We'll Miss You Poppa

Last week, Ryan and I got the sad news that Ryan's grandfather (Poppa to us) had gone home to heaven. We've known his health was declining for the last few months, so it wasn't a surprise, but his sweet presence will still be missed in our lives.

Poppa was a great man, husband, father and grandfather, a truth that was evident in all the stories we heard over the weekend and during the sweet memorial service. Ryan's mom delivered a beautiful, touching eulogy, and we continue to keep her in our prayers as she mourns the loss of her Daddy.

Poppa had a great sense of humor and loved to welcome new members of the family (including me) by offering them a piece of "candy." Thankfully, I had been warned before hand that Poppa's "candy" was actually chewing tobacco! An accessory he never left home without :) My favorite memory, though, is how every time I saw Poppa, he would ask me if I had a rolling pin and if I knew how to use it to keep Ryan in line :)

Poppa was very special in Ryan's life too. He cheered Ryan on at all of his baseball games when he was growing up, gave him his first taste of tobacco, and loved to take him fishing. We can only hope that our own kids have such special relationships with their grandparents.

What a comfort to know that Poppa was a man of God and is finally home with his savior now. We'll miss you, Poppa and look forward to rejoicing with you again one day!

"For I am ready to be poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." 2 Timothy 4:6-8

Independence Day

I'm a little late posting this, but our family motto is "better late than never" so here goes.  For the 4th of July this year, we continued our new tradition of gathering with family at Legado.  

Legado (Spanish for Legacy) is my parents' house on Lake Lewisville.  Ryan and I love heading out there and are quickly becoming "lake people."  In fact, Ryan's got the itch to buy a jet ski now, and it's all I can do to pry the SeaDoo catalog out of his hands these days.

Anyway, this year we met up with my folks, my sisters, my aunt and uncle, and their crazy kids at the lake house to celebrate together.  We spent all day Friday out on the lake, cooked out Saturday and watched the local fireworks displays by the lake that night.  Lake Lewisville is a great spot to watch fireworks because you can see shows by Lewisville, Flower Mound, The Colony, Frisco, and probably a few others I couldn't pinpoint.  We even had our own fireworks extravaganza as the boys (including the "big" boys) set off a truck load of pyrotechnics purchased from our local fireworks stand - they put on quite a show!

Ahhh.....a great way to celebrate the 4th!  I forgot to bring my camera, so I'm at the mercy of my mom and sister to send pictures of the weekend.  I'll post some as soon as they come through!

Wouldn't it be Loverly?

Hello all! Last month I posted about the beautiful flower arrangements my friend Mary created for our Mother's Day Luncheon. Since then, Mary has started a business preparing floral arrangements called Posy's.

I've seen some of her recent work, and it's truly top-notch. Mary is creative, thoughtful, professional and a pleasure to work with. She really made my vision come to life...keeping in mind my small budget. I'll definitely be using Mary's services again soon, and I highly recommend her to anyone else in the DFW area.

Here's a picture from a recent bridal shower she worked on - fabulous!

Patient Update

Thanks to everyone for the sweet thoughts about Dixie.  I wanted to let you all know that she's home and doing well.  She spent one night at the surgery center, which was not fun for anyone, but they said she was a real trooper.  The staff really seemed to like her and they even gave her a cute pink bandage.  She's getting lots of rest and attention now that she's home, so hopefully we'll have a quick recovery!

Sweet Puppy

Anyone who knows us knows how much we love our little Dixie dog.  She has an adorable, feisty, personality that belies her small stature.  We really think of her as part of the family....and she knows it!  Sometimes I'm convinced she doesn't really know she's a dog.  

So, needless to say, we've been very concerned the last few days as we've noticed her limping around, only using three legs.  She's had knee problems for a while, but they never seemed to slow her down until now.  I took her to the vet earlier this week, and he referred us to an orthopedic surgeon (am I the only one who didn't know they had such a thing for dogs?).  Today was our appointment with the specialist, who told us Dixie has a torn ACL and chronic knee cap displacement.  Sounds pretty painful to me, so I was more than happy to schedule surgery for her.  I realize she's only a dog, but she's enriched our lives for years, and we want to do anything we can to make her life more enjoyable too.

Tomorrow is the big day, and poor Ryan has the unhappy duty of dropping her off at the vet's office.  Over the years, Ryan and Dixie have become good buddies.....although the scars on his arm remind us that sometimes it's more of a love/hate relationship than true love.  I have to admit that Dixie has become a bit of a grumpy old lady the last few years.  Of course, Ryan just thinks her crankiness makes her that much cuter.  I think it might break his heart to leave her at the vet's, but he's putting on a brave face for her.  We'll be praying that the surgery goes well and she's able to get back to her crotchety old self soon!

Who wouldn't love that face?

Ryan decided to put Dixie in the trash can when we were raking up leaves....maybe her animosity has some foundation after all ;)

Long Live the King!

Last weekend, Ryan and I got to see not one, but two great music legends.....George Strait and Reba McEntire!  That's right, the King AND Queen of country music.  Together with Blake Shelton and Lee Ann Womack, these two kicked of the first of many amazing events to be held at the new Cowboys Stadium.  

Needless to say, Ryan was in heaven just getting to see the new stadium up close.  Most of you probably know what a huge Dallas Cowboys fan he is.....anyone remember his groom's cake?

I grew up listening to George Strait's music...Heather and I spent countless hours two-steppin' around the living room, standing on our dad's toes, to Amarillo By Morning and All My Exes Live in Texas ;)  So when I heard George would be performing in Dallas, I knew we had to go.  I called up the family and we all decided to go together.  Sadly we were missing Amy, who was getting ready to take the LSAT a few days later.  With such a big family, it's almost impossible to find dates that don't conflict with anything, so we were happy to get most of the gang there.

We decided to make a day of it, tailgating in the Rangers' parking lot before the concert.  Ryan made some knock-out burgers and we had a great time.  Here are a few pictures from the concert:

For Reba's encore, she changed into this red number and sang everyone's favorite "Fancy" - loved it!

Mom & Dad

The inaugural opening of the stadium's ceiling

From here you can see the Rangers Ballpark - Ryan's in heaven

It was a HOT day - so I'm definitely glistening here :)

The massive video screen - it will stretch from one 20 yard line to the other!

Over 60,000 people packed into the stadium to see these legends

Holmans, Fitzhughs, Benifer, Parkers

Home Improvements

In my last post, I mentioned that we recently installed new granite countertops in our kitchen.  The decision to get new countertops was easy....our old ones were the standard laminate kind, in a less-than-lovely gray/blue color.  Oddly, I haven't seen anything like them in Southern Living or Better Homes & Gardens lately.  

So, it was an easy call to replace them, but not such an easy decision to pick out the color, the coordinating backsplash, the pattern, the trim, the edging, etc.  Whew!  All those decisions just for new countertops (and a few new appliances).  I can't imagine designing a whole house from scratch!  After much agonizing and last minute mind changing we made our choices, and I'm so pleased with the final result.  This renovation was a splurge for us....I'm usually a DIY kind of gal, but we saved up and I think it was totally worth it.

Here are a few before and after pictures:

The day of our inspection before we bought the house - the walls have a great textured and glazed look, but the cabinets and countertops had to go.

Ahhh....so much better!  The granite looks great with the cabinets I repainted a while back.

Kitchen - done.  Next step, retiling the master bath.....ahh the joys of home ownership :)