All is well.

We are finishing off a great weekend.

Yesterday Jody and I drove down to Corsicana to visit with Jody's side of the family.  His cousin Tina and her husband Ron have a place on the lake and her parents, Jody's Uncle Durwood and Aunt Betty were in from Oregon.  Grandma and Grandpa drove up from New Braunfels and Aunt Sis drove in from Mineral Wells.  I can't imagine driving across the state of Texas when I'm in my late 70's.  Jody's dad is just recovering from a near fatal surgery and we were really glad to see him up and out on a road trip.  It was a fun 1/2 day trip for us and good to see everyone.  My cell phone died just as we got there, and even though I took my camera with me, I didn't bother taking any pictures... neither did anyone else.  Durwood, Sis and Jane (Grandma) are all siblings.  The last time we all got together was 2008 when Jody was going through chemo.  They come down every election year to vote. 

Meanwhile, Jeff was cruising into Austin.  Yeah, as in Texas.  I know the last I'd posted we thought that he'd fly out of Mexico City.  Well I guess he got past that 1/2 way point and just decided to go for it.

He called from the border at Brownsville Friday night around 11PM.  He said that while the Border Agents checked out his bike and stuff, he popped into a store to get a bottle of Mescal to include in his import fees.  When he got back they said that they weren't going to charge him fees for the bike because it didn't look like it would make it across the border.

But make it he did.  After sleeping in a roadside park on the Texas side, he headed north, and straight into a cold North wind.  He text me from San Antonio around noon and then called from Grandma and Grandpa's at 1PM.... he had stopped in to see them (but they weren't home.)  He's such an awesome Grandson.

Jeff wanted to meet us in Corsicana, but the little blue bike wasn't going to make it.  He was having some problems, the bike would loose power when he shifted from 3rd to 4th so he was having to drive in 3rd and couldn't go faster than 50mph.  Luckily one of his buddies went by the apartment and got Jeff's truck and drove it to Austin to pick him up.

Oct 10th to 27th, 7 countries, 5000 kilometers!!!  3107 miles give or take a yard.  On a 100cc motorcycle.  Yeah... not a big road cruiser.  Here are a few pictures he's text to me this week.

 Inside a pyramid in Guatemala

 Outside the pyramid... maybe it's not Guatemala

 A baby in a hammock... we don't see this everyday.

self explanatory

 nice view

 The little blue bike...

 whoops, this should be up above... from inside the pyramid

The State Capital, Austin Texas.... waiting on Brandon.

Y'all have a great week. The next time I'll be coming to you from out west somewhere.

What's up with the boy child?

Funny you should ask...He set out a couple of weeks ago for Panama.  Made it to Panama City,

Panama.

Made his way down to the canal to check it out...

Then he took a 23 hour bus ride which I'm sure he slept through the whole thing into Costa Rica  (which he text me in SPANISH about... I'm so proud, he's speaking Spanish!) He had to wait a few more days to get his title for the motorcycle once he got to San Jose.  

For those of you who have been to the Spanish countries or had dealings with Spanish governments, you know what I'm about to say.  The Spanish work at their own pace and like to make everyone who is employed feel important by having the person who is in a hurry visit with EVERYONE in the office.  For those of you who have never been and are planning a trip... you've been warned.

Then he was off to Tamarindo, Costa Rica where he was able to call us.  It's on the Pacific coast and he said it would be an awesome place for the family to visit.  

Next stop Nicaragua!

 Double click on the pics to make them bigger to see detail.

He's in so much trouble.... taking pictures while driving,  who does that?  Not his mother, right?

Off to Granada Nicaragua next and then on to Leon, Nicaragua yesterday.

Did you know that they actually snow-board down the volcanoes in Nicaragua?  Well they do.  And of course Jeff is going to do it.  The kids grew up 'sand surfing' in the sand hills of West Texas, why wouldn't he want to try this?  

This picture is awesome!  I may have to blow it up for my office.

Double click on it to get the full effect, you can see the steam coming off the volcano.  Yes, it's a dormant volcano.  Jeff said that if you dug your hand down into the black 'sand' ash 3 inches, the rocks below were too hot to touch!!  I remember the sand on top of the Sand Hills being too hot to touch, but there wasn't a chance that the whole thing would erupt!   The last time this volcano, Cerro Negro, erupted was 1999.

And not to be left out... Jolea has been day hiking and road tripping too.

I'll be going out there in a couple of weeks to join her on some day hikes.  I guess I better start walking again to get in shape...



