Christmas In Tyler

Christmas Eve was fun!

Tyson shopped for and then wrapped a last-minute present for me. Thank you Tyson.

Beth and Sarah helped cook, set the table and wash dishes. I love my daughters (handmaidens)!Sarah and Aunt Babe made fruit salad. Christmas Eve is also Aunt Babe's birthday. She turned 98 - amazing. We had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, green beans, broccoli and cheese, rolls and chocolate pecan pie. Whew! Oh yes, lots of dishes.

After lunch we gathered for the gift-giving. Tanner and Bruiser are ready to go.

Dad won the prize for the biggest presents.



Greg is doing better every day and got a coffee maker from the kids.
Sarah and Tyson.
Beth and Matt.
Tanner and Bruiser.

Greg Is Home!

Greg came home from the hospital yesterday - yea! He is still having difficulty walking and the pain is constant, but manageable. He will begin physical therapy next Monday or Tuesday. The therapist will come to our home three times a week. He's making progress every day, so we're encouraged that recovery is just a matter of time.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary Sarah and Tyson - I can't believe it's been five years!

Greg's Hip

Greg is still in the hospital! The original plan was for him to come home today, but no such luck. Everyone in his knee and hip group therapy class graduated and went home today, but Greg missed the party because he was getting a sonogrm and more x-rays.

The good thing is that Dr. Volatile says that everything looks ok, and it should be just a matter of time before he starts feeling better. He thinks that during surgery the muscles were moved or cut and that is the source of Greg's trouble.

He has shown improvement today and walked down the hallway for a good distance. So please pray for a recovery!

Baby Steps

Greg is doing pretty well after his hip resurfacing operation yesterday. Dr. Volatile said that the x-rays looked great and he expects a good recovery. Day 2 however has been rough! We have been warned that this would happen, but the reality is pretty unpleasant: lots of pain, can't get comfortable, etc. However, Greg has been so brave and willing to do whatever it takes. The nurses got him up, dressed, and in a special recliner early this morning. He got light-headed after taking a few steps, but it was still progress.

While one PT (Sharon) would gently pull on his right leg, the other (Rolanda) would gently push and before you knew it he was walking. They speculate that his right leg is weak because he has been limping on it for so long. He went to group therapy this morning and then had another round of individual therapy this afternoon.

Thank you to everyone who has visited or called. People came and prayed over him, a busy doctor friend brought me lunch, a sweet sister showed up with warm biscuits early this morning. Wow. Our family has been wonderful - Jake, Beth, Matt. Tyson's dad (Tim) is visiting with him right now.

We expect him to come home on Friday, so please pray for healing, pain management and progress!

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary Beth and Matt!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Sarah and Tyson...the elves! :) Enjoy!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1188396947

Grubbskey Family Thanksgiving

For the last five years, the Grubbs and the Kirkseys (Sarah's in-laws) have shared our Thanksgiving meal. So much fun! This year we met at the Kirkseys and enjoyed quite a feast. Dad and Aunt Babe came too. Beth and Matt were in Houston with his family, so we missed them.

Janice made the turkey, dressing, gravy, and a chocolate pecan pie. Sarah and Dana brought a green bean casserole, sweet potato souffle, fruit salad, mashed potatoes and cheescake. We ate a lot.

Aunt Babe was charmed by Kevan's dog Lobo.

Kevan gave Lobo a turkey leg which he seemed to really enjoy.

The guys sat around and talked about cars and computers.The women sat around and talked about sales and shoes.

I am so thankful for my family and friends.

Spelling R-E-L-I-E-F

I posted this over on my blog, but it probably needs to be here:

Remembering the old Rolaids commercials, I'm looking for relief from my hip pain and have decided on hip resurfacing surgery. The date is now set for December 10, and can be done in Tyler with the arrival of Dr. Volatile (yes, that's his real name!). The doctor believes I'm a good candidate for this procedure, but will leave the option open for total hip replacement if they encounter a problem or worse-than-expected conditions during the surgery. So, we're down to four weeks, and counting!

Tyler Parade of Homes

This fall Greg entered one of the condos at Stonegate West in the Tyler Fall Parade of Homes. Our friend Betty Ann Davidson was the decorator and did a fabulous job! Yesterday a man asked Greg how much it would cost to buy the condo with the furnishings, so I guess that's good. However he hasn't called again, so we'll see. The drapes are from my dining room, and I said those had to come back home, but everything else was optional!

