HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLEY!!!

Yesterday was Miss Holley's (one of my beautiful nieces) 10th birthday!! Holley, I told you I would put you on my blog little missy!! Just a little late cause, well, life gets in the way sometimes when you least expect it. BUT - it's here!!!


HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY SWEET ONE!!!


WITH MUCH LOVE FROM
AUNT MA, JOHN, RACHEL & STEPHEN

Terrific Tuesday!!

Just a quick note as we go into Tuesday!
We survived Monday... :-)

Today's agenda includes school/work for all. Stephen has another dr's appointment with his ADHD Doc (get more meds for 10 min conversation). Luckily, his dad is getting him for this one. No update yet on the other testing.

Scouts at 7 pm for Stephen.
Soccer tonight out in Katy for Rachel with the team
Beth Moore (YIPPPPPEEEEE) Bible Study tonight for Mama
John... well, he gets to fix dinner and chaffeur duty. I love ya honey!! Thank you!!

Off to get in the traffic lanes ...

MA

Letter to my kids....

Last week when our country inaugurated our 44th President of the United States of America, there were a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head that I wanted to write about it, but couldn't get out of my head into written words. Luckily, I have a very bright and talented younger sister who did just that in a very sweet letter to her children on her blog and her words were exactly what I wanted to say to my own kids!! She has so graciously allowed me to copy her thoughts into my blog so they are captured here to be read now and provide memories for later. Thank you Stacey for letting me use your very captivating words!!

******************Letter to my precious kids ***************************

It has been my intention and hope since I started this family blog to capture moments in time for you to look back on and remember when you are older; memories of your childhood days. Today was one of those moments that will be remembered for many, many years to come. Today our county inaugurated our 44th president, Barack Obama. Not only is he our 44th president, but he is the first African-American President to EVER be elected. It no longer matters which candidate I voted for, this is my president and your president. As you grow up and learn about politics yourselves, you will find that there are few, if any, politicians that you will agree with 100% of the time. There may be one political party that is more in line with what you believe but even within that party, there are differences of opinion. My advice to you is this, pray. Pray hard. Know what you believe about the issues and then vote according to those beliefs. Seek your answers from scripture and Godly people in your lives, people who seek their guidance from Jesus.

Here is Barack Obama taking the oath of office and becoming the 44th president of the United State of America.

President Obama placed his hand on the same Bible that President Lincoln used at his inauguration. The last phrase that President Obama said was " So help me God". There are people in this country who fought to have that last phrase regarding God taken out of the oath of office. That is very scary to me.

There were record numbers of people who traveled from all over the country and the world to see Barack Obama become the president.

President Bush made this "transition of power" one of the smoothest of all times. Regardless of what some say, President Bush led this country and made decisions based on what he believed. He did not make decisions according to opinion polls. He had some tough decisions to make during his presidency too! Regardless of whether I agreed with everything, I am very grateful for the way he led and loved on the people of this country during those dark days after Sept. 11, 2001. Job well done. And kids, do you know that he loves Jesus? That is why he does not regret any of the decisions he made. He followed what he felt the Lord was leading him to do. That is all you can do.

Kids, you my wonder why I am writing all of this. I just want you to know that we have the greatest county in the world. We are able to choose our leaders and have more freedoms than you (and I) realize. Please remember to pray for the leaders of this country. Even the ones that you may not vote for. Pray that God will work miracles in their lives and hearts and that they will seek His will in leading our country. God is ALWAYS in control...he knows what decisions we are going to make before we make them. He gives us free will....choose to seek Him...life won't always be perfect...but with Jesus by your side...wow... some of my all time favorite scriptures are on the cross that sits on my nightstand. I read it everyday. Each of you have seen it. It reads like this "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope....when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. I will be found by you," says the Lord....."I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you." Jeremiah 29:11-13 and Psalm 32:8.

So my dear ones, seek Him, let him guide you. It will be the best decision you will EVER make. I love each of you so very much! Love, Mom

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Thank you Aunt Stacey!!

MA

Fabulous Friday!!

Friday is here again! Oh how I love Fridays!! :-)

I took the day off today because our Friday is chock full of doctor's appointments. Rachel and I go back and see the neurologist for both of us and Stephen has an appointment with the pedi to talk about his growth (or lack of).

Medical Updates:

Orthopedic - Rachel had an appointment with the orthopedic yesterday and basically, he believes, having ruled out all other possibilities, that her right shoulder blade issue may just be recurring muscle strain. How? Why? who knows.... so, he gave her a lovely shot and said, hopefully, she'll feel better in that area by Monday. If not...well, we didn't ask that question. Not sure what we'd do at that point but perhaps get a second opinion. The surgery needed for her left shoulder that is way loose is set right now for May 1.

