Spring Break 2010 - Fri & Sat

Friday night was spent having corny dogs, s'mores, an inside camp-out and watching The Tale of Despereaux. Cracked me up when I found Miao in the tent all by himself all hunkered down in PandaGirl's blankets. She joined him for her milk and s'more.

Two peas.

I even brought in our lawn chair for better camp-out effect. I want to go camping so badly in a tent and the whole get up, but really....no bugs, no snakes and an inside potty make me really go for the inside camp-out just fine.
I'll drink just about any kind of soda, soft drink, sodie-water (can you tell I'm a hick!! lol!)--we Texans do NOT drink "pop", but we try to stick with some kind of artificial sugar chemical kind of drink if possible. If not, we go straight for the hard stuff: Dr. Pepper. With a twist of lime if Tex-Mex food is involved. Ever since discovering Coke zero.....Diet Coke is GAGGY. Sorry, DC lovers. CZ is way more real Coke tasting without the sugar. I'm sure some toxic chemical makes it taste all better.

The CZ offset the fat and calories in the corny dogs (yes, that "y" is supposed to be there....I'm hick, remember) and s'more makings. Really.


The pic below is much sadder than our fake looking frowns reveal.

Our Mac crashed.

I KNOW.

Macs don't crash. Hence one of the reasons we are Mac-Snobs.

It threw me a glitch and freaked me out Friday night. I prayed "healing" over the thing and by the grace of God it came back on. I instantly burned some pics to CDs that I had been procrastinating on.

Saturday.....bzzzzz....zig-zag......shzzhzhhhhzzzz....whole screen zig-zag...dots...more dots.....

Several attempts later to revive the thing with no pulse and we called for an ambulance.

Bye-bye pics and gobs of digi-scrap stuff that I just downloaded, Photoshop Elements 6, i*Tunes downloads and GOBS of music downloads, oh and all the saved Favorites from websites.

We were smart enough to back up some of that stuff, but a lot got thrown into silicon-never-land until we can retrieve from the hard-drive.

PandaPop took it to the Mac Doctor after the screen kept turning a bizarre pattern of red zig-zags. They did a quick free diagnosis to see what could possibly be the problem with the sweet baby.

Diagnosis:

Maybe a worm, dead video card or something else. Big mystery. (Macs are known for NOT getting worms and viruses) $700 fix.

Prognosis:

No computer: no photography.

I'm not working: no money for a new Mac (or PC if I so chose to go that way) for awhile.

We can look a bit whimsical about it because at age 39 & 40....we can say we've lived a bit of life with some really terrible-no-good-things that have happened. Way worse than a computer crashing.

This too, shall pass.

Spring Break 2010 - Thursday

Any of my personal friends who know us will understand why this little museum trip was particularly special to us. PP is off on Thursdays so we ventured out to a nearby town to check out the King Cotton displays. Very fun for us. Smile.

After the museum was a fun trip back to the mall where PG didn't make it on the escalator earlier in the week. We wanted PP to share in all the fun, too!

She's like a kid in a candy store.
And....you're never too old to ride the prettiest horse on the carousel.

Spring Break 2010 - Tues & Wed

PG and I visited my parents for a day. My old home is out in the country, but we drove even further into the country to meet up with my favorite aunt for a few hours. I have gobs of memories at this aunt's home with my cousins. This is the place where my tall, thin, easy-to-tan cousin who is five years older than me would oil up with some coconut scented tanning goop and brown like a goddess. I on the other hand would oil up, too only to turn red as a lobster and get more freckles. Good times. Actually, I really have many fabulous memories stored up from that cousin and this place.
The water was cold, but PG just HAD to get in so my aunt helped her get her little toes wet.
My aunt stores these chairs down by the creek on her land which is quite a walk from her house, but this time we had a new golf cart to carry us. That was so much fun, too! Her ginormous dog, Baron ran alongside us the whole way and then ventured off through the creek bed to the other side for some wonderful perusing through the woods.

My mom is on the left---we look alike! Aunt is sitting. Dog is moseying.
If you've never sat and just enjoyed the sound of fresh water running over the rocks.....let me just say that you really are missing one of God's most precious gifts. That sound is priceless.

