Since either Donny or myself have always had to work the day after Thanksgiving we’ve never really traveled on this holiday. None of us really like traditional Thanksgiving food so for many years we’ve just always gone to Cracker Barrel. This year we decided to do something different.
I waited in the car while Donny picked up our order. Best decision ever. The food was exactly what we ordered. Everyone got what they wanted and it was so good. We watched football and napped. I had picked up a pumpkin pie so there was zero cooking on my part, which was greatly appreciated by me.
Jackson hit me up to go to the mall for some sales he had seen at Entertainmart. So we will be fighting the crowds in the morning. Are there still even Black Friday crowds? I can remember when it used to be a big deal to pick up the Thanksgiving day newspaper so you could scour the ads and make a game plan on which stores to hit first. Now it seems as though Black Friday starts the first of November. I guess we’ll see.
We did do a little bit of Black Friday shopping earlier in the week. Well, I wouldn’t really call it that because it was just some Halloween things at 80% off. The kids and I had to run to Michaels to get new portfolios for them because the ones I got them at the beginning of school weren’t holding up with their easels in them. You can always spot art students because they lug these giant things around.
Jackson and I are always looking for the Spooky Town houses. We found these to add to our collection.
Hannah also picked up a few things Halloweeny for her room. She likes all things spooky.
Unlike most people I’ve seen online I have not put our Christmas tree up yet. I did however get all of the boxes out of the shed but so far that’s it. I just cannot do it before Thanksgiving. It just seems so wrong to me. I’m hoping to get it up by Saturday or Sunday. We are all also worried about our kitten because she climbs everything and I don’t know how we are going to keep her off the tree.
And just because I thought our house looked cool in the dark when we drove up.
Normally we have a relatively quiet Saturday. We keep errands to a minimum and just spend time at home. Today, however, that was not the case. I noticed that we were very low on coffee so that meant a trip to Walmart. I like the Great Value coffee. It taste just like Folgers and comes in a big cardboard canister that can be recycled. But before we went to Walmart we stopped off at Hope’s Closet. Hannah was with me and we had planned to go earlier in the week but never made it.
She found these cute boots that were brand new. They are so her style.
She also got these pants that will fit into her wardrobe perfectly.
I picked up this olive green sweater. Not shown is the Nautica sweater I picked up for Jackson that he actually liked.
Walmart was PACKED!!!! It felt like we were playing Frogger ,or as Hannah described it as Crossy Roads, when we were trying to get from one aisle to another. I have been having menopausal symptoms that were not fun so I did a little research and decided to try this. I will make a doctor’s appointment if I feel like this isn’t working.
Hannah needed some candles and while we were looking for those I picked up some incense cones to use in the holder I bought by mistake.
I’ve never bought the Mainstays brand, but at least they are made in India.
We we got home from Walmart I got a text telling me that my Michael’s voucher expired today. I checked at it was a $10 one. The kids are always needing art supplies and I knew Jackson needed ink for one of his classes so off to Michael’s we all went. I think that everyone in Longview was also wanting to go to the same place. It doesn’t help that TJ Maxx is right next door. The line of cars turning in when we were leaving was crazy.
The one thing that I HAD to do today was grocery shopping at Aldi. I did not want to go. When we drove by it didn’t look very crowded so I took a deep breath and headed out. I was so wrong because there were SO many people shopping. I did however find some fake Poppi that I can’t wait to try.
And I had never seen these before. They are so good and gluten free.
I have to be so much more careful and read ingredients. This morning I woke up bloated with all my joints hurting. I could not figure out what in the world was causing this until I realized what mistake I had made. The past two evenings I had eaten lobster bisque soup for dinner. I actually know how bisque is made and it’s made with a flour base. I just wasn’t paying attention. Tomorrow I’m going to make a big detox salad and lentil and carrot soup to see if I can get rid of all the gunk.
After I settled in at home I started searching for shoes that I have been wanting to get for Fall. I had the exact shoes I was looking for in my head but couldn’t find them anywhere. I wanted a medium brown corduroy footbed clog. I found some that were the right color from Birkenstock but they were suede and if I was going to pay that kind of money I wanted what I wanted. I finally found them.
These are exactly what I had pictured in my head. I ordered them immediately and cannot wait until they arrive. I ordered them 1/2 size bigger than I normally would so I could wear them with socks when it gets cold. Do not judge me! LOL
And I will leave this post with the bad little kitten that climbs everything.
