Friday

Friday's Feast


Happy Leap Day!






Appetizer
Who was the last person you hugged?
Bubba's Sis

Soup
Share a beauty or grooming trick or tip with us.
Um.... let me get back to you on that one....

Salad
What does the color yellow make you think of?
sunshine

Main Course
If you were to make your living as a photographer, what subject would your pictures revolve around?
cities or children

Dessert
What was the longest book you ever read?
Gone With The Wind is the 1st one that comes to mind.

Wednesday

Old

This is an old picture of Big D & me being silly while Coastie (Navy) Brother was visiting. No worries, the ciggie is only a prop. I don't even think it was lit.



Tuesday

Wii Get to Play

By now, you have read Bubba's Sis' account of our wonderful surprise this weekend. And you know that Mr. Bubba's Sis is my hero! Christmas in February at our house! We couldn't resist giving the kids the Wii this weekend rather than making them wait til December. Especially since we told them their best friends had a Wii. The looks on their faces were priceless! Both when they found about the BFFs' Wii and when they saw their own.




So, Sunday afternoon, we hooked it up and created our Mii's. Here we are!



I rather think they look like us! Big D giggles everytime he sees mii. The resemblance is uncanny!


The really cool thing? Big D & I were bowling when all of a sudden Lamb exclaimed: Hey! That's Bear & me watching ya'll! We looked at the table behind us & sure enough, there were the kids! And I'm a baseball star! Whenever Bear plays baseball, we are on his team. I always hit home runs! Here that family? *I* hit HOME RUNS! Who'd of ever thunk it?

I have a strict no video games on the weekdays rule. However, I've let it slide this week. It's just too much fun and they didn't get to start playing until Sunday afternoon! And, as Bear likes to tell me, it's great batting practice. Uh huh. Once the newness wears off, I'll become strict again. No, really, I will.

Monday

Some People Are Born To Greatness

The girls have another production under their belts. Their class just finished their UIL competition with their version of Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. The actual competition was Saturday. However, today, the non-UIL cast performed for the school and the parents. While Lamb WAS part of the UIL, she had a non-speaking part. For the non-UIL cast, she was the narrator, Feste. I did not see her perform as Feste tonight though. A friend of hers was also Feste and tonight was the only night her parents would be able to see her in the part. Lamb graciously offered her the role for tonight's performance. No egos here. I am so proud of her for that, among so many other things. To thank her, the friend gave Lamb flowers.To quote Lamb: "And, yeah." The girls? Did amazing as always! They never fail to impress us; whether it be with Shakespeare-ian dialogue or not speaking at all. Superstars!

Saturday

Wooden

The Trojan....Pig?

Wednesday

Monochromatic

This is "THE" microphone that Elvis used when he recorded with Sun Studio. Of course, Bear calls it "THE" microphone that Johnny Cash used. To each his own. ;) Actually, it's the microphone that everyone used as it was/is the only microphone in the studio. Pretty cool!

Tuesday

I Quit!

Those were the words that Bear's 4th grade class heard from their teacher (who happens to be a friend of mine). Bear's class literally runs the gamut. She has the bright students, the co-teach kids, and the 2 worst behavior kids in the whole grade level. You can imagine what a typical day for her & the co-teacher is like. The teachers really love the class though.

Near the end of the day, Teacher was trying to teach a lesson. Tired of the rude behavior, the talking amongst each other, and the obviously not paying attention from the majority of the class, she informed them that she quit. They better figure out what they are going to do because she's done. After a few minutes of stunned silence, she told them to go on & teach themselves. Bear & his tablemate looked at each other. Bear then shrugged his shoulders & preceded to read the chapter of the book out loud. He finished. Waited. Nothing happened. So he started with the next chapter. At that point, Teacher stepped in & asked them to write a paragraph about what happened these past 10 minutes. After a few minutes of writing, she told them to wad up the paper & throw it away along with their negative behavior. Tomorrow would be a new day & they'd all start over together.

