Refugio High School, Class of 87, 20 Year Reunion

The weekend of September 28th - 30th, I celebrated my 20 year class reunion. I could not have asked for a better weekend. There are not enough words to even begin to describe how much fun the weekend was. And the fun really began with all the planning. I was not there in Refugio to help plan all the details of what we would do but I did get involved in getting in touch with my classmates. I would send emails badgering and begging classmates to come to the party. A lot of us were excited right off the bat. Some others took some convincing. Refugio's Class of 87 had 69 graduates. A rough estimate of about 40 returned for the reunion. We also had a few classmates that moved away come back and celebrate with us which made it really special, too. I'm sure there are a lot of great stories about this weekend and these are mine. (If you just looked down and thought "Oh! Hell No! That is too much to read!" Just skip to the second to last paragraph and last sentence- it's the most important part anyway.)

The first "Refugio thing" we did was go to Moya's. Yum. And in true Moya's fashion, you always see people you know there- kinda like Cheers but with Mexican food instead of beer. But you can still have a beer. Next on the list was the Pep Rally. I thought my boys would really like this. And it's fun. Usually. I don't know who thought packing an un-air conditioned gym full of people and shutting all the windows at 3 o'clock in the afternoon in September in south Texas was a good idea but let's just say, "No, not such a good idea." Well, maybe they knew I needed at least one thing to bitch about. It was still fun. And I really think the whole turning out the lights and having the glow sticks was a cool entrance but past the entrance it didn't involve the crowd at all. Oh and one last thing- A slide show presentation of the kids is a good thing but...not at a pep rally. Save that for the auditorium. I wanted to cheer and clap and not lose 50 pounds in one sitting. Well, it's not such a bad idea after all! I did just eat at Moya's.




















After the pep rally, we walked down memory lane by going down the halls. Some of the classes had used pictures of the past to decorate for homecoming week and it was really cool to see my mom, my brother and even me in a photo. This is when my goofy mood started. I was performing a cheer. The one that goes: I say Refugio. You say Bobcats. Refugio! ... snickers and laughs but no Bobcats! I kept going until some annoyed high school student finally yelled Bobcats. Then I did the cheer: R-H-S Beat the Greyhounds! It felt so good being ridiculous and making other people laugh and not caring what anyone thought of me.

The next big event was the football game. Little by little people began to trickle up the stands and sit with us. Lots of hugs. Lots of chatting. Lots of tradition. Some of my favorite moments of the game were when someone asked me if I was a cheerleader in high school. My response was, "No! Y'all didn't vote for me!" I realize I would have a made a horrible cheerleader back then. My voice is high and squeaky when I yell. I'm not particularly coordinated at doing jumps or tumbling. And lastly, I was way too shy and self conscious of making a fool of myself. So, it was probably for the better that they didn't vote for me. The bobcats scored and when that happens the band strikes up Dixie and the tradition is to stand up, clap and say Go! in the right spots. "Did y'all forget how this was done? Stand up and clap!" I love my class. I made it clear that we were not to have any wimpy "Oh, here we are." when the announcer announced that we were celebrating our 20 year class reunion and they came through with a loud whooping cheer. My last story about the football game was I saw this guy walking up the steps of the stadium and thought, "Who is that? He's cute!" He turned a little bit and turned out to be one of my classmates who is also the brother of one of my best friends. It was just funny in my mind because I was ogling him. He's like a brother to me. I told that same story over and over. Well, he is cute and he deserves to be told so. Hi James.

Let's see. After the game we went to the BBQ joint and had a little mixer party there. It was fun just to see each other and chat and take pictures but it was too short. So, when they kicked us out of there, we went to our local friend's house- Thanks Scott for hosting the Party Palace. I can't remember all the conversations in detail but just lots of fun conversations. Lara wanting to go to the beach. Dee telling her no. John Ed putting out his infamous sales pitch, "There are people who walk the walk and people who talk the talk. You're just talking the talk." I love it! There is my persuasive friend that can talk anyone into doing what he wants you to do! The next thing you know he was going to be talking us into taking our clothes off! HA! I was glad that I could entertain Jacques, too. He has the best laugh! I was calling my classmate, Lloyd, the wrong name. I kept calling him David. And Jacques just kept letting me until I made a total ass out of myself announcing loudly something about David Solis and he sweetly but firmly said, "Cheryl, I'm Lloyd Silvas." Can you say open mouth, insert foot? Rolls of laughter from Jacques! They stayed and partied until 5:30AM! I made it home and in bed by 2AM.

