Oh, how they grow

It amazes me to realize this is the fourth year I've blogged on the birthday of my baby girl, who is not so much a baby any more. I just broke my middle child's heart, though, by commenting that I haven't been so faithful about blogging on her birthday. In typical middle child fashion, she hung her head and slunk into her room, then giggled. Then I reminded her she gets a national holiday and a three day weekend around her b-day every year. Blog schmog. Of course, then the younger daughter announced she gets a whole summer vacation.

For her birthday this year, we plan to remove the sign we put up over the window last year. Every now and then we notice it and comment, "We should probably take that sign down sometime. Naw, maybe next year after Kristen's birthday. Why waste a good sign?"

So, here she is, my blue-eyed beauty, another year older, another year bolder, eating our national family food, fresh pineapple, and sporting a hairdo of her own making. I told her when she's 16 or 17 and going to prom, her friends are going to hate her for that curly hair. Let's hear it for the girl.

Sorry for the photo quality. I'm loving taking pics with my cell phone and sending them right to my inbox and have gotten quite lazy.

Bored already?

Here is a sign that summer vacation may already have gone on too long. While I work and ignore them, the children are practicing piano. In their pajamas. At 3:45 p.m.

While balancing footballs on their heads.

Kerrville, at last

I was waiting to post "the next day" until I maybe got the energy up to transfer video to my computer and upload a bit of the Kerrville performance to youtube, but ... I'm still waiting. It takes a lot of energy to do file transfers, you know.

So, until then, maybe this'll hold you:

Ryan playing at Kerrville.
I think his eyes were shut because of the sweat
rolling into them and burning. It was just a tad warm.

Check out those birkies.

Kicking back after his turn.
The outdoor theatre leads straight out the side
to the campgrounds and Texas Hill Country.

With his fellow songwriting competition winners,
from Texas A&M, UT, Texas State, and of course, UNT.
Guys in the middle are festival peoples.
Note: It appears the rolled up brown pants are part of some uniform??
The others didn't get the memo, apparently.
The other guy's were missing the holes in the backside, too.
(I forgot to make a note of the names of the other musicians. I do know the cute girl next to Ryan is HalleyAnna, and the guy with the shades is her string bass player, and they are called Starboat.)

Proud sistern. Before hippie chick transformation later that evening.
(Tie-dye dresses and airbrush tattoos.)

Next up, San Antonio. And maybe one day, video.

A travelogue in several parts

We took a little family trip down to the Hill Country over Memorial Day weekend, mainly to see Ryan play in the Kerrville Folk Festival, but also just to hang out together and make each other crazy for three days, because that's how we roll.

There was much eating, fighting amongst ourselves, sweat, and also many laughs. I had my trusty camera, so I thought I'd share a trip report over the next several days, or however long it takes me to get the pictures posted, depending on Blogger's mood. (She was not pms'ing tonight, and I uploaded 10 shots!!! Wowsers. That's a record.)

So, day one was a fun look at the "real" Texas. We live in fake Texas. In DFW, we are a pretty accurate microcosm of the rest of the world. Other parts, well, they're more Texas, if you know what I mean. If not, well, you've come to the right place.

The blue highways are long and winding, but there are lots of pretty wildflowers to entertain. And fence posts, and poles. (Click on pics to see full-size)

You might have heard we don't have hills in Texas. That is unequivocally untrue. See? Here's one:

And here's the backside:

I guess the Christians weren't too crazy about Cheap Charlies. He must have been a little too bizarre. (You have to click.)

In Texas, we even have outlet malls for RVs.

Nothing like downtown, Main Street Texas. Every business serves two purposes, at a minimum. The restaurant has its own ATM--they probably don't take credit cards.

All are welcome at the Koffee Kup. Bring your Harley, definitely.

Ribeye cookoff? I'm there. Oh, darn, it was LAST weekend. That's an awfully big sign to forget to take down, guys.

Little house on the prairie

We do deer meat? I'm not even going to ask.

Tomorrow, the great festival.

rAWfl catz

Heather insisted it was time to do a new post, but I'm not going to write about what she wanted me to. Oh, no, I'm not.

Instead, I thought I'd do a little tribute to my kitty, Yentl. (No, you may not buy a vowel.) She was diagnosed with kidney failure almost four years ago, and at the time, we really thought we'd be saying goodbye soon, but with the help of a special food, she has maintained a steady weight, a good appetite, and a dang high level of orneriness since.

