Happy Holidays to Y’All from Snowy Texas
December 21, 2009 at 12:09 pm (Holidays, Home, Houston, Texas)
Christmas (tree) on the Farm
December 19, 2009 at 1:24 pm (Family, Holidays, Home, Kids)
He was hoping for the tallest tree on the lot. Our house is not that big.
My niece, totally loving the Christmas Tree farm.
How about that little guy? He’s perfect.
Child labor is one of the many benefits of having these guys around. Saw away, Boy.
And when you’re done sawing, start dragging.
And don’t forget to smile when we get the decorations up, when you remember exactly why it is we have a tree. I’m thinking someone is looking forward to a present or two.
I think maybe they’ve earned one or two.
I’m Thankful For
November 27, 2009 at 1:08 pm (Family, Friendship, Home, My new life)
My kids, Brian, Our health, Airplanes, Skype, Love, Cell phones, Facebook, Kissing, My house, My job, Coffee, Sleeping late in the morning, Friends, Laughter, Books, Chocolate, Hope, Memories, Smiles, That voice, Hindsight, Plans, Doctors, Beaches, Family… and so much more.
I’m grateful for this life.
Happy Thanksgiving to you.
Home Sweet Home
November 21, 2009 at 11:55 am (Brazil, Home, Seeing the world, Travel, international relationship, long distance, long distance relationship)
There is a thing about us that I love. Whenever we are together, we are home. Wherever we are.
For four days in October home was here in Teresopolis. Here where we ate breakfast and drank our coffee on the patio each morning. Where we swam in the freezing pool and made new friends with other guests’ children when we were the only adults who would play frisbee. Where we kicked each other’s asses at ping pong, and fought off the resident psycho kitty. Where we spent as much time as possible together, while that time lasted, and where I tried my best to not let him out of my sight.
And if he did leave my sight, I knew this thing was watching out for us.
I’m still not sure if we were supposed to be protected by it, or afraid of it.
Bokeh!
July 13, 2009 at 10:44 am (Home, Photos, jpegge.com)
Oh, I’m having so much fun with this. I love that out-of-focus background!
Photo blog
July 2, 2009 at 8:14 am (Home, Just for fun, Photos, jpegge.com)
How do you like my little friend, Niles? He lives in my back yard and keeps me company every time I turn on the hose to water my garden.
Clearly, I have a hard time with the writing. So I’m giving myself a break and I think I’ll try switching to Photo Blog mode. Now that my NEW and AWESOME camera has shipped, I’m guessing the quality of my photos is going to improve every time I take it out, so why not document that a bit here?
If you didn’t notice it at first, see the little bit of text on the bottom right of the picture? That is my new business. I have goals, and wishes, and a whole life I need to live, and working 50 hours a week is not helping me get there. Do me a favor and go check it out, and if you like it tell your friends.
I won!
January 6, 2009 at 10:51 am (Blogroll, Home)
Thanks to Karen at Europe A La Carte, I am now the proud new owner of my very own ginormous world map.
It fits perfectly in my little library, just above my imaginary chair.
Thank you!!
We’re back
March 4, 2007 at 12:02 pm (Family, Home, Houston, Kids)
What’s that you say? I should post something once in a while? Kiss my what?
Actually, nothing was happening. Nothing to see here, nothing to write about.
NOW, however… When it rains, it pours. Suddenly we have all started back to Tae Kwon Do. Salem finally reached her goal of two years and had enough money to purchase her very own laptop which showed up in the mail two days ago. She even had enough left over to buy herself her very first guitar (a very cool acoustic/electric combo). And, Kelly’s mother is here visiting from California.
How’s that for busy. Weeks and weeks of not much happening, and BAM. Busy.
Tae Kwon Do is really fun. We used to go to a studio in Reno that we really loved, but once the kids were born we had no time for it. We were finally able to go back again when we lived in California, but the school there wasn’t great. It was over crowded, had too many kids per class, and didn’t really give us the work out or the technique that we wanted. Plus, after 6 months, Kelly crashed the motorcycle and destroyed his knee and we all stopped going. Then we moved. Anyway, now that we know we’ll be here in Houston for a little while, we started looking around for a good studio and found this place. We love it! They really focus on technique, everyone is friendly, and there are at least 3 to 5 blackbelts teaching each class. We’ve been to 7 classes now and are feeling good. They work us hard over there, so maybe some of this ass will go away.
Salem has been saving every dime of her allowance, birthday money, babysitting money and spare change found in the laundry room for two years. She has wanted her own laptop in a really bad way. Mostly because we are computer hogs ’round these parts and she wanted her turn! Well, she finally had enough cash in the bank (once we had the money from our jobs to catch her up on the allowance we owed her) to order the shiny new HP. It showed up in a box the day before yesterday and she could not be more excited. Unless it worked. That might make it more fun. It worked fine yesterday, but today the antenna seems to have gone missing and it won’t connect to the internet. When we called HP to see if they could walk us through a fix, Kel was first told to just buy a new, identical computer and then send this one back for a refund in a week. I’m sorry, but we don’t have over a thousand dollars sitting around to send for a second (fourth?) computer since they won’t refund our money for this one for almost two more weeks. After we nixed that idea they put him on hold for SEVENTY TWO minutes so he could talk to a customer service geek who might be able to help. He hung up.
