A Plain Ole Good Week

I know the week is not over yet, but some good things have happened I want to jot down.  First, My Dad is AMAZING.  He has been saving articles from Tony Stewart's wins and then mailing them to me. Second, Ryan started MMA Monday evening.  He is really excited about it and very very into the training.  I'm glad he has found a sport he enjoys, this and wrestling.  The MMA experience will only add to his wrestling abilities. And third, I lost 5 pounds this week on our new diet and quite possibly more because I weighed myself in the afternoon instead of the morning.  I don't know how much Luther has lost, but he did have to tighten his belt one notch, which is AWESOME!

Ryan's first week at MMA

The Farm Patch

Luther and I have started a new diet, which will hopefully help us change our eating habits for life.  We went to a place in Bryan called The Farm Patch to get some fresh fruits and veggies.  It actually was less expensive than the grocery store with better quality.  We got green beans, asparagus, lettuce, apples, bananas, etc, etc...  We filled a whole big brown grocery bag and only paid $16.  It truly was a bargain and we will probably be going back every week.  


We have both been doing very well on the diet so far and I will be excited for the weigh in on Tuesday.  I am already feeling healthier and that is our main goal, to be healthy and stay healthy.  Luther had a hiccup with his diet on Friday, but we were able to resolve it quickly by adding some more calories to his plan.  I see a thinner and healthier future for the both of us!

The Farm Patch in Bryan, Texas

Tears of God

Tony won his second race of the season in California today.  The race was delayed by rain and he was in first place when it was called.  I think God really likes Tony and he sent down his tears of joy when he was in first place and let him win!

Rain? No, God's tears of joy that Tony was in first place!

Spring Fever!

Anyone else out there suffering from spring fever?  I am so ready for swimming pool weather!  I love the hot weather and cooling down by being in the pool.  The weather has been crazy lately.  One day it is gorgeous, the next cold and the next flooding conditions.


I am grateful for the rain because we need it and soon, very soon it will be Texas hot again.  When that happens, you can find me chillin' in the summer sun in my pool. Cheers!

Break over!

So, all my plans for Spring Break...no, did not happen.  Ryan had the crud and I ended up getting it from him.  I missed work Monday and Tuesday because I was sick in bed.  I hate being sick!  I know, everyone does.


Today, I am back at work and on day 2 of Luther's and my Medi-fast diet.  So far so good.  I did OK yesterday, but I was sick, so I didn't really eat all the food I was supposed to.  Today, I am doing better and the great thing is, I am not hungry.  I hate being on diets and being hungry.


I guess I can keep updates going in the blog about how we are doing on this. Day 2, so far so good.  And the journey continues.....

Got Green?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Ryan said we didn't need to wear green today because our eyes are green.  This is true, but I wore green anyway.


This O'Banion family did not go out to the pub and get green beer, but we did go to the movies and see Act of Valor.  It was excellent!  Just makes me glad our country has such fine people willing to lay down their lives for our freedom.  If you get the chance, go see it!  

Spring Break!

Today is Spring Break for mommy!  I have the next 4 days off work.  Ryan has been off school since Monday.  We are not really planning anything exciting because Luther still has to work all week.  In fact, today I am planning on getting all my laundry done and maybe start on some projects around the house that I have been looking forward to doing.


Ryan has not been feeling well the past 2 days.  He has a spring cold, so we have been dealing with that and I feel sorry for him because it is his break.  He has been hanging around the house the past 2 days trying to feel better.  My plan was to go see my in-laws for a bit, but we can't go until Ryan is over this stuff. 


I plan on finishing recovering my dining room chairs.  I only have 2 left to finish.  I want to empty Ryan's closet and move his shelf up and add another hanging bar.  His closet is small and if he had another bar, he could fit all his things in there nicely.  Then I want to start working on cleaning out the office.  That will be a huge undertaking, but I know I can break it down into sections and it won't seem so bad.  The saying goes...chew the elephant one bite at a time....


I plan on reserving some me time as well.  I want to get a pedicure this week, which will be an awesome treat for me.  I got a gift certificate for Christmas and have been hanging on to it for when the sandal weather arrives.  It's almost here, in Texas anyway.  I also want to put a dent on my reading list.  I have some series to finish and some new ones to start.  We'll see how all that goes, after all, there are only 4 days.

The Surgery Story.....

Yesterday morning, Ryan's buddy had surgery on his foot to remove a half inch piece of glass from the heal of his foot.  He is fine and will be walking by next week, but the beginning of this story starts at our house.


