#117 - Upcoming Weekend of Excitement!

This coming weekend we will be having out of town company, mainly my oldest daughter Heather will be coming to celebrate her 24th birthday. Her fiance has been working on a job in the Corpus Christi area, so he will be driving in to join us as well. Several of her friends will be joining in on the festivities. A few friends will be traveling long distance and others live right here in Houston. It will be a fun weekend.

I guess we'd better really enjoy these times together in Houston, in our house here in the city because next time at this year, for our daughter's birthday, we'll be living in the country. But, I'm sure our family gathering for her birthday on the land will be extra fun with a bonfire, catfish cook-out, horse-shoe competitions and perhaps a BB-gun competition with a few pyramid tin can setups.

 

Part of her weekend will include Heather taking her bridesmaids to try on bridesmaid's dresses. That should be fun. Stefie will be Heather's Maid of Honor, her sister will stand up for her and I am sure Stefie will be the family member and best-friend who will stand up for Heather throughout their lifetimes. Having a sister is truly a blessing. It's wonderful to see them hit this "big girl" phase. They aren't just playing dress-up any longer; this is the real deal. It's still just as much fun, maybe more so.

But, the main event scheduled for the weekend is for all of us to celebrate her birthday. This weekend, the entire gang will be going to a piano bar in downtown Houston so that our daughter can be picked on in front of everyone. I believe this is a dueling piano bar and if you've never been to one of these venues, it's something to experience and to always remember. It's a great time for young and old alike.

My sister and I are both May babies. One year my entire family went to a dueling piano bar in Austin off of 6th Street for our birthdays. Of course, when they called me up to one of the pianos, the pianist was saying, "I got the sister with the HOOKER name while you've got the sister with the sweet little bird name."

Meaning...my sister's name is "Robin" and she was put at the other piano. Regardless, me and my "hooker" sounding name had a great time. Just so you know, they used my middle name, not my first name, "Lana." So, "Lana" was not the hooker name. We all know that Lana is a movie star name. Duh. I guess my name symbolizes the hooker movie star kind of namesake. What can I say? All I can offer is that my parents WERE Hippies.

Anyway, on 6th Street that night so many years ago, these dueling pianists brought the place to hysterics at the expense of myself and my sister. Getting sisters on their birthday is quite a reason for these clowns to cut loose, let me tell you. But, I admit, it was hysterical. My parents were there, my brother and his wife, our friends and our little crowd brought in some hefty numbers for the piano bar. It was a lot of fun, so I'm looking forward to going to the the dueling piano bar for my daughter's 24th birthday, and I'll try to get some of it on video to post here next week.

And for the record, "Heather" is named after a beautiful flowering plant indigenous to Scotland. Not a hooker.

Us three girls having lunch in downtown Houston with Deputy Dave.

We are a family who enjoys doing fun things together. We go to the rodeo, we go to comedy clubs, we go to live theater performances, we enjoy festivals and more. Most of all, we enjoy being together.

My father won't be able to join us this coming weekend because he'll be out of town doing his normal yearly thing with his cousin. Every year, my dad and his cousin fly out of town for stock car races.

Heather and her Paw-Paw on her Texas Aggie ring day.

As for the flying part, they don't have to go to an airport since my cousin handles that part on his own.

Will, my cousin in Hawaii as he is surfing for the first time
at 60 years of age. Sure looks like fun, probably as much fun as flying.

My cousin lives outside of the Houston area in a very unique development. His custom to-die-for home is on a beautiful tract of land that backs up to their own private landing strip in the backyard. Will also has a private hanger behind his house which holds his three planes. So, he can come and go in the skies as he pleases...directly from his house. Will has had his pilot's license for as long as I've known him. Every year, Will personally takes out his plane for him and my father to soar toward their next destination.

Here I am with my daughter on the day she received her Texas Aggie ring.
My dad and us gals are having a great evening! Next is the Ring Dunk! Oh Lord!

So, even though my dad will miss the piano bar fun, he'll be enjoying the races. After the races, they are flying out to their next jaunt which will be to drive their own race stock cars for the day. My dad is like a little kid when thinking about this opportunity. He and his cousin have been teasing each other relentlessly about who will "win" with the best time around the track.

Will tells my dad, "Old Man, it's going to be so sad when I beat you to the curb, literally."

And my dad challenges Will, "No, what will really be sad is when I blow you away...here I am, the old man who drives the Chevy truck every day while you are driving your Porsche on Houston's freeways, so even though you get all of that practice in your sport's car every day, you'll still eat my dust."

I guess we'll see who eats whose dust.

Here is my dad with two of my brother's children.

Meanwhile, I am trying to prepare for our weekend of company. Since I've been doing extra work in the house to get it ready to put it on the market, this means I am painting and getting an ever growing massive garage sale pile ready. As usual, I'm burning fires at both ends and in the middle as well. I'm feeling a little singed lately.

I remember telling my Momma after she'd chastise me for procrastinating that, "Mom, I'm not a procrastinator, I just work very well under pressure."

Yeah, that's me...chaos at work under pressure.

To be honest, this week began slower than I expected and that's because I babysat my niece Shaye on Sunday and Monday. My sister is a counselor for a school district and she had to work on Monday while Shaye's school district had the students off from school on Monday. So, my sister and her family came to our house after church on Sunday and dropped off a sweet looking Shaye in her Sunday dress.

As usual, Shaye and I had too much fun, so all that fun gave me a bit of a break from the house work. And my dad came by to spend some extra time with his youngest grand-baby.

However, now I've only got a couple of days left before the weekend begins and a ton left to do. I figured that this afternoon I'll break out all of my painting gear and the mess will begin. After I begin painting, I don't like to be disturbed. Besides, we all know that when you stop painting, the clean-up process must begin, and I thoroughly dislike that part. Therefore, once I drag out all of the paint materials and get going, I can't stop...for hours. At least my walls will look fresh and clean and ready for this weekend and for their next owner!

My dad and I several months after my cervical spine reconstruction in 2009.
Here he is on his way out to yet another Houston Rodeo event.

And, when I'm 65 years old, I hope that I too will be able to drive around a race-track in a stock car at top speeds. For some reason, I think that I'd be a serious heavy pedal driver. How do I know this? Because I LOVE to drive Deputy Dave's Dodge Ram truck with the upgraded package that has dual exhausts...Mama likes the powerful V8. Vroom Vroom.

For now, my colorful life will amount to a paint brush in my hand while looking forward to our piano bar laughs. As for laughing, I am an expert in this area. My hand may not be perfectly steady with a paintbrush, but I am good at letting go and laughing with abandon.

Let the abandon commence!