All Aboard!!!

We had a train adventure today.



The company that Brent works for does a lot of business with BNSF so they get tickets for a free train ride.



My 2 nephews are obsessed with trains so I was so glad they got to go. Hannah had a friend over so we ended up using my bil's ticket for her but the conductor let him on without a ticket. So nice!



Luke, my sister Shelly and Ben.



Hannah and Kirsten.



Brad and Luke. The conductor let Luke punch the tickets. Did you know that when you become a conductor that you are assigned a certain punch? That is how they are kept up with. A little something I learned today.



This was our conductor. He was really nice! He has been working for the railroad since 197something.



Going across Lake Texoma. It looked like we were floating across the water.



Going across the Red River.

I'm glad we got to do this. I went on a train from Ardmore, OK to Gainesville, Tx when I was a little girl but can't really remember much of the trip. This was Hannah's first time on a train and next month she will be flying for the first time. Lots of first this summer :)

Posting from a mobile phone isn't fun

Our desktop computer is dead & so we haven't had internet. Brent brought the tower home so we would be able to use the laptop wireles. Got wireless working last night then lost it. So frustrating! At least I have Brent's phone & heaven forbid I find something else to do.

My mom is having health issues. A week after my grandma died, mom was in the hospital at that time thinking she had a bleeding ulcer. She had to get 5 units of blood before leaving hospital. During her stay her right side starting hurting but they let her go home. Not sure why more test weren't done. She followed up with her primary dr. & he thought she was having gallbladder issues. She had a scan & she did have tons of stones & also had a spot on her liver. Surgery was scheduled to remove her gallbladder & to biopsy her liver. It turned out to be cancer. My oldest sister knows a dr. who works at the Cancer Center of America in Tulsa & she was able to get mom in within days of finding out of her cancer. All testing is done. The cancer is contained in the liver. She starts chemo on Monday. It will be for 3 weeks & it is pills. Dr. told her he couldn't give her life expectancy but had patients that have been around for years. So that has been our life. Funny how life throws a curveball. We will get thru this

Happy Father's Day

We had a low key Father's Day. Brent wanted bubble bread for breakfast so bubble bread we made. Hannah helped me last night but stupid me forgot to take pictures. I did remember this morning.



I have no idea why she posed like this. Silly girl.



I'm just hoping she doesn't fall in the oven.



She insisted to serve him breakfast in bed. I thought it was sweet.



I made homemade pizza for supper. I screwed up the crust I was going to make so I had to find a recipe off the internet to try. It was really good and it will be my pizza crust recipe for now on. I guess some things happen for a reason. Now we are off to watch videos of Hannah when she was a baby. We watched Colton's videos already and she has reminded us quite often that we never finished the ones with her.

Happy Birthday Becky

My lovely sister in law, Becky, is celebrating her birthday today.



Hope you are having a wonderful day and we love you very much!

Brent, Stacy, Colton and Hannah

S'mores

So now every time we have company Hannah thinks we have to make s'mores. Fine by me! My niece Anna came over to spend the night last night so s'mores we made :)

Hello

Ahhh internet. We got nailed Saturday night by a thunderstorm and lost our internet service. You can't imagine what I can get accomplish without the stinkin' internet.

It's officially summer here in southern Oklahoma. We are hot and humid. My main goal right now is to stay cool.

I don't have any pictures to share. Shocking I know. Nothing really exciting going on right now. I think the rest of June will be quiet, knock on wood, and then July we are having a bash for the 4th and then a trip to Colorado. School will be starting before we know.

I will leave you with a recipe. Some of you might want something new to fix. It's good and easy; my favorite kind of recipe :)

Chicken Almond Casserole

1 cup chopped cooked chicken (I usually boil 1 chicken breast and it's enough)
1/2 cup mayo
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 tsp minced onion (I use dried onion)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup celery, chopped
1/3 - 1/2 cup cracker crumps (I use bread crumbs and it works just fine)

Combine and toss lightly. Pour in a casserole dish and top with crushed potato chips. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Hannah's Turn

Hannah has been bugging Brent for a ride in the little boat. Finally she got to go yesterday.



