Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope all of my bloggy friends out there have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Signs That A Relationship is Over

Everyone would love to end up like Cinderella, with a pair of pretty glass slippers, a beautiful castle and a handsome prince. Unfortunately, that is just not in the cards for everyone. Not to mention the fact that if everyone were happy all of the advice columnists would be put out of business, Dr. Phil would not have a show and sales of Ben & Jerry's would be down and with these hard economic times everyone needs all of the business that they can get.

Sometimes when a relationship is OVER we just want to turn a blind eye to it. If only we could wake up and see reality it would save a lot of time and energy. Here are some signs that I have noticed that show that a relationship is done:

1. Your significant other looks absolutely miserable in all of your pictures together. In case you don't remember, in Cinderella, prince charming always had a smile when he saw his princess. If your other half has a scowl every time you look at them that is probably not a good sign at all. If they look as if they are trying to make a break for it in every couples picture you take, if they look like they would rather rip their arm off than have you grab it, if they look like they are taking a mug shot rather than a picture with you, just cut your losses now.

2. Your significant other wants to move in, but doesn't want to pay the bills. Do you just want to be a pit stop for someone needing room and board or do you want a relationship? If you are providing room and board, water, electricity and food and not expecting any help you are being taking advantage of. You are not the Hyatt, let him/her find their own place to live.

3. You do not get along with their parents. Now, this doesn't always have to mean the end, there is such a thing as a restraining order! Better yet, you can always follow my golden rule-Marry an orphan!

4. If you tell everyone you are in a relationship, but you haven't seen your significant other for months, they won't return your calls and have already told you a trillion times they want to be single then you need help. If you find yourself talking in third person about your relationship with him/her you need Prozac!

5. If you are making plans to have children, get married, go on a fabulous vacation, etc., with someone who does not want to be with you, then you need to wake up and smell the coffee, my friend!

If someone doesn't want to be in a relationship with you, just consider yourself lucky that they are letting you know now. Life is too short to waste time on people who do not deserve you. Consider a break up your opportunity to find someone who is worthy of you!

So Fitting...

I LOVE these little images from Anne Taintor. This year this lovely lady was in my calendar and I just love the message she is sending. :) That page is so getting framed for my kitchen!

My New Favorite Holiday

After spending hours, upon hours sitting in my house wrapping presents I would like to officially declare the 4Th of July as my new favorite holiday! It is not that I do not love Christmas, but there are some very stressful things surrounding it:

1. Shopping, which should be an Olympic sport in my opinion, (one that I would be a gold medal winner in), is so hard during Christmas. My work schedule is four 10 hours days, Mon-Thurs. Whenever I go shopping, I prefer to go on Fridays when it is not so hectic. Alas, during Christmas even my sacred Fridays are not immune to the crazy shoppers that only come out every once and again. It took me almost two hours just to drive to my favorite shopping area the other night and it generally takes 45 minutes. I just can't handle this stress on my favorite sport!

2. It is very stressful when you are expected to be jolly, just because the commercials tell you to be that way. This Christmas not everything has been happy so I just can't get into the spirit of things. One of my close friends was recently diagnosed with cancer and having to watch her deal with things is very upsetting. I think the holidays are especially hard for anyone not having a perfect life. Even if you are perfectly healthy and are single, or married with no children you are made to feel that you are missing out on the full experience of the holidays.

3. My husband always gets out of helping me out during the holidays. Once he puts three strings of lights on the roof, he is done. He tells me, "Oh, I would help you decorate, but I don't do it as well". This excuse also works when it is time to wrap gifts. Once, he wrapped half of a box and didn't have enough paper to go all the way around. He was more than happy to leave it like that, because in his words, "There is some paper to tear off. They will get the point." I secretly think that he does these duties very poorly the first time, because he knows that I am perfectionist and will pull him from the job when he does it poorly! ;) He is not fooling me!

From this point on the 4Th of July will be my favorite holiday. How can you not love having a cook out with all of your friends, decorating everything with big blue and red stars, warm summer weather and fireworks? I still love you Christmas, but you are STRESSING me out!

The Holiday Spirit

Rarely does it snow here in Southeast Texas. Once, four years ago on Christmas Eve, was the first time in my life that we had enough snow to build an actual snowman. Imagine our surprise when out of the blue, well I guess I should say out of the sky, it started snowing the other day. I know that some of you out there that have to deal with snow every day are probably rather sick of it by now, but we had a great time playing in it!

