Lipscomb County, Texas

I was going to work through lunch, but I don't want to work through lunch. I have to work before and after lunch, so I should use this time to blog.

I don't have any photos or videos, but this weekend should be recorded in Alexander's first year somehow, so I will tell you about it in writing only. Maybe later I can get some pics from my mom and add to this post.

Still not quite sure how, but Nana Gayle convinced us at the last minute on Friday night to travel to Booker this weekend. We haven't been out of Lubbock in awhile and although it was very last minute and odd for us, we loaded up the whole family, Sampson included and headed to Booker Saturday morning. Of course, we stopped in Amarillo to pick up Uncle Marcus. We didn't make it home in time for a wedding shower I would have loved to attend, but we did get to see some old friends before we headed to Lipscomb for dinner.

For those of you who have never been to Lipscomb, it is the county seat less than 30 miles from Booker. Booker is the largest town in the county with 1,315 inhabitants. "So, why would you go to Lipscomb for dinner?" you ask. Well, Mom had said there was a great live band playing and a bar-b-que dinner that they put on once a month in the summers. Lipscomb is kind of an artsy place and has a long heritage as the county seat. I have personally only been there a couple of times and only remembered that they had the courthouse. In fact there are several buildings. A few houses, a couple of art galleries and I think even a grocery/convenience store. I think they claim 44 as a population although I am not sure all 44 live in the city limits.

Since we had made the 4 hour drive and Jason and Alexander had never been to Lipscomb, dinner and live music sounded like a great night. The weather was nice and we had our lawn chairs ready to go. When we arrived, Uncle Marcus, Jason and I were a little surprised that this was not an event that drew most of the people we knew in the county. The median age of the event was 65.

Uncle Marcus said he wished he could videotape that night to show Alexander, because he'd probably never see something like this again. It almost felt like we had gone back in time. It was a carefree and friendly time where time seemed to stand still.

The line for pork tenderloin, black-eyed pea salsa, corn bread, sweet potatoes and cobbler was wrapped around the wooden platform where the band and several dancing couples were already enjoying themselves. The square dance callers were singing a karaoke-esk ditty as the cowboys twirled their poofy-skirt wearing partners. Alexander danced (head banged) to the square dancing as we sat in our chairs around the platform and enjoyed dinner.

After dinner, the hostess took the mic to make announcements and introduce the band. The first announcement was about the outhouse usage. She wanted to remind everyone that if you were using one of the three outhouses in the adjacent field, to please take the lantern hanging outside inside with you so that other patrons would know that you the outhouse was in use and wouldn't have to make the walk until the lantern returned to its hanging position.

The second announcement was about the contest of the night. There had been a "Well Water Tasting Contest" for tonight's event. A family friend of ours won the second best tasting well water prize. Last she announced that we could put money in the big milk cans that would be passed around to help support the band for the evening.

The band took the stage and played some good country music. Unfortunately a couple of their singers were about as good as the winner of last year's America's Got Talent, Kevin Skinner from Kentucky. But, the music was good and many couples continued to dance. I'm sure the band went on for hours, but it was getting late for Alexander. He was still dancing and enjoying the whole scene when we loaded up to get him home for bath time. He went straight to bed and slept long and hard after his Lipscomb adventures.

New Picture

This was taken back on Easter Weekend during the commercial shoot, but if you are having a rough week like we are, maybe you need to see three smiling faces. I think Alexander laughed out loud right after this shot. Ready for the weekend, but feeling better looking at this smiling face, tongue and all.

More Swimming

Alexander did great last night! One trick Mommy really loves and is impressed with is his ability to hold himself on the side of the pool. He did lots of swimming, dunking and tossing last night. Ready to continue swimming whenever we can without the schedule.

He almost looks like he's ready for Daddy to let go. Chasing Mommy and piggy-back were two of his favorite games in the pool. Although simply splashing is pretty cool too.

The back float is Alexander's least favorite.

Swimming

A month of Swimming Lessons and tomorrow is the last one :-(. Alexander will miss getting together with all the other kids, but we will have to make frequent trips to the pool because he LOVES it. We will keep in good practice before getting to the beach in San Diego in about 1 month!

This weekend we plan to show off his swimming skills to our friend Lindsay and then in a month to Zia Lindsey. He does love to show off when it comes to swimming. We have some new pictures and video with Daddy we will have to add later. Here's the first week of swimming.

Telethon and Two Minute UMC Spot

Well, the weekend was successful but definitely busy. I think it wore us all out, but Alexander was a trooper. Alexander got hives on Friday afternoon. They went away and were more than back on Saturday morning when he woke up. They looked horrible! Leave it to Jason's son to get hives on the weekend of his live TV debut. Jason was always sick or injured on his birthday and holidays as a kid.

Alexander had fun at the telethon where he helped answer phones and was never without eager hands to hold him.

He was on the evening news Friday night,

sitting with Karin McCay and trying to eat the mic.

His spot ran on Saturday at 2:30 for the kick-off of the telethon. You can see the piece at: http://www.kcbd.com/Global/category.asp?C=138135. This doesn't include the live part we did at telethon, but it was short and Alexander tried again to hold and talk into the microphone. We stayed for an hour or two on Saturday.

