Hockey & Kickball

This morning I got up really early and headed over to Plano to watch my nephew play hockey. He is on team out of McKinney and absolutely loves it. My brother and sister in law drive him back and forth to McKinney each week for practice and games. He had a game last night in McKinney and was put in the penalty box for tripping another player with his foot. I am positive it was an accident!

#4 Hudson Avery Jones Age: 8

Me with Seth and Hudson after the game. They both came home with me and spent the day. Rodney and Becky were able to get some of their Christmas shopping done.

After we got home it was a good 'ole game of Kickball. I played for a while. And boy was I glad when Michael got home so he could take my place! So I could take pictures of course :)

I believe Michael and Seth beat Courtney and Hudson 23 to 18

Basketball Time

Basketball season is here. Which means most of our Tuesday and Friday nights will be busy for a while.

Courtney is #5

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Quanah trip

Last Friday, we bought Courtney her first car. She knew that we had been thinking about a jeep, but she didn't know that we had bought it. I went to pick her up from school in it to surprise her, and my mom and sister in law rode with me. She was VERY exicted when she came out and saw us in it.

Courtney coming out of basketball practice. Not a very clear picture since it was raining.

After I picked Courtney up, we headed out on a road trip to Quanah, or as I like to call it - the land far far away. Courtney was wanting to drive, but since it was going to be dark soon, and was raining, she settled for the passenger seat. Here she is after she got a little food in her belly. She slept most of the way, which is no surprise.

On Saturday morning, she couldn't wait to go outside and sit in her car, and Luke and Katie enjoyed it as well. Molly and I stayed up until around 2:30 or so visiting Friday night and tried to catch up. We hung around the house and visited more Saturday morning and played with the kids. Jackson likes to write stories. He had this big piece of paper, that was his 'scroll', that we wrote stories on.

Katie seems to have grown the most to me. I can't believe she will be 3 this Sunday!! I was in Arkansas the whole 1st year of her life, so we didn't start hanging out until she was about 13 months old.

Courtney and Luke jumping on the trampoline

Luke loves to be outside

After breakfast, we went down to the elementary school and watched the kids play. They have a really big playground.

Jackson & Luke in front of their school sign with Courtney.

Jackson thought Courtney was pretty funny :)

We had a good visit with the Molly and the kids. We missed Ryan, but they will be coming here to visit for a day or two at Thanksgiving, so we can see him then. Courtney and I left Quanah around 2:30 on Saturday to head home. It is about a 4 to 4 1/2 hour drive. Courtney wanted to drive home. So I let her since there is barely any traffic on the roads out that way. She made it about 50 miles east, until she was ready to switch places so she could nap the rest of the way home. She still has about 6 weeks before she turns 16, so she will have to get out of her "sleeping while in the car" stage by then!

Hope everyone is having a good week! :)

Door Knocking and New Sister

Our church is hosting a Gospel meeting beginning Sunday, November 14th through Wednesday November 17th. Donnie Bates will be the speaker. We will be having a potluck after morning services this Sunday. Please come if you can!!

Tuesday evening, several of us went door knocking. We divided up, and covered the North side of Blossom. In my group was Melanie, Erin, Courtney and me.

Courtney and Erin on the job

They did a great job delivering flyer's
We ran out of flyers, so we stopped back by the church building to make some more copies.

As it began to get dark, we started putting the flyers in the mailboxes so people wouldn't have to answer their doors after dark

There is another group going out tomorrow morning for door knocking on the South side of Blossom.

Last night Hailey made the most important decision she will ever make - to become a Christian!! Hailey with her proud family :)

Courtney and Hailey. We are so proud of you Hailey!!

Courtney had her first basketball game last night. They lost, but it was just a scrimmage, so hopefully they will do better next time! And they have only been practicing for a week...so they will get better.

Courtney and I are heading to the land far far away (translation: Quanah, TX) when she gets out of school today. We are going to spend the night with Molly and the kids while Ryan is out of town. I can't wait to see them all!!! Rod and Michael will be 'batching' it tonight.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Beta, Shopping, Singing

Last Monday night, was the Beta candlelight induction ceremony. Courtney was recognized, pinned and received her Beta certificate and membership items. Students have to be invited to join the Beta Club and have to meet certain requirements, one of which is to maintain a 90 or above average in their classes. I sure hope Courtney doesn't get put on "probation" after report cards come out this six weeks! She was having trouble in Spanish at the beginning of the six weeks, but finally brought that grade back up to an 'A', and now her Algebra 2 grade has fallen. Hopefully it will be an 'A' by the time her teacher gets all the grades put in the system. I LOVE being able to check her grades online. She doesn't like it so much...

