All in All, It Was a Good Labor Day Weekend

Celebrating Labor Day weekend began on Thursday for me. Thursday morning CBS Bible Study started. We are studying Daniel this fall. I've already done the homework, always a shock to Roy since homework hasn't been one of my favorite things in the past about Bible study, and I'm looking forward to and excited to get to know those in our core group. Peggy and I requested to be in the same group and CBS actually honored our request. Bless them! She and I grabbed a quick lunch afterwards and I headed home to pack for Diva Night in Huntsville, TX. Dena had heard about it several weeks ago when she was there with her mom and sister. So she bought tickets and made a reservation for us at a hotel. We were on the road by 2:45. There was some traffic to contend with, but we made it in time to drop our things at the hotel and grab dinner before the Diva shopping event.

We ate at a great place, the name escapes me right now. It is in an old house and it is on TX Road 30. Awesome food and awesome conversation. Of course upon leaving we made the required bathroom stop and we got more than we bargained for in laughter. Old house, old bathroom with room for two, but stall seating for one. I went first while Dena was refreshing her eye make up. We had laughed a lot during dinner and as is her custom left most of her eye make up on the white cloth napkin. Anyway, when I flushed there immediately came this high pitched soprano scream. Hm mm...never even heard Dena hit any kind of note like that and being the low voiced alto that I am, I've never even dreamed of hitting such a high note. When I opened the door I, and this is going to be such a weird description, but I lip synced the high pitch note as if it was me. About this time any eye make up that had been refreshed was exiting quickly because we were laughing so hard. That toilet had some range. Maybe I should invite it to choir, Mission 250. Dena's turn but as is my habit, I didn't do anything to refresh my make up. It's kind of like once it is on that's it. I might reapply lipstick but rarely do. The question, would the toilet make the same high pitched scream again...? Flush, just the sound of rushing water, but then came the delayed scream and we were all over ourselves laughing upon exiting the miniature hallway that housed the office and restrooms. Ah, that was just a sign of the good times to come we thought.


We drove out to Magnolia Lake where this shindig was being held. There were women everywhere...E V E R Y W H E R E!!! Parking was a premium and as I waited for a woman to leave her spot, some Huntsville Hillbilly Diva in her big silver suburban stole my place. Now there was a day and it wasn't too long ago, I would have pulled in behind her and would have probably initiated a conversation about the rudeness of said act. Chances are, I'm taller than she is and when I am rilled up, I can be a tad, no a lot scary. But dang it, I had my Sunday School teacher and friend in the car and didn't want to be used as a "Debbie Don't" example in her lesson. Also, because of my heart and stress issues I cannot allow myself to be that angry and if I am going to be credible in December when I speak on "peace" I can't be doing that kind of stuff. Now this all ran through my mind in a couple of seconds, much less time than it has taken to write or read this and choose joy. I parked in the grass and hoped not to get stuck. Did I mention that it was pouring down rain? Dena and I shared our one umbrella and made it over to the building. The line to enter was out the door, beyond the covered porch and entrance way. We finally made it inside to become the group that was wall to wall crowded. I bet every fire code violation was broken that night. The celebrity waiters, I thought maybe they would be some death row inmates or something, did a great job keeping the food coming. Guess they thought the only worse thing about women wearing pink boas, ready to shop with some disposable income and dressed to kill (neither Dena and I were dressed to kill, we dressed to bore) would be if they were all that and hungry. Smart men, wouldn't have been a pretty sight. We hung in there and the crowd began diminishing, so we were finally able to shop and actually get past people to touch the merchandise. We bought a few things and decided to call it an event. We drove back into Huntsville and went through the drive through at the Dairy Queen for dessert and iced tea. I could tell you about trying to use the drive through order box, but that is another story for another time.


The night at the hotel was rather uneventful except for being able to hear the man one floor below snoring, the trash dumpster being emptied at the What a Burger and the motorcycle noise that came a little before sunrise. If hotels weren't trying to be so "green" all that would have normally been drowned out by the ubiquitous hotel A/C that one runs all night. Now, those units cut off and are silent for long periods of time no matter how low you set them. Dena got up around 2:00 am with her flashlight to lower the temperature even more to make the darn thing kick on. You know somethings wrong when we both think the room is hot. I always choose the bed closest to the A/C vent.


After a lovely breakfast at the hotel, we hit the road to see the sights. I love that the prison, downtown Huntsville and Sam Houston State University are within blocks of one another. We went to some awesome shops. Dena also took a picture of the brick they had put in the SHSU Alumni Garden to honor her father. We ate lunch at The Farm House. Whoa, that was some great home cooked comfort food and we got our dessert to go. The shop across the way and owned by the people who own the Farm House was closed, but we met the owner when we were leaving. His wife was in Canton and she ran the shop. He unlocked the doors and said to look around and he would send someone over later to check us out if we found anything we wanted to purchase. That would never happen in Houston! We both found some clothes we liked, so unlocking that door was a profitable endeavor. We did some shopping on the town square and headed back to Houston. We discussed stopping for Mexican food once we got into Houston, but we were stuffed from lunch. We had such a good time and experienced such a fun shopping trip.

Saturday, Roy and I started the morning at Pappasita's for breakfast. We ran a couple of errands and then came home to sort through and organized our guest bedroom which right now goes by the name of the beverage barn. Gatorade and Power Aid have been on sale, along with Diet Cokes and bottled water. That guest bedroom which doesn't have a bed in it right now becomes the beverage depository. There isn't room in the inn for it to be anywhere else right now.

Sunday, we went to church. After lunch we went to The Amish Craftsman because they are having a sale. We were looking to get another glider/rocking chair but instead bought a floor model chair and ottoman. Love getting Amish furniture and this time I don't have to be patient for it. Usually it takes months because the piece is built when ordered. Roy announced Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary! I will take a picture of the chair after it arrives tomorrow for the old blog. Upon arriving home Sunday, I took a much needed nap, then we were off downtown to Roy's office. He needed to scan and get a contract back to the real estate agent for his mother's house. Looks like closing will be on Friday. Needless to say, the whole family is glad to have sold the house and the soon closing of the estate.

On Monday we went back to our cleaning and got several things ready for Goodwill. We moved the glider/rocking chair to our bedroom and will put the new chair in the living room. Roy brought home a pizza and we had that and watermelon for dinner. Neither one of those things are on my diet but they ended our weekend in a good way. Oh that and the I Love Lucy marathon that was on the Hallmark channel last night.