Bear's response to that? Well, ok, when I walk in, it'll be a brand new day. If I don't talk to you, it's because I don't know any of you yet.

On the way home, we were discussing it. Bear is as sensitive as he is funny. He informed me that he felt like crying and had to use the book to hide his face. He told me there were a million reasons he felt like crying. I asked for three of them.

  1. He was scared.
  2. It's hard teaching people, especially when you are just a kid yourself. I mean, there are important tests coming up. That's a lot of pressure!
  3. There were German words in the story. How is he expected to know German words when I won't let him take German classes?

I think he now knows how his teacher feels. Hopefully tomorrow will be a brand new day for his class & they treat their teacher with the respect she deserves. They are truly lucky to have her in their lives. She fights hard for them, she gives so much of herself to them, & she absolutely cares for each & every one of them. And she's fun! She does her best to make learning exciting.

Sunday

The Dog Whisperer

I am in need of a dog whisperer. Ty has gone plumb loco. He has always had his issues, being an abused dog before he came into our family. But, this? It's getting to be a bit much.

It started a couple of weeks ago. He'd wake me up in the middle of the night wanting out of the house NOW. Of course, once weekend came & Big D was home to take care of him, he wasn't as whacked out. Last week, he seemed much better & by the end of the week, he was fine.

Until last night. We had a HUGE storm which about did him in, but by the time I went to bed, it was over. Big D went to bed about 3am and was just about good & asleep when Ty started acting up again.

What is it that he wants? What's bugging him? Why does he only do this in the wee hours of the morning? Big D let him out around 5:30. Tired of his pacing & panting, he left Ty out there until 7 or so. Ty came in and went fast asleep. When we woke up for the day, he stayed fast asleep.

Big D has let the weeds get bad out there. Is Ty addicted to the weeds? Do we need to stage an intervention? Is the house haunting Ty? He's the only one affected. Cleo is acting normal. Well, normal for HER. Is a natural disaster about to hit us?

I need sleep. I need consecutive sleep. I need my dog to behave. I ♥ my dog, but I can't take much more of this. I need help. Please, dog whisperer, won't you help us?

Saturday

Free


Free enterprise?





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This was the result of a 3 day Monopoly game.

Thursday

A Rose By Any Other Name

I may not have my honey to snuggle up with this evening. I do have some gorgeous roses to please my eyes and my heart. No, they don't keep me warm at night, but they do make me feel happy.

Wednesday

Woe Is Me, I'm All Wet

Woe is me. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, a holiday that I thoroughly enjoy, and I will be all alone. And I have something going on Every Single Night for the next 2 weeks. Not that things calm down much after that, I'll just be able to scratch 'pick up Lamb from rehearsal' off my list.

I wish I could be back in Vegas getting wet from the wind spraying the water on us. If that's the worst life has to offer, then that's still pretty dang good.



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Tuesday

Ten Favorite Restaurants for Bubba's Sis and D's Ladies' Night Out

This week's Ten on Tuesday topic is Ten Things You Hate About Politics. Since neither Bubba's Sis nor I care two hoots about politics (sorry, Stacey!), we did our own Ten on Tuesday list this week. And quite frankly, it's fabulous. We had a wild adventure making this list for ya'll, complete with pictures and silly stories (see Bubba's Sis' blog for the stories - you'll find the pics here). So, without further ado, I present to you: Ten Favorite Restaurants for Bubba's Sis' and D's Ladies' Night Out:



  1. Applebee's


  2. Texas Roadhouse


  3. Denny's


  4. Luby's


  5. Bennigan's


  6. Cracker Barrel


  7. Cheddar's


  8. Chili's


  9. Gringo's


  10. Charleston Tea Room


Now head over to Bubba's Sis' blog for the silly stories!

Saturday

Heavy

Big D thought he'd be too heavy to actually sit on Santa's lap with the scared Bear.

