Big G's

Last night Priscilla and Landon, Nicole and Jackson, and Zoey and I headed to Tuscola, TX, population 714, to eat the most amazing hamburgers ever! When Nicole was telling us about Big G's she said that when we got there we couldn't look around too much and we would forget how it looked when we got our food. Needless to say, I think Priscilla and I were like what the heck kind of place is this! It was packed, with a couple of window air conditioners to cool the place and we got a table waaaay in the back corner. Next thing we knew, the people sitting next to us started smoking!!!! I think this is like the last place in the United States that you can still smoke indoors! It was really hot and the smoke was getting bad so when I took Zoey to the potty I saw there was a big table up front out of the smoke, I asked the waitress if we could move and they said sure! It was sooo much better after that and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Jackson and I had to take a picture because we had matching shirts!

We had burgers and some really good pie, they looked so good I wanted to take them all home!

Here's a link from a newspaper article they did on it, it's a really cute place! I recommend it if anyone is in our neck of the woods!

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/nov/25/thats-good-eatin-1/

There was a shark hanging from the ceiling with a hand in it's mouth and Zoey wasn't really to sure what to think of it. She told me this morning that the shark shouldn't have had a hand in it's mouth it was mean... it's so funny what she remembers sometimes!

We headed back to good ol Abilene, it's only like 10 minutes away from Tuscola, and stopped at Priscilla's house and let the kids play on the swing set for a while then we headed home. After I got home my neighbor Ashley and I sat on the porch and visited and had a great time!

The other day I got Zoey a cheap princess set at K-Mart, came with a crown, necklace, clip-on earrings, and a ring. She looooves it! She's been wearing it all the time when we are at home and just acts like such a princess! I accidentally stepped on her ring the other day and broke it and she got very very upset with me! She huffed and puffed around and frowned at me and kept telling me, "Mommy, I'm very mad at you!" Then she'd walk out of the room and come back and huff and say, "Oh look at my ring, it's broken!" She was pretty ticked and she still talks to me about how I broke her ring. After a while I convinced her it was an accident and she's not mad anymore, but it was so hard not to laugh at her, she was really mad!

Well, we're going to maybe go swimming with the Hopper's again this afternoon and I've been working on Farmtown, my new addiction! It's so dumb, but so fun to play! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Happy 4th of July!

Well, we're coming to the end of our lovely 4-day weekend, it was a much needed break and we had lots of fun! Saturday we headed to some friends of Nicole's family, Amber and Ivan. They have a beautiful house with this awesome back porch and a huge yard for the kids to play in. They had make brisket that was out of this world and lots of other goodies. Zoey and Jackson had fun running around, playing with the horseshoes, and playing with the other kids.We all had matching shirts on, we didn't realize it untill we were headed to Nicole's house. Gotta love those Wal-Mart specials haha!

Nicole's dad got the kids some sparklers and Zoey did surprisingly well! I figured she wouldn't want to hold it or anything, but she had a lot of fun! She just wanted to keep lighting the ground on fire with it...

By the time the fireworks started, everyone was pretty wound up so getting them to sit still took a bit and then Zoey wanted nothing to do with them! She kept holding her hands over ears and telling me they were too loud. They were set off sporatically so they were big gaps between fireworks and she'd think it was safe and start to walk to go do something then another one would go off and she'd run as fast as her little legs could take her under the porch! It was so funny! She didn't really watch too many of them, just mostly sat on the porch and ate some cake... oh well, there's always next year!

Today Priscilla and Landon helped me take my car to the mechanics to get looked at. The first step in getting ready for our big trip to Kansas coming up, we're sooooo excited!! We dropped it off then went to K-Mart where of course they were having sales all over the store! I got Zoey a really cute dress for $4.00 and a couple other things. I wish K-Mart was closer to me I would go there all the time, I love that store! After that was Chinese that really hit the spot and then back home. Now I'm just waiting on a call back to see what they're going to do with the car, I've tried calling like 4 times and nobody has called me back. It's so frustrating!

I'm going to finish up some laundry and get everything ready to get back in the swing of things tomorrow. We should have 4-day weekends waaaaay more often! Happy 4th everyone!

Finally!

