You're From a Small Town When...

You have to drive 2 miles on a dirt road to get to a party. The party is in a barn. With giant tractors and farm equipment inside the barn. And some guy's definition of "dressing up" to go out is tucking his t-shirt into his Wrangler jeans and throwing on his "good" baseball hat.

Okay, so this is not at all what the barn looked like where we celebrated some of my good friends' birthdays last night, but I know that when I tell people that we have parties in barns this is an image that pops into their heads. I love the completely shocked and confused faces of people when they find out that, yes, in order to have a party you must travel 20 minutes out of town down back dirt roads to a barn in the middle of nowhere. Sadly, most barns are not painted a bright red with white trim on the windows and doors. No, they are mostly just big buildings made out of boring gray material. And no, these barns are not filled with cute, cuddly animals. They contain giant, dangerous machines and dirty, heavy tools. First rule of barn partying, tractors and tools are not toys. We may or may not have learned this the hard way. Yeah, imagine trying to have a friendly conversation with a long lost friend while standing next to one of those monsters. Last night, the youth of EC stepped it up a notch. Not only was there a huge barn party, but it also had a theme! Neon was the look of the night. Neon socks, hats, hair, shirts, underwear (come on girls, no need to show these), and even some neon vests hopefully borrowed and not stolen from the shopping cart roundup crew of El Campo's Wal Mart (super Wal Mart may I add). There were blacklights and strobe lights and glow bracelets galore. Don't judge me all you big city slickers, but it was a lot of fun! I wouldn't say that a barn would be my first choice for a party, but when you need a place big enough for a lot of people, and don't want to mess anything nice up, then they are a fabulous location! I convinced my roomie Alyssa, who is from the metropolis San Antonio, to join me in attending her very first party in a barn once, but it was a very bad experience, so don't ask her opinion on them. I don't think anybody who is from a bigger city would understand or enjoy the experience. It takes a person with very limited options for entertainment to truly embrace and accept this complete redneck and country atmosphere in which we are forced to party.

On a side note, Happy Father's Day to my dearest daddy! To celebrate, we ate hamburgers and cake, and he is now "watching" golf while taking a nap in the recliner. Hope all the fathers and fathers to be are having a great day! Love you dad!

Hope everyone has a great week. Barn parties rule!

-Stass out

Oh hey, what's up family?

It is Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon after a fabulous week and weekend with my friends and family. This past week was our first week of swimming lessons. Surprisingly, we made it through without any major accidents or traumatizing events. Some may consider a child slipping while trying to dive and falling head first into the pool while simultaneously hitting/scraping his knees on the side a traumatizing event, but not me. I am a professional, you see, and these things happen. You just have to scoop the crying kid up out of the pool, say "Good job! That was almost a perfect dive!", and carry on with the lesson. Luckily no parents were there to witness this, not that I'm worried about a lawsuit or anything. Thursday night my mother and I journied to Austin, Texas to visit my assistant principal/pregnant sister Cassie, her husband Scotty, and their mentally challenged dog Lex. Friday morning Cassie had a doctors appointment, which I did not attend due to the rediculous earliness of the appointment. Everything is just dandy with her and baby Easton. Then we headed to a day care, because being the working woman she is, Cassie will not be staying home to take care of Easton. She has a school to run people. The day care seemed nice, but lets just say that you will not be needing to purchase any Lutheran Day Care bumper stickers or t-shirts anytime soon! That night all of my family came to the Rice's home for a fajita fiesta dinner. I love when we can all get together! It is so loud and so crazy, but so fun! My cousin Gracyn shared her love of karate, tumbling, and dancing with us, which I must say was pretty impressive. Of course mature Whitley had to jump in when Shakira came on TV and show us her moves. Whit, just let someone else have the spotlight for once ok? Gracyn couldn't compete with your robot moves! At the end of the night I was stuffed and tired, but it was a great time!
Always working!Sistercuz love!

