the Brown Family Press Release

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T17:10:00.003-06:00

Well it's 2012 ... that's correct, 2012, not 2011 as you might suppose from the last post over a year ago! Where in the world did 2011 go .... wherever it disappeared to it did it quickly. So off to a New Year... Not sure what I'll do with this blog since I think most everyone has switched to checking up on me with facebook ... but we'll see.

Anyway wishing you and your family, friends and even your pets a wonderful New Year!!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T23:51:00.006-06:00

Gee, I can't believe it's been most of the year since I've written anything on this blog. Then again with Facebook I don't think anybody reads this anyway!

Here's just a couple pictures from our Christmas project. I'll post some stuff from our September trip to Chicago maybe later this weekend...

Shawn (in the very back); Millynne & Bob "sweater people"

The boys

Madison and her flowery ankles....

And here's the "Official Sweater People Family Portrait"

So, as you might guess, Bob & I were very busy the 2 months before Christmas!...

And now for our long 3-day New Year's weekend -- hooray!!

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

2010-03-06T09:46:00.022-06:00

25 Feb 2010 - 4 March 2010 brought Extreme Makeover Home Edition to Mineola, TX. The Carr family was blessed to be the recipients of a new home. The episode will be the season finale so I think it will air around May 9th, but check your TV schedules from time to time to be sure you don't miss it!

Bob & I got to volunteer for a 6 hour shift from 6am - noon on Saturday 27 Feb 2010. They had just begun pouring the concrete when we arrived and by the time we left they had 3 walls up already! And that was just the beginning -- the changes from day to day were amazing. We then showed up on the "reveal day" 4 March 2010 where we cheered the family as they came home, screamed and yelled "Move that Bus!" and actually got to see that bus move! Can't wait to see the episode and see what the inside really looks like. In the meantime it's been great to be a part of such a huge community effort and makes us proud to live in East Texas!!

Here we are at the end of the "Move that Bus!" event... now back to regular life...

Snow

2010-02-20T15:23:00.008-06:00

SNOW!!!

The snow last week (2-12-2010) was so fun! It rarely snows here in East Texas, let alone enough to make a real snowman. The kids were so happy to have a day off - they called me at 7am last Friday to let me know all about it! And since it was my day off I could enjoy making a snowman myself. But even if I had been at work I would have been able to do that on break -- folks in the Marketing Dept at BGC had a great time as did the people at the Brookshire's Museum... so everybody made the best out of the weather.

Here's some pix:

And here's some of what the grandkids were doing on their first ever "Snow Day"

Even Dad gets in the act....

And my buddies at work.... can you tell we know how to have fun?!!

Hope you enjoyed the snow, 'cause it'll be awhile before you see this much snow here again!

Bob and Madi go dancing

2010-01-31T16:26:00.006-06:00

Madison's school had a "Sweetheart Dance" on Saturday, 30 Jan 2010. This was a father-daughter type dance, but Shawn, Madi's dad, had to work. So Bob took Madi to her first dance. It was Bob's first dance since jr. high school - so new to both of them. They had a great time doing such dances as "the car wash' "limbo" "hokey pokey" and "the Macarena" ... as well as line dancing and some slow dances too. A few cookies and lemonade for refreshments added to the fun.

Here's a not so great picture of Madi & Bob before they left for the dance. Notice Madison's new dress and you might notice her sparkling fingernails too

Next year, Kenzi's turn.

Christmas pix part 2

2009-12-26T17:49:00.009-06:00

I thought I could just put everything into one post -- but there's more than I planned. So here's some pix from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day -- enjoy!

We had Chistmas Eve 2009 at our house. Shawn, Kara, Madi, Kenzi and Ryan came and enjoyed supper at our house. Then we all took part in the Christmas Story -- we each took a piece from the Nativity Scene and added it back into the story as Bob told it to us. Then we sang "Happy Birthday to jesus" and enjoyed birthday cake (a long standing Stratton Family tradition -- Millynne's family). Then on to those stockings hung by the fake fireplace with care... and presents of course!

I won't bother trying to give captions to all these pictures -- it's been too long of a day.... I may add some captions later so check back if you don't know who is who.

Last, but not least, is my favorite Christmas Eve picture -- Kenzi in her PJs checking out her Christmas Stocking. She is very sweet looking in this picture and reminds me why I love all my grandkids so much!

