Hell Fighter Chad

This past weekend a gas well about 2 miles south of us blew.  Chad had a crew working out there and was supervising the crew.  He had asked me to bring something to him and I couldn't resist taking his picture...my lil' hellfighter.   Hellfighter is a John Wayne movie that Chad grew up watching - the summary is as stated:

The story of macho oil well firefighters and their wives.  The adventures of oil well fire specialist Chance Buckman (based on real-life Red Adair), who extinguishes massive fires in oil fields around the world.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063060/

Chad the Hellfighter

The Bill-less Betty's

So, a couple of weekends ago, the boys went over to JP & Amber's to help JP clean out their koi pond.  The task at hand was completed so that left time to put in some beers, a few chicken wings, and a couple of hands of 42.  Pretty much a normal Saturday night, until... Dean shot out of his chair and decided that the bill on LJ's hat was bothering him and he sawed it off....eventually all the guys had thier bills sawed off.  See a picture below.

Then, it was a remake of the ever so famous scene from the movie "Blow"...see below as you see LJ imitating the silver screen as Johnny Depp...quite mesmerising.

Victim #1

Dean in Action

The Bill-less Crew

Apparently Chad & I owe somebody something.

Year of Smiling Faces Vol 1

So after some thought I realized why this is the year of smiling faces.  It is chock full of new beginnings: marriages & births.  We were honored to help celebrate the marriage of two friends, Judd & Erin  - a beautiful wedding to start the new year!  

Last weekend, was a baby shower for Heather & Matt for the arrival of Ms. Sidney in February.   Of course the questions were flowing...a sample of a few:

Q: Do the frilly cloths give you baby fever?
A: No, reminds me of work. 

Q: Aren't you guys ready to have a baby around?
A: No, where in our wee house would we put a baby?

Q: Really? You aren't ready for a baby?
A: No, we don't have money to have a baby now.  Plus, we want to get our finances in order.
Q: Well, you know you will never really be ready for a baby, but you will manage like everyone else.

Ugh!  I know this is what happens...first it's when are you going to get married? then when are you having a baby? then when's baby #2 coming?   The jury is out on when that will happen.

Sorry - no pictures of the happy occasions mentioned above.  I will try to get pictures for future posts - posts with out pics = boring! :) J/K

Here are a few from this year:

Wylie - she replaced our cat, doing a fine job..look at the fear in the mouse's eyes.

Delicious grapefruit off of Peggie's tree - you have to appreciate a grapefruit with good size wedges, better then the store.

Cabbage from our winter garden (see below)

I don't know why it won't save right....

Heelllo 2011 - The Year of Smiling Faces

OK - so I have the new found need to get things in order and live the life like people do in TV shows. I mean they look so perfect and always have time to get everything done. It's possible right?!? So, here are my goals for the next 365 days:

1) Blog a bit more consistently - I mean really, a quarterly post isn't worth the effort.

2) Get back in shape

3) Learn something new - IDK horticulture, photograhpy, knitting...the world is my oyster :)

4) Finish the Family photo wall that I started 6 months ago

5) Make a trip in the Falcon without having someone tow us back in.

My list looks small, yet doable...ready to take on the challenge of the resolutions...

We went to church on Sunday - the first service of the New Year for us. As the mass ended, Father proclaimed that this year would be the "Year of Smiles". So here's to a year of smiles and productivity!

Before signing off:

Our '74 Malibu Falcon - a family ski boat that everyone envies

Christmas 2010

Say it ain't so...another Christmas under our belt and 2011 is knocking on our doors! We had planned to go snow skiing in Colorado with the rest of the Hensley Crew & Kubala's but we had to bail out at the 11th hour due to work.

So sadly, no skiing for us...I bitterly went back to Academy and returned all my newly purchased ski gear and went in to work on my vacation days. Blah. Whatever!

But Christmas must go on - we had a pleasant yet busy holiday. Most of our holidays, like most married couples, are spent rushing from family to family trying to fit everyone in.

