Fair Week - Part Two

Get ready for picture overload of my girl!  We wrapped up the fair this weekend and as usual, I'm glad to see it gone for another year.  Whew!

Since it was free entry Thursday, we went out after work so Bella could check out all the exhibits.  We really didn't do much, just kind of walked around to see everything and say hello to our friends at the cook-off.

"Brothers and sisters are friends".....Bella

And we all are most of the time.  haha

Friday we hit the rides and let me tell you, this was probably the most fun for both Bella and I.  Bella really loved the fast rides this year.  She would get off hollering "woohoo" and ready for the next.  I loved it because she was so happy and excited.

Decision, decisions...what should I do next?

  

These were the only two good pictures I got of her with the animals. There were so many kids in there that the animals were running all over the place.  I think it was overload for them.  It made me a little nuts too.  Needless to say, we didn't stay long because it was not as enjoyable as past years.

Back to the rides...

Before she got on this ride, she gave me specific instructions.  

"Now mommy, when I get on here, you need to take my picture and send it Paul."

These are the pics I got, and he loved them!

Pause for a selfie with my girl...

Later that night we were back at the cook-off.  Bella was content with some friends she made so Lauren and I took a walk to go see another co-worker who was in the cook-off as well.  We stopped for a pic of us with our matching koozies.  You can't see the writing on them, but they say, 

"I Love Jesus But I Drink A Little"

Me and brother waiting on awards at the cook-off.  

Our friends didn't place but the food and company were awesome!

Lastly, I didn't plan on entering anything in the Kitchen Pride Bake Show or the Rice Plus Cook-Off this year but after receiving holy hell from co-workers and friends on Thursday, I reconsidered.  They all said "you must defend your honor" so I came up with a recipe and look what happened.  Yours truly took home first place and grand champion in the Rice Plus Cook-off with a Rice-Pumpkin Bread.  The same recipe took second in the Kitchen Pride Bake Off.  Bella was so excited for her mommy.  I guess I have found my talent...baking!

Glad we are starting a new week and the fair is gone.  I do have an interesting weekend coming up.  I may or may not have been talked into going to an Aggie game.  I know, I know....I'm still struggling with it.  But as my crazy cousin pointed out, its football, good food, good drinks and family!  I can't argue with that.  Y'all have a good one!

Fair Week - Part One

Last Friday was the first day of the annual Brazoria County Fair.  Its no secret that I love the fair, but I will say that as much as I love it, it is getting more expensive every year to spend as many days there as I'd like.  The kiddos were with their dad last weekend so this momma had a free weekend.  I started Friday night by going to see Clay Walker at the fair.  Oh man, he was so stinkin' good.

I would love to be able to tell you he is singing his hit "Fall" right here but I can't.  I was so into the song when he was singing that my phone never made it out to get a pic.  I stole this one from Lauren.
The one below is mine.  :)

I went with Lauren, her husband and his mom.  Lauren and I were chomping at the bit to get there.  We didn't want to miss our man singing to us. 

My sister was working that night with the 4H group servings drinks.  I was just about to text her when she found me dancing and singing. She said she recognized my hips when they were swinging.  LOL!!  

And then I ran into these two cuties who obliged their Aunt's request for a picture with them

Saturday morning, Lauren and I went to the parade.  I hadn't planned on going but found it mid-week that Bella would be in the parade with her daddy on the BASF float.  I had to go now!  I also found out my niece Makenna was also going to be in the parade.  

Here we are hiding from the sun.  

When we first arrived, there was not a cloud in the sky but thankfully some clouds started rolling in to shield the sun off and on.  Lordy it was hot.  

Here's my girl with her daddy....

And here's Makenna on the YAC float...

Later that night, Makenna and Brandon were in the calf scramble so Lauren and I headed back up to the fair to watch them. I'd love to be able to share some great shots with you of them wrangling calves, but I did too much screaming and hollering.  I did get after pics though.  Brandon caught, Makenna did not.  However, Makenna snagged the hardluck/sportsmanship award so she received a calf as well.  Makenna helped several other kids out and in the process gave up her rope.  Luckily one of the committee members saw all of her efforts while in the arena.