Christmas Day was spent in Arlington TX with Bob's family. It had snowed on Christmas Eve, which is very rare in the Dallas area. So we had a snowball fight (sorry, no pix) and Kaidan Sweet built a snowman with his uncle Rock. Then Bob provided red & green m&ms for mouth and eyes:

I'll be back with more in 2010 so Happy New Year!!!

Fall & Christmas 2009 pix part 1

2009-12-26T15:25:00.027-06:00

Merry Christmas (well, ok so it's the day after, but still....) and Happy New Year!

I've been a bit too busy to keep up with this blog, so I thought I'd at least post a few pix from the past fall and this Christmas.

Last spring we went with Bob's parents to Arkansas. One of the things we did was visit a museum at Hot Springs, AR. Part of the museum was a self-guided tour of a typical bath house. Bob had laid down in one of the tubs people would come to soak in. Our granddaughter, Madison, saw that picture and thought it was pretty funny. So here's the original picture and her version of it with the dollhouse bathtub and one of the doll house people:

Fall 2009 Fun

Sunday at the Park (Sept 2009, I think)

These pictures are of feature our daughter, Kara, our grandkids Madison (lt brown hair), Makenzi (darker hair) and Ryan, plus Bob & Millynne. On the way to the park by our house is a small acreage with some donkeys. The kids love to visit them on the way to the park and if we remember we even bring carrots... but if there's no carrots some grass works!

Edom Festival of the Arts 17 October 2009

We've started a family tradition of combining this festival with Bob's birthday since they are nearly always the same time or nearly so. Enjoy some pictures from this year's event:

Randy Martin (above) is not only our neighbor but also the artist who made this great piece of art Millynne is looking at (below)

To keep kids involved they had a "kids can paint" booth. Except for the fact that they used house paint, which takes like forever to dry, it was fun for the kids and for a small fee they got to keep their "Masterpieces"

Ryan really gets into his painting....
Kara helps Madi with her color picks
Bob admires Kenzi's work
Finally, here's some pictures from Christmas 2009....

First "let's make cookies". We decided it would be fun to make cookies with Madison & Makenzi. We baked and decorated cookies I had made the dough for the night before. The girls then helped us take cookies to our neighbors.

It's traditional for Millynne to decorate packages other than just getting regular wrapping paper. Here's this year's stuff:

(The "star tags" didn't have those lines around the text part, I had to just take a screen shot of the working document so that's why they look weird.)

The kids had a pre-school program. The pix are really bad but just so you'll have a glimpse of what the activities were, here they are anyway!

You've probably already seen Christmas part 2 as it posts above this one, but if you didn't take a look, please do.

quick view of Alaska Pix

2009-09-07T19:04:00.001-05:00

Alaska -- just a glimpse

2009-09-07T16:42:00.010-05:00

It's a far piece from this place to Van, TX....

We were able to go to Alaska this August for 10 days. The first 3 days were aboard a cruise ship, the Volendam part of Holland America Line. The last 7 days was a land tour organized by Holland America. We flew to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to board the ship. We wish we had been able to arrive there at least a day ahead to see the area more and maybe see an old friend, but time and budget didn't allow for that. So it's on the "come back and see it" list.

The ship went via the "inside passage" so we hugged to coast from Vancouver to Juneau, AK where we spent a few hours off the ship visiting a salmon hatchery and the Mendenhall glacier. Then the ship pulled out late that evening and the next day we arrived in Skagway, AK which is where we disembarked that morning. We had the morning to explore Skagway, which we did by renting a couple of bikes for a couple of hours. It was great fun to just ride around and not have to hang out at a specific place. At noon we met our tour group "group 7A' and our tour guide, Curtis. We'd be with this same bunch of folks for 7 days.

We took the White Pass & Yukon Railroad from Skagway to I think it was Fraser, British Columbia. We then met our bus driver, Dan, who we all learned to love his stories but also he was full of tall tales. The bus was very roomy and there were plenty of stops so you didn't feel stuck in a vehicle forever. The first night was at White Horse, Yukon Territories. Then "301 miles to nowhere" to Beaver Creek, Yukon Territiories, the western most part of the Yukon. That night had a dinner and show combo which was lots of fun.