Alrighty, it's been a while, I think I'm a little out of practice! Things have been going great here, I've been keeping super busy, all my friends have been keeping me on my toes, thanks guys!!! Almost every Saturday we go swimming with my neighbor Ashley and her baby Sarah, her blog is on my page, go check it out! We've been hanging out with my friend Nicole and her son Jackson quite a bit, she has a kiddie pool and the kids love it! I told her the other day I should just get one here for the house and she said I couldn't because I wouldn't come over any more!

They could not wait for the pool to fill up but they were both great listeners and didn't mess with the hose...

Zoey rode around on Jackson's back for a while then he took a turn on hers. It was funny she never said a word when he rode on her but he said she was heavy right off the bat. Nicole laughed and said, "Oh he's such a man, already complaining!" Made me laugh, they had such a good time.

She got a bigger pool and last weekend we let the kids play for a while then put them down for a nap and we hopped in! All we could really do was sit, but sit we did, it was soooo nice and cool.

The other day Zoey brought home her first piece of homework, crazy! Her teacher sent her home with a stuffed monkey, a journal, and the book 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. We kept him over the weekend and we had to write in the journal with a few pictures about what we did with the monkey. It was really fun thinking of things to do with him, we decided to write about how Mr. Monkey helped us... He helped us be safe...

He helped us share with friends...

He helped when we were sad...Helped us have fun on the trampoline...and helped us read the book!

I really enjoyed doing this with Zoey and she still talks about the monkey!

The other night while getting Zoey ready for bed I discovered her closet was full of water!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!! I kept hearing at work about when your husbands get deployed, whatever can go wrong, will. Oh I freaked out but I ran and got my neighbor Cody and he came to the rescue!!! Turns out the run-off for the Air Conditioner unit had some build-up and it was leaking underneath and then went into Zoey's closet. He blew it out with an over-sized turkey baster and everything came out fine... except the monster that was living underneath my air conditioner!!!!!

I was completely embarrassed to see how filthy it was under there! I had to take some pictures, we cleaned it all out I think it's better now, hopefully!

Blech, it was gross! Thanks sooooo much Cody and Ashley, you guys have helped me out more than you realize!!!!!

We hung out at Priscilla's a couple times too and swam in her shark pool, the kids always have so much fun when they get together! They're on vacation, lucky, so they've been busy this past week but we hung out and had a looooong overdue wine night! It's so nice to relax and chat and let the kids play!

Well, I wanted to get some pics up, I'll try to keep up with this thing since we've been doing so much lately. Beau's been doing ok, his computer broke so he was kinda bummed but he had another one ordered and on it's way and it has a webcam on it! We went and got a camera for our computer here yesterday and set up Skype so we can video chat, I'm so excited!!!! If anyone has Skype let me know we can chat!

I have a ton of ham roll-ups to make for a work pot luck tomorrow so I better get busy. After tomorrow we have a 4 day weekend, yay!!!! We are spending 4th of July with Nicole and her family, I'm excited! Hope everyone is well!

More to come...

We've been keeping busy this week. Beau made it to his final destination safely, his living situation is a little better than he thought, but he just keeps telling me it's really really hot. I've been able to talk to him almost every day so that's been good, plus e-mail. He had his first fire today, the landfill on base was on fire, he said it took 2 hours and around 11,000 gallons of water to put it out. It was 120 degrees today so he said between that and wearing full gear, plus the fire it was scorching! He said he's never drank so much water in his life!

Right now I'm printing off our pay slips because one of the gals at the CDC accidentally shredded Zoey's file by mistake! Haha... I just have to get her shot record faxed over tomorrow and it will be ok.

Here's some pics of Beau leaving the other morning, it was so sad! It feels like a month has passed instead of a week.

We had a busy weekend with supper over at the Hopper's, thanks again guys! On Saturday Zo-Zo and I went shopping with Priscilla and Landon. We got a Children's Place in town, yay!, so we went and checked that out. I really like that store, they have good quality, cute clothes at pretty good prices. Zoey needed a pair of close-toes water shoes for their splash day at school so I got her a really cute pair. Priscilla got matching flip-flops for the kids, no more fighting over the shark shoes!!! Best idea ever!

After that we went to Jason's Deli for lunch, so good, the kids loved their pizza! We headed home for naps then went to Ashley's aunt and uncle's house to go swim!!!! First time of the summer! She has all the pictures on her camera so I will have to post those later. We had a blast and baby Sarah loved it! It was so much fun, we got invited to go back this Saturday so I'm hoping the weather works out!

