Day 241 -- The Iceman Cometh!

We woke up in Comanche to ice everywhere--not too thick but enough to make it look like a winter wonderland.  End of the year going out in a big way with nature--record colds--18 this morning where we were.  Didn't keep up from getting out later in the morning to head to Walmart in Brownwood (closet city to Comanche).  The road turned out to be pretty treacherous with a very thin but slick layer of ice--saw people off the road but Bill did a great job driving on it.  Later found out one of the Comanche County ambulances flipped twice on that road!  No one hurt though.  Weather continues to deteriorate so after we got home, we stayed in.  New Year's Eve so the guys watched the Cowboys and Avis and I continued unpacking and have things in the kitchen pretty well settled.  Always feels like when the kitchen is set up, the rest can wait.  

Day 240 -- Weekend in Comanche

Today we made our first trek to Avis' house in Comanche to spend the weekend and help with the unpacking and placement of things.  We are very happy for them having this great place, but sad that it is two hours away from us.  We are in for a frigid weekend, but after getting there Bill made the first fire in the fireplace, and it was wonderful!

Day 239 -- CASA brunch

Today the CASA organization that I volunteer for had a wonderful end-of-year appreciation brunch for the volunteers.  There were lots of yummy things, but not many volunteers showed up unfortunately.  I'm glad I went because I know the staff went to a lot of trouble to honor the volunteers.  I announced I was ready for a second case so I expect I will get one early in the year.  I am still glad that I decided to take on this volunteer position--it is rewarding and so many children need the help.

Day 238 -- Gun Totin' Mama

As most of you saw at Christmas, I had a new purse which is designed to carry a pistol, and I got it from guntotinmamas.com which was just hilarious to me as I don't consider myself "the sort".  However, my husband gave me a new pistol for Christmas, and a new coffee pot, and a new massage chair--so there is no telling what might happen with me drinking coffee while relaxing my muscles and then taking off with my purse with a pistol in it!  Today for the first time, I put my new pistol in my new purse and went to the mall--and nothing ugly happened.  I am posting a picture of said purse so that when you see me with you, you will know not to mess with me!

Day 237 -- 80 books in one year

Today I broke my all-time record of reading/listening to books in one year.  Here's the one that hit the chart at 80 and while there are a few days left in the year, I do not expect to finish another one in those few days:

The one that set me on the path that took me to this blog is:

As you can see, the cover has a picture that obviously
led Mandi to believe she too could do this!

Mom, you can see the whole list by looking for it on your Kindle where I saved it.  The rest of you will have to pay for the list!

Day 236 -- Loss of a Cousin

By cousin Bill has been suffering from Alzheimers for several years, and tonight at about 11:15 he succumbed to it with his wife and children there with him.  He is the first of the cousins to go, and he was the oldest but unlike the other deaths in the family this year, he was of my generation and that makes it seem different.  I am so thankful to his wife for bringing him down to Texas this year to see Dad, while they both were able to visit.  They unabashedly showed their love of each other in a somewhat childlike innocence that was so precious to witness.  While he and his family live so far from the rest of the family, I consider it a blessing that we continue to love and think of each other as though they lived in the town next door.  Another good man has left our earthly family, and he and his family will be remembered with love by all of us.

Day 235 -- Christmas Day 2017

Today Bill and I headed home.  He drove for the first time in 3 weeks and made it as far as Comanche and then I drove the rest of the way.f  Neither of us felt very well, but we got everything unloaded at home and then I fell on the couch and took a nap again.  I always try to get things put up after being out of town and get laundry started, but neither of those things happened this time.  We kind of had an adventure trying to find a place to eat on the way home as everything was closed on Christmas Day.  We finally had lunch at a Love's Truck stop--a firsts for me.

Day 234 -- Christmas Eve nap

Traditionally this has been the big family day for Christmas in our family.  But because we did it the night before, things were fairly quiet around the house.  The girls and families came over for leftover lunch before they took off home and to South Padre.  Because this year I was the designated person to get sick at Christmas (instead of Jodi who usually is the one!), I laid down and took a two or three hour nap.  I felt so much better after I got up.  I don't believe I have ever taken such a long nap.

