Thanksgiving

ready set go . . . 

So the day began early, I was up at 7, preparing the bird.  Last night I set the turkey up in a brine for the night, a salty mixture of vegetable stock and other good stuff to help make it juicy.  A few years ago I came across this on the Food Network and because I hate dry turkey decided to give it a try, I have been making it ever since. Turkey Recipe 

Cassie and her Mom and Sister showed up around 10:00 with the stuffing, cheese and olives, and green bean casserole.  We were busy getting the cheesy potatoes, turkey, sweet potatoes, rolls and everything else together.  

Everything was good eats.  We had some good desserts, pecan pie, pumpkin, buttermilk, cherry cheesecake, lemon cake . . .

After we all stuffed ourselves to the gill we sat down for a long game of Phase 10.  It was a cut throat game with drama galore (Cassie is dramatic enough by herself, pair her up with Mel and they could sell tickets).

Everyone had a great day, and were sitting back waiting for the Aggies to embarrass themselves in a national arena . . . I wish there were sick days in football, we would definitely be calling in sick this week.

Check out the rest of the Pictures

That's all for now, it's Christopher's Birthday . . . make sure you call him.

Thanksgiving Eve

let's play catch-up . . . 

Last week Cassie finished school and began "The Move", there was a brief moment there that I was concerned she may not make it through it all, but she did.  She took the week to finish packing up her apartment and getting it ready for storage.  Half of her life is going to San Angelo to the 12th floor of the Cactus, and the other half is now dispersed between my apartment and a storage unit down the hall.

Tuesday morning I woke up early on my day off (I'm still cranky about it, ask Cassie), and drove to College Station to pick up the U-Haul in time for the movers.  At about 8:00 a.m. I drove in to town and grabbed Cassie to go get the beast.  As soon as we pulled back in to The Enclave, the movers pulled in right behind us ready to go.  The first thing out of Cassie's mouth as well as all the mover's mouth was "It's not gonna fit" . . . blah blah blah, just shut-up and move the crap.  After some rather suggestive talk on how they should be spending their time they eventually got all of the nicely packed boxes and miscellaneous things, (that Cassie will never see again) into the Truck . . . and it fit (Thank you Josh, you were right, yes I said it you were right).  

And we were off.  Before we left I had to run by Bset Buy for a new toy.  I am used to the satellite radio in the truck and get rather irritated shuffling through radio stations on a long drive so I needed a solution to that problem.  I picked up a FM transmitter for the new ipod, and it is sweet.  This Griffin deal plugs into the cigarette lighter and has a wire that comes out an hold the ipod at the desired location.  Of course the first thing that goes through my mind is sweet now I can watch movies while I drive . . . needless this to say that inspired the over-protective mothering instinct in Cassie and the argument was on.  It ended with me winning (with a compromise, I got a comedy which I don't really have to watch) as always. (Cassie doesn't read this thing, so none of you big mouth's go and tip her off, ya hear).

Well the ride wasn't too bad, I had some new material for the trip and my side kick . . . her CAT!  The trix wasn't too bad, but she did let out a few howl's every now and then when she could tell I wasn't paying attention to her.  She didn't particularly care for my loud and obnoxious singing either, but she tolerated it, and atleast she didn't pee all over the place like the devil cat in her car.  So I followed Cassie in "Birdie"  and we made it in about 6 hours (there are always a few stops when traveling with that girl).

Today Mom and Dad drove down to San Angelo to see the sights, and let me tell you there are many.  Cassie had a great time touring them through the Cactus (wedding location) and Methodist Church.  It was also pretty convenient that we had a U-Haul filled to the brim and cold use the helping hands.  Everyone pitched in and we got the truck unloaded in about 45 minutes.

After a few errands and a few more land-mark visits we hit the road back to Abilene.  Today is Grampy's Birthday (82, but according to him 39), so we had a good dinner and some delicious homemade cake from Grammy's kitchen.  

Tomorrow Cassie, her Mom and Sister will be joining us for Thanksgiving Dinner, It should be a great experience for all, I will be sure to post some pictures.

