Texas Stories

I got to Texas Friday afternoon, May 9th. Darlene and I ran lots of errands, ate out for dinner, and had fun getting ready for Saturday's surprise party. On Saturday, my dad came back from his camping trip and was greeted by lots of people there to surprise him for his 60th birthday. I was hanging out in the hallway listening to the hubbub of the moment and Darlene came around the corner and told me to come out in just a second so she could get set up for a good picture of my dad when he saw me. She gave me the word and I came out. It was great because he had his back to me and when he turned around, he was shocked. :) Darlene got the good picture she wanted and my dad and I hugged. Many teary eyes were in that room.

It was nice to be there for the party to see people there who truly appreciate my dad. It was really nice. James (my step-brother), his wife Kim, and I stayed up way too late talking. It was nice to catch up with them and talk about how cool my dad is. :)

The next day was the day I had planned to tell them I was pregnant. I was planning on doing it during breakfast, so we all sat down and were chatting for a while. Then I finally said, "So... can I dominate the conversation for a minute?" :) They were shocked (it was my dad, Darlene, James and Kim) and happy.

Later we headed over to Shelley's (my step-sister) for a Mother's Day lunch. Everyone there was happy to hear the news.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. I spent time on Monday and Tuesday visiting Kristin and Libby. I went to lunch and a movie with Darlene and Kim (my step-sister... different than Jame's wife) on Thursday and to dinner and a movie with Dad and Darlene that night. We saw Baby Mama in the afternoon and Leatherheads that night. Both were good. Leatherheads was better. :) On Friday, I spent a couple of hours with Kristin before heading over to have lunch with my Dad. We ate at an awesome store called Central Market. They have this cafe section of their store that is amazing! We ordered a sandwich to share that had: toasted sourdough, smoked ham, turkey breast, prosuitto, chipotle mayonaise, mashed avacado, carmelized onions, sprouts, tomatoes, grilled poblano peppers, and roasted red peppers. Yum! Dad and I enjoyed talking to each other and had a great time. On Saturday, we went to a family reunion of Darlene's family. I met a lady there who was the youngest of 5 children and the only girl. :) The youngest boy was 7 when she was born. She said her brothers used to hide her when her mom was going to give her a spanking. :) My little one was kicking up a storm while she was telling her story. I told her that I hoped that my little one would be telling stories like that of her four brothers one day. After we left the reunion, we went to visit my Aunt Addean. She's my Grandma Jo's sister. You all probably know that I'm named after Jo. Her name was Joyce and she had 5 boys. My dad was the oldest and she died when he was 13. My Aunt Addean has been like my grandma all my life. She loved Jo a lot and all of Jo's boys became like sons to her. And thus their children like grandchildren. She was very excited to hear that I am pregnant and told me she would pray for me to have a girl. :) I appreciated that!

I then went to John and Kristin's house to hang out that night figuring that that would be the last time I saw them on this trip. I was leaving for the airport at 5:30 Monday morning and it didn't look like Kristin was going to have the baby before I left, so we stayed up chatting until around midnight, said our goodbyes and then I drove home.

I got up early on Sunday and after a trip to Lowe's for a tool to fix the riding lawn mower, my dad and I sat on the porch and watched while Darlene mowed the lawn. :) Poor Darlene! We should have helped her, but I guess we were enjoying sitting there together. We did eventually go get some wires plugged into the right places for his new TV and the new HD-DVR box they got from their satellite company. We had a nice dinner of steaks and baked potatoes and watched a couple of movies. It's a good thing I had most things packed when I checked my mail at 9:15pm to find out that Kristin thought she was really in labor. I called her at 9:22pm and decided I would try to go down to her house. I finished up my packing and Darlene drove me down. It's nice to have them only live about 20 minutes away from each other. It's was also nice of Darlene to drive me that late. John and Kristin were very appreciative. Kristin's story of the birth is great and on her blog. My dad picked me up at 6am and took me to the airport. After little sleep on Saturday night and no sleep on Sunday, I was a wreck! I slept a little here and there during flights/layovers. I napped Monday late afternoon for a couple of hours, slept last night for 10 hours and then napped this morning for about 1.5 hours. I think I'm all caught up now.

So, a successful trip. It's the first time I've been out to Texas since Darlene retired and it was really nice to spend so much time with her. She and my dad will be married for 25 years this September! I've known her since I was 6, I think. I remember when Reid was born, we went out to see them when he was a couple of weeks old. I had no idea how to help this baby stop crying and would try to nurse him and he would continue to scream bloody murder. She could take him and just calm him down. It's nice to have her in my life.

I'm still working on pictures from today's sonogram... hopefully I'll get it figured out pretty soon. There are a couple that are great!