Interview with a Texas Escapee

I've always lived in Texas (minus one month in a convent in Spain...)

My little sister, The Bug, currently lives in California. 

So, I thought it'd be fun to interview her on some of her Texas/California observations.

List 4 Things you miss most about Texas.

1. Breakfast tacos

2. Good iced tea

3. Warm summer nights

4. Sass Dressing

(can't help but notice that I mostly miss food) 

If you could fly in for one weekend, what Texas city would you visit?

Always Austin - if I could add in a side trip to the Hill Country, I would. 

Do Californians comment on your accent?

Not really. I am sometimes given a hard time for all my "y'alls"

 What's are some of the biggest differences between California and Texas?

California is packed full of beautiful places, opportunities, fresh produce, weekend getaways, crowded grocery stores and aggressive drivers.

Texas is delightfully slow-paced, rich on experience and the people are much warmer.

What are some of the biggest stereotypes Californians have about Texas and/or Texans?

Not sure. 

How often do you wear your cowboy boots in California?

A lot, actually. Living in California had made me extra proud of my Texas heritage and my rockin' cowboy boots. I created reasons to wear them. 

Are you worried about "The Big One" hitting?

Not really. Maybe I should. 

If you couldn't live in Texas or California, where else would you like to live?

Outside the U.S. .....Europe or New Zealand.

What about you?

Do you have any Texas or California sterotypes?

Where would you to choose to live if you could live anywhere?

Blue meat & noodles

I will announce the giveaway winner soon, I promise,
but a lot more people entered than I expected,
and it's taking time to tally up how many entries everyone earned
with extra posts and comments and tweets.
What did I get myself into?!



Did you see my interview with Pioneer Woman?



Now on to today's post.


I love my little sister, The Bug.
She's moved to California, and I miss her terribly.

She was in town for Christmas, and it was so wonderful to see her.
She gave my boys Peruvian water whistles.

Well, she also gave my older son, Donny, who's 11, a book called The Big Book of Boy Stuff.

And boy has he learned stuff from this book.

We all have.




A lot of my tweets on Twitter these days are from this book.
thought provoking questions like:

Why is a boxing ring square?

If you choke a smurf, what color does it turn?

Do fish get thirsty?

If a number 2 pencil is so popular, why is it still number 2?

If corn oil comes from corn...where does baby oil come from?


And then there are the pranks.


My mouse was pranked.

The book taught him to tape a small piece of paper to the bottom of my mouse to interfere with the signal, causing me to think my mouse was broken.

The gallon of milk in the refrigerator was pranked.

The book taught him to put food dye in things.
The first gallon of milk was pink
the second is now a bluish-purple,
hence a lot of my meals have been the same hue...

my cream of wheat was blue mush.
the meat and noodles I made tonight was blue.

Thanks, Bug.

I'm going to give your kids
drums, whistles, water guns, a cow bell, play dough, slime,
fart putty, whoopee cushions, moon sand, glitter
and a big book of pranks.
All at once.

You just wait.

Magic Whistles from Peru

Don't miss out on my New Year Giveaway!
Read this post, then leave me a comment a day for an entry.
Blog about the giveaway for an extra five entries!
Follow me for five extra entries!
Giveaway ends Tuesday, January 6th at midnight, U.S. central time.




Now on to the Magic Peruvian Whistles.


My little sister, The Bug, recently went to Peru/Bolivia with her husband,
and she brought back souvenirs for my boys.

These are special little bird whistles that they found while traveling by bus from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca in Peru. An old lady with no teeth was selling them alongside some ancient Incan ruins.

I want to visit Peru.
I love to plan trips everywhere.

Oops, did that slip out?

Anyway,

Donny chose the Eagle whistle.

And Remy chose the Toucan whistle.

When you first blow, it sounds like a regular whistle.

High pitch, annoying as heck.

And, then, my sister told them to fill the whistle with water.

And, wouldn't you know it, the noise changed.

Big time.

They no longer sounded anything like normal whistles,
but instead sounded just like birds.

All the noises in this video that sound like birds...are really coming from these whistles.

I kid you not.

Isn't that amazing?

Apparently these whistles date back to the days of the Incas.
They are now hand-formed in villages near Cuzco,
and then fired in traditional pits made out of stone, straw and wood.
After that, they are hand painted.



The Eagle.


The Toucan.



Those Incans were bloody brilliant!

I'm totally baffled by how they work.




And then, of course, my boys have to dump out the water when they're done.

And make the horrible high pitch whistle again.

Peruvian water whistles are way cool.

The Bug - Origins

This is The Bug, my little sister, isn't she adorable?

Can you believe those big eyes?

She got this nickname when she was little.

She liked bugs.

At the swimming pool, she would spend half the time swimming,

half the time fishing for bugs in the pool skimmers.

Those are two of my older sisters in the picture with her.

I have a lot of sisters (4). I love them all!

I miss you, Bug, wish you were with us in the Hill Country this week.

Did your mother ever do this to you?

Sound of Music curtain dress?

Do you like our big bows?

I'm the older one,

The Bug's the cute one.

This Critter Crashed a Bachelorette Party - Camera Critters

Two years ago, my sister, The Bug, had a bachelorette party that ended up being a little unusual.

We went out to her finance's family's land in the hill country to spend the weekend and have fun.

It was the Bug and I and a handful of her close friends.

We had a blast, drank alcohol, played charades, and then discovered a critter under the porch.

Can you tell what that is?

Oh, yes, joy of all joys, a group of girls discovered a diamond back rattle snake under the house.

We were in the middle of nowhere.

And totally freaked out.

And drinking mimosas.

Helped arrived and pulled out a fire exstinguisher,

which apparently freezes the snake...or in our case, just slows it down a little.

Slowed it down enough for us to behead it.