The next day was about as many miles and we ended up in Fairbanks,AK with a stop in between at Tok, AK for lunch. There I got a T-shirt that says "Tok , Alaska ... We've never heard of you either...." And also a stop at Santa Clause's House at North Pole, AK. Along the way we had great views of wonderful mountains, meadows, tundra, taiga, etc. And stops to enjoy them too -- even got to walk on some tundra -- that is like really weird sort of spongy, mossy stuff.... you sort of sink and "bounce" a bit... weird but fun. From a distance we saw moose, swans, eagles.

Had a great time in Fairbanks. Found a great Thai restaurant there ... something we definitely do not have where we live. (One of the best parts of the vacation was trying so many different things that are either too expensive or unavailable where we are...) We had 2 nights in Fairbanks which meant an evening free and a day full of fun activities. We went to a museum at the University of Alaska, went on a tour via paddle wheel boat on the Chena River with a visit to a reconstructed "Indian village', went panning for gold. very fun stuff. Then it was on to Denali National Park via train.

The afternoon in Denali was a nature type tour with stops at a couple areas in the park. The highlight was we saw not only caribou, and a snowshoe hare, but also a grizzly. The next day we only had time for a visit to the visitor center and a short walk. Then it was on the train again to Anchorage, which was the last day of the tour. After an overnight in Anchorage we only had time for a nice breakfast and walk in the morning... then on to the aiport for a long day. From Anchorage to Seattle, then Seattle to Dallas... then the ride home to Van. So here's a sample of pictures.... there are so many that I can't really post them here. I'll try and post them somewhere else and then post a link.... Of course I do have more on facebook. Enjoy.

at the pier in Vancouver, BC

Bob in the atrium staircase, Volendam

the Mendenhall Galcier, near Juneau

one of my favorite pictures we took in the Tracy Arm area of Alaska's Inside Passage

The harbor at Skagway and a view from "downtown Skagway"

Aboard the White Pass & Yukon Railroad

Kluane Visitor Center near Haines Junction in the Yukon

We had a great time at Beaver Creek, Canada's western most town pop 106

at Uncommon Journeys, past White Horse, Yukon Territories we got to see sled dogs up close and hear stories of their training, adventures, the Iditarod, etc.

breakfast on the train between Fairbanks and Denali....

In Fairbanks we went several places including the paddle wheel boat above and a replica of a typical Indian village which showed various aspects of their lives including some clothing such as this coat. Also the cabin with the "soddy" roof that Bob is standing at

Bear sighting # 1 in Denali National Park ... ok, so it's just my stuffed bear Paul Denali, but we really thought he would be the only bear we would see because everyone was saying "don't get your hopes up we haven't seen any" or "we haven't seen any in weeks..."

A view from Primrose Point, Denali Nt'l Park

And we were blessed with a view of a real grizzly....

The McKinley Explorer -- we took 2 trips on it... one from Fairbanks to Denali, one from Denali to Anchorage

Some "Salmon Art" in downtown Anchorage

And finally on our last morning of the trip, in Anchorage, we visited a beautiful garden in a park

I have pictures posted on Picasa but don't know for sure how you can get them. If you are really interested please email me at chrismutt2@yahoo.com and I will try to send you more info or I can do an "invite" using your email address.

Vacation Preview

2009-08-16T21:45:00.001-05:00

Here's a hint of what's to come....

Coloado Day Party

2009-08-16T20:58:00.018-05:00

1 August 2009 -- We celebrated "Colorado Day" -- the anniversary of the date Colorado was admitted as a state in 1876, thus the nickname "Centennial State". Since we are originally from Colorado we thought celebrating would be a fun way to get together.

We had food from recipes from our "Colorado Cache" and "Taste of Colorado" cookbooks. We also made a quiz about the state, plus had a bunch of odds and ends about the state, people from the state, weird events, etc. And for the kids Bob had made wooden fish that had a screw eye in it. Then the fishing pole had a magnet at the end so they could "hook" the fish. Other than the occasional mis-swung magnet, fishing was a great success. All 3 kids fished, but I didn't have the camera out when Madison was fishing so these pictures are mainly Ryan and Kenzi.

Enjoy these pix ... next up, vacation picutres from Alaska!

Here's some pix of our grandkids trying to catch fish. Most of the pictures are of Ryan and Makenzi because we didn't have the camera out early enough to get many pictures with Madison. But they all had fun with this. We've still got the fish in the toy box so when they come over they get to play with the fish again.