Two nuggets post scramble...

Proud Aunt

That wrapped up the first weekend of the fair.  Roger Creager and Cody Johnson played that night but after we came back from getting a bite to eat, there were entirely too many people and kids everywhere so Lauren and I called it a night at 10:15.  I must be getting old because I had no desire to deal with a bunch of teenagers.  Funny story about Roger Creager.  So Cindy, Lauren and I are walking back from the arena to the 4H tent.  As we are coming out of the area where the concert is we here a gator honking so people will move and they can cross the road.  As they cross right in front of us and Lauren hollers "Hey, thats Roger Creager!"  Roger turns around around and gives her a wave!  So freaking awesome.  None of the other fifty million kids there recognized him. ha!

We will be back at the fair probably tomorrow since it is a free entry and then again on Saturday.  Bellamy Brothers are playing and I'd really like to hear a few of their hits.  We'll see if I can negotiate that with Bella.  

Have a good one!

My Crew

I was a lousy picture taker this past weekend. No pictures of activities at all.  However, I am proud of that at the same time because it means I was enjoying the moments and I didn't have my phone on me.  Its a two-fer.

I did have daddy take some pictures of me and the kids at his house Sunday.  This was what I deemed the best and currently my favorite of us...

To me, you can really see how much Christopher looks like me in this picture. One of his HS friends met me several weeks back while we were out shopping.  She couldn't get over how much he favored me, from mannerisms to looks.  I loved it.  I'm just glad he didn't get my height! 

I hope you all had a very blessed Easter celebrating he day with the ones you love most.

Love & hugs to you all.

Fridaaaaay!

It has been a long week but an awesome week.

Tony got the official word from the doctors Wednesday that he is cancer free!  The pet scan revealed no hot spots, endoscopy only revealed scar tissue and biopsy came back clear.  He has elected to watch and observe, no surgery.  This will entailed a pet scan and endoscopy every 3-4 months. Life is good!

I also received good news yesterday.  I had my follow-up from my second endoscopy.  My ulcer has completely healed, but I did still have signs of gastritis so they did another biopsy and it came back clear.  For now I will continue medication, revisit in 3 months to see how I'm doing and try my best to avoid spicy, acidic, tomato based and citrus foods and juices, you know basically everything I love to eat.  Also limit my intake of coffee, teas, soda and alcohol. I can handle this.  I am also looking into taking a yoga class.  Everything I have read about it is positive and I think it would help reduce my stress and anxiety, or at least help me to deal with it better.  Anyway, I have contacted a place to see if they offer an evening class for beginners.  We shall see.

I am super glad its Friday because that means tomorrow I get to see some kinfolks, and I also get to see momma's sisters and y'all know that makes me very happy.  I still don't have my basket complete but I think I know what else I want to put in there so I will pick those things up on my way home today.  Tonight Miss Bella and I will be making Snickerdoodle Blondies and 7-Layer Dip which is really 5-Layer Dip because we leave two of the layers out.  The blondies is a Pinterest recipe.  Marilee made them for our Canton trip back in October.  I have made them once since and decided these would be a good easy dessert to take for Saturday.  I have everything to make them so that's a bonus and plus, they are sooooo good! I have eggs and candy for Easter egg hunt for the kids, godparent gifts and godson gift.  I think I am good to go. Bella has been counting down to this day all week, and so have I.

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

BBQ Chicken Benefit

We had a BBQ Chicken Benefit for my brother this past weekend.  All monies raised go towards Tony's growing medical bills for his cancer treatments.  He originally wanted to sell briskets but the price of them are really high right now, so much that he would of had to charge $80-$90 per brisket. He opted to sell whole and half chickens instead.  $15 for a whole, $8 for a half.

Friday night we gathered to cut and season the chicken for the first round.

Saturday morning, the guys were getting the fire started and loading the smoker around 5:00 am.  I was very happy to not be a part of that early morning call.

My shift began at 10:00 am when it was time to pull the chickens and wrap them for all our generous customers. Saturday was a very rainy day.  It was hardly spitting rain until it came time for our first pick-ups to show up and then it started and didn't want to stop. 

