last chance to daydream

I won't have to daydream about my little niece anymore.

I won't have to wonder
will she have a squeaky voice and texas twang like mama
or a big laugh like daddy?

will she be kind, thoughtful and a dancer like brother
or tender, funny and a lover of stuffed animals like other brother?

will she have dark hair or strawberry blonde hair
will she have hair?!

will we still call her Sweet Monkey 10 years from now when she wears lip gloss and has pierced ears?
will she be like Daddy Cool's family emotional and creative?
is she going to eat beef?
will she love the beach?

maybe when she is 5 will she know all the songs to annie or maybe play soccer
maybe she will watch astro's games with daddy
and play in mommy's old super high heels and sneak a spray of perfume

maybe she will love bluebonnets or sunflowers
maybe her favorite animal will be the elephant and she will learn to make a perfect trunk horn with her hands

I won't have to guess her name
or imagine her face and smile
and little baby girl smell

or daydream about my first niece hug.


sweet monkey

camping gear - loves/wants/necessities

Favorite Things "Camping Gear"

My family used to go camping as our summer vacation until this very unfortunate trip to the Smokey Mountains when it End of the World rained and water came in the tent and everything was wet and everyone was miserable. After that the camping thing sorta tapered off dramatically.

I thought I knew everything there is to know about camping and gear but I've learned so much doing it on my own. What to bring, how to pack, where to go, tool and tips. Most of the time I sit back, let David split logs and enjoy the fresh air.

COLEMAN TENT
When David came into the picture so many things about him needed to be fixed. He had 1 button down shirt and a pair of khakis and 6 inappropriate tshirts from Hot Topic. He couldn't name the Beatles. HE COULD NOT NAME THE BEATLES, he didn't even know how many there were. I'll give you a minute to pick yourselves off the floor. He also had never been camping as a child.

After the Beatles catastrophe and an introduction to the collared shirt I knew we were going to be camping folk. And my parents gave us a Coleman tent for our wedding gift.

Our tent has held up very well, it fits Dp which is also a chore for every.thing.in.life. Coleman makes great camping gear. If we ever get a new tent (this past trip I trying to remember how long we had been married and in 2015 we will be married 10 years! that tent is almost 10 years old? when did that happen??) which we certainly don't need cause it is like new, I think we will get a shorter ceiling so it is warmer in the cooler months. Even though we already have a pretty low ceiling compared to some of the monster tents people drag out into the woods.


SWEATY BANDS

I have a small head. In addition to my tiny head aliment, I have thin straight hair that doesn't stay in a ponytail or behind my ears and elastic headbands shoot off my head like missiles.

The Sweaty Band has velvet on the inside and it grabs hold to your hair. They stay on forever, through runs and hikes and even putting on sweatshirts!! I dont have this cute chevron one but I want it!

These are my new favorite thing ever.





SOAP ON A ROPE
My mom is a certified genius. She always packed a soap on a rope for the camp because there is never soap in a state park bathroom.
This is how my mom did it and this is how we have our SOR set up.
Take a knee high or the leg of a pantyhose; stick a hotel bar of soap in the toe; tie a knot at the top of the hose. Soap on a Rope! We keep ours tied to our water dispenser which we keep close to camp so running water and clean hands are always near by.

OTHER NECESSITIES

• We pack everything in one 116 gallon tub. Bugs/moisture stay out and it keeps the campsite clean and orderly.
• A nice hatchet and camp shovel. I'm not sure how you can function without one.
• We always bring extra freezer ziplock bags when we go hiking, if we see litter we pick it up and hike it out.
• I got Dp a camelbak for Christmas in a discontinued color and snagged a super deal. He loves it. Then he got all excited about me getting one too, and since the brand makes lady packs I looked into it and found my very own discontinued color - Mountain Fudge... wonder why they decided not to keep a pack with a name like that. ewwww. It is the best fitting backpack I've ever had! I think it is supposed to be a tiny pack on a normal sized human but it is just normal everyday sized on me, compared to past my butt in every other backpack I've ever owned!

CAMPING STOVE
Want one so bad. And after the cooking disasters we've had recently we can say we need on. Cooking over open flame is trickier than it looks...
Sometimes I can't believe that MeeMaw learned to cook on a wood burning stove. She was amazing.

alsation sensation

Last Friday, me and the folks were at Los Tios for TexMex Friday (yup still have that tradition going!) and Daddy told us we had to stop in Castroville at the Alsatian bakery.

Well Dp and I stopped mid enchilada (verdes) chewing and said alsawhadda? So apparently a small group of Alsatian colonists settled this town and you won't receive any judging from me if you quickly hurry over to Wiki to look up where this Alsace place is.