10 July 2009 "Long Walk"

2009-07-24T17:55:00.009-05:00

Went on a bit of a "spiritual tune up" walk on July 10th. But the places I went to were so cool looking thought I'd post some pictures.

I spent a lot of the day at Mineola Nature Preserve outside of Mineola, TX. It's beautiful and has lots of woods and water to walk through and look at. Even though it was like a high of 101 or 102 that day the shade and breeze kept me from totally melting.

(This might be the alligator -- not sure. He looks so much like a log and it had rained a lot so where I normally see him was underwater... hard to tell much)

And a really badly shot video, but I don't have the capability of editing it on this computer so you're stuck with it!

Then I went to Tyler and walked around the Azalea District neighborhood and also part of the "South Tyler Trails" system. I walk in these areas sometimes after work, at least during daylight savings when it's not too hot. Otherwise sometimes at lunch or biking the trail on the weekend.

So I'm looking forward to taking a whole day again next year to spend just "me and God and whoever else shows up...."

In the meantime we've had July birthdays and are getting ready for our August vacation to Alaska. More to come soon

13 June 2009 Random Thoughts on Blog Maintenance

2009-06-13T13:05:00.004-05:00

I've been trying out new stuff to make this look a bit different. I don't know enough about how to change html so this is a weird thing... I really get bored with the standard fonts but don't quite know how to change them yet. That is, not change them by myself. I did find a website that had some "add ons" for this blog so I'm trying out "Payprus" -- I think I like it. (I may try "Lucida Handwriting" too -- so let me know what you think.)And any time I try to use a background other than white I'm disappointed because trying to pick out colors that will show up correctly is a pain. I guess if I were content to stick with one font, one color, one background I'd be good to go. But I'm too curious for just that.

So be patient -- I'll figure out a look I really like, eventually :)

More stuff from April and May

2009-06-06T15:08:00.012-05:00

It's June now, but I've got some pix from April & May

In April Bob & I went to Hot Springs, Arkansas with his parents...

Here's proof we were there -- ok so it isn't anything recognizable, just a burger joint that looked fun so we ate lunch there. But Hot Springs was interesting and we enjoyed it. The historic National Park sites are quite interesting -- I think Bob took some pix of that but I don't know where they are right now so maybe I'll add the later. We also went to a Science Museum and had lots of fun there. When the grandkids get older I'll bet they'd like it too.

Towards the end of May we did a couple of things with Kara and the grandkids. Shawn was on-the-road so couldn't join in on the fun this time, maybe next. First was the rodeo. The only picture I could find was of Madison watching the rodeo, the other pix were really blurry.

Then there was "Bowling Night" to celebrate Kara's birthday. All I can say is hooray for bumpers 'cause it helped my score a lot! We divided into 3 teams -- "The Men" (Bob & Ryan), "We
re Ten" (cause their's ten pins to knock down) (Madison & Millynne) and "The Grumpy Girls" ('cause Kenzi was grumpy...) (Kara & Makenzi). "The Men" won, but everybody had a good time!

Ryan had just had a haircut, so he sort of matched the balls! And his Grandpa Bob showed him the ropes...
While I watched Madison and rooted her on (sorry for the backside view!)

Finally, just cause I thought they were cute, here's some pictures of the kids

hanging out at the park

Kenzi at the tire sandbox

Ryan helps mow!

And Madison just looking cute .....

More Fun and Games later....

May happenings

2009-05-10T21:41:00.003-05:00

It's Mother's Day and here in Tyler it's been the tradition that the "Susan G Kommen Race for the Cure" is held the Saturday before. So for the 2nd year in a row Bob & I were able to participate, along with Bob's mom and our niece Tiffany. The highlight for us was Bob's mom won 1st place for the "survivor over 60" age category in the 5K. So here's a picture of her with her medal and trophy... Way to go!

Ryan's birthday & Easter

2009-04-18T21:46:00.011-05:00

Ryan's 2nd birthday was April 10th and Easter was April 12th. So we celebrated twice!

First, I took Kara and the grandkids to a place called "Discovery Science Place" where they could pretend they were all kinds of things. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so only have cell phone pix which aren't the best... but here goes:

You can hardly imagine what the kids must have thought of this biker!
Gee, even if I dieted for months I'd never look like that :)

Madison demonstrates how to x-ray the poor dog's back... Clifford should know better than to jump off the highest bookshelf!

