A Happy and Sad Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Aileen had so much fun handing out treats to the boys and girls that came to our door trick or treating tonight! It was really fun. Makes me look forward even more to being a Grandma! At church today Grandma Barbara offered a baggie of trick or treat candy to Aileen and boy she snarfed that right up! I keep thinking that she is too old to go trick or treating (25 almost 26)....but I think she must miss it on some level! So it was really cute to watch her be excited that Grandma Barbara gave her some candy!

The sad part of Halloween was that tonight the Texas Rangers lost game 4 of the World series! It was really painful to watch....but I have to hand it to the Giants pitcher, he was good. But now we are on the desperate side of things and really really really have to win tomorrow!!!

One fun thing about the World Series is --- my Dad has always loved baseball. It is the sport that he loved to play and so when the Rangers made it into the World Series, Barbara bought him a world series shirt that he has been wearing every day that the games have been played. And one of the men from work bought Dad a World Series program so that he can keep score because Dad loves keeping score. Kind of special for others to realize how exciting this is for my Dad and to make it a memorable experience for him.

And I know that he loved watching both the President Bushes (Father and Son) throw the 1st pitch tonight! I thought that was a awesome moment myself!

A lazy afternoon.....

Yesterday (Wed.) after I got off work a good friend Becky and I went to Marble Slab (her treat, thank you very much!!!) then went to a park and sat in the shade,visited, ate our ice cream, and read our books! No great plan, just nice time together!!!! Thanks Becky! It was a great way to get over hump day! Especially since it was such a beautiful day in Texas! Then it was back home and getting things done!!!

The weekend of October 15, 2010

Yes, I'm a little behind! But that weekend was a fun one and I don't want to miss telling about it. We had a big family birthday dinner on Friday, October 15, 2010, for my brother-in-law Art and for my new step Aunt Tootie! We went to Art's Italian favorite Restaurant in Euless, Savianos and had a great time visiting and eating....two of my favorite things! lol!


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Then my nephew Tytan had called me earlier that day and asked if he could stay the night and asked if we could go bowling on Saturday...to which I said absolutely!!


(Click on collage to see pictures larger)

It was a great weekend!

I think Alfred Hitchcock visited Texas.....

I truly believe that Alfred Hitchcock must have visited Texas to get his idea for the movie "The Birds" the scariest movie I remember watching as a kid! Every morning about 7:00 am (I use to see it every morning on the way home from early morning Seminary) if you are driving down the road you see birds lined up on every bldg., every electrical line and all over the cement in large amounts on the grocery store parking lots that looks like a sea of moving black cement except that you know it is those darn black birds and the noise is unbelievable as well. I have never been able to capture it on my camera, usually because I am shooting from the road while driving through my windshield so I wish for a better picture (If you look hard you might be able to see that on every line, rooftop etc.. there are birds) - - because this picture does not even begin to tell the story! But sometimes it is a little nerve racking because I do remember the movie and I do remember that I was scared!!! luckily I have not been attacked by any.....but, you never know.....

I've always wanted to do this.....

Last Friday morning on the way to work I stopped at Sonic to get a Route 44 Diet Coke and because Sonic doesn't care how small the charge is they will take your Debit card and because I never have cash on me I handed the girl at the window my card. She came back with a look of horror on her face and said....."Oh, no, I just charged the wrong amount to your card" to which I said, well, how much did you charge.... and she said "$3.88. I accidental charged the wrong order to your card....that is the car behind yours charge" So I laughed, because I thought she was going to tell me she punch in $104 or something..... I told her, "No problem just charge my $1.o4 now and tell the car behind me to have a GREAT DAY!" The sonic girl doubted my sincerity, but I told her really it was fine and that I had always wanted to do this.....so she did and I drove away and felt really good! I should have thought of this idea when I was doing the 14 day giving challenge. But maybe this made it more fun because it was so spontaneous!

A note from Mom Brown.......

10-2-10

Dear Alan & Lois,

As I listened to Elder Holland this morning, I realized I tell everyone I know, all about Aileen and the wonderful care her parents give to her but seldom tell the two of you how I feel.

You two have spent the last 25+ years, 24 hours a day taking care of Aileen's many needs. I have never heard either of you complain about the sleepless nights, any inconvenience, the hard physical work or the emotional challenges you face. Aileen is so well cared for - always neat and clean and happy.

I know our Heavenly Father knows of your constant service and blesses and sustains you during your special mission here and now. I only pray that you know how much I am aware of and deeply appreciate your special parenting gifts. We we came into this life we have no ideas what will be required of us. Perhaps in the pre-existence we knew - some day we will know and understand. Until then we live by Faith. You two have blessed my life - showing me how God intends us to care for one another, to love unconditionally and willingly bear one another's burdens.

