Happy Holidays!

Leaving on a jet plane...

Sad to be leaving the conference and my friends (some old, some brand new)....glad to be getting home to my family though...

Hollywood & Highland

I attended a conference in Hollywood and it was fun! We stayed at the Renaissance Hollywood close to the Kodak Theatre where the Academy Awards ceremonies are held. By the time the first night ended I realized I had been up for 24 hrs. I met up with other conference board members for dinner at Loggia and then we hit the club below, the Highlands.

This is me right before I crashed for the evening. Yes, I am old and a party pooper...

Cover the Brake

Yes, I am still alive. We survived our move and continue to unbox stuff on a daily basis. One of these days my family will be able to eat cereal again (when I find the bowls) and I will be a happy camper when I find my Longaberger crock for my often used kitchen tools. We have a new furnace, fridge, washer, dryer and mortgage payment! I love the new "old" place.

Many, many years ago the neighborhood was a pecan grove and we still have 2 of the old pecan trees in one of our ginormous backyards. Yes, we have 2 backyards and that is a big reason why we love the place. It's like a park in the 2nd backyard!

I learned about "covering the brake" in a Defensive Driving course the other day. To "cover the brake" is to basically take your foot off of the accelerator and hover (not cover) your foot over the brake pedal just in case you need to suddenly slow down. The term caught me as very funny thinking about how many times my passenger has "covered" their imaginary brake while I was driving...

Surreality...

That's what I have been experiencing this past few weeks. It's so unlike me not to post such a big event on my website, but it's been crazy how covered up I am with house-buying and -selling activities - I can't recall the day when it all started; when we decided to sell our home and drove around the neighborhood we wanted to live in and spotted the house we are now buying. I really think some screaming is in order.

We looked at the new house 4 times before deciding to put in an offer and within a few days we had a contract with the sellers. Since then, it's been an emotional/physical roller coaster. We've had so many visitors inspecting and repairing our home and also inspecting the new home. I can't believe how much I've learned about the whole process - they really ought to have a class in high school detailing the jobs included with home maintenence and buying/selling a home.

It's definitely information overload for this information junkie and I am ready for the fun to start with a new beginning in a new home. Right now I am just exhausted from the physical work and running around and the mental challenges of negotiating and re-negotiating, etc. Maybe after sufficient sleep I can reflect on the past month and document what has happened so I'm more likely to retain any nuggets of wisdom...

Aiiiiieeeee!

We are getting ready to move and it certainly has to be the most stressful time in our lives. One month until closing and I am cleaning out old rooms, donating bags and boxes of stuff and cleaning parts of the house I forgot existed. My hubby is busy making repairs and Emi is helping too. Last night she donated a bag of her old toys (some brand new) to the kids who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. What a sweet girl. She told me that we were gonna get their homes back for them also.....makes me so proud of her.

Bon Voyage

Today we said "goodbye" to a good friend, Greg, who is leaving us for a better job with the NWS in South Carolina. Congratulations, Greg. Keep in touch!

With or Without You

I'm currently listening to With or Without You (U2). It was a LIFETIME ago when I first listened to and loved this song and came out during a really important time in my life. I was such a sad little romantic girl back then (1987) and thought love had to hurt. This song was ME! I'm so glad to have grown up and learned from those days, but I do appreciate the great music that U2 put out!

Watching Out for Mama

Today was her first day in her new class and she had a great day. I can tell that she enjoys being in the class with the older kiddos. Tonight when we were leaving the restaurant I was wedged in the truck in between Emi and Daddy and they were taking me back to the Disco at the house we have been looking at for the last month. It was just a short ride and I didn't want to put my seat belt on even though Emi kept reminding me to do so. When Daddy put the truck into gear, Emi reached her arm out in front of me so as to protect me and it was so sweet. Always watching out for me....I'm a lucky mama!

Knockin' on Kevin's Door

Today Emi was running around the house singing "Knock-knock-knockin' on Kevin's door....." It was too cute! I wish I had some audio to share with you.

Girls Night Out

Stacey, Emily, Lisa, Heidi, Gail, Emi and I met at the Mont tonight. It was a fun but bittersweet evening. Gail's and Lisa's dad passed away early Thursday morning after a long battle with cancer and he will definitely be missed. Emi kept the crowd (and herself) entertained by giving out kisses and playing with Heidi's glasses.

A lady at the table next to us was giving Emi a lot of attention and when she told Emi that she was beautiful, Emi rolled her eyes. I guess it gets old to be told that as often.... I prompted her to tell the lady "Thanks"...

