Broken Holidays~~

I know that sounds like a REALLY bad title but it's not all so desperate. Just wanted to explain why I haven't had any photos up lately~~I dropped my camera and broke my fabulous Nikon lens! :( I didn't drop it hard, just a little slip and tap and boom....the zoom and focus are broken. I'm waiting to find out where to take it to have it fixed before Christmas. I really wanted to take photos of my decorations for you all. But at least I'm pretty sure that will be the last in a long string of bad luck lately. Let's see...first our air conditioning broke a few months ago (when it was still VERY hot here in Texas), then our Thermador oven broke, then my television bulb busted, and now my camera! LOL Well, it's really no laughing matter but what's a girl gonna do? It tis vat it tis!

So I'll try to keep you all occupied with lots of reviews and raves until I get my camera back up and running or maybe I'll try out the little pocket camera I bought my daughter for her youth group trip a few months ago!! I'm also toying with the idea of putting on vlogs...video blog posts....what do you think? Yeah~~that's the ticket!

Scaphoids, School, and Scotch!

OK ~ I'm just kidding about the Scotch but it rhymed well and seemed to describe my state of mind lately. The summer ended with my little one finally getting her blasted cast off of her poor little wrist. (She had a Scaphoid fracture and bad sprain back in June) She's now just in a splint that she can remove and is SO happy to have that gross, itchy cast off! It was a looooong torturous healing and one that I'm grateful is O~VER! And as for school it's a year of excitement and fear~~middle school for one daughter and the JR year (the year of the dreaded ACT's and SAT's) for the other! The only thing I like about school beginning is that it hearkens the ushering in of FALL!!! Cool weather and hopefully, God willing, SOME RAIN! This is the first time ever that I feel the anticipation of joy when the weather man mentions that a hurricane is headed our way....let me make this clear~~people are DESPERATE for some rain around here. It's dry as a bone. My rose bushes have been growing potpourri!! And I'm NOT kidding! So I hope you all had a nice back to school week! I look forward to turning my attention back to blogging a bit more again now that the house is quiet! Let me know how you're doing~~I love hearing from you all! XOXO

I Feel The Lazy Summer Days Slipping Away~

How does time go by so quickly?! We're counting down the last 2 precious weeks of summer before the girls go back to school. My eldest will be a Jr in High School and my little one will be entering Middle School as a 6th grader! It doesn't seem real. Summer is my least favorite weather due to the extreme heat where we live, but my favorite time of year because my girls are home. I'm making a list of the things we want to do these last few weeks that will make it fun and memorable before the hustle and bustle of early mornings and test schedules take over again!! I'd love to hear about your summers! Have you gotten to make some new memories for your family? Did you travel somewhere new and exciting or hunker down and home and enjoy the peace and quiet? Do tell! Now I'm off to finish up the HUGE puzzle on our kitchen table that I've been tackling with my girls! It's a really fun way to gather together and have quality time! Make it a great day friends! XOXO

I Just Love This Kid~~This is so sweet~Ronan Parke - Britain's Got Talent 2011 Audition - itv.com/talent - UK V...

Key Largo! Montego!! Baby Why Don't We Go?

I'm so happy that summer is approaching!! I've begun looking online for a beach destination to go for a short trip with my hubby for some MUCH needed R&R. I'm looking at St Lucia's Ladera, The Bahamas One & Only Club, and Grand Cayman's Ritz Carlton. We really wanted to return to Turks & Caicos but for some reason the flights are all looking really long and difficult. I was flipping through photos of a family trip we took a few years ago to the Bahamas. We went out at dusk to try and get a good family photo for our Christmas cards. I'm glad we did because it's so fun to see how much the girls have grown in just a few short years. This was before my eldest had her braces!! We're all a little sweaty, wind blown, and sunburned but I love these shots anyway!

Then I always love to capture a few photos of the island ~~ here are a few shots of the landscape.

While we were relaxing on a beach one day, I came across these adorable local children taking out their homemade boat!! I loved capturing their excitement!! What a gift a camera can be~~I'll be able to remember these sweet kids forever now!

Where do you like to vacation for relaxation?? I'd love to know! XOXO

Cuteness Alert!

I was at Whole Earth Provisions today looking for the ever elusive silver glitter TOMS for my daughter (She wore hers so much they got holes in them!) Look what I came across!! Tiny BABY TOMS!! Oh my gosh...these are so adorable. If you're lucky enough to be in the magical beginning phase of parenthood~~go get some of these little TOMS for your baby!! They have them in lots of colors. I mean seriously....these are precious!! :)

What's The Problem? Cat Got Your Tongue?!