Kenzi had just given Clifford a shot to help take away his back pain. But then he needed a little "TLC" to make him feel better.

Can any one see future vets or vet-techs here?

Next, it was off to the Easter Celebration/Brithday Party at Grandma & Grandpa's house on Easter Sunday ...

First the "Easter Pails" with eggs full of colored & chocolate "goldfish".... yummy!

Kenzi & Ryan have fun discovering the "surprise inside"

Then it's time to hide eggs... but what to do while Mom & Grandpa Bob are hiding them? Simple... go to Grandma Millynne's bedroom and play with her stuffed animals!

Then on with the birthday -- cake please! Ryan's mom, Kara, made the cake and it was really great!
Here's Great-Grandpa Bob, Ryan and Madison waiting for Grandpa Bob to finish cutting the cake.

Then, finally, time to open those presents:

Even Makenzi was having fun at her brother's party:

So now it's on to a 3-day week and 4-day mini-vacation with Bob's parents... hopefully we'll have sunny weather and some good stories and pix to share then!

2009-04-05T19:57:00.008-05:00

The above video was made on Palm Sunday 2009 -- talking about what we've done today. Kenzi still isn't very vocal, but Madi is getting better at describing things and letting us know what's up...

But where did March go? I think it just blew on by... mostly the same old stuff except for Saturday morning soccer games for our oldest granddaughter, Madison. Madi is on a team named "The Thunder" and says when they win you will hear a big "Booom" "because we're the thunder...". She's the youngest on the team... I still can't believe they have 4 year olds playing... so she's a bit shy about the whole thing but other wise likes it.
Here's a picture of us at the game

Madison #3 on "The Thunder" Soccer team, Lindale Soccer

That's about it for now...next week is Ryan's 2nd birthday on April 10th and Easter on the 12th. So maybe some more pix then....

More birthday's

2009-03-08T20:40:00.008-05:00

Happy Birthday :) We had fun helping celebrate Kenzi's 3rd birthday
at the end of February

Cake...yum!

The big question is, what are all the presents?

Among the presents is another baby-doll.
Kara says Kenzi must have 32 or 33 babies but loves them all :)

More birthdays to come... and one "virtual birthday" --- my brother's was March 6th but I had to settle for "email" since he's nowhere near here. ... so happy birthday Tom!

Stuff from the old files

2009-02-21T18:55:00.016-06:00

I've been cleaning out old CDs, files and stuff on the computer. Found things I had forgotten about.
So here's just some misc. for fun.

Here is "Miner Bob" on his way to one of the largest copper mines in the world. It's in Rancagua, Chile. We were privileged to go on a tour of the mine... something not normally done, but we got in as a group of "educators" courtesy of our friend's father who worked at the mines. It was a very interesting experience and we still have a chunk of raw copper from the trip...

This is Kara when she was 4. Her Cabbage Patch doll is Susan barJonah, so named because she liked the name Susan but her favorite bible story was "Jonah and the whale".... around the same point in time where she also liked Pinnochio where Geppeto gets swallowed by Monstro the whale. Not sure why the interest in whales!

These fine young ladies are Kara and Millynne, both age 5. Aren't we cute

This was for a project when I was learning Photoshop way back in 1993.... "Kara and the Purple Cows"....

And, finally, some "costumes" from Kara & Millynne. These were for our church's "Fall Harvest" events held instead of "Halloween"... The rules were you should come as a biblical character or some "neutral" thing.

Kara, as a grey sheep. I think she was about 3 or 4 in this picture. With her is Baa-baa Louie sheep who I made for her one Christmas.

Now for the costumes from Millynne. It started with the first year where I went as "the burning bush" from the Exodus account of Moses and the burning bush where God talks to him in the wilderness. I don't have a picture of this but imagine me draped in a sheet colored green with brown twigs sewn on here and there and yellow, red and orange cellophane "flames". So each year I came up with new ones:

First, Millynne as the walls of Jericho tumbling down:
Then Millynne as Mrs. Lot after she turned into a pillar of salt. At the time makeup with glitter in it was all the rage anyway so it was easy to make my skin look salty by using that kind of stuf. Then I found little tiny Morton Salt shakers that I was able to make a bracelet out of, I don't think you can see it in the picture though.
And, finally, the last year I went where I won a prize as best costume. Just as well because who could come up with more ideas after "Millynne as Noah and the Ark" -- including the ark, the ocean, some animals and the rainbown (rainbow colored gross-grain ribbons as suspenders):

So much fun. I know I have more old pix, but this is it for now. More later on.

