Blue Bell Creamery and the C-Clan!

Before you get too excited there were NO pictures allowed on the tour, and YES, you DO get FREE, yes, FREE ice cream at the end of the tour. On top of that you can buy cups of ice cream for only $1.00. YES, I admit I did have my sample, homegrown peach, and it was YUMMMMMMY, but I just had to try the triple caramel and it was yuuuuuuummy as well! And LilBlue shared her butter pecan with me and it was very, very yummmmmy, too! So if you are ever near one of the three Blue Bell creameries I highly recommend the tour for the free samples! And I know you are thrilled that there are some pictures from the meet up! So enjoy :)

It was so fun to meet up with the C-Clan. Even if the dad didn't make it and we were minus 2 of the youngsters we enjoyed seeing the ones who were there and the mom, who is in production on the latest, yet to be named C-Clan member! We do know it will be a boy though! And if you have lost count it will be youngster number 8...this is one amazing family and one super mom!

Super Mom with kids (-2)

The famous "buddies"

Mom of One and The Super Mom :)

So in case you were wondering Blue Bell is the 3rd largest ice cream vendor in the U.S....and homemade vanilla is their number 1 best seller followed by cookie dough. Neither are my favorites but they do make others that I like lots :)

What a fun day, it was awesome to see them and I am so thrilled they drove up to meet us! Our children were friends in OKC and we have kept in touch since!

More TX fun!

So yesterday we did a little local sightseeing out here in the RR area. A cool thing was we were driving around and our hostess tells us about a place she "helps"...she takes donations of clothing and does meals for some of the cottages, takes treats to the children, etc, yeah, I know, she is just that awesome! Well, come to find out it is the Texas Baptist Children's Home which we have supported forever through our SBC church affiliations and for years through the USAFs Combined Federal Campaign, isn't that neato? Well, now we have seen it! Small world!

We also did the H.E.B. plus! Which was a totally big 'ol grocery store that had an extraordinary cheese section and believe it or not...I did not buy anything...yes I totally used restraint because we are eating like all the time and so much that I knew I did not need any cheese to add to the mix! They also had Italian gelato, which we did get some of that :) Amarena which is cherry, which is my favorite, which I have not tried yet but I will and you will probably hear about it later :)

We also tried another local restaurant for lunch...it was very good and I am loving getting my Mexican fix!!! The kids enjoyed watching the lady making the tortilla's.

For dinner Lil Blue and I hooked up with an old family friend who we really are related to...yeah I know, wild, we were totally like "no way" when we found this out...it is through the Brown-Erwin side of our family trees and we are totally like gabillioneth cousins down the line but yeah, we are still family!

Our dinner was at a Texan BBQ joint called Rudy's. It was pretty darn good, loved the real smoked flavor of the brisket, LilBlue enjoyed the potato salad and I got the creamed corn based on a recommendation of our hostess and it certainly did not disappoint. In fact it was nearly the same corn that we have the recipe for that came from said related to family member we were having dinner with! Funny, huh?

BONUS:
LOVED this sign in the restaurant!!!! However, when I pointed in out to LilBlue she quickly replied BUT you are my mother and you ARE here with me so I don't have to clean up!!! LOL What a laugh that got!

Lunch today after a lazy morning was VIVOs...they just opened a location in RR so our hostess declared a girl's lunch and off we went. LilBlue graciously stayed with M&O, they enjoyed pizza while we dined on, are you ready for this, M E X I C A N! Yeah, I know, again! But I really do like Mexican!!! Today I had a salad, which had the very best chili lime vinaigrette dressing! Really yummy stuff! The salad also had jicama in it which I also really enjoyed. I hope it was all lower calorie too cause I know my jeans are going to be tight if I don't stop eating like this!!!!

As a huge treat for me this evening our hostess made baked brie, and oh my, I really do think I ate half the wheel. It was soooooo tasty, I loved it and I think I will now be able to make my own baked brie after seeing her do it. She wrapped it in puff pastry after smearing some good stuff on it. I think I could go all creative on this one and do many things with that stuff that would make me very happy!

Well, the bed is calling, night y'all from Texas!

AUSTIN!!!!

WooHoo we are in TEXAS!!!

The drive down was w/o incident! Thank you God! Though traffic coming through Fort Worth was congested and s l o w so I was glad to get out of that and make it to our destination. Our former Italian Neighbors are wonderful host!!!! We have been living large and taking in life in the great state of TEXAS!

And best of all for those waiting on pics I did have my camera with me, I did use it and I do have wireless so you are getting pictures for this outing!!!!

However, honestly, Austin does not really have that true TX feel that I was thinking of and no one has said "howdy" or "ya'll" to me nor have I seen any longhorns...but that is not to say we have not seen things! We are in Round Rock and we HAVE indeed seen the "round rock" that the town is named after, pretty neat, the story behind it and all! We also got to get a feel for downtown Austin. Loved that I was not the driver for this adventure... We checked out a crepe place that was featured on a Bobby Flay Throw Down. I had a wonderful roasted vegetable crepe that had a feta buttermilk sauce, YUMMERS! It was really super good, though I have to admit somewhat pricey, for the portion, in my opinion; then we all shared a cinnamon sugar dessert crepe amongst us. Again, yuuuuumers! And oh by the way, the prices on their webpage are outdated just so you know!

