Finally, I am feeling well enough to post updates to our blog, which will not be very exciting, but that’s our life! Unfortunately, I was under the weather with allergies (or whatever it’s currently called) during our trip to the Houston area and Louisiana. Fortunately, the worst of the ailment hit me on Thursday, December 29th, after we had visited most of our family. Unfortunately, we were not able to make repeat visits or visit friends in the area.
To begin our trip, Dick and I traveled to Tomball to the home of our son Mike, his wife April, our 3-year-old grandson Ben and our almost 5-year-old grandson Colby on Christmas Eve. We attended church, together with April’s parents (Jay and Sue), and then met their friends (Michael, Julia and their 4 children) for Chinese food. It was an awesome evening, but very cold and rainy! I realized that this was the first time I had “dressed up” since my niece’s wedding reception in July! Wow!
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| Colby and Ben - Dressed up for Church |
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| Grampa and Ben in Church |
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| April and Mike |
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| Sue and Jay |
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| Julia, Michael and children |
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| Mike, April, Colby and Ben |
Once back home, Mommy read the "Night Before Christmas" to Ben and Colby, and it was then time to get settled down so Santa Claus could visit.
It was a short night, as the boys were awake by 5:30 a.m. to see their Christmas goodies, and Grammy naturally wanted to be there, too. Even Grampa joined us! Later in the morning, Michelle and Logan drove up from Seabrook and Jay and Sue joined us, too. Following a late breakfast, we all exchanged our gifts, ate dinner and had a relaxing afternoon and evening while the boys played with their gifts. My big gift from Dick was a total surprise – a Panasonic camera, which I am totally loving (especially since my flash quit working on my old camera).
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| Logan, Ben and Colby - waiting for Christmas dinner |
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| The boys resting after Christmas dinner |
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| Logan with Grampa |
On Monday, Dick, Michelle, Logan and I headed toward Seabrook with a stop at my sister Betti’s house to celebrate Christmas with her, our nieces (Ashley and Shannon), great niece (Elena), my cousin Linda and “others”. Since I felt so bad later in the week, I was certainly glad we had this one afternoon together.
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| Cousins - Linda and Judy |
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| Great Aunt Judy with Elena |
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| Linda, Betti and Judy |
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| Logan with his UT "gear" |
After regrouping at Michelle’s apartment, Dick, Michelle, Logan and I headed for Lake Charles, LA on Tuesday to visit more family. After checking into the motel, Michelle, Logan and I went shopping to spend Christmas gift cards while Dick napped. Our sister-in-law Stephanie invited us for dinner, and we had a great visit with her, our nephew Bill and Stephanie’s brother Bryan – a yummy dinner of pasta with meat sauce, salad and bread. It was great to see them as we do not get together very often!
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| Dick, Stef, Michelle and Logan |
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| Michelle, Stef, Dick and Bill |
After a leisurely Wednesday morning (which we all needed), we met more family for lunch at Sha Shas. My 2 brothers (David from Beaumont and Jim from Lake Charles), their wives (Tresa and Sharon) and some of our nieces and nephews had a great visit and various gift exchanges. Michelle made lots of goodies, including some of my Mom’s favorites, as gifts from us (I supported the cause).
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| Sharon and Jim |
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| Natalie, Scott, Virginia and Michelle |
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| Daniel and James |
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| Jim, David and Tresa |
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| Dick and Judy - Finally a picture I like! |
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| Logan and Josh |
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| Jim and Michelle |
After coffee and dessert at Jim and Sharon’s house, we went to visit my Aunt Ruby (91 years old). Michelle brought her some goodies, too, and I gave her some pictures of our family, which she always enjoys.
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| Aunt Ruby, Logan, Michelle and Judy |
After returning to Seabrook, TX with Michelle and Logan, I began to really feel bad and all our plans for the rest of the week went down the tubes. I rested a lot and took over-the-counter drugs. On Friday, I road with Dick and we ended up in Galveston (not planned; just happened). We had lunch at Benno’s on the seawall – one of our favorites – and drove around the island. This was probably not a smart choice for me, but a nice trip.
By Saturday, I visited a Redi Clinic and was told I had allergies and to continue doing what I was doing. I felt so bad that Dick and I did not go back to Tomball to stay overnight with the kids on Sunday; we only made a short visit on Monday on our way back to Waco. On Tuesday of this past week, I called the Redi Clinic and, fortunately, they called in 2 “mega” prescriptions and, today, I can really tell I may be getting better. Dick spent yesterday afternoon at the doctor’s office, and was diagnosed with a massive ear infection and upper respiratory infection. We now know it is definitely “cedar fever” – which makes sense since we are surrounded by cedar trees! Looks like we will be taking Allegra daily during the season!
I did say our lives had not been very exciting, but I hope you stayed with me and enjoyed the family pictures!
Now, for our RV friends, our lives are not complete without another repair issue! Dick and I have been trying to get our toilet to stop leaking. After replacing one valve and being told we would need to replace a second valve, we realized a new toilet would be less expensive. Our repairman Ken ordered us a Dometic toilet and worked off and on this week to completely install it. Unfortunately, there were challenges and, yesterday, the job was finally completed. At this time, we would highly recommend this particular toilet, which Ken said is new on the market and is being used by many RV manufacturers.
On a lighter note, the weather has been beautiful – even though I’m enjoying it from inside – and this is the “calm before the storm”, as we have another major front on the way with temps in the 20s later this week. This weekend, numerous horse riders have taken advantage of the weather and are in the park riding, as well as a few who are camping (which is the only camping area open in the park during the winter). This next week, the COE is hosting a youth deer hunt in one of the Waco Lake parks, and they will be camping in our park, so it should be interesting.
Until next time, I hope everyone is having an awesome beginning to 2012! ~Judy~