I wish I could show you the rest of the pictures (which include the bride-to-be, Bug, dancing around in a veil, cowboy boots, and holding a mimosa while also holding a dead snake) but I'd have to get my sister's permission first. Maybe if you guys ask her nicely...

If you want to join Camera Critters on Sunday, grab a camera,

take a picture of any animal and post it online.

You don't have to tell a story, and one picture will do just fine.

I'm just wordy and have to tell a story.

My furry nephew

I have four sisters and one brother. And, they all have children, at least two each, except for one sister. The Bug only has one child, my nephew Hollis, who so happens to have four legs and a tail. He's got big ears, lots of wrinkles around his face and is very hairy. He's special that way.



So, blog friends, I'd like you to meet Hollis.

Here he is chewing on Donny's shoe. I think he was teething. He doesn't really do that anymore. I think.

How can you not love that face? Isn't he cute? He looks a little bewildered, I know. I don't think he was used to having lots of pictures taken back when my sister first got him.

He really likes Donny's shoe. Remy really likes Hollis, as you can see by his half-hug...but at this point, Remy was a little scared of his cousin, because Hollis was as big as he was, and a little rambunctious. That's why he's hugging away from Hollis' head. hehe Less chances he'll be nibbled.
Oh, wait, I spoke too soon. Remy's feeling braver. Look at those cute faces. Can you see the family resemblence? They have the same...ummm...eyes? no...same energy! Yes, that's it. Both of them are more than likely to be bouncing off the walls with energy. Both need to be run...DAILY.

Hollis has gorgeous hair. And the most hilarious expressions. Unfortuneately I don't see him much now, because my sister has moved to California!! I miss The Bug, her hubby Rock Boy, and Hollis. My boys miss their cousin. And, I don't think Annie has met Hollis yet.

This is my sister with her baby. Aren't they sweet? He's her first born. He's a little spoiled (shh! Don't tell her I said that). He has no bedtime, he pees outside, she hasn't put him in school and she has this special voice she talks to him with...

Ok, look at that face. I'd spoil him too. He's adorable. I miss you Bug, Rock Boy and Hollis!!!

Quick on the Uptake

There's a new search engine in town, but it isn't just any search engine...it is specificially a TRAVEL search engine. It's called Uptake, and it pulls reviews from other travel sites and ranks the results, so that you have even more info at your fingertips than before. I'm super impressed by it (and no, not getting paid one bit for this post! darnit).

Ok, so, say you want to go to California (like I do). I'd go to http://www.uptake.com/ and choose hotels in, say, Monterey. I can have them listed by best family hotels or pet friendly hotels or romantic getaways...whatever floats your boat. Then Uptake lists and ranks the hotels with user reviews from other sites, such as Trip Advisor, CitySearch or Orbitz to name a few. Then you make your choice based on what other travels have said about those hotels. I don't know about you, but I like to hear from real people who've actually been there, and you can find that out through Uptake!

You can also use Uptake to search for things to do while there. Family friendly outings, pet friendly outings, good places to eat, unique restaurants, you name it!

I love to plan trips. I don't get to travel much, but planning is a lot of fun. And, now I have a new favorite website to do this, because it has so much info in one place. Summer is just weeks away and I'm taking my boys to California, and I plan on using Uptake to help me get there!!



So, please go check out this new travel search engine!! Please!! And, ok, while I'm not getting paid for this post...my little sister, The Bug, might work there...

A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost.

I have four sisters and one brother. I love them all. My dad had six kids in all: four kids with his first wife, then two kids with his second wife (my mom). So, in one sense I am fifth in the birth order, and in another, I am first in the birth order. The youngest in the family is my little sister. Let's call her...hmmm...The Bug. When she was little, she loved bugs (she still does). She was the little kid at the swimming pool checking out what bugs were trapped in the little bug-catching things. I was not with her on that one. Bugs freaked me out.

She was the one who pulled the prank with the rattlesnake. That reminds me, I need to tell you the story about her bachelorette party sometime...although I probably need her permission to share photos...get your mind out of the gutter, people!

I'm 2 1/2 years older than The Bug. I am fiercely protective of her. We share the same kooky family and the same childhood. She was scared of the dark (ok, I was too), so we slept together for years, despite having our own bedrooms. I made up stories at night to tell her, and she was a loyal audience (and probably totally warped by my bizarre stories).

We went to camp together in the summers. I was homesick and slow to warm up...the Bug made friends with the whole camp and refused to take showers. She was just too cute and adorable! I remember being jealous of her at times because everyone thought she was so cute.

When our family took a trip to England, my parents had us all do English-related projects. I don't really remember what the older four kids had to do, but I did a report on the Tower of London, a fascinating place! The Bug colored England's map. I was 10, she was 7 1/2, I think. Here's a picture from that trip.

I was going through a skirt phase. I loved long skirts. Look at those dirty white keds! We must have been doing a lot of walking.

One of our excursions while in England was to a real English tea, and they had a giant chess set on the lawn. The Bug and I were taught chess by our father at a young age and could play pretty well.

Another family trip was to Italy. Here we are in Pompeii (below). My embarrassing story here is that we were on a tour and had to pee, badly. So, we ended up hiding in the ruins somewhere and peeing. I felt bad, like I was defacing history, but hey, urine is sterile right?

I think this picture (below) was taken in Venice, Italy. We're so corny. I had thick, ugly bangs during this stage. Didn't like them at all now that I look back. I'm on the right.

Here on a hiking trip in Colorado (below). I love The Bug! (I'm on the left with the knee brace. I hurt my knee playing soccer, remember reading about my superstar soccer career?)

I have plenty of fun stories to share about her, but for now, this is your introduction. Everyone, meet The Bug. Bug, this is everyone!