She was so excited.



And off they go. Looks like Hannah has a death grip on that chair :)



She's still hanging on.



Ohhhh, this would be Brent's finger attached to a fishing hook. He was bass fishing last night and caught a catfish. While trying to get the hook out of the catfish, the other hook on the lure attacked Brent's finger. The good folks at our local hospital successfully removed the hook. And I was informed that our dog isn't like those TV dogs that goes for help when their owner is in distress :)

Boating

Brent has been wanting a little bass boat for the pond for a very long time. He took the plunge and bought one today. FYI: did you know you can't purchase a boat in the state of Texas on Sundays? Yeah, he didn't know either but the nice people at ... (I don't want to get them in trouble)pretended like it was Saturday and let him get it. Yea!



Here we are discussing whether to put the trolling motor on before or after it is in the water.



We'll put it on before we launch. Thanks to Colton's friend, Gage, for letting us borrow his trolling motor.



And we're launching. I wanted to bust a bottle of beer over it to "christen" the boat but Brent didn't want to waste a beer. Oh well!



Brent was nice and let the boys go first.



Looks like it's working.



"Hey guys, where ya going?"

Brent and Max are still waiting for their turn :)

Carnival Rides

Wednesday night I took the kids downtown to ride the rides for the low low price of $20/armband. I found out later that they had armband night also on Monday for only $15 but it wasn't advertised, uhhhmmmmmmm! I'll try to remember that for next year.

Colton barely let me get the above picture of him and I didn't even get his face. Hannah on the other hand will pose like no body's business.



Here she is taking it all in deciding what ride she wants to ride first.



She talked me into buying tickets to ride the ferris wheel with her. I don't do rides. Even the the ferris wheel makes me queazy but I took one for the team.



A shot of some of the rides from up above.



Going down the fun slide. I can't even imagine the germs hanging out on that burlap sack. Yikes!



She was so excited to be able to ride some of the bigger rides this year. She rode this one about 4 times in a row without tossing her cookies.

The weather was perfect. And I do mean perfect. No sweating what so ever. And to top it off, on the way home we hit the Sonic for some free root beer floats. And where was Mr. Henry during this? He had some quite time grilling him some burgers and having a couple of beers. Mr. Henry loves quite time :)

The National Sandbass Festival

It's that time of year again for The National Sandbass Festival. Every year they kick it off with Gorrell's Family Martial Arts demo. Get it, kick it off with martial arts. Anywho Hannah performed with her group last night.







The kids did a really good job.

Before the demo Colton and I hung around outside.



It didn't take him long to find his friend who was driving the golf cart. Lazy butt.



Brent loves the festival so much. NOT!!!



But eating an over priced corndog makes him tolerate it just a little bit more.



I was scoping out places to hit on Wednesday when I take the kids to ride rides. I'm thinking this will be my first stop :)

Monday Again?

The weekend flew by. Wish we had another short week. Oh well. Hannah went to karate camp this past Friday. I picked her up Sunday and she was already yawning.



I can't remember the last time this child slept during the day. Probably last year after karate camp.

Saturday morning Brent and I headed down to Sherman to look at the "cowboy grill" he saw earlier for our new little area. We decided to get it thinking how much fun it would be to have weiner roasts and S'mores this summer.



Brent bought some pinon wood too for bugs. He lit it last night and it seemed to work. It kinda sticks out like a sore thumb next to our fountain. The fountain is le chic and the cowboy grill is, well, redneck :)

Oh yeah, I tried to make this bread from The Pioneer Woman website.


photo taken from The Pioneer Woman

But this is what mine looked like.



Isn't this the saddest bread you have ever seen?

It's going to be a crazy week. Hannah has a karate demo at our town's festival and Colton has 2 ballgames. At least those will be at home. Wednesday night is armband night for the carnival rides so I guess I will take Hannah. I got out of it last year telling her she wasn't tall enough to ride the fun rides. That's not gonna work this year.