Day 233 -- The Circle of Life

Today we celebrated our family Christmas at Danny and Sharon's house.  Mandi and worked on food the night before and this morning, we loaded things up and took off in three different cars to get everything there!  Greeting us at the door was Cody with precious Charlotte whom we were all so anxious to meet.  What a doll she is, and everyone made sure she knew it.  What fun to have another baby in the family after almost 6 years.  As we went through all the activities of the day ending with the exchanging of gifts, my mind kept going to the fact that this is my first Christmas without Daddy, but that because of God's great love for us, he has given us a new child in the family to love and tell Granddaddy stories to so that she too will feel like she knew him.

Day 232 -- A First to be ashamed of!

This morning Clay and I drove Papa to work and on the way back I remembered that I needed some whipping cream so stopped at a Dollar General to pick some up.  As I got out of the car, I realized that I still had on my house shoes.  Now I can official join the masses that think going to the store in their pajamas and house shoes is OK!  But it is raining cats and dogs and I didn't want to have to get out again until we go pick Bill up.  Maybe that is the excuse all those people in Walmart use as well!

Day 231 -- Gingerbread everywhere!

After the gingerbread house building yesterday, Clay wanted to make Gingerbread Boy cookies today.  So we mixed up the dough, chilled it well, rolled and cut and baked and ended up with about 20 of those boys.  It was fun to watch him create and hearing his running commentary on everything! I have never made gingerbread boys before in my life because we had an awesome bakery in Haskell that had them for 25 cents each so why go to the trouble of making them yourself!

Day 230 -- Fun with Clay

Spur of the moment, I Clay got to come home with me after the day at ICE!  He was the only one who Nana could help with his school work that he still needed to do--2nd grade math!  The others had to stay and get done with school by end of week when they head to Haskell and we will meet them there.  So Clay and I got quite a bit accomplished today.  First we went grocery shopping for the holiday things we needed.  While there, we "stumbled" across some gingerbread house kits so we got one to do later in the day.  I have never gotten to make one of these with him and he was so excited!  I think he did a great job!  Now he can't wait to eat it!

Artist at work

Finished product!

Day 229 -- ICE!

The ICE! sculpture theme was Twas the Night
 Before Christmas
illustrated in nothing but ice!

I got up at 6 a.m. and headed to Grapevine by 7:00 to meet Mandi and kids at a Cracker Barrel to begin our adventure at the ICE! show at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine.  The kids had figured out that I might be coming, but they couldn't figure out what we were going to do for sure.  It was a great day and the ice sculptures were awesome.  And if you think 9 degrees isn't cold, think again!  It hurt it was so cold.  Everything in the photos below is made of ice except the floor we walked!  They gave us oversized parkas to wear over the coats we already had on.

Add caption

Angel was 2 stories high

Beautiful nativity scene at the end

The next pictures were outside of the freezer where the ice sculptures were.  There were many things to do and see.

These are not made of ice--see no evil, hear no evil,
speak no evil snowmen and the kids and me

Snowball throwing arcade

Day 228 -- Hearing for my CASA children

Today started with a hearing at the courthouse for my CASA children.  The grandparents of one of the boys (the one with autism) came down from Maryland to "intervene" as the court calls it on their own behalf to try to get custody of this sweet boy.  While no decision was made in court, they now have a lawyer who will file a "de novo" which will switch this boys case away from the court we have been in and put it in district court for another judge to rule on.  I'm not allowed to put my children's pictures on Facebook but I want to share one picture of this little guy with his grandpa he hasn't seen in 18 months.  I have never seen his face so full of joy and adoration as this picture shows.  I believe I am right is saying he  belongs with these grandparents and I hope the new judge will feel so too.

This was the first time I had met the grandparents although I had talked and texted with them for the last 8 months.  They seem like just the right fit for Alex and he obviously loves them.

Day 227 -- TREC leadership Christmas Party

Bill was invited to the department head Christmas party for TREC at the Director's home in Austin this evening.  We had been to their house about 4 years ago while they were still working on it, and wow, what they have done since we saw it was wonderful.  They added an infinity pool that looks like it is falling off the cliff into the ravine behind their house.  They are up high overlooking a lot of South Austin looking back toward the West.  It is so beautiful--like something out of a magazine.  This was our first and only Christmas outing this year and it was great fun.  We didn't stay too long because Bill still tires easily.  He said as we got to the house that the hour and 20 minutes it took to get there was about as long as he could stand to ride without getting out and stretching.  So we now know what to expect on our trip to and from Haskell for Christmas.