My house looked like a gingerbread house by the time the night was over!

Barkley on the other hand, was probably wishing I would have left him in the warm house!

Snow seems to make me get more into the holiday spirit. There is something about celebrating Christmas in 80 degree weather and shorts that is just not as appealing as a snowy day!

Mc Donald's Is Determined to Make Us Obese!

Today, as other days before it, I went to Mc Donald's for a quick bite. I was running between work and school and just wanted a little snack until I had more time to go eat lunch. I ask for one apple pie. This time, as many other times before it, the person on the other side of the menu speaker says, "Ok that will be two apple pies for $1". Then I say, "No, I just want one". Then the menu speaker girl says, "Well if you just get one it is still $1 and it is a better deal for you to get two". What is a better deal is for me to eat fewer apple pies so that I can still fit in my clothes! That my friend is a better deal!

Why can I not just get one apple pie for fifty cents? You are made to feel stupid if you just get one for a dollar, because as I have been informed MANY times it is cheaper to buy two.

I guess getting two of them and throwing one away would be just as easy, but that always makes me feel bad. Anytime I throw stuff away it reminds me of all of those homeless children in commercials who have no food. Then I start feeling guilty, because those poor kids would kill for a little apple pie. At that point after thinking about sick and hungry children I can't even enjoy the one pie that I did go there to eat!

McDonald's' please change your policy! I don't need the pressure of this whole pie thing! Oh and while your at it, please add veggie burgers to your menu! :)

The American Music Awards...My Unsolicited Review

First, let me say that I was bored out of my freaking mind! Jimmy Kimmel did make me chuckle a time or two, but all in all I found it pretty uninspiring. They may not always be pretty or nice, but here are some thoughts I had while watching the show:



Why???? And I don't mean T-Pain's outfit. Why does someone with no talent and a record that sold like 10 copies keep showing up EVERYWHERE! I could see if she had a show on ABC that they were trying to promote, but thank God that it not the case! Please, the powers that be find someone with talent to put on television!

Could they have possibly found someone a little closer to David Archuleta's height? I don't know if he is old enough to have hit his growth spurt yet, but they barely fit in the same frame!

Why did they pair cute, wholesome looking Colbie Caillat with Richie Sambora? Hey, I will admit I was a huge Bon Jovi fan circa 1988, but Richie is rough! Not rough around the edges, but rough through and through! Put Colbie next to someone nice and sweet, like maybe that cutie from Lifehouse! She has so far not turned into to a crazy starlet, aka Lindsey, Paris, etc., etc. We need to keep her that way!

Let me first add a positive before a negative, just to keep my karma in check! I LOVE Motley Crue. I have always, well at least since I was 12, and will continue to do so. Nikki Sixx is my absolute favorite rock dude and Tommy Lee is one of the coolest guys ever. Vince Neil, eh, whatever and Mick gets my Keith Richards award for having the ability to take a licking and keep on ticking.

However, my guys of the Crue, let me ask just two questions to the two of you that I really care the most about. Tommy, dear, did you go out swimming and get bit by a shark? Perhaps, you did and didn't have time to run home and change and just decided that if you wore said shark to the AMA's Kid Rock would see how bad you were and leave you alone for good!

Nikki, the beautiful one, I am down with your rocker look. I was with you when you wore makeup, more makeup than I even own,(which is a LOT). Why, though, Nikki do you look like you are trying to steal Keith Richards part on Pirates of the Caribbean? I love you Nikki, but my love for Keith is very well documented so don't think that just because you are cute you can steal that movie away from Keith and I am not going to have something to say about it.

Why do these two girls have record deals? While Taylor Swift seems like a perfectly wholesome girl, (sorry Miley, no nice words for you, you annoy me), she can not sing. The lack of singing also goes for Billy Ray's spawn. Thank God for Alicia Keys, Leona Lewis and Mariah or my ears would have been bleeding.

Did Mariah get a new stylist? Or did her new hubby tire of her showing her everything to everyone? Well, whatever it is that has brought about this change I salute you Mariah. You looked really nice. You also proved me wrong, because I really thought that at any moment you were going to rip off the pretty dress to reveal something too short and too tight.