I got up to pee at 7 (TMI) and when I returned to my bed that I was sharing with my sister she started talking. At first my answers were brief with the small hope that I would get to go back to sleep but she kept talking. Then we could hear the kids get up and so I got up, too.

We had a luncheon at 11 where we included our kids. Angie had put together a photo show of pictures from the past. It was fun seeing us all 20 plus years back. But you know what? I think we all look better now then we did then. You know that saying "40 is the new 30?" Kristi went even further back- "40 is the new 20!' I'm going with that one! (I just saw a commercial on tv saying that 40 is the new 20 so what the hell do I know! She's right!) I'm 18 again! We had a group photo that turned out really good. By this time, I'm pretty tired and I'm starting to droop a little. This Sleeping Beauty requires more than 5 hours of sleep!

After the luncheon, Angie came over to get all the pictures I had taken up to that point and we started going through her photos. She kept saying "Do you remember so&so? He was from Town X?" My answer was always, "No." Damn that girl knew/knows a lot of people. I don't think she ever met a stranger. We drove back to DeDe's mom's house to steal back some of my photos. (They probably are DeDe's. I just remember some going missing.) I yelled out the window, "I'm going to pull an OJ and get my memorabilia back!" We drove up the driveway really fast like and start to get out. DeDe yells over, "You're in the wrong driveway!" I guess it was the lack of sleep that just made that hilarious to me and Angie! We sat and chatted with DeDe for a bit and then went home.

Saturday night was our dance. When I got there, I walked up to the bar to buy my first beer and someone started kissing me on my neck. "I don't know who you are but I hope you're buying my beer!" It was Kevin Pease who was supposed to be on safari in Africa or something like that. I had sent the man a 100 emails at least and he never responded to me. I gave him the directions of telling Lisa, his assistant, to hit reply and type out a quick response. How hard is that? Kevin did buy most of my beers that night so I won't complain too much. It was good getting to see him. It was good to see everyone. Several people from other classes were also there and everyone just looked so good. Anyway, the night was fun. I talked and laughed so much that I started losing my voice. I had so much fun just hanging out with my old friends. There were so many more fun moments. Seeing Rosie (Rosie and Kevin have the cutest 17 year old son that was there too) and Helen and sitting and talking with Janice, Jaylene and Sfroina. Thank you Janice for calling me skinny. That's the best laugh I have had in a while! Watching everyone dance. Hearing Scott Stone say, "Damn, All of us guys were so stupid! The girls in our class are hot!" Sweet justice, girls! The guys looked pretty good, too. I had fun watching Tuco and Authur Mae cut up the dance floor!

After they literally had to push us out of the Dance hall, we went pack to Stone's Party Palace which by the way has a snake in it! I do not like snakes!!! Ew! I guess we just couldn't get enough of each other! After a late night Whataburger treat that took 30 minutes to get (OMG!) I made it to bed at 3:30am. Thank you, Mom, for entertaining the boys until 11 so I could sleep! I made it back to Euless at 9pm, put boys to bed, unloaded the car, took a shower and settled down to watch Rock of Love! Bret Michaels, thank you so much for not picking the stripper! I am addicted to reality TV and had been following his dating reality show. He picked Jes. The girl with pink hair. She's so cute, she makes me want to dye my hair pink. But now I hear they're not together! What the hell! Why did I waste my time if his Rock of Love isn't even going to make it past the reunion show...which I missed. I digress.

I'm back to my current home now and back to work and back to our daily routines. Post reunion has been fun, too. Classmates have sent out the nicest emails saying how much fun they had, too. I don't know when it really hit me as to why I was having so much fun but it did hit me- I feel safe with these people. These friends of mine that I grew up with from Kindergarten. I feel safe in these traditions that still hold strong in the community where I grew up. I don't worry about making a fool out of myself because I truly enjoy making my friends laugh and seeing their familiar smiles.

My dear class members of 1987 and other Refugio Alumni - you are truly special and Refugio, you will always be home.

p.s. most of the photos are of me because face it...it's my blog. :)

Soccer

Here are some photos of the boys playing soccer. They won their first game last Saturday with a score of 4 to 1. Drew scored two goals. :) JB had a couple of opportunities to score but he dribbled the ball in to the left and he hasn't quite mastered shooting with his left foot. He'll get there though.

