A Great Weekend with The Fam

This weekend my parents and brother were here. I mentioned in a previous post Will was in Altus, OK for AC school (Aircraft Commander). So, while he was here, my parents came up from Uvalde and we had a great weekend. I actually have pictures, too! Yay! Turns out I left my camera battery in Uvalde at Christmas so they brought it back to me and I will upload those pics later.

This weekend started earlier than I expected. My sneaky-sneaky parents took the day off of work and actually got into Childress at 2:30, came up to school and surprised me in my 8th period class. I was shocked, to say the least, as we weren't expecting to see them until at least 11:00 or later.The first thing I said was, "You're here, already? Oh, my house is so dirty." That was okay. It was worth the surprise and it was great for them to get to see my classroom and meet some people at school, including some of my students.

Friday night Dad grilled ribs and we had a fabulous dinner, and Mom and I went to Wal-Mart for groceries after we planned the weekend's meals. The rest of the night we spent eating a WONDERFUL dinner, watching funny t.v., and visiting. It was perfect.

Saturday was a LONG and productive day. We got up early and everyone except Will, helped paint my kitchen chairs. I have painted them now 3 times and just couldn't get something I liked. It was so frustrating. This Fall, some friends of ours came to visit and hunt and Lindsay is an interior designer. I asked her for some advice and with her suggestions the chairs now look fabulous. Here are a couple of pics from Saturday night's dinner. Last year, right after we moved here, I bought a black hutch at World Market. These chairs match it perfectly now!! In the afternoon we went out to the country and showed my parents and Will the cows and their calves and the ranch. We even went in to Wellington and had lunch and visited with Rich's Nanny. We put Will to work, opening gates around the farm and carrying feed. Can't you see he loved it? Amy, I think I heard him say he wanted to buy some goats because he was feeling nostalgic. What do you think? My mom's best friend and her husband live in Amarillo and they came down to visit. We shopped around town and in the latter part of the afternoon started getting things ready for dinner. I wish I could tell you how absolutely amazing this dinner was. We had a huge sirloin that Dad grilled like you would a roast. I just cannot do it justice, but it was "sick" as my students would say (that's a really good thing, by the way). Richard's parents came over for dinner, too. So, we had nine at our house and it could only have been better if my S-I-L, Amy would have been here.

We seem to have many pictures like this. Mom says, "Put your arms around each other," and somehow this is what happened. Notice how Will has his arm around the spot where Amy should be. It first started when Will didn't have any significant other, and now the tradition has continued for times when Amy isn't around.

Rump roast anyone?

The calves used to eat out of my hand, but since they were moved to the farm, they are a bit more skeptical of me.

Here is one of our cows with her calf. Smile, girls!

The cows are usually somewhat skittish around us (well, around me at least), but if you have cake pellets in your hand, or even better the BAG of cake in your hand, they will be your best friend. Here is #95 eating out of my hand.

Here are my mom and dad at the watering hole at the farm.

This morning Rich and I got up to make it to Sunday school and then Mom, Dad and Will met us for church. Everyone was happy to get to meet them, especially some of my school friends. My mom is a Red-Raider so there were many people happy to talk to her about that and get a good jab in to all the Aggies in our family. Here we are in the front yard after church and lunch this afternoon. We are all sitting in the living room right now, after a Chinese buffet lunch and if I know them, it will be a couple of hours before everyone actually leaves. But know there will be no complaints from me...I would be happy for them to stay another week or so! I hope all of you had as gratifying and lovely of a weekend as I.