Day 226 -- A Surprise I Never Dreamed of Receiving

This morning I had to get up much earlier than I like on a Saturday so that I could drive Bill to the office by 8:00 to do the paperwork on a real estate deal he did yesterday.  I came back home and started out the front door to get the newspaper and noticed that I had a box on the porch.  The UPS guy had put it behind the Christmas tree I having sitting out there so no one would steal it I guess, and I hadn't seen it.  So I took it in the house and opened it up.  What a surprise!  Two beautifully quilted wall hangings from my sweet cousin Carol.  When she was here this summer, Danny drove us around and we went through Benjamin where we discovered a quilt shop--and Carol is a serious quilter so we had to stop.  When we went inside, these two wall hangings were up on the wall and I loved them and asked if I could buy them.  I was told I could buy the kit to make them, but the finished product wasn't for sale--so that left me out!   Low and behold, sneaky Carol overheard the conversation and bought the kit and pieced both of them and had a friend of hers do the machine quilting of them.  It took my breath away when I opened and saw them!  I called her and couldn't thank her appropriately, but she said we lived so far away from each other, we hadn't gotten to do little things for each other like we would have if we had been able to see each other more often.  So she just wanted to do it.  I told her they will be our family heirlooms--the girls will have to fight over who gets which one!

Day 225 -- Old Christmas Movies

I am not one to watch old movies or any movies on TV really, but I was flipping channels and on one of them they were just starting "Miracle on 35 Street" (I may have the street number wrong!) and decided to watch it since I never had.  It must have been made in the 1940s based on cars, etc.  I'm glad I watched it.  The next movie to come on was "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye and while I've heard of it mostly because of the song, I decided to watch it as well.  I thought it was a Christmas movie but during the time I watched--before I turned it off--I never saw anything Christmasy about it.  Love the song--not so much the movie.

Day 224 -- Backroads

Today Bill needed some papers taken to a lawyer in Georgetown, and I needed to go to Copperas Cove for a visit to my CASA child which I had set up for today.  So I set off for Georgetown and got that errand done, then set my GPS to help me find Copperas Cove from Georgetown without having to go all the way back to Belton.  It took me out on a beautiful drive that ended up taking me by the turn-off to Cody's house in Liberty Hill and I noticed that almost all the live oak trees in that whole area are now dead--so sad to lose those majestic oaks!  I traveled on in a big loop around to Lampasas County until I got to Copperas Cove and had my visit and then traveled back to Belton.  I made a big circle from start to finish and traveled about 100 miles in doing so but got to see some new country in the area that I had not seen before--and best of all kept me off I35 most of the time!

We also went out with Avis and Harry for a local Mexican dinner for Bill's birthday.  They have brought a gift for Bill and it was sitting on the table, and the next thing we knew all the wait staff was out singing happy birthday and then they brought him a jigger of tequila and started chanting "chug, chug, chug" and of course, we were thinking--no, no because of the drugs he has had recently!  But finally, under the pressure, it threw it back and was still able to walk just as well back out to the car has he had into the restaurant.  Hadn't ever been to a Mexican food place that did that before but it made for a little festivity on a rather low-key birthday.

Day 223--Final Concert of the Season

Tonight was our final Christmas concert of this season.  This has been a wonderful experience and I expect to have many more years of doing this, but I want to express my thankfulness in finally being back in a choir, singing harmony with so many fine voices, and having a very dedicated director who expects excellence from us in all that we do.  We have a 3 week break, and then practices begin on Jan. 8 for the 6-7 spring concerts we already have booked.  We are expecting to have one orchestrated spring concert on April 29 (a Sunday) and the rest with be with piano.  God has blessed me with being a part of this group--in what other circumstances could I have gotten to renew my joy of singing, playing the piano, stretching myself to learn lots of songs by memory (words and notes!),  practicing every day which in turn translated to praising God every day with wonderful scripture-based songs and making new friends and performing in beautiful churches with an orchestra, which was a new experience for me.  I am blessed!