Neurologist:
Rachel - just a follow up today from the MRI's that were ordered pre Christmas. I already know the results were normal, so not sure if there will be anything interesting come from this appointment for Rachel.

MA - same doctor, different patient (ME). My stuff is a little more active. While my numbness is generally overall better, it's still there often. If I do the traction daily and exercises, it seems to generally keep it somewhat lessened, but really not gone away. In addition, the last couple of weeks I've developed some pain starting to be uncomfortable at the base of my neck so .... not sure where this will lead, but my guess may be a nuerosurgeon for further discussions. I'm putting off the surgery as long as I can but they may be able to give me some injections to lessen the pain if it gets too uncomfortable.

Pediatrician for Stephen:
Stephen's small size is becoming more and more noticeable amongst his peers. His weight sits around 75 which is where it has been within 5 lbs for nearly 3 years or more. More concerning though is his height at 4 feet 5 inches. We believe on the overall growth charts, that puts him at the 3% percentile. Rob mentioned he had some growth assistance as a child, so we are going to start down the path for evaulation for growth hormone deficiency. I imagine we'll end up with a pediatric endocrinologist for evaulation. There have been some studies recently that have shown that ADHD has little to do with growth hormone, but that lack of oxygen at birth does. Stephen did suffer a traumatic birth with an unknown time without oxygen. Some other signs are signficant delay in baby teeth replacement. He actively started losing his baby teeth just recently. Comparing him to Rachel, she had lost them all and had all her permanent teeth in by end of 5th grade and was in braces by beginning of 6th grade. So...we'll see where this leads.

Please pray for him... kids at this age are just down right mean and when you standout, for whatever reason, you are a target for mean kids to make fun of. He happens to be in this situation with his size and the kids are not treating him well at school. He's having a tough time dealing with this along with just the normal issues an ADHD kid has dealing with social skills overall. This is a tough time for him and for his Mama Bear who wants to go have a word or two with all those kids for treating her baby bear so ugly, but who knows, clearly... that won't work.

So... that's our day today!! I think after this set of visits today, we're having Los Ramirez for dinner with a Sangria Margarita for Mama Bear!!

Love to all!!

MA

Historic Moments

Today was one of those moments in our lives... A Historic Moment.... One we should stop and recognize no matter our political beliefs. Our nation has inaugurated its first African American president - President Barack Obama. Unfortunately, due to work commitments, I was unable to watch any of this event. I'm going to be reading the text from his speech to catch up!

Tonight was Night 2 of Beth Moore's spring Bible Study - The Inheritance. Boy, she is good. It just feels like the light bulb goes on every time I spend time in one of her studies!! I love it. I wish this one had a workbook to go along with it, but I am completely enjoying this study.

I think I was so thrilled about my CVS savings on Sunday, I forgot to say thank you to my friend Michelle and her husband, Tom, for inviting me over for a great dinner (yummy yummy brussel sprouts, brisket and potatoes with a fantastic pumpking soup to start and a really yummy cheesecake to finish not to mention the appetizers)and some fantastic wine on Saturday evening!! I had a great time hanging out with them while my hubby was out roughing it in the outdoors. Also enjoyed meeting their really cool friends - Anthony & Sean!! Thanks so much for the evening!! I had a really nice time!

***************Baby Harper Update***************

Keep praying!!! Baby Harper has a very serious case of pneumonia and is holding her own for now. Please pray for God to heal her and help her parents through this tough time. See her blog (big button on the right) for more information about this very sweet family.

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Later!! Bedtime now!!

MA

By Golly - I figured it out at CVS!!!

***UPDATE *** on Baby Harper

Baby Harper is stable but still in VERY critical condition. Please continue to keep her, her new mommy (Kelly) and her new daddy (Scott) in your prayers for healing.

Check out Kelly's Blog for continued updates.

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Headline should read this .....

Got $82.17 worth of goods for only $5.61 after coupons, ECB's & rebates!! TRULY!!

Yep.. I did!! It only took me about 2 hours this morning to figure out a plan for how to do this today. Hoping it'll get easier in the future. The other thing I determined is I will either have to do this on Saturday's (and try to find the info) or wait a day or so. They didn't have quite everything I wanted to get today having sold out already. But.. nevertheless.. I did extremely well for my first stab at this.

