Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday week! We certainly are. You can see what we've been up to at www.gmcrow@blogspot.com.

Not too much longer

Hey guys! Hope everyone is doing well! We are trying to get ready for Christmas and the arrival of this little girl, so things are busy around our house! Everything is just going wonderful...Im getting a little uncomfortable...but other than that, things are great and most importantly, we have a healthy baby girl! She still doesn't have a name--we just can't quite decide on one. We may just have to look at her face before we know. Less than 7 weeks to go....can't believe it is already that close!! Im posting pictures that were taken quite awhile ago, but they are so sweet! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas...and soon we will be posting pictures of the baby!!!! Stay tuned....

DALLAS COWBOYS v. GREENBAY PACKERS

Hello all, just wanted to share some pictures of the time we had at the DALLAS COWBOYS v. GREENBAY PACKERS game!!! It was cold in our nose bleed seats, it took forever to exit the stadium after the game, but it was all worth it!! Tim (my boyfriend), Cole (Tim's son), and I had sooo much fun...although Cole was mad because he wanted to wait for Tony Romo to autograph his jersey. Hope everyone is still doing good!!

Vacation Blog

Alyssa tells me I am blog crazy. She may have a point. I hear that some people are actually making a living doing it. If I could only figure that out...

Anyway, here's the link to our vacation blog for anybody who's interested. We're off in just a bit.
www.gmcrow.blogspot.com

Scuba video

Gary has been anxious to find a way to post this underwater video from Cozumel ever since he took it last February. Finally we have the ability to upload videos directly to Grandma's blog. The video was taken with his Canon SD600 in an underwater housing.

It was great to see Collin and Anna here this weekend, plus Anne and Grandma of course!

Hey Officer Whitley!

Thanks for the update. Hopefully you Whitleys will be able to get together sometime during the holidays. How are you liking your job? We think of you often. Have a great holiday, and please stay safe!
Love, Gary & Mel

Happy Holidays!!

Hello Family... I just wanted to wish everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING and an early MERRY CHRISTMAS!! This year these holidays are going to be a struggle for the Whitley family to get together but we are going to try to manage the best we can. Shawn says this is the WILDFIRE time of the year so he can't say if he'll get to spend either of the holidays with the family until the day before. I work the day before Thanksgiving and the day after, also I am working through Christmas and New Years. Shelby will be working at Benny Boyd's the days on either side of each holiday. Hopefully the family will get together the day of christmas like we used to!!

I hope everyone has safe and warm holidays.

Happy Birthday Alyssa

I know we'll see you tonight at Olive Garden, but we wanted to take a minute to tell you how proud we are of everything you have accomplished in 19 years. You are truly an amazing person in our eyes. We are always proud when our restaurant customers tell us how much they miss you on Friday and Saturday nights. You have touched many lives, and have an army of people here standing behind you. Have a great day!
Love, Mom & Dad

Happy Birthday Anne

I can hear the green fields of Ireland calling to you from here. I am sorry that we didn't wish you a happy birthday yesterday. We could blame it on the termites we're battling in cabin 4, but there's really no good excuse. Hope your day was sunny and warm, with lots of smiles. Be sure to come back from across the pond with lots of pictures and stories. We love you!
Gary & Mel

Happy Birthday Mike and Happy Late Birthday Colin

I seriously don't know where this month has gone! Or last month either, for that matter. Colin, hope your day was wonderful. Our chiropractor's son is there at school now. Be sure to look for him. He's tall and lanky like you, but without all the hair. Name is Rhyne Bergren. He got married last month and will be living on campus in a couple's apartment.