Day 222 -- Christmas Concert with grandchildren present!

Today my mom, brother, Mandi and two youngest children showed up at the house to honor me by coming to the Christmas concert of the Central Texas Master Singers.  My family has always been very supportive of any endeavor I attempt, and through my whole life, my parents were there for me for every piano recital, voice recital, or Four Friends concerts and were financial supporters of all those things plus the recording that the Four Friends did back in the 80s.  For all that, I am so thankful.  My children have listened to me play the piano and rehearse for singing events their entire lives.  But the extra special joy for me today is that my two littlest Watts boys came for the concert and are excited to watch Nana sing!  I write this a day after the event, and can't tell you the joy that flooded my heart as Clay worked his way around to see Nana and waved at me and smiled at me and played a bit of peek-a-boo with me while I was on stage and he in his mother's lap.  Max sat in rapt attention throughout the two hour concert and then they both road home from Georgetown with me after the concert and we had the time of our lives talking about the songs and the instruments and all manner of other things--I learned a new joy in having the fresh look and sense of excitement and expectation from my two sweet grandsons!

Master Singers at First Presbyterian Church in Georgetown

Family minus the grandsons--note how
happy Danny looks to be there! I am so thankful
he brought Mother to the concert and she looked
so pretty!

Day 221 -- Tyndale--The Man Who Gave God an English Voice

I have been reading a book on William Tyndall, a Christian martyr of the Middle Ages, who was determined to go against Thomas More and the entire Catholic Church by translating the New Testament into English in an age in which anything to do with religion was in Latin so that only the clergy could read the Bible and thus control and extort the common people through their made-up rules which required time, money and loyalty.  I learned so many things about Tyndale and his life of translation of the Bible so that the "plowman" could read for himself the Gospel.  It was a dense read but I learned so much about the fact that it is Tyndale's voice we read in the King James version of the Bible (which was changed very little from Tyndale's words).  There are phrase lists and word lists of the words that came into the English language due to his translation of the Latin and also from Thomas More as the two arch-enemies had an extensive correspondence during the years that each tried to justify his side of the argument.  Of course, while being enemies to each other, they both lost their lives in the reign of Kin Henry the 8th who is also such a colorful character.  If you have a fascination for that time period bridging the end of the Medieval Period and the start of the Renaissance, this is an interesting book to read.  It is somewhat a biography, but more a history of the development of language, of the turning point for Englishmen in their ability to read the Bible for themselves, and of course, how that affects us today.  He also translated parts of the Old Testament, the Pentatuch, Jonah (probably his fascination with a man arguing with God), and the Chronicles and others.  Interestingly, he did not think the book of James belonged in the New Testament and almost didn't translate it!  One of my favorite books--especially about bridling the tongue!!

Day 220 -- Social Satire

For many years of teaching senior English, I taught a good deal of social satire because English literature is full of it--A Modest Proposal being probably my favorite.  But then there's Huck Finn, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, The Chosen, The Handmaid's Tale, Lord of the Flies.  Tonight, again on Roku, I watched a social satire movie called The Circle, which I had never heard of, but which stars Tom Hanks and a young girl actress I'm sure my girls know the name of but I can't remember now.  I thought it was a great movie and so appropriate to our times--the complete loss of privacy is the premise and the target of the satire.  I recommend it, it for no other reason than to remember every time we leave our mark on a web page or walk through the streets of most any cities, or use our credit card, or shop in any store, someone is watching and through that we are tracked.

Day 219 -- A Day in Isolation from the world outside

Today is the first day in memory (unless I was sick) that I haven't even stepped outside the house.  Usually, I'm on the go every day doing one thing or another but today, I confess to complete sloth.  Oh, I did my share of things in the house but mostly just helped Bill out with his exercises and walking and made sure we got something to eat!

Day 218 -- Green Beret in the Family and Reunion in the Orthopedic Surgery Ward

Today our family had a great first--my nephew graduated into the rank of a Green Beret in the Army. He is our hero and we are so very proud of him.  Wish I could have been there but we got some great photos from my niece, sister-in-law and brother.  I was so glad his parents got to be there--Ft. Bragg in NC.  

