I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that rain is causing weekend plan problems right now.  It is after all April.  Rain just seems to be throwing kinks in the weekend plans constantly right now.  Yesterday was supposed to start with the Race for the Cure and then heading up to Missouri to Lindsey & Grayson’s to help with their flower beds.  Instead, we had pouring rain that lasted off and on all day.  We did end up going up to MO for supper so the day wasn’t a total loss but it is still disappointing, nonetheless.

Last weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series was at Texas Motor Speedway.  The forecast was showing a small chance of rain all weekend.  Our hope was that 30-40% wasn’t going to hurt the race on Sunday.

We went down to DFW on Friday.  We stay in Frisco right next to IKEA and Dr Pepper Ballpark, which is home of the double-A Texas Rangers team the Frisco RoughRiders.  Our hotel room had a great view down into the ballpark.  It’s too bad they aren’t ever at home the weekend of the NASCAR race.

We spent Friday evening at my uncle’s house in Dallas.  It was a great visit with him & Rod and a great home cooked meal!  I took tons of pictures of their flowers & plants while I was there (of course).

On Saturday, we got up early and went to the Dallas Farmers Market.  We left there with several fresh vegetables & some berries.  We also left seeing all of the great flowers blooming and wishing we could go home and plant them all in our yards.  Saturday night, our group of 13 met at Babe’s Chicken House in Frisco for dinner.  For those unfamiliar with Babe’s, it is a restaurant where you pick your meat you want to eat (fried chicken, chicken strips, pot roast, chicken fried steak, etc) and then all of the vegetables are served family style.  (NWA Peeps:  Think Monte Ne Inn here in Rogers, except there are other meats to choose from besides fried chicken.)  This is our second year in a row to eat there.  It’s very good!

Sunday was race day (or at least it was supposed to be).  That 30-40% chance was pretty well 100% at the track.  We headed out there hoping the rain would stop and the track would get dry.  No such luck.  The race was postponed til Monday.  (Shelby, Mom, & I headed on home Monday so Shelby & I didn’t get to see the race.)

While we were at the track on Sunday, NASCAR 4-time champion Jimmie Johnson held a Q&A session at the Chevrolet stage.  The major topic of the questions was that he & his wife Chandra are expecting a baby girl in July.  His words…”I hope she comes during the off-weekend in mid-July.”

I went to North Carolina Memorial Day weekend.  The weekend before that we all went up to Grayson & Lindsey’s place in Missouri.  Mom & Dad helped Lindsey plant some flowers.

Lindsey & Grayson have a female cat that has had more than one litter of kittens.  They still have a kitten left from the last litter.  It isn’t real friendly but it did let me get relatively close to it so I just shot several pictures in a row.

Shelby & I drove around the farm a little bit and I took some pictures.

We were sitting around the yard enjoying the nice day and I caught Dad whittling a stick.

I’m not really sure how this picture came to be.  I can pose Shelby but there’s no way we can pose Bo so it is cute that it worked out that we got them posing for the camera.

Speaking of Bo, isn’t he the cutest dog?  (He actually is full-grown and not just a puppy.  He’s a mix of something that makes him smaller than what you’d expect.)

Tonight, my family and I went out to eat at a restaurant called Backwoods Barn for my birthday supper.  It’s a 30 minute drive from my parents’ house and is pretty much back in the woods (or at least in the middle of nowhere).  It is an all-you-can-eat buffet that serves the best fried catfish I’ve ever had.  (For those that live here in northwest Arkansas and think Catfish Hole is the best, you need to give Backwoods Barn a try.  The hush puppies can’t rival Catfish Hole’s but the catfish sure can!)  Backwoods Barn is only open 3 nights a week (well, 2 during the winter).  Each of the previous times we have gone, there was a line out the door, off the porch (which has heater things on it to keep patrons warm in the wintertime), and once even beyond the porch.  We made sure to go early enough tonight that we got seated right away.  I think we were there for a grand total of 35 minutes, according to Shelby.  As we were getting up to leave, Dad said it sure was a long way to drive for supper.  Then, we remembered last night’s supper – we drove an hour up to Lindsey’s house in Missouri.  We decided the drive over to Goshen wasn’t that long after all.

Speaking of our visit to Lindsey & Grayson’s house…I, of course, took my camera with me up there last night and took some pictures of the Christmas tree & decorations and also of the family.  Here are some of the best ones.

Thank you Lindsey & Grayson for having us up.  It was fun!  Your house looks great all decorated for Christmas!

As of last Saturday at appx 4 pm, I had a brother – a brother-in-law, that is. Wow. I still can’t believe my sister is married. I’m not upset or surprised or anything like that. I’m actually quite the opposite. The situation is a completely new one to me, though, which makes it unbelievable. Here are some photos from last weekend. Click on my Flickr link on the right and you can see several more photos.

The Reception Tables’ Centerpiece

The Rehearsal

Lindsey, the Bridesmaids, & the Flower Girl