Lastly, I'm still having trouble with Blogger...  anyone have a clue what I need to do?   I can't see that top row up there.....

Have a good week.

All is well...

... in Costa Rica.  Jeff has been calling in pretty regular... when he can get wifi service.

He bought a bike to ride around and to get to Panama on.  I guess he decided against public transportation.

When he told us that he bought a small motorcycle we were thinking it was like the last small bike he purchased. 

He said that he had to work on it a little bit to get it road worthy.  Staying in a bike friendly hostel helps. 

Back at home we were going about our lives as usual.

I made a hat for my boss' baby.  He's a HUGE Star Wars fan, his 3yr old twins are named Luke and Leah. This is Owen.

Me and a few of my co-workers decided to have a desert buffet for Valentines Day.  Other co-workers brought goodies and everyone stuffed their faces... it was a good day.

I completed my guitar class (6 lessons), I still don't get it.  My fingers are retarded, and I keep saying over and over "is it supposed to sound like that?"  But I'm getting there and I'll keep trying, as long as my finger tips don't snag my yarn.

I tried this wine, $2.99 at Whole Foods.  It's called Three Guesses.  When I showed it to Jody and told him how much I had paid for it, he said "the first two guesses don't count and the third is unimportant, kind of like this wine."  It's not bad, kool-aid with a twang, come to think of it, I don't even think I got a buzz.

What a kid!

Our son Jeffrey 

Jeff, Bubba, Buckley,
snowboarding in Montana last December.

Tuesday I drove him to the airport to fly out to Costa Rica.  He's gone on a 'walk-about'.  Tuesday before last, he told Jody and I that he was going to CR, we weren't that surprised.  As you know by now, our kids are always going somewhere.  It's usually to places that they haven't been to before, and Jeff had expressed interest in going to Costa Rica about a year ago.

What did surprise us was that he was going alone.  Just him, and his backpack and his laptop and a cell phone.  Was he going to visit one of Jody's friends who recently finished a home there? No, Tony was back in the states. He may or may not make it down to that part of the country where Tony's house was, he just didn't know yet.

Our next question we are parents and have to ask was, how long was he planning on being gone?  He didn't know, maybe a month, maybe not if he got bored.  He was going to 'cruise' on over to Panama too.  Visit some friends of Jolea's who had opened a resort there.  Maybe he'd work for them for a little while, maybe not.....

All the while his calmness in the extensive planning of this adventure is starting to make Jody's stomach rise higher and higher in his chest toward his throat.  Remember... Jody barely leaves the county, much less the country, and never for pleasure, only for a paying job.  People who haven't been around Jeff his whole life often notice the unbelievable calm in this kid, right off.  I guess we who have been around him his whole life just know this about him, but sometimes it still bothers or concerns Jody.

As Di mentioned to me a couple of nights ago on the phone.  "He is a model of a person who is right with the world." And she's right, he has no ego issues, he's not narcissistic in anyway, he's so caring of people and just takes care of his business and goes about his business with a whistle on his lips and calm in his heart.  Not that he doesn't worry, because we all have worries from time to time.   He's just a really cool kid, and Di said that it was so evident when Jeff and I had dinner with them Wednesday of last week. She couldn't get over how 'together' he is.  That's just Jeff.

As Jeff and I drove to the airport Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning he tells me that Mark, his former boss and a long time friend of the family had called him just the day before.  Mark asked Jeff if he'd be interested in flying down to Costa Rica to check on the set up of a Reverse Osmosis Unit that his company had just shipped down.  Yes, both Jody and Jeff work in the commercial water purification field.  So Jeff tells him that he's headed there and Mark sends him the details of where the RO unit is.  This becomes a business trip with all expenses paid!!!!

Talk about a golden horseshoe..... he is rocking the karma.  I wish I could see his aura, it would probably burn my eyes.

We're really blessed, and so is he.   Hope he sends pictures soon.  A text message or post to his sister's FB would be nice.

Wow, is this revenge of Mother Nature day or what?

The earthquake in Japan and resulting tsunami hits to the Pacific coast areas are mind blowing.  Watching that surge move through neighborhoods and across farm lands in Japan and then the marinas on the West Coast with the pleasure vessels being pushed and shoved upon each other makes me feel so sorry for those people, but at the same time I'm happy that I don't live where those types of events happen.

I do live where we have grass fires, and we had quiet a few today in the area.  The wind here was unbelievable.  I almost set sail walking out to the car after work today due to my wardrobe. 