First thing you should know is you WILL have to expend some $$ on your first trip there. How many $$ is up to you, but if you plan it right, it's like an investment into a LOT of SAVINGS in the future.

Here's what I bought today:

Transaction #1

Pepsi Deal (Buy $20 of product, receive $10 ECB PLUS there is a $15 Rebate offered) ( We don't normally drink much soda and usually not Pepsi products, but we're having a party in two weeks so this works for this)
(4) Pepsi assorted 12 packs (4/$12)
(2) Pepsi assorted 2L bottles(4/$5 0r $1.25 each = $2.50)
(2) Chips (Lays/Tostitos) (2/$6)
Total: $20.50
Extra Doritos (cause I didn't realize they weren't part of this deal) - $3.99

CVS 10mg Loratadine Allergy Relief - 5 Ct Normally $4.29/Sale $3.79/Get $3.79 ECB

Neutrogena Shampoo Products (Buy $15 product/Get $5 ECB)
(2) TGel Shampoos (Normally $7.25/Sale $4.99/$2 Coupon x2)
(2) Triple Moisture Shampoos (Normally $7.25/Sale $4.99/$2 Coupon x2)
Value: (Normally $29/Sale Price$19.96 Less $Coupons $8.00 = $11.96; Get $5 ECB = $6.96 value)

Excedrin Express Gels (20-24 count) Normally $4.99/Sale $1.99/$2 Coupon = FREE
Excedrin Express Gels (20-24 count) Normaly $4.99/Sale $1.99/$2 Coupon = FREE

Cheezit Crackers Bonus Value Twin Pack - 2 10oz boxes (Normally $6.99/Sale $6.00/Get $3.00 ECB)

American Greeting Cards Buy 3 Cards/Get $3 ECB I bought 3 - $.99 cards = FREE


Transaction #2
CVS 10mg Loratadine Allergy Relief - 5 Ct Normally $4.29/Sale $3.79/Used $3.79 ECB from prior transaction/Got another $3.79 ECB = MADE $3.79 on the deal.

GRAND TOTALS:

Product Priced Normally: $82.17
Sales Price: $64.98
Less Manufacturer Coupons: $12.00
Used ECB's: $3.79
Out of Pocket (1st Trip): 49.19
Earned ECBs: $28.58
Rebates Received: $15.00

Total Cost of Trip: $5.61

I mean ... COME ON... that's amazing!!! AND... we will use everything I bought!!

Two things I couldn't get that I'm going to check back later in the week - Cottenelle TP and AXE Shampoo. In theory, if I find the coupons for the AXE deal, I could do it 5 times and have a lot of really free shampoo for Stephen for awhile.

OK - so I bet you really wanna know how to do this now don't ya???

Click on the link on the right to MoneySavingMom blog or click here. She's got a lot of great info on CVS (and lots of other things) out there about how to maximize this program for your benefit. I'm happy to answer questions, just remember, I'm just beginning.....

The other really great site to help you match up coupons with sales is The Grocery Game.com. You have to pay for this service but it is very reasonable and you can pick what stores you wish to see. This saves me time which is limited in my life. If you sign up, please put me as your referral source!!

If you need to see this in spreadsheet form, just let me know and I can send it to you. I'm an Excel person so that makes the most sense to me.

Stay tuned for next week......

MA

Random Thoughts....

**** Update*****
It appears baby Harper is doing better and may not have to go on the heart/lung bypass at all! Prayers at Work!!

****************

First - please pray for a little girl named Harper who was born yesterday but is in very critical condition shortly after birth and flown to Tulsa, OK to go through a heart/lung bypass due to a serious case of pneumonia. Found this sweet lady's blog, Kelly, through a couple of the other blogs I follow (Bring the Rain and BooMama).

Read Kelly's blog for updates on Harper. Praying for Harper!!

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It's been a busy week here at the Cox house. I just haven't had much time to blog and really, haven't had much time to look at my computer at all!! I'm not a fan of ultrabusy weeks, but I suppose they are just that way right now.

So, what have we been up to this week ??? Well, in addition to the normal - soccer practices, games, working concessions at soccer games, flute lessons, scout meetings, work ......

