Still Kickin.... (and crazy)

First she was Ms. Pruett, then she was MiMi... She has lots of names.  She's been in my life since I was 9 years old and joined Camp Fire Girls.  Her daughter, Misti and I have been friends all that time too.  She was Ms. Pruett to us back then, she was our Camp Fire Leader.  She was the mom that took us to toilet paper houses.  We packed 19 people into her station wagon to go from Farmers Branch to Denton for a district championship football game.  She took about 11 goofy 12 year old girls to Red River snow sking, she drove all the way!!! 

When my mom and dad decided we were moving from Farmers Branch to Garland, we had to be out of our house 2 weeks before school was over. Where did I stay those two weeks, with the Pruetts. For some reason (?) Ms Pruett always thought I was the reasonable one in our group of friends.  Well, the rest of them were all nuts so that's not saying much.

I've kept in touch with Mimi (and Doc) all these years.  When I was divorced, son Clayton and I spent many Thanksgiving and Christmas's with the Pruett family... although they rarely had holiday dinner on the actual day of the holiday... But, that did get us through some lean holiday times. 

It dawned on me at one point, when I was driving Clayton and a bunch of his friends around .... I had become Ms. Pruett!  Then I realized there was the exact same age difference between her and Misti, as there is between Clayton and I. Weird.

When mom died, they came to see me, just to make sure I was ok.  Both Mimi and Doc loved and respected my parents very much. 

When Amanda became so sick after Emmy was born, I realized Ms. Pruett had been through the same thing years before when her daughter Darbi was born. She checked in on Amanda all the time.  Giving me great info.  This past Christmas we took Emmy to see the Pruetts and it was so much fun.

The Pruetts are in Port Aransas enjoying life and they deserve it.

Traveling Matilda, trip 2

Last weekend we headed north to Winstar Casino to see the legendary country group Alabama. It was everything I wanted it to be.   But first, we had to get there.  The temperature was a balmy 30 something degrees with the wind blowing about 100 miles an hour.... well, that's what it felt like.

We headed up I35 North out of Dallas with a stop at Camping World to check out fabric for the awning. We knew it was in bad shape and really hadn't pulled it out far, we were afraid we wouldn't be able to get it rolled back in and then we'd be in a big ole pickle.  Of course they said we need more than just the fabric or get a whole new awning.... we'll just make due for now with our stand alone pop up as our awning.

So, the rest of the drive isn't bad.  The Winstar RV Park is very close to the casino.  Not within walking distance but close.  Check in was super simple and the ladies were extremely nice.  Who knew that with a players card, your first night there is free!!!  They were also very accommodating in putting us a little farther away from everyone and close to the doggie relief area for Rebel.  They did tell us that a few campers had some frozen plumbing on the previous night.  We had already decided we weren't going to even bother hooking up water.  They have very very nice, clean restrooms and a laundry room there.

We got all backed in to our slot, plugged in, turned on our heaters, etc... got Rebel outside for a bit then headed over to the casino for lunch and some fun. I did better that afternoon than I have in quite some time when we have gone up to Choctaw but Winstar seems very dark to me.  Back to Matilda to change clothes and head to the concert... it's now absolutely freezing outside!!!!  Ray dropped me off and went to find a parking spot. 

When you go to a reunion concert, you want to hear the old stuff. You want them to sound the way they used to... Ala\bama did not disappoint. Randy Owen sounds like the Randy Owen we remember. Jeff and Teddy are there as more than just backup.

The crowd was a little older, of course we were young back then, not now. Randy seemed a little winded every once in a while but not while he sang, only in between songs. He also seemed genuinely humbled that the place was sold out and packed. He put on such a good show, he pushed his voice to the max but if he hadn't said anything I don't think anyone would have noticed.

Jeff sang one song that I've got to find a recording of. It was great.

There is no way one concert set and an encore could even come close to covering all of their old hits, that's ok, we're just glad their back.

After the concert the casino was packed!!!!!  We hung out a couple of hours then headed back to our little home away from home.... There are no lights on in Matilda.  We specifically left lights on.  This means there is no electricity.  We hadn't used our propane heat yet and had brought electric heaters.  they were blowing the breaker and it was 38 degrees in the trailer.  Good thing Rebel is a furry beast!

Hubby got it all going, the heater worked great and we were nice and toasty all night long.  I think it got down to about 25 that night.  Coffee in bed sure was good the next morning.