Saturday Night in G.P.

I took Jeremy, Erica, & Jelly Bean to the Ranger game last night. Sorry, but I do love to take my grandkids to the games. Oh & the parents too of course. ;o) Jelly Bean proudly informed the people sitting around us that she LOVES Jarrod Saltalamacchia (the Rangers catcher for the uninitiated) and plans to marry him when she gets bigger. That would be 5 according to her. Oh, the glory of a child's imagination! .... Gran stayed home for some bonding time with Connor and then SURPRISE, Megan wanted to spend the night. That's never a problem with us and, this time, Mom & Dad said okay so we had a little sleepover. She did great although she wasn't too keen on meeting Dad this afternoon for the return trip home.

Good Kids

Austin and Gage spent the night with us Thursday night while Alex spent the night with Nana. That gave Shawn & Kelly a night to themselves - a cherished & rare opportunity. And the boys were great. In fact, much better behaved than when Mom & Dad are around. teehee :) We took them to Pei Wei for dinner and they HAD to eat with chopsticks for the first time. little challenges. I'm not sure how much food actually made it into their mouths but it was a fun, new experience and entertaining to watch. Gran survived it quite well (I was at work most of the time).

Busy, Busy

As usual, no pics but it was a terrific early Father's Day on Saturday. After a Pappdeaux lunch / family reunion with Gran's family (an annual event but this time including Cathy who came in Friday night with Ashley), the kids and grandkids all came to our house. Man, what a zoo!!! The grandkids played really, really hard. I was exhausted! Slept really good. .... Then Sunday morning I went on a breakfast ride with some of the gang followed by a trip to see Mom, aka Grandma, aka Great Grandma, along with Connie, Jeremy, and Megan - four generations in one room. She was very tired and didn't look so good but Jelly Bean managed to cheer her up a bit before we took our leave to let her get some sleep. .... I am very, very lucky to have such a wonderful, thoughtful family. Proud of my boys & my girls & all my grandkids. Oh, and lucky to be here to enjoy them all. Thanks guys for making me feel special.

Another One Down

We went to John Robertson's wedding in Austin this weekend and were very honored to be invited to the rehearsal dinner too. John was/is a special young man in our lives and a good friend to the boys. (We're really proud of him) We were even invited to go out on the town with the young group Friday night - the token old folks!!. Had a great time & headed back to the hotel at 1:00AM - yep, stayed out past midnight and had a few drinks too.... John married a wonderful young lady, Melissa. He did good!!!!.... We stayed at the Hyatt Regency downtown using my Gold Passport points and SURPRISE! they upgraded us to a suite. Not just any suite - a big suite! I managed to get them to relocate Shawn & Kelly to the connecting room on the other side so we shared a suite. 1400 square feet with 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a wet bar, a dining room and living room, all with a view. It was bigger than any apartment we ever had and very close to the size of our first house!!! Oh, the pictures. I forgot the camera again, but I think Kelly took some shots. Maybe she'll post them on her blog.... A really fun weekend shared with Shawn & Kelly and Kyle & Taryn who made it down on Saturday.... Most of the boy's old gang are married now. Only Steve and Clint to go. ;o)

Still a Biker

For the first time since "the accident", Connie and I did an overnight bike trip. Made last weekend a 3 day weekend by taking Friday off and headed to Mena, Arkansas in the Ozarks. Nice relaxing weekend but found that we've gotten a bit soft. Had to stop and stretch more often. Oh, and we forgot the camera so no pictures.

All American Sunday

We had a great day at the Ranger game today - Kyle, Kyler, Austin, and me - baseball, hot dogs, and beautiful weather. The boys somehow decided that we were there to eat! After hot dogs, ice cream, peanuts, and soft drinks; they wanted more but Kyle showed mercy for me and said no.... It was also a good game won by the Rangers with a walk off Michael Young homer in the bottom of the ninth.

40

Yep, we've been married for 40 years as of yesterday. So, how do we celebrate? We have the clan over for an Easter egg hunt after which we hang out together for the rest of the day. What a great anniversary! And a very thoughtful, wonderful present from Kelly & Shawn..... It did get expensive for Jeremy though. Erica used my Nikon SLR digital camera to shoot a couple hundred pictures and decided that she needed a camera upgrade. Sorry Jeremy....

Jelly Bean Weekend

It's funny how lively the house is with a 3 year old around. Jelly Bean is spending the weekend with us while Erica wrestles with a fever - hopefully nothing serious. She has boundless energy which gets / keeps us moving. Yesterday, she insisted on lunch at Chuck E. Cheese's. Despite my thoughts to the contrary, I was not the only old man there. Seems that there were quite a few grandparents there. Ha - I'm not the only sucker in GP! ..... Then we were off the see the "cousins". Had a good visit in A town but we missed Booger who was spending the night with his Nana. Seems like a loooong time since I had seen them all but realized I've only missed two weekends - one sick and one while in Phoenix. Am I too attached to my family? Maybe, maybe not..... Oh & pictures? Gran's camera is on the fritz.

We're Baaaack.....

