"Did You Bring Your Disks?"

This morning we got up early so we could be ready for the drive over to Grapevine in morning traffic to see our dentist, Michael Colangelo. Ken was getting prepped for a replacement crown. I took advantage of the visit to get Dr. Colangelo to adjust my night guard. I'm hoping I'll actually be able to sleep with it now.

Of course, going to Grapevine meant going right past Grapevine Mills, a large outlet-type shopping mall. We parked by Neiman Marcus and walked in. I need a new belt, so we asked where the ladies' belts were. When I looked at the first two on the rack, I took a deep breath. They were steeply marked down--and the prices were still over $100 to $300 each. Our next move was to head to JC Penney's and the Burlington Coat Factory. We stopped by Bed, Bath, and Beyond too. By the time we left the mall, it was getting late, and we still had to stop at Kroger's on the way home. We got home just in time to eat a late lunch.

After lunch we went over to Ed and Julie's house. When we got out of the truck, Sam ran up to hug Ken and me--and to ask "Did you bring your Penguin disks?" (They have their own Wii game now, but don't have the Wii Fit program. The "Penguin" game is a balance activity that involves shifting your weight back and forth to stay on top of an iceberg while catching fish to eat.) It's pretty easy to tell why I'm popular with Sam!

Cate was working on her homework but paused long enough to give us a hug. Jesse was a bit shy, so we gave him plenty of time to warm up to us. After a bit, he was "high fiving" and fist bumping with Sam and with me. He found it so funny, he'd have kept on fist bumping forever, it seemed.  By the end of the evening, he came and asked me to pick him up. What a cutie! Sam was wearing his dinosaur shirt, and he started telling me about alligators. Of course I had to show him the photo of an alligator we took at the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, plus photos of the kids in costume and the other animals. The alligator was the biggest hit.

Julie was home when we got there, but she had an appointment to do a massage later. She had fixed a nice big crockpot of shredded chicken breast so we could make some Betty McDonald (aka King Ranch) casserole for dinner. Ed came home shortly. Of course he was mobbed by the kids and the dogs (Bijoux and Charlie). It's always a big occasion when Ed arrives! Sam decided he wanted to sit next to Grandpa Ken at dinner, and Cate wanted to sit next to me. Tomorrow night they'll switch.

After dinner we all played Farkel! Cate started out by rolling three pairs. Wow! Then Sam did the very same thing. It was neck and neck for a while, but finally Ken won.


At B,B&B we bought an over-the-door towel rack. We've been having trouble with the shower curtain rods we put in the shower stall to hold our towels. They keep falling down. Unfortunately, the towel rack we found was just too bulky to fit anywhere, but the experience of looking for places to put it got us to thinking. We ended up putting the shower rods in the bathroom on the wall opposite the toilet. Now we'll have to see if that will work for us.

We were planning to take a walk after the dentist appointment, but one thing led to another and it never happened. We took a half hour walk at Ed's while he was putting the kids to bed. We were walking in the cold, with the wind chasing us. It definitely took some motivation to keep on walking in the dark and chilly night, but we did it, so at least we got in some exercise.