And The Beat Goes On

All I wanted...

2012-01-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

All I wanted was to have a picture of Dogdog and myself in front of the Christmas tree...

Thanksgiving

2011-12-17T19:28:00.000-08:00

So this year I did something I have never done before for thanksgiving. I left home and went to visit my sister. My mom joined us and unfortunately my dad had to work. But we really did have a great time and I think this will be tradition from now on.

First of all we celebrated my sisters birthday, it actually fell on thanksgiving day this year as it does sometimes. She received some fab gifts and I think she had a great day.

We cooked the whole meal and just had a fantastic time being a family. My camera died right as we started cooking lunch and like a dodo I did not have my extra battery OR charger. So these are my only pictures. We made pea and corn salad, pumpkin rosito, pecan pie, pumpkin bars everything!!

I am blessed daily by being a part of this family.

Camera Fight!

2011-12-14T19:03:00.000-08:00

Flashback Friday

2011-12-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

My son is sniff eight

2011-11-22T18:35:00.000-08:00

Brass

- Eight years old today!
- Weighs 85 pounds, but tends to put on a bit more over winter
- Still sleeps with the blanket he got on the first night I brought him home
- Loves bones, pecans and puppiccinos from Starbucks
- Loves to be scratched anytime and his favorite place is his chest
- Runs as fast as he can every morning when we get to work but is more tired lately when we get home at night
- Answers to dogdog, black diamond, pooter, blackie, brassy, brassy boy, brass dog
- Is growing more and more white hairs
- Had stitches this year
- Loves to drink from the fountain at work

Dear Brass, when you read this on your 18th birthday, I just want you to know what a blessing you have been to me. You have given me 10 precious solid black grand pups and many days of running and playing. Your companionship is nothing if not perfect and I hope that in the years to come we will continue to enjoy our time together. You are my son and bring so much joy daily to me and your grandparents. I love you! Mommy

please take this as a funny, not serious thing!!! haha

Boots, Brass and Best Friends

2011-11-20T20:31:00.000-08:00

It has been quite a fall for me! Many sorrows, but also so many blessings. For starters, I got my first ever pair of cowboy boots. Now living in west texas for my entire life, you would think I am over flowing with cowboy boots. But no, first pair and check them out! SWEET!

Next Brass, affectionally called Dogdog. He blesses me every day, as frustrated as I get at him, he is a great protector and companion. Photos of him are one of my frustrations. Here is out latest ‘photo shoot’. GRRRR from both of us!

Dogdog has a birthday coming up this week, hopefully I can get another blog out for him by then!

And finally my greatest blessing of the fall! My best friend got to come visit from Denmark. We have the greatest time together! My mom and I decided to make Susan as Texan as possible. We came up with as many things ‘texan’ as we could.

We went to a Texas Tech Football game

Get your guns up!

We also shot in the back yard!

And lastly Susan and I went to Atlanta for a quick weekend.

We visited the aquarium

Coca Cola world

Our very favorite soda to try was called Beverly – made in Italy.

Oh and we met Jane Seymour. No biggie.

A few of my favorite things - the last

2011-10-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

Ok as my mother reminded me, I am waaaaay behind on my Disney blogs. So here is my last blog (finally) about our Disney World trip. You think I would have done it sooner seeing as how Magic Kingdom is my favorite park to visit.

I could just say that everything we did was my favorite, but there are about 700 pictures to prove that point. So I will just add my favorite-favorite things!

Ok first (in no particular order of the favorite-favorite things)

The castle, no explanation needed.

Getting to take my niece to the bibbidi bobbidi boutique.

Eating thanksgiving dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern

Riding the boat from the lodge

Mickey’s Philharmagic (a favorite-favorite-favorite) I especially enjoyed taking the niece to this, she had never been to the movies, much less the best 3D you can get!

Finding an authentic Disney sketch artist while searching for indoor rainy day activities.

SPLASH MOUNTAIN! Check out the look on the nephew’s face!

Just being with my famly!

I hope you have enjoyed these last few posts. Feel free to share a favorite Disney memory in the comments!

A few of my favorite things - Three

2011-08-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well the last few weeks have been so busy for me that my blogging has gone by the wayside. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things soon. So here we are at Animal Kingdom. I enjoyed this park much more this time then I did last trip. I think some things have been expanded and added and it was great fun. Animal Kingdom seems like the hottest park that we visit and this time was no exception. We made the best of things though and just had a great day.

My first favorite was breakfast this day. We got goodies and tucked ourselves away in a little quite hidden dining area.

Our first stop after breakfast was the Kilimanjaro Safari. This is a great family ride and we all enjoyed seeing the exotic animals and plants from Africa.

I love how this mist was coming through the flora.

Mom loves chai tea lattes. Well we did not have much luck finding them at Disney World. (ie they are nowhere to be found in Walt Disney World) One night I was able to do a little research and found the one and only place in all of the parts that sells chai. So this is definitely one of my favorite things!!

Our whole group loved the Birds of Wonder show and enjoyed the tie in to all of the tourist groups in the park.

Mom joined us on Everest the ride!

This is brother (aka the engineer) and myself recreating our ride picture from Dinosaur.

And to end this day we headed over to the Polynesian Resort to eat at Ohana!

Visit again soon for Magic Kingdom Memories!

A few of my favorite things - Two

2011-08-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

These are a few of my favorite things from Hollywood Studios!

New Sunglasses! I forgot my sunglasses at the resort, so I had to break down and get a new pair. Sister ended up getting the same pair! Can you find the hidden mickey?

I really love Mickey's hat sitting at the center of HWS. Its huge and makes for a great meeting place.

Family! No complaints here!

I was so excited for the back lot tour. We got to tour a few movie sets and see some stunts. Not as great as Universal Studios and their 'attack you in 4D with a trex and king kong' but it was pretty good.

Next was dinner at Mama Melrose's. Now I love italian anyway, but this was super good italian. The desserts were amazing and my dad said it was the best steak he has ever had!

And lastly my favorite thing of the whole trip! Lights, Motors Action - Extreme Stunt Show. This was about the coolest thing I have ever seen! Stunt driving looks SO much better in real life then on the screen!

Check out this clip!

A few of my favorite things - One

2011-07-29T18:51:00.001-07:00

Well we just got back from an amazing trip to Walt Disney World. My whole family got to come, me and my parents, as well as my Sister and her family. Between all of us there were around 1200 pictures and I have no idea how to condense it all into a few blogs. I decided to take each park and pick some of my favorite things.

The first park we visited was Epcot. I love Epcot and even with this one park, it was hard to pick favorites! Ok here we go!

Soarin is my favorite ride at Epcot and it was even more special this time because we got to take the kids. They had never experienced anything like this before and it was awesome. As soon as we got off, we were ready to go again!!

Meeting Belle, Tinkerbell and Snow White. These ladies are so great to the kids and are so into their characters. Belle really catered to young brother. He was so smitten that he asked if she would like to go pin shopping with him. Best quote of the entire trip!

I LOVE the world showcase at Epcot! I really wanted the kids to enjoy it as well, but was not so sure they would. Well my sister researched a bit and found one of the coolest things on the planet! Disney has incorporated Kim Possible missions in 7 of the countries. I have to admit this was one of the funnest things that we did! We all enjoyed it and the kids named it as a favorite activity. So another favorite of mine is completing 7 Kim Possible missions in the world showcase!

This part of Norway actually took a picture of us and it showed up on the receiver!
A secret code was revealed on the underside of these piñatas in Mexico!

Every time I visit Epcot I call my best friend Susan in Denmark, from the World Showcase country of Germany! As far as the countries in Epcot Germany is closest to Denmark. I love doing this and we always joke that I am waving at her from across the bay.

We had some really great food this year and one of my favorites was Le Cellier in Canada. We also ate at the Garden Grill where you meet Mickey!!

One of the most exciting things at Disney is fireworks! This night we had a great time picking out a spot and waiting around for the Illiminations show held in the World Showcase Lagoon. Everyone enjoyed this show but it was so awesome to watch the looks on the kids faces when the fireworks were shot off.

And here is a super cute picture of me and sis waiting for the bus.

Next favorites to come – Hollywood Studios!!

I'm a Girl

2011-07-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

OK so apparently I have been on a jewelry buying kick lately. It might be related to my recent commission check or it might just be that I am a girl.

Starting out with this, uhhh, little jewel.

oh well I did not buy this one but I do think it's cool that TTU has this new sculpture at the alumni building. I have a pinkie ring that looks just like it!

This next one is from James Avery . I have been wanting a new thumb ring and this one just fit me perfectly.

