Moving On To Texas

We left Louisiana early on the morning of Friday, January 9th and headed west for Texas. The drive there was really pretty uneventful. The only trouble we had was finding someplace to eat breakfast so I could take my insulin shot. We left before the crack of dawn, which tends to cut down on our dining choices because there just aren't that many restaurants open that early. We did find a little donut shop eventually...... Yeah, I know! Not a very good choice for a diabetic, but like I said we had very slim pickings on the back roads of Texas (The route that Maggie chose for us). As we started getting into the more populated areas of Texas I noticed what looked like the cameras that Ohio uses to deter speeding and running red lights. There were quite a lot of them, so J.D. and I started waving to the cameras as we went under them and then I started taking pictures of the cameras taking pictures of us. We had a lot of fun with that, only to find out later that they weren't cameras. Instead they were some sort of traffic monitoring devices. They can call it what they want, we still hold to the opinion that they were cameras. Lesson Number one Grasshopper, never ever underestimate Big Brother.

We arrived at Greg and Tammi's about 2 in the afternoon. There was an SUV in the garage with Oklahoma tags, which puzzled me. J.D. rang the doorbell and a strange woman that we didn't know answered the door. I would have given anything to see the look on J.D.'s face when this strange woman opened Greg and Tammi's door, but I was standing behind him. It must have been priceless, because this woman played it out for a few minutes before telling us that she and her sister were there to clean the house.

It wasn't long before the family started arriving. Greg was the first one home and had told us how Miss Audrey had started showing signs of jealousy from time to time with Caden. Before she arrived we decided to make a conscience effort to show her a lot of attention instead of going straight for Caden when they arrived and she just ate it up. She and I connected instantly and she was my constant companion all weekend. She is a very smart little gal. Within an hour she decided that she had too many grandmas and what she really wanted was a sister and asked if I would be her sister. I told her she would have to ask her Mama about that. Mama told us that it was fine with her, because if she wants a sister that is the only way she will probably get one. So from that moment on I became Miss Audrey's Grandsister Jo..... Now how cute is that!

The collage above is just a few of my favorite pictures that we took while we were there. Caden is so much like Miss Audrey when she was his age..... smiles all of the time. To look at him now you would never guess that he had gone through that surgery on his stomach when he was just a few weeks old. It seems like yesterday that Alaina and Becky were still teenagers living at home. Alaina is the mother of two beautiful children and going back to college so she can be a teacher. She has quite a full plate being wife, mother and student. I have complete confidence that she will accomplish what she has set out to do though. Becky is going to school to be a nurse and has her own apartment.

Greg and Tammi came into possession of this antique phonograph quite some time ago. I was amazed that all the speaker amounts to is what appears to be a waxy looking cone of paper. J.D. had a good time looking at the labels on some of the old records in Greg and Tammi's collection.






This is a 100 year old clock that Sandra ~aka~ Nana (Tammi's mother) had. It is a beautiful piece of workmanship. As we oohed and aaaahed over it Sandra said that we should put it in the car, because she was giving it to us. We were dumb founded over her generosity. That is Sandra though..... not a selfish bone in her body. Thank you again Sandra. We will give your clock a loving home and a place of honor where it will shine.



In the wee hours of Monday morning we tiptoed to the car and started our trip homeward. We arrived back at the Home place about 9 PM the same day. Remember when I was telling you about Maggie's attitude when we first started the trip and we ignored her directions to take us through Cincinnati during rush hour? We decided to give Maggie a shot at it on this trip and followed her directions to the letter going home. Would you believe that as we started around Cincinnati, she instructed us to make a turn and we ended up lost and she took us on a turn here and a turn there and a make a legal u-turn at the first opportunity ride, to get us back where we should have been. I am thankful that we didn't follow her direction on the trip south and was equally as glad that on the trip home it wasn't rush hour when she chose to get us turned around in Cincinnati. All in all it was a very good trip, but it so good to be home.



Wishing you all a wonderful weekend filled with the blessings of good health and much happiness.