Man of the Year

About a week ago, we found out daddy was going to be honored as Man of the Year for my hometown of Li*tlefield. My first response was, "It's about time." Daddy was born in Li*tlefield and has given many years of service and dedication to making it a better place to live. As many of our family members decided we would drive down for the banquet and ceremony. The hardest part was keeping the secret and figuring out how to get Daddy there. It all worked out perfectly. When we all got there, mom came and got the camera so she could go around the opposite way to get Daddy's reaction when he saw us all walking in. Here is that photo. Good job Mom! You did a great job of capturing the moment. Daddy asked what we were doing there and we just told him we wanted to all come have dinner with them. He bought it!

Then we all sat down at the table and began to visit. We always have so much fun and laugh a lot when we are together. The band was good, but was really loud! It was finally time to eat. Our meal was rib eye steak, baked potato, green beans, salad and cake. The steaks were huge and we all took half home in our potato foil. We laughed and said next time we would bring a cooler for all our left-overs. Then we listened to a speaker from Lubbock. His talk was about water rights and believe it or not it was a very good speech and I enjoyed it. Maybe it's because I think about our area and losing our water a lot. Finally, it was time for the awards. They started with Citizen of the Year, then Farm Family of the Year, Woman of the Year and last of all Man of the Year. When the speaker started reading Daddy's bio, after about five minutes he realized she was talking about him and then it dawned on him why we were all there. He said, "So that's why you all are here!" It was really funny. I guess we did surprise him. Daddy is a very humble and gracious man and never suspected he would get the honor of Man of the Year, but he definitely deserves it, but I am a little biased.

Here are some more photos from the evening.

One of Daddy's friends playing Sudoku with Eth*n. This was after dinner and before the speech started.

Daddy receiving his award. I hated that we got the "back side" but that's how they had it set up.

It's a good thing I don't work for the newspaper as my shot was really blurry. Daddy and the other recipients.

Family photo of the whole group.

Daddy and two of his great-grandsons, Bl*ke and Eth*n.

Mom, Dad and their girls, D*rla, L*nda, L*vonna and D*Anna. I love this photo!

It was a great evening. Congratulations Daddy. I love you.

Family Friday Photo

For my Friday Family Photo, I chose this picture of three of my nieces. On the left is Kamille, the baby is Mallory and on the right is Courtney. It was about eleven years ago and we were on one of our family trips to Ruidoso, NM. We love going up to the mountains, but our family has gotten so big we now have to rent two houses and the logistics of trying to get everybody there is crazy. We are going to try a new place in September so be sure and check back to see how that place turns out. We are renting a whole lodge for the family. But that is another story, so back to today's picture. We always had fun dressing the girls alike and had gotten them matching outfits for Independence Day. Believe it or not they were the only small children in our family at that time. My how things change in eleven years. Now Courtney is the mother of a precious new son, Mallory is eleven and Kamille is almost fifteen and will be starting High School in the Fall. We always have a wonderful family time when we do get together. Most people can't believe we all really do get along, but we do. I can't think of a time ever in my life when we had a big family blow up, with yelling, screaming, insults and throwing things. There might be a few ruffled feathers occasionally, but for the most part we really do love each other and like to get together. So from my family to yours, Happy Independence Day!

Family Friday Photo

I know it's a little late, but it is still technically Friday so here is my Family Friday Photo for this week. I was waiting to post because I wanted to give everyone a chance to read yesterday's post about my mammogram. Well, it's time for another family photo. I said I would try to post one not of me, but I didn't have time to get any photos from mom last weekend, so . . . here is the photo for this week. At least it's not just me. In this photo it is me (the baby) my sister Darla and my Grandma Enloe. Grandma was my mother's mother and she was so special to me. I have the fondest memories of her and Grandpa Enloe. It seems like Darla and I stayed a lot with them and we always went on vacation with them. They lived in a small home behind the service station that Grandpa ran and every summer they had a huge garden by the side of the station. They also had a cherry tree and I remember getting a coffee can and filling it to the top and eating every one of them, almost every day. I still love cherries to this day, but some how they don't taste quite like the ones from Grandma's tree. In this picture it is dated February 1959 so I would have been almost two. Grandma would always let us pick what we wanted for dinner and I always picked shrimp with tater tots. Mmmm, sounds good. As we got older Grandma would tell us, go out to the station and tell Grandpa to give you some money. We would then walk to the grocery store and buy what we wanted for dinner. The store was only about three blocks down main street, but it was always an adventure walking down there. Grandma was a major part of my life and I miss her terribly. I have one of my favorite pictures of her in the front bedroom and think of her often. She was the best grandma ever. I'm sure I'll do more posts about Grandma Enloe as her influence is a major part of my life and she is also the one I attribute my orneriness too.

Family Friday, Easter Chicks

I can't believe it is already Friday again. I still haven't dug through my stuff for some really "old" pictures, so again I will use one I have saved on my computer. Again, it's older than most of you reading this. Since Easter is close at hand, I thought these pictures would be perfect for Family Friday. Notice the date on the side of the photos. Even though it says August, that must have been the month mom got them developed as I know for a fact it was Easter Sunday. Don't we all look snappy? I know mom made Darla's, mine and Lavonna's dresses, as well as her own. I'm not sure about De's, but mom you can always comment and straighten out the story. Obviously I had already started slipping way off the growth chart as Lavonna and I are almost the same size, yet I am five years older. According to the date, I would have been ten and Lavonna would have been five. De would have been two and Darla would have been thirteen. When we girls would go with mom to town, people always thought Darla was De's mom. I'm sure we had people scratching their heads trying to figure out the family dynamics. Things haven't changed much, as every time we go on a "Sister Trip" these days, no one can figure out who the real sisters are. Easter was always an important day for our family. We would go to church and then go to my grandparents for lunch and Easter Egg hunt. Like I've said in many posts before, we didn't have much money, but we never lacked for what was important. Thanks mom and dad, I love you both.