I love the fleur de lis!

I have purchased from Untamed Menagerie in the past and this time I was not disappointed in my purchase!

This piece is called Marine Antoinette

Another bracelet I did not purchase is this one.

Judith brought it to me from her mission trip to Bogota, Columbia!

My next find is one of my favorite souvenirs from Walt Disney World. (oh come back later this week - there will be many WDW posts soon!! )

Maps in need of recycling at Disney World are gathered and sent to Uganda, Africa. They are cut and made into strips and then into beads. Disney then sends all of then money made from selling the beads back to Uganda. Very cool!

And lastly this little antique locket.

the girl that makes them hand paints teeny little pictures inside. I love it! and many people have already ask about it

Have you made any great purchases lately?!

A few random things about me

2011-06-15T09:18:00.001-07:00

- I love putting my ipod on shuffle and seeing what comes up – Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones just played

- I got bitten by a rose bush this morning!

- I love the smell of tires and the insides of new shoes

- I have feathers in my hair

- I have friends all over the world and would love to take like 3 months and visit them all!

- I take my Labrador with me to work every day

- I love Coke with Vanilla but Dr Pepper with vanilla and cream really does it for me

Share a random fact about yourself today!

Flashback Friday

2011-06-02T19:57:00.001-07:00

So this is the season of graduations. I have had many friends graduate this year and I thought it would be nice to reminisce about my graduation from Texas Tech University.

Reading Wednesday

2011-05-24T20:19:00.000-07:00

Ok last week, I thought I remembered all of the books I have read in the last month. Well, I missed one! The last week of April I read the second book in the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull - Rise of the Evening Star. This is a great and fantasy filled series which I have really enjoyed. I think this series is probably geared towards 13-15 year olds and the characters in the books are around this age. The premise is two grandkids end up having to stay with their mostly absent grandparents for a few weeks. Well they soon find out that their grandparents are the keepers of Fablehaven, a preserve for all magical creatures. Such a fun read - and the second was better then the first!

And just tonight I started number three - Grip of the Shadow Plague

Check out Brandon Mull's website here

Flashback Friday

2011-05-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

A year ago today my parents and I met my best friend Susan in Las Vegas. Was a great trip!

Reading Wednesday

2011-05-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

This last month has been crazy busy for me in reading part of my life. I have flown through some great and different books.

First I have been and am continuing to read The Centurion’s Wife by Janette Oak and Davis Bunn. In the past I have truly enjoyed Janette Oak’s books and this one is no different. It has been a great relief from my normal reads. In genre, it is Christian fiction, but to me it almost seems like a glimpse into ancient history. I am excited to finish it and continue to the next two!

I have enjoyed the Twilight Saga in the past so I just had to pick up the newly released Twilight Saga: Official Illustrated Guide by Stephanie Meyer. This is actually a pretty neat read; it goes over everything you could ever imagine and every detail of the books. If you have read the books or seen the Twilight movies – pick this one up!

My Autobiography of the month, I have not officially begun. I am excited to hear what Meat Loaf has to say in To Hell and Back. While watching Meat on Celebrity Apprentice these last few weeks, I feel that I have gotten to know him pretty well. I hope this book gives me a quick look into his past also. I hear he talks a lot about Texas!

In the last 10 years, one of my favorite book series has been James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club. Last week the 10th in the series came out. Well, I had started the 9th but not finished it. Other people are in line to read the 10th so I hurried to finish 9 and read 10. It felt so good and comfortable visiting these characters again because I have known them for a decade! I also truly enjoyed the ending of this one, I can only hope for an 11th!

And now to the best book I have read in a very long time. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It’s exciting, but incredibly disturbing all at the same time. The Hunger Games is about North America in the future, split into 12 Districts, and called Panem. Every year every 12-18 year old is haunted by the reaping where 2 of them from each district are chosen for the Hunger Games. This life and death game kept me at rapt attention from beginning to end! The moment I finished I downloaded the next one onto my Kindle – Catching Fire

They had me at “Primrose Everdeen”

What have you been reading lately?!

HAPPY SPRING!

2011-03-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

Screen Caps & Cell Phones

2011-03-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

In the last few weeks . . . .

I watched the sunrise

I ate at Ruby Tequila’s

I found a very cool cache

I went shopping for toys

I found spring

I went to church

I nominated a friend for an award

I found a few photos from my show

I hung out with dogdog

I pondered the new starbucks logo

I hung out at the construction site of my new Chic Fil a

I removed my gel polish

I cooked

I watched the sunset

Flashback Friday

2011-03-11T12:11:00.001-08:00

I Love this Kid!

ever since I met her nearly 7 years ago, we have been best buds!

House Made of Steel

2011-03-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday I posted this picture.

Did that make any of you wonder, what could this picture be of? A weird eye? A piece of art? A window of an old church?

I have been intrigued by the Bruno House for years. This past fall I had the opportunity to tour this huge piece of art.

Before I tell you about my experience let me give you a bit of history about this house.
• Built by the artist Robert Bruno.

• The house is a steel cave

• While most architecture today is based on the (steel, concrete or wood) frame, Bruno built his house of domes. The folded, load bearing surfaces so many architects aspire, are here built – by hand.

• It weighs about 110 tons, Bruno calculated

• The idea for the house started, the artist said, after he made a big steel sculpture and thought it would be nice to be able to actually walk through it.

• 32 years later this is the result

After being interested in the Bruno house for so long, it was such a treat for me to get to go inside. I thought I might be scared to walk in, because it is up on a cliff, and believe me, it does not look very sturdy!

But once inside, I had no fear. Well except for when I was warned to stay away from the open window!

Honestly this house was very cool on the inside, but it felt like going back in time. If you can imagine walking through a well lit cave this would be the perfect embodiment of that.

The gorgeous stair case was more a piece of art, then useable.

I am so glad to have had the opportunity to tour this larger than life piece of art.

If you would like to know more about the Bruno House, see some more great pictures, or find out where my information came from click HERE and HERE

Flashback Friday

2011-02-25T05:40:00.001-08:00

This week I decided to flash back to Christmas, when my nephew still had both of his front teeth!

Scroll down for after pictures!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-22T18:13:00.001-08:00

Update Too!

2011-02-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

Vegas continued to be a great trip. The next day we geocached a bit more, this time on the north end of the strip. We also did something new, something we should have been doing for years – had our nails done! This was the greatest girliest thing ever! Look at our pretty nails!

Susan had never had solar nails before and we found a very nice place. I had gel polish done with sparkles and black tips. The gel polish is a brand new thing that lasts a month! At this point I have had it on two weeks and it still looks great! Here is another cache that we found, it was quite a walk off the strip but it was a great one to find.

The last night was Cher’s last show. It was so bittersweet. The show was fantastic and we had awesome seats, but it was so hard to tell all of our friends good bye. Here are some of my favorites – no explanation needed.

When I got home, Brass was very glad to see me!

I got to hang out with an elephant gun.

I had the privilege of attending my nephew’s 8th birthday. Here is me with far away family.

AND I got to hang out even more with my best friend!

This sums up a large part of our relationship!

This past few days of updating was pretty fun! I hope to blog more this year - and also floss more.

UPDATE - Part Duex

2011-02-16T19:09:00.000-08:00

The beginning of 2011 brought many cold and interesting days. We actually saw some snow.

But more than snow, we had record breaking cold temperatures. I dressed in layers and had the mascara freeze on my lashes!

I geocached a ton, finding more caches in January then I have in another month. YAY ME! And I also started going to the gym much more. In my first step class I pulled my left calf muscle and could hardly walk for a week. Here is the calf all taped up with KT tape.

Notice Brass here and his handsome face. This is before he got in a fight at work. (Another interesting event to start off February) After the fight is pictured here. Many stitches, antibiotics, and eye drops later, he is fine! The stitches came out today!

He has a great cosmetic surgeon!

Right after this happened I headed out to Las Vegas. I met Susan out there and the trip was just amazing! We went to see Cher’s final shows and had a great time. I had to change my flight because of weather and was able to get there SO much earlier! It was a relief to arrive safe and sound. I was so happy to see Susan and I think she was pretty glad to see me too! We hung out in the room for a while squealing like little girls and exchanging gifts.

After a great night was had by all, we got up early Thursday and grabbed breakfast at McDonalds. We grabbed the bus and checked into the Flamingo Hotel. I loved this hotel! It smells good and everything is PINK!! Whoop! We got In N Out Burger for lunch which we LOVE!!

We are so sad when it’s gone!

