Slacker!!! AGAIN!

As my friend Shelly has said, hopefully there are people who haven't given up on me for not having posted in forever and a freakin day!

SO much has happened in the last month or so since some of you faithful viewers of DopfDetails last tuned in!!

Let's see... where to start?? Well, it turns out that we did end up getting that call from my parents that they got a job offer from a small privately owned oil company in Denver. After some discussion with Brandon, we went ahead and purchased tickets to Houston to celebrate one last holiday in the house I will forever consider home! It was agreed that while we were there to visit and have some R&R, we were totally willing to help out with helping prepare the old house for sale on the market really soon.

I flew out a week before Thanksgiving, and Brandon flew in the Sunday following. The area where I grew up used to be considered the boonies, but now it is quite the opposite, hustling and bustling shopping centers and businesses are now sprawling where huge beautiful trees and forests, and farms once stood. There is now a major tollway close to my house where I grew up, and some seriously huge master planned communities with gargantuan homes springing up everywhere. It has changed so much, I couldn't recognize much of the landscape as I once knew it. It was exciting yet a little saddening at the same time. It wasn't the home that I remembered and was blindly expecting to stay the same forever.

While there we certainly enjoyed rolling up the sleeves and diving in to help around the house. I went through my old bedroom and desk, flooded with memories that I have not thought about for years it seems. Went for a drive to good old Galveston Island (for those of you poor souls who have no idea where that is, get out a map if you have to) and then out to Brazos Bend State Park. You may need to sit down and brace yourself for what my twisted mind considers fun.... but this state park is filled with nothing but swamp, trees, snakes, alligators, and turtles. Basically this park is full of man-made trails that go through the swamps and forest around this area of southern Texas! Brandon and I walked around and altogether we saw 41 alligators, 2 turtles, and no snakes (I was okay with that last one!) 41 alligators doesn't hold a candle to the record of 111 allies I saw with my dad 1 1/2 years ago! The coolest part about this that I had never seen was a mama alligator with her little brood of about 16 babies! It was freakin awesome! (Will post pics of all this!)

Another thing that was awesome was the opportunity to go home to where everything is green and beautiful all year around! Oh and it was in the 70's and 80's while we were there except for the last two days. One thing that I must say is that I prefer the flat lands of Texas to the brown, dead looking mountains of Utah in the winter when there is absolutely no snow anywhere! I also made sure that while I was in Texas, I indulged myself with the best food that the world has to offer, meaning Ozarka Spring water (an absolute must when one feels a sense of thirst coming on), Southern cooking at the good old Black Eyed Pea, ham and cheese and sausage and cheese kolaches at Southern Maid, as well as donuts from Shipley's Donuts, Schepps chocolate milk, Texas BBQ from Goode Company, but one thing that I will regret was no Bluebell Ice Cream! Dangit! And of course eating at Escalantes with my best friend! Oh and getting to enjoy the humidity that does wonders for dry skin here in Utah, and going from dry limp hair in Utah, to volume in an instant of stepping off the plane!

I could go on and on about all this, but the biggest thing that was difficult was saying goodbye to the house that I grew up in! Cheesy as it sounds, I went around the house taking pictures! I just didn't want to forget the rooms and memories!

We came home late Friday night, and then all day Saturday, went and ran errands with Brandon! Saturday night we came home and had to go through all our crap in the storage underneath the stairs in order to dig out our Christmas decorations and decorated the house! It was a lot of fun to try and figure out where we wanted to put everything!

And another side note, Lexi was anxious to come home from her week long doggie day care!

Well, that's it for another lengthy and in way too much detail episode of DopfDetails, but tune in for hopefully a sooner next time!

Love you all!

Lisa

P.S. Are you happy Lo? Thanks for your message! You'll have to get in touch with me soon!