Cousin David and girlfriend Fatima. He not only let us stay in his house for the trip, but carted us around anytime we needed to go anywhere. He is good as gold!

Oh ya gotta have...friends

My high school friends and I decided to take ourselves to Fredericksburg to celebrate our 40th birthdays. This was the first trip the four of us have taken together since high school drill team trips (unless there was a trip to visit someone in college that I'm not thinking of).

We left around 2 Friday afternoon. You know, the road trip is something I have definitely missed for the last few years. The anticipation, the music, the snack food in the car. Getting there definitely can be half the fun! Especially when you are in such great company and the laughter just keeps coming and coming.

We stayed in a great B&B called Quinta Mariposa (Country House of the Butterfly), that served us well, other than the wacky layout of the house and the uneven floors that everyone kept tripping over. Oh, and the fact that they didn't serve breakfast. Why even call yourself a B&B for gosh sakes?

We decided to cook our dinners in both nights to save money, and because it's just funner. Spaghetti on Friday night, then some great games of Scene It. And of course the requisite People magazines, etc.. to thumb through - before we knew it, it was 2 in the morning. Well, I was the party pooper all weekend, having to turn in the earliest. But I was actually pretty proud of myself since I normally go to bed at 11.

We left to hit downtown Saturday morning, and had a great time in all of the shops. I decided I want to work in the Kuchen Laden (kitchen supply-I'm not sure about the spelling) store. We had a great lunch (mine would've been better with some German beer-yummy). A trip to get some roadside stand Fredericksburg peaches and a stop at Wal Mart, and as Julie stated in her blog earlier, they are so much nicer in small towns. Then back to our B&B for a late afternoon movie. We chose Animal House, which my husband was so impressed by. He thought we'd pick a chick flick for sure.

Then we had our required eating, Rotel and chips (it's become our signature dish), along with some really good tacos. We played a couple of very fun games of Cranium, then a couple more of Scene It. I had to conk out at that point, while the other girls watched Say Anything.

We were sad to have to pack up and leave the next morning. Why is it just when you're getting used to staying somewhere you have to pack up and leave? But we got to have a great breakfast at a little bakery. We left for home around 11:30. This got us to the Dairy Queen in Hamilton just in time for lunch. There is a little known Texas law that says you must eat at a Dairy Queen in a small town at least once during a road trip, or suffer the consequences.

And the funnest part of the trip was all the conversations, laughter, and memory-sharing you can only have with really good friends that you have known a long, long time. Who have stuck by you in good times and bad, and know you inside and out. This was one trip that I've been waiting for for a long time, and the actual event was even better than the anticipation.

Here are some top-of-my-head moments that I'll always remember: (Some of which we'll have the pictures to help)

the clicking burners-make it stop!

the wacky window in the bathroom/laundry area that looked into the dining room

the porch swing we spent 5 minutes in

the Alice in Wonderland dream I had about someone leaving brightly colored cookies and cakes all over the house during the night

me mistakenly using Julie's toothbrush

the shops that just kept going on forever once we got inside

that Julie forgot to pack underwear, leading to the hysterical underwear shopping and crazy hat-trying on at the 5 and dime

the peach with a couple of bites taken out that the fruit stand man wanted Jana to try

the humming, first me doing Downtown, then Auddie doing Walk This Way during Cranium

the rude woman who wouldn't get up from our breakfast table

I can't wait for the next trip!

Jana's "fresh" peach

Julie and Jana

Me and Auddie

Abner, our mascot

Oh where, oh where has my energy gone?

I've been fretting about something over the past few months. I don't seem to have any energy to do anything lately. I know it takes alot of energy to have a 9-month-old, especially when he weighs 26 pounds. But I used to be able to get SO much done. When Gabriel finally started taking two decent naps a day, I would clean house or work on laundry the whole time he was sleeping. Now, I have to force myself to not lay down and either nap or watch TV every time he takes a nap. I'm barely getting daily chores done. What is the deal? Is it just because I had a child late in life and my age has caught up with me? Have I lost my work ethic and am now just lazier than I used to be? I really want to have another baby, but sometimes I wonder if I'll be able to physically handle it. I have many friends who have two or even three kids, and they seem to run circles around me. Maybe it's just that you find the energy to do what you have to do, when you have to do it, no more and no less. I'm going to go lay down and think about it some more.

