HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

I am truly thankful this year for many people, places and things!

• Loving family - My husband, John and Rachel, Stephen, Ariane, Laila & Justin
• My parents, Austin & Walter, my sisters, Perry & Stacey, and my nieces & nephew - Macie, Holley, Allie & Scott
• Thankful for my friends!
• Thankful for our health this year and the availability to choose our own medical care. We've relied on access to great doctors and hospitals this year. Pray that doesn't go away with a government run option.
• Thankful for our jobs and abilities to earn a living to provide for our family & children without a great deal of worry.
• Thankful for our service men and women who are out there every day trying to fight for our country. Praying for their safety and security!
• Thankful for coffee, cheese & chocolate!! My favorite "C's".
• Thankful for a husband who cooks, cleans and otherwise keeps us organized! (of course, I have to leave extra early for cowboy games in exchange!)

Where are you spending your Thanksgiving today? With whom?

I'm up in Dallas spending my Thanksgiving Day with John, Laila & Justin currently sitting in the 45 degrees with my coffee in Blue Lot 15 tailgating for the Oakland v. Dallas Thanksgiving Day Game. On tap for Thanksgiving lunch is Ham, Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatos and gravy, mac & cheese, and pecan pie! All very expertly cooked/warmed on a Old Smokey Grill. Along with bloody mary's & beer. Game time = 3:15 pm. Yes, we were here at the parking lot at 9:00 am with many, many other people!! After the Dallas game comes the Longhorn v. Aggie game this evening!! Football... bring it on!

Here is a question for you to consider! I am hoping if you are a member of my family, you will join in with answers to this question! However, would love for anyone to join if they'd like.

What are 10 of your most simplest pleasures in life?

Mine -

1) Coffee w/half-n-half

2) Quiet house with taped DVR programs to watch

3) My fabulous MACbook Pro

4) Mobile broadband access

5) Watching the kids march or play ball

6) Sitting outside on a Friday evening grilling & sipping some wine

7) Reading a good book on my Kindle

8) Chocolate Kiss - dark chocolate of course

9) Driving in my Jeep with the top down.... going anywhere

10) Time to scrapbook and write.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

MA & John

Thankful for........

I am starting off easy with my thankfulness this morning......

Today.. I am thankful for being blessed with loving friends and family members!

Sunday, November 8

It's been a quiet weekend here at the Cox house! We haven't had a quiet weekend in a long time with all the marching band and baseball stuff that goes on in the month of October. We've been taken a really needed deep breather the last few days.

Coming back from the State Contest at 3:00 AM on Wednesday morning put us all very behind in the sleep category. It took a few days to catch up really. Friday night was a football game with Friendswood defeating LaMarque in the last regular season game and advancing to the playoffs next weekend. Friendswood will be hosting it's first ever playoff game at our stadium. It's a small stadium so this should be interesting!! The good news is all the extra concessions monies that the school and band will get because of it. That's a good thing!!

Trying to find the newly minted 16 year old a car to drive. That's a tough thing to do when you don't know a whole lot about cars. She hopes to get her license sometime this week so geez... here we go right?? I'm really not sure I'm ready for it. No... I know I'm not ready for it. Although... getting her to go the grocery store for that ONE item we need will surely be nice!! :-) I'm sure it just will take her 30 minutes to do that and drive by all her friends on the way there and back.

Updated my blog design with a Fall Design!

Ok - back to the Dallas Cowboys vs. Eagles!!

Have a great week!!

State 4A Marching Band Contest - San Antonio, TX

Friendswood competed in the State 4A Band Competition today at the Alamodome. I am chaperoning and we left yesterday and rehearsed last night in San Antonio. The Band did great placing 2nd in the State after all was said and done. Dripping Springs placed First, then Friendswood second, then Poteet third.

We are now on the long bus ride home to Houston where we will arrive somewhere around 2:00 am or so. More to come about the past few days - need sleep now!!

Night all!

16th Birthday Report & Halloween

Just didn’t have time to get to more blogging last night but with all the Halloween preparations and birthday happenings. It was a busy day and evening!

16th Birthday Report



A flock of pink flamingos landed in our yard on Friday bearing a message wishing Rachel a Happy Sweet 16th! They were very cute and a public announcement of her birthday!! They arrived Friday morning and left on Saturday late morning. Unfortunately, Rachel’s schedule on Friday was such that she left for school at 5:45 am and didn’t return home until almost midnight from the Away Football Game. She saw them in the dark at that point. She got to see them for a few more seconds the next morning as I took her back to the school for Band Practice on Saturday at 7:30 am. By the time she got home later in the afternoon, they flock had moved on to celebrate another event! Mom was good though and was able to capture some pictures!



Rachel’s day was a busy one as you can read from above. She started out getting up early to head to Band practice at 7:30 am. I decided she needed a tiara for her special day so she wore it for the most part. I think it bothered her head a bit, but she was a trooper!! It looked so Rachel!



Off to band practice! Only a couple of more days and the Band performs in the Stand Band Marching Contest in San Antonio!! Their show is really, really good. The kids are working very, very hard to make it the best it can be. Hence... the practice on Saturday from 8 - 1 pm (with bus rides to Dickinson stadium to practice as it’s bigger than ours) and again on Sunday from 2 - 4 pm. We (I’m chaperoning) leave tomorrow for San Antonio. GO BAND!!

After band practice, I picked her up and one of her friends, Alex, and we went to Hobby Lobby. The girls want to make some shirts to wear to school on Monday showing their excitement for the State Competition! We grabbed a few items - zebra striped fabric seemed to be a hit matched with pink and purple shirts accented by blue and green paint. Should be quite noticeable!! I’ll take pictures no doubt and share!

From there we returned home (thank goodness) and everyone took a bit of a breather for a couple of hours. Cleaned rooms for friends coming over to spend the night (uh hmm... Rachel), etc.

Her friend, Kayla, brought over a pretty balloon birthday greeting!! Very Rachel - the Disney Princesses!!



Alex came over and everyone got ready to go trick-or-treating!! We were trying to squeeze it all in on this Halloween Day!! So, Rachel, Alex and Stephen all left while it was still light and went out to trick or treat for about 1 hour. LOL... funny.

Halloween 2009




Stephen was Gene Simmons from KISS mixed with a Ghoul. Rachel was a bumble bee and with the crown on her head could have been called Queen Bee! Alex was an Indian Girl! They were funny.

Scary Stephen!


Silly Rachel!


Rushed back home at 7:15 pm so everyone could do a quick change into their really nice clothes and we could head off to a very special dinner for Rachel.

John & I gave Rachel a pretty silver and pearl drop necklace and pearl earrings for her 16th birthday!! Something that hopefully, she’ll take care of and put up for special occasions. It’s jewelry that you can wear forever.



Everyone looked so nice!! We went to Killen’s Steakhouse which is a really small, but very nice steakhouse in Pearland. The Chef was the runner up for being the Executive Chef at the Whitehouse and was offered the job of Assistant Executive Chef. He grew up in Pearland and chose to come back to open his own restaurant and it’s doing quite well. They also have a really nice wine list which I was happy with of course!!




Our guests with us this evening were Kayla & Alex!



All the girls looked lovely. Unfortunately, in all the rush of the evening, I didn’t get several of the pictures I wanted this evening. But, the ones I did, were beautiful!! It was all very grownup! We had some wonderful food and our dinner lasted about 3 hours!!

Picture of the waiter, Chad, with all the girls.



There are more pictures in the Flickr Gallery. Feel free to peruse!!

Off to watch the Dallas Cowboys play Seattle!!

Later!

MA