Notice the current prices...not the same as on the website :(

After our crepe stop we went to drool at Whole Foods and have gelato!!! That used to be our almost nightly summer routine while we were in Italy. Lil Blue got limone and the other two had frutti de bosco, my favorite!!! I skipped out on gelato but did indulge in a cannoli from the bakery over afternoon coffee! Again YUM!

BTW: the 7#s I was in the process of getting rid of which I had been seeing some success at may now be in jeopardy...just so you know.

All right onward through our Austin daytrip... so we circled back around to see the little place owned by Sandra Bullock! A favorite actress of LilBlue and myself...it was a quaint little bakery, cafe, flower shop, antique shop combo that had neat old fashioned bathrooms. It was worth the detour in my opinion :)

And finally before heading back to the 'burb of RR we got to see the state capitol.

Coolio, as this IS the birthplace of the one and only MIB! What a treat to get to be here, even though we wish MIB could have been here with us...we are still having a most splendid time.

Among other things LilBlue is loving the nightly swims in the backyard pool! Again, we are also eating very well, which is ALWAYS the case with our hostess :) She is such an awesome cook and just loves to feed others :)

Signing out from the Lone Star State for at least a few more days...

Going South

We are heading out to TX today...as soon as LilBlue is ready, I am hence the time to post...I am already ready, loaded the car and now waiting, waiting, waiting oh her to load up so we can mosey on down the road. We have about 6 hours in front of us.

We enjoyed an awesome dinner with friends last night, the plan was for Italian but the little place was closed for vacation so we opted for down the road a bit and ended up at Ted's. It was Mexican, which I rarely turn down!!! Plenty of food, good service and great conversation made for a nice dinner. It was good to do some more catching up and share some laughs, some never before stories were also told...watch out for those Imperial concerts!!! What a time.

Looking forward to our TX time and definitely know I am making some more time on my calendar to get back to OKC, this was a great time so I would love to come back and have more opportunities to see and spend time with those that are here.

I think one of the highlights was the dropping in on Ms D. she used to keep Lil Blue in the nursery and it was a delight and a joy to stop by to see her. Unbelievably she looks just the same and is as spry as ever, more talkative then I remember her and just doing wonderfully well!

Hopefully, getting on the road again soon!

I will desperately try to post some pics, I know I enjoy seeing those that others post so I will keep trying to do better at posting some of my own!

Monday, Monday...

Hello from the Sooner State! Yeah, we are in Oklahoma this week and it is HOT! But we are having a good time, seeing our friends from days gone by. How blessed we are to have crossed paths with some awesome people!!!!

I think we will not be able to stay long enough to see and do everything this trip so I am already planning to come back down when it is cooler. We will be heading on down to TX where I fear it may be even hotter, yeah!!! NOT :( but we are going when Lil Blue can go so we are taking it as it comes, heat and all and we are having a great time!

Today I had lunch with friends, while Lil Blue had lunch with G&G, then we went shopping, got some awesome bargains! Then traipsed on over to the base and did some poking around where we used to live, checked out their newly built housing and of course went to the BX then cruised on through the resale POV lot (bummer nothing that would suit our taste!) Really in the market for a good used, low mileage HONDA...


It is getting late, not the newsiest of updates and lots left out, but at least you know we are still around! Life is good

Thursday Thoughts!

RAIN...we have been having some rain. That is NOT a bad thing, I am just giving you the news. As a result of the rain the puddles are all full, we are seeing the grass green back up and it's humid.

I have been to Joplin twice in the past week, and going again on Saturday and looks like I will be going back on Tuesday. Everyone seems to do everything in JOMO. They have all the "good" stores and everyone goes to the doctor there. It gives me my big town fix and it is fun to ride down and see what has changed. Lots has, then again some of the things are exactly as they were when I went as a kid. Fun stuff!

So thoughts on today!

• Lovin' the local sweet corn!!!
• I am making progress on that 7#s :)
• Me and the SHAKE weight are now friends! LOL
• The veggies at the farmer's market have been great!

Still not made a decision on a new cell phone, still not in a good spot with getting on internet but I am really not missing the busyness of it and life has been unhurried and carefree...it's a good feeling! Also working on getting some little things done for the folks with some bigger things on the horizon...

Stay tuned, I will keep you posted!

Saturday Summary

Okay I am back in MO for the Vernon County Youth Fair. When I am in MO internet is pretty hard to come by, remember I am in the sticks and they only have dial-up. So blogging is pretty low on the priority list when I am able to get online.

MiB is doing awesome, he sounds upbeat each time we get to talk (though usually tired, cause the days are long), however, please pray for his heel, he is having trouble with it and probably will just tough it out rather then actually see a doctor like he should.

We did our annual 3rd on the 4th on the 2nd this year, yeah, I know I was confused too, but there is a wedding tonight of a close family friend so doing our regular 3rd on the 4th event was totally not doable with that going on...it's not like we aren't famous for this annual event, I have no idea what they were thinking when they set that wedding date!!! :) but it's all good, the weather was nice and everyone had a great time!

This past week I also traveled to KS to visit another close family friend and it was soooo good to see him. I now know that he is in a great place receiving very good care and he is being well taken care of. It was a clean, nicely furnished, well staffed facility and I left knowing he was in good hands. We had a great visit. He did not know us but we chatted about our hometown, building houses and football!

Until we can meet again...have a happy and safe 4th of July!!!