I'm back!

Back from a lovely weekend with my family, wishing my niece and her new husband the best of wishes as they start their new life together.

As usual, Houston was hot and steamy. North Houston is awash in fast growth and pine trees...I had driven down that road many times back when I lived there, but didn't recognize anything!

My dad and stepmom and their dog, my old friend Bear, were the first to arrive from out of town. Dad's sort of a desert rat nowadays, living in a tiny community in West Texas, and sort of resembles Papa Smurf with his white beard. Bear is about 15 years old, and spends lots of his time sleeping, but he seemed to remember me quite well. I don't suspect I'll get to see him again, and it will be a sad day for my dad when he goes.

Bit by bit we all arrived. My grandma and uncle were next, along with my sister-in-law's daughter (my niece's stepsister) and my brother's ex-wife and family. Amazingly, enough time had gone under the bridge that there was no real tension between my sil and ex-sil, which has not always been the case! It was nice to see her again.

I took lots of pictures, but haven't gotten them scanned in yet. Here are a couple I copied with my digital camera (bad resolution, but still nice:)



From the right: me, a friend of my niece, my niece and one of her bridesmaids. My niece's colors were black and white...and another of her stepsisters had to put the screws to her not to use fake silk black roses for her bouquet!



After the wedding, the family went to a real Texas icehouse (a bar and grill type place) where they used beer cartons to hold things like salt and pepper, and used rolls of paper towels instead of napkins, and had some really interesting decorations.

Starting from the left, my step-niece, my brother, my father (the blue robed figure in the background with outstretched arms,) me and my stepmom. My grandmother and uncle were there too, but you can't see them.

I was teased a bit about my not eating like the rest of them (here, I had about 6 oz of steak, a salad with vinegar and half an undressed baked potato), but I still enjoyed myself and had no heartburn.

The ride home was bumpy...lots of thunderstorms. But it was good to see everybody once again...living 2000 miles away from everyone else means I don't get to do family get-togethers very often, but I hope I can do it more often than once every six years!

And btw, I was a good girl...when I got home, found I had lost two pounds during the trip!