Are ya sure this is Texas?

The weather so far this summer has been so refreshing. This is a sentence I don't believe I've ever uttered before. By the end of June, we are normally having upper 90 to 100 degree highs with no chance for rain until the Fall. But so far, we've had rain on and off for the whole month and have barely broken 90 degrees. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 82! I have always wondered what a "normal" summer experience would be like, where summer is meant to be enjoyed and not just endured. Where it is pleasant to sit outside in the late afternoons, instead of hiding in an air-conditioned house. Where you can feel the cool morning air on your arms in the early morning, instead of the muggy, hard to breath, leftover-from-the-night-before heavy air. Where there is still green everywhere you look, instead of dull, crisp browns. This is going to make me realize what I have been missing all of these summers, and I might just refuse to go back.

June has been busting out all over

This month has been a little hectic, needless to say. I had my wonderful girls weekend in Fredericksburg over the 2nd weekend (full posting to come). The trip was SO fun and therapeutic, but it was a little hard to be away from Gabriel. Jav and Gabriel and I traveled to Monterrey Mexico for 4 nights the next weekend to visit Jav's aunts, uncle and cousins and introduce everybody to Gabriel (full posting to come). This in itself was very stressful to get ready for, because I had to have all suitcases packed, all toys and baby food and baby gear bagged up, plus food for our breakfasts and lunches and snacks bought and bagged up so that Jav's parents could take everything in their truck (they drove, we flew). Plus they stayed an extra day, so we didn't get our stuff back until a couple of days after we got home. I've been playing catch up on housework and laundry ever since, and can't seem to get caught up on my sleep. I feel like I've been packing or unpacking for the last month! I've also had pet stresses, with Fred not eating before we left and now still not feeling too good after his surgery. I was also pretty upset about having to leave Stanley for the trip to Monterrey-he's moving really slow these days and I didn't want to be gone if anything happened, to say nothing of what it would have put my parents through. Speaking of my parents, they are in Colorado with some friends, and we are keeping their dog for 8 nights. And to cap off the month, we're going to see The Police Wednesday night. I think I will finally be rested up enough to really enjoy the show.

As of today, we only have two things to do in July. But for some reason, the activities always multiply every time we turn around.

The Grey Ghost

(Notice the fancy English spelling of Gray...)

Fred is our youngest cat, having just turned 5. He is also our most problematic pet, even outdoing Molly. The reason we call him the Grey Ghost is because very few people have actually seen him.

I hearn him meowing as a very small but adorable kitten underneath some scrub brush at the old house. I, of course, set out to catch him and keep him, even though this meant I was getting dangerously close to becoming the Crazy Cat Lady on the Corner. He was very wily, even as a tiny kitten, and would silently but quickly run to another scrub brush every time I got close. One day Stanley was out in the yard, and for some reason Fred decided to be friends with him, and that's how I caught him. Stanley is one of the few dogs that seems inviting to cats.

Unfortunately, I was going through a bit of a "hermit" period just after I caught Fred and brought him inside. I didn't have many people coming over, and he didn't get used to people at all during his very important imprinting time. I was the only person to hold him, and he doesn't even like me to if it's my idea. In true cat style, any contact has to be on his terms. He seems to be afraid of everything and everybody. He still runs away from Jav most of the time.

Fred also ended up having alot of health problems, which adds to his already skittish nature. He's had one urinary tract infection due to lack of water, and his gums are almost constantly infected. He's better about drinking water as long as his gums are healthy. He has to have a cortizone shot every 6 - 8 weeks for his gums. If he is going through one of his bad gum periods he waits until Gabriel is asleep and Jav and I are finished with dinner before he'll come out and finally try to eat. The other cats seem to pick on him because he is the youngest, and also the runt. This drives me crazy, so I get mad at them and they get even more resentful.

Despite all of this, Fred has very lovable qualities, even though they may only be apparent to me. Once he decides he wants to curl up in your lap, he will stay until you kick him off. He is truly the best hunter in the house, tracking down and killing any bug he happens to see. I think if he was allowed outside he would probably take down all kinds of critters. He is a beautiful cat, with blue-green eyes and silvery fur. I constantly go back and forth about whether or not I should have let him be an outside cat. He either would have thrived, or he wouldn't have made it near this long. I'm just not sure.