I hope everyone is with the ones they love and take the time to remember what they are thankful for.  Each year we spend with Grampy we remind ourselves how fortunate we are to still have him in our lives.  Kimberly and Jeremy are at home in Texas City, and Christopher and Karen are doing their thing in Cincinnati.  It will be quiet without them . . .

11.9.08

Well gang it's been another great weekend.  It started off Friday night with some good times at a local hang out (that's all Im gonna say about that).  Friday night was late so I got to sleep in before Cassie got in to town.  She had to stay in College Station for her teacher test which she took Sat. morning and feels pretty good about.  As soon as she got in to town we packed the car and headed to Texas City for Kimberly's Wedding shower.  Cassie had a good time and I got to see some of the Family and good friends from Church.  Aunt Debbie also brought along a surprise. When I was much younger and going out to Aunt Debbie's and Uncle Rogers all the time, we took a picture in our working clothes.  

Hope you enjoy.  After the shower I picked up Cassie and we were off to a wedding.  A good buddy of mine Clayton who I know from school got married out in Jersey Village.  Today Cassie and I met her sister for breakfast. Mel came in to town for the weekend to visit her friend who lives in the same apartment complex as me so it worked out great.  After dropping Mel off at the airport we went to Whole Foods.  If you don't know this, Cassie's absolute favorite thing is grocery shopping.  Christopher sent me a rough draft of the floor plan for the new house, but there was some miscommunication and he thought the house would have an alley, which it wont . . . so it's back to the drawing board. 

This week will be busy, we have a lot going on at work getting ready for a 90 Day Safety Celebration and preparing for my time off for Thanksgiving.  I am also going to be helping with the bid process for a new job so that will be taking up any free time I might have had this week.

Feel free to leave a comment.

Parade of Homes

Yesterday Cassie, Kimberly and I drove down to Sugar Land to visit a Parade of Homes and we bought our new home.  

Well we can dream can't we.  We saw some amazing homes with amazing price tags, but it got us thinking about certain things we really would like to incorporate in our house.  I really liked the idea of the split garages and Cassie has decided that she will not consider any floor plans without a dedicated nook off the kitchen for recipes and bill paying.  I will post all of the pictures on my web-site under Pictures.

11.2.08

We are mid weekend and it's a great feeling to be sitting on the couch doing nothing.  Casse is sitting next to me on the couch writing in her blog and every time I look over she puts this huge smile on her face so I have a feeling she is typing about me.  We have had something to do nearly every weekend and the next few weekends will prove the same.  Next weekend we have a wedding for a college buddy of mine, and then Kimberly is getting married on Nov. 23rd.  Today I need to go and get fitted for Kimberly's wedding at the Men's Wearhouse, I am also going to take my suit pants and have them altered, I have been harassed at work because they are bunching in the back.  I guess it's a good problem.   Then it's off to Memorial Park for some running.

Cassie is preparing to move in.  We were playing with the idea of getting a larger apartment, but they are expensive.  Neither of us can see wasting $1800 a month on rent.  This is the main reason we want to get into a house and start investing in something we own.  We have decided to stick it out and get the house built before our lease runs out, or purchase a house if those plans fall through.  We got a storage unit inside the apartment complex for $45 bucks a month that we can store all of our extra junk for the short period of time and that is much better than the extra $600 it would cost to upgrade to a two bedroom.  Money we will be putting towards the down payment.

The House plans are coming along.  I talked with a good friend who built his own home a few years back to get some help with the process and got some really good information.  He had a lot of good advice about how to get the financing, and he volunteered to build the house for me if we couldn't get the planets to align on our own.  He is a very good resource that knows the industry very well and would build an exceptional home. Our goal is still to do it ourselves.  I know there are a few (not mentioning and names) that would prefer we got someone else to do it because of the stress and amount of time it will take, but Cassie and I are up for the challenge and really look forward to building something ourselves that we can be proud of.

That's all for now.  I am going to remain very lazy and enjoy the rest of the morning before going into work.  I have a small presentation to give tomorrow and I need to put together the handouts.  Let's pray I do a good job.  There will be some big dogs in the room, so it will be a good chance to get noticed.