Unfortunately, she is showing signs now of declining, and that makes me sad. She is being especially affectionate these days, and if you have ever heard stories of Yentl, you know this was not always true.

Anyway, we have taken lots and lots of photos of her in the last few years, and lately, we've been in the lolcats phase. Only, we like to call our shots rAWfl catz. :-) I'll leave you with a few.

Cat'n Jack Spidey

Can cat-ch fur, can do anything

Air cat-tar

Enough with the camera already ...

I know I'm purdy, but geez

Flowers

I love flowers and I love taking photos of them. They tell me stories. I think I'll double post this on my writing blog, because flowers play a part in my current manuscript, and taking pictures of the few bedding plants we've put in so far this year was a fun artist's date. The picture is fuzzy, but don't you love the vivid purple/blue hue of this Lobelia?
I haven't put this rose bush in the ground yet, but I'll be so happy to have my own roses to cut and float in a bowl of water.

You can click on the photos to see them in larger detail. That's something I really like about pictures of flowers. You can zoom in and see what they look like closer up than you can see with the naked eye. Amazing detail!





The yellow daisy-shaped flowers are Dahlberg daisies, and it's hard to go wrong when you photograph a daisy-shaped flower. The little one in the photo on the left looks like it's staring up at its mom and dad to see what it's supposed to be doing.


The paper thin blooms of these tiny white cupfllowers are humbling. They seem so fragile, you can almost see through them (click to see the left one larger), yet they've already weathered several thunderstorms, wind, heat, and whatever else nature has thrown at them recently. It reminds me of where Jesus (oops, I said Solomon originally. LOL) talks about the "lilies of the field," and says, "If God cares for them, consider how much more he cares for you?"

Yarrow looks like a solid mass of yellow on top of stems that Todd thinks look like weeds, but up close, they look like tiny daisy-shaped flowers!

Angelonia goes wild in the dry, Texas summer, yet you can only find a few of them at the nurseries. This one looks like a laughing baby with a wacky purple bonnet.


Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

And another thing

Happy...um...69th Birthday, Dad! Wow, that's a lot of years. It's been 19 since the one when I called you up at 6 a.m. to tell you you qualified for AARP. Where have they gone?

Brand New

New for 2007

New Brother-in-Law

New Hairdo

(I know, I know, it looks like the same old hairdo to YOU.
But there are highlights...and less poofy bangs, trust me.)

New Scarves

New Baby in the Family

Isn't she lovely?

Happy New Year!

Britannanny

My little sis and her fiancee. Aw :)

Only in Tejas...and maybe Arizona and a few other places

Tonight while waiting for a pizza at Little Caesar's, I overheard one of the workers say to another, "It's supposed to be cold tonight." The low is supposed to be 59 degrees. We did enjoy our short cold snap today. High was 82, I think, and it was cool enough to play outside with Ian today while I watched him and his mama went to a "Baby Darce" appointment. (That's what he calls the new baby coming. Her name is going to be Darcy.) We played in the back AND the front yards and I took some silly pictures, some Ian pics, and some flower pics (which I haven't done in a while). Some pictures were all three! I think I'll post some here.

What the challah's that?

Hey, I just realized I never posted the promised pictures of challah bread baking. (For the whole story, see all the July 5th posts.) I have nothing of value to report tonight, so I'll just do this:

And this:

(Doesn't the one on the left look a little like a roasting chicken?)

And this.

One just had to rebel a little.

Yum. I think I need to bake more challah very soon.

Back, but not back

I'm back from vacation, but my brain has not yet decided to follow. I'm too lazy to write much, so will just post some pictures from our trip that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I hope you enjoy them, too. Click on the picture for an enlarged view.

Here is Grandma Vera with her "Sweetie Pie." The look on her face was priceless. :)

She seemed pretty enamored of her first visit with the girls. She wanted Steak 'n Shake for lunch, so we went and here are the resulting girls with hats. I'm not sure what Emilie has in her mouth.

We didn't know this little boy, but he sure was hamming it for me, and I think Kristen was his hero. She seems to have that effect on little boys.

Our first road-trip picnic. Todd's arm was okay, it was just taking a little rest on the cooler.

My own personal Alice Peacock concert at the Apple Store. She is a very down-to-earth lady and talked to us for several minutes after the show.

The girls trade legs at Rocky Ridge Farm (where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived out her days with Almanzo).

That's all for now.