Beth Moore - The Inheritance Bible Study
Personally, I added an activity to our schedule for the next 9 weeks!! I have wanted for a very long time to go to one Beth Moore's real live studies just to experience it. Her studies bring me closer to Jesus in many ways. Centers my focus, wonderful praise music, incredible topics, expands my understanding. Her bible study is at Houston First Baptist and on Tuesday nights. Pre-John, there was really no way I could have attended her live studies with Stephen having Scouts on the same night and my chaffeur duties there. I was lucky if I could make the one at our church consistently! With John's wonderful assistance, I can go now!! He's agreed to ensure Stephen gets to Scouts and has what he needs. Thank you so much my love!! John knows how much I need some of this personal bible time so he's been so wonderful about ensuring I get to do it. I know God placed this man in my life for a reason... I get to experience it each and every day!

Back to Beth Moore - if you don't know her through her bible studies and you want to really dig deep in your understanding of the Bible, she's definitely a study you should try. She has many different studies out there and has an amazing ability to convey God's words in a manner in which you can grasp with a passion and humour that is extremely engaging!! She's a real, live person with such a passion for Jesus and is not perfert! Nope... she readily tells you she is not.. nor are we, yet in Christ we are forgiven and are Heiresses! If you don't know about her studies, check her out at http://www.lproof.org/ and she and her daughters maintain a great blog HERE. There is currently a scripture memory project happening for 2009 with about 3000 people taking part in memorizing two scriptures a month!


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Alone time for Mama!!

Kids are with their dad this weekend.....
John is at the ranch this weekend.....
Mama is happy at home alone this weekend... :-)

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Saving Money .....

I'm on a mission to reduce our spending around here. We spend WAY to much on stupid stuff. Frustrating!! EVERYTHING (even my scrapbooking/book expenditures) is on the review list for right now!! It's not that I'm going to cut them all, just want to control them all.

The first thing will be to reduce how much we spend on cable/internet/phone expenses. Trust me... it's way too much. Cutting that in half!!

The second thing is to find ways to not spend so many of my $$$ at the grocery store!! Does not translate into necessarily less items. Going back to my coupon tracking/using methods where I once came out of a store with $150 in items for only about $30. Yep... that's what I want. It takes time and patience, but gee... it's worth it.

The third thing relates to the first - planning our meals. We have fallen into the busy family trap - quick dinners when you're running fast and furiously after working a long day and then having a short timeframe to get a kid to an activity or game. While it's not reasonable to remove it entirely (like saying I'm going cold turkey on no coffee!!), it is reasonable to reduce the frequency! Ensuring we have items in the house easy to prepare and ready to go is an important piece to this. If you have to spend 45 minutes preparing dinner, it won't work.

The fourth thing - go back to the Dave Ramsey envelope method. If you don't know Dave Ramsey's principles - go HERE and take notes!! The most valuable time you can spend on yourself. If you're in Houston, he'll be here January 24 live. Employing the envelopes for our extraneous items (i.e. dining out, books, etc.) will help me limit them.

There's more... but I think those are the most important! We are truly blessed financially but saving money is more important now more than ever.

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Tis all for right now my friends!!! Have a great weekend!
MA

It's Soccer Season.....

What fun!! What fun!! High school soccer season is here just in time for the cold and wet weather!! :-) I jest, but really, Rachel has been looking forward to soccer season all year long. If you recall, she's a freshman at FHS and signed up for soccer. She's played soccer for many years now choosing it as her sport of choice over swimming several years back. She loves the team aspect and the strategy of soccer. I enjoy just seeing her enjoy it and get some really great healthy exercise! I've picked up some soccer knowledge of the years, but by no means would be considered an authority on soccer.

Soccer at the high school is all year long with the first semester consisting of conditioning, etc. and then tryouts for the teams in December. Rachel made JV White which is the freshman team. She's playing both goal keeper (01) and midfielder (21).

As with any other extracurricular activities these days, there is a very active booster club for soccer and of course..... fundraising! They had two fundraisers - a savings card for local Friendswood merchants (which were very hard to sell) and the purchase of an ad in the Soccer 2009 book. This is just basically a fancy way of getting the parents to write a check because you create the ad and send it to them. They get the books printed but with the costs of the ads.... and of course, a minimum that all parents must contribute, you're just writing a check. However, there is at least a cute twist to it.

So - here's the ad. There is a really funny story this picture brings to mind. I'll probably embarrass my daughter, but oh well, she'll get over it and parent's do this from time to time. Since the intent of this blog is to capture more of our daily lives and stories... well, this one is one I want to remember. This picture (of Rachel) is from our Thanksgiving Day trip up to Dallas for the Cowboy game. Rachel's choice when picking out clothing to wear for Dallas game was #82, Jason Witten's jersey. She has such a crush on him!! He's is mighty handsome (see picture at left) so at least she's choosing well!! I handed her my camera at one point in the game for her to take pictures while in the stadium and afterwards, when I was going through the pictures, it was like a Jason Witten tribute.... one would think she was stalking the poor guy!! We have pictures of Jason Witten talking, running, walking, laughing, crouching, scoring, helmet on, helmet off.... LOL... Rachel secretly thinks she wants to marry him!! Of course, the fact he's already married makes no difference to a 15 year old!! Jason Witten - if you happen to read this, my apologies, but you are the object of a 15 year old's crush!!