After being with my daughter and her family for almost a week, I decided that Friday would be a good day to say good-bye. They needed space to establish a schedule and start finding their new normal with a newborn and a toddler. Because I didn’t want Donny to have to make the drive again, I had decided to take the train back home. If you know me, you know how much I love trains.
My plan was to sleep and read on the almost 9 hour trip. Because the train was sold out everyone had to sit with someone. I lucked out and sat by a 70 year old Air Force veteran named Mike. He was heading to St. Louis to see his granddaughter for her 16th birthday. We had such good conversations because we had lived and/or visited the same places.
If you have never taken a train here are some observations that I have made. The seats are big and there is so much leg room. They also lay back like a recliner. It’s a whole different dynamic than flying. People are so friendly and you end up making so many friends and having a good time. People will offer you snacks, shots (the alcohol type) and just good conversation. You will meet people from all over.
After I had lunch from the food car I decided to go sit in the observation car for a little while.
I love that you face the windows and the ceiling is clear so you can see so much more than you can from you seat. There are also tables where people were playing cards and other games.
I love going through the small towns because it’s like you see the opposite side of what you would see in a car. It’s like looking at someone’s backyard when all you are used to seeing is the front. You get fresh air breaks at certain stations where you can get out and walk around.
Our Dallas break.
All in all I highly recommend taking a train trip at least once in your life. I hope to do many more in the future.
I am so late posting this, but things have been a bit crazy around here. Hannah decided that we were going to have a Halloween party because in our town there is little for late teen to 21 year olds to do on this holiday. She and Jackson were just going to invite a few of their friends to keep it small. We decorated the backyard so they could hang out around the fire pit, play corn hole and roast hotdogs and make s’mores.
I found this vintage door cover at an estate sale.
Hannah and I carved pumpkins the night before.
Since the party started at 5:30 there was plenty of light to play Cornhole.
They loved the fire pit so much that we had to go get more wood.
They decided to load up in the back of Gavin’s pickup and go trick or treating around the neighborhood. I know some people think they may be too old, but I had seen a post on All Things Longview that was asking if any adults could go trick or treating. The yes response was overwhelming. This is mainly because most kids go to the really big neighborhoods where they block off the streets and are known for their trick or treating. Our little neighborhood has homes that decorate but no one comes.
Hannah was Gumball and her Olivia was Darwin (a fish. she had a fin but you can’t see it from the front) from the Adventures of Gumball.
Gavin and Hannah
The kids ended up with a lot of candy. One house had hotdogs and hot chocolate. After the trick or treating they decided to play some board games.
The festivities ended around midnight and everyone had a great time. I think we’ll have to do this again. I hope everyone else had a happy Halloween.
I really messed up yesterday. On the way home from Kilgore yesterday afternoon Donny suggested that we stop off at Sonic and get a drink. Well, the kids had been at school most of the day so Hannah was hungry, Jackson said he could eat a snack so we all kind of decided to eat a snacky late lunch early dinner and then just graze when we got home. Here’s the problem with Sonic, they have nothing food wise that I can eat. Did that stop me? Uh, nope. So I had a chocolate banana milkshake and 4 cheddar peppers. I knew. I really did, but I was caught up in the moment of having fun with the fam. That fun led to me not feeling well at all today. BUT, there was a silver lining.
If you have ever read an Elin Hildebrand book and you loved it, you need to watch The Summer I Turned Pretty. I am very late to the trend, but my oldest daughter told me to watch it and now I’m hooked. It’s only 3 seasons and the reason we were discussing it is because the cast was on the today show after the series finale aired. It’s one of those shows where you really want to find out how it turns out but know that when it’s over you will miss the characters so much.
Donny and I have been debating what to plant on our fence line in the back. We had toyed with the idea of a bamboo fence, but there are so many plants that we want to keep that are growing right up against the fence that a bamboo one would be almost impossible to attach. We saw that cana lilies are good because they are so prolific and are the right height that we need. I looked into buying them online and they were $10-$15 a bulb. Donny went to Super 1 today and sent me a picture asking if this is what we were looking for and sure enough it was
These were about 10 bucks a piece, but there are so many shoots in one pot. We’ll hopefully get to plant them tomorrow.
And just because O’malley and Baby Ruth looked so cute together.
There are days when I want to put off errands and scheduling anything. Today was not that day. Hannah had an early doctor’s appointment. So we were up and out the door by 8. We both love her doctor because he actually listens and talks to us. She had mentioned that she her face was breaking out and that it concerned her. He said, “hold on a second” and left the exam room. He came back with this cream that he wants her to try.
