Day 293 through 307 -- Boy have I gotten behind!

I just took a sabbatical I guess because I am so far  behind on my firsts posts.  So I will use this one to give a brief overview of my firsts between these days--didn't have one every day unfortunately.

Day 294 Feb. 16  My sweet Tyler, youngest of all grandchildren I will ever have, turned six!  Can't believe he is already so big.  I miss babies, but enjoy them at every age they achieve!

Day 295 Feb. 17  Gattiland
Heavenly day--only the NASCAR race I once attended was louder than Gattiland!  Several firsts in this day--drove 19 miles an hour from Georgetown and then dropped to 9 miles an hour in Round Rock.  Got off the Interstate and re-routed finally but still took two and a half hours to get to the party.  Enjoyed watching Tyler, Max and Clay play games but especially thought it was fun to watch them in the bumper cars!

Day 296 Feb. 18  Mandi and the two younger boys spent the night at our house after the party and this morning we got up and went to church at Max's insistence because he brought church clothes and expected to go and I didn't want him to be disappointed.  The heart-wrenching first of this day was our preacher Gary Desalvo opening his heart to us to tell us all that he faces with this cancer in his liver.  It was a very emotional talk, but also encouraging as he shows us how to face these moments in life with total trust in God no matter the outcome.  This may be the very purpose of his illness is to be the example of how to finish well.

Day 298  Feb. 20  Today I had a massage with a new person who Bill has gone to and really liked.  My back is so tight and she really worked me over.  The new thing about this massage is that she used these suction cups things to pull blood up to the surface of the muscles and warm them up better.  Never had that done--and as it turned out that left really big bruises on my back which she warned me it might.  But it loosened me up some.

Day 299 Feb. 21  While at my trainer, I discovered that the other massage I booked with a new person at her studio is actually not in March, but is coming up on this Friday--hope I can take two massages that rough in one week--I'm pretty sore!

Day 300-302  Feb. 22-24  Went to Haskell to help mom out with her stuff she is having done to the house.  Got her curtains hung in the living room and den--a first--and a reminder why I don't really have curtains/drapes in my house--that is hard work!  On Friday, Mom, Danny and I went to Abilene to Home Depot to pick out backsplash tile, look for a sink and get faucets for the kitchen and bath.  Picked out a great tile for the backsplash that I know is going to look great.  Couldn't get a sink although we also checked sat Lowe's and another store.  On Saturday, I had to leave earlier than I normally do because of my 3:00 massage that I didn't realize I had until Tuesday.  But after I got back to Temple, I was able to buy the kind of sink she wanted at our Home Depot.

Day 303  Feb. 25  A bit of a drama has played out over the last week when I tried to go see my CASA boy and found out he was not living where I thought he was and CPS had not bothered to let me know that he was moved on Feb. 6.  This was seriously bad and lots of hard feelings and phone calls, etc. were made trying to find out where he was.  Finally, I did find out and today I went to see him at his new foster home where he was placed on Feb. 7.  His original foster mom had to have surgery and so he was moved, but the communication fell apart on that.  Anyway, I met with the new foster parents at their home, and they were so nice and AJ was just himself--I was very afraid that a move would put him in some kind of tail spin.  Luckily, he isn't seeming to be set back by any of it and he is in a good place.

Day 304  Feb. 26  This was a big day--the final placement hearing for my two CASA boys--the one who is living with his dad and the one I visited yesterday.  The grandparents from Maryland that I wanted to get custody of the older boy were at the hearing.  We all arrived at the courthouse at 8:45 or so because court begins at 9:00.  By 10:30, the judge had not shown up and we finally found out he had a doctor's appointment.  Then because our case involved 3 lawyers and was going to be contested by the state, the judge knew it would take longer than others in the queue, we were the second to last case called that day--at about 3:45.  I had been told I would have to testify, but as it turned out I didn't because after both grandparents testified, the judge awarded them custody of the older autistic boy, and gave the other boy permanently to his dad.  It was quite a victory in my mind.  The grandparents will actually get the boy this evening and then will be on their way back to Maryland.  I know in my heart with is the best for both boys, and I'm glad the judge finally saw that as well.

