Over one's head

Bryan and I worked hard to find a small gift for all of his immediate family members. Bryan is particularly proud of this random find. It's a coffee mug, with a ceramic giraffe attached to the bottom.

Why is there a giraffe attached to the bottom of this coffee mug? We are not exactly sure. But it does amuse us greatly and we thought it to be the perfect random gift for Bryan's coffee and tea drinkin' nephew, John.
I suppose we wanted to remind John that if he ever felt over his head, he should have a cup of tea with this mug. Then he would remember that there is always someone worse off than he is.

Thanks for the pic, John. We are glad you are using the mug!

House Update: Kitchen

Bryan says that I have been remiss in updating everyone on our home remodeling projects. Perhaps it is true. So, tonight's post features pictures provided by Bryan.

The majority of our house is currently in good working order, I'll have to post pictures from these areas later, as it seems that there are no pictures on my camera from the rest of the house. Our current area of massive renovation is our kitchen. And to be honest, it has been no small stressor. Most of the components for the kitchen are purchased and ready for installation once some major preparation has been done in the kitchen.

As long as we were working on the kitchen, we thought it would be a good opportunity to remedy some of the bigger issues in the house. So, the kitchen is currently being prepped so that we can do an overhaul of the electrical system. The house is wired with tube and knob with 6 circuits providing the service for the entire house. That might have been ok in 1950, but today we have a few more appliances that are a steady drain on electricity. Our goal is to increase to 24 breakers.

While Bryan is working on the electrical project, I'm supposed to be working on the kitchen cabinet doors in the garage. We are both making equal progress.

Here's a few shots of the kitchen in it's current condition:

While we are living in the main house (and no longer in the back house - woohoo!) we have had to improvise a kitchen. The spare bedroom was complete - so we decided to set up our kitchen in that room. We are able to prepare meals with our microwave oven and George Foreman grill. We recently dug out the crockpot hoping to expand our meal options.

This bookshelf and rolling carts comprise our current kitchen.

Hopefully January will grant us time to make significant progress on the kitchen.

Frank's Christmas Jam 2009

Bryan and I spent Saturday night enjoying fun with friend's and music at Frank's Annual Christmas Jam. At this yearly jam members of various Amarillo bands get together and do that...jam. There are never too many guitars or drummers on stage. It's a time for these musicians to kick back, relax and play for the fun of it.

Only four guitar players? Nah, clearly - that is not enough!

Cat's favorite hang-out spot

We have a cat. Her name is Cat. (Truth be told, she was Bryan's cat before he and I met and he is very creative with naming his pets.) Cat has a very rough life, she can go where she wants, when she wants. However, she is also a creature of habit.

For example, on Sunday evening's Cat is treated to special cat food (her normal diet of dry cat kibble is replaced with a plate of Whiskas moist food). Cat is very aware of this routine. Early in the afternoon on Sunday (and only on Sunday) she will begin rubbing on your legs. By dinner time, one cannot finish prepping dinner without first preparing her plate of special food as her talking gets to be a bit overwhelming.

Her other habits are sleeping. Yes, she is an excellent sleeper. If one is looking for cat she can usually be found on our bed curled up on the extra blanket at the foot of the bed. For some reason she only curls up on the extra blanket and not the main comforter (for this I am grateful as it makes the clean-up much easier - only the extra blanket needs to be washed frequently).

On these cold winter days (yes, winter has arrived in Amarillo) cat be found in a new relaxation place. This is a picture of cat enjoying some down time in her new nap place:


Cat has developed a certain fondness for this wall gas heater that is mounted near the back door in the mud room (someday a family room, but today it's a mud room). I have mixed emotions about this open flame gas heater - it does provide a nice warmth when entering from outside but I have concerns about future small children and the open flame. But that's a question for another hypothetical day. In the meantime, my hubby and Cat both enjoy time in front of this heater so for now it stays.

Yes, Miss Cat you have a very rough life.

A bright idea...

Bryan was especially delighted to find this ball cap in one of the packages under the tree. The techie possibilities are endless.
I think this gift really allows us to shine a little light on the subject. Thanks Leona and Ron!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

It's been a crazy month for the White's in Amarillo, so I thought I would take a moment and share some of our Christmas cheer with you.

The first two weeks of December are filled with symphony performances and events. (6 KinderKonzerts, 8 Nutcracker performances and one Beethoven Society Dinner). During all of the hectic symphony holiday oriented performances, neither Bryan or I had much of the Christmas spirit to decorate the house for the approaching holidays.

After the performances concluded, on December 14, Bryan and I headed to the local tree lots to find our Christmas tree. We decided that this year we would have a real tree. We both thought a real tree shouldn't be up for more than two weeks (avoiding all of those pesky fire hazards) so surely there would be trees left.

We thought wrong. There were only a handful of trees left at the time we were searching for our Christmas tree. We decided on a 7 foot Noble Fir. This tree has a bit of character, sporting a rather crooked trunk and everything!

Here Bryan utilizes his manly tech skills and is busy attaching the tree to the roof of our car.


Here's a picture of our tree once it was decorated and in our living room. It's a cheery sight!

Bryan even decided to surprise me by making a Christmas wreath out of the extra pieces from our Christmas tree.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

From our house to yours, Bryan says, "FLEECE Navidad"!

It's true, he actually said this - I can't make this stuff up. Merry Christmas!

Royal River King Marching Band - 1997 Mardi Gras Parade

From the old home movies collection: