Homesick . . .

Exactly a year ago I went up to Utah so my sisters and I could kidnap my mom for the weekend to celebrate her birthday.

Can we make that a new tradition? I know it was for moms birthday, but it did wonders for me. My family are my best friends and I miss you guys! I miss our lunches, family dinners, running into you at the store and honking every time we drove by moms house. Thank goodness my "little" sister Ems is coming here next week! We can't wait!

Silk Road Mummies

Did you know I was going to major in Archaeology at "Uni"? I subscribed to Archaeology magazines in High school and studied all I could. Then I got to BYU and realized that my lifelong desire wasn't really what I wanted. I wanted to study living people, not dead ones, so I switched to Anthropology, but I still have a love of artifacts and especially mummies.

At our Natural History Museum there is a really interesting exhibit called Secrets of the Silk Road. We are one of only 3 museums in the US to be getting this exhibit and it was really interesting. I couldn't take pictures and didn't even think of taking any of the kids before or after, so you'll have to do with these pictures of a couple of the mummies. This one is a baby but the main one, The Beauty of Xiaohe (this is a link with pictures and good info) was too scary for Grace to look at so I won't put it on here either.

The kids favorite part was the 4,000 year old mummified spring roll, wanton, and flower cookies. Ok. I liked them too.

Flashback Monday

I found this a few weeks ago and keep chuckling about it, so I thought I'd share. Where has the time gone??? When I showed this to Collin he said, "Oh boy . . . who is that?" His jaw dropped when I told him it was him. Wasn't he the cutest chub o' love??

Hello November!

No, this isn't what it looks like where we live. It's suppose to get to 88 today and set a new record, and leaves don't turn colors here, but I can always dream right?

My Christmas shopping is 3/4's done, a "cold" front is coming this week and Grace has a cold, so it feels almost like fall should! Have a happy Autumn.

Hmmmm

I little thought when I saw this movie for the first time what impact it would have in my life. Jon and I saw this movie on our first "official" date and I remember thinking, "What in the world is this and WHO would like this movie???". Well, Jon did . . . a LOT. Hmmmmmm.

Now, it's 17 years later, I'm married to Jon, and my 2 kids are watching this movie. I still don't like it, but I do like the thoughts it brings back for me to reminisce on!

My Guy

Where has this month gone? I really thought I had posted my last blog last week. It's been a busy, great month though!

Yesterday was my Bday and boy, did I get spoiled! I have the best hubby in the world. You know it's going to be a good day when you see this waiting for you! Nothing bad comes in a bakery box!

I KNOW you want to see inside the box!! Jon wanted to drive all over Houston to all my favorite cupcake places, but I finally talked him into going to one place. Remember I don't like to shop?

We also went to the mall to upgrade my phone to the iphone 4. I told you I got spoiled! Then he dragged me over to Rocky Mountain Chocolate for a caramel apple fix. Mmmmmm . . . I have to clarify right now that all of these treats were NOT just for me! Not that I couldn't have eaten them all . . .

Some of you may know that my honey is a Renaissance Man. Well, his skills are multiply'n, let me tell you. A few weeks ago Grace got invited to a 50's party where the girls were going to dress in a poodle skirt if they wanted. I made a mental note and then quickly forgot until the invitation was in my hand the day before the party. Well, I had a full schedule that Friday and Saturday so I asked Jon if he thought he was going to be able to do it on such short notice. He took Gracie to get fabric Friday night and the next day when I got back from my meetings this is what greeted me:

When it was time to go to the party Grace came down with all sorts of new things on her little body. If it was me, I would have thought getting the skirt done would be a great accomplishment. Jon on the other hand got the skirt made AND accessories for the outfit: a belt, a bow for her hair, and made a baby blue monogram G (heat transfer) for her shirt!!

All the other ladies there were SO amazed that Jon had made the skirt that they were inspecting it and telling their husbands about it etc. Yeah, I got to brag about him!

PS As I write he's in there on the sewing machine adding pockets etc. to his camel back. I love that guy!

Fall! Finally!