Of Groundhogs and hearts....

2009-02-07T18:11:00.008-06:00

It's February, time for Groundhogs, Valentines and other fun stuff.....

... I don't have any plans for anything right now. But I always think Groundhog's Day is crazy... fun, but crazy. This year there's been a lot of political cartoons with the groundhog not only seeing his shadow but predicting other things as well -- mainly doom and gloom. One had a groundhog not seeing his shadow and the caption "good", seeing his shadow "bad", seeing a pink slip "worse", seeing his home with a foreclosed sign "Really bad". And finally there were homeless people gathered around a fire with a spit rotating above the fire and on the spit is the groundhog... and the caption "really, really bad." !! My apology to the cartoonist for not remembering his/her name.

Valentines -- I guess right now it's just thinking what to send to my 3 little cuties.... I still have a couple days to figure it out.

Other fun stuff -- Makenzi will turn 3 on Feb 28th so stay tuned for further adventures!

Fun Stuff!

2009-01-17T23:42:00.004-06:00

Here's some fun stuff you can check out., just click on the words below and it will take you to another blog of a cartoon I like.

cul de sac: First Cul de Sacs

2008-12-26T19:35:00.006-06:00

Chirstmas 2008 .... just for the record, it was fun, but I'm also going to be glad to be back to normal. We spent Christmas day in Arlington TX at our niece TIffany's house. 9 adults (although only 6 most of the time) and 5 children ages 4, 2 1/2 and 1 1/2... and 2 dogs... what can I say? Noisy at times, but fun.

On to "New Years Breakfast at the Browns" next Thursday -- the fun never stops!

More later once I find pix (if any) and stuff!.

Happy New Year from the Browns!!

2008-12-21T21:22:00.015-06:00

Birthdays! and Christmas Programs!

The past week and a half have been full of celebrating birthdays. A week ago Thursday (Dec 11th) I flew to Denver to surprise my dad for his 80th birthday. He didn't know I was going to be able to come -- so when I showed up on the doorstep he was pretty surprised. We had a great time together and my mom, brother Tom and cousins Pam & Judy helped put together a big party for dad. Many of dad's friends came to celebrate. His sister, Dosha, flew in to surprise dad -- boy did she fool him! So it was a lot of fun. Here's some pix.

Dad fixes us breakfast on his birthday

Cake & various folks at the party

Mom, Aunt Dosha, Dad, Angela (my nephew Peter's wife), and me at Dad's party

I'm glad I went, but glad to be back too! It was a record -19 as an overnight low the Sunday night/Monday morning I was there. It was -8 when I was clearing the car of snow and later filling it up with gas on the way to returning the rental car to the airport. Boy was I cold! Even with two layers of gloves my finger tips were chilly!

Meanwhile, back in Texas, it was time for the grandkids' Christmas Program. The 2 and 3 year olds all went up but Makenzi was too shy so Kara had to go with her. They sort of sang with some song, I don't even remember what it was.... but they were all very cute. Then came the 4 year old and pre-K class which is Madison's class. They all had these cute little reindeer "headband hats", red noses and little cotton ball tails. How Madison could see anything is beyond us -- her "hat" nearly covered her eyes completely! So here's some pix from the program. One of these days I'll find Kara's old pre-school program pix and compare them!

"deer in the headlights" well, at least that's what the "red eye" makes it look like!

cute reindeer tail, Madi!

Whew, all done!

Today is Madison's 4th birthday. We celebrated by having some really neon cake!

Although the kids were tired we had a good time and Madi had fun trying on her new "princess shoes, gloves and purse" from Grandma Nelda & Papa Kenny!

Next on the agenda (besides the normal work week) is Christmas this Thursday with Bob's family. More pix to come! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2008-12-16T20:49:00.004-06:00

December 2008

Christmas may be coming... but before that, there's the "Project Surprise Dad!

My dad's birthday was this past Saturday, December 13th. So my Mom, brother Tom, and I got the idea to surprise dad by flying in a couple days early without letting him know.

For more of the story .... stay tuned. I don't have time to post pictures of the party yet so I'll wait until this weekend to post more. Just wanted to post a "Happy Birthday Dad!"