Thursday

Random Things


  • It's here. The hecticness that is my life. Spring Baseball. Yep, life as a 'single mom' just got a lot harder. I have Lamb's youth group, after school rehearsals (which will end in a couple of weeks) and now Bear's baseball practices/games. A lot of parents just drop off their boys and then leave. I'm just not comfortable doing that yet. I have seen too many kids get hurt or sick. I'd hate for that to happen to Bear. I just would. So, I'll just sit in the car with my book, cell phone, & mp3 player on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In March, the games will start and we can add a weekday game to the Tues/Thurs mix. This will last until May.

  • Please please please let me get some sleep tonight. I've been dog-tired for over a week now. Last night, I finally managed to get to bed early. Only to wake up at 1am with what felt like a quarter being put in the slot of the vibrating motel bed. Ty. Scared. It's not raining so I can't figure out why he's so scared. All I know is that he does NOT want to be in the house which in turn scares ME. Finally, at 2:30am, I know Big D is on his way home from work. Relief and sleep will come soon. 3:00am and I can turn Ty over. Yay! Big D says that he let Ty out at 3:45 and he stayed outside til he went to bed at 5:30. That is soooo rare for Ty. But, at 5:30, Ty came in, made his bed, and went to sleep. Stupid Dog. He seems fine now. He better stay fine!
  • Yeah, Bubba's Sis, I was surprised no one asked about the Frat Boys too. ;)

  • Ozzy is just beautiful. That is all.

Wednesday

Travel or the Day Bear Drowned

Traveling is one of my favorite things to do. It doesn't matter to me the transportation. Planes, cars, trains, or toobing, such as what we did the summer of 2005, work for me. The Bubba's Sis Family and the D... Family loaded up and headed to Austin, TX for a weekend getaway. We went to a Round Rock Express baseball game, saw the bats come out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge, toured the state capitol building, shopped at the outlet mall, ate at the original Schlotzsky's, and went toobing down the Comal River.
It's hard to tell in the picture (disposable water camera), but Bear's hat is wet. And, if you were to ask him why, he'd tell you that it's because he drowned. As a matter of fact, if you ask him anything about that day, he'll tell you that he drowned.

The story goes like this. There's about a 2 foot "waterfall" that leads into the river. Our 2nd trip was a tad more crowded than our first. If memory serves me correctly, there was a lot of congestion at the drop-off. When Big D went over, he got stalled by some toobs in front of him. Bear was right behind him and his toob flipped. He DID go under. But his daddy was out of his toob and grabbed him so fast that it was less than a minute. He didn't even lose his hat, which is now his lucky hat. And, he was wearing a life vest. Big D ended up losing his toob which is why he's hanging onto the back of Bear's. We also lost our cooler which held everyone's valuables, such as car keys and wallets. Luckily, it's a common spot to lose things. People hang out there and have a sort of lost and found. We heard someone hollering "Is this anyone's cooler?" and retrieved it. Items we didn't retrieve: Bubba's Sis' beloved Mickey straw hat and Bubba's Bro-in-law's sunglasses (that was courtesy of me).

The little boys say they'll never do it again. I say we'll eventually change their minds. The little girls absolutely LOVED it as did the adults. It was a fantastic weekend filled with great friends, yummy food, icky bats, baseball, and adventure which included Frat Boys!



Tuesday

10 on Tuesday

I've been MIA with the 10 on Tuesday lately. This week will be no different. I've decided to do my own list. ;)

Here are 10 books I read in January:


  1. The Luxe by Anna Godberson

  2. Candy Apple Red by Nancy Bush

  3. Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime by Robert J. Randisi

  4. Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCraig

  5. Pushing Up Bluebonnets by Leann Sweeney (Support our local talent, buy her books. You won't be disappointed.)

  6. Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich

  7. Eternity in Death by J.D. Robb

  8. Electric Blue by Nancy Bush

  9. Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Rolling by Neta Jackson

  10. Started in January, but still reading into February: Ultra Violet by Nancy Bush

Can you tell I like mysteries? ;)

Monday

Hannah Montana, Part 1

So yesterday was the highly anticipated Hannah Montana 3D Concert movie. We walked into the theater without Lamb as she arrived with her BFF. Bear wasn't thrilled when he got teased by the guy taking tickets. Hee!!

