Call before you pack next time

Remember how I had said we were moving to a different hotel? Well, we didn't...and that's great. See, when we arrived on Sunday evening they only had space for us for two nights. We loved the suite and checked back with them on Monday to see if it was possible to extend...they said the were booked all through the month of June. This is why I love it here.

This is the layout of our suite, except there is a dividing wall between the pull-out couch and the bed. It's about three and a half to four foot tall and about seven foot wide.

So, Tuesday morning I'm packing like a mad woman, trying to get all of our crap packed just right back into the truck, by myself.

Not easy. Remember, the kid and the dog have to follow every step I make.

I breathlessly walk into the lobby to return the keycards and check out, a few minutes past check-out time...as if I'd just run a race. The pleasant young man at the front desk asks how my stay was, I say "Wonderful, we hope to return to your establishment as soon as there are any available suites. We will be in the area for about two months and we wish this was our home while we were here." He says, "Let me check for cancellations real quick." Long story short. We will be here at least until next Sunday. At which time I am told I need to call before I pack the truck. By the way, as I was typing this, the temp outside was 56 degrees.

What the hell? It's cold here!

Hey, Ya'll!! 'Member me?

We are moving hotels this morning...well, not the whole thing, just us. We made it to CA on Sunday afternoon with an overnight stay in Tucson. It was quite an interesting drive to get here. Here are a few highlights...

This was a lunch stop in Texas.

The banana faced monkey giving kisses to momma.

They say everything is bigger in Texas. Here's a roadrunner to prove it.


I must say that AZ had the prettiest underpasses and highway art (photo above and below)

That's all I have time for now..I'll show you more pics of the journey in the coming days.

BTW...the title is such because it is in the low 60's here. It should warm up in the coming days but I was not expecting this. We have to wear jackets...Uh, hello??

Leaving at 7

We pull out of the driva at 7 am sat. morning. Hopefully I will post again on tues or wed of next week. Keep us in your prayers as we will be driving a long way on a holiday weekend. That means if something happens, it counts in the statistics!!

See you guys in a few days!!

See ya'll in a few days!

I know that there have been plenty of times that I have gone MIA with this blog, but I can say that lately I have really been making an effort. I'm sure you will be disappointed that I will be absent for a little while.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I will be leaving for California. However I got a call yesterday that I will be leaving sooner than I thought...as in, I will be leaving in less than 48 hours!!! Uh, YEP...that's what I said!

I am taking this time to close up the house. The girls leave tomorrow afternoon to go with their dad for 2 months and I will leave with Vinnie, David and Riziki to head west in the wee hours on Saturday morning.

I called to have the utilities suspended this morning as of next tuesday, until we return at the end of July.

I still can't believe I will be summering in California. Being a native Texan, I'm not a big fan of the way they do things in California, but I am an open minded person, so we shall see.

I wanted to put up a few pics from this past weekend when we went to the coast. The beach had a huge seaweed pile we had to get across to get to the shore, so it isn't the most beautiful beach. But it is the beach I grew up going to anytime I wanted some sand in my shoes.

This is Madifish and the Boomer walking together.

Here's my pretty girl Madi at sunset.
What am I going to do when she turns into a teenager?

This is my mom and her friend Steve.

If I have anything else I need to share before I leave I will be back this afternoon. If I don't get back with you then...Have a great weekend!

pictures from a stay at home mom

Remember the cross stitch project I told you about? Well, it's completed...now what the hell do I do with it? I guess I'll find a frame and proudly display it somewhere.

I took a picture of Boomer and Riziki this morning and thought I would share it too..along with a picture of Boomer by himself.

BTW...I learned this morning that I will be going on a months vacation at the beginning of June. I will be in Los Angeles for that time. Stay tuned for more details...

And...We made a 100 on our Science Project...that kid owes me big time.

I hope I make a good grade

My daughter needs a swift kick in the butt. She put off her science project until the very last minute. This is the last week of school and her project was due today. I knew it was this week, just not today. When do I find out it's today? When she was on her floor crying this morning, wailing that she didn't want to go to school. This is so not my little social butterfly.

So I saved the day and let her stay home half a day and get it done. It was actually pretty fun, and I wish we hadn't been quite as rushed. Wanna know what her project was? Read on..If not, I'll post about something else again soon, check back later...

Now that they're gone...Her hypothesis was that popping time effects the number of kernels left in the bag of microwave popcorn. It was proven correct but we learned a few things along the way...

This is looking into the eye of the fire, the popcorn fire. This was intentionally done...I really am a wonderful cook, even if it is just popcorn, see...

Here's what we did (I'll share this easy, yet impressive project)...We bought four different brands of popcorn and popped one bag of each at the minimum recommended time, one bag each until it slowed to two seconds between pops (and documented what that time was), and one bag each at the maximum recommended time. We then recorded how full each bag was, the appearance of the popcorn (if any burned), and counted how many kernels were left.

