The Ghost of Halloween Past

These photos are from Halloween TWO YEARS AGO! 2006.

Remy was a red ninja
&
Donny was Captain Jack Sparrow

I'm not really sure what I was.
A mysterious witch?

The boys picked out Texas Homeboy's costume that year.

And we slapped a sombrero on my dad.

Do you dress up with your kids?
I always do.
Do you pick out your spouse's costume for them?
Yep.
Do you visit haunted houses?
I haven't in quite a while but they're fun!

A Mama Lion's Pride

I'm so PROUD of my son Donny right now.


He's 11 years old and in the 6th grade.
His first year of middle school.
And he made the Honor Roll
with all A's.

He also told me that he would like to be a younger brother.

Curious, I thought. Why?

Turns out he'd like an older sister...


so he could read her diary and torment her with the info.

Here he is shaking his middle school principal's hand as he receives an award.
An award called the Lion's Pride Award.

When we received this letter in the mail last week, we were so surprised...

and so PROUD!

This is the beginning of our second year in this north Texas town.
The first year was hard on Donny.
He had good grades and did ok, but wasn't very happy.
He missed his old school and friends in Austin.
I don't blame him.

But, I think he's finally settling in here.

Look, a bumper sticker came with this special award.

heehee
(nope, not going on my car, sorry, although it's a nice quote)

Part of me is sad he is growing up so fast, but mainly I'm enjoying the person he's becoming.
He's such a great kid.

He saved up his money to buy a gun, he's learning to play the trombone & he's playing football.

He's smart too...

despite trying to walk down a flight of stairs wearing roller skates and holding a plate of food.
It wasn't pretty, folks.




Have you ever sneaked a peak at someone's diary?
Did you keep a diary yourself?

Are you Up on Uptake?

Regarding yesterday's photo post, you guys are HILARIOUS!

I love some of the wonderfully creative ideas you came up with regarding that picture.

I wish I had an answer for you with what was going on in it,
but no one in my family seems to have any idea.

My mom has more old photos, so I'll see if I can get another one scanned sometime soon.


* * *


Next, let me announce the contest winner from last week.
(I know, I don't know what took me so long!)



I had planned to do a cute hat drawing video with the kids, but my printer ran out of ink, the kids wouldn't cooperate and I lost my desire to do it.

Long story short, I used that darn random number generator, adding in those of you with the extra entries. It was complicated, probably unnecessarily so!

Without further rambling, the winner of the 11" brand new fry pan and jambalaya mix is...

Scargosun!


And, as a bonus, I'm giving away a packet of jambalaya mix to:

Sassy Stephanie & Kimba!


Winners email me at rhea@tx.rr.com with your addresses.


* * *


Now, as you know, I've been job searching.
And, I've found some free-lance writing jobs and some blogging work,
but nothing full time.

I'm seriously thinking about applying to Target!!
I need something with good health insurance.


One of the places I am blogging part time for is called Uptake.
It's a travel information search engine, and I'm super excited!
I'll be posting about fun things to do and see in Texas...and possibly other places I've visited.

What I would love from you, is to click on over to Uptake and comment on posts with my name. Today...and any time you feel like it!
I don't get much comment love over there yet, and I've gotten spoiled with it over here.
You guys rock!!



I'll leave you with these photos of my pink streaks for now.

Natural lighting,
no photo editing,
no makeup,
crazy angles
weird facial expressions, and
I'm not even sure I brushed my crazy, frizzy hair.

It's Rhea Au natural con rosa!!
(I think I just mixed French & Spanish...and probably not even correctly)

and a plea for comment love at Uptake!!

Thanks!!

Why are there flowers in their pants?

My mother recently learned a lot about her family roots.
Someone traced them from Alabama back to Scotland in the 1600s.
How cool is that?

She also was given a lot of old, old, old family photos to scan and preserve.

We came across one that completely boggled our minds.

The man on the left is my great-great-grandfather, and I have no idea what he's doing.

So, I've decided to call on you guys to help me out.
What's going on in this photo?
I'm at a total loss.
It's so cool, but completely confusing.

Just a man enjoying his meat

My Dad.

