Small World

I grew up in the small town of Stephenville and moved away shortly after graduating high school.  The town is a great little town, but economically it struggles.  The only career opportunities are either working for one of the schools or being a dairy farmer.  Neither of which fit my career choice.  Every now and then I will bump in to someone here in Austin who was from Stephenville and today we bumped in to another person from Stephenville.  Every person I bump in to from there says the same thing....great community, but no job.  It would be great to be able to move back to the community some day, but unless I hit the lottery, I don't see that happening.

High School Reunion

I received a reminder a couple of days ago that our high school reunion is going to be held in September over Homecoming weekend. This will be number 25! Man that makes me feel old and the grey hair peeking at me in the mirror doesn't help.

In the invitation there was names and email addresses of several other classmates. I tried to see if I could figure out what they are doing now based on their email address. One of the had a road runner email account so she was here in Austin somewhere, another one is an attorney in Austin working for Travis County, one is some kind of consultant based here in Austin, and one works for an international law firm, but most of the email accounts were general email addresses like gmail or yahoo.

I have not attended any of my other reunions, but I am going to make an effort to go to this one. It will be nice to see who has gained extra pounds or see who has no hair left. Maybe seem some of the less popular group who became knockouts as they matured. I know several people stayed in or around Stephenville, but most of the group I hung out with moved on as quickly as possible. One is an Orchestra Director at a school in the Dallas area; one is a science teacher, and won Teacher of the Year, in Mississippi last year; and the other two married each other, moved around a couple of times and then landed back in the Stephenville area. Not sure if they are still together; rumor has it that they parted ways.

It will be interesting to see how many people attend and to see what everyone is up to these days.

I'm Back

I've have been taking a break from blogging, but now I'm back. I took some time to get things in our new house organized and in place and now I am back and ready to go. Here is a quick update since the last time I wrote.

My Mom's phone call was not an April Fool's joke. In fact, she is set to have 4 litters of puppies in May and June (2 Yorkie litters, 1 blue lacy litter, and 1 coyote litter). My Mom was planning to take the summer off and relax; so much for her relaxing!

We have the house mostly organized and settled in, we just need to finish hanging pictures and get a bed for the guest room.

We spend a lot of time outside. The dogs love their backyard and we play fetch every afternoon. I have almost all of the flowers planted in the front. I still need to plant the Irish Moss (I couldn't resist, it was Irish). The flowers in the flower beds are blooming and look beautiful; although I have no idea what they are. The were planted by the builder. I will post a picture later this week and maybe some of you will know what they are called.

Work is going great. My team is getting great reviews and accolades. We have been able to surpass the expectations of our Regional VP. Now that he can see what we are capable of, he has given me pretty much and open door to take on whatever new functions we want. My territory has already expanded to include all of Texas and part of New York, so we are really doing well. Unfortunately, with the stinky economy, we haven't been able to increase the pay for any of us to show how well we are doing. They have agree to look at the during the second 1/2 of the year.

Oh, and I applied to start Grad school again in the fall. I am waiting to get my official confirmation that I can register for classes.

That pretty much sums up what I have been up to for the last couple of weeks. I look forward to reading all of your blogs to see what you have been doing.

April Fool's Joke???

I got a call tonight from my mother that started off "I just wanted to tell you that your father has officially gone crazy." She then proceeded to tell me they were going in to the dog business. They have apparently purchased all of the dogs and equipment from a lady near them who breeds Yorkie's. They purchased 8 dogs along with all of the kennel's and equipment. Wow - that was a lot to absorb. That means their animal count now stands at, you better sit down for this..... 15 dogs (some inside, some outside), 2 coyotes, 2 cats, and 2 really obnoxious parrots. My parent house has officially turned in to a zoo.

Part of me is thinking they will call tomorrow and tell me it was an April Fool's joke, but part of me knows this is not a joke.

Texan Cafe

The community we have moved in to, Hutto, has a small town feel that we really like. It has a population of 17,250; well, actually 17,252 now that we have moved here. We want to learn about the community and get involved so today we decided to have lunch at one of the local eating spots called the Texan Cafe. It is located in downtown Hutto and reminded me of Peacocks or Jake and Dorothy's in Stephenville. One of the owners was seating customers, they have a daily blue plate special, and a fantastic homemade pie selection. In the spirit of trying new things, I had sweet potato fries (I have never tried sweet potatoes before) and found that I really liked them. The food was down home cooking and we left feeling like we needed to go home and take a nap. The cafe felt really comfortable and was the type of place you could go regularly and get to know everyone. Since it was a Saturday, they were extremely busy, but we really enjoyed ourselves.