This day we geocached our way thru the strip. We have found many caches here before, so it was fun to try and find some we had not found in the past. I had a few trackables to drop and we were able to do that! All three have been picked up by good cachers and will be moved on! I also picked up this cool one from Colorado!

TO BE CONTINUED!
More Vegas to come!

UPDATE - Finally (part one)

2011-02-15T19:59:00.000-08:00

While writing this post I had every intention of it being one large update blog. Well it seems that it is just too much for one post, so I will break it up and post the rest in the next few days. So stay tuned!

Hi all, well it has been quite a busy few months for me. I thought I would just make a nice huge blog to update everyone and hit on a few major events. The holiday started off with a bang at thanksgiving. Our whole family was able to be together for the first time in 7 years and that was a blast! It’s always fun seeing the kids and with Thanksgiving being one of my favorite holidays it made it even sweeter. December started out with a whirlwind trip to London. It started out as a trip to see a Meat Loaf concert and turned into hanging out with friends, going to a movie premiere and seeing Cher! (as well as an unforgettable night in Sheffield)

I flew in to London early Saturday morning, got picked up by Jazz, her mom and Susan at the airport. They ran us to the bus station where Susan and I grabbed a 5 hour ride up to Sheffield. We took walked to the hotel and grabbed a tram to the concert. After the show we got to meet Paul Crook and of course see our friend Patti Russo! It was so great to see them and the night was truly unforgettable.

The next morning we grabbed the bus back to London and spent the afternoon seeing the sights.

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben by night

Monday was spent hanging out and waiting for the ~~Red~~ Pink carpet premiere of Burlesque.

Well the wait was worth it because Cher came by twice and even signed my book.

From there we RAN to the Graham Norton show because we had tickets to that nights taping – with special guest CHER! We made it just in time and happened to bump into the right person who let us in! After three unbelievable days in London I was on my way back to real life.

As soon as I got home I had to get ready for my birthday weekend! That Saturday I turned 31 and truly had an amazing birthday.

Birthday Picture!

I had a group of ladies over for lunch and mom and I shopped and ran errands and got Starbucks and just did anything I wanted to for my day! Mom even surprised me with a cake, which I LOVED by the way!

Birthday picture with My Boy!

Christmas came next and with that came the far away family again! Because they had missed my birthday they brought my gift a bit late. Well what a fun surprise! They hid three caches in honor of me and Cher! I had to find them and then we had them logged permanently into the system for other people to find. Christmas came a few days later and it was, as always, great to see everyone open their gifts. We had some big and small surprises including a new train for me from my dad. My gift to everyone was matching pajamas!

Ok I will stop here for today before ~~your eyes start bleeding from all these pictures~~ you are overwhelmed with this huge post! More to come!!

Flashback Friday

2011-01-13T19:44:00.001-08:00

So my sister has been having a rough time lately, so I thought I would post some of my favorite childhood pictures of us. You mean the world to me babe!

New Hobby!

2011-01-07T11:42:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I have a new hobby. Have you ever heard of Geocaching? Its official website defines it like this: “Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.” But I define it as FUN and do you want to know the best part? Its free! All you have to do is to have a GPS and a sense of adventure. Just yesterday I grabbed three caches out running errands.

This was a fun find with Engineer’s Falcon and family!

Is this making since? You basically can geocache two ways. First you can get on geocaching.com and find caches (containers big enough for at least a log) near you, then you put the lat and long into your gps and you are off! Or you can, like me, use an app downloaded to your smart phone. The app uses gps to again locate caches and guide you to them.

Here is an example of one that I found up in a tree - can you see it?

I have been to Vegas many times, but the last time I was there I decided (with Best Friend) to geocache! We not only had a fantastic time, we were taken to many places we would have never seen had we not been caching!

I think this is my favorite find ever! Here we are down in a ditch near the Vegas airport. Helicopters and planes kept taking off all around us and there were warning signs everywhere! HA

OH! Did I mention geocaching can be dangerous?

Ok not really, but we followed a ‘mob history’ series that took us to some very interesting places!

Another very cool aspect of caching is trackables. If the container is large enough, many people will drop what is called a trackable inside. They can be coins, travel bugs, tags and I even found a POW MIA pin! If you choose to take the trackable, you log it and relog it when you drop it in another location. You can see everywhere it has been and how many miles it has traveled.

In Vegas I found my first trackable – a geocoin!

After logging it we found out that its goal was to go where all dreams come true. So we took it and dropped it in a cache at the entrance to Disneyland!

In closing – my dad and his first find!

Please let me know if you have any kind of questions about geocaching in the comments! I am more than happy to answer!

Dog Dog Turns 7 !

2010-11-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Well I seem to be perfecting the 'update your blog once a month thing' and to all my loyal followers, sorry! I will try to be better. Anyway, my favorite dog in the whole world turned seven years old today and I wanted to do a little tribute to him. Here are some of my favorite pictures of Brass throughout the years and some new ones of his birthday this year, so enjoy!

Baby Brass

Snow Nose

Spring Chicken

My Favorite Nap Place

I will NOT sit

Oh HI!

I know now not to run in the street

Birthday 2009

Birthday 2010

Here's to another decade, I love you sweet boy!

Flashback Friday

2010-10-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

Just like her Auntie . . . she has loved chocolate from the begining!

I have a picture of myself exactly like this, but since it's from two weeks ago, I will not be sharing it here

Dog VS TP

2010-10-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

Meeting Meat Patti

2010-09-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a really great weekend that could have gone rotten? I had an all day business meeting in Houston last weekend for the American Society of Landscape Architects. See I am the State Secretary for the Texas section and we had an in person meeting. So instead of dreading this, I thought to myself what is there in Houston that I can do to make this better? I have a friend named Patti Russo, who, when it comes to vocals, is Meat Loaf’s main lady. I did a bit of research and found that Meat was playing at the House of Blues in Houston, the very night of my meeting. What could be a better way to turn the weekend a whole 180 then to get to see a Meat Loaf concert and Patti? Buuuuut lets back up a bit to Friday.

I have been having the worst time with Brass and ticks lately. So after getting the carpets cleaned, and yard sprayed he got some new clothes!

Hopefully this will help him feel better and get rid of the problem.

Friday night, I ran over to Sugar Brown’s to see my friend Toby Ryan perform some tunes.

I ran into an old friend and we hooked up which was great!

I wore my new shoes.

Saturday I got up extra early to catch my flight out to Houston. I had no trouble at the airport, which was a major relief. The meeting went very well and I was ‘sworn’ into my new position of Secretary. We walked thru downtown (which was very hot and humid) to lunch. It was great to see a new park that had just opened that day and I got to see the largest live oak that I have ever seen!

These are most of the officers.

And this is the tree. It was right outside the architectural center and it seemed to take up a full block! This is as much as I could get in one picture.

After the meeting was finally over – it was time for fun! Jenna came over from San Marcos to go to the concert with me and it was great to see her! We had dinner at Papasitto’s and then headed over to the House of Blues. Now let me tell you, House of Blues is a very cool place and I was SO excited to be there!

Before the show

The concert was more then I could have ever asked for and the best thing about the whole day was getting to see Patti after the show. We got to stand and visit for a little and it was just so nice. Meat did all of the old favorites and even three songs from his new cd, Hang Cool Teddy Bear. Patti rocked the whole time and it was fab to see her in her element.

Patti signed my cd for me

After the show we fell into bed at 1:30am, with the best kind of deaf ears and on an amazing high that you can only get from a rock concert!

The next morning after sleeping till 10, jenna and I ran to grab breakfast at Starbucks and to visit the water wall. The water wall is one of my favorite stops in Houston and I am so glad that I got to share it with Jenn. It is a man made waterfall that is 63 feet tall, it mirrors the skyscraper in the connecting park that is 63 stories tall.

Tired and Happy girls

It was a weekend that I will always remember!

{Embrace} the camera

2010-09-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

hello all my blog world friends. I have a super fun post coming up about my last weekend in Houston - BUT so that I will not have two posts back to back about various trips to Houston I have a new post today. My sister was not with her kids this Thursday so she ask me to {embrace} the camera with them this week. Head on over to Bethany's blog - find her in my side column - to find the source of {embrace}. Ok so all I thought that I needed to do was to grab the kids and shoot. NOT as easy as I thought. This is what I came out with.

here is a hint for next post - come back soon!

Distant Worlds

2010-08-01T18:14:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we had a great couple of days in Houston. Back in June my sister called and had this great idea of us meeting there for the symphony. Of course I was excited, because I love the symphony, but I was also intrigued because the music was going to be from Final Fantasy. Now the only thing I knew about Final Fantasy was that it was a video game I had watched my brother in law play over the years. Who knew that it had any kind of music, especially symphony material?