So... back to soccer!! FHS JV White had a tournament this weekend - the Clear Creek Tournament. Their first game was Friday at 5 pm over at Clear Creek and Rachel made Friendswood's only goal in that game!! See picture right here..... I don't know that I've ever seen her make a goal, so I was thrilled to see it AND to actually be lucky enough to capture it on the camera!! Way to go Rachel!! Unfortunately though, the game ended with a 1-1 tie, so they had to go to a shootout and they lost by 1 to to Clear Brook HS. Friendswood went into the Consolation bracket and played again this morning against Pasadena Dobie at 8:30 am and won. Then played the final game against Clear Creek at noon for the Consolation Prize and they won! Rachel played hard in all games and ended up with the wind knocked out of her and a mouth full of turf in the second game! Glad she was ok. The weather was muggy and about 75 at the beginning of the first game and about 9:30, the winds shifted, the cold rain came and the temps began to fall. The girls were soaked and cold by the time the game ended at 10:00. Luckily, it stopped raining but got colder as the day went on for the second game!

The victorious ones!

They grow up.....and they are beautiful!!

Tonight was a night that no one in the family had any EXTRA out of the house things to do. I love this kind of night. We had a "normal" evening - helped the kids with homework, had a nice dinner together and laughed a lot.

I pulled out the camera for more practice .... and I have a few things to say....

First -----

Rachel is a beautiful young lady.....really, truly beautiful. Check out these pictures.

She's playing with Jesse!

She's posing but she's still just so stinkin' beautiful.

Second -

Stephen is the most handsome young man....

Playing with Jesse.

Third - - - - -

John is a great story teller!! He had us all laughing at the dinner table tonight. It really was a relaxing evening with time for homework, fun and dinner together.

Telling stories at dinner!!

More pictures in the photo gallery!!

It's late.. i'm tired... time for bed!! More tomorrow!

Love, MA

Monday Evening Thoughts....

It was back to work today ....I enjoy my job, really - I do. For a job, it's a good one. However, I really wish I had won the lottery over the holidays. Have you ever thought about what you would do with a really big lottery win? I have!! I definitely have. When I can't sleep sometimes, I'll be laying in bed and think "Gee, if I won $50Million, what would I do with it??". Yep, it's sad. But, I do think about it. It doesn't really help either that I have to drive by the Lotto sign each and every day going to and from work.

So, I know you're dying to know what I'd do if I won the lottery. I can tell you a few things rolling around in my brain:

I don't think I'd be showing up at work the next day. I did toss this one around a little. Show up with a big smile or just don't show up?? I think I ended on the I Love Wells, but geez... win $50Million, hmmm... think they can find my replacement (and I think they'd understand as they all secretly hope they win too)!! As much as I hate to admit it, I'm not irreplaceable!!

Set up several trust funds for my children and other family members that will last them a lifetime!

Purchase a LARGE piece of PRIME property somewhere in a beautiful part of Texas - Central Texas - Hill Country. Somewhere in that area. Build several houses on that property to house my parents for free, sisters and respective families (if they want) and of course, us.

Take a lot of people I know on a big cruise ..... because I love cruises.

Make several very nice donations to my favorite christian ministries and other charities.

Now, I have thought of one kink. If I'm not working because I won all that money and can basically do whatever I want and go whereever I want whenever I want, everyone else (except my husband) will be still working!! I don't know that it's a lot of fun to be able to do fun things without a girlfriend to do it with. John is great but even he has his limits to going to get nails done or some other girlie thing. So..... guess that means I need to set up a girlfriend or two with a cushy little trustfund so they can do all those fun things with me??? LOL

I know... I know... you're thinking, gee, she'd get bored at some point. You are probably very correct. I've worked full time for 20 years so far and I'm fairly certain I would go a bit batty after awhile if I didn't have some worthy cause to delve into. However, I know that whatever that cause would end up being, I wouldn't have to worry about bringing home a pay check to feed the family or pay for college. Now THAT would be a really nice turn of events.

Dreams.....

Ok - back to reality ....




