SICK

woke up sick today.  like totally yucky sick.  head hurts.  throat is throbbing.  head is totally congested.  my face hurts.  my teeth hurt.  can't breathe.  slept awful last night.  kept waking up to throat hurting and feeling like i was suffocating.  it's now 1:00 p.m. and i am still in bed...still in pjs....still miserable.  it's a dark, gray, rainy day here in texas.  fitting for the way i feel.  isn't it weird how it's always gray and dark on sundays in texas.  like EVERY single sunday...i think its weird....just saying.

Bluebonnets

It's what the fuss is all about.  It's all the Texans seem to be able to talk about.  It's Bluebonnet season folks.

Sundays in Texas

There is a most amazing phenomenon here in Texas.  Pretty much every single Sunday...without fail...it is CLOUDY and overcast here.  I mean like YUCK cloudy where more than once you ponder if it might rain.  Some Sundays start out a bit sunny...but by the time you walk out of church services, the clouds have rolled in and the darkness seems to descend.  It's really quite weird.  Today is no exception.  It is CLOUDY out and DARK.  There is wind and one would think that some serious weather is rolling our way.  Yet we are not slated to receive any rain.  Just this weird cloudiness.  I don't know that I have ever lived anywhere where there are so many cloudy Sundays!  Very strange.  Very strange indeed.

I went to church this morning...just me and the three kids.  Chris had to work this weekend due to a national sales meeting or something like that...so it was just me...against them.  We made it out the door, grumbling and complaining, fussing and fighting...the usual Sunday morning commotion.  Isn't it weird how kids seem so intent on killing each other on NOT showing examples of brotherly love on Sunday mornings.  It's enough to make anyone crazy really.  But boundary pushing aside...we rolled into church right on time and I got everyone distributed into their proper classes and me off to mine.  All in all it was a good morning.  After Sunday school we headed into the worship service.  The people watching was great today.  Several interesting personalities around us today.  Jumping Bean was there in the choir.  I think she's on springs.  She gets so excited that she literally jumps up and down through all the upbeat songs.  Jumping Bean was joined by Bust a Move Betty today.  She was just all out dancing and I do not mean just a little bump of the hips.  I am talking she was peace signing and arm rolling and had her disco fingers going more than once.  She was definitely 'getting jiggy with it".  It made the singing part of the service OH so interesting to watch and take in.  Besides my choir personalities, was Rainbow Bright right in front of us.  She and her family slipped in late and within about 2 seconds had hands raised in the air just a praising away.  A couple of minutes later was when I realized that those raised hands were sporting rainbow colored gloves that looked a lot like the tights Rainbow Bright wore on her cartoon.  Yes...it was indeed an excellent people watching day!

After church, we headed towards home and met up with Chris at McAllister's Deli for some lunch.  After refilling our tanks and calming the troops a bit we made a quick run to the grocery store, then came home for a nice relaxing and quiet afternoon.  Chris has had a nice long nap, the kids have been reasonably argument free...and I too have enjoyed some quiet and somewhat relaxing time between plugging in laundry and what not.

Tonight we are grilling some steaks and baked potatoes and just relaxing before heading back into another busy and action packed week!  Tomorrow will not be Sunday...so the sun should reappear!  I am SO looking forward to that!  Life is good in the Lone Star State!

These Are a Few MORE of My Favorite Things...

And there you have it!  All of my favorites from yesterday's session with Clara.  She's such a delightful sweetheart.  And I am beyond grateful to be able to capture so many sweet images of her.  When she's all grown up I KNOW I am going to miss her like crazy!  It will be nice to have these to "remember when"!

Girls in White Dresses...

THESE are a few of my favorite things...crisp blue skies, bright sunshine, picket fences, the famous bluebonnets that are blooming everywhere, warm weather that wraps it's arms around you like a sweet caress, gentle breezes that carry the promise of even warmer weather whispering through the trees, and of course...this baby girl of mine!  I am LOVING this warm and sunny weather!  And I DO mean LOVING it!  Today, I took my Clarabelle out and did some pics. There is a cool little cottage place right by the railroad tracks on my walking route that I have had my eye on for quite some time and today I finally grabbed my favorite little subject and my camera and beat a path over there.  Here are a FEW of today's favorites!  I'll post set two later!

Update From the Rainforest...I mean... Wind Tunnel State

WOW!  Texas finally turned off the faucets and opened up the wind tunnels full speed ahead!  It's been hurricane force crazy windy here the past few days.  Sunny...and you KNOW I'm thrilled beyond words about that!  But windy, just the same.  Despite the wind, today was just lovely and I found myself drawn to the great outdoors.  It all started when I went out to check on our little garden.  It's not dead coming along quite nicely!  Our seeds have sprouted and there is evidence of life there in that little garden box!  Here's a peek!

The sunshine felt so beautiful and delicious and so I lingered over the garden for a few minutes.  I also wondered why in the world I had just spent an hour on the treadmill instead of walking OUTSIDE!!!!  And while I was lingering I decided that the back yard was definitely in need of a meeting with the lawn mower.  And so....I cranked her up and quickly set to the task of making those beautiful straight lines of

fresh cut lawn.  The smell of it all was so crisp and fresh and I just relished the springtime moment.  After I was done making the lawn all even and pretty again, I noticed that the nasty little tree above the swimming pool had dropped TONS of debris in the pool.  Some kind of fuzzy, pollenlike stuff that was EVERYWHERE.  I spent quite a large chunk of time with the net capturing it all and getting it out of our pool.  Fat lot of good THAT did since two hours later, thanks to the WIND, there was just as much as I had removed and even MORE!!!!  So of course...I did it AGAIN!!!  Once THAT was all done, I noticed the flower bed under the window was just a nightmare.  ALL of the flowerbeds here have been in sad, sad shape.  They have had little to no attention.  And this one was no exception.  It was just crying out for some major TLC and attention.  See...isn't this just so sad?  

After another good chunk of time crawling around on my knees on the concrete and yanking and pulling the weed flower bed looked SO much better.  Like this....

Of course....there are no flowers.  And I am not certain that there will be.  But then...you never know!  I AM...just so you know...pretty good with rocks and have had pretty good success with them in the past. I haven't lost one yet!  Might be best to just proceed with the "rock" garden!  

And finally.....with the arrival of spring, we seem to be having some rather frequent visitors to our yard.  Specifically...to the POOL area of our yard.  I call them Charlie and Lola.  They seem to think that our pool is a "community" pool.  Specifically for the DUCK community.  Meet Charlie and Lola...

They splash down in our pool at least a couple of times a day.  They are making Oscar crazy.  And I'm none too excited about the idea of them pooping and doing who knows what else in my pool.  I tried to nicely explain to them that there are two perfectly lovely ponds right down at the end of the street and that they are open to duck visitors.  Whereas OUR pool is a PRIVATE pool.  You know...kind of an "invitation only" kind of deal.  I don't really speak duck very well...however...something I said must have struck a chord with them because they took off in quite the huff after our little chat.  

And so....that's about all the news from the Wind Tunnel Lone Star State.  We are loving spring and all the fresh and green that seems to be escorting this delightful season in!  Loving the sunshine and cherishing the blue skies.  Everyone tells me that Spring here is very, very short and that I will be sorry once summer gets here.  Ha....we'll see about that.  Bring on the heat!  Life is good in the Lone Star State!

Benjamin

Do you know this one?  Our Ben?

Sweet.

Loveable.

Twelve.

I love this kiddo!