The Ussery Update

Now that we are approaching the weekend again, I guess it's time I report on last weekend. Better late than never, I suppose. We went to Odessa (O-TOWN) last weekend to see my family. We usually try to make it "home" (to see our families) every couple of months. We love living halfway between our parents/families where we have the opportunity to see them all more often. Friday, John and I spent the day with my Mom (Mari) and our two adorable nephews, Scottie and Noah. We went to Starbucks, did some shopping, went to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and then hung out at Mom's house in the afternoon with her and Grammy...visiting and watching cartoons with the boys. It was a really fun day together. Friday night was the big cross-town rival football game. All who went to the game were my Dad (Gregg), my brother (Andrew), our beautiful nieces Hillary and Bronte, nephew Scottie and of course John and I. If you aren't familar with football in West Texas - it's INSANE. ...

Well, the baseball playoffs are upon us and we are root, root, rooting for the Cardinals! They start their first series (best of 5) tonight against the Dodgers. The Cardinals have had such a great year and we hope it takes them all the way to the World Series. Another reason the fall is such a wonderful time of year...the baseball post-season! Let's go Redbirds... Until we meet again... John & Riley

We had a great trip to Odessa this past weekend. We left on Thursday afternoon and got back to our house about 8:30 Sunday night...now, back to reality. All is well though and life is good! We have much to share about visits with family, spending time with nieces and nephews, the football game, the baby shower...and much more. Plus there are tons of pictures - we'll have to narrow them down some. I think we took about 200 pictures, haha! Stay tuned for more details on our trip...we'll post about it in the next day or two. The picture above is one of us before the big Friday night football game - what a game! October is going to be a very full month for us...but great things to come. It started with the trip this past weekend and the calendar is full of activity in the coming weeks...looking forward to it. Until we meet again... Riley & John

Even though it is now Tuesday, it's never too late for a weekend re-cap! We had a nice weekend, but stayed fairly busy from start to finish. Friday night we walked in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life! It is such a wonderful, powerful experience if you ever have a chance to be a part of it. We had set a goal to raise $500 and we raised $1,040 - AMAZING! Thank you to all of you that supported our efforts. Cancer has affected the lives of people in both of our families, so it's a cause near and dear to our hearts. Our church had a team called the P.E.A.C.E Walkers with P.E.A.C.E standing for Pray Everyday - A Cure Eventually! We were there most of Friday night and to reward ourselves for our walking we went to Chili's for coffee and dessert - mmm! Saturday morning we had a few errands to run, groceries to buy and a little maintenance work to be done on the car. We spent the afternoon around the house being productive with various things. For dinner, we made a f...