Last of Fall 2008

2008-12-05T11:50:00.010-06:00

Gee, is it nearly winter already? I'm sure those of you who have snow already are laughing at this... but here it's only been cold a couple of days here and there. And with it being East Texas there is little chance of snow, although we have had some now and then. We all laugh when it snows an 1/8th of an inch and they close the schools! :)

I had a chance to help others prepare for winter. It was well worth getting up early on a Saturday for. I helped distribute 850+ coats to children ages 18 and younger with a local charity in Tyler TX. The line was already long when I got there at 7am. The doors were scheduled to open at 8, but since we were all there and ready to go they opened the doors closer to 7:45. The night and early morning of that November Saturday had temps in the low 40s or high 30s. Cold for here, especially when you consider we had been enjoying 80 - 90+ days only a few days before that. They asked the first family how long they had been waiting in line -- I think it was a family with 4 or 5 kids. The mother said they had been in line since 3 or 3:30 am. I'm sure there would be many stories if one only had the time to tell them.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Bob's parents in Tyler. In addition to Bob & I there were his parents, Bob & Orlinda; Bob's niece Tiffany and her 2 kids Kaidan (age 4) and Kieran (age 1) and Tiffany's mom, Deby; our daughter Kara, her husband Shawn, and the grandkids Madison (age 3 7/8ths , will be 4 in 2 weeks), Makenzi (age 2 1/2) and Ryan (age 1 1/2)... and the dogs. We had a great time, the temp was 71 or so which helped because we could herd the kids outside!

Here's a picture of the kids. It's Kenzi, Kaidan, Kieran, Ryan and Madison. I especially love Kieran's huge "cheese!" smile.

And here's a couple pix of my cousin Annika's children taken this past Halloween:

This is Jack and Ellie Durbin with their dad, Eric.

and this is my uncle, Howard Whitaker, with Annika's littlest one, Samantha Claire. She's about 6 months old I think. She makes a very cute piglet if you ask me!

Now I'm just getting ready for the Christmas madness and other things. Less than 3 weeks away --- there's not enough hours in the day, if you know what I mean! I really love Christmas -- just don't like the way I try to do too much in too little time. Speaking of which, I've got to run. I have a "date" with Kara to watch "Mars needs Santa" or whatever that silly movie she rented is! It's one of those "1 star" movies that are so bad that they are really funny!

Hope to post more before Christmas -- but if not have a Wonderful Christmas and Hannukah (did I spell that right? I forget)

Millynne

2008-11-09T17:59:00.006-06:00

Thoughts on Fall and bike trips

It's definitely fall.... and although this isn't the exact way our countryside looks I liked the picture. We live in a slightly hilly area of East Texas so it just depends on where you go on how hilly it is. Bob and I have been enjoying bike rides down our county roads --- some decent roads, others really bumpy. And those "hills" -- this is where opinions really differ on just how hillly something is, guess it depends on lot on what shape you're in when you tackle a hill. The ones I really don't like are those really long slopes that don't look all that bad -- until you're in the middle of it and think it will never end. Thank goodness for first gear!

We found a nice route near our house that takes us in a big loop... One part passes by a dog who we've named "Runs with Bikes" because on the last 2 trips he's started running with us when we ride by -- and he keeps up with us for quite a ways, probably 5 miles or so... The first time we wondered if he'd make it home ok, but after seeing him this 2nd time we figure he must know his way home. For all we know "Runs with Bikes" knows the countryside way better than us!

So find something outside you like to do -- go run, walk, bike, ski ... whatever the weather where you live permits! It's a great stress reliever, not to mention good exercise and fun. Even better when you bring sombody with you.

October Fun with the Brown Family

2008-11-01T18:47:00.013-05:00

On October 18th we decided to celebrate Bob's birthday a day late by going to the Edom Arts Festival. it's a fun event at a little town where a few artists have set up shops and created this event to show off their stuff. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of the festival itself, but we had a great time. One of our neighbors shows off his stuff there also.

Everyone had a good time but got sort of tired by the end...