Anyway we flew down and met the family for Saturday and Sunday. We stayed near the Galleria and were able to walk there a couple of times. Saturday evening sister, brother and I went to a nice dinner at Maggiano’s then off to the show. And let me tell you, the show was AMAZING! It was a fantastic night of music, comedy, singing and game videos.

The composer and conductor even came out at the end for questions! We bought tee shirts and cds and then got Starbucks! We then had a great time re-living the evening with mom when we got back.

Composer Nobuo Uematsu
The next day we saw the most photographed spot in Houston, the water wall. The kids had a great time playing around the waterfall and the park was beautiful.

Holiday!

2010-07-12T19:22:00.001-07:00

I thought I would share a few pictures from our 4th of July holiday. It was a very rainy weekend so we did indoor activities. It was an awesome 3 days and I am so glad that Far Away Family got to come and visit.
One of our favorite eateries is Durango’s

Saturday night Toby joined us for the next chapter in the Twilight saga. He worked on channeling his inner werewolf.

Sunday we enjoyed spin art as well as family food. Everyone dressed for the holiday!

Monday was a very busy day.
We started out by cooking breakfast out on the grill. It was a beautiful morning and breakfast was fantastic!

Next we visited the Clay Café. This was a very fun thing, Scientist painted a cat, princess a horse, Engineer’sFalcon a vase and Me – a mug.

After lunch at Cane’s we grabbed frozen yogurt at Spoonful, a cool new serve yourself place.

Can you tell who’s yogurt is who’s??
A great weekend – I cannot wait till next time!

Vegas!

2010-06-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

Ok so my newest favorite hangout is Las Vegas. Why you might ask do I love Las Vegas? Well, it’s a direct flight from home, my best friend frequently visits there and there are great shows! We were there once in April and once in May and had a great trip both times!
In April we stayed downtown near Fremont Street. This was quite a change from the busy-ness of the strip but really gave us a nice break. We took the bus back and forth and it took around an hour each time. This gave our feet a much needed break from walking and a nice cool ride.

Of course we were there to see a Cher show or too. Can you tell that we had amazing seats??

Where else can you see naked boys in Starbucks?? We later figured out that the Starbucks that we happened to be in was near the pool…

One of my favorite things that we do every time is to visit the soda fountain at Cola Cola World. This time we got coke floats! YUM!

One treat this trip was my aunt and uncle came to Vegas at the same time to see a Cher show. It was so cool that they were fans too and wanted to spend a little bit of time with us!

Well, the May trip to Vegas was a fantastic time too! This time my parents joined me and Susan for shows, food and fun! We did so many things that we had not thought to do before. We visited the zoo, saw Donny and Marie, Divas Las Vegas, went to the top of the Eifel Tower and ate at the Cheesecake Factory!
Here are some random pictures of our time there!
Starbucks, Cher and Caesars – yes thank you.

Las Vegas sign . . . we saw Elvis there! Young Elvis too!

Drag show? I think so!

One of my favorites!

View of Eifel Tower

View from Eifel Tower

I have about a hundred more pictures to share – but I will not bore you with them here! Check out my facebook for the rest!

The ABCs of Brass

2010-05-18T07:42:00.001-07:00

Anticipation, Begging, Crying

Deliberately Edgy, Fidgety

GO

Hyper, Irritated, Jumpy, Keen

Leave, Mom, NOW

Oh, Please, Quit, Reading

Squirmy, Tail Undulating, Valium

WORK

Night Terrors aka Sleeping with a Six Year Old

2010-05-14T06:41:00.000-07:00

Ok so here is a picture of me and my niece.

I love this kid to pieces and for some odd reason she is crazy about me. From here on out I will lovingly refer to her as Little Sassy, Sassafras or maybe just Sassy. Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE this kid, but she is a terror to sleep with! Whenever she visits my house, or I visit her house or we go on family vacation, we end up in the same bed. I am not at all complaining, it just works better this way, but I have never slept with anyone that is so rolly polly. I often get a hand or foot in the face, feet under my side, or quite often a head on my ribs. So this last week, I decided to document Little Sassy every night before I slipped into bed with my full football gear on.

Just to let you know, her pillow is the polka dot one . . . and that is also her side of the bed . . . hum

How can six year old Sassafras need more bed space then me?

And you know what’s funny? By the end of the week I would wake up and wonder why she was not next to me . . . and when she went home, the bed felt very empty. Can’t wait for your next visit Little Sassy!

Problem Solved

2010-04-19T18:20:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had something so small but so irritating that it just ruins your day? I have one of those things and I just recently found a great fix for it. My little toes tend to overlap and rub very bad blisters. Just ask Susan about the first time I was in Denmark and how one night we sat and burst blisters that completely covered my whole baby toe. Not nice. It also just makes walking a lot very difficult and no fun. So after many different pseudo fixes I finally caved and ordered some toe socks. I always just thought they were silly little things, but after I talked to the owner of toe-socks.net he convinced me to try them out. He assured me that I would fall in love and have no further problems. Well having tried many other ‘fixes’ to this problem I was very skeptical. So off to Italy I go with my toe socks on uhhh foot – to try out this little theory. Well let me tell you something . . . I walked all over Europe and the only day I even got a hint of a blister I had not worn my toe socks. I am a total toe sock convert and wear them almost every day now. They are fantastic and I do not even notice that I have on toe socks. So I decided to document myself on this trip in my toe socks. So enjoy! And let me know if you have any questions. Also check out the link at the bottom of the post to buy your own!
Malta toe socks

Naples toe socks

Roman toe socks

Lucca toe socks

French toe socks

Danish toe socks

click here for toe socks

Reading Wednesday

2010-03-23T20:05:00.001-07:00

Hi all, I thought it would be fun to share with you all about what I have been reading this year. I found my love of reading in high school and have had my nose in a book ever since. It was harder to read what I wanted while I was in school, but it is much easier now. One author that got me interested in reading was Bill Watterson. Almost daily I would get lost in the adventures of Calvin & Hobbes. Often, I will still grab one of my many comic books to read, so I was thrilled to find out that in November of 09 a biography was published about Bill.

Poor Bill seems like a very bitter man, and I was disappointed about that. As a large fan of the comic I recommend this book to anyone that read Calvin & Hobbes.

Another favorite author is James Patterson. I feel like I have grown out of many of his books, but I was interested in this one.

My dad has always been a nut about Egyptology and this was a very intriguing book.

My next read of the year was The Clan of the Cave Bear. Susan recommended this book because she was reading it and it had been her grandfather’s favorite as a child. This book explores the possibility of the dawn of modern humans and their interaction with cave dwellers. Very interesting and the day I finished, I went out and bought the second in the series.

A nice quick read for me was The Lightening Thief. I really love the story and just think its pretty much genius. We studied the gods and goddesses for years in Latin and it was so fun to explore them again in this way. It has also been made into a movie, in theaters now, and that intrigued me. I have not seen it yet, but I hope to soon!

And my second biography of the year, I have started Going Rogue. I like Sarah Palin and have enjoyed it so far.

So what are you reading? Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

Flashback Friday

2010-02-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

Far Away Family is getting to move back to Texas!! So in honor of them and their sweet time out in NC, I dedicate this post to them!

love you guys and cannot wait for you to be back home!

Come One, Come All

2010-02-17T07:20:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had something unexpected just make your day? Well this happened to me today. If you have read my blog before, you know that I have a photo exhibit hanging and had the big opening this weekend. I was blessed that so many people came and I was surrounded by friends and family that helped out.

Back to today - a great friend of mine - Brian - came to help out with the business end of the show and I was surprised this morning to find that he blogged about it! He gave a much better summation then I could ever do - so please go and read his blog!

GREY FILIGREE

and in the meantime I will share some pictures of the day

the show hangs through April 9th at Lubbock Christian Library

Struktur

2010-02-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Well my exciting news is that I have been invited by one of the universities here to exhibit a photo show. Since I was about 13, following in my mom’s footsteps, I started taking pictures. I borrowed her camera until I was out of high school when my parents gifted me with my first Nikon. I loved that camera! But now I have moved on to digital media. I now prefer Sony cameras with a Carl Zeiss lens – if anyone is interested.

Anyway, two things that I really love are traveling and taking pictures. And what better way to present my travels then with a photographic study in European Architecture. I had some amazing trips in the last few years and I was blessed to take them.

SO come out and see the show! I would love to hear your comments.

Something Exciting

2010-01-31T14:57:00.000-08:00

is coming soon!!

Any guesses?!

SNOW!

