Shelby was first this year

Shelby was the first great-niece to cash in her "Day with Aunt Elaine" Christmas coupon this year and she chose to go to Winter Jam again.  I loved our time spent together as much as I did last year - she's such a sweet girl!  I picked her up at school, we went for a Mexican dinner and then on to the concert.  We carried food donations and that got us in for free so she was able to pick out two tshirts.  What a fun evening we had...looking forward to spending more time with Shelby!

Refreshing my memory on high school days...

Waiting in line at the venue

Shelby's favorite artist of the night - Mandisa

Is it 2019?!

As of today's post, we have been under siege with all of the rain!  Remember the epic flood of 2016?  We are fast getting to that point!  Caddo Lake is at 175' today, 2' over flood pool and heavy rains are predicted for the next 24 hours.  Daniel called Wednesday morning at 5:30am to say his house was flooding and he was headed to our house.  We went and surveyed the damage last night and only the front part of his house got water.  Thankfully he has flood insurance this time around.  Aside from WAY too much rain, 2019 has been very busy.  We got a new accounting system at work that I'm learning and a whole new kind of work added in some recent acquisitions, so my little pea brain has been busy waking up!  On pretty days, we have been able to take a few motorcycle rides, two of the girls have cashed in their "Day with Aunt Elaine" coupons from Christmas, crawfish are in season so we've been getting all of those we can and Katie is coming home!!  She's been in Bremerton, WA since last August and is finally headed back south.  She's taken a job in the Houston area so she'll only be a four hour drive home instead of a four day drive.  I'm going to put a few random pics here from the year so far and will try to make a few more posts in the days/weeks to come to get caught up.  Mike and Jenny are coming to visit, Mudbug Madness kicks off and the 25th anniversary Hot Rod Power Tour is almost here, too!  Very exciting things happening in the next couple of months...:)

Mum and I have been going down to the East Bank District on Tuesday nights for the Market.  Flying Heart Brewery is one of our favorite places to eat although we tried Retro 521 and it was very good, too!

One of Flying Heart's local brews - Six of Hearts

The pizza is awesome!!  They do NOT skimp on the toppings.

The crawfish at Drift In are excellent, as always.

Kenneth and I hosted a murder/mystery dinner "Murder on a Train".  It was such a fun evening and everyone wants to do another.  Mitch, Margaret Ann, Jim, Janice, us, Tommy and Pam all enjoyed getting into character, eating and figuring out whodunnit!

Not very often I can catch these three siblings together!

So happy Daniel has brought Sophia into our family.  She is one of the sweetest young ladies I have ever met and she's beautiful on the inside as well as on the outside!

One big post to finish up 2018...and it's only a couple of months late!!

With things so crazy busy at work, at home and everywhere in between, I decided to just throw everything from November and December into one post to finish things up.  I would like to get back on track for 2019 but don't see that happening so my posts will be behind for a while.  As long as I can get things posted on here for my book printing each year I guess it really doesn't matter!

Got my boxes for Samaritan's Purse ready in early November

Amanda and Brandon are going to host Thanksgiving from now on!!  What fun we had and the food was great!

Headed to Waskom for our first ever town lighting.  It was SO pretty and the small town decorations were awesome.

The courthouse all lit up!

Thought I was going to have to get a new washer for Christmas but Kenneth can fix anything - thank the Lord!

 Bush, Curt and Lisa were all in town for the weekend after Thanksgiving and we had dinner, saw some fireworks from their room and then met up again for breakfast - fun weekend!!

LOOK at Ms. July!!!  Kenneth is a member of NELOA and got his pic in the calendar!

First batch of chicken and dumplings for the year and look who showed up for some!

December in Louisiana...still hanging clothes on the line

Met Charlie and Kathy at Simple Church for services and lunch afterwards one Sunday in December

Got to see Cille for Christmas - she still looks great!

Annual Island Christmas Party - we always enjoy visiting with our neighbors!

Getting ready for my "Holiday Family Party".  

Amanda will host Thanksgiving and Christmas and I'll just do one family party instead of four every year!

I love this family!

I got to drive the new truck when Kenneth used my vehicle to take Mum to the airport to spend Christmas in the ATL

 Curt and Lisa hosted a FUN Dirty Santa Christmas party in Dallas and I hope it's going to be an annual thing.  We really enjoyed it and learned quite a bit on the trivia game.  There were also drinking games involved...:)

They're all such good friends and a really fun group to get together with!

We had plans to just hang out on Christmas Day and do nothing since we already had our Holiday Party, but Daniel saved the day!  He came by with a couple of gifts and I cooked up a quick meal for us all.  He makes everything so nice...:)

Our Georgia family stopped by the day after Christmas to bring Mum home, spent the night then headed on to DeRidder.

Got the letters on the gate.  It is now DONE!!!

Pamela Jayne came in for New Year's Eve and we took her and Rita out to dinner.

Another year in the books!  Looking forward to 2019 with this guy...