This is the living room - the tree was part of Beth's wedding decorations at our house. We decided to decorate for Christmas - obviously.

This is the dining room - Betty Ann and I shopped all over town, and everything was very affordable. The centerpiece is another wedding piece.

This is the guest bedroom - notice the naked lady above the bed!

The office - the "desk" is a kitchen table, and the top of a buffet that had doors missing. Betty Ann looked at the two pieces and just knew they would be perfect for the office. Also getting lots of comments on the zebra chair.

This is the kitchen - just adjacent to the dining room. I put the candy in as a "Christmasy touch", but people keep eating it, so I had to buy more. I was the only person in Wal Mart buying Christmas candy the day after Halloween.

The master bedroom - Greg hung all the mirrors, pictures, drapery rods, etc. He did a good job.

The master bathroom - I just love it!

Finally - porch pictures. The porch view is a beautiful wooded area that will stay green.

I am so proud of Greg and the way he has worked to make the development a success. He has always handled himself with integrity and has lots of plans for the future.

The Flint Farmers

Glenwood celebrated Halloween with a Trunk-or-Treat party in our church parking lot last night. Beth and Matt decorated their truck with "farm stuff" and it was really cute. People came from all around and we gave away lots of candy. There was a costume contest, haunted house and hot dogs (of course). And yes, that is Greg in a grass skirt - I had a "Halloween in Hawaii" trunk in the next parking space!

Scrapbooking 101

I admit it - I am a scrapbooking rookie. So is Sarah. She's smiling in this picture, but inside she's saying, "What do we do next!" This weekend we began a scrapbook of Beth's wedding from the engagement picture to the "It's finally over and we're going to St. Thomas" - picture. I think we're organized - after much thought, and we're off and scrapbooking. Our goal is to finish it by Beth and Matt's first anniversary on December 9th. Beth and I made a wedding scrapbook for Sarah way back in 03, so now Sarah and I are doing the same for her. So much fun and such great memories.




Hey Beth - remember these stickers? She hated them and I wanted to put them on her wedding programs. I think there may be one or two in the scrapbook!





Here's a little peek - this page only took about an hour and a half - oh well.

Tyson came too, but seemed uninterested in the scrapbooking!

The Queen's Tea

Since Tyler calls itself "The Rose Capital of the United States", it's only fitting that we have a Rose Festival each year in October.

We have a queen and her court, a parade, coronation, flower show, craft fair, tours of the rose fields, etc. It's quite a social event here in Tyler and brings lots of tourist dollars to the city. While part of me thinks it's kinda silly and shallow, the other part of me loves the dresses and flowers and hoopla. This is a picture of the entrance to the Rose Garden Center. Besides being beautiful, the scent of roses was amazing.

So... Beth and I decided to go to the Queen's Tea yesterday afternoon at the Rose Garden. It's an annual event thrown by the queen's family and the whole city is invited! There are punch and cookies for everyone (we didn't see any tea), a string quartet and like I said, girls in pretty dresses.

Here are a couple of the ladies in waiting. The little girls who come to see the queen are especially adorable - brings back memories of taking Beth and Sarah when they were little.

Here is the train of the queen's dress.

The queen.

There were roses of course.

Princess Beth!

Sweet Sarah

Last weekend we (Greg, Dana, Beth, Matt) went to Carrollton to celebrate Sarah's 25th birthday with Sarah and Tyson. She's officially 25 on October 3rd at 7:02 AM, but since it falls in the middle of the week, we had to party a little early.

First we ate lunch on Saturday at a restaurant called The Tin Star. Good old Texas food - soft tacos, quesadillas, chips and hot sauce.

We decided a movie would be a good idea so we drove over to The Angelica Theatre and saw In the Shadow of the Moon. It's a compelling look at the lunar landings and included interviews with most of the astronauts involved (except Neil Armstrong). Afterwards us girls did a little shopping and the boys, well just waited on us!

We trooped back to Tyson and Sarah's house for presents and a tour of the new bathroom.

Matt and Tanner decided to give poor Bruiser a hard time.

Next it was time for more food, so Sarah picked the Macaroni Grill, which was really good. One of the waitresses sang the birthday song to her in Italian. Pretty impressive.


We all went to church together on Sunday morning at the new Vista Ridge campus. Really a great experience. We came back and had a piece of cake and then it was time to head for Tyler. It was a fun weekend, and so great to have everyone together. Family is such a blessing!