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.
Monday was my birthday. On Sunday Donny asked me what I wanted to do. I told him nothing. It was a holiday so the kids were out of school. They are teenagers. They sleep in. So nothing is absolutely what I did. I sat on the couch and watched movies that I know Donny wouldn’t want to watch. I think I watched 4 movies. It was wonderful. I didn’t do any housework. No wiping down the bathroom. No making beds. Nothing but do what I wanted to do. Hannah did have to be at work at 5:30 so I had to drive her there, but I came home and watched another movie.
When Donny got home he asked what was for dinner. If you’ve ever seen Office Space, you’ll understand when I told him, “yeah, I’m not going to be making anything. Can you go get Jucy’s?”. He called in our order and asked if I wanted to go with him to pick it up. I again said, “no, I’m not going to do that. I’m doing nothing”. Chicken fried steak for the win. Calories don’t count on your birthday.
So, in a nutshell, my birthday was absolutely wonderful. I’m not big on ever being the center of attention. In fact, when I was a little girl, I would hide under the table at my birthday parties because I didn’t like people singing Happy Birthday to me. I also hate opening gifts in front of people. That stems from a birthday party I had where my mom made me open gifts and then pass them around the long table so everyone could see what i received. My friend had bought bikini underwear with zebras on them and, oh yes, those were passed around even though I tried to hide them under the table. I was mortified because there were boys at this party. I think this happened when I was 8 or 9. Yes, I’m still friends with the gift giver.
I did get two of the best gifts ever though. Donny had asked me what I wanted earlier in the week and I didn’t even have to think about it. I want a hand held vacuum. He looked at me strange and said, “like a dust buster?”. Yep, that’s what I really and truly want. I have a full size vacuum, but it’s heavy and cumbersome. It works just fine to do what I need a handheld for, it’s just more difficult to maneuver so I would never actually by myself a hand held. But, as a gift it’s the best. Boy did he come through. This thing is SO amazing!!!! It really sucks, in a good way.
It’s a little more than just a hand held, but I can use it on our woven leather rug that you aren’t suppose to use a regular vacuum on. It also works better than the car wash vacuums. The car wash I go to actually has free vacuums but there is a sign saying you must pay for the self service car wash to use the vacuum. I don’t always need to wash my car, but I do because I feel bad if I don’t, because of, you know, the sign. I have to vacuum my car out at least once a week because our driveway is so narrow and dead grass will start covering the floor boards if I don’t.
I also received a package yesterday that had no card, name, nothing. Donny thought I ordered something. When I opened it I swore that he did it because it was another thing on my wish list that I would never buy myself. Turns out it was from my sister. I must have told her that I had been wanting one, so a big thank you Sissy.
It’s a cheese grater/slicer that suctions on to the counter top. I cannot wait to try it! I have a hand grater, but when I have to grate a lot of cheese this is going to be so wonderful. I don’t know if you know this, but pre-grated cheese has stuff on it that keeps it from sticking together and from melting like grated block cheese. I find that gross.
So that was my birthday. I just might do the same thing next year. We’ll see.
Oh and just to record this for posterity sake, I was FINALLY first in line at school pickup. It only took almost 3 years.
Donny normally has Thursday and Friday off, but this week he only had Friday off. I guess it was good because I got called into clean this super fun bounce house on Thursday. Kidding about the super fun part because this one is one of the hardest ones to clean because it’s 3 sections and was filled with turf pellets that reminded me of mouse poop. I guess I’m only semi retired from this job now. It did feel good to use muscles I haven’t used in a few months.
Anyway, the kids were out of school. Hannah is sick and didn’t go to school yesterday and since it’s the end of the 6 weeks she missed her Government final, she had to go in and take it at 8:30.One of the perks of being at a small school. It was teachers work day. I had to take my car in at 8. Of course the warranty is almost out and it has a slight vibration at stoplights, so in the shop it goes.
After we got all of that situated we decided to go to Sasquatch’s. On the way we saw an estate sale. It was hosted by Perry and Co. Their prices are a little high, but we decided to go see what was left. We really didn’t see anything except this dress that I thought would be perfect for Hannah. Ignore the purse they hung above it. It was a vintage dress with tiny button down the back.
We ended up not buying it, because there was a chance she wouldn’t like it.
Next stop was Sasquatch’s. We always try to go on Fridays because they are closed on Thursdays for restocking. We did find some things that we needed.
A 20 pound bag of flour, a gallon of sugar and a bag of cake mix.
Prosciutto, cheese and a gallon of lemon juice. The lemon juice is a bit excessive, but Jack drinks the Arizona tea Arnold Palmer so I wanted to try to make it myself because he goes through it by the gallon.
I cannot wait to try this black pepper fettuccine.
There was one bag of coffee left so I grabbed it because we’ve really been wanting to try it.
Donny grabbed this at the checkout. It’s a plant based chocolate bar with toffee and sea salt. It was really good. I was shocked.
On the way home, we saw this little car for sale that we thought Hannah might like. Turns out it had too many miles on it, but it was in the price range she’s looking for. She’s been working so hard and saving up her money to buy her own car. We are really proud of her because she’s also making really good grades.
When we got home I showed Hannah a picture of the estate sale dress and she really liked it, so Donny and I headed back to Gladewater to see if it was still there. It was, and when I looked at it more closely I saw that there were holes in the tulle so we decided, once again, not to buy it. I’m kind of kicking myself now because I bet I could have found a seamstress to repair it.
Our last stop was Tractor Supply so I could see if the hack I saw on Tiktok actually works. It’s using pine pellets, used for horse bedding, as cat litter. They were out so we had to run to Jake’s feed store where they had it. I’ll let you know how it works. It’s a lot cheaper than regular cat litter.
By this time we were tired of all the driving around so we went home and I made nachos and we watched The Flight Attendant. It such a good series if you haven’t seen it.
And today I gathered up all of my empty containers and the flour is now put away.
The Funky Frugalista 