You are always in my prayers and will always have my undying love and gratitude.

"The grand cycle with families is that they go on despite earthquakes, or tornadoes, or floods, or old age, or change and decay! As the hymn says, It all works out if we take care of each other."

God bless you both as you continue to serve him so well.

All my love, Mom

It's Allison's birthday.......

I would like to wish a happy 22nd birthday to my sweet baby girl, Allison Brown Rex! Where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday we were at the hospital worried because I was having complications and they were going to have to take you early! I remember when the nurse told me how much you weighed, I said, "Oh, how big!!!" to which everyone in the room laughed, because of course they thought 3 lbs. 14 ozs. was teeny tiny! But compared to your sisters I was very excited!

Grandpa told me that you would be the blessing from Heavenly Father for taking such good care of Aileen and you have been that great gift in my life!

I love you Allison! ~ Mom.

(even if your crazy husband keeps dying his hair blue!)

Time Out for Women 2010

This past weekend was really wonderful! I wondered if since I had been to Education Week this year at BYU, if TOFW might be a little anti-climatic, but boy was I wrong. There is just something about 1800 women in a room with speakers geared just to women that cannot be matched! After telling Alan about every speaker and giving him all my notes he said.....They need to have a Time Out for Men! He might be right about that!

We started out Friday afternoon as soon as I got off work at 12:30 pm and headed to the Dallas Temple to do a session! It was so nice to be at the Temple with these two friends and even more special when I realized that the Witness Couple were a disabled couple. Melted my heart, because you guessed it I imagined how cool would it be if Aileen could do that! The woman had down syndrome, and the man had some other mental disability, not sure what, but it was a very cool experience!

Then we checked into our Hotel, which I can't believe I didn't take a picture but it was a Marriott Courtyard in Plano/Richardson, Tx. By then we were starving so we went to "On the Border" for dinner and had great food and fun company!!!

Next we were off to the Plano Convention Center for the Friday night Concert and speakers. It was so fun that so many ladies from our Ward were able to come, car pool and sit together it was awesome! The neatest thing for me personally and the thing that made my experience complete was that my sister, Elizabeth, came to be with me all weekend for TOFW! Memories of the last time we went, and that it was with Mom, flooded us and it was a special time.

Thank you ticket fairy for making that dream possible!!!

The only embarrassing thing that happened was I had been saving 20 seats for all of our Ward to sit together, and had to leave to go meet my sister at the door to give her a ticket and when I came back there were 3 ladies sitting in the seats that supposedly the person I left in charge to "guard the chairs" was suppose to be saving.....so I asked them if they were sitting in our chairs and they were concerned and said, "Oh, I'm so sorry we thought it was our group's chairs" to which I found out they were with our group only from 6th Ward!!! Ooops! My bad! So I apologized profusely and they laughed and thought it was funny.....thank heavens and much to my relief. The next day they were saving chairs on Saturday for our group and when I came to sit down I told them they had my total permission to tell me I was sitting in their area.......they were so cute and said "no, no, no, give yourself a break!" What sweethearts!

The speakers were amazing! I spent too much money on their books and CD's I had never heard Hillary Weeks in person so that was awesome! Micheal McLean is always good. I loved hearing from the Photographer that did the photo book "Reflections of Christ" and his new book "Another Testament of Christ" was so beautiful and very touching. I bought it for my Dad for a Father's Day/Wedding gift since I had not done anything for them at the time of their Wedding! He did love it and so did Barbara! They had new speakers on the tour this year and they were fabulous as was of course Brad Wilcox. But the most touching speaker and the one I cannot stop thinking about was a Sister from Sri Lanka, West Africa. It was very humbling to listen to her story! I was so glad to be part of this incredible weekend!

Call from Bishop.....

Last night I got a call from the Bishop on my cell phone that I did not hear because it was on silent mode still.....so this morning when I got his voice mail I immediately called back thinking...."Oh, no, what did I do now?"

But he told me that Sunday, while I was leading the music in Sacrament meeting and then during my lesson in Gospel Doctrine, he was thinking about my Mom and he had a strong impression come to him that she was proud of me and he thought he would share that with me.

What a way to start the day! Yes, thank you so much for sharing that with me! Getting messages from Heaven is amazing!

The foot is not healing......

Friday after I got off work I went and had a follow-up x-ray's per Doctors orders to see how my foot is healing as it has been 6 weeks. Monday I got the good and bad news........