Mike, We are sitting in the office waiting for a guest from Singapore to arrive. Wish you were here. We don't know if they speak English, as we have only spoken to the people bringing them here. We aren't even sure what the purpose of their trip is, but it seems to be a seminar of some sort. We'll get more detail and fill you in if we are able to communicate. Have a great day tomorrow!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAS........ Hope you have a great day.........
Just want you to know we are sooooo happy to have you in the family and think you are a terrific guy.
Love you,
Grandma

update

These sonogram pictures are kinda hard to see, but i couldn't figure out how to make them bigger without making them blurry! these were from about 3 weeks ago. Everything is looking WONDERFUL so far and we are getting more and more excited! We go back to the doctor in a week (which is also our FIRST anniversary!) and i will update everyone then!
We made it one whole year!!! I am so grateful that i get to share each day with my very best friend! We feel very blessed to have each other and our first year as a "old married couple" has been amazing!
Also, my dream job as a labor and delivery nurse is everything I hoped it would be. It truly is a dream job....it is so rewarding!! And I leave every night exhausted, but so happy and fulfilled. I just know this is where I am meant to be!
Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying their summer! And Happy REALLY late birthday, Gary!

Update from Lake Whitney

Gary says thanks for the birthday wishes. He is always happy for a moment to sit down to either talk on the phone or read an email this time of year. He doesn't get much sit down time in July, unless you count the time he is having to spend on the mower. And even that is unusual, because normally by now it is so hot and dry that the grass has quit growing.

We're still hanging in here waiting for the lake to go down. It is still over 16 feet above normal which makes boat launching difficult, which makes attracting customers difficult. Any other month it would not be an issue because most of our guests during the other months don't bring boats. This just drives home the importance of continuing to develope a customer base that doesn't revolve around boating and fishing.

Mike & Katie, it was wonderful to hear about your new venture up in Colorado. We'll share tips as soon as we get a few extra minutes.

Alyssa is getting excited about going to the State 4H show in Abilene next week. She is driving over on Monday evening and will be there until Saturday or Sunday, depending on how well she does in the pre-lims.

Sarah, how are you feeling? Keep us posted.

Mike & Katie's Happy Birthday to Gary

Hi Gary

Just wanted to send you a note to say Happy Birthday! I’d sing you a song, but you might regret donating those stem cells! J

Did you know that a resort-like situation, which we call Stonewall View, has fallen into our laps in the past few months?

Katie’s dad, Bob, owns a 4-bedroom house, plus a duplex next door to our house. Unfortunately, Bob and Rita are now in their mid-80s and are rapidly slowing down health-wise. Bob had open heart surgery a few years ago and the loss of blood to his brain damaged his short-term memory. He still has his great personality, but he can’t really handle money stuff anymore. He’s such a great guy, it’s sad to watch. We just keep loving him along the way.

For the past 15 years Katie’s brother-in-law, Andy, has managed this property, renting them out to hunters and gas-field workers at pretty low cost. Because these have been low-end renters, they often have not paid at all. And they have not taken very good care of the property either. It is ugly and in need of lots of repair.

A few years ago Andy & Susie (Katie’s sister) moved from Stonewall to Hawaii with YWAM. At the same time, Andy has been managing the property long-distance and finding it very frustrating and expensive. Finally, in January he handed the apartments over to us to manage.

We tried to sell the property, but couldn’t due to some water-rights issues (the apartments share our well).

So it was either tear them down to get rid of an eyesore (which would cost money and bring in nothing), or fix them up nicely and try to rent them out to higher-end renters for better income. There was some money in the Stonewall View account, so we chose the latter. Even so, we’ve had to take out a mortgage on the house in order to pay for the renovations on the apts.

For the past 5 months we’ve invested tons of time, effort, design & money into making the 2 apartments nice. Once we got into it, we discovered that things were worse than we thought. We actually had to tear out the flooring in both apts due to dry-rot and rebuild the whole inside from scratch. Both apts are now nice and solid. One apt is almost finished and looks amazing. Like one guy said when he saw it, “This is a miracle!” We still have to fix up the roofing and siding as well as furnish everything.

Hopefully we can start renting out one apt by September. We need to recoup some of our investment before we can finish the other apt. In another year or two we hope to begin renovating the house, landscaping, etc.