2010-01-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

. . . i think its a starbucks day!

Tattoos

2010-01-20T19:01:00.001-08:00

Tattoos have always been a slightly taboo subject in my household. But, and my mother can vouch for this, I have been a bit obsessed with them since I was about 13. I think it was about this time that I announced to my said mother, that I wanted to get a tattoo. Now don’t get me wrong, all I wanted was a band around my ankle, but the whole idea was put in a box and buried in the back yard for what my mom hoped was well over a hundred years. Well I did get a tattoo when I was 24, a very small one on the top of my foot. But that is not really what this post is about. I wanted to briefly research the history and share with you some pictures of some amazing tattoos. When I started my research I found that there is so much history on tattoos that it’s impossible to even touch on the subject in one blog post.

That said, I would like you to head on over to the Random History website and read their brief history, if you are interested. Here is the beginning of the article:

Asserting that he was not his brother’s keeper, Cain lashed out at Abel, committing a deed that could not be undone. In response to Cain’s anxiety about subsequent potential threats to his own life, the Lord placed a mark, or what might be considered the first tattoo, on Cain. Multifaceted and complex in its meaning, his tattoo not only condemned him but also protected him, made him famous, and marked him as a committed rebel. As in the Bible, the Greeks, Romans, and Japanese would also routinely tattoo criminals, slaves, and “undesirables” and, like the Biblical mark, those tattoos were often polyphonic in their meaning (Gray 1994). Tattoos have not only marked rebels but have also communicated clan membership, religious or tribal affiliation, social status, and marital position...

Interesting no?

You can read the rest HERE

I would like to share some tattoo pictures that I have found online that fit into my “these are amazing works of art tattoos, but why would anyone do that” category.

First of all a foot tat. My tattoo is on the top of my foot and it hurt really badly. I cannot imagine what this guy went through!

This one would fit in with my line of work – but how long do you think this took?!

I actually think this tattoo is really beautiful. What do you think?

Next, I have a few fan tattoos to share.

The ‘tribute’ tattoo. I actually think this is a brilliant tattoo. It is in what I hear is the most painful place to get a tat. But wow – so neat!

This next one is just plain awesome. Twilight is a big deal right now and I imagine that many many fans will get twilight tats. See if you can figure out this one.

Upright it says werewolf

Upside down it says vampire (wow)

There are many celebrities who sport tattoos, but I believe the most known is Angelina Jolie. Here are a few of her back tattoos.

So that is my foray into the world of tattoos, and who knows, I might get another one someday. Now to wrap up – I promised some of my ‘Cher’ friends that I would post their tattoos. I was interested that the ones that sent pictures actually covered many of Cher’s decades.

Starting out is Susan’s with the 80’s. Cher actually sports this tat on her self titled album from 1987.

Next is the believe tour from the late 90s from Carol

Coming up on the 2000s we have the Farewell tour logo from Sara

and finally we have the here and now – Roni has the, we will call it the 2010s, logo from the Caesars Palace, Coliseum concerts

So there you have it! Some great pieces of art, and some die hard fans.

Tell me – what do you think of tattoos? Would you ever get one? Have you always wished to get one? Do you have a favorite that is posted here? What will your next tattoo be of??

Please share or start a discussion!

Holiday Fun

2010-01-06T13:24:00.001-08:00

Hello all, so after a very busy holiday season and after being out of the blogosphere for nearly a month, I thought I better update my three readers. I had a fantastic holiday season, it all started out with my best friend coming to Texas for my 30th birthday. It was truly a treat having Susan here and it made my birthday more than special.

She got to stay a few days in Texas, meeting my sister and her kids, and celebrating many times and ways, my birthday. Saturday morning we headed to Las Vegas. Now tell me, does anyone know of a better way to celebrate your 30th birthday then going to Vegas, with your best friend and seeing Cher? Well that’s what we did!

Our hotel – the Sahara

In the Cher store – Susan is a die-hard Cher fan – and she is making me one too!

The Bellagio was decorated for Christmas – and it was gorgeous! Everything was made out of flowers!

And to end the trip we got to experience Vegas from the top of the Strastophere – at 1:30 in the morning!

It was hard to leave – but I got home for a very short week and Christmas! Christmas is always a huge event in my family and this year was extra special because we had snow!

Brass and I had a great time playing in it!

Far away family joined in for some of the fun

On Christmas eve we enjoyed gifts and dinner at my cousins house.

We are geeks!

And finally Christmas day was spent celebrating, opening gifts, eating and just enjoying family!

This is the geeklings getting their own computers!

This is me helping Brass open his stocking – needless to say – he was excited!

So that’s it. I should post again soon. How was your holiday season? Did you have a favorite memory or gift this year? Please share!

Win a HP TouchSmart!

2009-12-09T13:19:00.001-08:00

Hi Everyone! I have been a long time reader of MckMamas's blog and she is doing a giveway of a new HP TouchSmart! She has just recently gotten a new one herself and it looks AWESOME!!

SO CLICK HERE TO ENTER TO WIN!!

AND GOOD LUCK!!

Also I was delighted to get another mention in one of her name the photo contests. The first one I talked about in this post and here is the new one!

click here to see and scroll down

14 days + 10 countries + 10 flights = the trip of a lifetime (conclusion – FINALLY!)

2009-12-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

Ok so have you ever been so busy in real life that you have little time for internet life? That has been my reality for the last 3 weeks. It has been very hectic in my world and I am just getting around to finishing blogging about my trip of a lifetime. So here goes! We left the ship after a seriously rough night. I puked – I admit it – and Susan, who gets no kind of motion sickness, was even feeling it. We headed back to Barcelona and did some shopping in the airport. It sounds cheesy but we really did enjoy ourselves. Unique stuff and cheap!

When we arrived in Copenhagen we just caught the train back to the town where Susan lives. Odense. We pretty much just hung out for a few days in Odense. We got to have a wonderful dinner with Susan’s family and I got to meet her adorable grandparents.

me and Susan’s cutie little sister Majbrit

The last thing we did before I headed back home was to visit Hamlet’s Castle in Helsingør. This is something I really wanted to do and the trip up to the northern tip on Zealand was worth it. Hamlet’s Castle – known as Kronborg Castle in Denmark – was immortalized by Shakespeare in his play Hamlet. Shakespeare visited Kronborg and decided to set his play there, at ‘Elsinore’. Hamlet is even done there almost every summer.

you can see Sweden across the bay

We also visited the Maritime Museum, which is housed in the castle, as well as doing one of the most exciting and scary things of the whole trip.

The tunnels under the castle are open for visitors to go thru and it was quite an experience! It was so dark and scary and so so fun! The second time we went thru we bought a flashlight and it was cool that way too. There was reflective paint on the walls with history and clues about the castle. Also down there was Ogier the Dane, who, according to legend, slumbers there until the day Denmark is in grave danger, at which time he will arise and save the nation!

Ogier

It was very cold and dark down there! If you look close you can see Susan’s breath!

So this was my trip of a lifetime! As you can, hopefully, tell I had an amazing time and cannot wait to plan my next trip!

Oh and my last two countries – a layover in London and then back in the grand ole USA!

14 days + 10 countries + 10 flights = the trip of a lifetime (our favorite and least favorite day)

2009-11-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

This post encompasses our favorite and least favorite days. And they happened to be back to back. But first I would like to throw in a picture of our room.

It really was so roomy and we never felt closed in or crowded. Having a picture window was a total plus.

So our next port was Livorno, Italy. We had originally chosen to go to Pisa to see the leaning tower, but heard that maybe that was not the best choice. We decided to change and had quite a time deliberating over tours to Florence, Pisa and a little known town called Lucca. So after much deliberation we decided to try our luck in Lucca. The tour was called ‘Lucca on your own’ and basically they took us there, dropped us off with a map and told us to ‘get lost’. Well, let me tell you, Lucca was our favorite day of the whole trip. And who would have thought that a crazy decision would be our best day?

So here is Lucca!

After two hectic days in Italy, Lucca brought back our faith in Italy. Lucca was to me, what I always thought Italy would be!

Susan and I walked thru the streets of Lucca, saw many churches, learned so much history, and even walked around the wall that closes the city in.

Lucca was magical, we loved eating authentic Italian food at a restaurant that spoke no English and shopping for Italian made clothes – IN ITALY!

Happy after a great day in Lucca!

Country 7 & 8 – France and Monaco

So from our favorite day on the trip to our least favorite day. Now I am not saying that our day in France was a bad day, per se, but we just did not enjoy it like previous days. We started out in Nice at an outdoor market. It was so nice to sit outside here and have hot chocolate at a small café.