Spent the last four days in Arizona at spring training. Flew in Friday morning and made it to our first game Friday afternoon followed by games Saturday & Sunday. Other than baseball met friends Walt & Barb for dinner Saturday night. Otherwise, it was just a lazy trip. Back to the grind tomorrow.

UGH!

The last several days have sucked! Connie got the type "B" flu and, of course, shared it with me so we've both been down. Can't even see our new grandson yet! ..... Looks like C has bounced back pretty well and my flu has about run its course BUT now my bronchitis has kicked up. This sucks!! Feel like crap. Seems like all the drugs are beginning to work. I finally got some good sleep last night so maybe I'll be back on my feet in a day or two.

Hi Connor!

Connor Landry Goulding joined the clan at 5:39AM this morning.
7 lbs 11 oz and hungry already!
Mom and Connor doing fine.

2nd Anniversary

February 4, 2007 - a day that changed my life. Yep, the infamous motorcycle wreck that very nearly cost me my life. Much has changed for me, some for the better. Looking back a few memories stand out.
- The moment coming out of the coma seeing a dude that I didn't recognize (a doctor) and trying to process the information that he gave me. Bad wreck?? Not me! But wait, I'm in a hospital. What the H---!
- My first memory of family. Jeremy & Erica feeding me ice chips. OMG, those were yummy!
- My second memory of family. Waking up and seeing all the pics of grandkids adorning my little space in PCU. What a joy! Thanks girls.
- The third memory. Shawn & Kyle helping move me from PCU to a regular hospital room.
- And, Connie & Cathy visiting soon after I got in that room. Connie with a cast on her hand. Cathy trimming my mustache trying to give me some badly needed grooming. It had been 16 days afterall.
- Finally, many, many friends who visited while I was there. I feel so bad that I have no memories of the visits but rest assured that I appreciate them just the same. No doubt they were a huge help in my surviving the ordeal.

The experience makes me appreciate all the more what is really important in life. I am so grateful to have a caring, supportive family and good friends. Life is good!!!

I will celebrate this day each year as a second birthday - a rebirth!

Cabin Fever

Connie's had a bad cold so I ran a couple of errands yesterday and otherwise stayed home with her. Stuck at home with a tiny TV - what a drag. But, today she felt somewhat better and the weather was good sooooo I got on the scoot and went for a ride. Stopped in "A" town for some hugs and short visits and stopped in "B" town - oops, not at home. So I gassed up and roared home. Looks like Connie is on the mend. Now if I could just get that big screen TV back!

DISASTER!!!

Now that I have my all world home theater system, I get home today to the news that the big screen TV is out. The repair guys will pick it up Thursday and could keep it for up to 2 weeks while they get it fixed. Arrrgh!!! Back to the old fashioned little TV's.

Beauties

A tea, uh check that, hot chocolate party / slumber party. How did that happen? Unplanned - it just happened. The granddaughters all slept over last night and we had a grand old time! Hot chocolate and movies followed this morning by breakfast at our favorite local diner before taking them all home. They were little ladies albeit with an abundance of energy. And talk! OMG, like a bunch of magpies. Aren't they just beautiful?

Dude Night

After Jelly Bean's (Megan) 3rd birthday party, we brought Booger (Austin) and Lefty (Gage) home to spend the night so that their Mom and Dad could have an adult night out. We zipped by Block Buster for a couple of movies. The boys watched three movies before crashing for the night on their pallet in front of the big screen. They were impressed with the new home theater system pointing out that sound came from different speakers..... This morning Booger woke up saying he wanted to go to that "waffle" place for breakfast. That would be Pioneer, one of our little, local diners that he remembers from past overnighters. So, off we went. Both boys ate pancakes and bacon with Booger cleaning his plate and Lefty eating most of his followed by Booger announcing that he "needed" a chocolate milk shake (that's my boy!). Then it's off to the playground for some exercise. Finally, Booger bagged some "fossils" out of our rock garden before we headed for Braum's to make good on the milk shake promise before Dad picked them up. They were a lot of fun and behaved great!...... Once again no pictures darn it!

New TV

Well, not really but it seems like it. Today, upon consulting my family expert on all things technical (that would be Jeremy), I purchased HDMI cables to connect the new home theater, DVD, satellite, and TV replacing the standard cables. WOW! Like Connie said, it looks like we bought a new TV. We get a much improved picture and improved sound from the satellite receiver. The Goulding theater is now in business. I may never leave home again!

Surround Sound

Today was a great day! All three boys with their six kids and Erica spent the day with us and enjoyed a good lunch with snacks galore. Whoa! It was a busy place. But, amidst the turmoil Jeremy managed to get our new home theater system installed with minor help / interference from me. 7.1 surround sound with a Blu-ray DVD player. Awesome! Thanks Jeremy! ..... I don't have the speakers placed correctly and in their final positions yet but you can still tell the difference. After getting the speakers set (maybe tomorrow), the system has a feature where you can connect a microphone at different locations which will read the sound output and automatically balance the speakers accordingly. Guess we'll be watching more movies now.