On the right side are Kara and 2 of her 3 kids -- Madison and Ryan; Kara's cousin Tiffany is with her two sons -- Kaidan and Kieran . It's not often we get to do things together but fun when we do. Then it was off to the Brown's house to have birthday cake and help Kara make a "leaf scarecrow" for October and Halloween at her house. It took everyone to help! In the middle of it all Makenzi made a new friend with "Little Kitty", our neighbor's cat, whose name I always forget. Pix shown here include Bob, Kara, Tiffany, Bob's mom and all the kids -- Madison, Makenzi, Ryan, Kaidan and Kieran... Bob's dad was off relaxing in the living room and I was taking the pictures -- otherwise you'd see the whole gang!

And here's the "Leaf Crew" carting off leaf-filled scarecrow arms, legs, body and head to Kara's house...

And, while the big kids help, Kieran and Ryan plan something themselves.... a bit of mischeif perhaps?

More fun later ....

Biking

2008-10-18T22:21:00.016-05:00

Bob and I decided to buy new bikes for our birthdays.

So if you see two crazy people riding on the weekends around Van TX, it might be us!

Last Saturday at the zoo

2008-09-27T16:41:00.012-05:00

Bob, movie maker...

Last Saturday, 9/20/08, Bob and I took our daughter, Kara Lustig and her 3 kids, Madison, Makenzi and Ryan, to the Tyler zoo. Shawn, Kara's husband, was "on the road" with his job with an oil company -- he drives the big rigs that haul various equipment to sites -- so he wasn't able to join us. But no reason why we couldn't have a great family outing. It had been quite awhile since we had been to the zoo and it was such a nice day out -- just the thing to do together!

Madison, age 3 1/2 is standing by the stroller, Ryan is 1 1/2 and Makenzi is 2 1/2 (both in stroller) and Bob is, well, the Grandpa!

While Kara was parking the car, Bob, Madison, Makenzi, Ryan and I waited at the entrance to the zoo. Since I'm taking all the pictures you'll just have to imagine me there! Once we were actually at the zoo the first stop was the rest room -- Mom's with young kids everywhere can relate to that! I remember when Kara was little I had memorized every restroom in Denver -- or so it seemed...

One thing about taking the kids to the zoo -- if they want to zoom on by something you'll just have to miss seeing it. On the other hand, it's lots of fun to see what they like. So here's some of what we saw and bunch of pix of the kids feeding the ducks and fish -- or trying to!

Z is for zebra, one of Madison's favorite animals

Madison & Makenzi check out how their feet compare with the elephant's foot print. . .

Ryan isn't sure what he wants to do next.

The girls show Mom the animals...

Everyone runs off to feed the ducks and fish,
clearly the winner in "favorite thing to do at the zoo"!

ok... so Ryan's techniques need a bit of work

And let's not forget the animals...
...do kids count as small mammals??

And, finally, the penguin. With that, this blog entry has formally ended. More to come in future days.

preview of at the zoo

2008-09-22T22:10:00.014-05:00

Once again I ran out of weekend before I got everything done that I wanted to do. So here's just a preview of "A Day At the Zoo" -- we took our grandkids to the zoo on Saturday.

Ryan was pretty excited to see the mountain lion!

Grandpa, can we go in to the zoo yet?
(We were waiting for Kara to park the car and join us.)

It will be a couple of days before I can add anything else, but you can "ooh" and "ahh" and "cute" all you want until then!

09.18.08 Update

2008-09-19T21:16:00.007-05:00

Well, when I said "be patient, this might take awhile" I had no idea. Thing is, I don't think I gave anyone this address so probably no one in the world has read the first post anyway.

It's mid-September 2008 so almost 21 months since I wanted to start this blog. It still won't be the most exciting thing you've ever seen, but it might be a way to keep up for friends and family far away. I love snail mail, but these days I just don't get around to it very often.

So I'll post some pix in a day or two -- have to go through the ones I have and see what's best to share!

In the meantime Bob and I still are here in the small town of Van TX. It's about 90 miles east of Dallas -- close enough for a trip to some interesting exhibit or a flight out of D/FW... far enough away to be sort of in the boonies. Thus the extremely long wait for hi-speed internet. It still isn't easy to get, but at least it's available.

Our daughter, Kara, and her husband Shawn live in Lindale TX about 15 miles to the east of us. Their three kids are Madison, Makenzi and Ryan so be prepared for "grandma pix"!

That's it for now. Catch you later.

2007-01-13T18:48:00.000-06:00

We live in a very small town where there is only dial-up available. So be patient -- this may take awhile to start!