New Lights - I hate them!

So, they finally got around to finishing the streetlights along College (right outside our house). I was not happy when they first started putting them in but even less happy now that they have turned them on! It's like a football stadium in my house - so bright! We will have to sleep with the door shut to the living room - which I hate. I like having our doors open. I feel sorry for Jacob since his room will be pretty brightly lit with one of the new streetlight's blazing onto the front of the house. I guess one advantage is that our porch is much brighter now. We used to turn the porch lights on but because they were on the outside of the wall, there wasn't much light on the actual porch. Now no one should have any problems walking out our door to the house. Oh, and we won't really have to turn on the back yard light since another "wonderful" light brightens up that area quite nicely. Ugh! The cost of growth in Frisco. Had I known now what I knew then about how our little corner would evolve (no parking in front, ugly signs, bright lights to disturb our sleep), we would not have let Jacob have "the cow house". 

 The part of College where the lights have not been turned on yet.

The lit up part - no one should complain that they can't see!!

Great Sunday!

Whatcha doing today? Happy to say that we are Scrapbooking, yes, we are! I'm finishing up the journaling in Jacob's Scout album. Hannah is working on various projects at the "cutting island" and at the "toddler table". (She says, "You've heard of the short bus? I'm at the short table." LOL! My hubby brought in the table for her when she got here - but he got the table that I have that starts out for toddlers and can adjust up for adults - but she liked it in the toddler position). Wonderful, relaxing and fun Sunday. 

Oh, and John is cooking for us! Smoked ribs for lunch and smoked brisket for dinner!

Another reason I love him (or put up with him)

So I'm working on bookkeeping in my office. John opens the door and comes through the room. As soon as he opens the door, I hear him start singing Beaches of Cheyenne which is playing on my Pandora. (Love me some Garth, although is favorite sing along is Hank.)

Although we have a bit of differences in music (most of the time we like the same stuff - the only way we really differ is he's more into hard metal and I'm more into dance music), we are still pretty doggone compatible in that area.

Several times this week and last week, I knew what he was going to say before he said it - or knew what he was thinking without him saying a word.

So what is love? Isn't part of it just compatibility and the comfort in knowing each so well? And sometimes it's almost scary how well I know that man!!

And have I mentioned that he makes me laugh? 

Let it snow!

SNOW! View at 6:00 this morning.

Yep, DFW got our 3rd snow this winter. Well, the first one doesn't really count because it was just a light dusting overnight.  The 2nd one was on Christmas day, while we were in Missouri, of course.

Since the transmission went out of my car yesterday (UGH!) I was already planning to ride in with John. It was nice and snowy and slushy when we came in, but being from Missouri, it was no big deal to us.

Many of my facebook friends were upset that they had not cancelled schools. Really? In Frisco, we have community school so most of the time you are driving no more than 2 miles to a school to drop your kid off. And by the time schools started, it was much more wet than it was when we left at 6:30. Looking at the traffic map on the local TV stations showed warnings all over the metroplex of slow moving traffic and a few accidents. Radio said that it was a 3 hour commute from Sherman to McKinney on Hwy 75. Poor sheltered native Texans LOL! This would be almost like driving in summer for Missouri folks!

TX State Guard - Toy Collection

John joined the Texas State Guard in 2010 and last year and this year he has actively participated in collecting toys around Christmas for their Young Heroes of the Guard program. This program provides toys (generally stuffed animals) to children in hospitals.

To get toys, John offered anyone playing in Drop N Aces bonus chips if they brought in a toy. The response was overwhelming! John's goal was 400. We collected 755!!! Have I ever mentioned how awesome our DNA players are?! Because our van was broken down and we didn't have a way to transport the toys to Austin (where John is stationed), Don Sears, one of our DNA players, offered to drive John down there. They headed out around 6 a.m. to make the trip.

I'm sure that CVS next to Irving El Chico loved us because every Sunday, you would see a small parade of players headed over to CVS to pick up a toy to get bonus chips!

The Nativity

So what is required in a nativity? Baby Jesus, of course. Second most important is probably Mary, followed by Joseph, the Wise Men, shepherds, animals and an angel. Well, bless her little heart (all of you from the south know what's coming next), one of my poor friends is not quite up on her nativity lore. She asked her man how to set it up and he said it didn't matter as long as Jesus was in the middle. So as we were shopping for scrapbooking stuff, I told her I would help her get it right when we go to her house. Notice from the gap in the picture that there is one vital, female item missing. Oh, well, at least she has baby Jesus!

And what about collecting nativities? I have a small collection of nativities that I love. One of my favorites is my snowman nativity. So what do I see on facebook today? A blog listing the worse nativities. (Can we say zombies and bacon/sausages on saurkraut, please?) Ok, it's all fun and laughter until I see MY snowman nativity on the list. HEY NOW!!!! http://whyismarko.com/2011/27-worst-nativity-sets-the-annual-growing-list/

Buffalo Wild Wings - Our Home Away From Home

Who knew from our first impression that BWW would become our favorite food joint? When John and I first went there, I was not all that impressed with the queso (although I immediately fell in love with the pretzels suggested by our server) and John said the wings were ok. Well, just keep going back and something will grow on you. Now we go at least once a week by ourselves for lunch or with friends. It is a favorite hang-out spot after we go to a Tornado game and we go for lunch nearly every time John heads down for drill on Fridays. John used to be a Hooters man (double dipped bentley's please) but I was never that keen on it. Glad that we found somewhere that we, and our BFFs, like so well!

Our usual crowd consists of John, me, Kim, Sherry, Buddy, and sometimes Gene for lunch (or any combination thereof). We went there to watch the 2011 FIFA women's final soccer match (US against Japan) and poor Kim sat by Buddy and got beat up - everytime something happened, he would fling his arm in her direction. We watched one of the 2011 World Series games there (TX Rangers against St. Louis Cardinals - with John wearing his cardinals hat and Pam, Greg, and all other tables around us wearing their Rangers gear). We've hung out and played video poker against each other. We've watched the MMA fights. (Well, I've diverted my eyes from a lot of those - hard to watch as they get blackened eyes, broken noses, and blood running down their faces. There are enough TV screens that I can watch some trivia, poker, or a football game.) We've enjoyed the mild weather on the patio. We've just sat and talked for two hours.

It's kind a like Cheers in the fact that there's a couple of servers who recognize us. I don't know if that's a bad thing or a good thing! Our server today (who knows John's order of the mixed sauces) has nicknamed John "Cupcake" because John was lamenting that I didn't bring him one of the cupcakes that Barry had brought by the office that morning. He teased John that he couldn't give him the military discount because his name is "Cupcake"!

We love the soft pretzels. Jacob even "got stuck" going with us for lunch after his Collin College tour, and found that he really likes the mini corn dogs, and my french fries. John's alternates between bone-in and boneless but his favorite sauce is the hot BBQ mixed with hot. (One of the servers suggested mixing them one time and now that's his order.)