Cody and his precious family
The dimples are deceiving--he really is tough  but
is such a gentle man at heart!

You just never know where or when you will run in to people you know--but certainly I've never run into two people walking the halls on walkers after orthopedic surgery that I know (and that doesn't count Bill!)  I guess hip and knee issues are one of the big issues for people in our age bracket so it shouldn't have surprised me.  First, I ran into a friend from Contemporaries, Sharon Douglas, who had knee replacement surgery.  Bless her heart, I don't think she knew exactly who I was, but knew she knew me--good drugs on that floor!  She wanted a big hug and then thanked me for all I was doing for Christmas (??) and then was on her way.  The other guy is president of one of the HOA's that we manage and is too young for hip replacement, but years in the Army carry a very heavy pack around is what he said did it for him.  He was doing the best of all the patients I saw--probably because of his excellent physical condition from his previous career in the Army.  

Anyway, I got Bill settled in at home about 4:00 and he did good getting into and out of the car which I was most worried about.  I don't liking being the nurse in charge, but we will make it through.  He did some walking tonight and did his exercises they sent him with him.  He's working through the pain.  They didn't let him shower in the hospital so I got to be in charge of that first for him as well which was somewhat scary to me but he did fine.  So we off on our recovery adventure.

Day 217 -- The Lost Civilization of Z

I seldom watch movies start to finish on TV--I can't manage to put aside other things needing done in the house, etc.  I guess I have ADD because I can't stay focused on things on TV--and can't stay focused on a book unless I'm in a quiet place--which isn't a hospital I can tell you!  Bill has done well on this day after surgery, so I came home early to rest up myself after seeing they weren't going to send him home today.  I was restless so turned on ROKU and watched a movie about a lost civilization in Bolivia on the Amazon that the English believed to exist.  This was based on a true story focused on the man the English army sent to Bolivia to look for it.  It turned in to his life's work--and demise.  A very interesting story--especially in learning at the end that the civilization was never really discovered until the 21st century.  Nice historical movie with plenty of "native" excitement.

Day 216–New Parts

I have driven Bill to the hospital in the early dark morning hours on too many occasions, but today is the first time he is getting replacement parts.  As I write, he is in recovery and before surgery the surgeon said he might get to leave hospital tomorrow.  Amazing—

Day 215–Orchestra added!

Tonight was the only practice with the orchestra we and they get before our first performance Tuesday night.  I have never sung with an orchestra and it is certainly different—and challenging.  I could not hear my own voice so hopefully I was on the right notes!!  Finally they set up a monitor so we could hear the piano—I stand over near the drums and brass so it is loud.

Day 214–First Christmas Concert

tonight the Central Texas Master Singers had our first Christmas concert in Round Rock (without orchestra). It was my first time to go through all the songs by memory and I did pretty good I thought.  This was considered a dress rehearsal and hopefully it sounded good.

Day 213–Celebrating

Today I got to go out with my nephew Philip to help him celebrate his birthday at the Salado Stroll.  I had tickets for the Salado Winery tasting and appetizers which was a fundraiser for CASA and of the 5 tickets I bought, only PW and I ended up going.  We had such a good time strolling through the stores and artists’ shops and found him a birthday present.  I am so glad to have him an easy drive from our house now!

Day 212--Fresh lobster in Temple, Texas!

About a week ago, I got an email from a favorite restaurant of ours, saying that twice a year they would have a fresh lobster dinner night and one was coming up on December 1.  It required reservations a week in advance so that they could order the lobster from Maine and have it for the dinner.  Because Bill is having surgery next week and may be waylayed on his birthday, I decided to treat him to this special dinner.  We had so much delicious lobster while we were in New England this summer, and the idea of being able to get Maine lobster fresh in Temple, TX was so novel, that I had to reserve us spots--and count it as an early birthday gift to Bill.  He knew I was taking him out for a dinner, but had no idea what it was going to be, so he was totally surprised when I told him he didn't need the menu because our meal was already ordered.  It was so delicious and so much food that we were both stuffed by the time we finished--and we only had salad and lobster.  We had no room to waste on the potatoes and fresh green beans!  I believe he was well-satisfied with this meal and the gift that it represented from me.  It did distract him from his misery for a few hours and for that I am thankful.