My husband and I decided to take a day trip yesterday morning. Our target destination was the Magnolia/Hempstead area. We decided to take the long Highway 6 route around Houston and stopped in at a really cool little coffee shop call the Bad Ass Coffee Company. I am one of those who likes to sit in coffee shops to read, work on my laptop and watch people, so this place was a real treat. Not only do they have they greatest name, they have really nice employees and patrons.

After the coffee shop it was back on the road. We hit 290 and pretty much stopped in our tracks in traffic. I saw an exit sign for Hockley and remembered that I have a couple of cousins that live in the area (that I have not seen for some time), so I decided to call my cousin Vicky. We spent about a half hour at Vicky’s vistiting with her and her family. She has a fifteen year old named Clayton – boy it’s been a while since I’ve seen him. They have a lot of nice land and it is so quiet out there. They also have this really cool three-legged cat named Tripod.

After that we followed Vicky to my cousin Stevie’s house in Magnolia and we spent the remainder of the day there. We were able to visit with My cousins Vicky, Steve, Debbie (Steve’s wife) and their youngest son AJ. I breifly met Steve’s daughter Kellen as well. They also had several neat cats and a Chocolate Labrador puppy named Marley. He was the cutest thing…reminded me of my Jake when we first brought him home.

I had a really good time talking with my cousins about things such as family and music. I did not know this, but my cousin Steve has a huge music library that includes everything from The Hollies to Staind and we had a great time listening to the random tunes and guessing who they were. I also found out that Steve’s son AJ plays in a local band called 4-Alarm. He played an EP for me and I totally love it. They sound like a mixture of Tool and Black Sabbath.

Anyway, it just goes to show how one phone call can bring long lost family together.