You have to see it to believe it

Last weekend I went to Houston to visit with my old friends Crystal and Elaine. I have talked about both of them here before.

Crystal - Elaine - Me

Crystal recently moved back to Texas after having lived in Colorado for the past several years. Elaine has lived in Houston for a couple of years now. Elaine is an artist - check out her website here - and had a show opening in Houston last Friday night. It is located at the Art League of Houston in case you are interested. This show was like no other I've ever seen before.

Elaine's sculptures are of taxidermied animals (she rescues them off of eBay - she doesn't hunt) that have custom made crocheted sweaters. She totally outdid herself with this show - if I do say so myself.

Not only did Elaine create several new sculptures, she also created habitats for each animal/group of animals, had a gift shop, had brochures, etc. She created everything she would need for:

It was totally awesome. My pictures DO NOT do her exhibits justice. Part of that is my fault - new camera and all - and the other part is ALL OF THE PEOPLE THAT WERE THERE! The place was SO packed Crystal and I couldn't even see Elaine while she was giving her artist talk, let alone hear her.

Elaine, I am so proud of you. I can remember how you wanted to be an artist even when we were kids. It isn't everyday when you have a friend who has followed her dreams. I love to tell people that I have this really cool friend who is an artist.

Congratulations - all of your hard work paid off!

(Do I sound like a teacher or what???)

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was also really good at our house.

Meagan woke us up at 6:59. "Mom, it's seven! Can we please get up now??" (She was under strict orders to wake us up before she went into the living room to see what Santa left her. A few years ago she woke up, took all of her stuff to her room, and was getting toys out of their boxes before we woke up!)

Garrett was still asleep so we left him alone and went with Meagan into the living room.

She was thrilled with her gift from Santa. (I would be too for that matter!) She received an iPod Nano and an iTunes gift card. Her stocking was also full of goodies. She got a High School Musical 3 game for her DS, some bangle bracelets, socks, some candy, and lots of other little things.

In his stocking Jimmy got a new equipment bag for kickball, some duplicate line-up sheets for kickball, Reece's Peanut Butter cups, and other odds and ends.

In my stocking I got new socks, the new David Cook CD (which is awesome!), some new pens, an iTunes gift card, some candy, and various items.

Garrett finally woke up around 8:00 or so. Santa left him a silver Nintendo DS and a Mario game. In his stocking he got an M&M racing game for the DS, a cover for the DS, a small lego kit, and lots of other goodies.

I made homemade biscuits and bacon and eggs for breakfast. After we ate Jimmy broke out the Batman Lego game for the Wii that the kids got the night before and I spent a while on the computer figuring out how to download music into the iPods Meagan and I received. Meagan bought Taylor Swift and Jonas Brothers songs with her iTunes gift cards.

We went to Grandma and Pawpaw Blair's for Christmas lunch and enjoyed visiting with family. We also opened our stockings that Santa and Grandma Blair fill for us there.

Elaine came by and visited with us before she went back to Houston last night. (She is very busy with preparations for her show which opens on January 9th.

I also talked to Crystal who is in town for the holiday. We made plans to get together today.

All in all, Christmas was great!

I'll post pictures once I have a chance to download them from my mom's camera.

Okay, I lied . . . More about Thanksgiving

Here is a picture of Meagan and Garrett by the Thanksgiving display that my mom put up. I think it turned out really cute Mom!

As for Thanksgiving Day, it was really nice. Nana Mary, Crystal, and Mady came and we all had a really good time. Of course my kids fussed and acted like I was trying to feed them battery acid when given white meat turkey and green beans but oh well.

I was exhausted from crash cleaning the house (thanks Jimmy!) but now the house still looks pretty good, so it was all worth it. (Of course, if I had stuck with my plan to clean/organize one room a day I wouldn't have had to crash clean, but this is me we are talking about!)

It was a lot of fun to see my friend Crystal. She recently moved back to Texas and was able to come down for Thanksgiving. She came over for Thanksgiving dinner and then came back on Friday night just to hang out.

I also got to see my friend Elaine on Thanksgiving evening. I always go to her house to eat pie on Thanksgiving evening. Her mom makes the best Buttermilk pie. Yum!

Hurricane Ike Update

Updated: I just got a text from my friend Elaine. She made it through Ike OK. She is very tired and has no electricity but she's OK. Thank God!

We still have sunny skies here but we are expecting rain tomorrow.


Ike is predicted to take a northernly turn and hit the Houston/Galveston area. Please pray for all those that will be affected by Ike.


Jimmy's sister lives on the outside of Houston and has prepared to weather the storm so to speak. I also have two good friends who live in Houston, Crystal and Elaine, both who I have mentioned before on this site.


Be safe everyone!

Hanging Out with Nana Mary

My kids are very lucky to have two complete sets of grandparents as well as a great grandma.

They also have a Nana. Nana Mary is the mom of my middle school/junior high/high school best friend Crystal.

Crystal and I don't get to see each other much due to geography and usually don't write or call but when we do get to see each other it is like we were never apart. We have the ability to pick up right where we left off. We are both moms now and I am a teacher and she works in an office but somehow we are still the same two girls who loved to bowl and talk on the phone for hours and hours and gossip about crushes. Every girl should have a friend like Crystal. We were opposites in so many ways, but so much alike in others. We complimented each other in the best of ways. This isn't to say that we never argued though. As Nana Mary can attest to, there were some big fights over the years but I always knew that when it mattered, when it was really important, she would be there for me. She was there during some rocky times in high school, she was there when I got married, she was there when my grandfather died . . . I could go on and on and on.

Anyway, back to the point. (I'm like this when I talk to someone in person too. I start off talking about one topic and wind up on a totally different topic. It's quite exciting to talk to me actually!)

Nana has been involved in my kids' lives since they were born. She used to babysit Meagan when Jimmy and I would go bowl. Once we quit bowling regularly she kept up with visits and hanging out with us occasionally.

She is teaching Meagan to bake and to sew and do all of those other things that moms are too busy and rushed to do with their own kids. Meagan loves her and I do too.

Now that Garrett is older he is getting to spend time with Nana too. Just recently he went and played with Mady, Crystal's daughter. They had a blast together and I wish I had taken some pictures! (It was during the week I went back to work so I was dead tired trying to get back into the swing of getting up at 5:30. Yes, 5:30 AM!)

In case you haven't figured it out, it is Garrett in the Hulk costume in the above pictures. Nana took Garrett to the dollar store (Nana's favorite!) and he talked her into the costume.

Nana, we just want to say thank you for all that you do and we love you!