Now I have this question-was Mariah's old stylist, the one she obviously fired as she looked great last night, hired to hooch up Beyonce? Beyonce, there is never a good reason to run out of your room without your pants on. That is why people have a common nightmare about that very situation. The only thing that I could possibly fathom is that maybe you just got a contract with Hanes. Even if that is true I think there are more appropriate places that you could model their underwear for them. You are from Houston. I know for a fact that there are MANY, MANY stores that sell jeans, dress slacks and skirts there. There is a whole plethora of outfit choices out there. You have NO excuse for going out in your knickers, absolutely none, nada, zip!

Why does anyone think that any of us care about these people? Sorry Nick, you seem like a great guy, but you always pick THE worst girls, so I am over seeing you as well!

Are they going to be able to get back upright without help? As hard as they try to make us believe, they are not new or kids.

Did her son get a hold of scissors and do something really drastic to her hair?

I really think Ne-Yo has a very good voice. Once he was on Cribs and he had a very nice house. I thought it was very tastefully decorated beyond his years, (hey, I'm into design so I had to throw that in). I also once read that he bought his mom a house, which I think is a great thing. However, did I need to be subjected to Ne-Yo doing Chris Brown, doing Usher, doing Michael Jackson. Please, you guys, try to be more original. You are in a CREATIVE field, use that creativity in your performances.

When I saw Scott Weiland from a distance, I thought, "Oh, he is looking much better. Maybe he has finally cleaned up his act". Then he started talking. Enough said.

Well, they always say that if you are going into a career as a singer that you should have something to fall back on. I guess they are just preparing themselves for that.


I would like to go out on a positive note. I thought Jordan Sparks looked really cute. The yellow dress fit her personality perfectly and was a great, unexpected color in the fall. She looked really cute and had a great smile. Enrique Iglesias wasn't half bad either. He may have quite possibly just woken up from a deep slumber, but he still looks cute either way!

Ahh...Vacation

Ok, so I am not going to some tropical paradise, but I am off from work and school all week! Yeah! Time to start the Christmas shopping, put up the tree and talk Gabriel into climbing up on the roof to put the lights on the house.

Mission Accomplished

I faced my #1 fear and made it through, without fainting or getting sick to my stomach,(which makes it better for me and my classmates :) ) I have read in surveys that people are more afraid of public speaking than death. While I have never participated in one of those surveys I would have to agree.

I had to take a speech class and I put that sucker off until it was one of the last classes I need to graduate. I have always been terrified of public speaking. I LOVE to talk, which is unfortunate for my family and coworkers, but when it comes to everyone staring at you listening to every single word and not saying anything back, it makes my heart race. I can feel my face turning tomato red and then I get even more embarrassed. It is just not a pretty sight! I once even forgot in a presentation the word dresser. I am an interior design major! Sad,(I say as I am shaking my head at my own stupidity)!

I am happy to report though that I have come out triumphant! I am done with my speeches and made an A on all of them. Mission Accomplished! Now I have to face my next fear and ride a roller coaster! :) One step at a time!

My First Blog Award

I won an award! It was so unexpected that I don't even have a speech ready, yet....but here goes. I would like to thank the academy, ok well, maybe not the academy, but I would like to thank Dorkys over at Dry as Toast, http://dryastoast.blogspot.com/ for this honor!


There are a few rules to the award that are listed here:


*Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass the award on to 5 most deserving Bloggy friends.

*Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author and the name of the blog from whom he/she has received the award.

*Each Superior Scribbler must display the award on his/her blog, and link to this post, http://scholastic-scribe.blogspot.com/2008/10/200-this-blings-for-you.html, which explains the award.

*Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

*Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

So, drum roll please, the following 5 blogs will be receiving the Superior Scribbler Award:

*http://littlepeanutshop.blogspot.com/
*http://charmeddarlinggirl.blogspot.com/
*http://stelabird.blogspot.com/
*http://travelturtle.net/
*http://alamodestuff.blogspot.com/

Things that make me feel better on a bad day

Today was an annoying day! You know those kind of days when there is no big catastrophe that happened, but instead about ten little things that keep knocking your spirits down every time they start to lift right up! At one point I told my friend that I was going to turn my frown upside down, but shortly after I was content with letting that sucker stay down for the rest of the day!

