Friday Night Traffic Jam

I had to take a different route home from work Friday night. I usually just get right on the Interstate by work and take it all the way to the Morningside area of Sioux City where we live, but I couldn't do that this time. The reason... a scrap metal truck traveling down the interstate had several pieces fall of the truck onto the highway and the cars traveling behind were driving over these pieces on the road and their tires were going flat!!! Over 50 cars ended up with flat tires and pulled off to the side of the Interstate before the cops could get traffic rerouted and get the mess cleaned up. This all happened right by the on-ramp I use to get on the Interstate when heading home, so I had to head north in the opposite direction and take an exit into the north side of Sioux City and drive all thru downtown and over to the south end where I live. Since there was a lot of traffic (5:00 on a Friday night -- who can say "rush hour"?!!) this detour was not very fast. I spent a lot of time sitting at a standstill, but not as long as the people already on the Interstate did! I am just glad that I heard about it before I left work and didn't find out by driving over some scrap metal and ending up with flat tires!!!

Newest Brown Family Member!

(Actually, his last name is "Hawkins", but his mommy descends from the "Brown" side! ) He won't be the "newest member" for long, though... we are expecting two more before the end of the year!

Jordan Akeem Hawkins entered this world on February 21, 2008 at 1:33 PM. He weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and was 20 inches long. Proud parents are Niasha and Lemerl... proud big sister is Diamond!! Niasha (aka "Boo") is CJ's niece that lives in Texas! Her mom is CJ's sister. Congratulations to the Hawkins Family on the newest bundle of joy! He sure is a cutie!! Can't wait to see him in person!!!

I also apologize that this announcement seems a little belated... but now I have a picture I can post with this!

Derek Is On Vacation

My younger brother, Derek, is on vacation this week. He went with about six other friends out to Las Vegas!!! How lucky!!! Wish I could go to Vegas!!! Coincidentally, I also have a friend from work out there this week too! She and her boyfriend are getting married today!!! I do have several words of sage advice for my brother, though... (actually just two things I would like to tell him really! -- Mom probably has a whole list of "rules" for him!!)

PLEASE do not come back married!!! And if you win any big money, bring it back and share it with us!!!

Remember the old saying... Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!!!

A Busy Weekend

What a busy weekend we had! We finally had some nice weather so we could get outside and do a few things in the yard.
Brianna had a soccer game early Saturday morning... about 9 AM. I had to work but luckily it wasn't so busy that I was able to get out of there and make it to the last 15 - 20 minutes of her game. Of course she scored 3 goals -- all of them before I got there!! But CJ and Zach and all the other parents were there to cheer her on and congratulate her!!
After the game, we came home and CJ, Brianna and I went for a long walk. Actually, Brianna rode her bike while CJ and I walked! She has finally gotten the hang of riding without training wheels or any help from one of us, so she likes to get out and ride as much as she can. And of course, she got tired of riding before we got back home, so CJ had to push the bike home the rest of the way!!!!
We did yard work most of the afternoon until it was time for Zach to go to baseball practice. While visiting with the neighbors outside, we came to the conclusion that we would really like to rip out all those trees and bushes along the back fence. Most of them are dead or dying anyway and they are such an eyesore. Now we want to plant grass and maybe a few rosebushes along the fenceline. We decided we would start on this on Sunday....
After church and a big breakfast on Sunday, CJ and Zach went to work on the "mess" of trees along the back fence. They were cutting and ripping out, etc. There are alot of smaller branches and twigs and vines... and of course all this stuff is growing and wrapping around some power lines running across the top! Not a very easy job for them. It took until 7 PM to cut down two tree/bushes, cut them up into smaller pieces, burn smaller twigs, and haul all the excess onto CJ's truck for a trip to the landfill. What a job!! And considering that we have nine more tree/bushes to go, this could take us all summer!!!! Wish us luck!!!

First Communion

Brianna finally made her 1st Communion on Sunday, April 6th!! This was the biggest class to make First Communion in the 10 years Father Jerry has been at our church. There were 59 kids --- amazingly, mass only lasted about 1 1/4 hours!! We thought for sure it would have been a lot longer!

My niece, Sydney, also made her 1st Communion with Brianna. They were so adorable in their little white dresses!! The class also got up at the altar and sang a song after Communion about being a Sanctuary for God. It was a very nice ceremony. Since Sydney was going to be with her dad on that Sunday, my sister had her "reception" on Saturday, while we had Brianna's on Sunday. My mom came up to Sioux City and spent the weekend with both girls. I have included some pictures from the event with this post!

Happy Easter!!!... Just A Few Days Late...

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!! Ours started out kinda shaky, as Brianna was sick with a virus that caused her to have a fever, headache, and a really bad cough. But she was feeling better by Saturday afternoon, so we still had a good Easter.

We all went to Laurens for the weekend after CJ got off work on Friday. We decided to go to Ames on Saturday morning and see Derek, since he wasn't able to make it home for Easter. We got to see his apartment and where he works at, etc. We also went out to eat and one of the restaurants his boss owns... very good food!! It was nice to see Derek again... we haven't seen him since September when he came home for Labor Day. He is going to Las Vegas in April with some friends, so maybe next time I see him he will be rich??!!!!! (Yeah... right!!!)

We got back to Laurens around supper time and Jenny and Matt showed up that evening. After getting the kids settled down, CJ, Jenny, Matt and I decided to go uptown to see if anyone was "out and about"... this means we went to the two bars that were open to see if anyone we knew was there! There were some people, but not too many that we knew... most were younger kids that my sister and I might have babysat at one time or another, but we sure didn't recognize them! We still had a lot of fun and managed to get home and "prepare" for Easter before Mom got us up for church!!!

Brianna got the "Enchanted" DVD and the "Troy" doll from High School Musical, along with lots of candy! Zach got the "Guitar Hero 2" PS2 game he had been wanting and lots of candy, so I guess they both did pretty well. We went to church with Mom in the morning, then had dinner before leaving to come back home to Sioux City. My mom's brother, Bill, and one of his daughters, Collette, came down to dinner and spent part of the afternoon with us. It was really nice.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top o' the morning to all!! Hope everyone is wearing green today so they do not get pinched! The weather is kinda "icky" today -- rain and snow mix, making slush all over the roads. It sounds like it is going to be like this all week. I am hoping this is the last week of this stuff -- I am SO READY for Spring to be here!!

CJ and I went to a St. Paddy's Party on Saturday night -- it was a lot of fun. No green beer (only brown!), but we did have lime margaritas, Apple-tinis, and "Stiff Leprechauns"!!! Never had one of those before!!! (It is the blue UV Vodka with Red Bull or Rockstar Energy drink!) We were still home by midnight, and it was a good thing, because Zach was babysitting Brianna and he had just gotten sick shortly after 11:00 PM. He ended up having a flu bug Saturday night and Sunday... he felt better before he left for school today. Brianna was sick with the flu on Monday and part of Tuesday... hopefully CJ and I are not next! With our luck, one of us will probably be sick on Easter!!! Probably me, since CJ doesn't really ever get the flu...

Well, enough of that... I wish everyone a wonderful St. Patricks Day and I hope someone can catch a leprechaun or find the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow!!!! Erin Go Bragh!!!