Emi-san!

Napoleon Dynamite

Yesterday we saw Napoleon Dynamite at my in-law's home and it was surprisingly entertaining. I thought it was a kid's movie, but the trends, music etc took me back to when I was a kid. I found some ND trivia today whilst looking for more info on the writer/producer - the producer is 10 years younger than me which was surprised with how nostalgic the movie made me...I recommend watching the movie if you haven't already. It usually takes me a while to catch up on movie-watching, hence the late "review" of ND.

Doo Yoga

Check out my baby girl getting into her yoga practice. She likes to mimic me when I do yoga and she's been interested in it since she was around 18 months old. We got her a cute Scooby Doo yoga mat with a bag and the matching balance ball with DVD. She looked too cute tonight doing the ab exercises and trying out the Tree Pose.

Monterrey

Well, a few of us had another happy "hour" (turned into several) at the Mont. It was fun and a threatening storm cooled things down a bit so we stayed longer than we planned. Stacey's dad even showed up!

Namaste'

My yoga teacher is leaving us. ;.( She is moving on to a new life in Oregon and we will miss her dearly. For almost 2 years she has been coming to the ROC to lead us in yoga. She has been great and has even allowed me to tape our last sessions so we can continue to have her in our lives. I am hoping she will start blogging from Oregon so we can see her often. We took her to lunch at T.E.A. Cafe and gave her a NEXRAD Lightning photo that we all signed so she will never forget us.

Good luck, Teresa! We love you and will miss you!

Passiflora Incarnata

My friend Stacey found a dried up passion fruit that had fallen off of her Passion Flower plant some time months ago. We were surprised that the plant yielded fruit and we thought we would try to cultivate more plants from the dried seeds. I put a few of the seeds in an empty pot at work and look what happened. The plants don't really look like the other vines that I have so I am not 100% sure that they are not weeds from the soil.....



Pretty Braids

This morning when I dropped my baby girl off to school she had 2 afro puffs on her head. When I picked her up from school, she had some beautiful braids!

Her teacher had braided her hair in a matter of a few minutes and it looked so cute. The hair thing has always been an issue - should we relax it? Should we braid? I tried braiding before and it always ended up looking like a cross between Snoop Dogg and Pippy Longstocking. And another of Emi's friend's mother had told me that when braiding her hair we'd need to add artificial hair to lengthen it. Not so. I did find out the only thing I was doing different was braiding OVER and Emi's teacher braided her hair UNDER and it didn't end up sticking up!

Christ in a Manger

My Christ-in-a-Manger plant bloomed again today!!  There were 6 blooms.

Looking Quite Surprised

Smelling the Blooms

Lazy Weekend

Saturday Emi and I went to Zio's for lunch with my brother who was in town with his family and my sister (who kept Emi while we were out dancing last night). My brother is heading to Belize to do mission work for his church. I wish I could tag along.

After lunch Emi and I hung out at Aunt Dee Dee's house and then came home and vegged. Today we just lounged around the house. We watched movies and wrestled and ate and had some fun time. Daddy got home from his kayaking trip and we were glad for him to be back home.

Dance! Dance! Dance!

Tonight was a fun night! We started out with appetizers at Island's after work, then moved along to Malone's, a new bar on campus, and ended up dancing the night away at Kongo's again. What a surprise! ;.) We went out with some co-workers and had a blast.

Fun in the Sun

Kiss - Kiss

We are so in love with this gorgeous baby girl!

Deep Thoughts

I dreamt a thousand new paths...I woke and walked my old one.

Baby Girl Turned 3!

Our little girl turned 3 today and we celebrated at the lake. A few of her friends from school showed up and they played in the sprinklers and SpongeBob slide. I baked her a special cake with fresh strawberries, but when she saw all of her buddies eating cupcakes, she decided she wanted one too.

She got a LOT of nice gifts, mostly toys and a new bike too!! She got a set of water guns from her Aunt Julie and of course we had to break those out. A nice squirt gun fight ensued and the toddlers thought it especially funny to soak the unsuspecting adults' crotches. Kids!

It was a birthday Emi will probably always remember because of the quality time with her little buddies (and the fact that she remembers EVERYTHING these days!)...