We also visited a store a couple of doors down called Everything Hippo. They sell concrete Hippo statues and just about anything else you could want in a hippo motif. The store had changed owners and the new owner was there cleaning out the store. She let us come in and look around anyway and promised to give me a call once she found the pricing of the concrete hippo statues.

I can't wait to get a hippo statue and decorate it for all of the various holidays.

UFO in Stephenville

Stephenville has made the Popular Mechanics magazine because of their UFO sitings. First, I have to say that I do believe there are other beings in the universe. However, I don't believe they are seeing them in Stephenville. Having grown up in that town, I believe they are seeing some kind of airplane or meteor that is creating the lights. I do get a kick out of all of the attention this has received because it has put the sleepy little town in the spotlight, I just wish they were getting attention for something else. Why not get attention because it has a great school, Tarleton State University, in the town? How about getting attention because Ty Murray and Jewel live there? I can think of a number of things I would rather hear on the news than they have had yet another UFO siting.

Back from Stephenville

We made it back home from visiting the parents. At the last minute hubby began to feel better and was able to go too. I was very happy that he felt like going. In 20 years, we have only been apart once and I was not looking forward to being apart this year. We had a really good, but exhausting time. My parents actually live in a small community called Shelby which is outside of Stephenville near Lingleville. Stephenville and the surrounding area is smack in the middle of dairy country, so it has a very "unique" smell. Since they don't live inside the city, the computer access is dialup, the television is satellite, and your cell phone rarely works.

We left here on the 23rd and arrived at Mom's around noon. Dad got home from work shortly after and announced that he had the rest of the week off. My Mom works for the school district so she is off until after the first of the year and my Dad is a surveyor. Mom had a roast almost done so we sat down and ate a late lunch when Dad got home. After that went for a walk in the pasture to exercise the dogs and work off our lunch. We also had to run in to town to pick up a couple of items we had forgotten. While there we decided to pick up chicken for dinner. There were three of us picking out items to order. It didn't sound like we were ordering very much, but when we finished the bag was so large it almost didn't fit through the drive through window! Needless to say, we snacked on leftover chicken for several days.

On the 24th we went to the cemetary to visit my grandparents grave, went to a couple of other cemetaries to get some of the geneaology info my Mom was needing, and then went to my parents favorite restuarant called Mary's. By the time we got home, my uncle had been calling looking for Dad to go help with feeding the cows, so we went wandering around the property while Dad and my uncle fed the cows. When we got home, we just had left over chicken for dinner and then relaxed while watching a couple of movies my brother had brought home from work (he still lives with my parents).

My family is not big on exchanging gifts. Instead we spend the time just being with each other. On Christmas Day we got up and I helped my Mom cook a yummy meal of ham, chicken and dressing, potatoes, corn, okra, lemon bars, and fruit salad. We all ate too much so we decided to go Geocaching to work off our lunch. My parents really enjoy Geocaching, but won't go without us. Also, their GPS unit is very outdated (it is one my brother used when he was in Iraq). We had a great time Geocaching and then came home, went for a ride on the 4-wheelers, and watched another movie. Well, actually, I think we all fell asleep before the movie was over, but we attempted to watch a movie.

On Friday morning we packed up and headed home just after breakfast. We made it home in the early afternoon and were completely exhausted - even the dogs. Everyone got a bath and took a nap.

I will write later about the non-human members; they each have a unique personality and role in the family.

Home for the Holidays

Tuesday I will be heading to Stephenville for Christmas. It has been almost two years since I have been home and I am really looking forward to spending a few days with my parents. Hubby is staying home (he has hurt his neck somehow) and will keep Abbie with him; I will be taking Riley with me. Riley will have fun because there will be plenty of other animals there to play with and lots of area to run.

I will have to remember to take my camera with me to get lots of photos.