Since we were already downtown I had bagged up some books I had already read so we could drop them at the free library at the train station. It’s my favorite place to bring books because there never seems to be that many, compared to the other free libraries around town, and I know I would like to grab a book to read while on the train. Unfortunately, the station was locked up tight even though it was supposed to be open.
We decided to drive over to the Green, our favorite park, to drop them at the free library there. This park is so beautiful. It doesn’t have the usual slides, swings, etc because it’s more of a Montessori park.
When we opened the library box all of the books were wet. We have gotten a lot of rain lately, but with the leaky roof, I wasn’t going to add my books.
Instead of just leaving and going home we decided to walk the trail around the park. We played some music to sooth our souls.
Hannah was in workout gear and I was in a skirt and sandals. I would normally just say that I wasn’t really dressed for walking around a park so we should just leave, but since I love that park and I’m doing at least 1% effort to better my days, we walked.
There are several fun things for the kiddos to climb on, like this turtle.
We have always loved the mossy pond. But the best thing about just taking a walk for no reason is that we got to have a really good, deep conversation about her feelings, the future, just a little bit of everything. I loved that none of this was planned, it was just a spur of the moment adventure, that to me are the best kind.
When we got home I help Jackson find the right website to make an appointment with the DMV. Hannah got online and finished her college application. She realized that she needed her high school transcript so I called the school and they said they would have it ready for us. Jackson decided to come with us so off we went to their old high school for probably the last time.
It’s so strange to see all of the lights off and no voices in the hallways. The end of one era and the beginning of another.
We decided to try the train station one more time. It was finally unlocked and we ran in to drop off the books.
It might not seem like I got a lot done today, but I really did. Things we had been putting off doing and just being with my kids made it such a successful day. I can’t ask for more than that.
I HATE writing this post. Saturday night Queso and Monkey did not want to come in the house. It’s not unusual for them to be outside. Queso was my daughter’s cat that we took in when she moved to the Hill Country. Donny and I both fell asleep in the living room watching a movie. I got up about 1 am and since he looked so comfortable I let him sleep. He later told me that at about 3 am he heard a cat ruckus outside. This isn’t unusual because we have a very cat friendly street and there are a lot of strays that we feed. He went outside to look around to find Queso and Monkey to bring them in. He couldn’t find them.
Sunday morning Milo woke me up to go outside at 6:10. I always start the coffee and then go outside to make sure the cats have food and fresh water. When I walked out onto the patio I saw Queso laying under the big table. I called him but he didn’t respond. I got closer to him and realized that he wasn’t breathing. My heart broke. I went inside and woke Donny up. We picked up Queso’s body to see if we could see anything that would explain what happened to him. Nothing. Not a scratch that we could see. He had looked like he was just sleeping. We wrapped him in his blanket and buried him in the backyard.
This was the last picture I took of him. He was the coolest cat. He weighed 15 pounds and would not take no for an answer. He loved HARD. His favorite place to sleep was on my pillow with his arms wrapped around my neck. He loved to give kisses. He wanted all the other cats to be his friend. He would stand guard on our cars or the trash cans. His favorite place to nap outside was the plant shelf.
Taken during a thunderstorm.
His favorite napping spot.
Always wanting to help.
Late night snuggles.
Loving any basket, bag or box.
He and Milo were best friends. They always wanted to be near each other. Milo is having a hard time with Queso not being here. He wants to be in the same room as I’m in and if he’s not he will loudly meow. We are all going to miss Queso so much. He was definitely one of a kind and it felt like he was always more human than cat.
P.S.
We found some coyote tracks in the ditch mud so now we believe that he tried to fight off a coyote and when he howled he scared it off. There must have been damage that we couldn’t see.
On Friday Jackson graduated from high school. I cannot believe how fast time flies by. I know that he will cherish his time at East Texas Charter School and that him going there was the best decision ever. Small class size, teachers that truly care and an amazing superintendent that kept the school in tip top shape made for an amazing 4 years.
The students get to pick their first and second choices of who to stand up and speak about their time at ETCS. Jackson picked his favorite teacher Mr. Damoude.
It’s so interesting to hear about each graduating senior. I’ve never been to another school that does this. There are no valedictorians. Each student has a chance, if they choose, to speak after the teacher gives their speech. Jackson did not want to.
There were a whopping 29 graduates this year.
Group shot before the hat toss.
A proud dad who unfortunately had to go back to work right after this was taken.
Proud mom and sister.
Jackson’s best friends. Two of them will be also heading off to Kilgore College in the Fall.