So in honor of my crappy day I have compiled a list of things that make me happy:

1. Cheez doodles. To any of you that have never tasted the cheezy wonder that is the Cheeze Doodle, you do not know what you are missing in life! They are not to be mistaken for the Cheeto, which is fine, but a doodle it is not! Unfortunately for me, and luckily for my scale, they do not sell the Cheez doodle in my state. This means that anytime I am in a state that they do sell them I make a beeline for them! (Please do not think that I am on the Britney Spears, circa Kevin Federline, diet of cheese with a Starbucks to wash it down!) :)

2. MAC. A new eyeshadow, lipstick or anything to makes me all sparkly will always lift my spirits and if it doesn't lift anything at least it can give the illusion that it is!

3. Shopping. I know this is cliche', but there is a reason everyone says it! Coming home with wonderful new things always makes me happy. Plus, with these hard economic times I think it is my patriotic duty to go out and help to stimulate the economy. My dad thinks I am a shopaholic, but he doesn't understand that I am trying to keep our country afloat! :)

4. US Weekly. I know that I shouldn't care where celebrities shop, where they eat or what clothes they wear, but I do! I love seeing all of the pretty hairstyles, beautiful dresses and I will admit that sometimes if I am having a bad day and I see in a magazine that someone else is out doing something crazy I feel a little less insane myself.

5. Watching Animal Planet with Barkley. Seeing the pup trying to get the other animals out of the television never grows old. It is especially funny when we watch horse racing. As the horses are rounding the corners on the track and go off of the screen, Barkley runs around to the back of the tv thinking he will catch them back there!

6. Watching the travel channel. It always makes me feel better to see cool vacation spots and imagine being in one of them.

See it is working already. Just thinking about things that make me happy is helping me be in a better mood! Wow, blogging is fun and much cheaper than Prozac! :)

Reasons Why I Find Football Ridiculous

1. Why does it take 20 grown men to tackle a football!?! If the two or three guys that get to it first and land on it are not enough to keep it down then that mighty football deserves to be set free.
2. Why do they build a huge goal post thing and then when the person kicks the ball through it it is only worth 3 points? For them to build such a monumental contraption, aka eyesore, it should be worth at least a good 10 points.
3. How can a clock that says it has 3 seconds left, take 30 agonizing minutes to count down those 3 seconds?
4. It takes 5 minutes for all of the guys to line up in their spots, then within 10 seconds they throw the ball, run 2 feet, go through my #1 pet peeve and then the clock stops and they do it all over again.
5. Why does the quarterback make so much money? He rarely gets tackled, doesn't have to run far or kick the ball. All he does is have to generally be the cutest guy on the team and throw the ball while everyone else protects him.

Guess who made the most out of the time change...

Barkley of course! Living it up with his extra hour of sleep! What in the world would this pup have done if he would have been adopted by a different family and was made to live like a dog? Luckily he will never have to find out! :)

A Fun Time Had by All

So we had a great night celebrating Halloween. Our neighborhood has tons of trick or treaters so we always get to meet new people and see all the cuties in their little costumes. Many of the adults even dress up, so we decided to get into the spirit. My friend's son came over and we went door to door with him as well. I was even offered candy since I was dressed for the occasion, but my days of trick or treating are long gone, as I am old and my thighs do not need any more candy!

Barkley trying to figure out this whole Halloween thing:

My mom after dressing up with all of her coworkers as dalmations. Thank you Lord, she can stop barking at me now!

Me trying my hardest to look like Johnny Depp, except for the skirt part! Oh and the plastic pumpkin, blonde hair...ok maybe on second thought, my Johnny Depp look failed! :)
And Gabe, whose costume probably wouldn't have went over very well if he would have went into the bank in this get up! Although, he would have been famous...on the 10 o'clock news!

Happy Halloween

I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween! A day full of chocolate and cute costumes, you gotta love it!

So Sexist!

First, let me give my disclaimer that I am not trying to put any political view out there. I also am not condoning spending $150K of someone else's money, even though I am a shopaholic myself so not pointing fingers if you choose to spend your own money at say Nordstorm.

I just find it odd that I have never seen the breakdown of how John McCain or Barack Obama spend their clothing budgets. Why is it that since she is a woman we know exactly how much every item of clothing she wears costs? We don't know if Obama and McCain are wearing Men's Wearhouse suits or Armani. And guess what!? We will never know, because they are men!

Mum's the word, but what is it saying?