Their team name is The Sting. Their team is compiled of Daniel, Kendal, Freddy, Eric, Olivia, JB, Drew and Victoria. They are lined up that way in the bottom photo. This the 7 and under group so JB is playing with the older group. He's keeping up very well. We were worried at first but pleasantly surprised at how well he's doing. We just took our "Buddy" photo with Drew and JB and team photo on Saturday so when those come in, I will post them.

Tooth Fairy Update

I have needed to update about Drew loosing his teeth. He lost one on the bottom the day after JB lost his. So, that was July 20th that Drew let Miss Kelly pull his tooth. He wouldn't let me! I was so bummed out! He promised me that I could pull the next one. It was loose. One good pull was all it was going to come out. But he wouldn't let me pull the second one either.

So the boys were swimming on Saturday and JB kicked Drew in the mouth and guess what popped out. Yep, Drew's second tooth. The tooth fairy came and boy did she make a mess with all that fairy dust! It's still everywhere!

First Day of School 2007

First day of school went very well. Drop off was a bit crazy and chaotic but it will get better. They had nothing but good things to say when I picked them up from their after-school program. No homework yet but it's coming! Tomorrow is our first day of soccer practice.

Drew on his first day of 1st grade at Bear Creek.

His teacher is Ms. Simmons.

JB on his first day of Kindergarten at Bear Creek.

His teacher is Ms. Pounds.

Mom's Night Out - 8/18/07

Ezra's Mom (Chris), (Kyle & Brandon's Mom (Annette),

Ashton's Mom (Jessica), Lauren's Mom (Mirindi), and Drew & JB's Mom (me) getting ready to go out. We joked that we would introduce ourselves as our child's mom. Well, we thought it was funny!

We started out at Firewater Grill and then went over to Red River (much to Chris' objections) and we had fun hanging out. I had the most fun being with the girls but I've certainly decided I am way too old to be hitting the bars. Sunday was a complete waste of a day! We closed the bar down and then came back to my house and got in the pool. I got to bed at about 3:30 I think. The other girls were better trooper's than I was. "Let's do this every month!" Are you kidding me? My life expectancy is 102 right now. If I did that every month I would only last until about 75! Especially since I think I'm invincible and rode the mechanical bull! What an idiot!

The videos below were filmed by the girls cell phones so they're not the best quality. You can't really tell that's it's me so you'll have to take my word for it.

Of course, I tipped the controller to take it easy on me. My favorite part of it is Chris' laugh in the background. I stayed on for a while and knew I was ready to get off and just started laughing. Here's when I got thrown off.

Calling the Tooth Fairy

JB lost his first tooth today. It was just barely dangling and it just took one quick little tug and out it came! He lost it on his Grandma's birthday. Happy Birthday, Grandma. She's on vacation in Europe!

JB just went to our favorite dentist, Dr. Ellis at Gateway Dental, and his xrays show that his two front teeth are coming in completely sideways. You can see it poking through a little in the picture above.

We tried to get Drew to let mom pull his bottom tooth that is super wiggly but he wasn't having any of that! His tooth is coming in behind his baby teeth. We've been talking about the orthodontist a lot lately. Oh my!

Well, we hope the Tooth Fairy got the call that JB lost his tooth! I guess she'll have to make two trips for Drew's tooth.

A Home Depot Story

I had to buy a toilet for the remodel of my bathroom. So, I take myself over to Home Depot one Wednesday night. I find the toilet aisle all the way in the back and there are two men employees there. I tell them I need a toilet. They ask, "The tank, the bowl or what?"

I tell them, "I need the whole kit. And, my contractor told me to get an American Standard brand. There's one that resists mold and all that crap. (Just put in your own potty joke here) And, it's about $150."

They kind of chuckle at me like I was some stupid, silly girl. So, we start going through the options. This one will flush golf balls.
This one is pretty.
This one this and this one that.

"Now, you'll want an elongated one."

My immediate response was, "What? Are you saying my ass is fat?"

One guy starts finding the components and I realize, "Oh! Am I taking this with me? I thought my contractor would pick it up. Can I lift those?"

"Oh, honey, you can let your husband lift it out of the car."

I’m totally offended that every man in this world thinks you have to have a man around to get things done! "Look buddy- it's me or nothing. I don't keep one of those around my house."

So, we load everything up on a cart and head over to the seat aisle. Do I want a cushy seat or wood seat or a plastic-no-slam-seat or a regular plain Jane or the beautiful expensive seat? I figure what the hell, I'm spending all this money, go ahead and get the expensive one. And make sure it's elongated for my fat ass!

