Trip home to Longview & the Randomness that came with it

So I'm back from Longview and it feels like I was there for a week instead of just a weekend! I felt like it took FOREVER to get to Longview and the pups slept most of the way there in the backseat. I stopped in Nacogdoches to see Sara Baker and let the dogs pee- we only stopped for 15 minutes, but it took me 4 hours to get to Lview- an hour longer than usual. Here are a couple of pics of the pups!

Zach sleeping in the back seat

Riley in his usual spot behind my seat in the floor board

I originally went down to help Daddy paint and clean up around the yard, but we ended up only having enough time to paint the hallway and part of his bedroom. It was definitely a fun weekend though! On Friday, I texted Staci (Barton) on my way to Longview to see if she wanted to go out that night and get some drinks. She of course said yes and told me to give her a call later. When I got to Longview Daddy and I went out to eat at Red Lobster ( I never get to eat seafood because Casey hates it so Dad and I always go get seafood when I'm in town) and while we were waiting, Staci and her mom Susan were walking out- how random right? It was really nice catching up with Susan considering I haven't seen her in like 6 or so years. I also ran into Dana and her son Ricardo Gonzales -the people who lived next door to me in the neighborhood I grew up in. I couldn't believe how big Ricardo was - I hadn't seen him since he was like 12 and now he's 19 and all grown up! After all of that randomness Daddy and I ate and then I met up with Staci at some bar called Player's. She said she was with her friend Shelly and Shelly's boyfriend and his band. It turns out that Shelly's boyfriend is Jay, Carl Waddill's (my friend Jennifer Mawer's fiance) cousin and I have been watching their band play for years. Again - very random. So we were sitting there watching some band called Teazor and the most random of all random things happened. My Uncle Jerry (Austin's dad) walked in! This is SUPER random because he lives in Plano and NEVER comes to Longview. Turns out he was in Longview for a LeTourneau alumni event and was stopping around town at some bars looking to watch some live music and get a beer. He hung out with us for the rest of the night and it was really fun! Here are some pictures:

Staci, me, and Shelly

Me and Uncle Jerry

The band

One of the 1,384,856 pictures Staci and I took that night - haha.

On Saturday Daddy and I got up and went to work out and Mom met us up there. It was a really nice workout facility for such a small campus and we had a nice workout. We stopped by Wal Mart on the way home to pick up paint (and Mom and I picked up some cute shoes too :) ) and we went back to Dad's and got the entry hall finished. The color we (I) picked out is really cool, it's a medium to light dusty green color and was perfect for that space. I was very pleased with my choice :) . After we got done we all went to lunch at Pizza King (my FAVORITE!) and the food was delicious as usual. We each got salads (their house dressing was the BEST) and then we ordered my favorite - pepperoni and sausage and also a small King's Delight which has everything but anchovies on it. I will have to say that we received the absolute worst service we've ever received though and that part sucked. (Warning- mini-rant) I just don't get why someone (I don't care how old you are or if this is your first job or just part time or whatever) chooses to be a waitress and refuses to smile and be cordial to the customers. THAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. You are there to serve the customer and make them feel welcome and when you ROLL YOUR EYES at them when they ask for a napkin- that's unacceptable. She literally did not smile at us once and acted like we were bothering her when we asked if we could place our order. I have worked in the food service industry at 4 separate restaurants and it's a no-brainer that when you don't smile and you are rude to customers - you don't make money. Why work as a server if you don't want to make money. Why work at ALL if you don't want to make money?? Anyway - she pissed me off and we left her a crappy tip (which is something I NEVER do). (End of mini-rant)

After that Mom and I went out to her house to let the dogs play together. My mom has a 1 year old Boxer named Rocky and a 2 or 3 year old toy poodle named Nikki and they all had sooo much fun playing together. On the way out there we took a couple of pictures of the dogs hanging their heads out of the car window.


When we got to Mom's place I could not believe how pretty it looked! The wild flowers were blooming all over the property and everything was so green and lush! It was gorgeous so of course I took a ton of pictures. For those of you who don't know my mom lives out in an area of Gilmer called Pritchett in between Gilmer and Union Grove/Gladewater in a cute log cabin.

Mom's house and the wildflowers
The dogs running in the lower pastureRiley playing in the flowersSome Indian Paintbrushes - there were tons of them!
All 4 of the dogs playing together

While the dogs played and Mom planted some tomatoes I took a 30 minute long nap in the hammock on the backporch overlooking the pond. OMG that was an AMAZING nap. We really need to get a hammock for our backyard so I can take naps like that more often!

That night we all went to Papacita's to eat (the service wasn't much better than Pizza King unfortunately), got ice cream at Baskin Robbin's, and then went to Mom's Biker Bar to watch one of Daddy's friend's band play. It was surprisingly fun and Daddy's friend Teddy is a hell of a harmonica player. The bar was really small, but was a pretty cool place. The ceiling was lined with bras that I assume women had "donated" to bands that had played there before- that was umm... interesting as well. We called it a night around 10 because we were all really tired and went home and Daddy and I passed out on the couches watching TV.

On Sunday Daddy and I got up and painted his bedroom (another cool color I picked out if I do say so myself :) ) and then went to lunch at McAllister's before I hit the road. On the way home I stopped through Nacogdoches to see Leigh Anne for a few minutes and got home around 5:30. It was SO great to finally see Casey seeing as he had been gone since Wednesday at Chris' bachelor party. They apparently had a really good time and Casey came back really tan and only a little sunburned so that was good. Last night we went out to eat at 7 Leguas which is a REALLY good Mexican food place in Magnolia at the corner of 2978 and 1488. I HIGHLY recommend the Lopez platter - it was SO good and as always - super cheap!

I really did not want to go back to work today, but I found out that I have Friday off for Good Friday so that's AWESOME! Poor Casey has to go back to work tomorrow after being off for 6 days- bummer!

Tonight we are going to the Astros Opening Day- yay!! I am SOOOOOOOOOO glad it's BASEBALL season again and even more stoked that it's getting warmer and warmer every day! I love Summer time!!