Texas Time 1 Christmas

     Off to Texas I go, for some time in Texas and of course Christmas!  I left Tuesday for the great State of Texas.  Kara picked me up from the airport, and we immediately started running errands.  I hadn't done much shopping, and the Seidel's Christmas was going to be over the weekend.  We ran around to a few places and accomplished a lot!  So much fun to have a co-pilot to argue with or just laugh with or just ask what do we need next!  She was probably ready for me to get out the car by the first stop with all my opinions! 
    I spent a few days with Kara and her family playing and enjoying some time together.  You never really realize how much you miss people until you are back around them.  We had many laughs, many entertaining conversations, and lots of fun.  I spent some time wondering around Corpus and visiting some people I worked with at Flour Bluff which was nice.  It was good to see them and visit. 
     On Friday, I went to the airport to pick up my husband!  Vic picked us both up and we were off to Orange Grove for some fun.  As soon as I got in the car, Grace started screaming.  I'm not so sure she really liked me much!  When we got to OG, we visited a bit and got ready to go to Mandee's for dinner, drinks, and conversation.  Atticus was sick so he was not able to go.  Sarah stayed home with him and we took Grace.  Saturday, Atticus woke up and wasn't feeling too good.  He went back to bed and slept till lunch time.  When he came out of the room, he says "Merry Christmas everybody, I feel better!"  It was so cute!!  We had some lunch and let the kids open some presents.  Atticus told me he wanted a rat for Christmas, so I put the rat on the floor and it was a confusing sight for him!  He couldn't figure out if it was decoration or what!!  He thought it was a little scary looking and didn't want to touch it much, but we had fun seeing who we could scare with it!  Atticus and Grace opened up this little people skyway toy and we made Geoff put it together.  Atticus thought Geoff was a little slow putting it together!  They sure liked playing with the "super track". 
     We finished opening presents and had some company come by to visit.  Kids did some playing and screaming. lol
     It was good to see them and can't wait to visit again.  Maybe this time they will play with me instead of saying no thank you! 

Thanksgiving

     Before we left for Thanksgiving, I went to watch Geoff at this Flag Football game at work.  It was pretty entertaining!  I think his team was playing a much younger group.  They ended up getting smashed!  After the game, we went to watch John Wick at the movies.

     Early the next morning, it was time for our plane ride to Pensacola.  We started out by parking downtown in a navy lot.  We then got a Uber car to pick us up.  Geoff was very excited to use Uber.  It was pretty neat to watch the car on the phone as it drove up to us. 
     We got to Pensacola around 3 in the afternoon and hung out with Emily and Ben and Geoff's parents.  We had decided to have Thanksgiving meal on Friday, so Katie, Tim, and Gabriel could join us.  That night we watched (well I watched) the Aggie game and played some games.
     Friday, Katie and Tim ended up not being able to make the trip, so we made plans to see them Saturday.  We were forced to have Thanksgiving dinner without them.  Everything was delicious.  Emily, Ben, Geoff and I made our annual day after Thanksgiving trip to Target and the mall.  When we got back, it was time for an intense game of Apples to Apples and dice bowling.
     Saturday, it was time to get to meet Gabriel.  Katie and Tim made the trip to the house from their place which is about a hour and a half away.  It was good to get to see them and get to meet Gabriel.
     Geoff's mom gave Baby D a Gators outfit to go with the Aggie one (Thanks again Tara and GG).  So now Baby D is geared up for SEC football next year!

Happenings

     This weekend we had a new addition to the family.  Katie, Geoff's oldest sister, had her first child. Gabriel Jackson was born November 21st.  We are excited to meet him!

     Saturday, Geoff decided to change his brakes on his car.  He went and picked up all the necessary tools and went to work.  I went out and ran errands as he played mechanic.  I was on the task of making Granny Irene's fabulous dressing, but didn't have a roasting pan.  So, I went out to get the veggies and a roasting pan.  I got home and made the corn breads and crumbled the French bread for the dressing.  Geoff was still working hard, but finally finished and was successful!  He even took me to dinner and we were able to stop the car!
     On Sunday, we went to church and then met up with Geoff's friend Nick, his wife Angie and Nick's brother Chris to go on a hike.  We have been wanting to do this hike, but had been waiting for the weather to get cooler.  This was probably one of the hardest hikes, but the best hike we have done so far. The views were amazing.  Mount Miguel is only a couple miles from our house and we drive by all the time.  Now we can finally say we went to the top of that!!!  I told Geoff next time my dad comes, he needs to take him on the hike. Not me!  On the way down, I told Geoff maybe we can just drop him off!!  There are two points on the trail.  The first one is marked by a flag.  You can walk to that and get a good view and a good hike, but we thought we needed the whole experience!!!  So, we kept going to the cell phone and radio towers!  Awesome!!  When we finished, I was starving, so Geoff took me to Wings-N-Things!  When we got home, we got to work on making the stock for the dressing.  I bought a whole chicken, even though I only needed half, because of course, it was cheaper and I love chicken!  So, I had to watch a video on how to cut this thing up.  They sure make it look easy on the video!!  I guess once you know what you are doing it is easier.  Thankfully, I wasn't frying the chicken but boiling it, so who cares what it looked like!
     On Monday, Geoff was off to work and schools were out, so after my run I asked Geoff what his lunch plans were.  He had none, so I went and picked him up for a bite to eat.  We went downtown to the Lucky's Lunch Counter.  This was a cool little place and good!  Geoff had some more time to waste, so I drug him to the packed commissary!  But it was fun, and he got back right on time, perfect! Tonight, we had our Thanksgiving meal in San Diego!  I got some Cornish game hens to go with our dressing!!
     Thursday, we will be off to Pensacola for Thanksgiving and to see the new baby!