We have a tradition that when it’s your birthday or another special event, you get to pick whichever restaurant you want to have dinner. Jackson’ picked Rotolo’s. I loved it because they have cauliflower crust pizza. That was the last meal I have eaten because I got sick.
Right before we were about to leave I started having floaters in my eyes. The headache came right after we got home so I went to bed early. Saturday morning I woke up and felt like I couldn’t get out of bed. My body felt like it was made of lead. I still had a horrible headache. I ended up sleeping all day.
Sunday I was feeling a little better so I made a quick Aldi run. When I got home my stomach and back were cramping so badly. I was also coming down with a UTI. The fatigue was also back in full force. I asked Donny to pick up so AZO and cranberry juice. He knew that I was not eating sugar so he picked me up the only zero sugar he could find. I highly recommend NEVER getting this juice. My whole body puckered and seized up. I tried diluting it with water and stirring in some honey. Nope, that didn’t work at all. Hannah didn’t know that it was awful and had the same reaction.
I went to bed early on Sunday night and by Monday I still wasn’t feeling well. Now let’t throw in a sore throat and my TMJ acting up. It’s like my body’s check engine light came on. I slept most of the day, again. Today I feel like I’m at 75% which I’ll take over the previous days.
To make matters worse a skunk sprayed a possum right outside our patio door on Sunday night. If I hadn’t known better I would have sworn it had sprayed in our kitchen. It made Donny so sick to his stomach and gave me another headache. So that’s how the weekend ended.
I am ready for some good days ahead that’s for sure.
I know I’ve mentioned it on here before, but for a while we have been trying to go to the Morris Theatre in Daningerfield, TX. I checked the weather and on Thursday, it was supposed to be right above freezing. Hannah happened to be off and it’s Donny’s normal day off so we decided to make it a family night of going out to dinner at Arnold’s in Lone Star and then driving a few miles down the road to Daingerfield.
Hannah ended up not feeling well and Jackson was into doing something with his friends online so we decided to make it a date night. After grabbing the kids some Sonic, because I hadn’t planned on dinner since we were going out, Donny and I got a late start. Arnold’s was too crowded for us to be able to make the only showing that night, which was at 7:30. We drove to the theatre and everything was dark. Granted we were there 40 minutes before the show started. Donny peaked in and said, “Hey, they have hotdogs”, so we just decided to press out luck and have a movie concession dinner.
As we were getting out of the car the marquee lights came on.
When we got up to the ticket window we were told that our movie was playing in the upstairs theatre and the heating had gone out for that space. She told us it’s about 55 degrees, but if we didn’t want a ticket she’d understand. Oh, hell no, we were going to see a movie in this theatre. Luckily I had brought a pretty big wrap so we gave the go ahead.
At the concession we bought a large popcorn (freshly popped and it was divine), 2 hotdogs, 2 good sized drinks and a box of candy. Are you ready for it? The total was $20. So for a movie and concession it cost us $23.
When we walked up the stairs and entered the theatre, there was no one there. It was a little spooky.
We were about 30 minutes early so we just sat there munching away on our food. I know I already said it, but if you know how much I love popcorn, this stuff was AMAZING.
About 10 minutes before the movie started people started showing up and all in all there were about 15 more people. How were the previews you might ask. They don’t show previews. Instead there are little commercial ads for businesses in the town and little nearby towns.
Although we could tell when the temperature started dropping outside because it kept getting colder and colder while we watched Wolf Man. We still had such a good time and will definitely be back.
P.S.
If you are wondering how the movie was we both enjoyed it. I absolutely adore Julia Garner and will see anything that she’s in. Ozark is probably one of my very favorite series and her character was by far my favorite.
If you like the older movie, The Fly with Jeff Goldblum, it is shot very similar to that movie. If you are expecting the Wolfman to look like what you remember from older movies you will be disappointed. The special effects are very well done though. Donny and I both said that the theatre being so cold actually added to the ambiance of the film.
My sister is 14 years older than I am. I have no other siblings, it’s just the two of us. When I was 3 years old she started dating this guy that was quite a bit older than she was. She was a senior in high school at the time. I’m not exactly sure how my parents felt about it because I was too young to be included in these conversations, but I know that they probably weren’t too happy. The only things I remember about him was that he drove a big car and, in my 3 year old mind, he wasn’t bad looking. His name was Fred.
Here is a picture of my sister and me. I was the mascot for her high school drill team.
