Debra and Rachel
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Asher in a tree
Today was my nephew’s third birthday party (his actual birthday was yesterday). His birthday party was at the Northwest Recreation Center. My older godson was very excited about attending the party because he remembered that the Northwest Recreation Center is the “park with the climbing tree”. He actually climbed the tree several times. I took a few nice pictures, all of which were vetted and approved by their subject. Joey has many more pictures of the party itself, which I am sure he will post in a day or two.
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Chuy’s and a Pub Quiz
Joey and I had a big social afternoon and evening. We started off joining Rachel, Debra, Asher, and Chiara at Chuy’s for a dinner and a lovely visit. Asher was wearing the shirt I brought him from Japan, and Chiara was wearing a hat that I made for her. I felt very special! Joey, however, was the favored guest because he gave Chiara a new copy of They Might Be Giants Here Come the ABCs. Years ago we took a copy of the original DVD so that we had a copy for the kids to watch at our house. The original had since gotten lost, and Joey made a copy…
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Dinner at Chuy’s
Yesterday afternoon I suddenly realized that if Joey and I did not connect with the Serrins/Springfield clan that very evening, then we would not get a chance to see them before we leave town. I called up Rachel and asked if we could meet them for dinner. Thank goodness they were free! We had a delicious meal at Chuy’s, and we had a great time visiting. The kids really liked this stand-up of the Beatles, and I managed to get a picture of each of them. Rachel and my goddaughter taught me a song that Rachel wrote for the kids. The lyrics are: There was a lamb, his name was…
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Camping at Willis Creek
Rachel, Debra, Joey, and I have been saying we would like to go camping together for YEARS! We finally managed it on Easter weekend. We decided to try out some federal camp grounds run by the Army Corp of Engineers. We wound up with a reservation at Willis Creek Park, which is on Granger Lake, near Taylor, Texas. The website indicated that the usual camping activities were available at the park: swimming, hiking, etc. As Rachel describes, this was only partially true. We actually had a great time despite the lack of formal activity. I got some much needed rest. We got to play with our godchildren, and visit with…
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Workout Summary 08-14 March
total minutes = 210 total calories = 1696 Well, down again this week. I did Body Pump on Tuesday and Thursday, and Cardio with Debra on Friday morning. Being out of town on Saturday was one contributing factor. Also, I did not work out last Sunday or Monday. I have realized that if I don’t start the week with working out, I just don’t do as well all week! This week started off strong thanks to the hike with Megan and Robert. Also, I did Body Pump on Monday morning with Debra. I was so glad to have her join me, and to get to try out Robyn’s class.
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Day with Asher
Today Asher came over to my house to play for a few hours. Rachel and Debra were able to go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which they said was very good, if very long. Asher and I played with his encyclopedia. We read about Alcohol, Alexander the Great, and many other “A” words. We put together the Latin America puzzle, in alphabetical order, of course! We spent much of our time looking at my atlas, which, according to Asher, “will tell us where we are”. We looked up Andora in the index. He noticed that not only did the index give a page number, it also gave numbers…
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9th day of Christmas
Laura and I started the morning with a trip to the gym. We took a Body Pump class. Laura did great, and even got a compliment on her performance from the lady standing behind her. The class was at the Hester’s Crossing gym, and I decided I don’t like the group exercise room as much as I like the one at Tech Ridge. It is much harder to see the teacher, and I am uncoordinated enough to really need to see the teacher! It was a good class, and we got a great workout. After our workout, Laura and I dropped by to see Rachel, Asher, and Chiara. Asher was…
- Debra and Rachel, Elanor, Friends and Family, Home, Kay, Laura and Jason, Lee and Billy, Lindsay and Don, Misty and Brian, Ted and Becky, Troy
New Year’s Day
Yesterday Joey and I hosted our tenth annual New Year’s Day party. A great group of people showed up! We ate hoppin’ john, bean soup, and sausage balls (aka meat cookies). Dad, Asher, Laura and Joey decorated the garage and side walk with chalk. The Etheredge siblings were all present, and our nephew Daniel was charming, as usual. Chiara played with Elanor. Lee and Billy brought their friend Melissa, who talked physics with Dad, and then discussed opera with Laura and Alissa! We finished the evening with a round of Apples to Apples. In short, it was a wonderful day, a perfect start to 2009.
