When plans go awry

Our big Thanksgiving plans and trip to Albuquerque and seeing friends and shopping never happened. It all started with Aaron getting sick last Monday. I was really hoping it would be a 24 hour bug or something mild. Nope. He ran a high fever all week so we had to cancel our trip. We were all sad and disappointed. But I also didn't think he'd be so sick. I could not get his fever to break. By Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I thought I better take him to see a doctor, this is not going away. Unfortunately no Dr. Office was open on Friday. So we ended up taking him to the ER. That in itself was a nightmare and I don't wish to relive it by writing down any details. After all that he has a virus, but not pneumonia or the flu, so there is that to be thankful for. Unfortunately, sitting in the ER Heidi and I also started running a fever. The good thing is, Heidi usually recovers quickly, while when Aaron gets sick, he normally gets it worse than the rest of us. So hopefully the worst of his and ours is over.

On the good side...6 more days!
I will be glad to have my husband back, especially after all this!!!

Golfing in Scotland!

When I first found out that the training for my job was going to take place in Europe Glen and I started trying to figure out a way to meet in the UK and play golf at St Andrews. Well, with just 3 weeks before I go home the planning finally worked out. I met Glen in London where we spent 2 full days seeing the sights. We toured Westminster Abbey, Parliment, which is where Big Ben is located,(Look kids there's Big Ben) as well as Tower of London, where Beefeaters have lived for the last 750 years, and of course Buckingham Palace.Then we hopped on a train for Edinburgh Scotland. From there we rented a car and drove to St Andrews. We were scheduled to play 3 rounds of golf in 3 days but the weather had a different plan. Unfortunately we were only able to play 1 round but that 1 round was on the historic "Old Course" of St Andrews! This is the same course that the British Open has been played many times before and will be again in July of 2010. We're talking the birth place of golf! Records show that golf was being played here as early as the 1540's. It was a great day of golf with cold weather and an extremely difficult course but it was a round of golf I will never forget. Now I am getting ready to go home. This was a great trip but the one home will be the best one yet! Take care and God Bless.

Take a look at that face!

I'll be seeing him in person in just 10 days!

We will pick him up in the Midland Airport around 5:30pm. His dinner of choice will be at Red Lobster. We'll then make the 1 hour 45 minute drive home. Samson will be so happy!

For some of the foods Derreck's really missed, I'll be making my Aunt Rosies' pizza, and some other of his favorites - chicken fried steak with smashed potatoes and gravy (thanks Rachel Ray for the perfect recipe!) Also enchiladas, some churizzo (sp) breakfast burritos, and, um, what else do you like Derreck?

Queen of Coffee

Ok, I love coffee. I love Starbucks too. Even while living in ABQ, or "the 505" as it is sometimes known by, I did not frequent the Starbucks too often because of the cost - money and calories! Then we moved to the booney's, flat-lands, bad-lands, cow-pie land, stinky pump-jack land, whatever your name of choice may be for the lack of civilization and anything remotely"urban" or modern or whatever. So needless to say, whenever I'd visit "the big city" of Roswell or Lubbock I'd have to stop at a Starbucks (and a Target, since they are inside!) and treat myself to a cappuccino or something equally good. I do hate paying $4 or more for such a treat though... Then we lived in the Netherlands for a while. Europeans drink coffee as much as they do beer - so it, like beer is really good and really cheap. So I could get an excellent cappuccino for a mere 2 Euro. Not bad, beer being the same cost, water being the same cost, a coke though would be 2.50 Euro. So now I'm back in Hell, I mean Hobbs, and during the hot, hot, and very hot summer, who cares about coffee or cappuccino or whatever. Unless you like it iced or better yet, a frappuccino! At any rate, I did continue to treat myself to some coffee delight on the rare occasion that I visited another enlightened city. Now speed ahead to the cold mornings and believe it or not, sometimes it's actually cold during the day now. Then note that my coffee maker I got for a wedding gift over 13 years ago and had still been using finally crapped out. So it was time for a new coffee maker. I was going to go for the usual automatic drip coffee maker, since the one I'd had forever really lasted and worked great. Then, while perusing the coffeemakers online, I discovered a little gem. For only $30 I could get my own cappuccino maker. Could it be too good to be true? I read every comment for this machine by Mr. Coffee and every single one of them was positive. So I went for it. I bought the thing. I love the thing. I now can make my very own cappuccino at home! What do you know? I've got the ratio of espresso and steamed milk just right now and it's so delicious. And cheap. And convenient. And easy. Will I still stop at Starbucks (and Target) when entering a big city - I honestly don't know, but probably!

Disclaimer: Hobbs is not Hell, even though I am tempted to think that sometimes. Hobbs has a coffee place, but it is never on my way anywhere, not as good as SB, and just as expensive.

15 Days

Derreck is going golfing in St. Andrews, Scotland tomorrow. He is thrilled to be there. He and his friend Glen from ABQ have been enjoying England and got to Scotland today. It's been fun to here about all they are seeing and doing. But, in 15 days, we will be reunited! Can't wait!!!

19 days and counting

Derreck returns to the US on Dec 5th. We can't wait and this time it's for good! We are all ready for him to be home. Only 19 days now. And we both have things going on to make that time go by even faster.

Derreck is taking a trip to England and Scotland with his buddy Glen from ABQ. Odd that they are both working in Europe at the same time (different countries) and can take their vacations. So of course they are going to play golf at St. Andrews. I am sure they will have the best time.

The kids and I are going to ABQ for Thanksgiving. We're going to stay a few days and visit some friends and probably get some shopping done, since there's no where to shop here!! And I am very excited to be visiting our former church too. When we get back to Hobbs, it will only be 5 days until we go pick up Derreck in Midland. Yea!!

I love my family!

You guys are GREAT!!!