Before the rain started....

Our cousins David, Veronica, Patrick and Christy came to help out.  We had a lot of laughs and so much fun hanging out this weekend.  Some of us were just plum tired from being up so early.

We had two pickups Saturday, 12:00 and 6:00.  It was a very long day but seeing all the people come out to support Tony was awesome.  Sunday we only had one pick-up time but again, we saw so many people.  A lot of folks we "see" on FB, we got to see in person.  It was great.    

Saturday's Crew....nothing like family!

I can't remember how many chickens they put on the pit but I know it was 300+.  We sold every single one of them and had a lot of donations.  After Cindy calculated the numbers, we're looking at  $4591 in profit. So many giving hearts.  Words just cannot express how much we appreciate the love, support and generosity of everyone who has helped out through this journey.  We love you all.

And that's me with my big brother.  Love him so much.  

  

Thank you everyone...y'all have a good one. 

Graduation Day

Yesterday was my brother's graduation day.  Graduation day from chemo and radiation treatments.  Now we wait.  We wait weeks until he tests again to see if the treatments did their job.  We continue prayers for healing, prayers for this fight against the most hated disease ever.  But we also rejoice.  We rejoice that his treatments are done. We rejoice that his attitude never wavered.  We rejoiced that his 5 1/2 weeks of inconvenience is done.  We rejoice in the angels called doctors and nurses that were by his side the entire time, and continue to be there.  We rejoice that for now, the daily trips to Houston have subsided.  We rejoice in the miracle of medicine.  

Waiting to go back for his last treatment....

I can't explain how honored I felt to be there yesterday to see my brother ring that bell...how grateful I felt he was able to do this.  Choking up walking back and letting the tears fall as he stood there ringing that bell with a huge smile on his face.  He's kicking cancer's ass, just as he said he would.

His radiation nurses....

Dr. Komaki and Dr. Chad (radiation) 

It was an awesome day for sure....

Cheers to Friday

  

We made it through the week y'all!! Its been a tough one too.  It started with a holiday and is ending with really cold temperatures hitting us...FINALLY!

Wednesday was really the toughest part of the week.  We found ourselves back at MD Anderson with Tony for another procedure and a consult with the thoracic radiation/chemo team.  With the reality of the cancer hitting us square in the face, the consult was very overwhelming.   They have staged his cancer at 2, which is good...its still early, but its cancer.  All the doctors are very optimistic, and while Tony worries and is scared (he will probably never fully admit it), his humor is fully intact and he is still ready to kick cancer in its ass.

On to more happy things. I have been perusing websites and looking around for what I want my children to buy me for Christmas.  They gave me a Visa gift card so I like to say that whatever I end up purchasing with it comes from them.  They have already bought me a Pioneer Woman lunch tote. I love they know just what momma likes!

I have looked at these earrings from Nickel and Suede before.  They are lightweight and made of leather!  How cool is that!

These are their champagne shimmer

These are the signature gold...

They are so many colors but the two above are the ones I like best and would like to start out with. They also offer three different sizes so that's cool as well.  I love earrings.  If I were to have to decide which piece of jewelry is my favorite, it would definitely be earrings.  I love all jewelry and have quite a collection but earrings are my weakness.  Love them.  

I have also been looking at different home decor websites to see if anything strikes my fancy for the house.  So far I haven't seen anything I just have to have.  Canton has me spoiled when it comes to unique finds.

Nothing special going on this weekend although if you ask Bella, we will be discussing and planning her birthday party.  She will turn 8 this Monday and I am still trying to figure out how the hell that happened.  It is supposed to be cold, cold, cold all weekend so my plan is to stay inside in my pajamas and watch movies, takes naps, cook something warm and apparently plan a birthday party.  

Before I go, I must wish my sister and brother-in-law a happy anniversary.  I have no idea how many years they have been married but I wish them only the best and happiest of years!  I think its 16....

I hope y'all are staying warm and everyone is happy and healthy on your end.  Hug your loved ones my friends.