Holiday Blues

We had made plans to visit my parents in Stephenville for Christmas, but when a project came up at work, I had to cancel those plans. I didn't realize until yesterday how much I really want to go see my parents for Christmas. I have always been very independent and there was a time when this would not have bothered me at all; but my mother and I have been working at building a closer relationship, so not being able to go see them is giving me the holiday blues.

There is still a possibility that I can get the project completed and be able to take some time off, but I won't know for sure until the middle of next week. If I am able to get the project completed, I am pretty sure I can get my hubby's sister to watch our apartment.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can get everything to work out.

Stephenville - No Longer Dry

I spent most of my childhood and teenage years in Stephenville, Texas. Stephenville is the county seat for Erath County and it has always been a dry county. Anyone who wanted to purchase alcohol had to go to a neighboring county; usually a town called Proctor. Some of the smaller towns truly made their money from all of the college kids and young adults in Stephenville who would make the drive just to purchase alcohol. Every time the subject of making alcohol sales legal in Erath county would come up for vote, the townsfolk would always vote to keep the county dry. In the most recent election, that was again on the ballot. This time, the town actually voted to allow alcohol sales in Erath County.

Unfortunately, for many of the merchants, it can take up to 6 months to get approved for a license to sell alcohol. The sleepy little town of Stephenville is finally waking up.

Bar Flies

I am convinced that my parents have become bar flies. Growing up my parents rarely, if ever, went out alone. Now when I call, my brother answers (that is a story for another post) and tells me they are at the bar. This happens about three times per week. My mother was never a drinker and can not hold her alcohol. Two beers and she is tipsy. They get bored at home so they go out. Since all, well most, of their kids have left home; they go out to visit with friends in the same situation. It just sounds strange to hear that your parents are at the bar - again.

Blue Lacy

The Blue Lacy is a breed that originated in Texas around mid 1800 and is believed to be a cross between the greyhound, a scent hound, and a wolf. They are very intelligent and easy going dogs. Appearance wise, they look a lot like a lab. www.dogbreedinfo.com/bluelacy.

I am definitely considering adding a Yorkie to the threesome from this litter. It depends on how many she has in the litter. Although I am not sure how one that small will work with Miss Riley who has now hit 27 pounds and still gaining! Riley is quite the little brutus.

Puppies

My mother is about to have a puppy explosion. She has a pair of Yorkies and a pair of Blue Lacey's that are about to be parents. Her Yorkies are due this Saturday and the Lacey's are due just before Thanksgiving. My parents house is already like a miniature zoo, so I can't imagine how chaotic it will be once the puppies are born. They already have 6 dogs, 2 coyotes, and 2 amazon parrots. And, yes, I did say coyotes. My dad is a surveyor and they found them abandoned by the mother on a job several years ago. My parents raised them as if they were dogs and now they don't leave. They have tried to let them go in the wild, but they always come back. They have even had a couple of litters of pups at my parents home.

On a personal note, I would love to have one of the Yorkies. They are so adorable. I got one of the pups from my mothers very first litter almost 20 years ago and our little Munchkin was with us for 13 years. When we brought her home she was so small she fit in my husbands shirt pocket and never got over 5 pounds. Going home for Thanksgiving should be very interesting - especially adding my two monsters to the mix!

Favorite House

I grew up in the town of Stephenville and we always lived out in the country, but I always wanted to live in town. There was this one house on Long Street which was near the City Park where we would go for basketball practice and to swim during the summer. When I would walk back to my grandparents house, I would always go out of my way just to go past this house. It was a two story white house with a large front yard. The house just looked so majestic and I always wanted to see inside. I never saw people coming in or out of the house, so that made it all the more mysterious. As I would walk home, I would daydream that someday this house would be mine.

Well, believe it or not, that house is now up for sale. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to buy the house, but with the aid of the Internet, I can finally see inside. The inside was nice, but in the pictures I was drawn to the back yard. I never really thought about the backyard before, but from seeing it on the Internet, it is fabulous. There is a sunroom on the back of the house with a big deck leading into two backyards. The main backyard is huge and the grass is a beautiful green. Beyond the main backyard there is a rock fence that leads to the secondary backyard which has an orchard of pecan and fruit trees. The look in the pictures reminds me of a southern plantation.

Sometime as kids the things we are drawn to are not a spectacular when we become adults. This is still just as appealing to me now as it was as an adult. Someday, I may be able to own this house, but not today.