GO HORNS!!! The Longhorns are playing in the Fiesta Bowl tonight against Ohio State!!
I hope they kick some football tooshie and win very convincingly!!

Have a great Monday!

Been working on my photography skills.....

I've been trying to learn a certain photography technique. I follow a lady's blog - Karen Russell - and I love her pictures and others like them. She teaches a photography class online as well as an occasional one day workshop. However, she lives in Oregon. She was down here in Clear Lake a couple of months back and I just couldn't go to the class due to some kid commitments somewhere. But, I really enjoy her work. I'm about one of 350 people on the waiting lists for her online classes.

Anyway, she uses a technique where you focus on a person or thing and let everything else go blurry around it. I know it has something to do with the lower aperture setting but I really hadn't figured it out. I have two really nice lenses for my Canon digital SLR - a wide angle 17 - 40mm f4 and a prime 50mm f1.8. I couldn't really get the technique down with the wide angle to tonight I switched over to the 50mm lense and set out to practice!~!

My practice canvas tonight was our trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant - Los Ramirez. I just started snapping pictures and I think I got a few really good ones using that technique. Composition wasn't so bad either!! I've put a few here that are my favorites, but check out the Flickr because there are a few more. Of course, I had a sangria margarita and John had a beer. One of my favorite things is queso with jalepenos so shot a few pictures of that as well. John made my plate so he's the one holding the spoon and drizzling the queso on the chips! I had a wonderful chile relleno for dinner so snapped a couple of pictures of it as well. I think it all looks good!

That's about it!! We got home yesterday from New Braunfels and Rachel had an MRI late afternoon. All went well with that and now we await another set of results to see if anything can be found to explain the shoulder pain. The kids are still with Rob and will be home on Sunday afternoon. I do look forward to seeing them! Off to scrapbook and hang out with my handsome man!!

MA

New Braunfels Trip & New Year's Eve at Gruene Hall

Well, with the kids gone for awhile, John and I decided a nice inexpensive vacation would be nice and perhaps coinciding with a fun New Years Eve would even been better!

So - I found an incredible deal in New Braunfels on the river. Hideout on the Horseshoe on the Guadalupe River on the North side of New Braunfels almost in Sattler. If you are a tubing enthusiast (yes think in past years - oh like college for me), you'll recognize this area as one of the little shoots you go through when tubing. It's beautiful! This is a relatively new place on the river having only been open for about 3 years. It's a beautiful rustic place and normally rents at high peak in the summer anywhere from $250 - 500/night depending on the size of the cabin. HOWEVER.... they ran a SPECIAL (and you know I love specials) recently for winter and get this .... ALL the cabins were $49/night!! No kidding!! That's less than a night at the Motel 6 (which John uses to compare! I don't). Really nice place... on the river.... kitchenette.....BBQ grills right outside.... porch with chairs/tables.... outdoor fire places..... riverwalks...... $49/night! Coolness. The entire cost for the 4 nights we stayed was just above $200!! Woo hoo!!! We were there!!

This is how happy we were!! Of course, more pictures in the picture gallery and it has all the neat pictures of the resort.

Besides just hanging out and enjoying the quiet peacefulness at the Hideout, we made a couple of trips around the area. One interesting tidbit to note is on the way in on Monday, we made a stop at the HEB in New Braunfels to get our provisions. Apparently, we were happily shopping away in the store while the instore IBC Bank was getting robbed!! We came out of the store, walked to the car and loaded up the groceries and then as we were making our way out of the parking lot, there were about 20 police cars where we had just come out of the store!! I said at the time - "the bank must have been robbed for there to be so many cops here." And lo and behold.... it was!! We could have been walking out with her for all we knew. That was quite a wild thought.

The first on Tuesday was to the Outlet Mall in San Marcos (only about 15 minutes down the road). I had two goals for the stores this year - one, hit Pottery Barn and two, go to Coach Outlet. I've been admiring a certain piece of furniture at Pottery Barn for a little while now and wanted to see if they happened to have it at the Outlet at a lower cost. Yes.. I do pay attention to this. See the picture on the left. I love my house, but I need a few more shelves to put all my neat pictures, etc. on it. It would have been handy at Christmas time as well as there were a few items I just couldn't put out because I ran out of space!! Imagine that!! Guess what!! They had one (1) of them and it was half of it's normal price!! YAY!! It was put together and John took it apart and we fit it in the jeep. Very cool!! The even neater part ---- with the use of some PB Gift Cards from our wedding and a Wells Fargo Gift Card I received for an award, I didn't have to put out a dime of mine!! Now...what could be better than that I ask??