We leave for Monterrey today, and because Fred doesn't do well with breaks in routine we need to board him while we're gone. He apparantly has figured this out and has gone into hiding. I will go on doing what I can to help Fred be a happier cat, since I feel guilty that part of the reason he is the way he is is my fault.

I must now leave you to continue my quest for the capture of the elusive Grey Ghost.

6/21/07 addendum: I successfully found Fred before our trip, boarded him, and the vet not only cleaned his teeth, but ended up pulling 4 of his molars (two on each side, where he was having the most problems with his gums). The vet told me this is the first time he's ever done anything this drastic to solve a cat's gums problems, but he really thinks this will help Fred to be a happier guy from now on. It's still too early to tell yet, but I hope he's right.

Give it away Give it away Give it away now

Last week, a very unpleasant smell was wafting from our garage, or so we thought. I was convinced that some small animal had made his or her way into one of the boxes in our garage and never made it back out. I told Jav that our garage was a rat-trap (possibly literally), and we really needed to get it cleaned out. It turned out that the smell was a dead possum that was in the monkey grass on the side of the house. We assume that the direction of the wind that day made it seem like the smell was coming from the garage. But the wheels are in motion in my head now, and I want to tackle that garage.

The problem is, I know we could make a little extra money if we had a garage sale. But I have never had a garage sale, and the thought of having to clean up all of that junk, er, I mean stuff, set it out on card tables or whatever, and ruin a perfectly good weekend of my life makes me a little sick to my stomach, just like the smell did. I really want to start taking it in batches to Good Will. Or better yet, let someone come and pick it up. But then I know I'll feel guilty about not contributing in my small way to making some income for us.

And then there's the Ebay argument. Jav thought it would be great if I could try to sell some of the nicer items of junk, er, I mean stuff, on Ebay. I started with a really pretty Bombay Company jewelry box, which I originally paid around $40.00 for, and was in really good shape. I ended up selling it for my starting bid of $10.00, and then proceeded to spend $20.00 on packaging supplies to get it shipped to the buyer. Then I realized I didn't charge him enough shipping cost, and the 2.50 balance came out of our $10.00. This all made me so mad that I swore I'd never sell anything on Ebay again. Jav thinks this first time shouldn't count in the formation of my opinion, keeps pointing out how much I learned, and wants me to try something else before I completely give up on the idea. So I am going to try again, with an antique pewter twin hurricane lamp. That doesn't work, but is really pretty. And will cost an arm and a leg to ship because it's so fragile.

And if anything goes wrong, I will load up my car the next day with everything I can fit in it, and they will not be able to unload it fast enough at the Good Will drive through.

How are the Mighty Dogs fallen...

I am very, very sad today. I found out yesterday that Stanley, my 13-year-old Wonder Dog, has an aggressive type of cancer. We kept finding little lumps on his sides, and even though I was worried it was probably something serious, I was still hoping the vet would say that they were just cysts. Molly has been staying really close to him (see picture), which only proves dogs have alot more insight than people give them credit for.

This dog has been so wonderful for me, and for all of us in our family. He needed me to help him, and because of that he ended up helping me and pretty much changed my life. I was SO hoping that when it happened, he would just go to sleep one night and not wake up. Now I have to be concerned about whether or not he is in pain (it's so hard to tell with dogs, they can be very stoic), or if I'm trying to hold onto him when I need to let him go. This is really the only really bad thing about owning pets. They just don't live long enough, even though my sweet Wonder Dog has already beaten the odds. I just have to be really positive and love him like crazy until I think it's time. But it sure does hurt.

An apple a day?

Molly, the dog with the incredible iron stomach, decided that one of the fake apple Christmas ornaments (that I use as cat toys) would actually taste pretty good. This was all that was left when I got it away from her. The carpet was a really pretty shade of magenta too. We will add this to the list of amazing things Molly has eaten.

Fun with Activity Mats 101

We have been given three hand-me-down activity mats, and the latest fun thing to do is line them all up like a long tunnel and let Gabriel creep around and go crazy.

