SPROUTS!

I'm obsessed with my garden. Seriously. I wander out there a minimum of 5 times a day to check on it. The crazy part is that at least 2 of those times, something new has happened! Little plants grow SO FAST!

As I suspected they would be, the sprout mix was the first to appear. I've already taught Lily Ruth to pluck and eat a sprout each time we go out there :-O She has pronounced them her 'faf-wit', and even put one in my purse 'for yay-ter'. Almost every thing else we planted has already followed suit. The only non-starter is the lettuce.

Here's a little glimpse:

That's the bean teepee on the left - that sucker sprouted yesterday, and is already 2" tall! The sweet corn is on the right - it will already be time to thin it in a day or so!

We also have a beautiful fungus that sprouts each night. I'm assuming that it arrived in the garden dirt. It shrivels away as soon as the sun hits it, but I enjoy it until then. Here's one spore hiding in the sprout mix:

And here's Keely sneaking back in (Don is completing the fence repair as I type) :-/ I added a pot of basil (foreground) and a pot of pink Cosmos next to Lily Ruth's bean teepee:

Once you start planting, it's really hard to stop. I also cleared out the bed in front of our picture window and threw out a package of 'Fairy Garden' mixed seeds. Lily Ruth is agog at the thought of fairies in our yard! Time to make up a fairy house - maybe something along these lines...

Source: momfluential.net via Rachel on Pinterest

Oh, and we just added a plastic garden flamingo. Once it has a name and a place, I'll introduce you :-P

I'm all worn out from all of this healthy outdoor living. Would you be available to swing by and entertain/feed my family for the next few days? I'd like to catch up on some z's.

Garden, Round 2

You may or may not remember (or care) that I made a limp-wristed stab at 'gardening' last spring. In short, my mom did the lion's share of work, and I fell apart and was unable to help. Well, here's hoping that I learned a few things vicariously, because this year, we're going to try it on our own.

My husband is an Idea Guy. He is forever coming up with ideas. They range from dinner plans to vacation plans. The only things that they all have in common is that they all come from a place of good intention, and they all very rarely come to fruition because he is so busy and/or tired all of the time that he forgets about them almost as soon as he says it out loud. I have learned over the years not to pin any sort of hope to these ideas until we have spoken of them several times. This is why I was completely unprepared yesterday when he started actually preparing our yard and looking up plans for raised garden beds on the internet.

I'll tell you what, I'm riding this train of garden momentum. I'm going to take him up on it, and follow through. So far, we have seeds and a plan:

That's right - a four foot BEAN TEEPEE that she can crawl into!!!! With PURPLE BEANS!!!

We also have a lot of cut lumber and 1 partially finished bed. That's a lot for one day!

He found instructions for raised beds on a blog called Anything Pretty,  and my dad offered up as much salvaged wood as we need. Don is loving the fact that we're using reclaimed wood. Not only is it saving us money (witch we can now use on more supplies), but we're recycling AND it looks cool! :-P

I found instructions for prepping the beds once they're in place on my mom's friend's blog - Diane's Texas Garden. Now we just have to finish construction, have dirt delivered (!!!), make the soil rich and gorgeous (we should all be so lucky) and THEN it will be time to plant! It's all very exciting, and a teensy bit daunting. The amount of planting that I have planned will be a lot of work.

I'm just so excited about Lily Ruth watching food grow! Not only is it an amazing process, but it's also a good way to foster healthy eating (and curb picky eating)... as an added bonus, it will surely create a plethora of cute photo opportunities. For instance, a gardener in training must dress for success:

 Also, you need a lot of things in order to garden. A kitty, sunglasses, a popsicle...

Oh yeah, the 'grass' that she's standing on is the location of our future garden. Wish us luck - we're gonna need it!

WHAAAAAAA?

I just left my mama a voice mail message (she's at work). I believe it went like this: 'Mom, Mom, MOM! GRAY HAIR! Call me.' *click*

Today was already on my shit list. I'm not sleeping well again. In addition, Lily Ruth had a fever yesterday and was attached to me like a limpet. By the time I finally passed out after midnight, I was beyond drained. Today found me exhausted, cranky and battling a monster headache, but ready to give it a go. Then I over-conditioned my hair and (not surprisingly) couldn't find an outfit that didn't make me feel like a whale. *sigh*

I was still gamely trying until The Great Nap Battle of 01/10/12. Wanna guess who won? Not me. My opponent is happily nattering on about princesses, car keys and flowers. I am trying to find an inner well spring of fortitude. I decided to try to tie my hair back in a funky/fun braid and maybe venture out to the grocery store or the park. In the process, I found a GRAY HAIR. At first, I assumed that it was a cat or dog hair stuck in my regular hair - a ridiculously common experience around here. Then I pulled on it, and it was attached to my skull. Then I yanked it out in a blind panic and stared at the good inch and a half of gray leading into a 'badly in need of coloring' strand that terminated with a split end. dammit.