On our last night of Garner camping I convinced Dp not to try and cook breakfast in the morning. So we packed the car in dark. In the morning "we" packed up the tent and headed out. *insert kitty on a leash story*

I kinda thought Castroville was just down the road... 2 hours later we made it in to town and took a gamble on the Alsatian restaurant across the street from the Bakery.

Sammy's decor leaves much to be desired. If you are looking for a bright, inviting diner... well, this isn't it. Several sections were closed and didn't even have lights on. It is a seat-yourself kind of place so we grabbed a couple of menus and found a properly lit booth.

Breakfast is served all day at Sammy's and breakfast was on my mind. We had to remedy the petrified breakfast brick from the day before. I got two eggs with bacon and a biscuit and Dp got the Good Morning, which is my breakfast + a pancake. Service was so courteous and fast, and they kept Dp's coffee good and hot. Ask to sit in Theresa's section, she was so pleasant and kind and knew I wanted salsa before I could even ask.

The food is everything you want from a breakfast dive. Fast, real, fresh and tasty. I'm not a big biscuit fan, they are just too buttery and rich for my tastes but Dp said they were better than Annie's (our favorite bfast place in Houston), I kinda disagree - Annie's huge biscuits are my favorite.

Ok. Here is the deal.

Castroville is the coolest town on earth. We enjoyed so much people watching, including the incredibly tiny old woman who couldn't believe David was that tall and the lumbering gentleman who entered the restaurant with an old nub of a cigar stuffed in the corner of his mouth and upon ordering placed it in his shirt pocket.

Colorful. Gritty. So cool.

After our breakfast we went to the bakery across the street. Dp kept eating and eating samples. We ended up with a cream cheese thingy and iced bun thingy and a loaf of pumpernickel. I was the most excited about the pumpernickel of course.

I would love to be able to have time to wander around all our small Texas towns.

the successful failure

David and I spent the long weekend (was I the only one who had President's Day off?) camping at Garner State Park. It wasn't great.

Last week was probably the worst week in my professional life to date. I've never felt so unwanted, unappreciated and villainized in my entire life. I just wanted to spend the weekend in bed, surrounded by kitties and junk food. David made me go camping. Friday night we tried to pull together a menu, get all the gear organized and loaded in the car. I hate rush packing.

The drive was perfect. I love driving. So relaxing and freeing. Open road is the only thing that takes away my anxiety... that and kitties on leashes. (we'll get there in a moment.)

When we got to our site, we realized we were at a trailhead without any trees or shade. grumble. But it was either this trailhead or that trailhead so whatever, did I mention I didn't even want to come? What were the kitties doing without me??? David started to set up the tent and I sat in the car pouting. And I hear

"Awww CRAP"

David looks up and says I split my pants. And not the "woops I ripped the seat of my pants" but in the middle of a lunge he SPLIT THE CROTCH of his jeans! Ok, this got a smile, and a giggle, and a throw-back-my-head-and-explode-in-uproarious-laugher laugh.

David dun split his britches.

So we went on a sewing kit scavenger hunt, found one, sewed up his pants and then had lunch. You know, how every camping trip starts out.

By now it is getting kinda late, almost 4pm and David decides we should try the trail head by our campsite instead of the main, park sanctioned trail. And we started up the trail marked DANGER! LOOSE ROCKS! DANGER ZONE! VERY STEEP. (seriously) And we made it up several hundred feet of pure rock climbing and I think this is insane, I wanted a nice quiet weekend in bed and I am clawing and boulders and scampering up a cliff. So we turned around and came back down. Tried another trail as the sun was setting and ran back to the camp to try and get a fire started before dark. I was pretty much chanting "I am not having fun. I want my kitties." the whole way back to camp.

Dinner was a part success. Most everything cooked. But it was getting pretty chilly at this point and our meat was cooked but turned ice cold the second we pulled it off the fire. We made these Campfire Banana Splits - banana, mallow, chocolate wrapped in foil, A++.

That night IT.WAS.FREEZING.

Well no, that isn't accurate, it was 27 degrees which would make it BELOW FREEZING.

I didn't sleep, and spent the whole night with the tummy shivers and listening to Dp snoring. That is till 4am, when I had too pee and I was crying cause I was tired and so cold and I just wanted a nice quiet weekend in bed with the kitties and this is not fun. Dp drove me to the potty, which is heated by the way, and then we parked in front of the pavilion and slept in the car with the heat running.

At least I was warm and had a couple hours of sleep and was saved by daylight. (insert story here about our hippie neighbors who refused to use the restroom and I got to see bare hippie butt take a morning tinkle 20 feet from our site.) So we started to cook our breakfast.

See image below. Yes. That horrifying thing was breakfast. Otherwise known as charred tortilla.

Lesson learned.

