Fun weekend, long weekend, house hunting

Mama and Victoria will head out this morning for an appointment Victoria has in Denton. That done, they will head north on I-35 to Oklahoma City to meet Brittany and Andrew and the twins. I do not think the meeting will happen before 5 pm, so our crew will not be home until late in the evening. It will be a very long day for Mama but having Zoe and Sophia with her on the ride home will lighten the burden. The back of the Sequoia is completely empty to accommodate the paraphernalia that comes with an overnight stay for the twins. Brittany and Andrew will spend the weekend together somewhere other than at home; enjoying themselves while worrying if the girls are okay. That is the way of parenting.

For our part, we have no ambitious plans for the weekend. I know Mama and Victoria are planning a visit with Grandma and Grandpa while the girls are with us. Mama and I plan on shooting up to Lawton Monday on our way home from dropping the girls off with Brittany and Andrew in Altus, OK. Other than that, it will be a weekend of getting out toys. Picking up toys. Listening to toddler chatter. Following two little ones around the house as they invent things to do. Desperately trying to keep up with the volume of hair Kobe is shedding.  It is not as hot outside as it has been, but it is still uncomfortable, so there will not be a lot of outdoor activities for the girls. Maybe some grilling and fence building for me. Most of our time will be taken up with church on Sunday and travel on Monday, but we will do our best to enjoy our granddaughters in the time we are given this weekend.

Fortunately, this is a long weekend. Monday is the Labor Day Holiday. We celebrate al our hard-working citizens by giving everybody the day off…or paying Holiday pay to those not able to take off. Either way, it provides a benefit. For my company, it is a day off with pay. I will take it. Especially since we have such fun guests with us for the weekend.

Yesterday evening, after Seth and Gabriella had picked up the cake Mama decorated for Gabriella’s birthday, we set off across Wise County to look at properties that will be auctioned off Tuesday. Mama and Kimberlyn will be attending the auction. Their first. We are not in a position to buy, but it is always good to do the research. When the houses we investigated come up for bidding, she will have a frame of reference for the properties. We will attend as many of these county auctions as possible over the next few months to prepare ourselves to buy when the opportunity comes. Mama is excited about the auction. She is even more excited to have Kim with her.

As we looked at the listed properties, Mama and I were encouraged by several of those properties. One, in Lake Bridgeport, was a nice large home on a decent lot. If we were in the market, it would be at the top of our list. We are very interested to see if it is redeemed and if not, what the final bid will be. Since all these properties will need to be held for six months to one year before they can be sold, it would be a property well worth the wait.

Mama and I enjoyed driving to the lake and looking at some of the houses positioned to take full advantage of their proximity to the lake. We have always dreamed of having a place by a large body of water. To date we have not been able to pull that off. It looks like, at this point, we never will. Although we do have a lake in view of the house right now our vision was a bit grander than that. So, we enjoy it vicariously. We spent time just driving around the neighborhood catching views of the lake through the houses that sit right on the shore of the lake. The lake is down a bit right now, but it is closer to full than it has been in past summers. That leaves the floating docks at some houses laying on dry ground until the level rises. Regardless, it was beautiful. It would be wonderful to sit on one of those beautiful decks and sip a cup of coffee while watching the world wake up to a sunrise over the lake. Such is not our lot. Fortunately, neither are the requisite taxes of such a valuable location. For now, Mama and I will enjoy our seclusion – and our farm exemption.

Visiting the lake is free.