I'm still staring at it.

Hey, can you come over and watch my kid so that I can go out and make some really bad choices just to prove that I'm still young enough to do so? Thanks.

** Update ** So, I made it to the grocery store (with a sad, sloppy ponytail instead of a cool braid) and the liquor store. I even found ginger vodka! I adore ginger! Then I came home and found out that my dog had not only rolled in poop while outside, but she had then come inside and peed on my NEW futon mattress - that's right, the mattress that's replacing the one that the cats peed on until it was no longer clean-able. I was livid... and a bit freaked out because my housekeeper told me to put a mattress cover on that thing just 24 short hours prior to this disaster - is she psychic? No, it's more likely that she just knows us really well...

*sigh* Well, the futon tag has helpful cleaning tips like 'dry it out outside - fresh air will take away the odors'. Seriously? Jerks. I blotted up as much as I could then covered the wet part in baking soda that I will vacuum off later today. This led to Lily Ruth playing with baking soda while I unpacked the groceries, mixed myself a yummy cocktail and started dinner. She was enthralled with that stuff. Maybe we'll try the cornstarch and water trick today - that feels like magic!

I guess the morals of my sad, sorry tale are that: 1) Gray hair is not fatal - not even your first one. 2) There is always something worse lurking around the corner - do NOT tempt fate by declaring your current situation to be the 'worst day of your life'. This will force the fates to prove you wrong. Not that I did that yesterday, but I came close... 3) Vodka is not just for breakfast anymore.

p.s. I finally managed my funky/fun braid! Also, did you know that it is extremely difficult to take a picture of the back of your own head?

Bookcases, Futons, Glitter & Feathers (now with pictures!)

We've kept ourselves RIDICULOUSLY busy since Christmas. It has been wonderful to reconnect with friends, and I actually love to entertain, but ya'll, I am TIRED.

On the up side, having people over means cleaning up the house. All of this hosting means that our home looks better on a daily basis than it has in ages.

Oh, I want to show you my new stuff! Not in a brag-y, jerk-y way, but in a 'please be excited for me that my house is beginning to look like a grown-ups-live-here type of home' way :-)

SO! There's the new IKEA bookcase that holds toys, art supplies and crafting madness (do you like how I snuck in my Christmas tree?):

 The IKEA lazy Susan & IKEA impulse-buy candle (paper flowers are left from summer soirees):

The futon mattress that transforms the naked-and-unuseable-for-almost-a-year futon frame from eyesore to inviting seating (don't worry, Kittyn, the pillows are just for show - they'll be winging their way to you soon!):

And last but certainly not least, the hand-me-down toddler bed that we spray painted AND assembled just yesterday. It. is.awesome. My Lovely has been sleeping on her mattress on the FLOOR since the day that she flung herself out of her crib. It was fine, but this is better ;-) She even slept by herself aaaallllllll night long last night!:

Enough about furniture. On to the glitter of it all! My company holiday party is a Masquerade Ball this year. I was completely unaware of this since I am hardly ever there, but my June Bug keeps me informed of such goings on, and insisted that I join the fun. I then talked her into making masks instead of buying them. It was big fun! I had planned on showing you more of the process, but I got distracted - big surprise. Instead, here is a glimpse into my madness and a view of the finished product:

First, I ironed a golden dragon transfer onto a piece of chiffon - a process that I hope to never repeat. It was a gigantic pain in the patooty. Then Lily Ruth and I painted a blank mask red. After a short break for toddler crafting and clean up, it was time to stick the dragon onto the mask. Ya'll it was a MESS. After years and years of success using Mod Podge glue to decoupage various items to various surfaces, I dove in with complete (unwarranted) confidence. A loooong time later, I ended up securing tiny edges with Super Glue, using nail scissors to painstakingly clip 'blank' areas of the design and finally painting in pesky areas with more red paint. When it dried, I globbed on a ton of beautiful orange-y/red/gold super-fine glitter and stuck some feathers on the corner. I was completely disgusted with it at the time, but I really do love the finished product!

