Chapter 11

When I woke up to the sound of a phone ringing, I rolled over to answer it. I thought, 'I didn't leave a wakeup call, who could it be?' "Hello?"

"I'm so sorry to disturb your beauty rest, but mine was disturbed a few minutes ago, so I thought, if I had to be up, so should you." It was Don

"What time is it, Don?"

"It's a quarter of eight. I thought you were a military man, I've never known one that slept all morning."

"Then you didn't know many night shift guys. We would drag in from work about midnight or eight in the morning and sleep for eight hours before we would be ready to do it all over again. I learned pretty quickly, flying all over the place with my job that I would have to sleep whenever I could. OK, now that I am awake, what is the best place for breakfast around here?"

"I would say my place in about an hour. Barb already talked to your two this morning and they have something cooking. Oh, and I was just informed that you need to swing by HEB¹ and pick up another two pound package of thick sliced bacon, a dozen large eggs, and a gallon of low fat milk, to replace what she's fixin' to cook up now. I would say we have been given our marching orders, so we better get to stepping. See ya in a few."

¹ HEB stands for the H.E. Butt Grocery chain of Texas – Interesting story, if you haven't heard of it.

I quickly got up, showered, and dressed, wanting to be ready before the girls came looking for me. I was sliding into my last boot when the knock on the connecting door came. I hollered, "Just a second!" and finished with my boot, laced it up, walked over to the door, and opened the deadbolt. "Yes, may I help you?" I said to Nicole.

"We need to get going; I heard we need to stop by the store on the way."

"Are you two psychic, or what?"

"Nope, Barb called us and then told Don to tell you we needed to stop first. Breakfast is waiting, so we can't dawdle."

Forty-five minutes later, I was sitting down to a table filled with three kids, five adults, a huge platter of thick-sliced bacon, sausage patties, pancakes, and a huge bowl of scrambled eggs. There was a large glass of cold milk and an equally large glass of orange juice in front of me. We all bowed our heads as Don said grace, then we dug in. We were introduced to Barbara, Linda, Bonnie, and Jake Lang, and I introduced Nicole and Tammy as my employees to Don and his family. There was a lot of small talk, who is doing what in school; you know just general family talk around a table. When we were done, Nicole and Tammy offered to help with the dishes, but were told they were needed in the office to go over the plans.

Once in the office, we sat around a fairly large conference table probably seven foot long and about three foot wide. Don unrolled his drawings and showed us the overall layout, and we went through the plans room by room. The girls gave their input about a nursery next to the master bedroom, and I wanted the office area a little larger, as we now had three people instead of two. Don asked if we absolutely had to have the office and computer room connected to the house. He thought across the driveway in front of the garage would be ideal as we could have a huge backyard, fenced in of course, and have the pool, hot tub, and cabana back there more easily accessible to the house. He said that way it would still be accessible, plus the noise of the generator starting, the air conditioner, and everything else wouldn't disturb us in the house. I looked at the girls and they nodded and off we went.

The horse barn was set up as a six stall barn with a twenty foot deep shelter roof on the back side of it. This would allow for the horses to get under it when the weather is bad. After a short discussion, it was increased to a twelve stall barn with the shelter going the full length of the barn.

After we worked out the plans for the new office and server room, we took a break and found it was lunch time. Another huge spread of roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob, and green beans was on the table this time. Wow, I asked Barb, why the big spread?

"Bob, I'm an old farm girl, I learned to cook on a working farm, we ate a lot, but we worked hard too and had no problem in gaining weight. Now that we have slowed down somewhat, I have cut back a little, but Don is out at the building sites all day and he gets his exercise and I am on the go all the time too, with me being a volunteer and registered nurse. I only work part time three days a week, but I volunteer at a clinic the other two days. Oh yeah, I also drive my nephew to work a couple of days a week. The kids are on the go all day long, just like the rest of us, but for supper we eat light and we have no problems. With as much as you are on the go, it's a wonder that you are not skin and bones."

"Well, I sometimes don't eat like I should, but I try to work out, I run every other day and work weights the other days. I try, but I guess I also have a good metabolism."

Nicole said, "I didn't know you ran. So do I, when do you run?"

"Usually at night, I also go across to the garage my truck was in, and work out with the weight bench I have over there. Why?"

Tammy said, "That's another thing we need, I workout room somewhere on the property, preferably near the pool, so we can cool off after working out. We can shower in the cabana, then swim. How about we have a workout room on the end of the cabana? How about it, Don, will that work?"

"Yeah, Tammy, I can put a couple of big exhaust fans on the side and that would take a lot of the heat out of the room and still keep it cool in there. I can put the showers near that end of the room, along with a couple of toilets and a couple of sinks. Sure, that's a great idea, Tammy."

"Yeah, then we can see if there are some deals on some weight and resistance machines and add them when we can to eliminate the bigger free weights," I added.

After our big lunch, we went back to the table, cussing and discussing other options. I figured that if I was spending this much money on a house, I wanted it to be the last house I buy or have built. We broke up again about 5:30 and called it a good session. Don thought we had addressed all of our concerns, and it was up to him to now get all of our changes incorporated into new drawings and send them back to us for approvals. Once we agreed to a floor plan, we could start working on colors, carpets, and the like. He thought that with the way the demolition is coming, that we could probably start leveling the land and getting forms laid out, two to three weeks after the plans are signed. We left Don's house happy and satisfied that we had everything taken care of for both the house and the business end.

Tammy and Nicole wanted to get dressed and head to Coupland for the Jerry Jeff Walker show they had bought tickets for. So it was back to the motel, shower, shave, and get ready to do some boot scooting. The drive down to Coupland was easy, just follow SH-95 straight south about ten miles to Coupland and follow the signs. You can't miss it. We had a great time, dancing and getting to really know one another more. It was almost two when we dragged into the motel. I kissed the girls goodnight and collapsed on the bed fully dressed.

The next morning, I was awakened by the ringing of the phone again, but it was almost nine this time. It was Tammy, "Bob, we just woke up, I suppose we need to get ready to head back home. We should be ready in about an hour, OK?"