Cousin Love

Tyler (my brother), Vicki and the girls came to visit over the weekend. We had crazy fun. They live in Chicago, so our Houston weather was quite a reprieve. Cousins played, adults held babies, and we all sat around and talked. Perfect.

Maya, Addie, Kate
If they got any cuter I could eat them.

We went to a safari park and fed animals from our car.
This is Todd feeding a Texas Longhorn.

Tyler and his girls feeding the camels.
Right before this, Tyler had a showdown with a buffalo who wanted his bucket of food. He held on with all his might and beat the 1 ton hairy animal. I stand in awe.

My sister Emily's twins.
Tyler and Vicki's baby Tess.
These 3 were born just 2 days apart. Hard to tell, ain't it?
Vicky calls them rare, medium and well done.
And yes, Tess' hair is even more fantastic in person!

Cousin Love

If You Build It They Will Come

My mom decided that the grandkids deserved a slammin' swingset. She said that my dad would buy one for them, and she wanted to do it for him. Actually, if they asked for Disneyland to be built in the backyard, he would have made a phone call to take care of that too.

I tried to convince my mom that the grandkids really wanted a Target in the backyard. Well, truth be told, I think its more of a need than a want. She paid no heed to my pleadings. That dern Nana never listens to me. She somehow only listens to all the little girls running around this place.



This swingset has already brought hours of joy. I'm still holding out for MY Target, uh, I mean the Target for the grandkids.

Uh....Pathetic?

The other night my mom and I were rocking and feeding babies. While doing so, this is what we were watching:

The Westminster Dog Show. We were riveted. For 45 minutes we watched the dogs prance. Seriously people, riveted. I'm not sure how or why we started watching, but it didn't take long for us to really dive into the action. Soon we were commenting to each other, "his fur looks like a brillo pad"....."look at all his hair, it looks like a skirt"......"that definitely does not look like a well-bred dog, that is just DNA gone wrong". We even cheered when the winner was announced. His name is Stump. He came out of retirement just for the show. His big fluffy ears blow in the wind when he runs, kinda like a supermodel running on a beach.

I think I'm going to set my DVR to record this dog show every year. You just can't find this kind of quality TV anymore. We even got a behind-the-scene look at the doggie spa. Total pampering. The dog show even provides mini treadmills for the pooches to get some exercise. Have you ever seen a chihuahua on a treadmill? I have. Again I repeat, riveted.

Watching the dog show made me think about creating an international children's show. Only the well-bred kids would qualify to enter. Each parent would tie a leash to their child's wrist and run down the piece of astroturf to be judged. Kids would compete in categories, you know, just to be fair. So far I've come up with these: chubby kids, loud kids, picky eater kids, sassy kids, quiet kids. Its still a work in progress. I might form a committee to expand on this idea. I'll keep you posted. Until then, I'm sure you could look for the Westminster Dog Show reruns. I can promise you this--you'll be riveted.

Shrinking

I have a problem. Well, wait a sec....I have a lot of problems, but I'm concerned about one in particular. My boobs are shrinking. I'm not kidding. My bra doesn't fit right anymore. If I bend over it just slides down past my ribs. Weird, huh? It moves around so much, it just feels like I'm wearing another shirt. So, my only conclusion is that my boobs are shrinking.

I've pondered my problem for a couple of weeks. At first I thought it was my bra. I only own one. Buying any more than that is a serious waste of money. My sister bought this one for me about 5 years ago. So it is definitely not stretched out yet. I've got at least 8-9 more years out of this model. My thoughts have moved to the weather. The humidity here effects everything. Your house doors will slightly swell and shrink due to the humidity levels. Maybe that's why my boobs have shrunk. Low humidity. If that's the case, they should puff back up in a month or so.

The only other thing I can think of is the swelling in my feet. My shoes feel a bit tighter. Maybe all my boob fluff has fallen down into my feet. I think I'll try standing on my head tonight to see if I can get it to float back to its proper place. If that doesn't work, I'm just going to cross my fingers for those humidity levels. Puff, puff, puff.

Does She Look Sick?

Makell has the flu. Can you tell? The picture is blurry because she is skating up the sidewalk in her Heelys. A really high fever. Totally obvious, right?

I am the kind of mom that loves a good fever. It slows them down. My kids NEVER sit still or stop talking, so a temperature of 102 is a welcomed friend. They will actually lay on the couch and watch TV like normal children. You people who have kids that will do that on a regular basis (without force), don't know how good you've got it. Fevers are my friend.

Yet, Makell has had a high fever for 2 days and she hasn't even wavered. She has had a few moments where I have found her just laying on the floor, but she pops back up within 10 minutes. I keep telling her that I think she needs to take a nap (cross my fingers, please, please, please). She then tells me that she needs to play tetherball.

Yesterday I went upstairs to clean the bathrooms. I assumed that Kellie was too sick to get into any trouble while she was unattended. While I was out of her sight, she tried to cook a stack of frozen tortillas on the pancake griddle. As I have been typing this post, she gathered all the loose change that we keep in an empty jar and rolled it all up in her shirt. She has now found a stack of safety pins and secured her money roll in her shirt so that she can just walk around with it. She jingles when she jumps. Ya, she's really sick. Maybe I'm the one who needs the fever.

Mmmm Tasty

Conversation after school:

Me: "How was your day?"

Addie: (nonchalantly) "I got in trouble and had to pull a ticket."

Me: "Seriously? Again?"

Addie: "I didn't do nothing."

Me: "Really!?"

Addie: "Mmm.....I licked."

Me: (disbelief) "You licked who?"

Addie: "I licked my friend while we were in line for the bathroom."

Me: "Why?"

Addie: (shoulder shrug) "Ba-cause I wanted to."

Thoughts to myself--maybe she thought her friend would taste like bacon.

Accessories Mark A Winner

Football is funny. Kinda stupid, but mostly funny. Tight pants, lots of shoving, and in the end, you get a pretty ring. Sounds like The Bachelor, but whatever.

I pick my team based on fashion. I had no idea who was playing in the big game today, but I did check out their color scheme. Red and yellow are lovely colors. At first glance it was hard to choose, so it all came down to the details:

• First off, your team can score some serious negative points when you wear white pants. A-it's after Labor Day, and B-it's immodest and that's not choosing the right.
• Accessories are always the clincher. The yellow team had WAY cuter shoes. I think I even noticed a little patten-leather. Very nice touch with just a hint of flair.
• If the shoes weren't the tipping point, it all came down to the gloves. You had to be paying attention because not every player wears them, only the little boy who catches the ball. Again, yellow team wins big for fancier gloves.

By the end of the first 10 minutes in the game, I had the winner finalized in my mind. The most fashion forward team always wins. It's just the law of the universe. Just think how pretty those new rings are going to look when paired with their canary yellow tights. Dazzling.