And here it is with Don's 'Bird of Prey' mask (inspired by some Venetian Masquerade images) and Lily Ruth's 'Pink Fiona' mask (she named it herself):

There's going to be a super-fine layer of super-fine glitter on every surface in my home forever. Oh, and here is the Lady herself modelling her mask:

LOVE IT!!! Oh, and there's more! I traced a Monarch butterfly image and used it as a pattern for wings that we glued onto June's mask - My Junie wanted to be a Monarch, so she will be :-) She may well swear off crafting forever after the minutiae of hand gluing 90 bazillion gems in place, but it was totally worth it. Here are my wings and the (almost) finished product: 

We made a mask for her Honey as well, but it's not as exciting as hers :-P

The party is tonight. I'll post pictures later. Gotta dash - these eyebrows aren't going to pluck themselves!

*** Update *** You know what dudes hate? Being asked to hold still for pictures. Even if their Lady never never hardly ever gets to doll herself up and feel like a queen. Most guys will still act like a grade schooler asked to kiss a girl if you try to get them to take one lousy photo of the two of you dressed up. As a result, I will have to beg the two people who managed to get a shot of us to e-mail said images to me so that I can include them here.

*** Update #2 *** pictures! Courtesy of June & Hubert :-)

Put It In A Bubble

Have you guys ever seen the episode of Dharma & Greg where they cleanse their kharma by telling each other secrets that they had been keeping? It's hysterical. After telling something, they 'put it in a bubble' and blow the bubble away. Kittyn and I have been trying to do that for YEARS. Not that we keep secrets, but the thought of taking something that bothers you, purging it, then sending it away where it can no longer haunt you is pretty wonderful.

Instead of New Year's Resolutions (all capital letters makes it look a bit ominous, no?), I'm trying to walk away from my wallowing hole, and to walk toward the things that I want. More like being the change and less like hoping for the best... hopefully...

At any rate, 2011 went out with a whimper. We almost made it to New Mexico to ring in the year with my already vacationing parents. The almost part is that on the morning we should have left, Lily Ruth woke up with a fever. We stayed home. As lovely as a weekend in a snowy cabin would have been, traveling with a sick toddler would have nullified all loveliness. Of course, not even a fever can nullify Lily Ruth's loveliness:

Instead, we cuddled our darling one, puttered around the house and assembled my new bookcase. That's right - new bookcase! I made my first trip to Ikea, ya'll. It's ah-maze-ing. Seriously - it's a maze. A beautiful, complicated, desirable maze. In addition to the bookcase that was our ONLY reason for going, we ended up with a Lazy Susan for the dining room table, 100 tea lights, 2 big candles, a set of brightly colored bowls and a set of coordinating utensils for Lily Ruth, Swedish ginger cookies and sparkling pear soda. It's almost impossible not to buy this stuff. Those Swedes are good at placement.

We did manage to make a beautiful holiday centerpiece using Don's childhood holiday place-mat, my very first Christmas tree, a bunch of tin ornaments and a slew of glass balls:

We also started using our chiminea again. Start as you mean to go on, right? I love that thing. Sitting outside next to a fire is definitely on my list of  Really Great Things. The first night, we had some friends over, and the boys got a bit excited about burning things - I was afraid that the poor chiminea was going to explode:

The next time, I lit a small fire for just Lily Ruth and I (her daddy was out of town) before dinner. It seemed a bit wasteful, but I pretty much couldn't help myself - it made me so happy!

So, that's how 2011 ended and 2012 began. Not too shabby. I still have a backlog of things to share (like even more Lily Ruth pictures and a felt ornament tutorial), but today I'm making masquerade masks with a friend for our company holiday party! Gotta run. tellyourmamaisaidhi ;-)

HA! Pillow!!!

I did it! My zipper is whonky, my seams don't line up and my stitching... well... I tried... But I LOVE IT all teh same!!!!

*sigh* It's lovely. Completely impractical for our rough and tumble feet-on-the-coffee-table lifestyle, but I am very very pleased with my finished product.

In case I didn't say it loudly enough before, I used the Petal Pillow Tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew, and the Zippered Pillow Cover Tutorial from Craftiness is Not Optional. All mistakes are my own, and are not due to the tutorial skills of these lovely ladies.

A few notes:
1) I used a supposedly indoor-outdoor fabric for my base. It was NOT sturdy enough. For my next try at this (oh yes, there WILL be another pillow!), I will either use heat-n-bond interfacing to stabilize the fabric before I create the flower, OR I will attach the muslin lining first.
2) I need a LOT more practice with zippers. My zipper is sort-of poking out at one end :-/
3) I LOVE the finished look of this flower! My next idea is to do a pillow with either 2 or 3 smaller flowers in different colors on it.

