Pirates Board

Here are some pictures of the newest Pirate Board that Karl has made. Now he is working on a speaker box for some kids from church.

Enjoy...

Lamb for memories...

I was in a cooking mood this weekend and went to the freezer to find some meat. I had been talking to Karl about cooking some lamb. He doesn't get real excited about it, but he says that he will try anything. Karl likes lamb; I think he is scared of my cooking sometimes. Anyway, I called Amy and asked her how long she cooked her lamb and what temperature she cooked it on. Karl apparently had it one time at her house and loved it...As if competing with his mom isn't enough; now I have my own blood to come up against! I seasoned it like Amy told me and then we put it in the oven before we walked out of the door for class on Sunday morning.

When church was over and we came home; we walked in the door and the smell brought back so many memories of waking up at mom's house on Thanksgiving morning and smelling lamb cooking. Memories of knowing that dad would be in the kitchen cutting the leg of lamb and mom would be running around in her housecoat getting things in order, being with my sisters and mom, sharing a bathroom with two girls and now three other boys, knowing the parade would be on even though none of us had time to sit and watch it (except when the bands performed), calling Aunt Betty’s house and reaffirming what time we were supposed to be late (I mean there), working out who was going to go with whom so that there would be two people getting ice, one picking up Mama Denton and Sue and the other to take the food, being worried what we looked like when no one else cared, and knowing that there would be some serious game playing and leaf raking that afternoon. My house smelled like mom's and I had to just sit and tear up for a few moments.

Some days I miss Mama Denton and Aunt Betty like crazy. There have been so many times I wanted to pick up the phone and call and give Aunt Betty a hard time or hear Mama Denton's sweet voice. I am so grateful we have my momma; who couldn't be any more like them.

Anyway, the lamb was GREAT and I became an equal with Amy's cooking for lunch!

Paris

Just wanted to give a quick update. This last weekend Karl and I went to Paris and we had a blast. I think more than most, we enjoyed being with one another on the road. It has been a while since we have been able to get out of town much less go together. It was great seeing Neil and Braxton and Amy and Jorge. We never can spend enough time with everyone. I feel like I didn't really get to see them at all. That is how it is when your are just a little bitty lamb and everyone wants a piece of you....he he.

Karl and I are getting ready for our trip this weekend. We have both taken off Friday and we will head north to New Braunsfels. I will be able to update with some pictures later!

Toot-a-loo!

Pirates, Mi Matey!

I know that you are just beside yourself wondering about this game board that Karl has been building. Well, here it is. This is the one that he has sold two of. It is 30" X 50" (unfolded) and folds up so that it can be stored. We don't have any more of these this size but he has an order for one to be built. At this moment he is working on a Pirates Board that is going to 36" X 48" and will be flat. There will be no good storage place except for the top of a table. A vetran has special orderd this one and there may be two more requests for it. Karl is having fun building these. He enjoys building the bigger one that he is working on now much more because he is having to rethink everything. He should have it completed by the end of this week. I will see if I can get more pictures of it after completion.
This board game is for Pirates. I really don't know tons about the game. I know that some of the youth at church hooked Karl's infatuation and he didn't like the fact that the game did not have a "board" of some kind. One weekend he built the one that is pictured up top. Pirates is a very strategic and slow game. But people all over are willing to pay $300 per board. Shipping these bad boys is another story. Good thing I still have friends at FedEx Kinko's!
I am way to energetic and busy to sit and enjoy this game but aparently it is a pretty hot topic right now. For me it takes way too much thought to be fun! I thought since I didn't have any fun pictures of kids, I would put some pictures of the things that we are concentrating on!
Here are more detailed pictures of the ships and a close up of the game!













I have to give my husband a big 10 for a job well done and an "A" for all of his creativity. All of the islands that you can see are made of styrofoam. He painted everything, even the material (that he found to resemble water) and he also put grass and trees on the islands. There is one volcano and one waterfall. I guess that I just needed to brag and show off my love of my life.
Until next time...

Life is great!

