Well, Hello World. How've You Been? Good to See You, My Old Friend.

I love that song by Lady Antebellum and it is striking a chord in my heart as I opened the blog page today.  It's been a long, long, LONG time...and I've missed you.

I've been meaning to update here since January.  But one day becomes a week, which becomes a month, and before you know it I have posted only once in nearly year.

I think mourning does that to you though. 

Don't get me wrong, I haven't been in a deep depression with no light in sight.  (Thank You, Lord, for Your great mercy.)  But I know that the loss of my dad last February has cast a pallor over my heart and I have had a hard time expressing myself.  I am beginning to get my voice back now though and wanted to check in with whoever is still out there reading this little piece of me. (I know of at least two of you!!!)

Just to let you know how we have been, everyone is doing well in the Goode family.

• Meagan and family are all settled in to the country life. They are homeschooling and involved in Boy Scouts. Derrick is working in a neighborhood in Katy and enjoying his new zero turn mower. (Those are the things that excite you when you get to a certain age. AHEM!) Davin has taken a huge interest in sports cars thanks to a ride in the Corvette and Fast & Furious 7. Delayne is growing like a weed and can talk you under the table.  She is loving all things Ariel at the moment. (If we've watched Little Mermaid once, we've watched it 50 times.) Dayton is still one of the happiest children I have ever seen -- always smiling.  Well, unless you tell him that he can't go outside. He is happiest just sitting in the Polaris pretending to drive. Meagan has been raving about the new online grocery shopping service that Wal-mart now provides.  I cannot even imagine...but I do know that if that had been an option back when I had to coax five children in and out the car I probably would have been gushing over it too.
• Kelli and family are nearly finished with their massive remodel project of Matt's childhood home.  The house was very nice to begin with but Kelli has turned it into a beautiful display of her distinct personality. They, too, are homeschooling.  Matt promoted to Sargent last fall.  We are so proud of him and his dedication.  Brooke has grown into such a compassionate and responsible young lady. She loves to read. (Which makes me VERY happy!) Maddux is losing those little boy features and growing into a handsome young man.  He played football last fall and enjoyed it...but his love is still all things Lego's.  Ellie is hitting a growth spurt in which she may just catch up to Weston.  But we're not holding our breath. She loves her Pappaw...and dogs.  (No connection implied. Ha!) And as I said, Weston is a linebacker-to-be.  He's a chunk and cute as can be.  Which is good, because he can be a bull in a china shop so I'm sure the Lord made him cute so his mom wouldn't kill him.
• Brianne and family are also doing well. She and Josh are adjusting to this thing called parenting.  As most of us know, you cannot fully explain it to anyone until it happens...and then you just have to figure it out.  They are doing a great job though.  Josh is home at the moment and that little girl of his just adores him.  Bri is over the moon in love with our sweet Bailey Rae...and it shows in their relationship.  That girl wants no one except her momma, especially when daddy is off shore.  Bailey looks just like Josh, has Bri's super blonde hair but has a temperament all her own. When she gets mad -- she's mad all over. And when she stops crying she sniffs and sighs for the longest time so that you don't forget how mad you made her.  Bri and Josh just hosted their annual crawfish boil on Saturday and did an outstanding job once again.  The food was delicious and the company even better.
• Brian is still in San Marcos and working at the resort.  He is thinking of moving back to the Houston area in the fall and perhaps going into drafting.  He and Deborah were able to make it in for the crawfish boil and it was good to see them.  I don't hear a lot from him...so there's not a lot to report.  But he does make it home for every family event possible, and for that I am thankful. 
• Will is still in Tomball, living with friends and working for us.  We see him about as often as we see Brian...but he seems to be doing well too.  The big news for him is that he got his hair cut this past week.  This was him at Christmas: 
  

          and this is him now: 

As for Jim and I, we have been busy getting things done around the house.  He had his shop erected last year but we just completed the finishing touches on  the game room build-out earlier this spring.  (We love it! It is now the favorite family hangout.)  He has been working hard at clearing the back of the house, making us a backyard and pathways.  We hired someone to come in and clear out the underbrush in front of the house.  Now we just need to have some trees cut.  (We have lots of pine.)  We also have someone installing the rock around the sides of the house. All of these were things we have been planning since the house went in.  We just got a bit burned out last year and decided to give ourselves a break from all of the construction. 

We hosted our annual Custom Fire Protection crawfish boil out at 'The Barn' a few weekends ago.  That prompted us to get some of these things taken care of.  It turned out great.  I estimate we had about 80 people in and out throughout the afternoon.  We had lots of room and the Lord blessed us with the perfect weather.

Okay, enough about us.

How have you been? 

Have I mentioned how much I've missed you?!?!