More Texas!!!!

I have been AWFUL at blogging. I apologize to my only follower.

We've moved closer to Dallas. North actually to an area I like to refer to as "Mega Suburbia Texas". Mega Suburbia has its advantages however a gal can get lost in all the people here.
There's so many more yarn stores than we had in Midland. I'm 30 minutes (maybe 20 without traffic, 40 with traffic) from yarn stores, malls, attractions, places that I've never experienced before in Alabama or Midland.

Midland will always be dear to my heart. It sucks how I took for granted a 10-15 minutes to ANYWHERE in town to now being a bit far off from everything. It's all good though. I miss my knittahs that I grew VERY attached to. Ya'll know who you are!!! There's other knitters here in Mega Suburbia and I digg them too. I'm adjusting. ;-)

Sym is adjusting well too. She likes her new school. It's more in line with the school system she left in Alabama if not BETTER. I'm amazed at the opportunities she will have here than I did back when I was in high school. Back in my day I was lucky to get a computer for typing class. Now she is taking computer animation, digital design, Business applications and they even have engineering classes and starter options!! Man I wish I had these options in my day. I'm glad she's got them. Her future is as wide as the Texas sky!

We are closer to some of Johnny's family. Unfortunately we left Cher to Odessa but she loves it there and all the more power to her and her hub! She bought a house out there and is loving the equity!!
 We get Van every other weekend which we all love!!!! Chey is in Alabama so we are closer to her than we used to be. The grand kids are in Garland with Amberly and Will is moving there too soon. Work is keeping him in Midland just a wee longer.

We had our first Christmas here. It was quiet. Not like last year where we had grand babies and almost all of the kids and Johnny's mom. Instead it was just the 3 of us. The Grandbabies were on a true Christmas Vacation. I told Johnny that next time we are going with them. lol

Okay More Next Time!! I've got alot of free time lately so I promise I'll be better. ;-)

Balloon Fest Sometime back in October I think

Johnny's deer ready for Fall

Christmas season in Midland

We went Saturday 12/3 to the Tall City Christmas parade. Now Midland is known as "The Tall City" because there are 10+ story buildings in the middle of the desert like area. It's as if the city appears out of nowhere. It does feel like that too as you drive up close to it. Anyways, the parade was awesome! I have more pics they are just on the hubby's phone. We discovered a groovie coffee shop called "The Ground Floor" that serves mystic moon coffee. It's good coffee. We had a great time. We had to leave early though because we were freezing. At the end of the parade, there is a tree lighting ceremony. They had a choir singing that seemed to want to do a full concert with a billion songs while folks toes and fingers were falling off due to frost bite. What was cool though was that they did have some fire pits set up around the tree. It was pretty cool. I'd never seen fire pits at a city function like that before. Guess that's another Texas thing huh? The parade was long! I was amazed at how many businesses, churches, schools & organizations participated. It was really cool. We also were surprised by Snow last night! Yep! They cancelled school and everything this morning. Home is getting cozy for Christmas! It makes me smile. Thanks for stopping by!

It's been a week or 2 let's catch up! (Picture Heavy)

Okay I didnt' get a chance to blog the previous weekend's activities. That's my bad. It wasn't very exciting but it was a lot of fun. First we finally got our couches for the living room. Which we LOVE! No more lawn furniture for the living room!!

We went to the PutPut place right down the road from us. We rode go-carts and played miniature golf. Didn't get but one pic of the whole ordeal. Johnny won he only went 2 over par for the course. Sym came in second and I really sucked and got 19 over par. OH well.

This past weekend we didn't do much except the whole Halloween thing. I really wasn't in my old Halloween zone. But none the less I did make myself up a little and wore a wig. :-) No picture was taken of me. so there! ha ha Sym was the enchanting Athena.

We hit a couple of the Mega Churches' Trunk or Treat/Fallapalooza. One Mega Church must have had every kid in Midland there because there was a line practically around the church that didn't let up either! I didn't get pics of the lines. But I will say this, the mega Churches do get involved with the community. It was really cool. On Halloween we went to the Petroleum Museum. They had a cupcake walk where sym went around a billion times before she won a cupcake. We did a flashlight tour which was cute and spooky but nothing too crazy. There were alot of little kids there. Then we went to the Midland Mall and Trick or Treated the stores. Sym ran into her Athena twin who hooked her up with some cool stickers. Most of the stores were out of candy but we had fun anyways. She got enough candy in my opinion.

Sym and her Athena Twin It was cool. We had fun. Tuesday I got out for a little bit and discovered this store called "The Christmas Store" OMG!! I thought I had seen it all but this Christmas Store takes the cake! They had almost every kind of Christmas tree you can imagine! They even had one that spewed snow out the top of it!

Snow Spewing Tree I got a shot of the store at an angle kind of. The store was huge and had all these nooks/corners filled with all that is Christmas.

It was a little too rich for my wallet but I did fall in love with this guy and his magical flamingo

Then yesterday (Windsday) we had a cold front come rollin in. And when the fronts come in with their wind gusts of up to 45mph, what do you get? DUST!!

I do miss RAIN. However we are supposed to get a little tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a shower instead of the misty annoying crap we got last week. I miss Alabama but I'm really liking it here.Tomorrow the high is going to be 77 and the low 48. LOL It amazes me how sometimes the weather here can be just like Alabama. Unpredictable, but at least the weathermen in Birmingham have a better clue than some of the news folks here. No offense guys I just miss my Birmingham. This weekend Johnny is going hunting with some folks from work. Sym and I are going to have a girls weekend!! Woo Hoo!!!