He doesn't need no stinkin' forks and knives.




He's a Longhorn fan, a meat fan and a wine fan...and he's a character.

This photo says it all.


He's had two ex-wives, both of which he's still on good terms with.
He has six grown & married children
and 11 grandchildren with the possibility of more.


He's almost 80 and has a lot of stories to share.
Some are actually appropriate.

I've blogged about him before with our crazy conversation

and how I almost sneaked him out of the hospital.

He makes for good blog material...but I try to restrain myself.


What do you have to restrain yourself from blogging about?

Is that Romance I smell...or something else?

Romance is not often in the air around here,
and on the rare occasion it drifts by,
it is immediately flushed out and dissipated
by much more noxious boy fragrances that rule this house.


My husband is an attorney who works long hours,
my boys are both in sports, which take up a lot of time,
and my elderly father lives with us.
All those ingredients do not a romantic environment make.


So, when my mom offered to watch the boys and told us to look up romantic hotels,
I threw the children from our moving car and sped out of town leaped at the chance.

We ended up deciding on a bed & breakfast in Fredericksberg, Texas,
a delightful small town settled by German Americans in the 1800's
that is now a popular Central Texas destination for bed and breakfasts, abundant hunting, fishing, antique stores, museums, the German influence in the form of bakeries, restaurants, stores, and peaches.

My husband and I had big plans. We checked into our B&B, and then headed out walking to browse antique stores and have dinner at the famous Fredericksberg Brewing Company.

It was wonderful to be kid-free, work-free and just plain old FREE to do what we wanted.
As night fell, we headed back to our quaint little romantic B&B
to test out the large hot tub surrounded by candles.




As we stripped our clothes off, turned out the lights, lit the candles and poured in the bubbles,
I began to feel a little sick to my stomach.
I tried to ignore it.
This was our moment.
Our romantic shining moment that had to be perfect.

As we climbed in, giggling as we bumped and slid into the tub, I was reminded why I loved this man, and how he was still the 13 yr old boy I'd fallen in love with,
albeit grown up and hairier.

We held hands, locked eyes, and leaned in for a kiss...
that was interrupted by my sudden urge to vomit.

EVERYWHERE.

It kind of killed the mood.
And so that night, in our big four posted canopied bed, my husband slept like a baby



while I cradled the toilet and slept on the bathroom floor.

And the entire car ride home was spent clutching a bowl and moaning in agony.

It was not the trip we'd planned, but romance had been in the air, briefly,
and we clung to that memory
and laughed about it for years to come.

Even those intended-romantic-resulting-in-non-romantic moments strengthen the love and bond of a marriage and life together.

Life experiences that make up our quilt of memories.

What are your more memorable romantic or non-romantic moments?

Football & Soccer...Soccer & Football

We spend a lot of time outside on the fields these days with both boys playing a sport.

Donny is playing football for the first time ever, and he seems to like it!

He has practice two or three times a week and one game a week.

But the season's about to end.

I've been taking tons of pictures at the games.
Here's the team warming up with jumping jacks.
I love warm up exercises in unison.

Here's some actual tackling.
My son's in this group, but you can't see him well.
His team is the light yellow.

They are in a neat looking formation here.
Does it have a name?
I have no idea.
I can't keep up with the ball half the time.
I need a translator sitting next to me at the games.

I do notice the sunlight twinkling off the helmets though,
and how well things match,
and the synchronized movement and warm ups.

Gosh, I sound awfully girly, don't I?!

And then Remy is playing soccer.
I'm one of his coaches.

Soccer I actually understand because I played it as a child and in high school.

I love soccer. And these boys are adorable.

I've tried to avoid overwhelming you guys with sports photos,
because these are things I see and experience daily.
In large amounts.

But I love watching my kids play.

What do you take the most photos of?

Cowgirl Ta-Tas

Can you see what that says?

No?

What about now?

Maybe a little clearer?

Oh, OK, here we go...

YAY! My Cowgirl Ta-Tas shirt and car magnet arrived!

Put some FUN in the FIGHT!!

Support breast cancer research through the Save the Ta-Tas campaign.