This is when we set out to find coffee for Dp, there was also a tea kettle on fire disaster, and basically drove 14 miles round trip to get him caffiene, and by now I am ready to just pack up and go home. Right? Is this painful to read? But I wanted to see Lost Maples and the park ranger swore it wasn't going to be as cold. So I decided to stay.

We drove to Lost Maples crossing the Sabinal River 6 times (we counted) and right off I saw a cardinal. Cardinals always mean good luck for me. Lost Maples was perfect. Perfect weather, perfect water, amazing views, amazing trails, hopping across rocks to cross streams. Highlight of the trip. We should have stayed there. We only got to hike 1/3 of the park but I am sold. Certainly going back.

Although I gave a compelling argument to abandon everything at Garner and just head home on a high note, Dp drove me back to evil #15 campsite. We had a huge fire, our food wasn't charred, and our marshmallows were crispy on the outside - gooey on the inside.  Mr. Cardinal really turned things around. That night was a perfect temperature, I didn't even shiver once!

Cat on a Leash Story

All those Hill Country doggies have a great life. They get to play in State Parks, walk beautiful trails, drink from spring fed rivers and streams. Every time we'd see a puppy on the trails I'd tell Dp how cool it would be if we had a kitty on a leash. As we were leaving Garner I SAW A KITTY ON A LEASH. *cue squeals of excitement, joy, happiness, and 1 small glare of envy. Ps- it was a Maincoon and it was sniffing tall grass.

rhythm

driving in the rain and my wipers matched the beat of my music

almost as fun as

when someone is walking/jogging to the rhythm of your music and they don't know it.

i like to imagine that they are listening to the same song at the same time because somewhere out there someone is listening to holst the planets on a rainy day too. i'm convinced the world is small and big enough for it to happen.

14 B 14 - Everything in its place

#3 Everything In Its Place

What: get organized, make a plan to stay organized and get my life in order. really really learn how to manage the onslaught of clutter

Why: I'm noticing how interconnected all of my 14 goals are. Holding onto skinny clothes (of which I had an entire closet devoted) clutters my life which leads to stress and anxiety because of the clutter and shame that I can't keep a clean house.

Last year my mom saved me an article from Good Housekeeping. It wasn't a ten tips for a more organized life, or 50 ordinary household items used to create an organized pantry. Those are great articles and pins but lets face it unless a professional comes in and figures out my pantry it is going to be a constant mess. This article, Everything in Place, had 3 tips - an ah ha! moment for me.

Like I said, this issue is connected to so much of my dissatisfaction in life. I woke up one Saturday last month and shook David awake and said: "We are taking the closet doors off today."

I have hated our closet doors from day one in this house. They were so heavy I have to use a shoulder shove to push them open. In a marital compromise we decided to leave them in the middle of the closet so neither one of us has to heave them open. This solved that problem but left us both with just a tiny opening to reach any of our clothes and rendered the center most 2.5 feet of the closet a black hole.

Easy solution is to just take the dang doors down. Yes. I guess 50 years ago sliding closet doors weren't going anywhere and to get them down we'd have to take off the door jam and risk damaging sheetrock. Three years is all it takes to say to hell with the sheetrock, I need a closet!

And so they went.

Yes. That is unedited - and see the giant mound of crap in the floor that comes up to dp's knee? That is real life. (in this real life moment, dp does home improvement work in pjs and flip flops)

LIFE CHANGING MOMENT.

our room feels bigger

our closet doubled in size and in visibility

we finally got the dirty clothes hamper into the closet

we have a closet floor

it is phenomenally easy to get ready in the morning

and it has stayed this way for about a month!

On the same day as the closet door removal, big day, I did this.

That would be The Skinny Clothes. I don't know this picture doesn't do the 3 ft tall pile any justice. It was a lot of clothes. And it was hard. But I had to let go.

I still have a few things I just couldn't get rid of yet, and I'm allowing myself those things until the end of the year.


Neither of those goals are officially achieved but set in motion. Motion is a fantastic feeling.



ps- i weighed the doors. one door weighed 35 lbs. to open our closet i had to move SEVENTY FIVE POUNDS of door. ridiculousness

Playdate

I struggle with contentment, frequently feel anxious and restless and as if I will explode if I don't DO something - breakout -  run.

It is my restless creative spirit, that I try to suppress, bubbling over. Because I'm a grown-up now and can't spend the night driving all across the west TX countryside only turning around at the first Whataburger, I usually toss and turn waiting for the icky feeling to pass.

Yet, this weekend I'm going to do something. Something that satisfies that inner me. Play date with my soul.

update: i bought some new watercolor brushes and worked in my art journal and took a walk in russ pitman and made my office nook into a sudio nook - well in progress... it needs some paint