Here's a pic of the Smith kids and Zoey at the Fire Station... we had such a great time and Zoey loves the card we got in the mail from them.

Well, it's raining and windy out right now so I better hop off and turn off the computer. I don't have to work till 7:30 tomorrow so we get an extra hour to sleep in! Yippee!

It's been a while...

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, this week has been really crazy. Beau got his orders, his flight leaves at 8:25 tomorrow morning so Zoey and I will be dropping him off at around 7 to wish him off. I'm really really not looking forward to it, but it's not for too awful long and Zoey is here to keep me company. Beau was packing up all of his stuff and he got this HUGE bag to take and Zoey fit in it! I think she wants to go with Daddy! Yeah, that's not happening!

Beau had appointments all week and I went with him to a meeting at the Family Readiness Center and got lots of information about things that are available to me while he's gone. It's nice to know I have a pretty good support system if I ever need anything. He also asked me to come with him to get his shots, it was awful! He got his smallpox, anthrax, and typhoid. His smallpox one scares me, I won't let him take off his bandage in the house or touch it or anything. Blech, it's gross! You should google it, it's scary stuff!

The Smith's came into town on Thursday evening and had supper, played in the yard for a while, then we went to the base to look at the fire trucks. I can't believe I didn't take very many pictures but I'll be sure to post some more later when Tanna sends them to me! Thanks for coming, we had a great time!!! Zoey kept saying she wanted to go play with "the girls" and then Tanna would say, "and a boy!" It was really cute!

The girls had lots of fun dressing up and Andrew found a fire truck and a police car so he had some fun too! Of course they all loved the trampoline, that thing scares me to death!


Friday night we went to the drive-in and saw Up! It was a super cute movie, we all really enjoyed it! It started at 9:00 so about 20 minutes before it ended Zoey got a little fussy and then finally went to sleep. I loooove going to the drive-in, it makes me feel more comfortable if Zoey's going to have a melt-down or anything at least we won't bother anyone else. I recommend the movie though, it was really good!

Saturday morning we went to breakfast with the Miller's and then shopped for Beau's toiletries and things he needed to take on the flight. His supervisor Greg came over and gave Beau pointers on what he needed to take and how things were going to go. Thank you Greg! You eased my mind too a little bit and I know Beau appreciated it!

Last night Zoey went to the Teague's to play with Landon and Beau and I went to Buffalo Wild Wing's to have a couple going away drinks with the guys. It was really fun, quite a few people showed up! After that Vos, Williams, Tally and Beau and I went to Guitar's and Cadillacs to see what all the fuss was about but none of us realized it was a total country bar! Cow bells and everything. We stayed for about half and hour then Beau and I headed home. It was fun hanging out and we got to dance to one song, it's a really good memory to have right before he leaves! Thanks again Teague's for watching Zoey, even though she ruined Greg's game and wouldn't bring him the right pillow! Hahaha!

Vos is over right now and they are watching Terminator 2... yay... not my kind of movie! We need to go to Wal-Mart here in a bit and get Beau a shower bag to keep his toiletries in and sunscreen and I think that's all he'll need for now. I'm not sure what else he'll need for now but I'll be sure to let everyone know if he needs anything in the future. Thanks for all of the amazing support and I know this deployment will go smooth thanks to all my friends and family who are here, and far away, being there for us!

WHAT!?!??!

I just finished watching American Idol and I'm absolutely shocked that Adam didn't win! After they announced it I just sat there and Beau kept saying what happened, is that who you wanted to win, you look shocked, what happened? I haven't liked Kris since the beginning, he should have been voted off looooong ago! Dangit, I thought Adam was going to win for sure, I'm in shock!

Off to other news, last night Zoey, my neighbor Ashley, and I went to the Celebration Singers program at the Paramount Theatre downtown, which is beautiful I must say! A lady I work with sings in the group and she invited me so we checked it out. We sat way up in the balcony and Zoey was really excited, she kept telling us to be quiet when the music came on since I had been telling her for like 3 hours priop that we were going to go listen to singers and she had to be very very quiet. She did really well the first 30 minutes or so, then got a little fidgety so we left after about 45 minutes. They sounded amazing and I'm really glad we went!
It's a little dark and blurry but this was inside the theatre on the sides, it was really pretty...
Since it was still early and we didn't know how to figure out the parking lot, haha, we decided to walk around downtown and window shop. We found this really pretty waterfall coming out of a building and it had some benches and stuff. Zoey was completely amazed and of course we had some good photo ops.
I love this one!