My hope is to start putting together a home that looks less Found It On The Curb and more Put Some Thought Into It while remaining comfortable and functional. I have no interest in a 'good living room', but I sure would like to smile when I walk in the door. Let's work on that, shall we?

Wednesday Catch-Up

Here's a glimpse inside the spaghetti-bowl-jumble that passes for my brain...

-----------

I think that I might be even more pheromone-driven than most people. I truly love to just sit quietly with my husband and/or my daughter and breathe them in. In fact, when I'm mad or freaked out, if I can just put my head on Don's shoulder and breathe in his scent - right at his neck - it calms me down instantly. If I'm sitting or lying next to Lily Ruth, I am almost physically compelled to draw her in closer and bury my nose in her hair.

I completely understand if I've just lost you.

------------

A friend asked me what Lily Ruth's verbal skills were like right around her first birthday, so I pulled up my blog to find out. Am I the only one who reads their own blog? Anyway - in reading my older posts, I began to feel as though I've lost my voice. The woman who wrote here a year ago was much funnier. My posts feel like lead weights to me these days. They used to feel like balloons.

At any rate, if you see my voice around, let it know that I'm looking for it.

--------------

In a concerted effort to actively celebrate more things in our life, I created a table for my Mama's birthday. It felt really good to not just say 'I love you' and cook her a meal, but to put effort into our surroundings for the meal.

In case you can't tell, my Mama likes bright colors :-P Lily Ruth and I had a ball picking out decorations at a local store that specializes in Mexican imports including folk art, traditional decorations pottery and party supplies. Big fun! 

I must have said it several times in an effort to keep her focused during our shopping trip, because after we left, Lily Ruth kept telling me 'I just need a couple more things.'

---------------

Lily Ruth had her first truly awful nightmare. She woke up screaming around 4 am on Tuesday. She said that there was a man. We brought her in with us. She calmed down quickly, and went back to sleep.

She has repeated the tale of the man under her pillow who is going to get her to every adult that she has had contact with since then. She's really worried about it. We've talked it through more times than I can count. Daddy & I have both told her that there is no man. That it was a dream - a picture in her head - and not real. We've told her that she is safe. Mama and Daddy and Keely and Bing all keep her safe. No one is going to get her. We've shown her that there is no man under her pillow, under her bed (it's on the floor) or anywhere near her bed, but she remains unconvinced.

Yesterday, she napped next to her bed because she didn't want to sleep on her pillow :-(

Last night was miserable. She threw an epic screaming fit when Don tried to put her to bed. A few hours later (!!!!!), I was able to talk her into returning to her room and getting into bed, but it was almost midnight before she fell asleep.

Today, she still wanted to talk about it almost constantly, and I am out of ways to comfort her. I feel like a broken record, but I just keep telling her that she's safe and loved.

I soooooooooooooo wish that I knew how to fix this!

--------------

Continuing the celebratory theme, it's Don's birthday, and I bought him a present. While this might not sound like a big deal to you, it is to us. We had fallen out of the habit of celebrating. Other than (wonderful) family dinners, we had allowed birthdays to go unremarked. No gifts to each other. No decorations. No parties. 

Explaining how this came about is a long and painful story. I may write it out, but not here. As part of our healing process, we are returning to real, joyful celebration as the norm, not the exception. Toward that end, I purchased a nice gift for the man that I love, and I'm throwing him a party. It feels wildly extravagant, and I'm going to be working my butt off between now and the party in order to make it all happen, but you only turn 40 once. It really does need to be celebrated.

----------------

What's going on in YOUR brain these days?

Evening Song

Every household has a rhythm. Our evening rhythm is filled with the noises of people dinner and pet dinner followed by dishes and negotiations that usually slip into gleeful cries of 'Yih-yhee-oof get NUDIE swim POOL!!!' mixed with excited barking. Then comes splashing interspersed with more barking and joyous 'I SWIM MAMA! Daddy, you jump IN!'

Once we're all rinsed off and dried off, we snuggle in for a few bartered minutes of t.v. (usually won in the previously mentioned negotiations) accompanied by whispered requests of 'Yih-yhee-oof play your wet hair?'

Then it's my quiet time. A few stolen moments indulging my love of the interwebs while I listen to the muffled sounds of my daughter and my husband giggle their way through their books and their tuck-in ritual... until he walks out and we're serenaded with 'Daddy COME BACK! OPEN THE DOOR, Daddy!'... 'Mama? I can't find my Mama!'... 'Come help me!'

