Addicted

Yes, I'm addicted ~ addicted to Pinterest!!  I especially love looking for pins of things from my past.   I recently found an old cracker tin that we had when we were kids.  Had to have it!! 

I can spend hours looking up places, crafts, recipes .........  Anything you can dream up, you can pin .  I have a board of Iowa, where I was born.  I have a board of our favorite beach - Orange Beach. 

 I have a board of books I have read and books I can't wait to read. 

This sign says it all!!!

So until the intervention ~ Happy Pinning!!!!

Pops

      Pops has cancer.  Stage 4 lung cancer.  It has moved from his lungs to his liver and his bones.  The pain was what finally lead him to the doctor.  Pops smoked unfiltered Camel cigarettes for the majority of his life.  He started in his teens and continued until a heart attack in his mid seventies.  He's now 81 and says that he has lived a full life.  He is ok with dying but is worried about the pain.  Pops lives in Kansas City and we are hundreds of miles away in Texas.  So helpless!  There are a few friends in KC to help but no other family members.  We have invited Pops to come to Texas to live with us.  Brady has offered her bedroom and says that Pops can decorate it anyway he wants to :)  He hasn't said no but he hasn't said yes either.  He wants to wait for one more doctors appointment. 
         Pops is in one word a "character".   He has lived his life "his" way.  He is not an ordinary father-in-law but I know he loves me and I love him and boy does he love his son ~ Bobby!!  My prayer is that Pops can find a way to let go and come live with us for his final days.  I would love to hear more stories about his crazy life before it is too late.

Who is on your "Free Pass" list?

        Have you ever played the "Free Pass" game with your partner?  Have you ever been sitting around with a group of girl friends and the topic of "Free Passes" comes up?  Well I have.  The gist of it is, for some strange reason a famous person looks your way and is interested, your partner gives you a "Free Pass" with that person.  So who would be on your list?  Topping my all time favorite on this list is ~ ANDY GARCIA!  Have you seen him in the movie "What a women wants"?  Yumm!!  Next on the list, now don't laugh, is, DIRK NOWITZKI.  I have always had a soft spot for basketball players ~ have you seen the boy play?!?! And the latest addition is MICHAEL BUBLE.  He could sing to me all night long!

     Now this little game comes with a warning.  DO NOT ever play with a jealous partner.  One who cannot find the humor/absurdity of something like this happening in a MILLION years! 

Goin' to the Chapel ~

Today I am going to a bridal shower for a couple that I love dearly!! 

Kevin Oliver and Kristin Allen 

Kevin came into our lives in the form of a basketball coach.  He coached Brooks' select basketball team,  "T3" ~ Texas Triple Threat, for about 5 years.  Kevin became part of our family instantly.  A few years later along came Kristin.  Now we all hoped and prayed for the "right" girl for "our" Kevin.    Upon meeting her, I drilled her - "Do you like basketball?" and "You know if my daughter were a few years older, I would have Kevin marry her!"  Of course I was only teasing but later on found out that Kristin remembered every word and admitted that she was alittle intimidated.  Well, Kristin learned to love basketball and we embraced her as part of the T3 family.  Then that fateful day came when Kevin announced that he and Kristin were moving to Lubbock.  He was going back to Texas Tech to start a new journey as a student coach for the Texas Tech football team.  He told his "boys" in private and there were a few tears shed.   Kevin and Kristin though kept good to their promise that they would always be a part of our lives.  Kevin even came back and coached a few tournments.  Since our daughter chose Texas Tech we have been able to visit in Lubbock with them also.  At the start of her freshman year, Kevin gave Brady their number and told her that she had one free "get out of jail pass".  Unused so far?!?!  In 2010 on the way home from parents' weekend in Lubbock, we stopped in Sweetwater for Kristin's 30th birthday party at Kevin's dad's house.  Kevin dropped to his knee and proposed to Kristin who said "YES"!!  Now, where to have the wedding?  Philip and Lisa Klotz - founding memebers of the T3 family offered their beautiful home.  The wedding is to be held on April 7th in their backyard by a beautiful pond.  The T3 family has stepped in to be a part of it. ~ The original T3 boys are going to be ushers.  Lisa, who is in culinary school, is catering the wedding.  I am hosting the groom and his buddies at my house to get ready.  Nannette is the director, she is in charge of making sure everyone is in their places and Bob is going to be the photographer.  We have already had a Bridal portrait session last month at the Klotz' home.  In alittle over a month, Kevin and Kristin will be "Mr. & Mrs."!

That's what friends are for!!!

"Not having friends you can talk to and be honest with and have fun with can be as detrimental as smoking!" 

 My friend Nannette sent me and a few other friends this text this week and that got me to thinking......

  I am blessed to have some amazing friends!!

     Friends come in all shapes and sizes.  They come in and out of your life at different times and for different reasons.  I have childhood friends who I don't speak to everyday but keep up with on Facebook.  I have neighborhood friends that I speak to daily.  I have friends that I play phone tag with (- you know who you are-Angie L)   I have friends that I met through my children's friendship.  While I consider my husband to be my "best friend", girlfriends play an essential role in my life.  Each and everyone of them has impacted me in one way or another.  So to all my friends out there:  Thanks for making me laugh, thanks for the shoulder to cry on, thanks the "Wine/Margarita" nights, thanks for listening to me vent, thanks for lifting me up when I am down, thanks for watching my kids for me and for loving them almost as much as me, thanks for your prayers, most of all, thanks for being a part of my life and for loving me just the way I am!!