I know you're there! I can see the visits to my page, so please, you guys, leave a comment! You've been SO quiet lately. What's up with that?? It's no fun to write to silence~~This is a fun place to share and get to know one another!! Leave a comment and I'll answer you!

I promise! :)

Where Has All The Rain Gone?

I miss the rain! I like to snuggle indoors with a good book on a rainy day. I like to sit on the back porch and listen as the leaves rustle on the trees as the rain falls through. I like the smell of it in the air and the sound of it on the roof. Rain is a good thing! Lately, sadly, it's as dry as a bone here in Texas. There have been reports that rain has been spotted in neighboring states, but we Texans have nary seen a drop in months! What's the deal with draughts? Is this a global warming effect? I did a blog post when I first started dabbling in blogging a year ago, about my memories of rain when I was a little girl. I believe it's called Hurricanes and Heath Bars, in case you all would like to read it. It's one of my favorites.

For now, I'm adding "RAIN" to my prayer board. Please pray for Texas to get some rain. Draughts are no good. So come on, Lord, PLEASE, LET IT RAIN!! :)

Image Source: http://www.visualphotos.com/

London In The Spring Time!

Oh what a lovely wedding it was!! William looked so happy & Harry, well...you know Harry!! He was SUCH a rascal when he turned around and looked at Cutie Katie as she came down the aisle! Oh my~~I don't know if you could tell but we were all just a hootin' and hollerin' when he did that!!

Anyway~~I was just so happy to be there!! Did you see me? Really you couldn't miss me~~I was the one in the hat! ;)

Image courtesy of http://www.faceinhole.com/!!

Give it a try for your friends~~too cute!

Turtle Time!!

After stuffing ourselves on Easter, my little girl & I decided to take a walk to get a little post dinner exercise.  As we walked, we came across a baby turtle on a neighbors driveway.  The little gal (we think) was all dried up and crusty and couldn't move~~we both actually thought she might be dead, but being the optimist that  my daughter is, she scooped her up and ran all the way home to get her into some water.  After a few minutes she slowly started to come to life.  My daughter's been asking for a turtle for a long time so, of course, she saw this as an opportunity for a new pet!  She aptly named her "Shelly."  I mean really, how cute is that?!  So after calling the Texas Turtle & Tortoise Conservation folks to get scoop on how to care for little Shelly, we've got her tucked away in a little Tupperware bin filled with water, rocks, turtle food, and leaves.  They explained that due to the water draught here in Texas, the mama turtles are laying their eggs in people's yards and then wandering off to find water.  The babies hatch and then take off looking for mama and water, and then when they can't find either, they die.  So little Shelly is one of the lucky ones as she was found and saved!!  Turns out Shelly is a Snapping turtle...not the best to keep as a pet, so we'll be taking her to the Nature Conservatory that has offered to give her a safe home, in a few weeks.  But for now, my little one is loving her temporary friend, checking out turtle books at the library and becoming quite the little turtle expert!  You never know what a little walk in the neighborhood will bring! 

Feeling Campy

Good Golly folks, what have I just done!!  I just clicked the "Verify" button to register my youngest at a 2 week summer camp that's she's been asking to go to with her friends!  I know it's a wonderful place and a lifetime experience, but I've never been away from either of my girls for 2 WEEKS!!  OK...I'm taking deep breaths.  She's going to have a ball but what about me!?  I'm going to be a mess for 2 long weeks!  This is true love people.  I don't do well with shipping my younguns off to camps with no phone call rules.  What's with that??  Why can't she call home?  Maybe I should plan a trip to Paris or something while she's gone to preoccupy myself.  I know I sound like a kook but seriously, 1 week, I could handle, but 2 weeks is a looooong dad blasted time.  It's a wonderful Christian camp that has horses and her friends and all kinds of cool things to do all day...truly, it's kid heaven!  Oh, I can't wait for her to get home from school to tell her...she's going to be SO EXCITED!!  :)

Pedicures, Pastels, and Pilgrimmages

This post was one of my 1st posts I wrote when I started this blog last year.

I thought it would be fun to reprint since I've found new readers since it was posted a year ago!

Enjoy!