Hey we finally have pictures from Jeff!!! Remember, he went to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival.   

This must have been taken when they went up to the Cristos.  AWESOME huh? That would have made me nauseous, I'm afraid of heights.

He's coming home Tuesday.

Here at home we've just been trying to get through the week leading up to Spring Break.

I know what you people who have never worked in a school think... "You have nothing to whine about... you get all those vacations all year long..."  Hey, we work hard for those vacations.  Those kids know they are coming and they make us earn them.  The closer we get to a holiday the crazier the kids get.  The stats show, we have more discipline reports the closer we get to a school holiday or vacation.

I know my mom used to use the holiday as a threat when I was a kid and I did too with Jolea and Jeff, "if you end up with a bad grade, or fail that test or misbehave (my kids never really misbehaved, too scared I guess) you'll be grounded for the whole holiday!" 

I don't guess parents do that anymore.  I really don't think parents even care much what their kids do.  They kind of just blow it off when they end up in the office for half the school day or in ISS for a couple of days.  I don't get it.

Like I was saying, this week was just like all weeks before the holiday.  Lots of discipline, lots of ISS (which means short handed in the office) and lots of stress.

So with the TAKS test coming on we have been whooping it up on Fridays.  Today was Rock the TAKS day where we could dress as we would have for our favorite Rock Era, or as a Rock Star or wear a Rock Band t-shirt. 

Here we have my boss.  Our Principal, as SLASH!  Under all that hair is a man who loves to act like a 5th grader has the county's largest collection of athletic shoes and looks like Mr. Clean.

And we had Hanna Montana our Assistant Principal and Slash on the morning video announcements.  He actually scared some of the little kids this morning and had to remove his sun glasses... we teach Stranger Danger in our school and I think they really paid attention.

Some teachers showed up in their freshly bought Beatles t-shirts from Target with blow up guitars.

 What's with the quality of this picture? Iphone I guess.   Lourdes school registrar has on her Motley Crew garb and I came to school in a complete 60's outfit, peasant top, head band and beads, big hoop earrings, denim skirt made of a pair of holey levis cut open with a v-insert to create the skirt and last but not least... Dr. Scholl's sandals.  All I needed was some patchouli and I was ready for the sit in. I was going to bring my sitar, but I couldn't fit it in my car!
(Word of warning, denim makes for a pretty good sail in 35 mph winds.  This skirt was just like a sail when I walked outside after school today.... I was propelled toward my car!)  It made for a great ending to a really stressful week.

I've got the next 9 days off.... what shall I do?  Hey I think I'll put a little color in my life with Kool-Aid.  Stay tuned.  I'm off to eat chocolate chips  I can't believe that I don't have ANY dark chocolate in the house! and drink red wine.

The Kids

I just got off Skype with Jolea, they made it into Bermuda yesterday morning at about 8:30 EST.  She was quiet well.  Said they were preparing for a storm, it was windy as you can tell by the picture.  She said the seas were "quiet large" but it wasn't too bad (I guess she's judging it on her scale.)   They will be in Bermuda for a week before leaving for Dominica.  She managed to go aloft!  It was a huge deal for her, but she did it.  She'll probably post about it later.  I'm so proud of her for not giving up, I knew she could do it.  She just needed a little warm weather. 

Jeff be-bopped in yesterday evening to have dinner with us.  He'd been in Corpus all week.  He was here when Mark showed up for the Saturday night Pickin'. 

 

Mark started doing what Mark does.... he teaches, any and everyone how to play something.  My NEW electric bass was sitting there and Jeff was sitting there, so Mark taught Jeff to play the bass.  He did quiet well.  Oh yeah, Jody thought we should have an electric bass.  (Remind me to tell you the story about the first time I drove a Tony Kart)  I came in from work Thursday night and there was a bass in the living room and he wasn't even wearing his "Yes Honey, it's another guitar" shirt.

Then it was my turn, my fingers have a mind of their own and they have a natural tendency to do knitting.  This was very foreign to them.   No we don't have or need any pictures of this.  

Later, one of Jolea's dear friends from her Junior High School and 4-H days came over.  What did Mark do?   "Hey... do you think you could just take those brushes there and give us a light little tap on that snare drum.... Come on, any chimp can do it."  That's how Amanda became a drummer.  He didn't even give her time to take off her coat!

Y'all have a good week, tomorrow is the 1st of February!!!  I was promised a new car in February.... I'll be holding him to it. 