On Sunday, we went back after church and stayed until the final total was announced. Children's Miracle Network raised $1,006,902 this year! On Sunday, we helped our favorite morning DJs, Jeff, Kelly and Mudflap answer phones and they showed our UMC commercial and we did a short live interview with Abner from News Channel 11. Alexander was jumping, waving and clapping during this interview....luckily stealing the show. Then, all the kids went out at the end with the final total and confetti.

VBS started up Sunday night and went really well. Alexander started swim lessons on Monday! More to come on that in the next post. We finally found our two minute spot on the UMC website, so here's another video you can check out. https://www.umchealthsystem.com/truestories/

We survived the Telethon, three nights of VBS, two nights of Swim Lessons and our first three day Red Raider Orientation. Definitely resting up this weekend and looking forward to a swedish massage on Saturday!

Busy Week, Busier Weekend Ahead

Summer finally feels like it is here! Bring on the fun!

Memorial Day weekend was very fun and relaxing! We had toured Texas Tech with the best tour guide the campus has ever seen. We bought a great new rug for the living room. We had some wonderful salmon dinner one night and a great cook-out the next thanks to Chef J Biggs. We enjoy the Drive-In. Stephani won a couple rounds of Progressive Rummy and Speed Scrabble.

This week has been quite an adventure for Mr. Alexander.

Monday, Great-Grandma Ruby, Nana Gayle, Pops and Zia Lindsey all had to drive home. Then we went to a luncheon with friends from all over the world and had to tell some very special guys "Good-bye, until we meet again in Syria and Turkey."

Tuesday, our new babysitter from Perryton, of all places, came over to play with and take care of Alexander. He really likes her and did great eating and napping for a new person.

Wednesday, she was good enough to come back! And I think day 2 was just as good, if not better. Also, Wednesday night we had our monthly speech visit and worked on eating some chuncky avocado. Yummm!

Thursday, Daddy stayed home in the morning until our new babysitter got out of class. Then the day would be spent learning a new babysitter and her learning Alexander.

Friday, our Perryton girl will be back and ending the week on a high note!

Friday night is the kick off to KCBD's Children's Miracle Network Telethon with a Pizza Party!

Saturday morning Mom's going to a baby shower for one of Alexander's future friends. Then we will be on TV around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon. Mom and Dad will be answering phones at the telethon while Alexander will be entertaining the people with his smile, crawling and new tricks. The telethon goes until midnight on Saturday, although I'm sure we won't be there near that long.

Sunday, church in the morning, lunch at the hospital for the end of the telethon, telethon excitement until about 5pm with final totals being announced, and then a cook-out at church to kick off VBS. Mom's doing Arts and Crafts during VBS Sunday-Wednesday nights.

Better rest today and some tomorrow to get ready for all of this.

Check out Alexander's website where people can donate to Children's Miracle Network at UMC to help kids all over Lubbock, West Texas and New Mexico.

http://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=420693&lis=0&kntae420693=A8F61ECE39C54F3BA4C9AB144E7CBDD5&supId=293283626

May

Another fun month down, schools out, Summer Red Raider Orientations are starting and Alexander is 10 months old! Hard to believe, but it's been a great 10 months and looking foward to the last 2 before his first birthday!

This is another year of weddings for our friends. Alexander and I drove up to Heather C's wedding shower in Booker a few weeks ago. We stayed with Uncle Marcus and he came too. It was a fun weekend for Alexander to show off his crawling ability.

Mother's Day was nice. At church, they asked all the Mom's to wear hats. I think most people were surprised that the youngest mom at church would actually go along with the other Mom's. Jason didn't think the hat suited me very well, but I sure got a lot of compliments at church and am obviously very proud to show off that I am a Mom. Alexander wore his "Mommy's Allstar" baseball outfit to church.

We went to Fort Worth and Dallas two weeks ago and had one of the best trips back we have had in 3 years. It was great to see people at TCU on Friday and eat at Mama's on Friday night. I got to celebrate Heather's birthday!! And we had so much fun with Nana and Bumpa. Saturday in Dallas with Nana and Bumpa and at Erin and Kevin's Wedding was too much fun!! We loved the hotel, Alexander got to roam around downtown Dallas, and it was great to catch up with Pi Kapps from all over the country.

Alexander's best tricks are "Give Me Five," "Clap, clap," and covering his face with clothes to hear, "Where's Alexander?...There He Is!"

We had to get out some new clothes for the wedding weekend. Outfits with hats are too cute. But I think Alexander and Mommy have one thing in common, they look better without hats.

Someone was having too much fun trying on new clothes that our friend Davis gave us...

Who, me?

This Memorial Day weekend, Zia Lindsey, Nana Gayle and Great-Grandma Ruby are driving in. Can't wait! Drive-in, cook-out with friends, and lots of playing and crawling around. Three days off!! We'll try to take some more pictures and keep you updated. Next week, we are without daycare and Alexander is going to have an intersting week with three different babysitters and a day spent with triplets. Maybe we'll get some pictures of that too!