*sigh*

It's all a part of our song. It's a pretty great song, but I could easily do without the screaming...

Looooooook!!!!

O.k., so last weekend, we didn't work on the garden because we were out of town, so it's been too long since I checked in on 'our' (that's in quotes because my Mama does the lion's share of the work) progress.

Last night, we tromped out there to gaze adoringly at our plants and plot out what needed to be done over the weekend... and found something WONDERFUL! A zucchini and a patty pan squash that were ready to harvest!!!

(Gin and Tonic provided for size perspective) There are lots of peppers and eggplants that are almost ready, and even more zucchini and squash that will be ready in just a few more days. The beans are growing like CRAZY, but haven't started producing yet. The cucumbers are absolutely lush, and have a bazillion blossoms. The watermelon vines are really just getting started. I'm not sure if they just take longer to get going, or if they have a problem. They definitely have bugs :-( I have to take a leaf over to the nursery today to identify them and purchase an organic repellant.

Ya'll I am so excited! We're having dinner with friends tomorrow, and I am going to take vegetables from my very own family garden!!!! I'm a dork. A happy, veggie loving, dirt-under-my-nails dork :-)

Are You WITH Me?

I didn't make it to the river this week. There just weren't enough hours in the day(s)! I did manage to do something just as good, if not better - I went to a Cowboy Mouth concert!

I've mentioned Cowboy Mouth before. They're my favorite band. They've been my personal soundtrack through pretty much every big transition of my adult life. I've worn out every album at least once. When we moved into this house, I scraped, spackled and painted as I sang through the tears and the funk. When I get that itch - the one that whispers 'go start some trouble!', I turn up a Cowboy Mouth cd and dance my daughter through the house instead.

The Husband and I go see them whenever they're within driving distance. Luckily for us, they tend to come through town every six months or so.

It's not just the music, it's the show. Cowboy Mouth's live shows are a performance and a celebration. A celebration of music, of positivity and of life. Their front man is a stocky, vibrant, fireball of a man. As he puts it, HE'S the only one allowed to sit during the show - and that's only because he's also the drummer, and drummers have to sit. Audience members are exhorted, cajoled and occasionally physically pulled to stand, clap, jump and 'scream like you're five years old and nothing else matters'. As much as he's asking of you, he's giving back in spades. Fred works so hard that he's drenched before the third song. The energy in any venue that they play becomes so (positively) charged that it's palpable. People who've never met are so close that they're sharing sweat, and they're happy to do so.

The first Cowboy Mouth show that I saw was a loooooong time ago. A college friend dragged me to a POE concert. POE was a one-album wonder. I googled her just now, and can't even remember what her songs sound like. This particular show was in a large local outdoor venue. It was a 'radio tour'. A group of bands touring together. The order of performance denoted the band's current radio popularity / notoriety. This time around, Cowboy Mouth was after a (according to Fred) really-high-on-cocaine Brit-punk band, but before Better Than Ezra and POE. As far as I was concerned, the show was over when Cowboy Mouth finished their set. Fred had come off the stage to pull people to standing. He had climbed the lighting towers to liven up the crowd. Their brand of Louisiana rock set me alight and blew me away. I went out the next day to buy their album.

They've never let me down. Show after show. Year after year. Cowboy Mouth brings intense passion and joy to the stage no matter how small the venue or the crowd.

This week's show was just as wonderful as all of the other shows we've seen. I walked in excited to be there, but tired and stiff. I left there grateful, thrilled, exhausted and limp. I 'let it GO' as I yelled, sang, clapped and jumped. I thanked God that I am alive and that I am so blessed.

In the 16+ years that I've been going to see their shows, I've never stayed around afterward to talk to the band. It always seemed like it would be presumptuous on my part - why would I force strangers (that I pretend to know in my head) to smile at whatever nonsense reason I had trumped up to speak with them?  This time felt different. I wanted to say thank you. I wanted a hug. Mission accomplished. Then I started babbling about the first time that I saw them, and Fred's eyes glazed over a bit... but he never lost his charm or his smile, and he made the time to accept the (fragile) bond that I was offering. THAT, my friends, is a Southern Gentleman. That is why fans of the band pay to see every show that they can. That is why the band is able to make a living doing what they love - the connection. Thank you, Cowboy Mouth! Thank you, Fred. I am glad to be alive, and you help me to remember that.