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Halloween revisited – Dragons return
In my earlier post about Halloween, I posted pictures of my godson’s various costumes over the years. I also posted a picture of my goddaughter’s first Halloween costume. I did not have this picture at the time, but I feel it definitely belongs in the collection. This is Joey and my nephew, Daniel, in his first Halloween costume. You may recognize it as the same dragon outfit that Asher wore his first Halloween. Joey wore his big dragon costume again. The Serrins/Springfield family kindly lent the costume to Kay and Daniel. I do not know if it was Rachel or Debra, but one of them took this picture too –…
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Halloween away from home
I have had to be away from Austin for Halloween the past four years. Today made five halloweens away from home. I have missed every Halloween that my godchildren have experienced! Here are some examples of what I have missed… My company does a costume contest at each location. So instead of hanging out with my godchildren, I have had the pleasure of seeing grown people act crazy. Here is a small taste of what was going on at my office in Wilmington on Halloween. The Pac-Man and Miss Pac-Man costumes were pretty good. You can’t see them clearly, but there are also several ghosts in the group!
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Afternoon with the Springfield/Serrins Family – 31 May 2008
Joey and I decided that it had been too long since we had spent some leisure time with our wonderful friends Rachel and Debra, and our godchildren. We went over to their place on 31 May 2008, and spent the entire afternoon, and even went out to Serranos for dinner. We had a great time just relaxing and visiting. Chiara demonstrated her sitting up skills. Asher and Joey built a marble run, and we had a terrific time having international “marble parties”. Just in case you haven’t had the pleasure of attending a marble party, they work like this: Asher decides where in the world the marble party will occur…
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Rachel’s Birthday Lunch at Freddie’s – February 2008
We celebrated Rachel’s birthday with a lunch party at Freddie’s on South First Street on Sunday. Children, dogs, and friends were in attendance. I got to play with Asher, Chiara, Keegan, Molly, and Lea while LisaDiane caught up with Audrey, Will, Maggie, and Jay. And there was birthday cake. With strawberries.
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Debra’s Birthday at Volente Beach – September 2007
What a relaxing party! Debra took her whole family out to Volente Beach for her birthday. Volente Beach is a small water park on the shore of Lake Travis (just northwest of Austin). They have nice sandy beaches, a few water slides, and (this last weekend) no crowds 🙂 We met at ZuZu’s for lunch and birthday pie and then drove out to Volente. Debra and I took turns swimming with Asher in the big kid pool and we all took turns riding the slides. I had a really nice time. Thanks Debra! Happy Birthday!
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Our Anniversary – July 2007
On July 4th LisaDiane and I had some friends over for a party to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. We played games, grilled burgers and hot dogs, made ice cream and mojitos, danced, and socialized well into the night. We had a terrific time – it was a pleasure to spend time with everyone who came, and food hit the spot. I have finally finished eating the chocolate torte that Billy and Lee brought to the party – gotta remember to return that cake-taker.
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LisaDiane’s 30th Birthday – September 2005
I decided turning 30 would be no problem if I got to have a big party! I even got a fancy party dress for the occasion. Lots of food, and a great cake made it even better. Things got really crazy when I opened my presents to discover that my idle comment about wearing a Wonder Woman costume at the party had been exploited. Mom and Dad sent the costume, and everyone else had fun convincing me to wear it. Thank goodness for pictures, which will preserve the memory forever! We topped it all off with a water balloon fight, and a piñata.
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Asher – June 2005
Asher came into our lives on 17 January 2004. We have worked hard to spend as much time as possible with him. We love every minute! His Momma and Ima are pretty good company too!
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Here be dragons – Halloween 2004
As many of you know, Joey has a great love of dragons. He has asked me to make him a dragon costume several times over the years. I had never managed to, and sometime around Labor Day I casually mentioned this to my mom… She became a woman possessed. Within an hour of the original phone call she had e-mailed me a picture of the material she was planning to use. Throughout the dragon’s creation she kept saying, “I’ll just do this little bit, and then I will send it to you”, but she continued to work and created nearly the whole thing with design and spacial relations assistance from…