Something I learned about with this little project is - to never trust the time on the box! Two of them burned at the minimum time recommended. One only popped about ten kernels and we had 512 left unpopped and another was almost perfect.

I won't bore you with all of the gorey details but I will say this...Of the brands Pop Secret, Act II, Orville Redenbacher and a generic, always buy Pop Secret. I now know it cooks up fluffier, tastes better and has the least amount of leftover kernels.

Here something cool...

I am a fan of the reality show Survivor. Not a crazy fan but I have rearranged schedules to follow about four of the seasons. The most recent 'Fiji' was one of those.

I realized on the next to the last episode that one of the final five was a guy that dated my best friend in High School. No shit! I had this 'aha' moment while watching it and told Madi, "I know that guy!"

I have searched for my yearbooks and pics from high school which are all together in a box somewhere. I cannot find them...which really worries me, for reasons other than this. But my sophomore yearbook says, "Trina loves Boo" all over it!! I called Trina, who had not watched any of the show and she tuned in for the last one. She was so surprised! It was definitely him.

I have pictures of him, he was a really cool guy back them, and I had a huge crush on him, But Trina was the beautiful, dim-witted blonde bombshell and I was her cute, funny, but smart, brunette friend.

I just thought this was all too cool, I had to share.

Oh, how the horizons are broadening...

We have decided to take a summer trip. My new project is to plan a road trip to Virginia. We have nine days to fill. Sometimes I wonder if that will be enough time...other times I think this is going to be a long trip.

I think it will be pretty neat though. We are going to visit Washington D.C. as well. Madi is really excited. It's not going to be easy to plan a trip for so many diverse interests. Vinnie's son could care less about anything that will increase his intelligence, and my little students are already researching which monuments they want to see. We are going to throw in a theme park for one day in VA.

Does anyone have any suggestions on must see place to go through on a road trip from Austin, Texas to the coast of Virginia?

BTW...I have to brag real quick. I am happy to say that I have learned how to knit. This may not be some wild new thing to you but I always thought it was something I would like to figure out. And TADA!!!! I figured it out with a 96 cent flier, a skein of yarn and two knitting needles. I must say I'm proud of me. And by the way, I've almost completed my cross-stitch project.

Crap--this post makes me sound middle-aged. I need to assess a few things...

You can't blame me for trying!

Since I've been at home (a.k.a.: stay-at-home-mom) I've been trying all kinds of new things on la familia. Taking up new crafts, new adventures with the kids, new foods...really opening things up and trying to broaden all of our horizons.

This evenings adventure was a Chinese dish sans recipe. I'm a pretty good cook and can throw together a balanced meal with whatever is in the kitchen. When I was food shopping the other day, in our one little market, I came across some new rice products. I decided we would try the Black Rice, it had some Asian country name on the label. Perfect for tonights dinner.

The package said to rinse the rice first until the water was clear. I rinsed several times...until it appeared to be clear. The water was deep plum colored to begin with. My daughter said it looked like the Sangria I like to drink (of which I was wanting at that point, wondering what I had gotten myself into). I cooked it according to directions and it came out tasting great. My wooden spoon is now purple though.

As the meal went on and my daughter said something, I said, "Smile for me." She did and her teeth were purple. We went around the table showing off our purple teeth. It's one of the most colorful and lively meals we have had in a while. They loved it! And the meal, I'd have to say was a huge success. No one noticed the extra veggies in the dish that normally they would refuse to eat. They even asked for seconds!

Times like this make me so happy I left my job. I will never have these years back again, and too much time was being consumed by work.

It's magic!!!

This is too funny not to see...if you have ever seen any of David Blaine's tv shows or specials, you have to watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxu_MQSTTY

The new girl in my life

I always heard blondes have more fun. I just had to show off my new running buddy. She's so perfect it's crazy. I put a pick of her on my other blog but I wanted to share here too. This is Momma's girl and wherever I go, Riziki goes.

On something else...I saw two Board Members at the grocery store this evening. They had no idea I was no longer at the Chamber. One of them told me I was glowing, that being away from my old boss was good for me, unfortunately she's making the Chamber look just as bad as she made me. Draining the lifeblood out. The second lady that I saw asked me a question about a meeting she had missed right after I left. She hadn't heard the news. She said, "Oh my gosh!! What are they going to do without you? You were the pulse, the driving force of that Chamber. Everybody knows that." She actually cried right there, which caused a few tears on my part. It made me feel good, the things they had to say. I was beginning the think I hadn't mattered to anyone. I haven't heard from anyone, like a calm before the storm, because they are keeping it hush, hush. Even on the radio shows, it is short and sweet. Nothing has been said about me being gone. Not that I want a parade, but Jesus, after all I did for them. This is what I get. A pointed boot in the ass on my way out the door. She will get her own someday, from what I was told earlier at the store, it may be sooner than we think.