While still hanging out with my mom I tried an experiment.

Look below----I thought I'd share a brilliant idea I had. Ahem.

My whole life until I was 25 years old (and cut my hair above my ears....bad idea...another story) I rolled my very long-to-my-waist hair with pink sponge rollers like the ones in the pic. I always put my hair in a high ponytail then rolled the ends up. When I slept I just moved the pony up and didn't have to mess with the rollers on my head.

No so much the same as what I tried two nights ago. My hair is naturally straight, but I use a flat iron at times to get it even straighter. I have many things I don't like about myself (I know---go back and read Beth Moore's insecurity book!! lol!!) like skin that won't tan, freckles, white eye-lashes and I could go for a nose job if someone sprang the money for me, but I DO have great, thick, bouncy hair that will do just about anything so I wanted to try some curls out with the length of locks that I have right now.

I thought I looked so cute in my rainbow rollers.

Then two hours after trying to sleep on ROCKS puncturing my skull I decided that straight hair was better anyway and I'd rather have sleep than curls. So around midnight I sat on the potty in the dark taking out my rainbow rollers.

I couldn't resist turning on the light and seeing if I looked like Goldilocks----sure enough I had a head full of bouncy curls from only two hours of a dry roll. So much so that I looked like Leo the Lion.

I went back to sleep.

On my soft pillow and my mane.

Spring Break 2010 - Monday

Spring Break started off great last Friday with us doing some babysitting again for a little one that we adore, PP's parent's and sis came up for the afternoon to pick up some stuff we stored for them, PG went to a slumber party, we enjoyed the park and the Jeep on Saturday, nice Sunday afternoon with just us three hanging out.

Monday was a total treat when PandaGirl and I met up with this darling crew at a local mall that is in between the two of us where I purchased a Bamboo Fun Pad from her. I have a lot to learn on it, but it will be a great addition to my photography editing process. We girls loaded up on Starbucks, let the little ones color and do art at a coffee table and we moms pulled up two chairs to chat in beautiful natural light of the mall. This mom and I "met" through blogging over three years ago and met in person a short while after that, but haven't done anything since accept sporadic blogging. We are very much alike in personality and had a blast!! Be sure and check out her fun work here!!!

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After we spent a couple of hours chatting with our new friends, we decided to have some "girl time" and check out a few mall things like the Disney Store. Total fun in there! We were going to forego the food-court, but that was a crazy idea---once you're there smelling all the goodies it's like your feet just migrate over to someone handing out a little piece of chicken on a toothpick and your suckered in! We opted for cheap Sonic---always a good choice. ; )

When we were leaving I was carrying my drink and holding PG's hand. We moved toward the escalator where, for whatever reason, I HAVE TO HOLD THE RAIL so I don't get vertigo and go tumbling down the thing. As we were walking I put my drink in the crook of my arm and asked PG to hand me her drink as well which I put in the hand of the same arm. When she did that I let go of her hand so I could grab the rail with my free hand JUST as we were stepping on.

Well, I say WE as if we were together.

Nope.

PG panicked when I let go of her hand since I always hold it on an escalator and she was still standing at the top of the escalator while I'm flowing down with about 10 other people at this point all the while PG is yelling, "MOM--I'M NOT ON!! I'M NOT ON!!"

I'm now turned around backwards and I'm yelling, "OH MY GOSH WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!! GET ON!! OH MY WORD, I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING! SHE TOTALLY KNOWS HOW TO GET ON THE ESCALATOR!"......while all those people in between are giggling and giving knowing looks to the two goobers book-ending them.

I was laughing knowing she was OK, but in shock that she was up there and I was down here.

She got on and made it down and we just laughed in huge belly-laughs all the way to the car. Really fun and funny moment with my girl.

It's A Spring Thing!

I'm not sure when I have ever been this excited to see SPRING come around!

I am just chompin' at the bit to see those green, green, green trees and luscious green grass and all the flowers pop up in all their glory!!

We actually put the top down on the Jeep and have had a lot of fun tootling around in the great spring air that is oh-so-teasing for the REAL spring to come around. We go back and forth between a great spring day and a cold one. Well, cold for Texans who are ready for SPRING weather.