So, while I'm getting all of this attention I start asking questions about hand saws and jig saws and what do I do about this or that. I notice that one guy has a humming tick and the more he talks, the worse it gets. I couldn't understand what he was saying anymore. I was starting to get a little flustered myself.

So, we move on and I check out and the humming tick guy helps me to my car and proceeds to ask me out. I'm dumb founded! He proceeds to tell me his whole life story over his smoke break! Well, I'm sorry. I don't date smokers. THANK GOD! This is his speech pattern- "So-hummm, can I buy you-hummmm a drink sometime? Or a-hummm a Coke?" Smoker, 10 years older, working at Home Depot as a second job (for fun I'm sure) and totally out of shape with a humming tick? Really? Do you see me going out with this person? Those are the kind of men that hit on me! Joy for me!

Poor guy. I’m sure he’s very nice. He was helpful but, get this- after all that discussion about toilets and fat asses…I ended up with a round toilet and an elongated expensive seat!

We've Moved!

JB and Drew O'Pry


Mom got everything moved over on June 23rd and we are officially in our new house!

Our first official guest were our friends from Park City, Zac and Sarah Cronin. We played and swam and we can't wait for them to come back. We can't wait to see you, too!

Zac Cronin

May 25th - 27th, 2007

I had the most comical weekend ever. It was one stupid thing after another! It starts with me driving home Friday night after work. It was raining like crazy. Some big 18 wheeler cut off this little Civic which in turn cut me off. Lucky for him I'm an execellent driver. I slammed on the breaks and that damn Ford Explorer came through for me. I thought for sure I was headed sliding into the wall. I'm sure that would have been a nice end to the conversation I was having with my mom on the phone. (I had the ear piece in and both hands on the wheel.)

I drove to my new house to just check it out and make sure it was still standing. I hadn't been able to go over since Monday. Well, I got there and looked out on my beautiful little pool and the damn thing was GREEN! Green as green can be. Oh no! I go out and look at the chemicals, reading the instructions. I go up to the store and they tell me what to put in. I go back to the house and slip and nearly break my wrist and tear my cute new pants! Now I'm pissed.

Well, the whole algae situation was my fault. I hadn't tested the pool since I owned the house. I thought I had a little more time and my pool school was scheduled on Saturday. It's a good lesson for me to have right off the bat. I'll jump ahead to the pool guy- Jay. He showed me the equipment and we shocked the pool. It's a cloudy blue now. I need it to stop raining so I can get a hold on this situation but still, I look out and it's raining. I know I can take care of this pool if I can just get it back to normal. Wish me luck.

I go home and I'm gathering boxes from the garage and what do I do? I stubb my big toe and blood is going everywhere! Time for me to call it a night, I think.

I did get my car loaded up with some stuff and Saturday morning I get up early and go get the oil changed. No problems there thankfully. I go over to Dollar Tree and Walmart and Lowes. Load up on the essentials of cleaning supplies and painting goods. This parts not really that funny but I do have a very productive weekend getting the house cleaned up. I got the refrigerator, microwave, oven and kitchen cabinets cleaned up. I put up the sample colors of paint I picked up. The green is fine but the blue is too bright. I go back and forth with loads of boxes and call it a day. No need to over do it. But before I go home I decide to stop by several of the furniture stores over in my area. No luck finding a dining room table, rug or media unit.

Sunday, it's raining cats and dogs. It's a damn down pour. Where as I was blessing the rain the previous Monday because I would not have to worry about watering my lawn, Sunday I was damning it for creating a hassle for me to get the pool worked out! I go to Starbucks and relax a bit waiting for the rain to let up a little, then get over Lowes for a new sample and then to the house. Paint, clean, unload. That was my mantra for the weekend- Pack, Unpack, Clean, Paint. Paint includes the taking out of old nails and screws, patching and touching up. And, of course, I threw in shopping. Shopping for paint, shopping for furniture, shopping for cleaning supplies. And I found a table and chairs that I think will go perfectly in my dining area. It's the right size and I think the color will be good, too. Yay me!

I finally get the paint squared away on Monday and the blue wall is complete with the green wall on the schedule for next weekend along with a slew of other projects. Monday was another productive day with much of the same of the above. And then trouble strikes again! I was settled in my bed after my shower and reading my book. At about 11pm I hear the first troublesome beep. Have you ever wondered why smoke detecter batteries only go out at night? I have 4 smoke detecters in less than 1100 square feet! Locate the problem. Pull the battery. Still beeps. Roll my eyes. Get dressed. Head out to the store. I'm on the road and realize I don't have my fake tooth in. Turn around. Install tooth. Drive to store. Resolve the smoke detecters issues and go to bed.