Moments of joy

Do you ever have those moments where you feel so profoundly happy that everything in the world seems to make perfect sense for awhile? I seem to always get them early in the morning at sunrise, or at dusk, which makes me think I either have a real connection with the sun or the moon, but I don't know which. I had one tonight. It's been such a great day. Gabriel and Jav gave me a Bougainvillea and a giftcard to Calloway's for our front bed plants. Our neighbors Billie and George brought me a card and a geranium, proving once again that they are the best neighbors in the whole world. Jav went to get my favorite blueberry cake donuts for breakfast. I got to take a nap. We went to see my Mom and give her the garden bunny Gabriel and I picked out, and my Dad got to see Gabriel pulling up on everything and trying to stand. Jav went to get On The Border for dinner (fish tacos=smiling face). We ate outside with Gabriel in the perfect eating outside weather. It was after dinner that I got to have my best gift of the day. I was just standing doing dishes, looking out at our beautiful backyard as the sun went down. I was listening to a combination of Jav and Gabriel having their post-bath goings on and 90.1 At Night, going from Brave Combo to Ella Fitzgerald to an obscure Beatles and then to k.d. lang. The dogs and cats were laying about here and there. And it hit me how incredibly happy I am right now.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Moms I know, and especially to my own ever-patient, always-there-for me, hilariously funny and totally understanding Mom.

Storms

What is the deal with the weather this year? Maybe we just got complacent over the last couple of years since we had virtually no rain. Our bad weather siren has gone off 8 times so far this year. (Jav thinks whoever runs it has decided to sound it off even when it's not necessary-a CYA move of some sort). We have been in either Gabriel's closet or our internal hallway 7 of those times. The first time was just total panic that we didn't even know where to go in this house. But in the weeks that followed, I have got the storm drill down to an art.

First I get Gabriel to a contained area so I won't have to worry about him. Then I calmly start finding and picking up cats to put in their carriers. I can always catch Henry (poor guy is blind and can't run away all that well), and Bones, and sometimes Zoe. But I have never and will never catch Fred. He burrows under a bed or a couch so far and is extremely wily. He's really more like a ferret than a cat. So he's on his own if push ever really comes to shove. Then I corral the dogs in the hallway by shutting all doors to rooms off the hallway and putting down some boxes in the one open area where there is no door. Then I turn on the radio in Gabriel's room, hunker down and wait. This is a stressful time; not only because of wondering what's happening outside, but because the dogs are restless and panting, the cats are wailing and scratching their carriers, and Gabriel is usually starting to get squirmy. If nothing happens for awhile or the threat seems to go away, we move to our bedroom and watch David Finfrock. Gabriel's first memories are going to be of watching brightly colored storm-tracking radar with Mommy. If we're really lucky, Jav is home to help out with all of this hullabulloo too. But that's only happened twice, and I have accepted the fact that I'm probably on my own. And so far we are very thankful to only have received lighting, thunder, some wind and tons of rain.

I feel for all the people in our area that are having to deal with losses, big and small, from Mother Nature.

On a soapbox, and with a mission

I am passionate about food, cooking and healthy eating. My passion is slowly turning to anger, however, since we decided to be a single-income family.

I think the idea of Whole Foods Market, with organically grown, safe food throughout, is a great idea. I also love the idea of the new small neighborhood markets popping up around the country which stock locally produced organic items (see Amy Culbertson's article in yesterday's Star Telegram). But to shop at these places on a regular basis is completely out of our budget.

Even at Wal-Mart, where I grudgingly shop due to their low prices, I have a hard time staying in our budget. I have determined that it costs less to purchase frozen dinners or the processed boxed kit-type meals than it does to buy each item to make the meal from scratch. It's also cheaper to run by a fast-food restaurant than it is to try to cook. No wonder we have a problem with obesity, high cholesterol and heart disease in this country!

My mission is to start exploring why this is so, and to somehow involve myself in a change. Healthy eating should not be a luxury item for the wealthy, but should be available to everybody as a choice.

When the circus comes to town...