We were a little late getting to the Beta ceremony, so we had to stand at the back of the cafeteria. I only got one picture before my battery went dead - and it is not a very good picture at all. I had to zoom in, so it is dark. Here she is walking up to get her certificate.

The next picture I had on my camera is of one of my co-workers - Hunter. Poor Hunter gets pranks pulled on him quite often. His chair disappeared and he had to sit on a trash can. But Hunter is the master of pranks (and storytelling!), so don't go feeling sorry for him....

Saturday I took my mom and Grandma to Texarkana shopping. Courtney had gone to Dangerfield the night before and spent the night with a friend. I went to pick her up early that morning so she could go with us. She and her friend had stayed up until 4am!! So she napped on the way to Texarkana. But she would have napped even if she had gotten a full nights rest. Anytime the child gets in the car for a period over 20 minutes, she falls asleep.


We ate lunch at Texas Road House. My mom and Courtney.
(Pardon the sign in the background)

Me and myMawMaw

The first Sunday of each month, our church goes to the nursing home to sing. Courtney can use this as a service project both for LTC (Leadership Training in Christ) and the Beta Club.

Courtney with Terry. Terry loves to give hugs and tell you about his guitar. Terry is always happy :) And Courtney always gets sick at her stomach when we go to the nursing home. I didn't realize how pale she really was until I saw this picture.

It was a great weekend. It was a lot of fun taking my mom and grandma shopping, and my grandma really seemed to enjoy getting out of the house and we certainly enjoyed her going with us. She gets lonely since my pawpaw has gone. She would tire out pretty easily, but never once complained. She would just find some place to sit and wait for us - which we didn't make her wait long at all. When we saw her sit down, we knew it was time to check out.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Halloween

We all decided it would be fun to dress up at the office for Halloween. Poor Hunter, who is the only guy in the office with us (besides Paul and Todd who really don't count) had no choice but to dress up with all us women. I had ketchup and mustard costumes, and since Hunter and I share an office, he was ketchup and I was mustard.

Here we all are:

Ketchup - Hunter Humphrey, Mustard - me, White Trash - Dani Taylor, Dolly Dagger - Kim Fugett (we had to google this to see what it was - it is a song by Jimi Hendrix), Raegan Daugherty- princess, Jenny McNeal - flapper, Neta Painter - karate kid, Cissy Diamond - clown. Jackie Moore was the photographer, so she is not in the picture. And Vicky Gordon and Margie McGee were both off, but they did come by to see us in our costumes.

Saturday night we had "Trunk or Treat" in the parking lot at the church building. It was fun seeing all the kids in their costumes. And I did not do very good at getting every one's picture!! There were so many cute little ones. Everyone (except for me) had their trunks decorated so cute. This is the only picture I got of the Adams family. They looked so cute! Scott and Ethan were both pirates, and Brittany was the great pumpkin and baby Evan was Charlie Brown. He looked precious with his little curl on his head! A blue M & M with Giggle the Clown :)

Courtney & Hailey

Michael stopped by after he and Evan finished working cows. He did not want his picture made, like usual, but I did manage to get a smile out of him. The sun was in our eyes.
Lanny was Frankenstein...

And Benton enjoyed his first Twix bar!

I think I am finally caught up on my blogs of the last couple of weeks!

This week we have been painting the kitchen. We will put the 3rd and final coat of (red) paint on tonight. I am so ready to be finished so I can get some things hung on the walls in there. Maybe I will have some pictures soon!

Simple Supper

Twice a month, we have a "Simple Supper" on Wednesday nights before church. Several of us take turns signing up to prepare supper, and last Wednesday was my turn. We try to keep simple and easy. In the past I have some of the things I have made are lasagna, king ranch chicken, tacos, and did the easiest of all - ordered pizza. This time, I made some vegetable beef soup, baked potatoes and salad. It was really easy. Since I work full time, I usually make everything on Tuesday night, so all I have to do is heat it up on Wednesday.

I picked Courtney up from school, and then we headed to the church building to get things ready. But she had to do her homework first.

Since it was the Wednesday before Halloween, I thought I would make some scary cupcakes. They are eyeballs in case you are wondering. And I made some chocolate chip cookies for those who couldn't handle eating an eyeball...


I had washed and wrapped the potatoes on Tuesday night, and then placed them in the roaster on Wednesday morning and let them cook on low all day. John Henry and James White were first in line :)

Leann and Frankie fixing their potatoes

I always enjoy Simple Supper Wednesday's - it is nice not having to worry about what you can fix really fast before you head off to church. And you just can't beat it for $2 a person. But the best part is getting to sit down and fellowship with everyone before Bible classes begin.