Twas the DAY before Christmas. . .

Twas the day before Christmas and all through the town, not a creature was stirring, well except for all the Thomas boys playing in the new fallen snow. What a great surprise to have our first white Christmas here in Lubbock. I know some of my loved ones in the more northern part of the U.S. may think me silly, but the 3-4 inches we got here, when it was only supposed to be a "dusting of snow" was somewhat of a Christmas miracle.
Except for a small accident on some ice everyone had a great time. And, we are looking forward to another "dusting" this week.

Annette Oakley

When I got home from work Tuesday, I immediately jumped into my PJ's for the night and came into the family room to get comfy in my chair. Flood looked at me and asked, "Aren't we going to the ward Turkey Shoot tonight?" To which I replied that I had forgotten all about it, but if Flood and the boys were going to go I would go also, but I wasn't going to shoot.

It was a chilly night, but we were all bundled up nicely, and they had a great fire burning in a fire pit. It was a really nice evening, for the Annual Turkey Shoot with friends from the ward. They had a string of flood lights on a forklift illuminating the fields. The bright orange skeet reflected really nicely in the lights.

They started the competition with the youth of the ward - everyone under 18 that wanted to shoot. There was one practice shot, and then the next 5 shots counted. David won in his age class. Then the Elders of the ward had their chance, with Owen, Jeb, and Flood all taking their turns, unfortunately they did not win. Next was the Relief Society's turn. Flood and the boys all said that I should keep up the family tradition and take my turn. I haven't shot in ages, and I wasn't going to, but they talked me into it. Flood was great getting me used to the 20-gauge shot gun, and to my amazement I shot 4 of the 5 skeet! Between David and I we brought home two turkeys for Thanksgiving! We all had a wonderful evening.

Happy Birthday Flood!

Flood turned 51 on Tuesday. We are a little short on funds right now, so we had leftovers for dinner, and he got his favorite candy bar and a card for gifts. (Although Niels and Laura did get him a nice tool box). Not much, but we had a good time. Now that Flood is working again (as a substitute teacher), we will have a better birthday party for him in a few weeks!

Just thinking about Dad

I was looking through a catalog and saw a cute picture with this quote. I really liked the quote, but didn't like the price of the picture, so I made my own!

Yard Sale

Once we got Granny moved out of her house, we had a yard sale that weekend. In between the few customers we had I taught Owen the "ancient" game of Jacks. And after not playing the game since I was in grade school (thus the ancient game) I schooled Owen in every game we played. I also made out flash cards and quized Jeb, getting him ready to take the Pharmacy Tech Certification test.

Granny's Moving : (

Well, all good things must come to an end. Granny Thomas will be moving this week. The truck arrives for us to load on Tuesday, August 4th, and Granny flies out on Thursday evening at 6:30. I can truely say that is has been a wonderful experience having Edwina live close. I know that she will be very missed. Her new address information is -

Edwina and Ted

As granny gets ready to move, we have been going through some of her stuff, and I was able to sneek away with one of her scrapbooks about her and Ted. I scanned in a lot of her pictures and have been having fun making some scraps.

Happy 4th

As usual it was another great fourth of July! David, Alleen and the kids came down to join in the family fun. There was swimming, and eating, and eating, and swimming, and movies and then the finale! Fireworks at Garth's work. Everyone had a "blast", and everyone went home with the same number of fingers as when they came, which, given the large amount of boys in attendance is a miracle.

Hope you all had a great time also, and God Bless America!

Just Thinkin' about Mom

Well I have been going scrapbook crazy as usual (lucky for you I am posting them on another site so I won't have to bore all of you with them - just in case you want to take a peek though, they are posted at www.scrapbookflair.com/annettebtac) anyway, in learning how to use templates I got to thinking about my mom. And this is what happened. She is an amazing woman, and I am very blessed to be her daughter.

Being raised by a sweet mother that I swear was a frustrated hairdresser my 3 sisters and myself had our fair share of strange hair styles. I couldn't wait for my chance to play dolls with my own daughters. Five sons later I am still having to wait. . . .there's always granddaughters!

She used to be a beautful baby!

I know you are all getting sick of my lame attempts at scrapbooking, but I am having fun. I have been scanning in old photos, so I'm afraid you're going to have to put up with it for awhile longer. As my dear niece Amber said while looking through my old photo album "Aunt Nette, you grew up when everything was black and white!"

Fun at Uncle Garth and Aunt Diane's

We have been having a great time using Uncle Garth and Aunt Diane's pool this summer. David wanted me to document that he is able to do a back flip off of the diving board because nobody believes him. So the following if proof that he did it at least once! Which is more than we can say for his brother Niels who can't seem to get up the nerve to try.

It's Final

After 12 long years Owen has graduated from High School, we are so proud!

There's always a party at Garth's

Garth and Diane opened their home again this Memorial day. There was food and fun for everyone. All my nieces and nephews had a great time. (As did my boys, but they aren't nearly as cute!)

Getting Ready for Summer

Well - It's that time again. Time to get the pool ready for summer. This year Garth and Diane has some big plans, the pool had to be stripped, painted, tiled, and the yard had to be dug up, and the fence repaired. Everyone pitched in and worked hard. The results were great!

And he's graduating from Seminary Too!

After4 years of waking early, he's finally done it. Owen has graduated from Seminary. He has done it all on his own (mostly), he sets his alarm gets up and gets his own breakfast, gets all ready for school and gets a ride with Kris Talbert to Seminary. He only wakes Flood or I if Kris doesn't show up. We are very proud of him and his efforts!

Owen's Graduation Announcement

I can't believe we are almost done with another school year!

Last year this time we were getting ready for Flood to graduate, and I was in the middle of Chemo. Oh, what a difference a year makes.

My Very Own Office!

After over 30 years of working, I finally have my own office!! I got to decorate it with the things that I love, pictures of my sweet husband, and my kids. Also, a complete wall of southwest windmills. Life is good, the Lord has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams!

Chemo Hair - Before and After

I went for my first haircut last weekend since getting my hair back after the chemo treatments. I asked the hairdresser to trim off the sickly ends, and asked her if there was anything we could do with my hair to make it look a little less "butch". This is what we came up with.

Our Side Trip Home

On our trip home from Grandpa and Grandma's we took what was supposed to be a quick side trip and ended up enjoying the great (FREEZING) outdoors for a lot longer than we had expected.

I thought it would be fun to stop at the tornado shelter rest stop on I-40. It was a good quick stop, but the weather had turned windy and very cold!

After the rest stop we decided to check out a lake that was just 3 miles off the Interstate. It was a real quick stop to see a little mud hole. On our way out of the little dip in the road that was the "Lake", Daniel noticed that there was smoke pouring out of the back of the van.

After pulling to a stop, Flood and Niels determined that the oil filter that Jeb had replaced the day before had blown the seal. Luckily Niels and Laura had been following in their car, so Laura and I got to drive for 15 - 20 miles to the next truck stop and get some oil and then drive back for the boys to refill the oil in the car.

We were very blessed, the car wasn't hurt, and besides being cold nobody was hurt. We all got home safe and ready for another week of work and school.

Trip to see Grandpa Garth and Grandma June

We all had good time going up to see Grandpa Garth and Grandma June. We left around 9:00 in the morning and stopped in Amarillo at the KFC to pick up lunch for everyone. Garth and June were in good spirits and good health, and we all had a good time catching up on everyone's lives.