Homecoming mum's are a tradition that has always baffled me. I have never understood why girls across the country would get all ready for their school's homecoming game and then cover up their entire outfit, their entire body in most cases, with a whole slew of ribbons and flowers.

What makes it even worse is that the mum is a status symbol of sorts. The girl who only has one flower on her mum is made to feel inferior to the girl whose parents, or boyfriend, splurged on three flowers! If you are really well off you have the fancy schmancy mum with three mums, teddy bears, whistles and so many ribbons that you have to pick up the ends to keep from tripping over it.

I don't think that the person who invented the saying, "Your daughter is blossoming into such a lovely young lady", meant the saying literally.

Ahh.. that explains it!

Now I know why the Yankee's didn't make it into the playoffs this year! One of their best players has suddenly lost his eyesight! I mean that would be the only explanation that I can think of as to why ARod left his wife and children for this:

Columbus Day???

Why do we celebrate Columbus Day in the United States? He did not, as far as I have read, ever even reach our country. Furthermore, the lands that he did reach were not unpopulated areas. They had native people living there already. How could Christopher Columbus discover a place that was not lost to all of the people who already called it home? If any ole person can just go around saying they are discovering places then we should all start doing that. I think I will go to Montana, stake a flag in the ground and give the post office a day off. Hey it worked for Columbus!

Design Find

I came across this website when looking for some unique wallpaper for a project in one of my design classes. It is from a company out of New Orleans called Flavor Paper and the ones shown above are actually scented. If only I were opening an ice cream parlor I would have that cherry paper behind the counter and some cool red stools to accent it! It would be adorable!

This one is another one of the many beautiful wallpapers that they have to choose from:

It is called Monaco and if there was any way that I could think of to incorporate this into my home I would be purchasing it right at this moment!

They also get two big thumbs up from me, because as I was browsing their website I noticed that they also designed the walls for the home of none other than Lenny Kravitz:

Anyone that knows me knows that I love me some Lenny so that is a good enough recommendation for me that this is an awesome company!

Hurricane Ike Update

The last time I posted Hurricane Ike was heading right towards the coast of Texas. It made landfall in Galveston, TX, very close to where I live. Thankfully, my home was spared any damage. Unfortunately, my mother had some damage as did many other friends. Several people I know lost everything that they had as the water rose before the storm. Everyone is really coming together to help get the communities back up and running. The government officials here in Texas are doing a great job to get the help that so many people need. It is nice to see that happening!

Hurricane season sucks!

This time it looks like it is making a beeline right to my corner of the universe. Hopefully Ike will fizzle out and not cause much destruction. That doesn't look like it is going to happen, but positive thinking can't hurt right now.

I am a sucker for a good comeback story!

Britney Spears was on the VMA's last night and looked great! Hooray for her dad for stepping in and helping his daughter get back on her feet. Not to mention getting her away from the crazies that were dragging her down the wrong road. She is such a pop culture icon and it is sad to watch anyone have to go through so many problems in front of the whole world. I am really happy to see her smiling, wearing a great outfit and looking like she is full of life again!

This must be the week for concerts!

Last night I went to the Maroon 5/Counting Crows concert. It was really awesome, made even more so by the opportunity to attend sound check again and the 5Th row tickets. My love for Maroon 5 has been well documented previously on my blog and this was another great show by the guys! I also had never really cared either way for the Counting Crows, but I must say that I found their singer Adam Duritz to be a cool guy. I also enjoyed the fact that he didn't try to shove his political views down everyone's throat like a long list of other celebrities do. Thank you for that refreshing attitude Mr. Duritz!