A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure.  Sirach 6:14

"I'm All In"

       For the last 5 years I have been playing Texas Hold 'em every Saturday night with a group of neighbors and friends.  It is one crazy, eclectic group.  Let me introduce you to them.

Vance - I consider him to be the founder of this group.  I call him "ADD boy" because sometimes he's alittle scattered ~ maybe that's just a ploy though because he is one of the biggest winners.

Les - He is the historian of the group and writes up weekly recaps and keeps up with the points system.  Les can be rather loud and opinionated and can tell a really good joke.

Lena - She is Les' wife and she from Russia.  We call her "Ponchic", which is Russian for doughnut.  She is a sneaky player and loves to chase straights.  Her favorite phrase is "Almost Straight".  She has a way of keeping Les in his place!

Nancy - Nancy loves cards!!!  We call her "River Dance Nance" because she is always chasing that last card.  She usually calls the card she needs and it magically appears.  For a few years we accused her of raising unicorns in her back yard.

Alex- He is Nancy's husband.  Alex loves to play crazy cards and win with them.  He loves "suited" cards and plays loose.  One thing he doesn't love is the 10+ surgeries he's had on his ankle.

Eric- We call him "E".  Eric is a good player.  He plays "fundamental" hold 'em and has a good "bluff" game.

His love of Pamela Anderson is probably his biggest flaw!

Steve - Also know as Steve-O.  Steve keeps us laughing with his collection of foreign accents.  Steve is a great Mid-Western guy with a great personality who hates to lose.

Kirk- The Kirkinator!!  Kirk is a West Coast guy who's family once owned a Casino.  He is by far the most knowledgeable card player I know.  He doesn't always win but that because he plays against some "wild and crazy" players.

Kevin - One word "LOOSE".  Win big or lose big ~ he loves to gamble at cards.

Rounding off this group are the two "Kims"  Little Kim / Big Kim- She about 5'2 and I'm 5"11 hence the names.

Little Kim - She will apologize when she beats you!

Big Kim - Me - at one time a very loud, offended by bad beats player.  Much calmer the past few years!!

      A few bit players are Karridy, Tom, and Turtle killer.

I have a million stories about this group but I'll save them for another blog ~ In the meantime "I'm All In"!!

My cousin Ann!!!!

     I posted on Facebook yesterday that I started blogging.  My cousin, Ann, commented that she didn't think there was anything I could write that she would want to read.  So today, I'm writing about her ~ Ann Stolley Schiefelbein!
    Here's alittle family history.  My father is the oldest of 10 children.  He has 7 sisters and 3 brothers.  Ann and I have over 30+ cousins.  My father and Ann's father are close,  so growing up, Ann and I became close.  It wasn't until we both married and had children though that we became even closer.  I was a bridesmaid in her wedding and she "skipped" mine.  ~  She did send her husband though and their oldest daughter was a product of a week away from each other. 
     I grew up with 4 brothers and she grew up with 1 brother.  I guess in a way, since be didn't have sisters, we became sisters.  We do all the sisterly stuff:  share gossip, cry to each other, bounce ideas off each other, compete with each other and on occasion fight with each other.  She and I have planned the Stolley family reunion for the past 10 years or so.  (She takes all the credit for the good ideas and blames all the bad ones on me. ) :)  Our favorite thing to do is vacation with each other and our husbands/children.  We have been to Florida, New Orleans, Kansas City, Las Vegas and recently we took a week-long Caribbean cruise.  I know retirement will hold many vacation for us!

                                                                 Barbados

                                                January 2012

                                           Me, Bob, Ann & Eric

     I grew up wishing for a sister and God sent me one.  Not a perfect one, not an always politically correct one, not one that I always agree with --- but Ann is mine!!  We were born to different parents, but we are sisters!  Probably alot closer than most!   Love you Ann~ Here's hoping you read this!

I "Heart" my dogs!

          Lucky and Kate!  My faithful friends.  How did it happen that I didn't get my first dog until I was in my 40's?!  These two creatures follow me everywhere.  When we first got Lucky I was assured by the kids that they would clean up after him, feed him, walk him ...... That didn't happen.  The duties fell to me.  Just what I needed right ~ another thing to take care of.  A few years later I saw a picture of Kate (fell in love) and decided that Lucky needed a playmate.  At first Lucky was alittle ticked off at me but now they are the best of buds. Lucky is laid back.  I honestly think that he does not consider himself a dog.  Kate is FULL of energy and very jealous.  She doesn't want to share me with anyone. 
         These dogs have enriched my life.   I really don't know what I did before them!  At the end of a long day,  I know that these two creatures will cuddle up with me and make everything ok. At the end of a long day, I know I will see these two faces staring out the window ready to "attack" me.  At the end of a long day, I know that I will be loved for just being "me".