A Little...

...behind on the blog.

Here's the latest:

We took a quick and I mean quick trip to Oklahoma for a surprise party the weekend of April 25th. The party was for our dear friend Spence one of Gerald's old Coast Guard buddies. We have known Susie and Spence for 30 years and they are like family to us. Gerald and Spence were stationed together in Owensboro, KY and Kodiak, AK.

Part of the fun was seeing Susie and Spence's two kids, Kristy and Jake. We hadn't seen them in 20+ years. It was hard to believe the cute little 5 year old girl we last saw was now all grown up and married. Kristy and Josh have been married 5 years and they have two beautiful little boys. Jake was around 2 the last time we saw him and he has turned into a fine young man! He is super sweet and still a cutie patutie!

Another highlight of the party was getting to see our old Coastie friends Bob and Joe. They were also stationed in Owensboro with Gerald. We had the pleasure of seeing Bob this past year but the last time we saw Joe was 30 years ago! It was a joy to catch up with him and meet his wonderful wife Carrie. I am working on a slide show of our trip and will post it as soon as I finish it.

Oklahoma has toll roads. We're not used to toll roads. Spence had told us it would cost approx. $4.50 to take the highway we wanted to head out on. Well it didn't cost us $4.50, it wound up costing us a little over $50.00! Why so much? Because...because...well because we had to stop and feed a few slot machines before crossing the state line. Geez, $50 up in smoke in less than half an hour. We were ahead at one point. Like the saying goes, "should of stopped while we were ahead"! ;o) It was fun.

We had hoped to stop in Fort Worth on the way up or way down to visit familia, but because of the drive time and Gerald needing to get back, we weren't able to swing it. :O(

Last week I had the joy of hosting our monthly Bunco group. It was our end of year party and it was so much fun. We will take the summer off and then start back up in the fall.

My sister JoAnne and I are busy getting ready for Ryan's graduation. We are hosting his celebration party here on the 30th so there is much to do. Mucho family and friends will be attending, we look forward to seeing everyone!

As always, we continue to work on the place on the weekends. Yesterday we finished putting the last of the porch railing on. Gerald planted two more trees and did lots of yard work. Inch by inch we are getting closer to being done.

Little Helper

The saturday before Easter we finished putting up the shelves for my cookbooks and installed the desk. Well Snicker's (a.k.a "Snicker Doodles") thinks we built the desk JUST for him as this is his new favorite place to sleep and look out the window. Whenever we sit at the computer he is right there to help out with the mouse or just lounge around! I think he was inspired by the card that is sitting on the desk behind him. It is a picture of a cat in sunglasses lounging on the beach with a drink. I hope he doesn't expect us to bring him a drink everytime he lounges on the desk or ask for sunglasses because the lamp is too bright for his eyes!!

"I'm not spoiled, well...maybe just a little...and quit already with that camera, I'm tryin' to get some sleep here!"

Easter Weekend

Hoping all of you had a very blessed Easter!

We had the great pleasure of hosting Easter here for family and friends. There were 25 of us, most of which were kids...the boys outnumbered the girls (11 boys & 3 girls). Over 300 eggs were hid...yes, 300 eggs!! Don't you know we will be finding little lost eggs over the next year! I spotted one in our fence coming home from the store yesterday! :O)

Everyone gathering to greet each another...

Taking a break from playing Lacrosse...

Ryan, his girlfriend Jessy & Heather...

Checking out the loot..

...and more loot. Just a few of the 300 eggs!

Update on Projects

Here's what's been happening at the ole "Rockin' G & B" for the past two weeks:

-Installed underground propane tank, along with electric and water lines for landscaping:
"Buddy inspecting the buried tank"

-Yay! No more plywood counter tops! We had our counter tops done last week. It took them 6 days to complete. It was quite an interesting process. After going back and forth between granite or poured concrete, we decided on the concrete with hand chiseled edges. Next, Gerald will be installing the natural stone back splash.

Below are before, during and after pictures. We changed out the stainless faucet to a black one.

-Dirt, crushed granite and trees delivered last week to continue with the landscaping project. Gerald and Rafa worked hard this past weekend digging holes, moving heavy rocks, etc. They planted five cedar elms and four live oaks.

Planting trees...

...and more trees.

I'm not quite sure who received the most abuse through all this...the tractor or Gerald. You be the judge...by the way, Gerald did not receive his boo boo from operating heavy equipment, moving big rocks or wrestling with the tractor. Oh no, he was too careful with all of that, it was from a sheet of plywood that slipped when he was moving it, ouch!

WARNING!

The following pictures may not be suitable for young children or the squeamish!

Look at them at your own risk! We are not responsible for vomiting!

Puncture wound to the tire...and broken bracket (on order)...see how Gerald repaired it temporarily with a chain? It didn't work too well. Also, the tractor was dead for one day...don't ask, that is a whole other story!

Gerald's boo boo...broken toe & bruised foot...yuck!

That's it for now...I have to go throw up...looking at that foot does it to me everytime. Seriously!

Ryan's Bedroom Makeover

Well it took me over 3 hours to figure this video thingy out (I know too much time on my hands) so here is my first attempt at making a slide show, turn up the volume. Also, I am still figuring out the new camera, the color of the walls is a rich gray color not light blue. I suppose I could of taken the time to edit the pictures by adjusting the color and contrast but I wanted to get this on the blog.

JoAnne and I did this total bedroom makeover while Ryan was away on spring break. JoAnne stayed up until 1 a.m. painting on the second day. I must say I was very impressed with her paint job, she did not tape off anything and there was NO paint on any of the trim work! WOW now that's a pro for you! I wish we would of taken "before" pictures. Just to give you an idea, the wall behind the bed was Texas Longhorn burnt orange and the other walls were a tan color. He did not have a headboard so it is new along with all the other furniture. Ryan has become quite an artist so the four small pictures are his original art (two eyes and two hands). The two blank canvases on the wall above the chairs are for him to create artwork for his walls.

He was surprised to say the least!