The Grass is Currently Greener

We spent some money and some time working on our front yard last year. My adorable husband put a lot of effort into planting tiny grass plugs aaalllllllll over the yard. I put in quite a bit less energy into the process. I watched the baby instead. We tried bringing her pack-n-play outside with us, but that was NOT good enough for Lily Ruth. Too much watching, not enough doing :-P

We watered them every single time that we were allowed to (due to watering restrictions). They took root, but didn't really take off. It was just too dry and too hot. Also, this was a terrible project for instant gratification fiends like hubby and I. It takes more than a day or two (more like a year or two) for grass plugs to really establish a presence in a yard. We did the best that we could, then left the yard alone for the winter.

It's already time to start paying attention to the yard again. Daddy Don got himself in gear. He raked up the winter stuff so that it wouldn't be such an impermeable mat. Then he mowed. That made it evident how pathetic our lawn really looked. When all the winter stuff was still in place, it just looked vaguely dormant. Now it looked patchy and sad. Poor Don. After all that effort last year! He took it fairly well. Then he went out and bought a bunch of grass seed and even more soil. After applying both to the yard, we started watering.

We watered. And watched. And watered. And watched. And taught Lily Ruth to run through the sprinkler. And watched.

It's been two weeks. Check out what happened!

So tiny! So lush! It's very exciting, and very pretty. We go out and squat down to check on our baby grass several times a day. Lily Ruth likes to eat it. Who wouldn't?

Oh, and guess what?! What with all of the watering, the grass plugs are coming back to life as well! We'll be the pride of the block in no time... or not. Whatever. I just can't wait until the pool is back to swimmin' ready-ness!

The Weekend Getaway

Wow, ya'll. I mean it. Here's how it went down:

1. My grandparents wanted to take us (Daddy Don, Baby Lily Ruth and Mama Rachel) away for the weekend. Because I have such a forceful personality, it was decided that we would go to the coast (always my first choice).

2. We had the genius idea of renting a place on line since we've had great luck in the past. Granted, the great luck involved Hawai'i and it's hard to have bad luck when Hawai'i is involved. Our rules were simple - two bathrooms, two bedrooms and at least one bedroom had to be on the ground floor since my grandparents are not fans of stairs. That was all.

3. At some point in our search, a button was inadvertently pushed leaving us looking at accommodations in Palacios, Texas rather than North Padre Island, Texas. Our mistake was not immediately discovered. When it was, we decided to step out of our comfort zone (N Padre up to Rockport) and try something new. A rental agreement was completed and money was paid (rental fee plus a sizable damage deposit). We were excited. Menus were planned. Suitcases were packed.

4. Departure day arrived. Daddy Don was in Houston for business, and would be driving down to meet us. Mama, Lily and Lily's great grandparents (a.k.a. the Great Ones) drove down together. We got off to a bit of a late start, but Lily Ruth hung in there like a trooper. She 'talked' and 'sang' most of the way down. The drive was looooooooooooong. It took us almost 4 & 1/2 hours (including a few pit stops) to get there.

Here's where the story really gets going. We stopped in 'town' to check in and get the codes for the locks. Town is a term that can only be loosely applied to this burg. It had the sad, half-shuttered look of so many small towns these days. We only gave it a glance - not being ones to judge books by their covers... Then we made the short drive to the property. Click here to see what we expected to find. It looks older, but nice in the pictures. It claims to be a full house, so that's what we were expecting. What we were confronted with was a run-down, smelly, dirty, oddly configured mess. The ground floor had a partially private queen bed, two not private double beds, two chairs and a bathroom. The interior staircase was open and very steep. The upper floor had a partially private king bed, a galley style kitchen, a not private twin bed, a dining table shoved under a window with 3 chairs and another bathroom. THAT IS ALL. No living area to sit around in. No area for dining that would accommodate all five of us. No way to avoid having my grandparents traipse up and down the stairs. It was like a summer camp bunkhouse without the planned activities. Also (as I mentioned, but it bears repeating) dirty and smelly. It was BAD.

We unpacked the car anyway. Then we decided that it was too much to bear. Grandfather decided to call 'the guy' and ask if he had another option for us. He couldn't reach 'the guy'. Since it was closing in on 5 o'clock, we figured that we had better hoof it back into town before they rolled up the sidewalks for the night. We tracked down 'the guy' at his wife's coffee shop/used book store. We announced that we couldn't stay there. He acted shocked. Grandfather asked for his money back. He stalled. Hemmed, hawed and launched into a story about how he couldn't POSSIBLY call the owner at 5:00 on a Friday. After all (he blustered), the man is in a wheelchair... and he's an attorney... and he lives in Houston... and he was the last person in Houston to catch Polio before it was eradicated... as though any of that was a reason not to call the guy.