Monday evening, Ryan asked if two of his friends could spend the night.  We said yes because it's Spring Break and those boys are always respectful and just really good kids.  I must say, Ryan has the nicest group of core friends and I don't ever mind having any of them at my house.


Anyway, back to the story.... The boys ate and it was still early, but getting dark outside.  They wanted to go outside, so I asked them to stay close to the house.  There is a creek that runs next to our house and a large concrete bridge/platform you can use to cross over the creek. On the other side are city walking trails.  The boys were over there, one of them had his skateboard and they were basically just hanging out. 


About 20 minutes later or so, Ryan comes in the house asking where are the band aids.  We asked why and he said one of the boys cut his foot on a piece of glass.  We looked at each other and said why in the world was he out there with no shoes on?  Well, as it turns out,  he did have his shoes on....OUCH!  He jumped in the air and came down on a broken bottle sticking up in the ground and the glass went through the sole of his shoe and into his foot.  It probably did not help that he was wearing his shades in the dark either.  The piece of glass sticking in his shoe was a half inch long.  Needless to say, his Mom came and got him and he had to get stitches.  But that is not the worst of it.  When he went to get stitches they took xrays and flushed his wound out.  They told his Mom that sometimes glass is hard to see on xrays and that is why they flushed it out real good.


The next morning a technician called his Mom and told her there was still a large piece of glass in his foot.  He had to go to an orthopedic doctor and sure enough had to have surgery to get it out.  The piece in his foot was another half inch long and it went to the bone.  All went well, but wow, what a Spring Break!  Sounds like he will be able to walk just in time for when school starts again. Complete Bummer!

Smoke's first win of 2012!

If you know me, then you know I am the BIGGEST Tony Stewart fan ever!  Well, today he got his first win of the 2012 NASCAR season in Vegas and it was also his first win at this track. 


Tony won the Sprint Cup Championship last year for the third time.  And no, I am not a bandwagon fan. I have been Tony's fan since he was a rookie.  Luther was flipping through channels one Sunday and they were interviewing him after a race.  He did not win that day, but finished in the top 5.  The reporter asked him how difficult was it for him to sit in a confined car at top speeds when he was claustrophobic.  I was like WOW!  That is awesome how someone could have that fear, but overcome it and also be pretty darn good.  The next few Sunday's we looked for him and I was hooked. Tony's ultimate fan for life.


He has had some ups and down, but I have stuck with him through thick and thin and I am sure it will be a sad day when he retires.  Tony loves the sport so much, that even when he is no longer a driver he will still be around, he is a team owner after all, and I will always love my Smoke.  By the way, Smoke is his nickname because he smoke's everyone!


Congrats Tony on your victory today and I am sure there will be many many more to come!

Smoke making some smoke!

Moose

Yesterday Moose got a hair cut at Wiggles and Wags.  When he got home Ryan asked if I was sure I got the right dog. Haha!  We did, he just had a lot of hair taken off and we got a poodle cut on his face.  He does look like a different dog, but he acts like our lovable sweet Moose!

Before

After

You can't even see his eyes in the before photo!

Raining Cats and Dogs!

It has been raining cats and dogs since yesterday!  Last night we were watching a movie and the lights dimmed down, so we ran around lighting candles everywhere just in case the electricity went out.  It never did, but boy it sure was loud outside with all the lightning and thunder.


Texas is supposedly in a drought, so I wonder with all this rain the past few weeks if we have pulled out of it.  I just hope is stays mild and we don't have threats of tornadoes.  That was some scary stuff that happened in Alabama, Indiana and some of the other states last weekend.


It's an interesting start to Spring Break.  It seems like every year right at our Spring Break it gets cold or rainy or both!  Oh well, it will still be nice to have some time off, just no swimming in the pool quite yet.  The hot hot days of Texas will be here soon before we know it.


One thing positive about the rain is that it is bringing out all the green grass and leaves and everything looks so fresh.  See, there is a silver lining behind every cloud!

President Bush and Barbara like Koppe Bridge too!

This is so cool!  We were just there last weekend and look who was there yesterday!  That would have been cool if we could have been there at the same time!

President Bush and Barbara at Koppe Bridge yesterday.

Reveille

This morning Miss Reveille came to my office.  I should have used a real camera instead of my phone camera, but oh well.  It was awesome my students and I got to see her.