The other stop was to the Coach Outlet store. I found out a neat thing about Coach purses. If yours breaks and you take it back to their store, they will send it off (for free) back to their manufacturing site and determine if it's fixable. If so, they fix it (for free). If not, they send you either a exact replacement purse (for free) or a monetary replacement certificate (for free). Apparently, my little wristlet I bought in July had some defect and they didn't have another, so they sent me a nice certificate for it's value. Given I'm learning to be frugal .... I wanted it to go as far as it could so it seemed the Coach Outlet store might be a wise stop. It was... I came out of there with 3 purses for my certificate plus a little bit of money from another Wells Fargo Gift Card award I received. Nifty huh!! Again... no dime of mine!! Well.. technically, the cost of the original Coach purse came out of my pocket, so I suppose... nah... it didn't come out of my pocket at this moment let's say!!

So.. enough torturing poor John with outlet mall shopping. We made our way over to Gruene for some wandering around there for awhile. We found The Grapevine wine bar in Gruene and made a stop there for a glass of wine for me and beer for John. They serve only Texas wines so it's a good way to get a taste of several of the wines from Texas. I've found one that I like a lot and it surprised me. Messina Hof has released a Cabernet Franc wine that is really, really good! You have to like Cab Franc though which some people don't. It's a little earthy and very bold. Not fruity much. Most of the time it's added to other grapes (like Cab Sav or Merlot) to give the wine added depth. Tough to find a good one that is just 100% Cab Franc. I don't usually like Messina Hof wines as they are a little too sweet on the average for me, but they did put out a good Cab Franc. I may actually order a few bottles (or make a drive up to Bryan).

After a stop at the wine bar, we wandered down the little main street in Gruene to John's favorite music store. Lone Star Music!! This is the place that is very likely to have all the music by the musicians he likes. They are usually tough to find in normal music stores and sometimes, even on Amazon! This is an eclectic little music place so it fits John to a tee!!

New Years Eve

On New Years Eve we slept late (well, I slept until 8:30 and John slept till sometime later). About midday, we made our way to the only really local winery near New Braunfels - Dry Comal Creek. We've been there before and I enjoy most of their wines. They make a wine from the native grape in Texas, the Black Spanish Grape, which is pretty good. Most all of their other wines come from grapes they import and then ferment into some pretty tasty wine. The other good thing about their wine is it's affordable which I like as well. Their winery is very pretty. NYE was a beautiful cool day so it was really nice to be out on their property.

The fun for New Years Eve involved two stops!! The first was to a restaurant we like in New Braunfels called the Huisache Grill. It's yummy and not too fancy or awful expensive. I love their Pecan Crusted Pork Chops with Rum Butter sauce. Mmmmm good. They don't do reservations but they have a "waiting list" you can call ahead to get on. Sounds a lot like reservations... lol... but ok. So, I called at 8:30 that morning and got us on the list for 6 pm. When we got there, there were TONS of people so I was very glad we called ahead. It only took about 10 minutes to get a table for our wonderful meal!! I didn't take any pictures here unfortunately.

Our second and final stop for the evening where we rang in 2009, was at Gruene Hall!! Robert Earl Keen was playing the NYE show with Toni Price opening starting at 8 pm. This was a Sold Out show and the tickets were quite pricey.... but worth it. We had a lot of fun!! Did a little bit of dancing... a lot of listening.... a lot of people watching. Enjoyed being together bringing in 2009!

Robert Earl Keen singin'..... Fun pictures of Gruene Hall .....I have some video but still can't get it to load so I'll keep trying with that one.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Our New Year's Day was extremely low key. We were still at the Hideout but I didn't feel real well that day. And .. no... it was not from a hangover. I didn't drink any alcohol after dinner on NYE actually. Someone has to be the designated driver. I was running a low fever and generally feeling yucky. My Superman of a husband went to the store and retrieved some cold meds, soup and club soda for me so perhaps I might kick it quick (I felt much better the next day). I don't think I left the couch for very long the entire day. There wasn't anything on TV except football (and with the Cowboy's losing so badly last weekend, John didn't want to watch ANY football - not a problem for me). I took the opportunity to hijack the tv and we watched probably 8 hours of Iron Chef on Food Network!! The only thing that kept John interested was they were running a series of shows on battles that involved MEATS!! LOL.... kobe beef, pork, venison, buffalo, etc. He couldn't even find a good western to watch (darn the luck). John cooked us a fabulous New Years meal though - pork chops, cabbage and black eyed peas. We had some tamales they were serving at Gruene hall on NYE. We got all our lucky foods on board to make this year really a lucky year!!