We waited in line with our cute 3D glasses.

Finally, the doors opened and we made a mad dash for good seats all together. There were signs clearly stating there would be NO saving of seats allowed. The rules were not heeded by some. We waited with our popcorn and Milk Duds (just for you Stacey).
Obviously some of us were too cool to have pictures taken!
The movie was a lot of fun. We boogied in our seats some. Bubba's Sis & I argued over which back up singer we were. "We" finally decided that I was the less cute one so the cute drum player could be my boyfriend. The only disappointment was that the Jonas Brothers only sang 2 songs on their own and 1 song with Hannah Montana. At least one of the songs was "The Year 3,000." I would have been sad not to have the opportunity to sing along with them on that song!

It was a great afternoon! Two thumbs up!

Sunday

February 2008 (Oh, What a Day)

Yesterday afternoon, Lamb, my mom, & I hit the theatre for the matinee showing of Jersey Boys. I'm not sure what I expected but the show wasn't what I expected. There was more singing than acting for one thing. It was fantastic however! The story was a narrative set up in different seasons told by the viewpoint of each of the Four Seasons. Tommy DeVito told the Spring story of how the group came together. Bobby Gaudio told the Summer story when the group started getting recognition and fame. Nick Massi told us about the Fall years. The group was still together, making hits, but things weren't good between them. Frankie Valli was the storyteller for Winter when the group broke up and he was on his own with a new Four Seasons.

In between the songs, they showed us a glimpse of the personalities. It was neat how the songs tied into what was going on in the story. My frame of reference with the Four Seasons was basically a group of clean-cut guys with one having a really high singing voice. And Frankie Valli was the singer of Grease. After seeing this, I now see that they weren't so clean-cut. They were Jersey Boys, after all. The language proved that! Oh, my ears! I looked at Lamb and asked if it was shocking. Sadly, she said it's no different than what she hears in school every day. However, the story was fascinating. My mom is now going to get the book so we can read more in depth about them. And I will never be able to listen to December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) the same way again. If it comes to your area, I do recommend seeing it. The music is great and the story is interesting.

Walking back to the car after the show, we passed the Stage Door. There the actors who played Tommy & Nick were signing autographs. Lamb was able to talk to "Nick" for a few minutes. My mom told him that Lamb was interested in theatre so he asked her questions. I think she was a little nervous because it was pretty much a one way conversation. ;) Still, what a thrill!!
Above is "Tommy". "Nick" is in the background. I was so thrilled that he was talking to Lamb, I forgot to get a picture of it.

One day she'll be coming out of these doors signing autographs!

Next up for us theatre buffs? We are going to Rat Pack: Live at the Sands in March.

And, in a few hours, the Hannah Montana concert movie with Bubba's Sis and her daughter. That should be great fun too!

Saturday

Narrow

Narrow footholds all the way to the top!


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Friday

Friday's Feast


Appetizer
What is your favorite kind of cereal?
Capt'n Crunch Berries

Soup
When was the last time you purchased something for your home, what was it, and in which room did it go?
Christmas, a sound system that looks like an old fashion radio, the living room

Salad
What is the funniest commercial you’ve ever seen?
Just tonight an Orbit dirty mouth commercial had me laughing out loud. Not sure it's the funniest I've EVER seen, but it was pretty hilarious.

Main Course
Make up a name for a company by using a spice and an animal (example: Cinnamon Monkey).
Salt Leopard

Dessert
Fill in the blank: I haven’t __slept____ since _I woke up this morning_____.