Day 306  Feb. 28  Today I had a yearly doctor's appointment with my primary physician whom I've been seeing for about 3 years.  This was absolutely the biggest joke of a doctor's visit I've every experienced.  She came in and showed me my lab results, ask me some questions and I filled her in on what I was doing as far as taking supplements for my stomach and going on the elimination diet to try to figure out what foods are troubling me.  Also told her I was not going to take the statins for my cholesterol anymore because of the serious side effects they historically have.  My good cholesterol and triclycerides were very good and I was at 205 overall.  So she wanted me to come back in 4 months so we set that.  When I looked at the printout they gave me when I left that had her notes on it, she had put me down as having some depression.  The entire conversation where depression was mentions was when she said she was sick of the drizzly weather and I said I understood because rainy days with no sun for a number of days in a row always got me down.  Another thing about the exam is I never got out of the chair sitting next to her at the desk.  Never got on the exam table, nothing.  What a joke.   Later in the day we met up with Avis and Harry and began driving to Santa Fe.  Drove as far as Clovis and spent the night--let the fun begin!

Day 295 -- Barton House

One of our favorite places to eat out is Pignetti's, an Italian place in Temple.  Another of our favorites
which was more of a special night kind of place, was The Range in Salado.  Well, it closed last year, but luckily was purchased by Pignetti's and is now open again as The Barton House (because it is in an old historical house once owned by the Barton family.)  The food was great and will be different than what they serve at Pignetti's so we are very happy with our new old favorite restaurant!

Day 294 -- The Great Alone

Just finished reading a book set in Alaska, called The Great Alone.  I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! Do yourself a favor and read it.  

Day 293 -- Cleaning out and re-arranging

Today was a day of sorting, throwing out, re-arranging where I store some things in the utility closet, and getting things tidy in the  utility room, as well as cleaning out a couple of catch-all drawers in the living room, and collect all the manuals for all the appliances and other things in the house for the next owners.  Productive day!

Day 292 -- TREC Meeting

Today TREC had its quarterly public meeting in Austin.  As chair of the Education Standards and Curriculum committee, I always have to give a report at these meetings.  Today the room was full because of the realtor meeting being held in Austin by TAR.  There are a couple of commissioners out of the 9 that love to question everything that anyone says so that they can get their moments in the spotlight--the entire meeting is broadcast statewide.  I guess they think they look important and smart in doing that, but actually it is quite the opposite.  Anyway, when I gave my report and asked if there were any questions, it was more of the same by those two.  But this time, I didn't just shuffle my feet and try to play nice like so many of the staff members pretty much have to do I guess.  I just told this one guy I totally disagreed with him on what he was saying and gave him examples of why.  He also put in a gouge at the education instructors by saying we were just trying to help them make more money by requiring more classes, and I told him that was absolutely not true, etc. etc.  Finally, he asked me "who makes these rules anyway"--and the answer was given by my BFF Avis (chairman of TREC) who said to him, "You've been on this commission for 11 years as you just told us-didn't you know that you and the rest of us sitting on the commission make the rules?"  I could hardly turn away without busting out laughing because his intent was to try to make it look like my committee makes all the rules and they are not good rules--but, we only make proposals and the commissioners vote them in or out to determine if they become rules and laws for real estate licenses to follow.  What an idiot!!@!!@

I got more praise and congratulations and thanks after the break and even in texts and phone calls later in the day for putting him in his place, or at least standing up to him, than I ever have before!

Day 291 TAR brunch and past-chairs dinner

Today Bill and I headed to Austin for the TAR winter meeting.  He had been going to it since Friday, but I joined him today to go to the spouses (of past-chairs) brunch and the dinner to "roast" the newest past-chair tonight.  The best thing about these events is seeing what kind of beautiful flowers will be there.  A guy named Rusty from Lubbock comes to all the TAR major events and does the flower arranging.  This year did not disappoint--and the cool thing is, the flowers are different every single time.

Beautiful spring flowers for the brunch.

I love tulips and how he put them in these tall vases!

Hydrangeas were the focus of the
evening banquet--hundreds of them.

All those flowers in the middle are hydrangeas

Gay feathers in the tall vases

Room is kind of dark but this was the look for the whole table.

More hydrangeas!