Saturday morning was Cassie's very first baby shower! It was so much fun. Easton got so many presents, and from what I hear and see in pictures the jealousy I was feeling was very obvious. I mean, it has always been ALL about me and now I'm having to share my spotlight with a baby?? Its not even fair. But whatever, I'm not bitter. Cassie had a good time (I think), and she got some pretty good advice for her upcoming motherhood. Carley has a lot of wisdom when it comes to what you should and shouldn't do when you have kids, so if anyone ever has any questions I would recommend giving her a call first. After the shower we dined at Kerbey Lane Cafe. I'm sad to say that I did not get french toast, which was SO dumb of me. But, my chicken sandwich was good I guess. My very full of life cousin Gracyn sat by Carley and I, and we had a pretty eventful time. She "read" the menu to us (I had no idea that Kerbey Lane was such a Christian place), she "tickled" us with a flower, and made a poisonous drink for us to enjoy. It was a real hoot at our end of the table! That evening my mother, Cassie, and I enjoyed a showing of the Wizard of Oz. We have been going to a lot of musicals lately, because we are such cultured and classy women. It was a really great show, even though I think my performance in Sprucey the Blue Christmas Tree was far superior to Dorothys'. See I can have school spirit if I want to.

You wish your family looked this good!

My weekend was great. My family is great. Cheese dip is great. Swimming is great. But most of all I am great. PEACE!

-Starsy out!

3 Weeks Down

I've been home in lovely EC for about 3 weeks now. I managed to experience all of the fun night life and activities this tiny town has to offer within the first 12 hours that I was here, so the rest of my time has been spent doing nothing or being bored, or both. Don't get me wrong I'm loving being home with the fam, but come on managers of EC, can't we get something fun to do around here? Like a huge waterslide in the middle of town, or better yet just build a lake for me to take my yacht on. Actually, I'm pausing the creation of this blog so that I can compose a letter suggesting these minor improvements to the mayor of my city, who is also my good friend's dad! Hi Mr. Young! This past weekend I made a trip to College Station to see my friends I left behind. Shockingly, my friend Emily didn't back out like she always does and she joined me for my vacay. We used Shannon's discount at the bookstore, ate at La Bodega, hung out at my EX apartment (ew), tanned by the pool, and ate a huge baked potato. It was a wild time!

Not quite what my potato looked like, but I bet its still making you want one. Yesterday my mother and I went shopping at the Galleria in Houston, because we are rich. If you are a girl, which is probably only who reads my blog, then you know that when you shop you don't always have success. It is because of this fact that shopping and I do not get along. Even on my best days when I think I'm looking real good I can put on a shirt that makes my body look like I've been eating way too many of the potatoes mentioned above and I just want to call it quits. This of course happened to me yesterday, but fortunately my very wise mom did not let us leave after the first store we visited so I did manage to find some very cute and flattering outfits. This is Latino Stacey in one of the dresses I purchased. Except the dress I bought is solid purple and not this scary floral print, I have taste people. Then after shopping, some friends and I went fishing. It was not successful and very boring. I'll probably end up being convinced to go again because I have nothing better to do, but really why do people find it fun to sit there holding a fishing rod for hours and never have a bite? We were there for 3 hours and only caught one fish which we let go once we got the hook out of his eye, poor baby. Fishing is one thing I will never understand.

Before I end this blog I would like to give a shout out to my father, President Bob Gillis. He thinks that nobody will know I even have a dad because he has not been featured in one of my blogs yet. Well, this is for you dad! Bob Gillis is a legend around here. He is head coach of the all star football team the El Campo Ricebirds, and is also the president/past president of the Texas High School Coaches Association. Talk about running the world. Ya know how people say "You are more and more like your mother everyday!" well I am the opposite. My mom tells me I am becoming more and more like my father every day. Hopefully that doesn't mean I'll have gray hair and be sporting his infamous combover anytime soon! It was hard going through highschool having a dad as a head coach. Boys were scared to talk to me, invite me to hang out, and even to date me because my dad had extreme power over them. I wouldn't change that for anything though, but only because my extremely good looks and charming personality convinced TONS of guys to get over my dad being their head coach and to date me anyways. We have a lot of fun together, mostly quoting movies and making fun of my mom. I love him very much!

There we are looking our best for graduation. Doesn't he look so proud? That is all for now.

-Stassy out!