We still have mosquitos swarming, and it is 80 degrees today, and no leaves turning colors, BUT here is why it's fall nonetheless:

1. We haven't used the AC for 3 days!!

2. We had to wear jackets when we went out this morning.

3. We had soup last night for dinner (and Jon wasn't sweating and complaining that it is TOO hot for soup!)

4. We had Apple crisp for dessert - yummo.

5. We started getting out the fall/Halloween decorations because it finally feels like we should.

I was talking to my sister the other day about how when I was younger, I HATED the fall. I hated summer ending, I hated the dreariness of it, I hated that I would have to rake leaves and sell pumpkins after school (aha! That's why I hated it!), I hated that I would have to start school again and put away my flip flops or bare feet for shoes etc. It didn't even excite me that my birthday was coming up, it was just too hard to see all the other stuff.

Then I grew up and moved to a place that has summer 10 months a year, and Spring/Fall/Winter for 2 months, but with no real definition of change. The first year we had the AC on till after New Years for heavens sake! And guess what? I love the fall! I can't wait to start layering clothes, eating cranberries and pumpkin dishes/desserts, wrapping up to watch TV at night, and most of all . . . the mosquitos die off!! I hope this cold front lasts for a while longer. Happy Fall! And if you have any great fall recipes, send them my way.

16 Years of Wedded Bliss!

See? It's been so long our pictures are getting discolored! Love you babe!!

Pre-teen eyes

I look at the world through whole different eyes now that I have a pre-teen male in the house. We took a trip to our neighborhood branch of the Houston Public Library last week, which isn't how you expect an adventure to start out, but that's how our life goes. After finding my books I went to look for C-boy, or Radical Dude as he calls himself these days, in the Manga section. I walked past the handful of "hobos" (the kids favorite word) trying to escape the record heat and humidity and bask in the AC. I turned the corner and was greeted by half of this girls back showing and half of her buttocks. This is after she pulled her pants up and her shirt down.

She looked up and saw Collin and me so, she sat up and we walked around her. I was glad to get on the other side of her, only to be greeted by this/these:

The only reason Collin didn't notice too much was because she wasn't blond. He's got it bad for blonds. He thinks they are H.O.T. I can sort of handle that, it's to be expected from boys and he's got a lot of Bybee genes in him. But then we went to the grocery store and I heard him start laughing like a 5 year old and yelling at me to come see this:

He laughed and snickered over it the rest of the afternoon. Repeating it over and over. So what is worse? Oogling over cleavage, or regressing into a 5 year old??? I waffle . . .

Girls Trip '10

Howdy folks. Grace and I had our first annual Girls Trip a few weeks ago. We went to San Antonio (we thought we'd better start out small) for the weekend and we had a blast! We stayed at a great hotel, ate good food and had lots of fun. We did all the fun things in San Antone that there is to do - The picture above was the river boat ride. We started the day out by trying to eat breakfast on our "porch" in front of our room. I went back inside to get the camera out of our air-conditioned room and this is what happened when I tried to take a picture. It was just a little hot and humid!

We went to the Alamo that was almost deserted compared to how it usually is! We almost had the place to ourselves.

We walked along the River Walk and had a great lunch. Just in case you forget you were in TX, there are flags everywhere to remind you (not unique to SA). I love Texas pride.

Grace and her new armadillo (she got one for Collin too):

I researched hotels in SA that were kid friendly and found a gem of a hotel. It looks like cabins surrounding a playground and a SWEET pool. I thought by the pictures on the internet that the pool couldn't be as big as it looked, but you know what they say, Everything is bigger in TX and this pool was huge! It had one end that was 1 foot and another end that was a hot tub and the middle was huge. Grace could have spent the whole day in here. It was also great because after around 8:30 pm, it was quiet because all the kids were in bed.

The next day we braved the record-setting heat and went to Sea World.

Our favorite part was the Shamu show. Ok, it's really called something like Believe, but we all know the main attraction is Shamu!! And she had a baby with her this time. It was so cute.

We got there almost an hour early and got front row seats . . .

And GREAT views!!

We also did get a little wet, but not too bad because we sat in front of the performing platform.

Very seriously cooling off with some Dippin' Dots:

Enjoying one of the other shows.

We had a great time. Grace was so fun to travel with! She eats what I eat, we like to go to bed early and get up early. We like the same things on TV etc. I can't wait for our trip next year!