Anyway, maybe you can give us some good advice about managing holiday apartments like this. We’re complete novices! Any suggestions / ideas you might have would be most welcome! What ways have you found to attract responsible, well-paying renters and keep them coming back?

Well, this turned into a much longer note than I had planned. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Love
Mike (& Katie)

Happy Birthday to GARY !!!

Happy Birthday Gary!
We hope you have had a great day, and that you have an even better year.

We love you and even though its been a tough season down there, we're trusting with you for things to get better.

May God Bless you abundantly!
Love,
Steve and Barb

Photos from Stephenville

Ok everybody, I told you that I would get some photos of my trailer and my dog up on here, and here they are!

Have a Super Heavy Duty Great Borthday

Hi Sugar,

I hope you have a terrific birthday. The only thing that would make it better is if you could be celebrating here at Arrowhead!!! Hope to see you soon.

Much love,
Chris

Happy Birthday Grandma!! Love you!

Have a wonderful day!

We love you and miss you! And really wish we were going to be there for enchilada casserole tonight! Have a wonderful day, Love, Gary & Mel

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Have a happy birthday Grandma! I wish I was there with you on your special day! Love Alyssa

It worked!

Okay, now that I have blogging abilities, here's a little bit of what I have been doing:

I live in Florida now, in a school bus, and am going to school for technical sound mumbo jumbo. Everything is treating me quite right here, except for the unbearable hotness of it all. My school has the most insane schedule known to academia. I have classes and labs about 10 hours a day, and they roll round the clock. Sometimes at thoroughly unwholesome hours like 1:00 a.m or 5:00 a.m., but I haven't had to experience that monstrosity just yet. On top of this insanity, I am working two jobs in an attempt to avoid life-long college debt. One of them throwing dodgeballs at kids at an elementary school, where I am known to the boogers as Mr. Kevin; and one tending bar at a cigar shop on weekends. I'm going to quit that one soon, because I feel like collapsing most of the time. But never fear! I'm still rockin' a 4.0 and have obtained director's awards in both of my completed courses. Cross your fingers and wish my luck on my current course. I'm gonna need it.

Heart Kevin

Alyssa's Last 4H District Horse Show

We met Alyssa in Belton on Monday for her last shot at qualifying for the State 4H Horse Show. She is allowed to compete this year since she is still only 18. She could only take Leggit this time because Chloe is no longer a yearling, and is not trained for the 2-year old event due to an injury early in the spring. Having just one horse made this the easiest district show we've been to. Leggit continues to amaze us. He is so smart, and together he and Alyssa make a great team. They easily won the 3 year-old Stock Horse class, and picked up a ribbon in every event they entered except reining. They outclassed all the other competitors in reining, but Alyssa lost count and spun 5 times instead of 4, causing a disqualification. Guess she needs to teach the horse to count! Her big triumph was taking third out of 40+ entries in Western Horsemanship, beating some very expensive, professionally trained horses. Anyway, all of this adds up to another trip to State next month in Abilene.

Our other big news this week is that we're expecting... another horse! Crystal is due in mid-April! The daddy's name is Elvis. That opens the door for some pretty fun names.

Swearing In Pics

Hey guys I just wanted to share with y'all some pictures from my swearing in ceremony which is where I take the oath of office for Midland and after swearing in and signing my papers I was pinned with my badge!! Thanks again for all of the support!! Love Y'all -- Officer Whitley!!

Here We are Swearing to uphold the law, enforce the law, and keep to the

Law Enforcement Code of Ethics.

I decided I wanted my Dad to pin my badge on

since he once was an officer--Thanks Dad!! (and if 2 people

could have pinned me, Mom you would have been

there right next to Dad-Thanks Mom!!)

The Officer to the Left is the Temporary Chief of Police Robinson

... He is telling everyone what a great honor it is to be a

Police Officer but that we couldn't do it without our families!!

And the family picture at the end!!

Happy Anniversary Mike & Katie !!!

