Sunday, November 19, 2017

Saturday With my Older Grands!

  I was up early Saturday morning baking brownies before Louis Dean even thought about waking up.
The coffee was on and the brownies were smelling good - I added a 'secret ingredient to them - crushed potato chips!  I enjoyed the very last day of my fall decorations. I carried my coffee and sipped as I walked through each room admiring this last day of my most favorite season. My plans were to start taking it all down that evening when I got home - and so I did.

But first, I had ball games to go to and grandchildren to see!


My first stop was at Faith's Basketball game!
This is my first born grandson, Sam! He's 15!


Faith is 13 and quite the basketball player.
I mean, she is REALLY good!
Faith is #21!

After her game, it was on to University of Texas at Arlington stadium for Levi's game.


It was the Championship game!
Levi is 11.


I love how these kids are each other's #1 Fans!


It was a cold and windy day and we were high up in the stadium!
That is a huge football field!


My daughter in law, Leigh Ann, brought food in for us to eat lunch before the game started.
That's my son, Jesse, on the far left and Faith, Sam, Linda - the other grandmother - and me!


Did I mention it was COLD and WINDY??
Linda and Leigh Ann both thought ahead and brought blankets for all of us!
You can see me at the end all covered up in one!


Beautiful Leigh Ann and Handsome Jesse!
They make such a great couple!

We cheered and yelled and cheered some more!


And the Mustangs WON!!!!!


I loved watching all their excitement!!!

I got back home after 5:00.
Louis Dean had been left 'Home Alone' and cooked pinto beans in the pressure cooker after making a run to the grocery store for Thanksgiving food.


The beans were good and the pressure cooker didn't blow up!
Last year our old one bit the dust and he went out and bought THREE new ones all in different sizes!


I made cornbread to go with the beans.


This is a real good recipe and Louis Dean loves my cornbread.
So much so that this morning I got up and made him another batch....
plus I made two batches of the dry ingredients, labeled them and put them in the pantry for the next time he gets hungry for cornbread - which is fairly often!

I hit the ground running as soon as we got home from the ranch and, after running around for two days, I bit the dust and was in bed last night before 9:30! I stayed in bed until after 9:00 this morning.
We watched Fellowship Live on TV and Louis Dean has had the entire day off.
I have been steadily packing up all of fall all day long! Literally.
Tubs are piled high on the back deck and the walkway is covered with black and white trash bags filled with debris. Our house looks a bit vacant now.
That won't last long.
Tomorrow Louis Dean will help me put it all in the storage building and I will clean the house up before opening up the Christmas House - that's what we call the Christmas storage building which used to be Amber's play house.

I'm up a bit later tonight than I have been lately. I was beginning to wonder if I was losing my Night Owl habits!








19 comments:

rejoyce said...

Linda, my friend is looking for a huckleberry-pumpkin pie recipe. I am wondering if it would in one of your well-loved cookbooks. The restaurant in Montana will not share the recipe, and I am wondering if you or any of your friends have ever heard of it and may have a recipe. Can't wait to see how you decorate for Christmas. But before that -- Happy Thanksgiving to you and Louis Dean.

Denise said...

Good times with the grandchildren, even though it was cold. The beans and cornbread look delicious. Do you have an instapot? I have one but afraid of it.

Deanna Rabe - Creekside Cottage Blog said...

What a fun full day! I know you are going to embrace Christmas the way you do the fall! I know your home and your home in the country will be so pretty!

Joy@aVintageGreen said...

What a wonderful day to be out watching some of your grandchildren in their various sports. Family is so important. You are looking wonderful Linda, I think you must be feeling better than you were.
Joy

Small Kucing said...

Congratulations to Levi.

What an exciting day for you all. Good support too despite the cold and windy day

Kathy said...

You had a full fun day of sports with the grands. I'm leaving my fall up for another week. Even though I love Christmas, I always hate to let it go.

Ginny Hartzler said...

Wow, he won a trophy! It is always so much fun to watch the grandkids play sports! I still have our fall decorations up. Good thing, because we had company today. But I will have to start decorating for Christmas this week.

Bluebird49 said...

What a beautiful family Jesse has. I don't think Levi's smiling eyes could have been brighter. Big win, and playing on a university field must have been so fun.
Can't wait to see you Christmas decor soon.
Hopefully we'll be able to spend Thanksgiving with our son. He and David are coming here in the morning and afternoon tomorrow. "Pop and MiMi" will have to get up a bit earlier, and I don't mind one bit! It's wonderful having them here talking and laughing, sleeping on the sofa...whatever!I know my son will message me to see what I want for breakfast!I've got to start saying nothing, because they pick up great breakfast sandwiches, and they stop before they leave in the evening and bring MORE things to eat. I'm trying to lose, not to gain...so I'm going to have to say "NO thanks" tomorrow!
Love you, friend!
Trudy

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

Hi Linda!
I also spend many hours watching the grandchildren play their sports--and I love every minute of it like you do.
I know your Christmas house will look very beautiful. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving with your lovely family!

Pat

Nancy Chan said...

How nice to wake up in the morning to the smell of coffee and freshly baked brownies! You are a great fan to your grandkids! Nice looking cornbread!

NanaDiana said...

What a lovely walk through your days with you. We always have lots going on with the grandkids, too. It is fun to keep busy...but nice to have some down times, too. xo Diana

Susie said...

Linda, You sure have a good looking family. I love the happy smiles...even in the cold. The coldest I have ever been was at my grandson's Lacrosse game...it spit snow and sleet...big coats and hand warmers saved the day. But it was worth just being there with everyone. I know once you start taking down décor you will have the next season's look up soon. Blessings to all, xoxo,love, Susie

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

What a wonderful day with the sporting folks in your family... bless you for sticking it out in the cold. It got very cold here and we even saw some snow yesterday. I have at least twice the amount of Christmas decorations that I do for fall. So putting up fall won't be hard to do here, but getting out Christmas is going to be another thing all together. I will be looking forward to seeing your Christmas house. Those beans and cornbread sound like a little bit of heaven to me. I do love them! Hope your Monday is off to a great start. Cold but sunny here !

MadSnapper said...

the game though cold/windy looks like everyone had a blast. and good job LD staying home alone and no mishap with the pressure cooker either... I love cornbread to. last week we had black eyes and I made corn bread hoe cakes 4 of them 4 inches in size. bob ate one. guess who ate 2 that day and one the next and guess who went up by 1 pound in 2 days. but it was worth it and I dropped the pound the next day

Vee said...

The grands may be the older batch, but they are some kind of handsome/pretty! Glad that it was a good family day. Those last game days of the season sure can be cold. Merry on, my friend!

Carole said...

Would love to see a pic of your house in a vacant state! Cheers

Wanda said...

Hi Linda ~ Older grands are so fun. Now we have more "adult" grandchildren than young ones. Have enjoyed football, waterpolo, concerts, plays...etc. I'm not sure what hit me...I think it was watching all the Hallmark Christmas movies, but Thanksgiving is down.....and my Christmas is up...I've never in 56 years of marriage, had Christmas up this early....Gotta run...there is another Hallmark Christmas moving coming on...HaHa

chris said...

beautiful family, especially those grands! i shamelessly copied your cornbread recipe - thanks for that! and you're right - your cookbook looks like my cookbook!

Arlene G said...

I love seeing your older grands Linda and what a good looking bunch they are. Of course, seeing their parents shows me where those good looks came from!! So glad you had a fun day out with them. I got out my Christmas decorations yesterday as we will not be here for Thanksgiving. I wanted to come home to a decorated house. And frankly I just enjoy the lights of Christmas. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Louis Dean.