The Good News: It is still in alignment and swelling has gone down, no pain to digital pressure or when the doctor flexed my foot and ankle gently around, and the skin around my break is loose --- So, "Clinically" it appears to be healing and going well.

The Bad News: The x-ray shows none or a least very very small amount of healing. So it is "radiographically" healing very very slowly. Which means I will have to continue to wear the stupid 3-D cast brace for 6 more weeks.

The Good News: It appears that I will not need to have surgery to have a pin put in my foot as being out of alignment is not the problem.

Fall + October = General Conference

I am so happy that Fall and October equals General Conference. Every year Conference gets more and more important for me to see and take notes on. I loved every minute of this weekends broadcast and know that Alan came home from the Priesthood session uplifted and wanting to share what he learned there.

I loved many talks, talks that seem to speak just to me, but I loved hearing the words of President Monson!

Return with honor.....

Now that I have this plaque on the inside of our front door, it finally feels like the Alan Brown family home. Alan's mother one year for Christmas gave all of us (her children) a plaque with this engraved "Return with Honor" and every time our children or us for that matter left the house that was the last thing we saw! It is now on our door again after unpacking the first couple of boxes from storage and it is a welcome sight and reminder of wanting to return to our Heavenly Father with honor! When the kids come home now I know they will notice and comment on it as it has always been a important message in our home!

Decorating for Halloween!

Friday afternoon after I was done at work and got my follow-up x-ray taken to see if my foot is healing (I will find out Monday what the Doctor has to say) I went home and pulled out boxes I haven't pulled out for a long time and was finally able to decorate my own house for Halloween! I didn't realize how much it would mean to me to be able to decorate something that was mine and have it look like my house!!!

My style has always been country and antiques and the house is starting to really shape up like that now that I am getting unpacked. Every time I unpack new boxes though, there is shorting out of my parents things and either given to my nephew or Good Will so it is a long process. Which is hard for me because I'm the type of person that has everything unpacked and put away in 1 week - no longer.....I can't stand living in disarray so I am very quick to get unpacked and have things on the wall. But because of needing to remove my mothers things every time I have to unpack it is a slow and sometimes emotional process! But good memories always! Just wish I had some siblings close by to help with the process sometimes that's all.

I have not put out all, but it definitely looks like Halloween is on its way and I know Aileen likes that it looks like we are celebrating holiday's again in our own home!!! yay!

most all of the decorations I have made, but the little block scare crow and witch my Mom made for me while I was living in Utah, far from home and she shipped them to me as a surprise package so those are special to me especially this year!

Out to dinner for Mandi's birthday

Friday, October 1st we were all invited by my Dad and Barbara to go to dinner for Mandi Edridge's (David's wife's) Birthday. Mits (disabled bus system) was really late dropping off Aileen so we were very late, but I had never been to Texas Roadhouse to eat before and Alan and I both said that we did enjoy having steak! It was good and a really fun atmosphere with peanut shells all over the floor! Very Texan! Happy Birthday Mandi and I'm glad we were finally able to celebrate it!!!

Tytan's 9th Birthday party.....

Tytan's birthday party was a week ago Saturday....and you guessed it he wanted to have a bowling birthday party!

Everyone had a great time especially Aileen who got to bowl and knew exactly what to do as she had gone with her school class several times through the years!

It was the first time to see Amber and her Mom since the divorce, Alan, of all people was really worried, which I thought was interesting. I knew my family though and knew that everyone would be polite and respectful, she is the mother of my nephews after all, and we loved her greatly at one time while married to my brother, before she pulled some of the stunts she pulled during the divorce. Then I found out that Alan was just worried that she would try to sabotage the party and then try to use it against George at Court. But I told him he needed to have more faith in people......at least that was what I was praying for, that she would consider this to be about Tytan and not her and George. And it was a success. George did an awesome job he even had gift bags for each party guest to take home....he really showed that he is the real deal - "Mr. Mom".

Alan, the girls John and I, along with my Dad and Barbara (Grandpa and Grandma) gave Tytan his own bowling ball, bag and shoes!!! He loved it and it was really fun to see him get excited and pick it out what he liked at the pro shop the night of his birthday. They fitted it to him, drilled the finger holes, and ordered his shoes to be picked up in a couple of days! It was awesome!

We all had a great time. And it must be recorded that George challenged my sister Elizabeth and Elizabeth beat and beat big!!!! Go girl!!!! Yay! Sibling rivalry you've got to love it. No matter how old you are, it never goes away!