2015 // A Year In Review

Wow, here we are, the last day of 2015. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’m in turmoil if it was a good year or if it was a bad year. I’m going with good. There were some bad things I’d like to just brush over, but those are the things that work together to make you who you are, right?

So what did this year bring?
January
This year we started off January with a New Year’s Day Dive. I chickened out, but hubby dove in! Then it was time to celebrate Tbug’s birthday on the second day of the year, I guess that’s what you get when your birthday is the second day of January… We honored Veteran’s by presenting an opportunity for them to try Scuba diving. Baby girl turned 7 months old. I ended the month attending my Sister in law’s baby shower, our local dive shop went Platinum SCUBAPro dealer and forgetting to put sugar in a pan of brownies….

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Let there be rain….

And there was rain. Lots and lots of rain. And flooding. Did I mention the rain? The day after Christmas we got rain. And flooding. And the rain. And flooding. They compared this to the flood of the fall of 1993, I’m not sure it was quite that bad, but it was bad. We lost electricity and then the river met the lake by my house… when that happens, it’s only a matter of time before it goes over the road and closes us off from town. I don’t think it ever did though… but the lake did meet the river. But with no electricity and no wood to burn for our fireplace, we stayed the night with my parents for a night. And our pond that never holds but about 2 feet of water at most was full and flooding into our field.

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The Chiefs Tailgating Bus

How in the world did we get to the end of December? My husband and I were just discussing how in the heck did we just celebrate Christmas and now we’re looking forward to the New Year… It is like time is totally flying by! And here in Missouri (as well as other parts of the country I hear) we’re having the worst flood we’ve had since 1993. Weather predictions call for another 1-2 inches of rain today. We’ve already had quite a bit. I didn’t/haven’t heard the total amount yet…

But anyway, I just wanted to share with you what we’ve been up to… It all started about 5 months ago. Actually, truth be told it started about 2 years ago. As I’ve mentioned, Dan and Grady are Red Coaters for the Kansas City Chiefs (by the way, did you hear they won against the Cleveland Browns yesterday 17 to 13… which means they’re in the Playoffs! Big year for Kansas City… The Royals and the Chiefs both making the Playoffs in one year!). At some point Dan and Grady started talking about buying a bus to turn into a Chiefs Tailgating bus.

Now jump forward to about 5 months ago. I wasn’t there to totally hear the story so we’ll let the hubs take over the story….

We were giving her [Deb] a hard time about wanting a Chiefs bus (which is a pretty common occurrence). She finally got tired of it and said, I’ll tell you what… You can get a Chiefs bus if…..

And hubby caught it on tape. Blackmail city… So the hunt was on to find a Chiefs bus. They searched Craig’s List and multiple auctions on Purplewave.com. So jump forward about 4ish to 5 months… and Karen and I were sitting at the dive shop one day chatting when all the sudden we heard the loudest screams you’ve ever heard. We wondered what the heck happened. Turns out, they bought a Chiefs Bus.
Exhibit A

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Dinner and a show….

The first night we were in Ft. Worth, we got done at the show late and the only thing open was Jack in the Box. Now, that’s a fast food restaurant, we grabbed our food through the drive through and went back to the hotel. But… the funny part was more when we placed the order…

Hubby was driving and pulled up to the speaker box. We ordered 3 #5’s a #6 and a #11. The #5 was a bacon cheeseburger, Tbug, hubby and me. When hubby ordered that, that’s when the fun started. Fun you ask, what fun? The guy taking our order cussed. Not really cussed at us or cussed us out, just dropped the F-bomb, said the 4 letter S word and a couple other under his breath. We started giggling in the van.

Then hubby ordered mom’s, a regular cheeseburger and more cussing ensued. We laughed even harder. I don’t think he was meaning to be heard but oh was it funny. Then we got up to the window to pay and get our food and more of the same funny stuff happened. Every time we passed the Jack in the Box that weekend, we giggled. How could you not. Like I said, he wasn’t cussing us out, it was like we bombarded him with our order or something and it was hilarious.

Now the food… eh, it was a fast food burger. (dad ordered chicken strips.) The food was okay I guess. Nothing to write home about… the show was where it all was.

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Risky’s Steakhouse at Tbug’s request

Tbug was game for anything on this trip to Ft. Worth, except she had one request… She wanted to eat at Risky’s Steakhouse. A few years ago when we came down to pick up Squirty at the horse breeder, we drove into the Stockyards so that Tbug could see the Ft. Worth Stockyards. That day we ate lunch at Risky’s Steakhouse. They had Calf fries on the menu as an appetizer. On a later venture to Risky’s Steakhouse, we learned that you could also get Calf fries as a meal. Tbug loves Calf fries so when she heard you could get them as a meal, she was sold. So she specifically asked for Risky’s Steakhouse on this trip.

When we got there, mom ordered an appetizer of Shrimp stuffed Jalapeño poppers. They were Gulf sized shrimp stuffed with cream cheese and red peppers then deep-fried to perfection. The problem was there were 5 of us and only 4 poppers. Hubby shared one with me. I mean I guess I’m not huge on shrimp anyway so….. but I did try a bite and they weren’t bad.

Abug was enjoying the rolls, plus some of my Chicken Fried Steak. Her favorite was the potatoes. (more…)

Ol’ South Pancake House and a funny story

I’m learning quickly that having a toddler around creates for some interesting stories… case in point…

Last Friday morning when we woke up, my dad asked if we wanted to go eat breakfast. So it came down to Ol’South or IHOP. We chose Ol’South. Mom got her German Pancake, dad and Tbug got Pancakes and bacon and I have no clue what hubby got. Abug got 5 silver dollar pancakes. I wasn’t hungry. So I was cutting up bites of pancakes for Abug to feed herself because that’s really the only way she’ll eat these days. She grabbed the fork just right and pancake went flying across the restaurant. It was kind of like Pretty Woman when she sent the fish thing flying and she said slippery little suckers and the guy said, happens all the time.

Sunday we met up with my aunt who lives in the area and one of her friends. Those 2 plus dad got pancakes with bacon. Mom went for the German pancake again. Abug ate my pancakes that came with my omelet and hubby and Tbug got omelets with pancakes as well.

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Hoffbrau Steaks – Ft. Worth, TX

Traveling makes a person hungry and steaks in Texas are the place to have! When we pulled in to Ft. Worth, we decided to take Tbug to Hoffbrau, which was just across the street from our hotel so it was perfect, eat lunch and then check in to the hotel before heading over to Will Rogers.

We were all so hungry we decided to start with Texas Pesos. Jalapeño’s deep-fried, covered in cheese, and served with ranch dressing. I was sold! I like cheese and jalapeños and ranch dressing. In fact, looking at these pictures and thinking about them has me drooling for more… (more…)