Things that I learned at Rock the Bayou

Houston had a festival this past weekend full of all of the 80's hair bands. There were many performers for four days, such as Ratt, Sammy Hagar, Bret Michaels and LA Guns.These are things that I took away from it:
1. You can still try to pass off a band as the original even if just one person is the same.
2. People who plan concert events outside in Houston in the summer are insane and those of us who attend are just as crazy.
3. There are people out there that can create a whole living room full of blankets, rugs and blow up couches outside at a rock festival. With just a little help from an air pump an entire room setting was created! Very impressive! I am going to try this next year, except for I will even include end tables and lamps,(I am a design major after all)!
4. Grown men who are aging rockers and have nothing else to do to shock people, sometimes wear dresses! Yes I am talking to you Taime Downe from Faster Pussycat! It is not cute to wear your grandma's moo moo dress to perform. It is also not cute when you wear black and red lipstick and do not apply it correctly. No self respecting drag queen would be caught dead with bad makeup. May I suggest a MAC consultation!
5. Sammy Hagar is a cool dude! Well I already knew that, because I have been a Van Halen fan for years, but he put on a great show! Ratt also did a great job and unless Stephen Pearcy cheated and had botox he really has not aged much at all.
6. There are girls out there who think that a bra can be substituted for an entire shirt. I can not figure out the thought process to get someone to go out of the house without the rest of their ensemble, but this is in fact what I witnessed. I have been in a hurry many times. I have also been extremely annoyed trying to figure out between two shirts which one to wear, but never, no never, have a decided to just give up and leave the house with neither.
7. If you give a guy a guitar, take away his hair and pack on some pounds, he can still get girls!
8. If you give a guy a tv show, pack on the makeup and give him a guitar he can get lots of hoochies, not pointing any fingers Bret Michaels.

Weekly Words to Live By

This week the words of wisdom are from Marilyn! Now if I could get all of the single girls in the world to realize that this quote is true the world would be a happier place!


Marilyn Monroe Quotes GlamCrazy.com

5 Reasons Why Keith Richards Makes Me Happy

1. First, of course, he is the guitarist of the Rolling Stones and I love me some Stones! :)

2. Honky Tonk Woman is one of my most favorite rock songs.

3. He is proof that you don't have to give in to the fad that is botox.

4. He always seems like he has a good story to tell. I mean who else goes to Fiji, climbs up a tree at the age of I don't know, uh.. OLD, only to fall out, get a concussion and then be perfectly fine. Life should be lived in a manner in which you get good stories and I know Keith would not be at a loss for those!

5. He takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'! Keith to me is like the terminator of rockstars. He just keeps on keeping on and for that Keith Richards makes me smile! Long live Keith!

KARMA

Karma is defined as: One's acts considered as fixing one's lot in the future existence. The doctrine of fate as the inflexible result of cause and effect; the theory of inevitable consequence.

Or more loosely as realizing someone that thinks that they are God's gift to the world and once greatly insulted your intelligence can not even spell his own city on his company's website! Sometimes saying nothing in your defense and waiting for things to come back around is the best thing you can do! Now back to happy thoughts! :)

Why???

Why do they call it a drive thru if you are going to have to go inside anyway? EVERY TIME we go to a certain place that shall remain nameless, oh what the heck TACO BELL, they get our order wrong. So each and every time we get our order and try to be polite by driving up so that the next person can get their food we realize that we do not have the correct food and are no longer next to the window. This then means we have to get out of the car and go in to get them to redo the order at which point they never say sorry and never act as if they actually were the ones who messed up. Who knows maybe that little chihuahua from the old commercials is still in there somewhere and ate my nachos that they left out!

I have heard of crazy people

but why in the world would someone do this:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6318226 ?

I am not posting a picture, because just looking at those things make my skin crawl! But what would possess someone to steal something that is venomous? You would think the word venom would scare people off and if not the words, " There is no anti venom for this particular snake", would certainly do the trick! I have heard it all now I do believe.

Weekly Words to Live By

If God would have wanted us to sleep in tents, get bitten by ants and have to pee behind a tree he would not have given architects the brains to build hotels! (That is my summer vacation tip for everyone!:) )

My past few weeks,(in pictures).

I have been so busy lately, but now I am back with pics to share.

I had time off so I got to spend it with my mom, dad and their puppy Charcoal.

My family, who we had not seen in two years, was able to visit us from Tennessee! We had a great time! We were able to fit in alot of the things that they wanted to do like an Astros game, Galveston, downtown Houston and San Antonio.

We went to the Alamo, the River Walk, to eat at my favorite place, Rio Rio, and on the little boat ride around the river. Gabriel decided to play with a cactus on the grounds of the Alamo. Let's hope he learned his lesson with that one! It was so very hot there, but it was still a great day.

We hung out in Galveston and took a trip on the ferry over to Port Boliver. We went to the beach where my family caught hermit crabs and I ran from them because they are really ugly, little critters. There were really pretty views of the lighthouse from the boat.

Then the weather took a turn for the worst. There was a threat of a tropical storm/small hurricane. Luckily it was not as bad as at first expected and there was hardly any damage. Barkley was ready, though, for any rain that came his way!