Weekly Updates

The weather:  It's still unbelievably cold here?  13 degrees right now.  This is not normal for Texas.  I talked to a vendor in Wisconsin Friday and she said they are hearing more about the Texas weather up there than they are hearing about their own.  I asked why and she said "we're just having normal stuff, like a foot and a half of snow on the ground.  But you guys are colder than us with the wind chill."  I could believe that... our wind chill temp Friday morning was 1degree.  ONE! UNO! and I was out on the curb with a couple of the TAs doing car duty....  I now know that pins and needles feeling that you get when frost bite starts.  I'm over this... Christmas break is over, now I want to see a definite warm up.

Jolea:  We talked to her for about 20 minutes Wednesday night.  She was in Norfolk, on the boat and freezing.  But she was supposed to go pick up some Foul Weather gear and a few more articles of clothing at the 'REAL' mall after dinner that night.  She seemed excited that there was a REAL mall.  I guess she hasn't seen a REAL mall in over a year.  She said the boat was great and hoped to have pictures up on her blog really soon.  There is no internet on the boat but they make frequent trips to the library.  I'm hoping she'll have time to do that before they set sail some time this next week.  They may leave as early as Wednesday instead of the 15th like previously planned.  I should probably go check the GPS to see if they are still there. 

She called with a quick question Thursday morning,
Jolea: "Mom am I still on your Sam's card?"
Me: "No Jolea, Jeffrey bumped you off to buy beer last summer."
Jolea: "Can I bump him off? We're a non-profit organization here and we're on a really tight budget and we need to provision the boat.  We really need a Sam's card."
Me: "If you can wait until tomorrow to provision, I can go to Sam's tonight and get you reinstated."
Just like Jolea.... got a problem?  Let me take care of that for you, I have resources.  I haven't heard how their Sam's trip went but I have a feeling Jolea is now helping the cook and will be sleeping in the salon and not in the Forecastle with the rest of the deck hands before this trip is over. But then again, maybe not... she was so over the whole chef part of cruising when the last charter ended.

Jody:  The 15th will be his last day at the current company.  He's taken a job with a larger company (hint: it's an instrumentation company that is named for our state) that is more like the company he had been working for when he was laid off from his job of 8 years back this time last year.  A person would think it would be easy to put in your two weeks notice when you are offered a dream job with all the bells and whistles.  But not for Jody.  He put in his notice with G.T. and before we could have dinner that night he received a call from the Human Resources person at the New Company saying that GT was not going to let him leave.  (NC is a MAJOR company that provides computer components to companies all over the world) Yeah, GT were trying to hold him hostage.  They said they would not provide NC with the product that GT provides NC if Jody were to leave GT to go to work at NC.  GT would cut NC off and they would loose production.  All because of a guy who has only worked for them for 3 months and doesn't even have his own set of keys to the building.  So the leave date for Jody was put on hold!  He had to stay!  He had to push his leave date from GT back by 2 weeks and then he had to help them find his replacement!  I have yet to find anyone who has not said "WHAT?" when I tell them about this.

It's crazy I know, but he will walk out of there this Friday and hand them his non-existent keys and be done with them.  It's not like they were a horrible company to work for, it's just that a better deal with better benefits came along and he felt he needed to go for it.  But does GT ever think he'll return to work for them again?  Hmmmm, I'm sure he'll think long and hard about that.

Jeff:  I mentioned to him last weekend as I was making out my weekly menu that we didn't have anything listed on the menu that he really liked to eat this week, but if he'd let me know I'd rustle him up a taco ring or something.  We never heard from him again after Sunday....  Thursday I asked Jody if Jeff had checked in and he said he hadn't heard from him.  I guess I'll have to work one of his favorite meals into the week so we can see him more than once a week.  But then we got a call Friday night that he was still working in Houston.  Hopefully he had time to run by Nita's for a favorite meal.

Me:  The last pair of Christmas socks flopped.  It's a good thing the recipient hasn't come around to receive them yet.  Unless he wears a size 6 1/2 shoe he won't be able to wear these felted beauties.  I'll still give them to him, but I'm in the process of making him another pair.  He can do what ever he wants with the felted pair.  The second pair will be regular socks.  I'm going back to felting bags and leaving socks to later when I have more experience, and I can find a tried and true pattern to use.