Luckily, this year we were able to split it up a bit. Christmas Eve we went to church and celebrated with Jerry & Beverly and the rest of the fam. Christmas day was spent with Daphne and fam. After the noodle soup and gifts were passed around, we played some games. The first was Bullshit, a card game of fibbing...this was not Granny's game. But Mexican Train was more up her alley. Laura and I played Mexican Train for 5 hours after most had fallen asleep, gone to other families or gone hunting.

The next day, Chad and I went to Church and off to my family to have our Christmas and tacos for lunch. Nowadays, our Chirstmas's consist of little ones ripping their presents to . Then you know the drill, looking for batteries and tools to put their new, shiny toys together.

After lunch, it was time for the grown ups to play. The Bubela's & Garner's gave us Rockband and the keyboard for our WII. The kiddos watched us with eagerness & hope as they begged to play...they were shortly escorted home to take naps ... bawahhahhaaa...I know we can be so evil.

A few pictures to share:

1,460 days later...

That's right - Chad bought our house 4 years ago. This has been a work in progess but I feel it is coming along nicely compared to the sad sight it used to be. We aren't through by far, still need a car port and fabulous patio area for BBQing, wine sipping (or beer in Chad's case) and enjoying the nice country air & sunsets.

Day 1: View of the barn from the house. There was a massive clean up of numerous sheds and junk. Dirt/grass drive that went to the barn from the house.

More Junk - the old owners specialties were tires and thread protectors. We loaded up all the metal we could and took it to the scrap metal place. Added limestone to the drive and added a culvert that circles around the backside of the barn to make circle drive.

House #2 (old farmhouse) directly across from our house. I really loved this house, it would have been a great fixer up and moved to deer camp or the bay. But Chad finally sold it a couple years ago. Once leveled it looked like a new house. She had it moved to Ganado and fixed up as a rent house...looks great!

House #2 - Different view - somewhere in there are crepe myrtles that are in front of the dog kennel.

2009 - Flower beds & landscaping is added.

Oak trees are planted around the circle drive. (They look so tiny here!) Roll up garage door replaced the old barn doors in the front.

2010: Ahhhh, the damn clothesline poles...not one of my favorites - he was so excited when he had them made and put in.... I, on the other hand, not so much. Whatever, they are here to stay I guess.

Added a little more eye appeal to our once boring flower bed.

The oak trees are getting bigger

Gracie's Kennel - where the old farmhouse used to be.



Rowdy

Gracie

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Buffett, Bays & Boats!

Well, it looks like I'm going to take a stab at our blog that Mom has started for Chad & I. I know I'm not near as good of a writer or as witty as she is,  but here it goes :)

This past weekend was chock full of busy! We attended the Jimmy Buffett concert in the Woodlands. First, we stopped by our friends Jess & Amber for a quick meet and greet of their precious Anna. Next, we were off to the concert to hang out with Crystal & Cliff and the rest of the gang - we had such a great time to sipping on some boat drinks and visiting with some of my great college friends. We don't get to see each other often enough!

Friday was a long exhausting day! I rode with Chad on various work appointments. I spent most of that time sleeping trying recovering from the night of fun at the concert. We were up and going by 7am and didn't stop until 10:30 pm. While putting about 400 miles on the truck, we fit in Beasley, Pasasdena, Anahauc, Houston, Rooms to Go (Woohoo!!), Rosenburg, EC, Home & finally Port Alto. We were beat!

The rest of the weekend was spent doing various bay things - mainly getting the house ready & shopping for Memorial weekend. Chad also tinkered on our family boat for a bit and got our ol' '74 Falcon running. Looks like the girls will be cruising in style for Memorial Weekend!

The game warden was down and took care of a pesky 5' alligator that had been hanging out in a slough close to the houses on our end of the bay.

As the weekend drew to a close, Chad took me wade fishing for the first time. No bites but a good learning experience--it was somewhat enjoyable (that is until I get stung by something and now I deem wade fishing as stupid)

Crystal and I at Buffett - Woo Woo!

 

 

 

 

 

Chad cruising in 

the Falcon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pesky alligator