Wednesday, April 26, 2006

homestretch

Lately, I am only able to deal with whichever fire burning the hottest. There are so many little tasks I have to do, I don't even have time to make a list! I have been deferring house cleaning lately, my poor family...... I can't wait for summer break, only about 4 weeks until Unstructured Time.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006


The Kids Posted by Picasa

Gramma Lu and ME! Posted by Picasa

Easter Emma Posted by Picasa

Gramma Lu, Max, Emma and Joey on Easter morning, right before the Egg Hunt!! Posted by Picasa

Thursday, April 13, 2006

My highlight of the year

I was at the liquor store.

I was paying, and the clerk said,
"Let me see your card"

So I pushed the credit card on the counter a little closer, and he repeated himself, and I was confused for a bit, and then my mind thought.... he is carding me! My jaw probably looked pretty funny dropped on the counter. Carded! And he seemed serious. I pulled out my driver's license and handed it over and after he looked at it he started laughing.

Carded!

I still can't believe it.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

I missed Lent

I didn't really give up or take on anything for Lent this year. I meant to, but didn't ever make the time to think about what I'd do, then Lent started, and for some reason if I wasn't going to get all 40 days of obligation, it seemed like cheating, so I let myself off the hook. But at our church, I heard one idea that I've thought of every day since. One lady said for Lent one year, she wrote a letter a day. She carved out that time to do something simple that would make her focus on her blessings, the people in her life.

I guess thinking (meditating) about doing that for the last 36 or so days might count for something, right? I've thought in the shower about people and considered that they would have probably gotten a letter. Forty is a lot of letters. Everyone who reads this would have likely gotten one (only about 6 people read this, I'm thinking. Probably less than that since I would lose whatever readers I have due to infrequent posting!)

I also considered that writing letters is really a good thing. I've always liked it. Always liked buying stationary. I love LOVE getting letters, but even if I got no letters would still like writing them. So guess what. I am going to spend the forty days after Easter writing letters. As a thank you for all my blessings of friends. I'm sure that will work as well as a Lenten discipline. It will be an Easter "Thank You" instead of a Lenten "I'm Sorry". And I'll get the same benefit either way.

So watch your mailbox.

Monday, April 03, 2006

What Happens in Kerrville Stays in Kerrville

OK, time to tell you a smidgeon about our most recent girlfriend trip, ParTay '06, because really, we can't divulge too much. I will brag and say this was a very good year.

My good buddies, Mary K, Julie K, Missy K and I headed out as soon as the last child was dropped off at school on Friday morning. And we didn't return home until Sunday evening. In between we picked up right where we left off after our last visit, as though we had just seen each other the weekend before. This year's featured city was Kerrville, generally Southwest of Austin, smack dab in the middle of the Hill Country.

We spent Friday in Fredricksberg for shopping and eating at the Peachtree Tea Room. And we met our first friend of the trip, Kenny the Waiter. He seemed to take especially good care of us, so we decided to visit him more than once during the trip. It helped that he also reserved special slices of Collin Cake for us on Saturday. Yum. Any more info about Kenny is classified.

You can look through the photos for other declassified info about the trip. Beyond that, I'll just say that getting away with these girls is good for my soul. I never laugh so hard as I do the weekends we get together, and it never fails that at some point during our annual ParTay Weekends, I nearly wet my pants laughing.

It is very important for Mommy to play with her friends, and I'm so lucky to have these girls to hang with.....

food! Posted by Picasa

food! Posted by Picasa

more food! Posted by Picasa

The Raminator Incident


We were picking up supplies at the grocery store across the street when we spied The Raminator! Of course we had to join the crowd and have a picture taken. The driver, who was signing autographs was very nice and asked us if we were on Spring Break from our high school. I told him yes, yes we were, and that we were even too young to drink. He said we were so pretty, he was sure that someone would buy liquor for us. Very nice thought, and even though no one bought us anything, I was pretty sure we had the Raminator driver fooled.... wink wink.

It's also surprising what funny jokes you can make with the word "Raminator".Posted by Picasa

The Raminator! Posted by Picasa

Life on the Ranch


Our Balderdash table.


Each year one of our girls picks out lodging for our weekend, and this year it was Missy's turn. She did an excellent job, and we spent two nights playing games, eating food, drinking margaritas, watching chick flicks, reading our backlogged piles of magazines and laughing in this cool little place. It's too bad we never go anywhere twice, but that's the way we operate, love 'em and leave 'em.Posted by Picasa

The big 'ol porch Posted by Picasa

Our little home for the weekend. This was a lovely cabin. Good work, tour director Missy. Posted by Picasa

maaaaaaa.... don't eat us! Posted by Picasa

These were the friendly goats who roomed next door. On our last morning, the B&B owner brought us a gourmet breakfast which included a meat dish he identified as from their "stock". We dived in unsentimentally after a brief conversation about which goat we might be eating. We later found out it was mutton, not cabrito.


Adam's Apples Lunch Porch. Posted by Picasa

Fifteen year old sleeping kitty we met at lunch. Posted by Picasa

Instead of driving straight home (North) we decided to head the opposite direction for apple pie and burgers at this fun little spot. Yummy food, cute gift shop and a sleepy cat, and a couple of extra hours on the trip... perfect! Posted by Picasa

We left about 10 inches of space for Mary the Van Driver to see out the back window, due to our excessive shopping! Posted by Picasa