Houston / San Antonio: Day 5

I woke up about 8:00am, and so did Gammy. We got to sit down and have some fruit and cottage cheese for breakfast and talk a little bit. I woke David and Shannon up at 9:30 so that they would have some time with Gammy, too before we had to drive back to San Antonio.

We finished up our last chores for Gammy, cleaned up her kitchen a little, and by 12:15, we were on the road back to San Antonio. We stopped at Buc-ees for bathrooms and a snack. I love Buc-ees! It has the cleanest bathrooms you'll ever see at a truck stop, and it is a huge convenience store/restaurant. They are famous for their homemade jerkey and fudge. And Buc-ee the Beaver. Hehe.

We arrived in San Antonio around 3:30. David and Shannon dropped me off at my mom's house. I had originally planned to use her car this afternoon for a photo shoot that I had scheduled, but my clients went out of town for the holiday weekend at the last minute, so I ended up not needing to borrow her car. It worked out, though, because Katie and Kristina were in the area visiting a friend, so they were able to come pick me up while David and Shannon headed to a pool party.

Katie, Kristina, and I hung out at their place for a little while and I got freshened up a bit for dinner. At 7:15, we headed to ChaCho's! I had been looking forward to this dinner forever, even though my stomach is still sooooo full from the past few days! We got there, and at about the same time, so did Kate and her husband, and Kathryn. We ordered drinks (margaritas, daquiris, frozen jack and coke...mmm!) and food and soon we were joined Kandis and Greg, David and Shannon, Sofi, and Jon. It was packed and we remembered that it was karaoke night! Kandis and I signed up and eventually got our turn on stage! We sang "Love is a Battlefield" by Pat Benetar! Good times!

Spanish karaoke!!

At that point, it was almost 10:30, and we were all pretty tired, so those of us who were left decided to call it a night (we're so old!). Katie and Kristina had already gone home, so Jon gave me a ride to their place. I miss him so much! We had good conversation and lots of laughs in the short ride home. It's very good to see him. If only we could get a petition going to move him to Louisville. ;-)

When I got "home,' Katie and Kristina were starting a puzzle they had just bought. I stayed up and helped them put together all the outside pieces, and then, at about 11:30, we decided it was time for bed!

I went to bed a happy girl! Such a good day!

Houston: Day 4

I woke up a little bit before 7:00am today to get ready for the photo shoot I had this morning. However, Kristina called me around 8:30 and said that one of her kiddos was sick and she would have to cancel! Poor little guy! I was bummed, but Shannon was glad that she got to sleep in a little bit!

David and I made pigs in a blanket rolls for breakfast, and then around 11:30, he, Shannon, and I ran an errand for Gammy. Around 12:30, we went back to the house to pick her up for our second round of errands.

Our first destination was to drive past the house where Gammy's grandparents used to live. The neighborhood was founded in 1870 and has recently been re-enlivened. The houses are all so cute! Gammy said that her grandparents lived in that house from about 1915 until 1940. Very cool! It's going through some renovations right now, but she said it basically looked the same.

Gammy had this photo of the original house in one of her photo albums!

After that, we drove to Best Buy with the mission of helping Gammy pick out a new flat screen TV for her bedroom! I LOVE Best Buy, so that was a fun little adventure for me, even though I didn't purchase anything for myself.

We arrived back home around 2:00 and fixed some sandwiches for lunch. After we cleaned up, Shannon went and took a nap, and David and I worked on doing some chores around the house for Gammy. Among other things, David started to hook up the new TV, and we realized that we had picked up the wrong model! So, Dave and I went back to Best Buy to exchange it, and then we stopped at Kroger to pick up a few more things. Once we were back home, we started discussing picking up dinner to go from Carrabba's. I fixed a salad while David and Shannon went to pick up the food. We watched Date Night while we ate.

We had also bought a cake mix at Kroger, so around 9:00pm, I started to fix a birthday cake for myself and David. Instead of having 52 candles (29 + 23), we opted instead to get a number "5" candle and a number "2' candle!

We all went to bed fairly early...I think around 11:00... and slept very well!

San Antonio / Houston: Day 3

Happy birthday to me! :-)

I slept in until 9:45am! Katie and Kristina left a happy birthday sign hanging outside my bedroom door! It was a nice surprise to wake up to.

I got up, got ready, repacked my bags, and at 11:30am, David came by and picked me up. We stopped to fill up his truck with some gasoline, and then we went to pick Shannon up from work. She had a half day, and so was able to leave work around noon. She also just won a contest at work...guessing how many skittles are in a jar. Her guess was closest, so among other things, she won a jar of over 4000 skittles, so we had that along for the ride, too. We barely made a dent in it, though!

Big Texas skies

The Driver

Nap time! Shannon is somewhere under that big, floppy hat!

 Air guitar to "You Can Call Me Al"

Shannon's "Pink Bear" wanted some skittles, too!

We drove the three-ish hours to Houston, but had to make a pit stop a little over an hour out in Lulling. A light came on David's dash saying that a bulb was out, so we stopped to check the brake lights. Sure enough, three of them were out, but thankfully the gas station we stopped at sold them. We were stopped about 20 minutes while we changed the bulbs, and then we got back on the road.

 We arrived at Gammy's house at about 3:45pm.  We sat and talked with her a bit, then David and Shannon went to the grocery store to stock up on the basics for her. She is having a lot more trouble getting around recently, so she appreciated that. I got a birthday phone call from my friend, Crystal, and we talked for about 20 minutes.

Once David and Shannon were back, we put the groceries away and then piled into the car and headed to our family favorite, Molina's! It just so happened that we ran into our cousins, Camille, Gene, and Jennifer there, and we were seated at tables right next to each other! I was glad to get to see them! A couple of birthday margaritas, some really good salsa, and excellently cheesy enchiladas later, I was a happy (and slightly tipsy!) girl!

After dinner, David, Shannon, and I went to Blockbuster and picked up a few videos. Gammy had a gift card that needed to be used, so we got three movies. Tonight we watched Temple Grandin with Claire Danes. I hadn't heard much about it, but apparently it won some Emmy Awards. I was pretty sleepy and still tipsy, so I dozed off and didn't really pay much attention, but everyone else really liked it.

I followed up with some emails and then we all piled into Gammy's bed and talked to her for a while until she was ready to go to sleep, Then, Shannon and I went on a little exploratory mission and looked through all of Gammy's old photos, books, and memorabilia. It is so cool that she has books from 1888, her father's college diploma from 1906 that is literally falling apart from old age, and old photos and newspaper announcements.

I stayed up much later than I had wanted to, but it was a great day!