I really usually enjoy this time of year...the week the majority of my friends head North to conquer the great antique hunt in the big city of Roundtop, Texas/Population: 77. It's a time to get out of Houston and weed through piles of junk & jewels to find just the thing you never knew you couldn't live without! To meet up with all the gals you see all the time in Houston, but still want to stop to chat with in the tents of Marburger. And for all of us natural born bargain hunters...well, it's just plain fun! Alas, this year I have other things in the stars for this week and none of them include traipsing through fields looking for diamonds in the ruff. I'm in the midst of wading the perils of interior paint! So while the majority of everyone I know was perusing Ironstone and vintage linens amidst the tents, there I was the other day, standing at Benjamin Moore waiting patiently to get my glaze, when an adorable young preggo walked up beside me with 2 little toddlers in tow. She was dressed in a pastel Lilly Pulitzer-esque shift dress with the fabric stretched waaaay out over her baby bump and looked ever so fresh and adorable...very ready for Spring! As her 2 crayola toting tots sat on the floor coloring away as mom made her order, I made note of the fact that I was still dressed in my NYC head to toe black. Now make no mistake, I make no apologies for my love of black. I'll wear black anywhere, anytime, in any degree of heat. I LOVE it. It's comfortable & I'm a big believer in uniforms. "No brainers" I call them. Good ol stand by's that require little brain power and can be grabbed, thrown on and get you out the door in a flash. Einstein also was a devotee to the uniform. It's even been rumored that Einstein wore the same thing everyday to save precious cerebral energy for more important things. So you see I'm a lot like Einstein! Einstein and East Coasters... and each year there comes a time when I have to weigh comfort against conformity and I think the time is upon us. Usually for me, comfort wins! So as the steady flow of Houstonives cram their SUV's full of newly found treasures from Round Top and dash homeward through the bluebonnets this week, I can't help but take stock that Spring has Sprung...it's time to dehusk my hooves with a serious pedicure, get out my sandals and make plans to put at least some of my black away. It won't be easy though. Maybe there's a 12 step program somewhere? Oh well ~ parting is such sweet sorrow. I'll miss you my dark friend....if only for a few days before I pull you back out!

It’s Friday, Friday, Everybody Stop Hatin' on Friday

Being the mother a teen daughter, I pretty much get the low down on what's going on with pop culture in regards to music, movies & the general hot topic buzz of the moment.  And recently there's been a lot of buzz about a video a young girl, named Rebecca Black, posted on YouTube called "Friday."   And when I say a lot of "buzz," I mean she has at the moment 48,809,989 views for her video. That's crazy!

Now, young girls make up songs & dances & perform them for the family in the living room all the time~~those are the moments many fun family memories are made of!  But when Justin Beiber was catapulted to stardom after being discovered on Youtube, more & more kids are reaching for the stars by filming these performances & posting them online for the world to view & critique.  What's different about posting these videos online, is that it's exposing the kids to a world of open commentating & much of it is very harsh, to say the least.  The loving, non-judgemental safety net of the nuclear family isn't there, as it is when the performance stays within the home environment.  This is the problem, in my humble opinion, when parents, such as Rebecca Black’s, decide to pay thousands of $$$ for their daughters to make relatively professional looking videos & post them on YouTube.  Rebecca's song isn't awful, but it's clear Rebecca is not a fabulous singer & the lyrics are, truthfully, pretty dang bad.  But in all honesty, there are tons of songs with not so great lyrics that become really popular, so who's to judge?  The viewers on YouTube have had a field day leaving extremely hateful comments for Rebecca, one going so far as to say they hope she cuts herself & dies!  She's even reportedly received death threats! The song has spawned multitudes of spoofs & she's become famous for being disliked.  All this really makes me so sad. Since when has our society become so tolerant of being hateful to kids for having a dream?  I liken the anonymous people leaving these comments to aggressive drivers~~for some reason when people feel anonymous, they think it's OK to act like animals.  Isn't how we act in these moments just as much a barometer of our character as when we're out in the open?  Where's the conscience of these folks?  This is a young girl, for pete's sake!! Leave her alone! Talk to your kids about YouTube commenting.  Let them know that it's NEVER OK to stand by & let other people tear someone down.  OK...I'm glad I got that off my chest.  I'll get off my soapbox now.

                          Click here: YouTube - Rebecca Black - Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

                                                                    ~Today's Quote~

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

~ Theodore Roosevelt

Awesome Possum

Holy smokes!  I was just sitting at my kitchen table this morning, iChatting with my friend in India, when the BIGGEST white possum I've ever seen, started running across the top of my fence right outside my window!  That sucker was HUGE!  I've seen possums at night around here before, but never in the day~~wait, aren't they nocturnal??  What's he doing up?  OMgosh, I wish my little one was home from school so she could see him...she would freak out!  (Have I mentioned my daughter is the world's biggest animal lover~~seriously...she's our version of Bindi Irwin...she'd have one of each animal in the world if she could.)
So next time I'll try to get a photo of him for you, but that fella was running FAST!! So cute! (and a little scary!)

PS ~ How many hillbillies does it take eat a 'possum?

     Two. One to eat, and one to watch for cars!!  Buh-dum-dum-CHING!  :)