Brian, Zach, Rev, Lauren and Taylor

Spring Break

Next week is Spring Break and Ryan will be off school the whole week.  He already informed me he will be hanging out with his friends.  The University is giving us Thursday and Friday off, so I will have a four day weekend.  Luther is working open to close all week at his job because his boss took off for the week.


This got me thinking, I have been pinning many organization ideas from Pinterest.  I just LOVE that sight!  I think I might take this opportunity to get my  home office in order.  Believe me, it needs all the help it can get.


Not only is it our office, it is my craft room and it is full to the brim.  I think with all the awesome ideas I have gathered, I can make it organized and even great looking.


I will let you know how that goes.  Sometimes before I go on vacation, I have grand plans, but I end up tossing them out and doing something else.  We will see...

If you don't check your bank statement.....You should!

Yesterday, I was balancing my checkbook and I saw a debit charge from Blockbuster.  At first, I thought nothing of it because we go there all the time.  Then I questioned it because I thought I saw the same charge the month before.  I checked the history and sure enough, there was the same amount exactly a month earlier.  Then I freaked, how long have I overlooked this?  Well, I checked January and there it was again, but not in December.


I check my account almost every other day, so you say.....Renee, then how did you miss this?  Well, we use blockbuster like crazy, it is our main form of entertainment and I am not exaggerating! We pay a monthly charge for blockbuster online and we get movies by mail and then take them to the store and trade them in for another movie at no extra charge.  Sometimes when we go in we will from time to time rent Ryan a game or get an extra movie.  The charges seemed high the first time I saw it, but I just thought Luther and Ryan got cokes or candy with it.  Then the second month, I just didn't realize it was the same exact amount as the last time.  Yesterday a light bulb went off in my head and I thought something was wrong. Well, boy was it ever.


I called my bank and they told me it was being debited off of Luther's card.  She told me to call Blockbuster and if they would not remove the charge, then Luther would need to close his card and get a new one.  I then called Blockbuster and the manager was not in.  The girl I spoke with looked up our account and said she could not find any charges on our account and she knew from the amount I gave her that is was a special movie pass program.  She asked if we signed up for it and I told her no because we have the online thing. She asked me to call the next day and speak with the manager because she thought our account looked odd.  I did double check with Luther and he said he didn't sign up for anything either.


Today, I called the manager and he found the same thing as her.  He also said our account looked odd because it only showed we traded movies in from online. He asked me for the last 4 digits of Luther's card and found that his card got linked somehow to another person's account with a similar name (O'Bannon).  He apologized and fixed the problem, then credited our account.  


So, if you look at your statement and it doesn't seem right, always question it.  One good thing from all this mess is because there were 3 monthly charges taken out of our account, the credit was a nice unexpected bonus!

Family Visit

This past weekend, my Mom and Dad brought my Uncle Glenn and Aunt Linda down from Plano for a visit.  My Uncle and Aunt are from Pennsylvania and were on the way home from California after visiting my Aunt Carol.  They were thinking about stopping in New Orleans, so our house was on the way. 


It was an awesome visit and I had not seen them in several years.  This was Ryan's first time to meet them.  Friday evening we went to Koppe Bridge because they have the BEST burgers in town.  You may disagree, but they are my absolute favorite!  Plus, I love to take visitors to local places.  We spent the rest of the evening visiting and catching up. Linda has some amazing stories!  It was awesome and a great time.


Saturday, we spent the day around the house visiting some more.  My Mom, Luther and I went to Sam's Club in the morning and got food to grill that evening.  We invited Luther's parents to come over and we had burgers ala Luther.  We had asked Friday evening if they would mind have burgers again and everyone said it was fine, so Luther grilled for us.  It was another great evening.  I especially enjoyed hearing my Dad and Uncle Glenn talk about when they were kids.


Sunday, they were hitting the road. My parents going back to Plano and Uncle Glenn and Aunt Linda towards New Orleans. First we took all kinds of pictures of each other in front of the fireplace.  We then tried to find a local italian restaurant to go to, but they are not open on Sundays. Then we thought about the Longhorn Tavern and we forgot to check to see if it was open.  Oops!  We drove over there to find an empty parking lot, then made our way to Texas Roadhouse.  


It was sad to give all the goodbyes, but I will treasure the time we had to visit this weekend. I loved getting to see Uncle Glenn and Aunt Linda and hope it won't be such a long time before I get to see them again.

Picture from Elegant Night on the Cruise

Back Row: Me, Ann, Mom, Crystal

Front Row: Aunt Barbara, Chris