I wish I could write it all out, however I'd have to be cryptic in my wording, so I'll just say we had the best weekend! Blessed with just some sweet JOY from the Lord. I'll just leave it at that.

No matter what's going on---LOOK for God in everything. Take notice of His hand at work in your life.
Our city is COVERED with these gorgeous white blossoms all over the trees!!! It's just stunning to see masses of white trees that look like they are covered in snow, but rather they are covered with these precious little blossoms that are quickly turning into green leaves. Just beautiful to behold.

OK, you Chicago fans: Saturday, in the park.....


Taking in the JOYous grace of my heavenly Father. Waiting and trusting Him and His timing.

These Small Hours Add Up - #2

I renamed my series of posts called "I Heart..." that I began last week and will now be known as: "These Small Hours Add Up" to flow right along with my newfound love of Meet the Robinsons. You can read about that little revelation here.

Oh! To add to my post about said movie, we watched it again in the midst of me reveling in the song Little Wonders by Rob Thomas and I about spewed my lunch out when I saw the "Keep Moving Forward" motto pop up on the screen. I had honest-to-goodness forgotten about my post back in November after our whole messed up adoption ordeal that THAT was what PandaPop kept pumping into my brain: KEEP MOVING FORWARD. How could I have forgotten THAT?! Well, that just solidified in my mind that this particular movie had us written all over it for such a time as this.

So that's why "I Heart..." is now what it is----so I can chronicle all the little things in my life that I don't want to pass me by as anything less than a sheer blessing from the Lord.

And there will always be 12 things listed because that has always and forever been my favorite number. Smile.

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1. Fabulously refreshing air filling my lungs on a walk today in the GORGEOUS 70 degree sunny weather. Not one single cloud in that clear blue Texas sky.

2. Strolling along the path to some great country music. LOVE country music. Certainly, I don't care for all the artists nor their ridiculous lyrics, but I am a country girl and will always love country music.

3. Excited about Spring Break activities.

4. Love making Southwest Minestrone Soup for my dinner exchange group.

5. My friend from my dinner exchange group got to go home to her man and her three boys finally after being in the hospital a long week from second time surgery for cancer.

6. Being led onto SparkPeople.

7. Reading So Long Insecurity by Beth Moore.

8. Safe trip to and from OK City over the weekend to celebrate PP's grandfather's 90th birthday.

9. Weight Watchers' Giant Latte Bar.

10. Getting two new magazines for the month in the mail with fresh spring things.

11. Prepping for summer activities for our church's Children's Ministry.

12. Writing devotional notes in my deerskin leather journal that PP handmade.

Securely Insecure

Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows my adoration of Beth Moore.

This, her latest book, has my mouth dripping with drool! I love, love, love her transparency and continual pointing to God as our security and only hope.

I just got this today and am diving into it to-day. I have two other books with darling little bookmarks holding my place, but for now Miss Beth trumps them. It has already hit the top of the New York Times Bestsellers list. I was flipping through the delightful pages of my Southern Living magazine and THERE was an ad for this book....right there....in secular pages! Woohoooo! SOMEbody out there will see the title, not know a thing about Beth or God or hope or Jesus or anything and then BOOM! she'll get the chance at true life change. M-m--mmmmm. Good stuff.

Hmmmm.

Wonder why?

Could it be that we girls are ALL insecure about something on some level?

You betchyerbippy we are!

I consider myself a fairly confident woman, but puh-leeze, let me not get too haughty here....I have insecurities just like the next girl.

And the next.

And the next.

We are plagued by it.

How exhilarating to know that I have all these pages before me to see how and what Miss Beth has to say. I know she scooped lots of her info from her own life as well as real live people. Not just women, but men, too.

Oooohhh!! This gonna be good!!

I'll report again with my own gobblety-goop when I finish the text.

These Small Hours Add Up - #1

1. My PandaPop Man

2. My polka dot rain boots

3. Jack Johnson's music

4. Hats

5. Beth Moore Bible Studies

6. Blogging

7. The hope of spring peeking around the corner

8. My church

9. My precious friends

10. Clean water

11. Shutter-Cal

12. The Cotton Crop Photography