Another Weekend Of Firsts

This Saturday we went to the Big Sky Drive-in and saw "Real Steel" and "Dream House". That's right Double feature!!! You pay $6 a person in your own vehicle and you get to watch 2 movies!! It's too cool!! I had never been to a drive in before. I heard recently that Chelsea has one but the only one I knew of was in Argo. Argo = forever away from my old Island of 280. I may have to swing by the one in Chelsea one day though. However I don't think they'd only charge $6 a person for 2 movies. It was really cool! Tune in on the radio and watch a movie for half the price you would pay at a regular movie theater. :-) So here are some pics of the drive in

It's been a while since you've seen Sym and Me Swinging. LOL Here's the last time we had a pic together swinging way back in like 2007 or something.

Also we had my first ever Dust Storm last night!! Seriously a crazy site to see from your balcony!

As the sun was setting, we saw these dark clouds to the north. They were gaining speed and were dark and very scary. Within minutes of this picture, we looked out the windows to see a haze over the complex. dust and dirt being carried in the wind. It was cold. So unlike Birmingham, when the cold front moves in in Midland, you get dirt, not rain. Johnny said that sometimes when these dirt fronts come in you'd get a little rain so you get....Mud. Mud everywhere. It's just another one of those things I'm just gonna have to adjust to.

Midland AirSho and Stanton trade days

What a weekend!!!! We went to the best airshow that I've ever attended Saturday. It showed that I was a newbie to Midland's airshow when I talked to people there. Especially when I said how cool the pyrotechnics were and the recreation of the bombings from WW2 they would say "You're not from around here are you?" Nope I'd say, I'm from Alabama. I've been to airshows before but none where they recreate wars and bombing with bombs going off and planes pacing above with mock machine gun sounds. It was WILD!!! I didn't get many pics of the air raid. BUT i did get a few shots of some of the airplanes flying by and a smoke cloud.

It was AWESOME!!! When we got back to the truck we found our tire flat. Apparently out in fields in this part of texas THORNS that are the width of bamboo skewers(and with sharper points) grow wild and get stuck in your tires. Luckily the darling hubby has a full sized spare on the truck. It's just a bitch pain to get it out from under the truck to put the dang thing on. We took the truck to Firestone and low and behold, the Firestone he bought his front tires from back in birmingham by the crossplex put the wrong size tire on the truck than they had sold him. Actually both front tires were wrong!! So the good guys at the Midland Firestone fixed the alabama mistake and replaced both front tires for 20 bucks. Thanks Warranty Sunday Sym, Cher and I went to Stanton Trade Days.

It was pretty cool. They close their downtown streets and vendors set up their tents to sell their wares. There were lots of cool stuff. But Sym loved their bounce on a bungee thing

It reminded me alot of Tannehill trade days/bessemer flea market and city stages. They had a band playing in the center of town. It was country but hey I'm in Texas ya just gotta go with the flow sometimes or get hanged. We had fun! It was a really fun weekend! I just wish I had taken more pics of the trade days. It was quite good. I had fried gator on a stick. Now I've had fried gator tail and it's about the same as gator on a stick and about as huge as the sausage on a stick I had at the airsho on Saturday. That's one thing I like about Texas, you can get meat on a stick just about anywhere. Not to mention Smoked Turkey legs the size of my arm from my elbow to hand. All is well in Big Sky Country

Ok so a week in to settle a bit....now what?

Well this week has been the "let's get into a groove" adjustment ... thing. Aside from my right arm killing me because it wants to be an asshole, we've been making progress on the place. We have a fully stocked kitchen now. Woot. We have all of the empty boxes stored for moving out one day (we spent ALOT on just boxes) The place is looking good. slowly but surely. We still need a couch.I already told the hubby that we are buying new. period. reason? DELIVERY!! That's right! It was hard enough to get the damn boxes up and down those stairs. Furniture will require help. Especially the big stuff. But I figure I'd give you my top 5 attractions I've visited in Midland or Texas in General 5. 7 Elevens all over the place and you get free coffee all day long on Thursdays! 4. Although it is hard to find, Midland Health Department. Yes you heard me right!! They are some awesome people. Nothing like jefferson or shelby co health depts. These people are actually nice. They smile and there's not forever long lines of crazy talking to themselves people in every square inch of the place. Sym needed a Meningitis vaccination we were in and out in like 30 minutes!! 3. Starbucks 2 blocks away. Not really an attraction to most but it sure does give me a sense of security knowing that starbucks is not too far away. 2. 3 Screen New Movies Drive In!! Yes You heard it right here folks. I've never been to a drive in. I'm psyched that there's one here! And they play new releases!! They will premier Breaking Dawn in November!! And the Number One Jaw dropping attraction that I've experienced is..... 1. H-E-B (it's a grocery store but better) to compare the HEB that's a block away to anything in birmingham, I'd say it is the hugeness of a sam's or costco but it's more like Winn Dixie or Publix in a grocery store scale BUT it puts both of them to shame!!! The prices are low! They have coupons attached to SEVERAL Items. They have meal deals and they have DIGITAL SCALES IN THE PRODUCE!!! You can print out the exact price of that bundle of banana that's 48 cents a pound! The Avacados in Texas are the best damn thing I've ever eaten. They are totally fresh and not shipped all green and not ready like in Alabama. Boring as it may be so far, I fully intend to update ya'll with more exciting adventures. It's just slow to go for now. This Weekend is the Midland Airsho. (yes it is spelled without the w) see http://www.airsho.org/ It sounds exciting and we are totally going to hit it. Until then I'll leave you with Darky hangin in hubby's dirty clothes She scared me. I was beginning to think that we had a ghost in the apartment.

Our House

A Little Video of our home in Midland