My sister broke up with Fred. From what I have gathered is was an ugly breakup. She left for Kilgore College when I was 4. We were living in Corpus so it was, at that time, about an 8 to 9 hour drive. He followed her up to college and my parents had to get the college security involved. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but it was about to get worse for us in Corpus Christi.
We started receiving obscene phone calls at all hours of the night. We didn’t know who or why they were calling, but my parents finally found out that someone had written our phone number on just about every sleazy bar bathroom wall there was. My parents fully believed that it was Fred who had done it since we had had so many problems from him.
Then one day my mom got a phone call from a women she didn’t know. She told my mother that she had gone to San Antonio with Fred and while they were there he had told the woman that he blamed my mother for him and my sister breaking up. He told her the only way he knew to ruin her life was to kidnap her youngest daughter, which was me. The woman was freaked out about it because, as she told my mother, he was serious and she thought he was crazy. My mother got in touch with the police, but because she didn’t have this woman’s phone number, this was way before caller ID, they couldn’t do anything. They did come out and show her how to shoot a gun and told her that if he was climbing into our window to shoot him and drag the body inside.
By this time I was 5 years old. Everything was going smoothly. We would still get phone calls, but we had someone go into every bar restroom in Corpus and if they saw anything about us they made sure it was taken care of.
Fast forward several years. It was a Sunday morning and my parents and I were getting ready for church. The phone rings and I answered it. There is a man on the other end and he asks, “Stacy, how old are you now?”. I asked, “What?’ and he repeated what he had asked me. I told him “I’m 11.” and he hung up. I went into my parents bedroom because for some reason the call really made me anxious. My dad just looked at my mom and said something like, never tell anyone how old you are on the phone. Now mind you, I had absolutely NO idea that he had threatened to kidnap me. I still ran around outside with my friends and came in when the street light came on or my Aunt Norma rang the big bell. It was life as usual.
A couple of years go by. We live out in the country. My dad was Principal of the school that we lived right next door to. Our house was kind of tucked away behind the school. My grandfather, on my mother’s side, lived with us 6 months out of the year and with my aunt in Mandeville, LA the other 6 months. That arrangement had been going on for years. One day our phone rings and the man on the other end of the line asks me, “Stacy, where is your grandfather?”. We had recently taken him back to Louisiana for his 6 months with my aunt. Luckily my dad was standing right there when the phone rang and he took the receiver from me and told Fred not to call us ever again. I still didn’t know the extent of the situation.
Now we have moved into the city of Corpus. I was getting ready to graduate high school. My cousins, who lived in this tiny town in Texas near San Antonio, came down to go to the graduation. We were all sitting around the kitchen table talking when my cousin told my mother that they had the weirdest thing happen to them recently. This guy walks up to their home, they lived on a dairy farm far from anything and down a dirt road, because he had car trouble and asked to use their phone. I need to mention that they are the ONLY people in Texas that have our last name that we are related to. It is also a very unusual last name. He asked what their names were. When they told him, he asked if they had relatives in Corpus. They told him that they did and confirmed that it was our family. The very next question out of his mouth was, what is Stacy doing now. They didn’t know not to tell him, so they told him I was graduating from high school and told him where I was going to college. My mother’s face turned white and she asked my cousin, “What was his name?’. My cousin couldn’t remember so she called out to her husband in the next room and he said, “Oh, it was Fred, Fred Lerma”. My parents told them what had been happening for years and they felt so bad for telling him anything about me. They said he just seemed so nice and what a coincidence it was that he happened to have “car trouble” right by their house. They told my parents that all he really wanted to talk about was my family and mainly me.
This is when my parents had to tell me what was going on because now that he knew where I was going to be going to school and the fact that it was several hours away meant I had to be very aware of my surroundings. It really did freak me out now that I had all of the pieces to the puzzle. My parents had told me when I was younger that if I ever saw Fred near our home or anywhere that I should immediately tell them and not to speak to him but to just get away from where he was. I did think that was a little weird at the time. One day I was playing outside and a car that looked just like his pulled around to our house. I jumped up and ran inside to tell my mother but it turned out to just be a friend of my sister’s coming to visit. Even though I was very young I still remember the fear when I saw that car.
I have no answers to why he did this. My sister doesn’t like talking about it and my parents are both deceased. I never heard anything about him after my graduation, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t still keeping tabs on me. I couldn’t figure out why there was a big gap from when it first started until the phone calls started, but when I googled him I found out that he had enlisted in the army.
Here is his death information and the picture of him that I found on his social media.
The Funky Frugalista 