I wish I could tell that I rested peacefully after all of that but no - I tossed and turned all night dreaming of this and that. I'm pretty sure my weekend was a sitcom in the making!

When I get some photos of the new house, I'll put them up. I need to blog about my mother's day weekend. I have some photos of the boys that I want to post up when we went to see the painted Longhorns. Stay tuned.

Much Overdue Update

November 2006
We went home for Thanksgiving and that was good except the traffic. Overall, there just was a lot of traffic but there was an accident in Waco on Sunday morning when we returned. It took us roughly 3 hours to get from Killeen to Waco. We were literally stopped, car turned off on the interstate. We had a good turkey day at my parent's house though. The boys had a great time running around with their cousins.

December 2006
The boys went with Andy to Park City. They stopped by at my old office, Jess Reid Real Estate. They went skiing and visited their old school. They had a great trip. We went to Refugio for Christmas. The boys raked in lots of goodies from Santa. My niece, Mckenna, had a movie birthday party and we saw " Charlotte's Web." We had a great visit to my aunt's house in Houston at the end of December. We got to see my cousin, Julie and her family who are now living in Chile. I had met her oldest son before Julie and Kelly moved to Chile but we had not seen each other in about 8 years! So, it was fun to meet her other 3 and they got to meet Drew and JB, too. We also got to meet our new cousin, Audrey. It was just fun. The boys never knew they had so many relatives. They'll bring it up now and then saying something to the effect, "Do you remember when we went to see ALL those cousins?"

January 2007
The New Year rang in without too much excitement. We're just trucking along in our daily routine. We saw some really cold days with snow and ice! I was not pleased at all about the cold days. I thought, "This is one of the reasons I didn't want to live in Utah anymore!" We had our family portrait taken this month. They turned out cute and it was really hard to pick the poses to buy. The rest of January was pretty boring, I guess because I don't know of anything else to tell you there.

February 2007
This was an eventful month with Andy coming down with pancreatitis. He was in the hospital for about 5-6 weeks, most of that in ICU. I can tell you in January, we were not getting along that well. But, I had never actually thought about what it would be like if I had to tell my kids that their dad might not make it. And, to think about the future if Andy wasn't apart of their lives was extremely hard. It was a very emotional month. The not knowing what was going to happen was tough. Luckily, Andy's parents were able to come and help Andy. They took the boys about once a week which gave me a little break. And thankfully, Andy has recovered very well. I tell everyone that he's a walking miracle. I have to mention my friend, Kristi, here. Andy has a Boston Terrier named Brutus. I cannot thank Kristi and David enough for taking Brutus for Andy. I am living in a small apartment right now and having Brutus there full time was not at all what I thought to be a good idea. In fact, I don't know what I would have done without Kristi over this past year. I cannot thank her enough for everything she has done for us. We also started looking for a house in February and found one in March.

March 2007
The boys and I looked at about 10 to 15 homes in the area I wanted to be. There were some that were quite nice but really out of my price range. Then, there were some that were just outdated and all I saw was a lot of needed update work.. But I think we found the perfect home for us. It's on a corner lot, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths and a pool. The sellers have updated the kitchen and the main bathroom countertops. Darn! They didn't get to the master bath but I plan on updating that before we move in. The down side to the home is I think it may be a little small. But, on the other hand, that may not be such a bad thing. Less to clean.

April 2007
Not too much going on in April. It feels like we're just in a holding pattern right now. It seems like we're just waiting for the time to tick by. The one thing that happened this month is I had a tooth extracted. It's right in front, too. I'm going to be toothless for about 6 months. The surgery went fine. I don't remember a thing about it. My mom and dad came up to help. It was good to hang out with them for a couple of days. So I have a retainer type device where I can pop the fake tooth in and out. It's hideous! I hate it. It's uncomfortable and hard to eat with. But, I don't want to go around toothless either. Oh, the price I pay for beauty...or just normal. Ha!

May 2007
Well, May is here. We're looking forward to a lot of things in May. Visiting Zac from Park City at his grandma's house in Fort Worth. Mom's coming up Mother's Day weekend to bowl. Closing on the house. Last Day of School and so on. I'll try to update you before October!