Last week.....& Jury Duty!!

We survived another week. Stress at work. Running around escorting kids every which way.

It was a blessing to get to Friday night. Friday Night Football Game at Texas City - Friendswood won handily.

Saturday - Stephen had a cross-country meet up at Houston Christian High School on the north west side. He didn't do all that well this week because he didn't fuel his body correctly. Hopefully, he'll "get it" for next weekend.

We had a great lunch at Pappas Burger - yummy!!

Then headed home where I turned into a couch potato and watched ALL the shows I had DVR'd all week long. Loved the premieres.... House, NCIS, Grey's Anatomy, CSI, and the new show - Flash Forward. Another week... more DVR'd shows at some point since I don't get to see many of them in real time. :-)

Stephen had a baseball game on Sunday afternoon and did VERY VERY well!! Made a couple of great plays at his 2nd base position. AND .... had a great line drive down over the first baseman's head to get on base. YAY Stephen!!!

For the FIRST TIME EVER - I have Jury Duty today. 42 years old and have never before been called for Jury Duty. Weird huh? So... headed to Galveston (live in the northernmost tip of Galveston County) this morning to see if I get picked. YUCK!!! Best wishes ok... don't have time for a jury, but will do whatever I'm asked.

See ya!!

MA

Where or Where has the Cox Family been? Where o where??

We’ve been here.

Last Sunday it began as a cough. Then a headache on Sunday night. I went to bed early really hoping that I wasn’t getting sick. Unfortunately, that indeed was the case. Woke up on Monday morning and added fever and body aches to the list of ailments. Yuck!!!

I haven’t been really sick - as in miss work too long sick - in a long, long time. I missed three days of work this week. Really couldn’t get out of bed for very long for three days. By Thursday, I was feeling more human approaching nomral, but still running a low fever. But, felt well enough to work from home both Thursday and Friday.

Felt much better by Friday, perhaps 85%, and even ventured out to the Friday night Friendswood Football Game against Nederland. Friendswood was victorious 42 - 7 I think. More importantly, was able to see Rachel performing in her her football training duties giving water to all those football players and then watch her march in the really fabulous Band show. It was really good. They performed Movements 1 - 4 of their show Converge and it was really good. Can’t wait to see Movement 5 and I hear it’s better than 1 - 4 all together! chop chop kiddos. First competition in two weeks.

Thank the Lord for my husband - he took care of everything and everyone this week while I was Miss Sicky. The kids did their thing... school and activities.

Stephen had a cross-country meet this weekend up in the Woodlands. I don’t have any pictures because I didn’t make the drive up there since they were with their Dad this weekend and it’s a really, really long way up there 6:30 am. However, I hear he improved on his time from the first meet by about 20 seconds which is fabulous! His run was 1.5 miles and he did it around 13 min 30 sec. Very proud of him!! He’s working so hard and pushing through all the new runner aches and pains. Good job my son!! Another race next weekend!

Last night, John hosted his annual New Teacher Meeting (aka Party) at our house. While this sounds all altruistic and such, it’s just an word play to make it through all the work filters and is actually a party for all the teachers.. not just the new ones. Wild party at that. They were here until about 2:00 am folks!! When was the last time I saw 2:00 am with people still awake at my house??? Um.... wait.... I can’t remember. Yea.. that long. As usual, my fabulous, wonderful, and amazing husband did all the prep work for this party - cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc. Me... I just sat here and ate bon bons all day. :-) Ok Ok ...lest you think I don’t do anything.....of course, I helped. :-) He cooked some absolutely fabulous BBQ last night - brisket, ribs, chicken and sausage. As well as his famously good beans. We have tons of left overs for the week which is wonderful as well!! Makes the evenings so much easier.

We had fun watching the Longhorns win over the Texas Tech Raiders!! YAY!! HOOK EM HORNS!! and then proceeded to attempt to play Guitar Hero!! It’s pretty funny watching the older folks playing the teen game. Began with just trying to figure out how to turn it all on and link up the guitars and went downhill from there... LOL

It’s Sunday ... so that means... it must be Dallas Cowboy time..... Dallas plays tonight in their Home Opener at their incredible new stadium against the NY Giants.

John won Week 1 of Football picks! He’s very proud of himself. 1 of many I tell him.... just 1 of many.

Here are a few pictures I gathered from this past week.

Enjoying the first season game!!



Rachel's place for the game.


Stephen's place for the game


Rene was visiting with his boys to watch the game!


Me!


Friendswood's Game Last Friday...