 Breads

                                                                      Chicken Stock

                                                                          Final Product

                                                            Pictures don't do the view justice!

 If you look closely at the middle peak that is where we hiked to.  You can barely make out a white tower up there! 

Our Lunch Place

November 12, 2014

     Today was the first appointment!  I headed over a little early just in case I got lost or something; okay really just nervous and scared!  As soon as I walked in everyone was so helpful.  They quickly got me in and ready.  It was so fast Geoff missed getting in the room with me.  The sonogram technician came in and started her thing.  She said based on her measurements the due date is June 25th!  That's my birthday! :)  She showed me the head, spine, and of course the heart beat.  The heart was going so fast 171!  I asked her if it was okay!  She said yes that was normal.  

     I then met with a nurse who discussed a few things like nutrition, medicine, and the next appointment.  Geoff finally found me and got to listen to the exciting random nurse.  I asked the lady if I should be taking prenatal vitamins and she's like yes.  All you need to do is ask the people in the front and they will give them to you.  Sweet easy; bam done!  I then had to go get lab work done.  The lady took so much blood I had to ask if I was going to still be alive when I left!  

     So leaving this place was crazy!  It took me at least 30 minutes to get out of the parking garage!! No joke!  It was crazy!  I sure hope it's not like that every time!!      

  

Los Angeles - Veteran's Day

     For Veteran's Day Geoff was off Monday and Tuesday.  I think he really wanted to take a drive up the coast to Monterey, but Jill can't say no to Norma and had to work on Monday.  I suggested maybe we drive up to Los Angeles for the weekend and explore around.
     We started out Saturday with Geoff taking me by the place my appointment would be on Wednesday, so I knew where to go.  Then we were off to LA.  The only thing I had heard about LA was the traffic was bad.  So far the traffic was decent, then about a hour in we started hitting some congested areas.  I'm sure its way worse on a week day, but still lots of people.  We made it downtown where we wanted to try The Original Philippe.  This place is supposed to be famous for French dips.  I've never eaten a French dip, so my first should be the best!  This place was packed with people.  They had 5 or 6 lines of people, but they moved pretty fast.  I guess when all you are making are 5 different kinds of French dip sandwiches you can get them out fast.  We ordered 3 sandwiches one beef, one pork, and one turkey.  My favorite was the beef and the potato salad!  After that meal, we needed to walk off some of our lunch, so we walked around China Town for a little.  This was an interesting place!

     We then wanted to see the Hollywood sign and check out the Griffith Observatory.  On our way to the observatory, we caught glimpses of the Hollywood sign.  The observatory was packed; there was no place to park.  We finally found a place on the side of the road.  It was extremely hot and I was not about to walk all the way back up to the observatory, but we walked to a bridge where you could see the whole city.  It was really neat.  I'm sure the view from the observatory was way better, but I wasn't in my hiking clothes!  They did have some trails around there to hike; should have worn my hiking clothes!!

     We drove down Beverly BLVD to check it out and go to this place I had read about called The Grove.  It was this big open air mall.  We go in and try to park and the garage is practically full.  It was cool, each level told you how many spots were open on that level.  We decided to just go to the top, since that's where the most spots were open.  When we got out, we noticed that we could see the Hollywood sign from there!  I look over the edge and saw The Price is Right trailers.  I thought that it was a place trying to say they had good prices, so you should go there, but as I looked over it was the CBS studio! LOL  We walked around there for a bit and looked at the huge Christmas tree, Gingerbread house and strolled through a few stores.  They even had Santa and reindeer flying across the street!  We did get this amazing shake from this place at the mall.  It took the lady forever to make it, but made me feel like I was getting my $9 worth!!  I was so sad when it was gone!

     We then decided to drive down  to where we were staying, Marina Del Rey.  We checked into the hotel and got our welcome cookies!  We got to watch the last quarter of the Aggie game.  Who would have thought all that craziness could happen!! WOW!
     We went out and walked around the area of our hotel.  There were stores and restaurants all around.  We had fun shopping around the stores.  We then went to the Yard House to have some beers and watch some more football.  I finally started to get hungry, so we decided to order some food.  I had the best fish tacos!!
     Sunday morning we went to check out Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier.  It was a nice walk with great scenery.  It was crazy how many people were out there.  You had people playing volleyball, riding bikes, walking, running, playing chess, playing football, playing at muscle beach, and even street hockey in a parking lot.  The Pier had a carnival on it and lots of people.
     We headed back home.  On our way, Geoff made a detour to Escondido to the Stone Brewery.  This was a really nice place.  The food however, I was not in the mood for!!  I was starving at this point and wanted something and was not in the mood for duck!  For those of you that know me, when I get hungry and I can't have beer, watch out!  So, Geoff had to have his beer and we left.
     All in all LA is interesting; pretty glad I don't live there!!