Hi Ya'll, just wanted to wish the the happiest of Anniversaries. Hope you have a great day and a great week.

Love, Steve & Barb

What an incredible group of nieces and nephews

It is so exciting to see our family growing and changing. Gary and I are always proud of what a great bunch of kids this family has turned out. We are constantly telling people about all of you. Bravo to our generation for doing such a great job raising them, and big hugs and pats on the back to the middle generation of Grandma's kids.

Afternoon I'm Officer Whitley!!

Hey Family-

Thanks for the support during the hard 4 1/2 months of grueling training both physical and mental and thanks for all the prayers and congrats!! This academy experience was one of the hardest things I have ever accomplished especially the physical part, I have now recovered from the hit i took in the throat and my sprained finger, luckily those were the only injuries i suffered compared to others, but hey what hurts you now will make you stronger later!! As of May 25th I became a Certified Texas Peace Officer. Friday, June 1st I will be sworn

in, be given my badge, and get my police officer commission through Midland Police Department! Here are pictures taken during the academy: The 1st one is of Rose and Me doing push-ups for running over cones, the 2nd is of me driving over the cones, and the 3rd is of my academy class the 78th Session!!

Samson is going to be a big brother!!

Well, I was going to wait to spread the news until after we had our first doctors appointment...but I dont think my mom can keep her mouth shut much longer, and especially not at Collin and Anna's wedding (and congrats guys, wish i could be there to share this special time with ya'll), so here goes...
Mas and I are EXPECTING!! I found out on Mother's Day, which made it even more special, and we just feel so so blessed!! We are so excited and are just praying that everything goes well and as planned. I will have my first doctors appointment the first of June, so I will share more news then. We will be due around the end of January. Please, please just keep us in your prayers!!
I also have more great news....I got a new job as a Labor and Delivery Nurse, which is the main reason I even went to nursing school to begin with, and I just feel so lucky and blessed that I got this job this soon. I was expecting to wait at least several years before a job opportunity presented itself, but this just kinda fell in my lap. I just started orientation, and there is soooo much to learn....its just so different than all the other departments I have worked in, but it's even more exciting now because I am learning not only for this new job that I LOVE and I truly think I was meant to do, but also because I will be experiencing this miracle of life in less than 8 months myself!That is what is new with us!! I will hopefully be able to post sonogram pictures soon and I will keep everyone updated. Again, please pray for a healthy baby and healthy me!
Sarah

Congrats Officer Whitley!

Way to go Steph. We know you have worked very hard for that title and will be an asset to the Midland PD. Wish we could be there for the graduation. We are VERY proud of you and tell all our friends about your accomplishments. Be sure to post pictures so we can all see you in your uniform.
Love,
Gary & Mel

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEVE
Hope you have a great day and fun celebrating another birthday.
And that you never feel lost in the shuffle between other birthdays,
Mother's day, and celebrating Marge Debbrecht's birthday on the
same day.
You are very special and
I love you lots,
Mom

Hey Everybody!! I'm sorry that I haven't gotten to write on the blog any sooner; I have been sooo busy. I 'm finally out of school, but I chose to live in Stephenville over the summer because of my great job. I work for a horse trainer in a little town close to Stephenville. I saddle, work and bathe top level show horses all day (my dream job!). Then on weekends I drive back to the lake to work in the resturant, when I'm not off to a horse show! I live in an RV at the ranch where my horses are boarded. I also have a couple of other four legged creatures running around at the ranch too: a female pygmy goat named Smokey and a 4 month old female Aussie Shepard puppy name Bootie. I will try to get some photos posted of them and of the trailer where I'm living soon. Plus, I'm taking a couple of summer classes, which will be fun. Other than that I haven't been doing much!! I still have my two show horses, Leggit and Chloe, but I sold my other horse, Shadow, to a nice girl down in San Antonio. So that's all for now, hope to see everybody soon! Love from Stephenville, Alyssa

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! You are the envy of mothers everywhere - your vitality, your exuberance, your zest for life as well as being the epitome of great motherhood! We look up to you, we are proud of you, and we boast to others about you.
All our love,
Your kids, kids-in-law, grandkids, and great-grandchild!