In the meantime, his wife got on the internet and tried to find us someplace in town that would be on the ground floor. She claimed that the only options in town would be on the second floor or higher. 'The guy' was still claiming that this had never happened to him before and acting like we were delusional for thinking we could expect any money back. Grandfather told the wife that 'this is why people our age decide not to go anywhere any more - there are too many problems'. It broke my heart.

We left. We drove back to the shack to repack the car. Ideas were tossed about in a half-hearted manner. Would we stay in Palacios or drive to Rockport? Grandfather maintained that a motel was a motel. I mentioned that a motel in Rockport would NOT be located in Palacios - in my mind, that made a whole world of difference. My point was conceded. We got BACK into the car, and headed for Rockport. Lily Ruth lost what was left of her good humor and began to complain vociferously. It was a LONG fifty minute drive.

Once we hit town, we began stopping at every possible lodging establishment. No vacancy, no vacancy, no vacancy. My grandparents began to look tired and discouraged. We pushed onward. Then we saw Daddy Don! After over an hour of phone tag, texts and fractured directions, he found us! We had also arrived at a place with a vacancy. The manager gave us a key so that we could evaluate the room (a bad sign in my mind). It was BAD. As bad as Palacios. The grandparents wanted to keep it because it was available. Thank goodness for Daddy Don and his fresh set of eyes. He was not discouraged, and he insisted that we could do better. Having him there even perked up the whiney Lily Ruth! We set out again.

After a few more instances of no vacancy, we were at the literal end of the road. A newish condo development right on the water. I raced into the office before Grandfather could get out of the car. I was determined to hear the 'bad news' first this time to save them the disappointment. Did they have any availability? One unit that had become available only thirty minutes prior (cautious optimism). Would it sleep all of us? Yes - it was a 1 bedroom plus a sleeper sofa (giddy grin). Was it available for two nights? No (boo, but not terminal). Was it on the ground floor? No, third floor (noooooooooooooooooooooo!), but we have an elevator (YESSSSSSSSSSS! *fist pump*)! One last question... (*ducks as though about to be slapped*) is it in our budget? Yes. WHOO-HOOOOOOOOO! I bounded out of there like a puppy with a new toy and crowed our victory to the waiting throng.

Grandfather paid the nice lady and got our keys. We unloaded the cars for the last time of the day. We sighed deeply. Grandmother cracked open the champagne and laid out our traditional 'first night' dinner of bagels, lox, cream cheese and fresh fruit. We began to unwind... eight full hours after we left home.

It was all uphill from there. Another unit - an even nicer one - became available for our second night. We packed and unpacked the cars one more time. Grandfather and Daddy Don played golf. Grandmother and Mama Rachel took Baby Lily Ruth to the used book store that Grandmother has been taking me to since I was barely old enough to read. Lily Ruth loved the bookstore - she found two 'new' books. Then we took Lily to the beach. She did not love the beach. She hated the beach. She did not want to walk on the sand, put her toes in the water or even sit on my lap while I sat in 5 inches of warm, gently rolling water. Oh well. We'll try again next time. She can have an opinion. It can be different from mine. I just wish that she loved the ocean like I do. Perhaps some day she will.

It was good to get away. It was great to spend some time with my grandparents. It was fun to go back to the coastal town that I grew up visiting. We did some good visiting, ate some great food, and spent too much time in the car. All in all though, it was a good weekend. Not what we had envisioned, but good. We came away a little wiser about renting on line. We also came home with a new standard for bad... 'oh, that's sooooo Palacios' now means 'that's terrible' or even 'that's so bad that it's unacceptable' in our family. Definitely a case of if you can't be a good example, you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning :-)

*Trumpet Fanfare* Guess What Happened!

This has been a crazy weekend, and you'll just have to wade through it with me before I get to the good stuff :-D

I have been ridiculously sick, yet I have pushed forward instead of lying down. I got WORSE, ya'll! Aren't you supposed to feel better by your third day of antibiotics? Maybe I got the placebo :-/

Lily Ruth joined the fray with world's runniest nose (but no other symptoms). Gross. Just gross.

Our farmer's market trip was cut short by my need to sit down and also blow my nose, but since I feel so crappy, I probably won't be cooking much :-( Oh well, I still managed to get mushrooms, an eggplant, blackberries, peaches and some spiced peach butter for toast... mmmmmmmmmmmmm, toast...

