39th Anniversary

Last weekend, we went with our neighbors, John and LouAnn to celebrate their 39th anniversary. We had talked so much about Pappa's Steakhouse where we celebrate our anniversary each year. They wanted to go there and invited us along. What great fun!! We enjoyed wine, melt in you mouth steak, one had a fabulous looking salmon with a shrimp and crab sauce on top, and the most outstanding desserts ever. The ladies had New York cheesecake topped with fresh strawberries with sour cream sauce and white chocolate, and the men enjoyed creme brulee with fresh berries on top.


Pappas always has those little extra touches like these plates with Happy 39th Anniversary.


We each had a silver shopping bag full of takeout. What a great night!

Finally Got Those Solar Screens

Last summer, we decided that we needed to do some energy efficient measures. We had planned to get solar screens on the south and west sides of our house. We called Lone Star, the largest and supposedly best in the area. However, they would not come out as far as we live on the east side as they are in Irving. So I waited until the winter when I thought they would not be as busy and sure enough, I called one day and they were here two days later to measure, and the screens were installed two days after that!

It really makes it a lot darker in the bedrooms which Fred loves and I am getting used to.
Upstairs in my office, it has really helped block all the sun off the desk and TV screen in the mornings.

In the front, we had the screens customized with the white lines. Looks good!! Hopefully, we will see a difference this summer.

Christmas with Family

On Sunday, my nephews and my niece and her children came for Christmas Dinner. We had the traditional turkey and dressing just like Tilde used to make.



On New Years Day, we went to our cousin Greg's house. He and his wife, Judy, are always so gracious to have us. We went to Mariano's Mexican Restaurant--great food and margaritas!!!

The cousins annual photo---We do this each Christmas and Labor Day. Someday, we are going to get them all together and see how much we have changed--(won't that be a laugh)

Sam, Brooke, and Lowell arrive

My brother, Sam flew in from Chicago the day after Christmas. His son, Lowell and his girlfriend, Brooke, arrived from Houston on Saturday. This was our first time to meet Brooke, and we really liked her. We all had a great time grilling steaks and enjoying the spa. We could see so many stars as it was a beautiful, clear night.

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Sam gave Lowell a new electronic on the market. It is a phone set that syncs
with 2 cell phones for those who only have cell. It has two handsets so you can put them in different rooms and answer them instead of the cell. Sam is really in to electronics and keeping up with what is new in the marketplace. I also got something new for my computer.
Since Lowell takes after his dad and really likes electronics, we put him to work installing our blu-ray player, setting up remotes, and fixing a problem I had on the TV upstairs.

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Christmas Day

I finally got those presents wrapped and under the tree. Santa arrived and we opened gifts in the morning. Just John with us for that.
Then Fred's daughter, Melinda and her husband, Gerald joined us for Christmas dinner.


I got lotions, earphones, and electric toothbrush.
Fred got lots of clothes. Santa brought us a new TV.
John got a watch.