Day 290 -- Braving the Wilderness

I finished reading a great non-fiction book called "Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown about things such as the loss of civility in our nation today, the inability of so many to take a stand against the majority without severe criticism, and how all of us need to be able to stand in our own wilderness of what we believe, and let others stand in theirs without the fear of being dehumanized.  It was a short read but a really well done argument for standing against the crowd and standing for what you believe is right--whatever that is.

Day 289 -- Renewing their vows

Tonight Mom and I attended along with Danny, Sharon, Aunt Peggy and Carl attended a "renewal of wedding vows" between my cousin and his wife of 31 years.  It was in a really pretty church and there were probably about 75 people attending.  The bride wore a vintage wedding dress from the 80s which was when they married, and had the "big hairdo as was popular back then.  It was a fun and relaxed evening.  After the ceremony, we went to a place called The North 40 outside of Hamlin for a reception and buffet dinner.  We had lots of fun and were glad that we went.

Day 288 -- Weston and basketball

Last night Mandi and Weston came to the house for the night before headed to Leander for a basketball tournament.  So this morning, I got up with them and we all headed to Leander and I got to watch Weston play basketball with his team for the first time and he did very well, scoring 8 points.  He is very obviously the big guy on the team so it is easy for the refs to see or think they see him foul.  He squeaked out of the game with 4 fouls.  Their team didn't win but they certainly held it to a tight game, and I was so glad I got to attend.  After having lunch with them, I headed to Haskell and they stayed for two more days of basketball.

Weston with one of his teammates

Prayer before the game--guy in plain white shirt is the coach!

Day 282 & 283 -- Recording Sessions

From 6-10 on Friday the 2nd and 9-4 on Saturday the 3rd, the Master Singers had recording sessions with an engineer and mixer from California.  The purpose of the sessions was to record our voices of the Christmas concert on top of the orchestration that was done during those sessions.  This is evidently very common when you try to do live recordings because the audience noise, the loudness of the orchestra, etc. sometimes covers up the voices of us as we are singing.  So the goal of this recording marathon was to record the songs with the exact tempo, rests, loud and softs that we did in the concerts so that this recording of the songs would lay down right on top of the live performance and fill in the voice tracks better.  At the concerts we had about 51 singers, but because of the flu and allergies going around, only 31 were there for the recording sessions.  Because that track will be on top of the live track, it will be ok because it just adds depth and richness to the sound we already had. It was very interesting--and tiring--work.  The solos didn't get re-recorded, only the choir parts, so it was very patchwork in how we approached the music.  We might start with the last 4 pages of a song, then skip to the front and do a section, etc.  And we might do the same two measures 8 times before it was seamless with the already recorded one.  Anyway, hopefully it will be wonderful when it comes out this summer.  I pre-ordered 10 CDs so I could share with family and friends when it comes out.  Couldn't really get any good photos because obviously I was singing when it was going on--so these photos are of us listening to the replay of a section we had just finished.  (The lady in front of me sitting is 7 months pregnant so she got to sit and sing).

Listening to what we just recorded to see if it lines up
or must be done yet again!

Standing on left is the engineer Randy who came out from
California and brought all the recording equipment.  Standing on
right is the director Steven

We all had on headphones to hear the orchestra recording from the actual concerts and there were three different tracks done of that at 3 of the concerts--so if the orchestra messed up on one concert, he could switch and listen on the other tract to see if that part was done correctly and use it instead.  This is how the pros get flawless recordings themselves--it really isn't a "sing it through one time  and all is good" type thing.

While the Four Friends had a great and tiring time recording our tapes inside a recording studio, this was a very different but just as enlightening experience.

Day 281 - Oscar Store

It is somewhat of a tradition with the Bible Study group on Thursdays for as many as can, to go out to eat together afterwards where we can get to know each other better and just visit.  Today we went to the historical Oscar Store that is out in the middle of nowhere and has been around in other forms for probably a century.  At one time it actually was a general store for farmers out in East Bell County, then a little cafe, then a bar and dance hall was added, then an outdoor stage and patio area and tables, etc.  Now the bands are no longer going there but the patio area remains and many rooms have been added to accommodate large parties of people.  They have an extended menu with anything from burgers and fries to steaks and catfish, etc.  It is very rustic and cute and the ten of us who went out there had our own private little dining room and had a great time.  We need to have a family outing there in the warmer weather because the kids can play outside and we can sit and visit and eat and enjoy life!