Posted for Anne.

Howdy. Things are as always busy. Life never slows down even for a minute. I'm doing well, and still really enjoying my job. If its not fires, hurricanes or tornados; its training and paperwork. Today marks my first full year with the Texas Forest Service, hard to believe its already been a year. Abilene is okay, ...well its here anyways. Not alot to do. I did start dating a girl I graduated high school with, Rachel, we've been seeing each other since mid-March. Things are good, she's living in Fort Worth and is contemplating moving back to Odessa. Its a 2.5 hour drive either for me so... Don't know if you've paid much attention to the news lately, but the state of Georgia has had some monster wildfires (over 60,000 acres burned). They've called for support from the TFS, and it looks like we will get deployed this Friday or Saturday. I'm really looking forward to it, my first out-of-state fire assignment! Probably working in the plans section but might help work with the media. I should be gone 14 days and return late May, keep your fingers crossed (need that overtime...lol). I think I finally found my purpose in life, this career just makes sense. No matter what we respond to, its about helping people and protecting our natural resources. For me its just right. Of course there is that adrenaline rush that stays constant. Anyways, hope you all are doing well and are staying safe. Take care and talk to you soon. Shawn

Gary's Smoothies

As I sit here enjoying the fruits of his expertise, I wanted to share the recipe for Gary's new thing with you guys: smoothies. Start by running warm water in your blender pitcher. Empty that out and add 12 oz of liquid. Gary uses a can of Sunny D, but almost any juice or juice drink will work. Add frozen fruit until it is about 2 inches above the liquid. We buy the bags of Dole mixed fruit, mango chunks, and blueberries at Sam's and Walmart. We like mixed fruit with a handful of mango or blueberries, but you can experiment according to your own tastes. Blend on high until the blender starts to slow down due to the thickness of the blended fruit. Stop the blender and poke a whole banana in the center of the pitcher until it touches the blades. Blend on high until smooth. Using the banana to break up the frozen fruit in the final step is the real secret. We have a pretty powerful blender. If yours can't handle the fruit completely frozen, you may have to partially thaw it first. Beware, these are addictive! Enjoy!

Fw: pics of Averey Jade

Hey All!
These are pictures that Tana has taken of Averey in just the last several
days... I can't believe our babygirl turns ONE on April 20th!! Isn't she a
CUTIE?!
She's got 5-1/2 teeth now (2 bottom, 3-1/2 top).... she's just under 18lbs -
really slimmed up when she started crawling... she's started walking really
well over the last week or so (seems like she really hestitated to let loose
cuz she could move so fast by crawling!) and is just having a GAS! She
certainly brings smiles to our faces... she's such a happy kid!
thanks for letting me gush -
oh by the way - Kellen & Tana are doing great, too :-)
donna

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Katie! Hope your day is wonderful!!
...and Happy late Birthday Mel. Hope yours was special as well!!
Sarah

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATIE

Hi Katie.....hope you are getting over your jet lag and having a wonderful day and that Mike sings Happy Birthday to you :-)
Love you lots...........

Happy Birthday to Katie!

Happy Birthday Katie! Here's hoping that your day is everything you want it to be. Don't you just love having an April Birthday? I've always thought that it was the perfect month for a birthday. I am glad we share it!