Well, my in laws have all gone and now I am left home alone. My husband had the lesson at Normandy Terrace (nursing home we support) today and will return later. Sherry and Chad were still here and I didn't want to leave them. It has been one wonderful weekend. We started Friday night with a trip to the DiBiass' home with 13 of the youth. That is our biggest group that we have had in a while and it was exciting to have some new faces. We have moved our Youth Nights to Friday's. Two reasons; Karl plays softball on Tuesday's and it is easier on the parents and kids as far as getting up the next morning for school/work. Friday's are working well for us.
Cindy, Johnny, Chad and Sherry all met us at the DiBiass' house Friday night and we stayed there and played games with all of the youth until 11pm or so. We really had a great time. Spoons is a great game! Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast, fixed lunch and then took a strole to downtown and walked down the Riverwalk. Johnny and Cindy bought us tickets to go on the boat tour and it is very informative. We have lived here for and year and that was a first for us. It was relaxing and a little cool. We ate supper on the Riverwalk at Rio Cafe and headed home. Chad, Sherry, Karl and I played games until 1am this morning.
We came home, had lunch after church and then they all up and left. I am really glad that they all came down. I appreciate them for the thought and the birthday gifts. Karl got some really cool antique stuff from his family and I got two more charms for my charm braclet.
I have recieved a call from everyone in my family. Funny how everyone that has called has had their own version of "Happy Birthday". Ashley called from her cell phone from Granny's and we listened to the Zant version of ....whatever it is that we call that song! I told them that it is much more fun to be on the singing end then the reciveing end. My cell phone speaker maxed out a couple of times. They all sang and I can't get that noise out of my head. It does make me smile.
Anyway, my husband will be home shortly and I need to get ready for church. We have Bible Time tonight and I have some planning to do. Love you all and thank you for the phone calls, cards and wishes. Thank most of you for the songs, and Granny's bunch; well...Thanks?

You're cool if you blog...

I have moved back home to San Antonio to live with my husband again. I know that doesn't sound the best, but it's the way they happened. I headed up north with the intentions of my husband joining me later, God did not see it that way. He changed our plans and I painfully had to leave my wonderful, favorite, care giving middle sister and her patient, loving husband. Not to mention that it was hard to tear myslef away from my active, smart, handsome nephew. He had grown to love and appreciate his FAVORTIE Aunt Andrea, but not as much as I had grown to love having him around. Braxton was fun to play with and pester.

Karl's boss offered to keep him here and he is loving life. He works side by side with another Aggie and enjoys his position as Bexar Met Water Efficiency Coordinator. Not real sure what he does, but he is happy with his job.

I started working at SWBC in the Human Resource Department on Tuesday (2-21). I am busy learning all about payroll and the functions there in. SWBC (Southwest Business Corp.) is a great company to work for. The HR Dept there is wonderful and sometimes I feel like I am the grouchy one. Everyone, has such a positive and wonderful attitude. They are truly good people to be around and it is a great environment for me (mostly women....you probably already figured that out).

Karl went to his first rodeo last weekend. It was really funny to watch him and see his reactions. We talked about going the weekend that Tia y Tio Perez' came down and Karl had asked me, 'who is performing?'. I told him that it really didn't matter, we were going to see the rodeo. Montgomermy Gentry happened to be there on the Saturday night that we went and they were pretty good. My favorite part of the rodeo was the calf scramble....Holds a warm place in my heart. Anyway, Karl had thought that just one sport would perform all night. He was happy to know that all of the sports performed nightly. We got to see bronc riding, bull riding, horse back riding, team and individual roping, barrels and steer rusteling. It was a good show.

I will see if I can get some more info on here later. Karl's family is coming into town for our b-day's this weekend and the house needs to be cleaned!

I will leave you one very random picture...

San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo

Karl and I have had a wild week. Granny, Papa, Zach and Craig all came down for the sheep show and they stayed with us. It was awesome. Zach did not do as well as expected but it is the judges' day and the judges' dollar. I didn't agree with him on one decision that he made but oh well. Tonigt we are taking the Ventura Youth Group out to the SALE to look around. They are so pumped about it.