I'll leave you with a few pictures from 'the pickin' last night.  We went to Chris' house instead of them coming to Allen.  For the past few weeks, Mark has been forcing Dawn and I to take up learning to play something.  You remember how he forced me into 'chopping' on the mandolin?  Well I guess he thinks I'm a pro at that and it's time to move on to the bass.  Dawn somehow got out of it last night, I'm still trying to figure out how she did that. She didn't take any pictures of me on the bass, but dug through my purse and used my camera to take these pictures. 

I was 'chopping' on Chris' Ukele, notice my knitting in my lap.... I don't leave home without it. They forced me to play the bass earlier, and I forced them to have a Uke in their Bluegrass as payback.  They even said it sounded good in the end...  they are really nice guys, and I think they are kind of scared of me.

Mark giving Jody some pointers on the mandolin and Chris on the guitar.  (Jody's mandolin playing was amazing last night!)  

Then Mark had the great idea that one of us girls get on the snare drum....  "come on! It's real easy... a chimp can do it!"  In other words, get over here and make a monkey out of yourself and TRY to play the drums.  Well you know I'm going to jump on that challenge..... 

.... just like all musical instruments, it's not as easy as it looks.  Can you tell I was cracking up, I always crack up laughing when I feel like a fool.  Mark is trying to give me pointers on how to do it.... lol. 

Jody is going out today to shop for monkeys, if he doesn't find one it will be Dawn's turn on the snare next week, I've got my eye on that African drum there behind me in the picture.  They'll wish they hadn't suggested I put my knitting down.  

Have a great week! 

West Texas Pictures part 2.

The backyard at my brother's house. Looking sort of Southeast.

And looking South... see that rise in the center of the picture? That's a huge mesa, Jeff rode his little pit bike all the way over there one day and then called me. I got the binocs and spotted him on the ridge.

Di in the garden. She's very proud of her produce.

As with every first garden, there's always an abundance of something... this year it's squash. We ate squash at almost every meal.

Momma and baby Longhorns were everywhere.

more babies.

They don't even move when you drive up to them.

And if you get too close to the babies they will come after you. I later learned this is the meanest one.

From across the tank.

First catch of the day.

Later Michael and Jeff worked on getting the TV out on the patio.

BEEE-utiful!

So peaceful!

Some may think it's odd to have such fire-power strapped to the dashboard of your jeep. We don't. There was also a rifle mounted just above the sunvisors.

Nice fish! (sorry it's blurry, I was watching for cows.)

That fish broke his $16 fishing pole......

Michael went out to try to get the herd to come up closer...

...and they did, this bull's name is Brisket. I wonder if they have plans for him later on?

Michael and I left the fishermen and went back to the house to prepare breakfast ...

Di was on the phone setting up her next commercial, she produces commercials. I think this one involves Tiger Woods and some sheep.

Voila' breakfast taco, with guacamole, salsa and sour cream and some bacon. YUM!

See they do have some bigger trees on the ranch, it's not all mesquites.

This area is set up for campfires and picnics, with benches and tables, there is a creek just behind those bushes behind Jeff.

Key West may brag about their sunsets, but I think we have something to brag about too.

The next morning Nita and I spotted these two Vinagaroons on a stroll around the outside of the yard.

Wildflowers

There they go again.... off to the tank to fish.

Look! A baby deer! It's at the edge of the water on the right side of the pond.

Michael's house.

This is the 'red' house, where we stayed. It was once a hunting lodge.

Yes, that's a Bobcat. It's a pet of one of Michael's friends. It started storming shortly after this picture was made and put a huge damper on our trip to the lake to watch the Fourth of July Fireworks.

Sunday morning and someone was telling us it was time to go home.... still pouring down raining. I was sitting in the courtyard of the 'red' house looking toward the screened BBQ room.

The Barn Swallows didn't like me being there, but after they figured out that I was going to sit still, they began zooming in and out all around my head. They have the navigation skills of a bat.

Here are some pictures of the inside of the 'red' house. From the kitchen door looking into the dining room with the living room beyond.

Looking from the dining room into the living room.

Another angle of the living room. This house is like a museum. There are thousands of things to look at in here.












Looking back toward the dining room and bar.















Looking into the kitchen from the dining room. That stove was awesome! There are two commercial size refrigerators on the left side of this room. They would put on yearly company parties at this house. They are set up to accommodate around 100 people for a party.








And one last picture for the Meerkat Crew.

That's what I did on my summer vacation. Going to a place like this, sure makes a trip to West Texas worth going.

THANKS Michael and Di for having us at your house for the weekend.