EASTER

Happy Easter, everyone....
I've been thinking about past Easters.....Mike, Anne, Steve, Donna, Gary....do you remember when you were little..I would have Easter baskets fixed up for you when you woke up....you would be so excited to see what was in them....then we'd get dressed up ....you always looked so cute.....and go to church. You always had fun looking for eggs in the yard (the big yard on Eddy was perfect for that)
Chris, Bryan, Kevin and Colin ....I missed not getting to be with you on Easters when you were growing up. Shawn, Steph, Shelby, Sarah, Kellen and Alyssa..do you remember hunting eggs and having fun witht he confetti eggs?
This morning I' m looking out at snow thinking....is it really Easter....sure would be too cold to be looking for the eggs today.
Our little Averey is a bit too young this year but next year should be fun!!!
Lets not forget the reason we are celebrating today!!!!
Love ya'll

Show us your snow!

I know some of you have better snow pictures than we do today, but here's ours. It is so weird to have this happen so late down here! We have 3 cabins full of Houston people. Not sure if they've ever seen this stuff.

Happy Birthday to Mel

We wished Mel a Happy Birthday on Chris's blog (http://www.ctclark.com/), but it seemed appropriate to wish her well on mom's blog as well.

Mel, we love you and hope your new year is better than ever!

Love,

Steve and Barb!

hello

Hello everyone,

hope you are all doing well. Hope everyone has a great Easter weekend. This is our sweet puppy, Samson. He turns one this month, and you are all invited to his birthday party ;) Just kidding! (Yes, we need a life) I will write more later...

sarah

We're still here

We had over 7 inches of rain Thursday night in just under 2 hours. It rained hard again last night, but I'm not sure how much. I have pictures of our gravel wash outs at http://picasaweb.google.com/2gmcrow/TheMorningAfterA7InchRain . We actually feel pretty lucky. It could have been far worse.

It's been a busy week here. Gary and I went to Austin to testify on a couple of potential laws that could have an impact on our continuing fight over our water bill. Gary's traction table was delivered while we were gone. It didn't take him long to get it set up and we both had a stretch. It will be nice to have it here so that Gary can continue his treatments throughout the summer whenever it's convenient for him.

Gary had a nice talk last night with Mike Whitley. It was good to hear from him.

a brand new experience Blogging

Yea!!!!!I finally got in (with the help of Steve and Mel)....this is a learning experience for me but am so glad Mel has us set up and hope all of ya'll will write in from time to time so we can stay in touch better.
Will add more later,
Love ya'll lots,
Grandma

Family bloggin

hey guys! this seems like a good thing. I don't have much free time these days, since I'm both working and going to school full time, but here's the quick update: I love my job as a taxi driver, dozens of ten minute friendships every night is just my style. I meet interesting people and encounter interesting situations. I like being back in school, and I'm considering moving to Chicago. Kevin's moving to Florida tomorrow to go to a sound production school. I gotta go. More later.

Grandma's new blog

Okay everybody here's your chance to show us your stuff online. I set up a blog just for our family to keep in touch. Mom and I talked about this in February and I finally had a minute to set it up. You can post anything you want-- pictures, rants about your job, stories about your friends, or just anything you would talk about at Grandma's house. Add links to your personal websites or your work websites. Post pictures of your dog, your travels, or your best friend. Tell us your plans, your dreams, and even your failures.

I don't have everyone's email addresses, so forward this along to anybody you don't see on the list please. They will then need to email me to send them the invite.

Here's how it works:
You will receive an email from Blogger saying you are invited to be an author on the blog. Follow the link and the instructions to set up your Blogger account, then start posting. As each new author is added, I will go in and set them up with full permission so anybody can do anything to the site.

Each posting can have comments added so that we can carry on "conversations" about topics that are posted. When you add a post, be sure to put labels on it so that it can be organized. I am thinking that at the very least every post should have the author as a label so that we can sort through who said what easily. The labels will be listed under the heading of "What we've talked about" on the right side of the page.

There are several ways to get notified about changes to the blog so that you can keep up with new postings and comments. Once you are set up and I have added administrator privileges I think we can set up notification settings at that time. Let me know if you have questions.

The empty blog is at http://www.grandmasugar.blogspot.com/ . If blogging is new to you, check out our blog at http://www.arrowheadresort.blogspot.com/ to get a feel for what it will look like.

Blog on!