Zoey was getting a little wheezy so after we came home I gave her a breathing treatment and she said she felt better and went to sleep. She woke up around 2 and needed another one so Beau made an appointmet for today and took her in. The doctor said it is likely a viral thing with asthmatic tendencies. They gave her a stronger medicine than Albuterol and something to clear up her nose and help with her cold. I'm glad the doctor gave us extra Albuterol last time so I could do something for her last night! She's doing much much better, except for not being able to sleep very well and being a little grouchy, but her breathing is all that matters! That's scary stuff, I hate it when she gets wheezy like that.


Beau had some appointments today and get lots of gear like shirts, goggles, and knee and elbow pads. They told him he needs to report in Iraq by June 4th so he'll be leaving either next Friday or Saturday. I'm glad he will get to visit with the Smith family a little bit before he goes! We are all excited you guys are coming!!!


Well, it's off to bed, tomorrow is my last day of work then we have a 4 day weekend... woo-hoo! We have lots of stuff to do this weekend, so I'm ready for a long weekend!

A crazy week...

Well we found out on Thursday that Beau is getting prepped for immediate deployment within the week! I think I'm still kind of in shock or something, this will be our first deployment, and it's just some crazy news. Beau's friend overseas is having some issues with his family so they are sending him home and Beau is taking his place. He called Beau yesterday morning and chatted with him a little bit and said he hoped we weren't upset or anything that Beau has to go. Beau is actually really excited, it's an opportunity to save up some money, plus he'll see a completely different part of the world and culture. A couple guys at work told him you learn the most about your job when you are overseas and it makes you really proud to be in the Air Force and serve your country.

Anyway, he's getting ready for that, he has lots of appointments tomorrow and I guess they will tell him the date he's going to be going. It's weird knowing we have a week, maybe a week and a half, instead of the couple months you usually have to prepare yourself for this kind of thing. Priscilla told me she would rather have known a week ahead of time because then you don't dread it forever and you appreciate the last few days you have together.

Saturday was Zoolute at the Zoo, it was an event for military members and their families for the community to show their appreciation. It was really neat, they had tattoos, free food like Chick-Fil-A and Dominos, ice cream, hot dogs, a dunking tank, and the zookeepers were out walking around and talking about the animals. It was really fun! Of course we woke up and it was POURING rain, I think we got almost 3 inches but we needed it really bad. It cleared up right before we all left and it turned out perfect, it wasn't too hot, there wasn't tons and tons of people there, so we all had a good time. It was feeding day for the snakes, lovely, so they were a lot more active also. They had a milk snake out for people to touch and Zoey and Landon really liked it. I need to talk to her about never touching snakes, but it's hard to do that right after your parents are telling you to go pet the snake, so whatever. I need to do that!

After the Zoo, we came home for naps then Zoey went over to play with Landon and Scilla so Beau and I could go on a date. First we went to the shooting range to shoot the gun Beau got for us to keep in the house for protection. Don't worry it's in our closet waaaay out of reach, unloaded, but it's there just in case. I do feel better in a weird way, I thought for sure it would make me more nervous, but it's been ok. I really really liked shooting, it gave me this urge to run around and kick somebody's ass, haha! I kept telling Beau, ok I was done and he'd say are you sure, and I'd say oh ok just do like 3 or 4 more shells, and then I'd do it all again. I feel a lot more comfortable with it, and I was surprised how much kick it had! I'm glad I got to shoot it, I feel better prepared.

I'm really proud of myself, and I think I surprised Beau a little bit that I wasn't like a horrible shot! Beau told me at least you'd get him in the balls, plus look you shot him in the hand too! It was cute and a really fun thing we did together, just us. Now that he's leaving I feel like we should have done more but we'll work on that when he gets back!

After the shooting range we went to Outback Steakhouse for some really good food and I got some kind of a spiked lemonade drink, it was delicious! After that we went to the mall and walked around then hung out with Priscilla for a bit, then came home. Thank you so much Priscilla for watching the Zomeister for us! Beau had to work today, and I did a little housework, but I think I'm still recovering from yesterday! Tomorrow starts another work week but at least it's a 4 day week, we have a 4 day weekend coming up, yay!!!!