Hope everyone has a very Happy and Prosperous 2009!!!

Christmas Eve & Christmas

Christmas Eve – has so many wonderful memories from years past. When I was a child, this was a day that always held a great deal of anticipation of what was to come soon the next day. We usually had a beautiful dress to wear, a trip to church and a wonderful dinner to look forward to on Christmas Eve. Most often we were with extended family whether in San Antonio or Houston at our home. When I was a bit older in high school I was active in my church and Christmas Eve always meant several church services where I would sing in the choir and play my flute at the end of the service- O Holy Night. Those are very special memories.

Our Christmas Eve in 2008 was similar in many ways. We had family around us – Meme, Poppy, Perry. We went to church in the afternoon at Friendswood Community Church. Our church service is quite different from the one I went to as a child. The church we go to is a non-denominational church with a wonderful focus on worship music and relevant messages as opposed to the Episcopal Church I grew up going to with hymnal based songs and standard ritualistic celebrations. There is nothing wrong with it but I do enjoy the more casual feel of the music I find at FCC and the relevant messages for today’s world but with bible based principles. The church is also pretty casual from a dress standpoint. I do miss dressing up just a bit to go to church.

Then… the cooking and eating began!! We had an absolutely wonderful meal on Christmas Eve. John cooked a wonderful Prime Rib served with horseradish sauce, lightly cooked asparagus, fabulous bacon infused peas and Mom and I made our wonderful Oven Baked Mashed Potatoes. Our dessert was pecan pie, apple pie and gingerbread cake. We had a fabulous Cakebread Dancing Bear Cabernet Sauvignon wine with dinner and we couldn’t have been happier with how everything came out. Yummy yummy for the tummy!!

The one thing we didn’t do this year that has been a tradition the past 14 years is have a Happy Birthday Jesus party!! I think we just ran out of time. Our Happy Birthday Jesus tradition began when Rachel was 1 year old and we would have a little party each Christmas Eve with a birthday cake baked for Jesus. When Rachel and Stephen were younger, the party progressed to a lunch with lots of neighborhood kids and families joining us for crafts, treats, cake and the reading of The Candy Cane story. This was an activity that accomplished several goals when the kids were smaller. One – we remind the kids and celebrate the reason for Christmas. Two – we kept the kids from being so bored that they continually thought about what Santa was going to bring them. Somehow we missed celebrating this way this year so I’m sorry!! We won’t miss it again next year! The kids are older now but we can still make sure we recognize why we celebrate Christmas a little more actively.

One tradition that we didn’t miss was the opening of new Christmas PJ’s and the reading of The Night Before Christmas. My mother started this tradition for me and my sisters when we were little and we’ve subsequently carried it into our families as they have grown. This year was no different. Rachel and Stephen opened up the one present they can open each year. They of course know this and expect it each year as well!! The new pj’s aren’t always Christmas themed so they can be worn at times other than Christmas. Rachel got some nice pink pajamas and Stephen some green deer flannel bottoms. Then we move into the reading of the The Night Before Christmas. We have a fun tradition at the part where Santa places his finger beside his nose. Everyone in the room (this year it was all of us) have to put their finger aside their nose and in unison, everyone says “up the chimney he goes”. Quite a site!

With the reading of the traditional story over, we make a quick check on the Norad Santa Tracker to see where Santa has last been sighed and then all children have to go to bed. With the kids off to dreamland, John and I began our last minute preparations before going to bed ourselves!

Christmas Day 2008

This morning was filled with fun excitement as we enjoyed a Christman s breakfast of Kringle and Breakfast Casserole together as a family. We then proceeded to unwrap the wonderful gifts left under the tree and in stockings from our loving family members!

I would say we all received so many wonderful gifts!!

Unfortunately, our fun came to an early end as the kids left midday to go with their Dad out of town to New Mexico. In addition, Meme, Poppy & Perry left not too long after they did as well. It left John and me all alone for the rest of the day. It was sort of strange to have such quiet around us on Christmas Day. I think this was the first time I’ve ever spent Christmas afternoon alone with just my husband without family and kids around. I’m used to having lunch and then spending the rest of the day perusing over the gifts, putting things together, and playing games. It was a little weird to me to not do this and I don’t think I liked it quite as much as like hanging out with family. But, hey, I did get to watch an entire evening of the House Marathon on TV! :-)

Next post - Quick Trip to the Guadalupe and New Years Eve!!