Surprise Dinner!

Michael took the Monday after our trip to Mississippi off to rest up after tax season and the busy weekend. I still had class and work, so I was gone most of the day. When I got home at about 6:20 after work, this was my surprise:

He had cleaned the apartment as well as cooked a wonderful meal of roast, potatoes, and carrots for dinner. He also made this really good desert! I ate on that stuff all week long and gained a little weight. I finally had to throw it out, so I would quit eating it! He is such a wonderful husband!

(The reason we had to eat on the coffee table is because there were bugs falling out of the recessed lighting above our table. It's all fixed now!)

Matthew and Andrew

On our way home from Mississippi a few weeks ago, we got to stop and visit with Todd (Michael's brother), Nicole (his wife), and their two boys, Matthew (3) and Andrew (6 months). We met them at McAlister's for lunch and then went to their house for a little bit of playtime with the boys.

We had to read Thomas the Train in order to "trick" Matthew into taking a picture with us. He really loves Thomas and knows the names of ALL the characters! It is really amazing how much this little guy knows. He has some new trick to show us every time we visit! Andrew is very easy going and was happy to just hang out and watch the excitement.

Do we look like we could handle kids of our own! HAHA! Not any time soon!

In Texas...In Mississippi

In Texas, you find blue bonnets and short trees. In Mississippi, you find red flowers and tall trees. Pardon the dead bugs on the windshield, but there was no time for stopping to take pictures. These were done "on the go".

This is How We Do It in Mississippi

A Tour of Mississippi State

From the Top Left:

The Library, Swalm Chemical Engineering Building, Swalm again in the middle with the library to the left and Allen Hall to the right, (2nd row) Lee Hall (mirrors Swalm at the other end of the Drill Field, one of the older buildings on campus), (3rd row) McCool Hall (Michael's Building), Allen Hall (my building), chapel steeple.

Top left: Home side of the football stadium

Bottom left: Baseball field from behind home plate

Right top to bottom: baseball field again, baseball stadium from the outside, "video board" in the football stadium (we aren't allowed to call it a jumbotron because we didn't use that company this time ;) )

Quick Udate

I am becoming a terrible blogger but not without good reason. It's been a busy few weeks as I've finished up my second semester of graduate school. I am glad to say that it is finished along with one May-mester class that I took last week in crisis counseling. I have two weeks before my summer classes start with 2 assignments to complete for crisis counseling in that time, work, and Practicum on Tuesday nights. My first Practicum night was last Tuesday and it followed a day of class from 8 - 5, so I was officially at school from 8 AM to 10 PM. Needless to say long day, but add to it that I was sick! It was a really LONG day! I am feeling much better now and am excited about Practicum and all I will learn this summer!

Friday night, Michael and I got all dressed up and went to a nice steak dinner with our friends Alyson and Jonathan. I just realized that I don't think I have a single picture of Alyson and me much less have ever posted one on here. I will have to rectify that problem. It's time you officially meet her. She's a keeper. Anyhow, Michael came home with these lovely roses before our date! How sweet!

Also, we might possibly have had an outing with Deanna and Kristy who could possibly be our friends. We have been wanting to visit the King Tut exhibit over in Dallas, but it was a little too expensive for us. My dear sweet husband discovered that the last day of the exhibit, they were having "Mummy Midnight Madness" and cutting tickets to half price if you would come between midnight and 7:30 AM Sunday morning! We rang up Kristy and D to see if they were game, and of course, they were up for it! So yesterday afternoon, we traveled over to Coppell and had a lovely evening with Kristy and D. They cooked us a yummy dinner, and we played a rousing game of "NERTS". Then we went off to an early bed time (9:30), so we could be up and roaring to go at 4:00 AM. The exhibit was very interesting. It was amazing the amount of detail work these people put into their stuff. We found it amusing that almost EVERY statement began with "possibly" or "could have". They couldn't nail down anything in that joint. For all we know, it wasn't even really King Tut. J/K. But seriously, they weren't sure about anything they were telling us. Kristy and I being the English grammar folks that we are, found countless errors that really were ridiculous for such a famous exhibit. Seriously, subject verb agreement should not be a problem..."This objects is". Come ON!! Anyways, we had a great time with all the other delirious and sleep deprived folks at the exhibit except for that fact that the "death mask" that they advertised on EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF ADVERTISEMENT was not there. "Too valuable and fragile to leave Egypt since the 70s" PUH!.

Better Late Than Never

Since there have been recent complaints, I'll do my best to get back into the blogosphere. I do actually have things to blog about since I recently visited the homeland--Mississippi.

We will begin with a visit with half of the Barlow girls. Michael and I left Fort Worth at about 5:30 pm Thursday evening a couple of weeks ago headed to his parents house only to get stuck on ARLINGTON behind a wreck for about 30 minutes. Talk about putting a damper on the beginning of the journey. Anyways, we rolled into Benton, MS, about 1:30 in the morning in pure delirium. We got a good night's rest in us along with a good breakfast and a brief visit with his parents before we headed in to Jackson to have lunch with 3 of my mother's sisters (she has 5 and no brothers--their poor dad I know!) and Uncle Ken (brother-in-law).

We met up with them at Ruby Tuesday's for lunch and had a wonderful visit. It had been almost a year since I had seen them and that was just too long! Mom and I usually made a trip down to Hazlehurst at least once every 4-6 months when I lived at home all throughout my life, so needless to say I was GLAD to see them! I was amused by the vast array of topics we covered over lunch--blood sugar levels to doctoral programs to gardening. We were a varied bunch. We laughed at mom and Aunt Edna (one of the sister's who couldn't come) because they just couldn't stand that they were missing out and called twice each to check up on us (once to the sisters and once to me each). It was so good to see them all. All of these women have stepped up in some way and acted as a grandmother to me ever since my granny died when I was in sixth grade. I was the baby grandchild and I guess they felt it was their job to grandmother me. They've done a wonderful job. I love them all very much! Here we are after lunch:

Uncle Ken, Aunt Lee, me, Aunt Charlotte, and Aunt Dot

The sun was really bright and I couldn't see the screen to check the shot. Sorry that Aunt Lee's eyes are closed. I was lucky I could get them to face the camera at all. They usually just show their behinds.

So began our very quick and busy trip to Mississippi...to see where we headed next come back tomorrow! (or maybe the next day...you never know with me!)