Where's Rachel?? She in the dead center - short one in the grey shirt amongst the big football players. This is her "Sports Training" gig she signed up for this year. You may need to go to Flickr and click on this picture to really see her.


Have a Great Week!!
MA

Football... Band... More Football....

It’s that time again folks. Time for us to become engrained in both the Friday Night Lights of high school football as well as the Sunday Fun of NFL and the Dallas Cowboys!!

Let’s start with Friday Night Football ..... Friendswood Mustangs vs. Brazoswood

Away game down in Freeport, TX. It was threatening to rain all day and evening but the football game went on and so did the band. I chaperoned this game for the band kids and it was the first game I had attended which is the second game of the season. I was having flashbacks all night long with all the great memories I have from my band days 25 years ago. It’s truly amazing that it’s been that long because it just doesn’t feel like it.

Long bus ride and luckily, the weather was actually pretty nice down there in Freeport with the wind blowing somewhat nicely keeping the air feeling a little cool. Unfortunately, the actual football game was pretty boring the first half with the score at the half Brazoswood 21 Friendswood 0. Halftime was great watching the kids march their show albeit backwards since they were facing the Home side for their show. Second half was better for the Mustangs - scoring 18 points. The game ended with the Brazoswood Bucs winning over the Mustangs with a score of 28 -18.

Football is on tap each and every Friday through the first Friday in November, barring any post season play.

I took lots of pictures of the Band on Friday and here are a few. More in the Gallery.

Miss Rachel


Warming up for their performance!


Storms were Looming at the Friday Night Lights


Football!!



NEXT....... Dallas Cowboy Opening Game today against the Tampa Bay Bucs in Tampa Bay!! Noon game which means John started cooking the Game Day Meal yesterday and it’s been slowly cooking all night. Rene and his boys are coming over to watch the game and we’re all going to be feasting on John’s Menudo and Carnitas very shortly!!

Our special Game Day Cowboy clothing for each of us has been packed away until this morning when it was pulled out and placed very lovingly on our beds for each of us to wear once we have eaten!! No eating allowed in the special clothes according to the Dallas Task Master.

Our family wagering has begun as well and John is telling me the only reason I won last year was because he just wasn’t paying attention last year. I wonder what the excuse was for the year before?? :-) Anyway.... we’re making our picks again for this year with weekly winners and awards (not sure yet what those are, ideas welcome) and end of season awards. Let the games begin!

Back later with pictures and comments from the day!!

PS - The Cowboys thankfully won today so it was a good evening at the Cox House!

One Year Ago THIS Weekend - Hurricane Ike
This weekend a year ago, we were scurrying around every day looking for gas to fuel the power generator. We were living off grilled foods and hurricane supplies trying not to open the refrigerators or freezers very much. We were very lucky to have a generator too!! We didn’t have air conditioning and while Saturday was a miserable day and night without it, God blessed us on Sunday with a cool front that made it very bearable to be without the comforts we are normally accustomed too. We were blessed in that our power came back up on Monday evening and while we had already made the necessary plans to be able to power the TV with generator for the Monday Night Cowboy Game, we didn’t have to in the end with our power coming back up! Luckily, AT&T had their network up and running.

We were blessed to not have any major issues to deal with in the aftermath of Ike. If you’re interested in reading about our experiences with the hurricane, go back through the Archives to September 11 and start reading forward. I went and read them again. I wouldn’t have been able to do that had I not been keeping a blog. I wouldn’t have all those memories written down like I do without it. I’m so glad I started this blog!!

Stephen is a Cross-Country Runner!!

Stephen has taken on a new sport as 7th grade begins. He hasn’t given up baseball, but at school, baseball is a Spring sport. Thus... he wanted to be involved in a Fall sport as well. Choices - soccer, football, cross-country. He can run for a very, very long time and keep up and he is actually pretty fast. We’ve noticed this in him. So, perhaps cross-country might be a good thing to do.

John thinks it’s too bad he won’t try football... he’s fast enough to run right through a lot of folks. Unfortunately, he weighs pretty much next to nothing and any little bump by one of those big boys would send him flying. I don’t blaming him for saying absolutely not.

He’s been running for a couple of weeks and had his first meet on Saturday. He did very well for his first meet. His feet and knees have been bothering him as his body gets used to running. We also found out (on the day of the meet) that he had taken out the insoles in his shoes for some reason and perhaps, that might have been contributing to his sore feet and knees! Have no idea why he took those out....

Anyway... he did well on Saturday for his first 1.5 mile run. Finished about mid pack. He felt as if he was going to throw up after he was done! Poor thing. He still wants to run again, so it must not have been too awful!!