We dive-bombed Old Navy for new attire. Daddy's swimsuits have all had it, and Mama's t-shirts alllllllll have holes rubbed in them from wearing/holding the world's most amazing baby. Then we cruised Carter's for sunsuits and baby p.j.s. Mission accomplished.

We got to visit with Don's good friend and his family. They were in from D.C., and there was pool side fun to be had out there! Lily Ruth was awesome. She laughed, ate, did all of her funniest tricks and played in the pool until her tiny teeth chattered. Then she had a meltdown and we left quickly. Nice timing, Lily Ruth ;-) I swear that I did not pinch her.



Oh yeah - there was this as well - Well, I assumed that my darling daughter would be so pooped from her day of fun that she would be a bit 'lounge-ish' this evening. I could not have been more wrong! She wound up for round two and STARTED WALKING all unassisted and everything! The first two times, Daddy tricked her into it by holding her toy up and away from her. She was so ticked that she just stood up, stepped forward (3 steps each time!!!!!), and took it... while yelling baby obscenities at Daddy... then she caught on and started trying it out all on her own! It was so incredible! At one point, she stood up facing me. I just looked at her and said 'Well, you had better just walk on over here' SO SHE TOOK 5 STEPS :-0 That kid is awesome. She did finally wear herself out. Daddy 'rocked her down' in record time. Fingers crossed that her stuffy nose doesn't wake her up!

Since I was so busy marveling at her, I did not have time for pictures or video, and the damn 'interweb' won't upload my video of her using her highchair as a walker, so we're all out of luck... dammit.

p.s. We have Netflix now, so I may be too busy streaming nonsense directly onto my laptop to ever blog again. We'll see.

Today's Random Tidbits - 4

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, Family! That's not sarcasm, Folks. I genuinely love to spend time with the people that I'm related to.

My aunt, uncle & cousins watched a tired and pissed off Lily Ruth for us while we went to the Cowboy Mouth show on Wednesday night. Not exactly 'together time', but it definitely deserves a shout-out.

We had a wonderful dinner last night with my parents. I made a Chicken, Rosemary, Mushroom, Veggie & Pasta Soup with cheese quesadillas on multi-grain tortillas and peach & blackberry fruit salad. If I get enough sleep tonight, I'll add the soup recipe... don't hold your breath...

My grandmother, aunt, daughter & I went to the Farmer's Market this morning. I bought squash, onions, pinto beans, culinary lavender and yukon gold potatoes. I also managed to send my grandmother into a mild (yet good-natured) tizy by allowing Lily Ruth to chew on a squash while we walked around. As Grandmother Ruth tells it, when her kids dropped something, it had to be BOILED before you gave it back to them (per Dr. Spock). Side note - she also LOATHES it when the dogs kiss the baby :-)

And last but not least, my in-laws arrived this afternoon! My mother-in-law and I bought Lily Ruth 2 new bathing suits - one for cute and one with the SPF 50 3/4 sleeve top. Then she jumped on board the tiny-fridge-magnet-toy train with me and we went CRAZY! SInce the 3 I already made were DUDS (the magnets were too weak to stick to the fridge), I sent them to live with the tiny cat (he's been playing with/ruining them anyway)... correction - I sent two of them with the kitten. The other one is MIA. So far, we've made a (new) fish, a star, a pear, an eggplant and a crook-neck squash. Side note - here's a sign that you're slightly OCD: you creep out of bed at oh, 11:00 at night to finish blanket-stitching a felt squash because you couldn't leave it undone and still fall asleep...



p.s. The tiny cat found a new home! It was harder than I thought it would be to hand him over. I kept telling them stupid stuff about how to take care of him even though they have their own cats already. Even though internet courtesy dictates that I delete their e-dress and never contact them again, I plan to e-mail them later and ask how he's doing.


p.p.s. My daughter is awesome.

Outside With My Girls

Today was too pretty not to play outside. Especially since it will soon be too hot to play outside in the afternoons!

We started out wandering over to the springs at the Diocesan Center. We soon found that we had too much stuff. We did not need things like shoes... or pants... or a leash...


Lily Ruth LOVED getting her fingers and toes wet!


Then we moved down to the larger pools. The springs are so high that the ground by the bridge is boggy - always a good sign!


Then we moseyed over to some shade over soft grass. This led to eating grass...


and rolling on grass then smiling a lot.


Not a bad way to spend an afternoon - damp and pants-less while eating nature. We should all be so lucky :-P