The flowers were beautiful and CHEAP!

The next stop on the tour was Monaco. It was very neat to see the palace there, all the yachts, and learn about their history. Did you know that Monaco has been ruled by the House of Grimaldi since 1297, when Francesco Grimaldi dressed up as a monk, gained access to the palace and killed everyone inside?

One highlight was seeing where Grace Kelly is buried and where she was killed. She was such a beautiful and classy lady, and it was an honor to see these places.

The last stop was our least favorite of the whole trip. Monte Carlo. Now, don’t get me wrong – it was very cool to actually be in Monte Carlo and say that we had been there. But it was just way too expensive. The richest people in the world live here.

If you look in the glass in this picture, you can see the famed casino.

Susan and I finally found some ice cream – and it was 10 euros – which is like 15 dollars. Needless to say – we split it and ate it ALL!!

Some very nice Chinese tourists took this picture for me after they ask me to take theirs. I really think they just wanted to hold my very expensive camera!

And one of the Gem!

this wraps up the actual cruise – a little more on that next time as well as my days in Denmark!

14 days + 10 countries + 10 flights = the trip of a lifetime (part two – when in Rome)

2009-11-05T17:43:00.001-08:00

Rome & Country 6 – Vatican

So the next day of the vacation of a lifetime took place in Rome and the Vatican. I think this day needs its own post because Susan and I saw so many things! We got up very early and met our tour group at 7:00 am, if I remember correctly. We boarded the bus and started our 2-hour drive into Rome – this would start our 10-hour whirlwind tour! The port city here was Civitavecchia, which is really fun to say! Our tour guides this day were great and spoke fantastic English!

Once in Rome we started driving around the city and learning so much history. We learned that anytime something new is being built and they find ruins everything has to stop to excavate. We passed so many things that were interesting on our way to the coliseum, one being Mussolini’s balcony. Did you know Mussolini was a very short man, so they made his balcony very small so he would look taller to the crowd!

So our group arrived at the Coliseum and WOW! It was just like all the pictures and stories. We only had enough time to walk around the outside and take photos, but it was fine. We stood in awe at the ruins and how big everything truly is!

Just arriving

The coliseum

Old and new construction – if you can call anything in Rome ‘new’

We were really there!

Back on the bus we headed to a very nice sit down lunch at a restaurant. The meal started out with a pasta dish, then the main course and finally a desert. It was very good and it was enjoyable to sit and get to know some fellow cruisers.

After lunch we headed off to the Vatican. If you did not know, it is considered its own country – so I added it to the list! There were soooo many people here that it was almost impossible to stop and take pictures. I was afraid that I would loose my tour group, have to become catholic and stay in the Vatican for the rest of my days. But I did not and I managed to snap a few pictures along the way. Here is a scale model of the whole Vatican. It was neat to see where we were standing and where we were headed.

We walked through many museum areas and all were so pretty with the painted ceilings and sculptures.

But the most breathtaking was the Sistine Chapel. We had learned many things about Michelangelo and the meaning behind many of his paintings and why he painted what he did. But to actually be in there and to look up and see this

for real was indescribable. Just so you know, I did not take this picture. Pictures are not allowed.

The next stop on the walking tour was St. Peters Basilica. It’s the largest basilica in the world and let me tell you – it is HUGE! All the art inside is put together with mosaic tiles and it really is beautiful.

The sun streaming in thru the windows was awesome!

Our last stop in the Vatican was St Peter’s square. It was really cool to see in person because I had seen it on TV so many times. We saw where the pope comes out when he is announced as pope as well as where he lives.

I grabbed this picture from the bus – the building in the background is where Michelangelo once lived.

Well this pretty much wraps up our 10-hour day in Rome! I am so glad that we chose the tour that we did and got to see so much. I don’t think I would have changed a thing!

FYI: the Romans are the ultimate recyclers – the marble that was covering the whole coliseum has been removed and reused – that’s why it looks like swiss cheese!

Stay tuned for our favorite day of the cruise!

14 days + 10 flights + 10 countries = the trip of a lifetime (part one)

2009-10-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I am back from my vacation and am finally getting a blog together about it for you all. I have been quite tired and jetlagged and have been trying to decide just how to present this blog. I took 560 pictures and I think Susan took that many also – so it’s hard to pick just a few to post here. I decided to break up the trip into several posts to make it easier on your eyes and my fingers typing. I promise that I will post many more pictures on facebook for you all to see. If you would like to be my friend on FB, just look for me! Ok soooo to the trip!

Country One – Denmark

I started out traveling to Copenhagen, Denmark to meet my friend Susan. If you all did not know, Susan is my best friend and travel buddy. We do our best to get together at least twice a year if at all possible. We decided to spend a day in Copenhagen as the first leg of our trip – I was so thankful because it was the perfect solution to my jetlag before the cruise. One highlight of the day was riding the Wheel of Copenhagen!

Country Two and Three – Germany and Spain

The next morning we got up and caught a plane to Barcelona, Spain via Munich, Germany. I know it was just a stop but it counts as another country that we were in to me! Barcelona is where we were to catch the ship and everything went very smoothly. We had no problems with flights, transfers or boarding the ship. We sailed on the Norwegian Gem, and I would highly recommend their freestyle cruising. Our first two nights and full day on the ship were at sea so we just took time to sleep in, figure out all the nooks and crannies of the ship, eat, and see shows. One of our very favorite activities was enjoying the piano stylings of Stacy McAdams. He played in the Crystal Atrium and we tried to catch him every night!

Country Four – Malta

Early Tuesday morning we pulled into the port at Valletta, Malta. This was a beautiful little country and we had such a wonderful time enjoying the glorious weather and seeing the sites. This small country speaks Maltese and seems to love life.

These are boats painted in the traditional way in Malta. They paint a pair of eyes on the front to protect them from evil spirits; they call them eyes of Osiris.

The Blue Grotto, a breath taking view!

After the tour Susan and I enjoyed sitting in the sun and taking in the beauty of the Maltese water.

Our ship!

Country Five – Italy

Our next three days took place in the glorious country of Italy! We were greeted with a blast of cold air as soon as we got off the ship and were pretty much cold all day in Naples. Our tour today took us to Pompeii. I had studied Pompeii in Latin for many years and was very excited to actually see it in person. It is pretty much amazing and I really had no clue how huge it is. We learned so much history and information about the residents and city. I was in awe of the progress the people who had lived there had made in building houses and living. It was also eerily quiet even though there were thousands of people visiting.

Our guide was able to talk to us through ear radios

a young boy clutching his nose

The main square in Pompeii with Mt Vesuvius looming in the background. This volcano is still active today and they think they will be able to know two weeks out before the next eruption. Scary!

Even before we stepped off of the ship we were told, “if you are going to eat pizza in Italy, Naples is the place to do it!” So we found a little pizza place and ordered some lunch. The pizza was different, but oh so good! We were also delighted to find Coca Cola!

After lunch we started to look around Naples and walk through the streets. We soon figured out that the two maps that we had were terrible and did not even name the streets correctly! UGH! We ditched the maps and decided to wonder around on our own, seeing as how we could always find the ship in the harbor. In our wonderings we just happened to stumble upon our favorite part of the day. The Church of Santa Chiara! We walked in to find not only an amazing fresco lined courtyard, but a ton of Naples history. Come to find out the Church of Santa Chiara is a monastery with tombs and an archeological museum. It was burned during World War I and was rebuilt soon after.

Fearless explorers

Ok so this wraps up my first leg of the trip of a lifetime, are your eyes bleeding yet? Tune in soon for the next part. I would love for you to comment and please feel free to ask any questions about the places we visited!

Flashback Friday Thursday

2009-10-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

hey everyone! i am off for a few days to see my best friend! i am so so so excited and thought i would show off a few pictures of past trips. so anyway miss me, i will miss all of you!

New York City

With the Crown Jewels in Copenhagen

Vegas!

Did You Know?

2009-10-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

My alter ego is named Darcie

Dogs can hunt mice just as good as cats

~~Wifebeaters~~ uhh Tank tops are definitely the style for October

As couples get older they start dressing alike – I call it matchy-matchy

Our stores now sell liquor inside the city limits

I’m. A. Gleek.

Flashback Friday

2009-09-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

ok who was not cute when they were little? my question is - what happened to all of us?

here is a few pictures of me when i was little. people ask me all the time if my hair color is real - i am thinking if they saw these pictures there would be no doubt!

this is me and my two best friends from childhood - Mauri and Monica

do you have any favorite childhood memories that you would like to share?

