we didn't come home with more germs than we started out with. She is much better today, thank goodness!

We went to the mall today just to get out and do something. Bonnie is pregnant so we stopped in a maternity shop to buy her a few things. She is not even showing yet but we were laughing so hard at this fake belly that was available to make the trying on clothes experience more "lifelike." We hope she doesn't really have such a mishapen look when she fills out some more!

We found a play area at the mall so Elle could have a little bit of fun after being cooped up in the house. She loved running and playing and was very interested in the other kids.

Such a cutie!


After a trip to the grocery store and a visit with David's parents, we came home to find David working away in the yard. He's having to rebuild a rock wall next to the house. They have done a lot of great work on their house and are still in the middle of their giant remodeling project.

Tonight some of Bonnie and Dave's friends came over for burgers, as well as Dave's sister, Tricia, and her two precious kids, Isaac and Hannah. Isaac has really grown up since I saw him last.

Hannah is 2 1/2 and was so sweet with Elle. She came in the house asking for Elle, who had already gone to bed but was not asleep. Sarah let Elle get back up and she had so much fun playing with Hannah.

Sharing
Hannah is very smart and verbal, asking us if we remembered the last time she fell off the coffee table and hurt her forehead. Her shirt says "A is for Adorable" and it was certainly true.

She also loved the camera and took a bunch of photos for us. She got a pretty good one of Sarah, Bonnie and me with a little help from her mom.

David and Bonnie relaxing at the end of the night. We will be here till Monday night, then back to Dallas for a few days and on to Abilene after that. It's a whirlwind but I'm so glad I'm having the opportunity to see everyone! Bring on the sunshine!