We’ll have to keep him eating though if he’s going to start running!

Here are some pics from the Cross-Country meet! There are plenty more in the Flickr gallery link on the right. Enjoy.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!

On September 5, 1964, my parents, Austin & Walter, pledged to live their lives loving each other.



Where: St. Marks Episcopal Church , San Antonio, TX

45 Years..... Really. Really?? Yes, REALLY.

Let’s see - what has transpired over 45 years?? Well, honestly, I have no idea. That would take my parents sitting down and recalling from their perspective the events of the last 45 years!! My lil ‘ol perspective will appear below. I’m hoping that this will inspire my parents to do some fill in the blanks once they read it because if they don’t, this is all that we will have in the book of knowledge. It’s possible my sisters can do some adding to this list from their own perspectives, but seriously.... fill it in folks.

1964 Wedding of the Year in San Antonio Texas

1964 Living in Austin, Texas in a cool duplex (there are pictures) with a beautiful little dog named Laddie (I think)

1966 Move to Ponca City, Oklahoma (don’t know where or on what street, as I was not quite born yet)

1967 Birth of their first (and most wonderful - I can say that, I’m the one writing) daughter - Mary Austin

1968 Move to Houston, Texas - Prism Lane

1969 Birth of their second daughter - Perry

1972 Birth of their third daughter - Stacey

1976 Move to new house in Houston, Texas - Thornwick Lane
Mary Austin goes to camp for 6 weeks in New Mexico and her family moves to a different HOME without telling her. Came home to new house on Thornwick in West Houston. :-) (I’m certain there is a whole different story there, but that’s how my brain remembers it, and it, of course, is all about me.)

1977 - 1985 Still living in Houston, TX - Endured Mary Austin’s terrible junior high years, followed by the wonderful high school years. :-) (You have to admit, they were better than junior high). Survived going to Stacey’s soccer games and all the band commitments for all of us for many years! Survived health scare with Perry at Texas Children’s. Survived back issues and kidney stones on occasion. Survived many, many, many (how many “many”’s is too many?) long days and nights of homework and projects. Survived cooking meals for 6:30 dinners each and every night. Survived shopping, buying, carting and moving large screen projected TV’s on the NCAA Basketball Championship night because “DAD” just had to have it (even though he didn’t know about it). Survived boyfriends you hated and boyfriends you liked. Even boy friends who liked to come over and play games with the parents. Survived teenagers driving by themselves without tooooooo much damage to physical bodies (either theirs, anyone elses or the cars). Dad changed jobs once or twice in this period (don’t know when, don’t remember where - see the blanks that need to be filled in??). Survived all the changing fashion statements and thank the Lord, got away from dressing all three of us alike!! :-) Didn’t lose the big giant glasses though for awhile. Survived 40th Birthday parties (don’t think policemen really act like that in real life) and graveyards popping up in the front yard. Not one of us EVER went to jail or even came close (unless there’s something I haven’t been told..... is possible.) Survived many of our teenager friends dropping by on Sundays at 5:30 pm in HOPES of being asked to stay for Dad’s fabulous fajitas he served before they became popular in any restaurants. Endured one of us (was that me?) bringing home one cat (Kitty) who ended having another cat (Callie) and both living MUCH longer than anyone would have ever, ever thought. Long after we were all out of the house and gone.

1985 Move to San Antonio, Texas La Casa Blanca on Seidel
Beautiful, unique house. MA went off to college in Austin so while she wasn’t there living life with you in person, you felt it in the pocketbook. :-) (Thank you!) Perry & Stacey still living at home. Became very involved with church at this point. Another opportunity to add facts as I was otherwise preoccupied at this point in life with college at UT.

1990 - Present (yes, that’s 20 years, I know... but breaking it down isn’t real easy as I can’t remember any of the actual years, at this point.)

So.... Mom & Dad move to Corpus Christi, then to Houston, then to the Hill Country in Boerne where they live today.

Daughters - 2 Weddings (financed by Mom & Dad) , 2 Divorces and 1 Second Wedding during this time.

Six (6) Grandchildren born over this timeframe - Rachel (93), Macie (96), Stephen (97), Holley (99), Scott (99), and Allie (03)

Many chickens and miniature horses are raised and cared for.

Many gardens are grown.

Many tough decisions are made.

Finally.... (ok... so that was the abbreviated speed version....)

PRESENT DAY -



45 years later.... living in Boerne, Texas surrounded by friends, family and loved ones!! Retired and enjoying life as much as they can.

Love you both!!

Happy Anniversary!!

MA