Sec

Hippie Chicks had a wedding gig today. We prepared the savory food last night and today ALL we had to do was dip the strawberries in chocolate and transport the food to the reception hall. Everything went very smoothly....and the food was yummy! Later we went to Jazz in the Park with some friends. While I don't really LOVE jazz, I do like hanging out in the park with my friends. We actually opened the bottle of Coppola's Syrah and decided it was too dry.

A Swirly Kind of Night

We got together at The Mont tonight for a "girls night out". It was a fun time talking about the guys and having their famous swirls. We even ran into a "lost" alumnus from my high school class and I snapped a "now" picture of him and his wife. On my way home I crashed the dance at the Moose Lodge where my parents were....

Look who made it...

Last Monday we decided to go into town to eat at T.E.A. Cafe. On our way out the door we saw our guinea hens squawking for some food and we heard a little chirping. We saw 2 little baby guineas! We hoped they would make it for the duration. The last batch we had a few months ago (15 babies in all) didn't make it. That's how it is out here in the country.

Today I was out planting some Passionflower cuttings and cleaning up debris from the storms we'd have lately and I saw the babies.

Mange'

I could eat this every day of the week - fresh tomatoes and basil drizzled with organic olive oil and seasoned with salt....yummers! The colors are so pretty and the flavors are so fresh!

6th Annual Lake Party

We had our 6th annual lake party this past weekend and I am dead tired today..... here are some pics. We had a really good relaxing time with the regulars, but we had some newbies show up to experience the relaxing outdoors on the water. We were treated to homemade sangria courtesy of my friend Mike who was smart this year and doled it out little by little. We had good food, good drink and good friends. As well as being worn out still 3 days later, I have about 50 chigger bites on my legs and feet. You'd think by now I'd know better...

Tea Time Thought

Recently I heard about a meditation path nearby that was created to honor the people who died in the 9/11/01 horror.

I walked it the other day and thought it would be cool to share with you. Here are the instructions for walking the labyrinth...



I am thinking of creating something similar at my house where the grass doesn't grow so well...

Think deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh aloud, work hard, give freely and be kind.

Storm rolling in...

During the clean up after the lake party, the sky turned dark and a cool wind blew down from the north. It was weird because the storms were moving E-N-E of us, but the wind gusts were straight from the North. We were sure that we were in for some severe weather, but we didn't have any tornadoes...

Tessa took this cool pic of the kids fishing...

The next Serena Williams?

My baby girl got a cute tennis outfit from her Aunt Stevie and it shows off all of her curves. She's ready to take on Mamita on the courts....

Spiderman has some tea...

Emi and I got a good picture of Spidey with a cool tea mug for her birthday invites.

Memorial Day 2005

We played at the lake today and then went to see Madagascar at the movies. This was Emi's second movie and she enjoyed it, but we felt a little disappointed because of all of the hype about the movie. I guess they can't all be as good as Shrek II or The Incredibles..... Emi laughed out loud at the cute parts and when she had to go potty, she asked if we had a "mokey retrol" (remote control) so that we could pause the movie...sweet silly girl!

Family Time

Scott's family was over for dinner tonight and afterwards we hung out outside. Stevie and Gary played a few songs for us. It was a very nice time...

Guess Who?

Peace

Golden Slumbers

Have you ever seen anything quite so cute?

Monday, Monday, so good to me

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Byron Nelson Championship and were this close to Tiger before he got cut....too bad we couldn't take a camera inside. We didn't get any autographs because we spent too much time in the pavilion, but we did get to meet Byron Nelson's wife and get on camera. Kathy (in the hat) and her hubby produce BooKoo Energy drinks. I can vouch for them as I could not sleep that Friday night after drinking one of her small sample drinks..yee-haw!

Dinner Party

Last night we had some friends over for Cuban pork roast, black beans and rice and Tomato Feta Salad. Anne brought us some yummy rich family dessert ("Death by Kathy" I believe). After dinner the kids watched movies and played while the adults hung out under a full moon and had some good wine, beer and conversation... It was a nice, relaxing time.

We managed not to open the Francis Coppola wine AGAIN, so we decided to start a tradition of bringing the unopened wine bottle to each gathering, similar to Superman in the Seinfeld episodes.

T.G.I.F...Thank God I'm Filipino

Today I met with an old friend for lunch at the T.E.A. Cafe! Yummers! The conversation was great but as usual, we didn't have enough time to get caught up....that just means we will have to do lunch again soon!

Happy Graduation

Tonight we went to a friend's graduation party at Charleston's. While we were waiting for a table, I snapped a sweet picture of my family.

And then a sweet picture of my baby girl....