I will never take Gabriel. At least if the circus uses live animals. I have been a contributor to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee for about 5 years now, and I think that the work they do is truly amazing. It is a huge parcel of land where retired and ailing show elephants can go to rest, play, and remember what it was like to live outside of captivity. Once the elephants make it there, they never have to perform for an audience again. They do allow volunteers, but only to work around the property or in the office - not to see the elephants. They have grown from having just a few Asian elephants to having a large Asian community, an African barn that's growing and a Quarantine barn for newcomers.

Show elephants are picked up in many different ways(straight from the wild, from private owners or from overcrowded zoos), and their lives are pretty terrible from then on. The young are usually separated from their mothers too early. They are made to stand for unbearable amounts of time, and rarely have chances to lay down to sleep, which is the position elephants are naturally inclined to. Because of this they develop severe problems in their feet and legs, and sometimes their entire bone structure. Sometimes they are beaten to rehearse and/or perform, and have multiple injuries along with psychological stress disorders. Also, their health is not looked after well, and they develop tuberculosis or other life threatening diseases. So to be able to finally get to a place where they are loved and cared for, allowed to roam around outside, splash around in mud puddles, and generally have a good time is a reward all of them have earned in their lifetimes.

The way I found about the Sanctuary was through a daughter of a good friend of our family. When Linda was young, she worked with a young elephant at Six Flags names Sissy (or maybe it was at Seven Seas - a precursor to Sea World that used to be located near Six Flags). Years later, Linda developed ovarian cancer, and was given only a short time to live. Somehow, she found out about the Elephant Sanctuary and discovered that Sissy was one of the retired elephants living there. She would watch the web cam day and night in her last months, and when she passed away, her request was for people to consider donating to the Sanctuary in lieu of sending flowers.

I now receive a quarterly newsletter, and love reading about what these dedicated people and volunteers are accomplishing. These majestic creatures do some wondrous things, whether it be playing, showing affection for each other and their caregivers, or gathering around one of their "sisters" when the end is near to sing her on her way. It's so hard to get through those articles when one of them dies, but worth it to learn how much elephants are actually like us.

I know it will be hard to explain all of this to Gabriel when the time comes and all of his friends are going to the circus, but I will let him pick an elephant to feed and turn him on to the web cam. And this post is to persuade anyone with kids to think about doing the same thing. If enough people catch on, maybe the day will come when no one wants to attend circuses using animals, and they are forced to stop the practice altogether.

Organizing Junk

I spent all morning reorganizing our garage full of stuff. It was driving me crazy. I found some stuff that should have never been put out there. I got two beds situated for Bones, our outdoor cat who considers the space to be HIS garage. I found one slightly hibernating lizard (he was a big sucker), and a mama Charlotte spider with her egg sac close at hand. I put some of the baby stuff up into the attic, along with some Christmas stuff that never made it back up. I threw a couple of things away, which I hate doing. But how do you recycle used pillows that are yellowish and dirty from sitting in a garage for over a year? Yuck!

When I was finished, I had a possible Ebay pile, a garage sale pile, a "what in the world are you thinking" pile for Jav and a keep pile. I guess if you just walked into our garage you would never know I had actually put any effort at all out there, but I know, and that's all that matters.

I'll get to the pictures of the remodeled bathroom eventually. We still aren't supposed to mess with the tub, which looks great.

Goodbye pink!

The only thing I didn't really like about this house when we moved in was the guest/kids' bathroom. It wasn't done for guests, or for kids in general. It was decorated for a little girl. A very feminine girly girl. Everything was pink. The wallpaper was pink and gray stripes. The floor was pink and white linoleum. The shower tile was pink and white. The toilet was pink, and the tub was a weird pinky-peach color. It was awful, to say the least. I wanted to gut it and start over. So when we found out we were going to have plumbing work done in the wall, in which the cabinets would have to be moved and the wall torn up, we decided to go ahead and take the plunge and remodel. (A little scary monetarily with one income right now).

So we now have new cabinets with built-in sinks, new floor tile, new shower tile, white walls, and a white toilet. And tomorrow the final step will be finished as our tub gets repainted white. We decided to go with green and white, since green is Jav's and my favorite color, it's gender neutral, and it goes well with the rest of the house. I'm posting the BEFORE pics today, and will get the AFTER pics tomorrow.