Screen Caps and Cell Phones

2009-09-19T20:28:00.001-07:00

In the last few weeks . . . .

I have pondered how it can be 101 degrees at 10 am

I looked at my melons

I had Starbucks

I got bitten

I enjoyed the Mike Leach radio show – live

I lived vicariously through my friend at Walt Disney World

I got a pedicure with the girls in my family

I got to marvel at our newly renovated auditorium at church

I watched all the dogs beg for breakfast at work

I ate breakfast at work

I had a puppy under my chair at work

I went shopping for pots – for work

I got a new headband – not for work

I watched it rain

I watched the sun

I got a frozen hot chocolate

I got ready for football

what have you done lately?

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Fall

2009-09-09T08:31:00.001-07:00

Do you have a favorite season? I really don’t think that I do – BUT I really do love fall and all the new things it brings:

1. Fall color – this is one of my favorite trees and it does a glorious job of putting on a fall show every year whether it be red, orange or yellow!

2. Sports! Who cannot love the end of baseball season and the beginning of Cowboy season!?

3. My 2nd annual trip overseas to see my best friend. We always have the best time together – this year we are doing Italy!

oh yeah! we are FIERCE!

4. Work finally slowing down after a busy summer

5. All the new seasons of TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing With the Stars and new movies. I am especially excited about New Moon!

6. October 6th is the Engineer’s birthday and it starts a three-month steady stream of birthdays, anniversaries and holidays!

7. I love carving pumpkins! Need I say more?

8. My annual murder mystery party. Every year I host a murder mystery party where I have 7 of my friends come in costume and character and we solve a murder. This is one of my favorite nights of the year and I highly recommend it.

These are the box sets I use

An Affair to Dismember

Roman Ruins

Chicago Caper

The Good, The Bad and the Guilty

9. Cool mornings and warm afternoons – they produce the BEST sunrises!

10. Looking forward to giving thanks and giving gifts! I started buying Christmas gifts in July!

11. Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks

Why do you love fall?! Please share and add to the list!

LiveStrong Toby Ryan

2009-08-30T20:05:00.001-07:00

Yesterday morning after I dressed my mom came in and goes ‘Karen! You look like Lance Armstrong today” So I immediately thought to myself . . . ‘WOW! What does she mean by that?! Does she mean that my abs look this good?

or that I look THIS good in Oakley sunglasses??!

But no, when I thought about it, and looked in the mirror I saw this

Do you see it?!

So Saturday I did look like Lance – livestrong lance

Also in this picture is my good friend Toby Ryan and this was at his album release party. I am so proud of him and would encourage you to check out his new cd. You can download it off of iTunes and get it on amazon and many other places.

So go to his site here or here and check out his sound. He writes, plays and performs all his own stuff!

All I Need - Toby Ryan

…..I think I may have to become a groupie!

Flashback Friday

2009-08-28T05:02:00.000-07:00

Ok so you all know my family visited the Alamo a week or two ago. Well the only other time I have been there I was about 3 or 4. My mom took this picture of us near the cannon. So here is my only memory of the Alamo – standing, squinting and waiting for the shot. I bet I was hot too.

When we got there my sister and I had the same idea – have mom take the same picture 25 years later. So here you go!

The only difference would be….who has their hands on their hips. HA and, I guess the age thing.

Vacation!

2009-08-20T07:05:00.001-07:00

My sister and her family were here last week and we had a greeeeat time together. We hung out at home for a few days because the Engineer was in a wedding here. Then we took off for sunny San Antonio – but first a few ‘home’ pictures.

Apparently her Auntie ‘Rocks’

I got to show the kids around the nursery for a field trip. Here we are talking about the different kinds of grass seed and how we scoop it and weigh it out to be sold.

While Falcon and Engineer attended the wedding . . .

Mom and I got all the grandkids together outside to play in the kiddie pool. A good time was had by all!

Sunday we got to visit the Wind Energy Museum and marveled at all the windmills – large and small

On Wednesday we headed out to San Antonio and the first thing we did was to swim in the pool on the roof of the hotel!

The roof was super hot but the pool was super nice!

That evening we had dinner with some family friends at one of our favorite Mexican food places, La Fogata. If you are ever in San Antonio – you have to eat here!

One of our main reasons to visit this wonderful city was to go to Sea World! My sister and I loved it when we were kids and just knew we would have a great time taking the next generation. A good time was had by all!

Feeding the dolphins

Seeing Shamu

Meeting Shamu (yes we did get to meet the real life shamu!)

Tired and happy family

The next day we visited the Alamo. I was excited about this because it had been a long time since I had been there. It was cool to share some Texas history with the kids.

Auntie Mule (how much of the trip went!) oh and I loved it!

Happy Kids

feel free to comment!

Flashback Friday

2009-08-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

My sister and her family are on their way here to visit us so I thought this week for Flashback Friday I would flash back a few months – to the last time that we saw them. FarAway family traveled to see them last March and Auntie was a surprise for the kids.

So here we are, Auntie and Princess:

Princess with her Starbucks:

Explorer and I drew flags on the sidewalk – this one happens to be the Danish flag:

And in our alternate reality of Animal Crossing, Engineer was able to catch me a Tuna:

Oh such sweet memories!! I am hoping this trip will be as good or even better then the last!

Cochineal

2009-08-04T09:27:00.001-07:00

Have you ever wondered where that red color comes from that stuff is dyed with? Like that great carmine red color? Well me neither BUT I did learn about it the other day and thought I would share.

Periodically we have people call up to the nursery wondering about the white fungus looking stuff that is growing out of their prickly pear cactus.

It looks like this:

And this:

Well people, this is not a fungus – it is an insect and a very valuable one at that! If they were to run their finger over the white fibrous stuff (which I do frequently ~~because its cool~~ to show people what I am talking about) they would see that the white stuff is a protective coating for a bug called a cochineal!

It looks like this:

And the Cochineal looks like this:

The cochineal insect is native to Mexico and the production of the dye was in full force when the Spaniards arrived in Mexico in the 16th century. The Spaniards loved the bright color the dye made and started exporting it to Spain. It was a high commodity and was even regularly quoted on the London and Amsterdam Commodity Exchanges. The dye was even used to color the infamous red coats of the British Army.

Today cochineal is primarily produced in Peru, France and the Canary Islands. These days cochineal is used in various forms including: food products like gatorade, water color paints, dye for fabrics and in various cosmetics. It is one of the only pigments that can saftely be used in the eye area. If you are looking at the label of your food or beverage (the FDA requires that even natural derived colors be put on the label) then look for "cochineal extract", "carmine", "crimson lake", "natural red 4", "C.I. 75470", "E120", and even sometimes ‘natural coloring’ – all of these can mean that the cochineal insect was used in the coloring of the product. Cochineal is one of the colours that the Hyperactive Children's Support Group recommends be eliminated from the diet of hyperactive children. But is becoming very popular again because like many commercial synthetic red dyes, it is not toxic or carcinogenic.

I have no problem comsuming insects with my daily yogurt but I am sure some people do. What do you think about this? Have you taken your child off of things that contain this red dye?

Brilliant Flashback Friday!!

2009-07-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

Ok so once again from my sister’s blog – Flash Back Friday!

For flashback Friday today I wanted to share a little video. These two amazing ladies are just my favorites! So check it out and listen closely! Its BRILLIANT!

Touched - NEW LINK

2009-07-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

I have taken or taught dance for the last 14 years and am so thrilled that we actually have dance shows on tv that share many different kind of dance. Dancing with the Stars is great and I really enjoy it, but my very favorite dance show is So You Think You Can Dance. Maybe I love it because the kids come on the show as trained dancers and can pretty much do anything they are given. They are such a joy to watch and you can tell they all truly love to dance. SYTYCD is a highlight of every summer for me, and this year it will be in the fall also! I pretty much enjoy every dance and all dance styles, but this last Wednesday I was so touched by a number danced by Melissa and Ade. It was choreographed by Tyce to a song called This Woman’s Work and dealt with the subject of breast cancer. Melissa and Ade are my favorite dancers this season and I was so pleased that they were chosen to dance this moving and emotional number. Please watch it – you may need tissues – I did!

Long Version – with Story and Judges Comments

Screen Cap Saturday

2009-07-17T20:04:00.001-07:00

Ok so I have recently started taking screen caps of moments that I want to remember on my computer. First of all, my friend Susan graduated in June and we got on the webcam to celebrate. She was just thrilled to get her graduation hat – as you can see here. The Danes give each graduate a hat – rather then cap and gown, like in the USA. They each get to pick a significant person in their lives to put the hat on. Such a neat tradition – Congratulations to Susan and all of my Danish friends!

