Thursday, November 13, 2008

Halloween Party

Marsha Byrd planned out a Institute Halloween party at our home. We were happy to accommodate this fun event. Marsha and her mom came over a couple days early to decorate and make preparations for making this the best ever Halloween party.

Halloween... The party begins!
Hot Dogs and many other deserts and refreshments began the night while guests arrived. Soon the Best Costume contest had begun. Bob Bolster & Maxine Sturges were key judges for the evening.

The Hollywood Red Carpet Walk Began....





Bob Bolster & Maxine Sturgis, MC & Judges























And The Finalist Are.......



The Winner!
Does Marsha know how to plan a party or what! Great Job. I think everyone had a great time.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

New Ocean Blue Deck

Patti and I decided it was time to replace an old blue deck in the backyard. The old deck was smaller and very weather beaten. We choose to expand the deck to allow for more living area to enjoy. We knew who we had to contact to get this job done. SAM REED.

Sam Reed with NPI Construction Installed our new blue deck. We were very happy with how it all turned out. Our deck was built with treated pine. Arbor was build with Ceder. Columns built by Tucasa. Spot lights and other electrical was installed by Gabe Oliva. We also installed misting fans to keep living area cooler in the summer time.

Thanks to all involved:

Saturday, November 8, 2008

BEST EVER Stake YM/YW Dance Tonight!

I'm On My Way To The Stake Dance...
I heard it was the BEST EVER!


Yep, That right. We'll have the last event of the year at the Stake Center tonight from 6pm to 10:30pm.

Best Ever Sloppy Joes: 6:00pm
Best Ever Dance: 7:00pm

Dance Contests w/cameo judge appearances.
BIG Screen Recording Studio's providing the special effect electronics.

Don't miss this years BIG "Best Ever" YM/YW Stake Dance.

Mormon Helping Hands

Early October our Stake was ask to send 100 brethren to Galveston to help with the clean-up. So we all organized and went Galveston to meet at our Galveston church building. This is the first time I've had an assignment like this one. But I have to say that this was very well organized and executed.

Mike King, Ed Ehlers, Steve Scott and the Lopez's and I drove up together. We met at Stake Center about 4:30am then drive to Galveston. This was about a 4 hour trip.

Once we arrived and reported in at our church building in Galveston we were given our clean-up assignment. Everyone received a Yellow Mormon Helping Hands T-shirt so that we could all recognize each other.

We did some clean-up at a home that was right on the shoreline. Just amazing the amount of destruction that had taken place. These are a few pictures I took while on this Mormon Helping Hands assignment. We were all glad to be there in these Galveston residents time of need.


Gary Boucher saving an air conditioner.





Our next assignment was at a home further into the city. This whole neighborhood was under water from the storm surge 5 feet. This home had to have the whole interior gutted out. We had to peel off the chalk board throughout the house and wheel barrow it to the street for pick-up. This was a dirty job. The older lady that we were helping out really was filled with much gratitude. We were all glad to help.

The garbage pick-up arrived just at the perfect time. We just completed the job at 3:30pm and was able to check-out at our church building and head home.

The drive back is another story... 5 hours of pure laughter with some great friends! We were so exhausted/fatigued and just had a funny bone going that wouldn't stop.

BLOG Slacker

Sorry I've been a blog slacker and haven't placed any new updates. We do have a lot of material to catch-up on. I'll get these topics posted soon:

Mormon Helping Hands in Galveston
Our New Deck
Institute Halloween Party to name a few

Hang on... these blogs will come rapid fire!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Cousin John

It was wonderful to meet my Cousin John Alexander for the first time ever. Seems unusual to have a cousin that I've never met but as we know that Uncle Albert & Aunt Thelma lived there several years while Albert worked for Bank of America as VP over his division.

Thrilled to have an opportunity to have him stay in our home. He made terrific Grandma Alma's Taco's for dinner one night and as usual they were a big hit. He even made left overs and they only lasted till the next night and they were gone! Caylah even like them! (I think that I'm mostly to blame fior eating all the taco's)

John is Albert's youngest son and almost completed with medical school. His final rotation is in Florida. We certainly wish him and his family all the best. We sure hope to meet his whole family sometime soon.

September came very fast with 2 Hurricane scares. That was certainly enough for us! Hopefully we can all get back to normal for a while.