Next – in big news! I won a name the photo contest on MckMama’s Blog !!! This was such fun news to me – there were like 2,000 entries! So check out the actual post here and you can catch up on her blog by clicking on the right hand side of my blog page.

And last but not least – a sweet picture that my niece – Princess – drew for me on the webcam! Such a sweetie!! I can’t wait for them to come in 19 days!

Fiddler on the Roof

2009-07-09T12:15:00.001-07:00

I am doing Fiddler on the Roof out at South Plains College, and we open tonight! Although I have been doing shows as well as the choreography out at the college for 11 years, this one has been quite the learning experience. I have had to grow as a person and have respect for people that might not deserve it as well as work on my patience and compassion. I thought I would share some pictures with you as a little teaser for the show. If you are interested in seeing it, let me know!

Have you had a trying experience lately? How did you get through it and what did you end up learning from this experience?

Flashback Friday

2009-07-03T21:27:00.000-07:00

So here is my Flashback Friday for today! I made this little video for my sister and I thought it was only appropriate to share for the ultimate flashback!

OH and I worked on my comment system to make it better and easier to comment! Please leave me a comment!

Thanks and enjoy!

Finding Unexpected Hygge

2009-06-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

Have you ever felt true peace? How about comfort and happiness – all at the same time? Well I have and last year when I was in….wait a second; I think I need to tell you a story. My best friend and I met in kind of an unconventional way – on an internet message board for a woman we both mutually admire, but that’s actually beside the point. The point is that she is from Denmark and I am a born and bred Texas girl.

Susan and I got to meet face to face for the first time in New York City in early 2008 to enjoy some theater and meet our previously mentioned mutual idol. Last October I decided to make the big flight across the ocean to visit Susan on her soil. While preparing for my trip to Denmark I decided to try to learn a little bit of Danish. Needless to say, Danish is a very hard language to learn – but as hard as it was, I was so excited. As I studied I continued to come across a certain word that intrigued me – hygge. The dictionary said “comfort”, but I just knew there was something more to ‘hygge.’ I asked Susan about this word to see if she could explain it to me. She said something to the effect of, “It’s hard to describe and there is not really a good English word for it.” Anyway, I continued on with my preparations not thinking much more about hygge.

After nearly 24 hours of travel I finally arrived in Copenhagen. The minute I arrived I knew something was different about Denmark – but I just could not put my finger on it. I felt so excited, but relaxed at the same time. Can that happen? For 10 days I had an amazing time seeing the sites, taking hundreds of pictures and spending time with my friend. We even got to hang out with her friends and family and that’s when it hit me – that word, ‘hygge.’ I could feel it! I could feel hygge and it was the most amazing thing in the world! I felt togetherness, love, and comfort. I felt a part of something very important - this family from across the globe was accepting me as one of their own. The whole trip I had been feeling hygge – from so many loving Danes. See, I went to Denmark to visit my best friend and I found hygge. It’s friendship, it’s fellowship, it’s peace. To me hygge is Denmark!

Karen and Susan in Nyhavn Harbor

Family time – teaching pumpkin carving!

Susan Karen Mette – fun with friends

Flashback Friday!

2009-06-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

Ok so once again from my sister’s blog – Flash Back Friday!

I thought I would just post some pictures for all to enjoy. And try to slightly embarrass some others.

So first me and my sweet sis – this must have been her like 13th birthday? Bec – Correct me if I am wrong!

Next – Baby Brass!

A particularly rotten day for me:

Me and very young scientist!

my sweet grandmother and princess

Jenn and I have always been friends! And we are 10 years apart!

What’s a flashback Friday without a festive young Susan?

and last but not least – young sonny and cher – inspiration for my blog! The Beat Goes On!!

Yesterday's News

2009-06-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

My Sister (who I have to thank for my blog design) does this post thing called Yesterday’s News. So I thought I would copy her and do that also!

So here is yesterday’s news:

It was a very hot day here in Texas, around 104 F or 40 C (for you peeps across the pond). As I was driving to the gym, the street was melted. I decided to drive in the areas where it was not melted and I am sure everyone around me thought I was crazy. But come on – why ruin a good paint job on my Jeep?

After the gym I went to a softball game – my boss’s daughter’s game. Man, can that 13 year old throw! It was hot there too.

I kept Brass (my black lab) with me for most of the day. When we had to go out and talk to a contractor about trees, he just dug himself a hole to lay in. Again – to get out of the heat.

As mentioned earlier I did go to the gym. I had not been in a while because I am doing Fiddler on the Roof at night. I am positive I will be sore – I was hurting by the second weight track in my power class. Ugh!

Did I mention it was hot? Well not this hot or this hot but pretty hot! Maybe I can get the naked cowboy to come down here and join us in the heat!

I got four comments on my new blog! I am famous!

So that’s it – feel free to comment or just enjoy.

Thanks

Hello World!

2009-06-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

Hello world it’s me, Karen! This is my first attempt at blogging and I am excited to get going. I am intrigued that the word blogging is not recognized by Microsoft Word. So anyway here it is. I thought I should start by telling you a little bit about myself. I have published this silly little snippet many times before in various forms, so you may have read it already! Enjoy

It was a dark and stormy night, I sat, cigarette in hand, gazing out into the darkness. The only light came from the small lamp sitting on my desk, which flickered with the thunder, and a hazy street light up the road that left a cone of yellow in the inky wet blackness. A crash of lightening and there she stood. Her slim frame was silhouetted by the flash of light and her bright red hair dripped slightly from the rain. Why was she here you ask, with tears streaming down her porcelain white cheeks, well this dame had a problem that I could fix. Just call me Tracy, private eye. ‘Come in,’ I said, and as I ushered her into my office. I could see that she was upset. ‘What could be wrong’ I thought to myself as she silently sat and wiped her gray eyes. ‘I...’ she started, ‘I need help starting a blog.’ ‘What?’ I thought, ‘This fun-loving girl, who loves to travel, take pictures, and spend time with family and friends needs help starting a blog?’ ‘Continue’ I chimed in ‘tell me a little more about yourself.’ ‘Well Tracy,’ she said ‘ I just don’t really know what to write about… I enjoy going to church, but I also like baseball, well all sports, as well as video games.’ Just as the last word came out of her mouth, the lights went out and I was left in the black midnight air with my thoughts. ‘Would it, could it be possible to find this cutie a blog that she was happy with and topics to write about?’ At that moment the lights jolted on, causing my head to snap up, bringing my thoughts back to reality, and she was gone.

Comments are very much appreciated and if you post as anonymous, please leave your name so I know who you are!

Thanks

And The Beat Goes On

All I wanted...

Thanksgiving

Camera Fight!

Flashback Friday

My son is *sniff* eight

Boots, Brass and Best Friends

A few of my favorite things - the last

A few of my favorite things - Three

A few of my favorite things - Two

A few of my favorite things - One

I'm a Girl

A few random things about me

Flashback Friday

Reading Wednesday

Flashback Friday

Reading Wednesday

HAPPY SPRING!

Screen Caps & Cell Phones

Flashback Friday

House Made of Steel

Flashback Friday

Wordless Wednesday

Update Too!

UPDATE - Part Duex

UPDATE - Finally (part one)

Flashback Friday

New Hobby!

Dog Dog Turns 7 !

Flashback Friday

Dog VS TP

Meeting Meat Patti

{Embrace} the camera

Distant Worlds

Holiday!

Vegas!

The ABCs of Brass

Night Terrors aka Sleeping with a Six Year Old

Problem Solved

Reading Wednesday

Flashback Friday

Come One, Come All

Struktur

Something Exciting

SNOW!

Tattoos

Holiday Fun

Win a HP TouchSmart!

14 days + 10 countries + 10 flights = the trip of a lifetime (conclusion – FINALLY!)

14 days + 10 countries + 10 flights = the trip of a lifetime (our favorite and least favorite day)

14 days + 10 countries + 10 flights = the trip of a lifetime (part two – when in Rome)

14 days + 10 flights + 10 countries = the trip of a lifetime (part one)

Flashback Friday Thursday

Did You Know?

Flashback Friday

Screen Caps and Cell Phones

Wordless Wednesday

Fall

LiveStrong Toby Ryan

Flashback Friday

Vacation!

Flashback Friday

Cochineal

Brilliant Flashback Friday!!

Touched - NEW LINK

Screen Cap Saturday

Fiddler on the Roof

Flashback Friday

Finding Unexpected Hygge

Flashback Friday!

Yesterday's News

Hello World!

My son is sniff eight