On the bright side I learned how to play the first 5 notes of “Blackbird” on Salem’s guitar while he was on hold. That little black guitar is very cool. A friend at work brought me a Guitar magazine, and a copy of directions on how to understand the tablature. It took me a few minutes to figure it out (because I’m musically retarded) but I think I’m gettin’ it.
Kelly’s mother, who lives near Sacramento, is here for the next week. After a brief accidental tour of the airport, I picked her up on Wednesday evening. We’re really enjoying the visit. I love visits from nice family members who enjoy cleaning my house. Seriously, my dishes are done, my stairs are vacuumed, and my laundry room is clean. We have to tell her not to clean anymore or there won’t be anything left for my Mom to do when she comes to visit in two weeks.
We spent the afternoon today at Forbidden Gardens. That was very cool. It was a very odd thing to find in the middle of the flat Texas plains, but they did a really good job presenting the story. I got some great pictures that I’ll put up when we finally get caught up on the website. Our tour guide was awesome and knew every single thing about China that anyone could possibly ask. Especially about how everybody died. The emperor who ordered the terra-cotta warriors to be made had a very strict zero tolerance policy about everything, and folks were droppin like flies around the man.
Now, we’re about to sit down and watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith fall in love over bullets and blood. How romantic.
Actually, nothing was happening. Nothing to see here, nothing to write about.
NOW, however… When it rains, it pours. Suddenly we have all started back to Tae Kwon Do. Salem finally reached her goal of two years and had enough money to purchase her very own laptop which showed up in the mail two days ago. She even had enough left over to buy herself her very first guitar (a very cool acoustic/electric combo). And, Kelly’s mother is here visiting from California.
How’s that for busy. Weeks and weeks of not much happening, and BAM. Busy.
Tae Kwon Do is really fun. We used to go to a studio in Reno that we really loved, but once the kids were born we had no time for it. We were finally able to go back again when we lived in California, but the school there wasn’t great. It was over crowded, had too many kids per class, and didn’t really give us the work out or the technique that we wanted. Plus, after 6 months, Kelly crashed the motorcycle and destroyed his knee and we all stopped going. Then we moved. Anyway, now that we know we’ll be here in Houston for a little while, we started looking around for a good studio and found this place. We love it! They really focus on technique, everyone is friendly, and there are at least 3 to 5 blackbelts teaching each class. We’ve been to 7 classes now and are feeling good. They work us hard over there, so maybe some of this ass will go away.
Salem has been saving every dime of her allowance, birthday money, babysitting money and spare change found in the laundry room for two years. She has wanted her own laptop in a really bad way. Mostly because we are computer hogs ’round these parts and she wanted her turn! Well, she finally had enough cash in the bank (once we had the money from our jobs to catch her up on the allowance we owed her) to order the shiny new HP. It showed up in a box the day before yesterday and she could not be more excited. Unless it worked. That might make it more fun. It worked fine yesterday, but today the antenna seems to have gone missing and it won’t connect to the internet. When we called HP to see if they could walk us through a fix, Kel was first told to just buy a new, identical computer and then send this one back for a refund in a week. I’m sorry, but we don’t have over a thousand dollars sitting around to send for a second (fourth?) computer since they won’t refund our money for this one for almost two more weeks. After we nixed that idea they put him on hold for SEVENTY TWO minutes so he could talk to a customer service geek who might be able to help. He hung up.
On the bright side I learned how to play the first 5 notes of “Blackbird” on Salem’s guitar while he was on hold. That little black guitar is very cool. A friend at work brought me a Guitar magazine, and a copy of directions on how to understand the tablature. It took me a few minutes to figure it out (because I’m musically retarded) but I think I’m gettin’ it.
Kelly’s mother, who lives near Sacramento, is here for the next week. After a brief accidental tour of the airport, I picked her up on Wednesday evening. We’re really enjoying the visit. I love visits from nice family members who enjoy cleaning my house. Seriously, my dishes are done, my stairs are vacuumed, and my laundry room is clean. We have to tell her not to clean anymore or there won’t be anything left for my Mom to do when she comes to visit in two weeks.
We spent the afternoon today at Forbidden Gardens. That was very cool. It was a very odd thing to find in the middle of the flat Texas plains, but they did a really good job presenting the story. I got some great pictures that I’ll put up when we finally get caught up on the website. Our tour guide was awesome and knew every single thing about China that anyone could possibly ask. Especially about how everybody died. The emperor who ordered the terra-cotta warriors to be made had a very strict zero tolerance policy about everything, and folks were droppin like flies around the man.
Now, we’re about to sit down and watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith fall in love over bullets and blood. How romantic.
Swarm
February 4, 2007 at 10:58 am (Home, Houston, Kids)
Salem and I spent today shopping and preparing for her slumber party tonight. We got pizza, soda, cake ingredients, a veggie tray, chips, dip, ice cream, grapes, apples, and we rented movies. At the house we did balloons and streamers all over the place.
It was fun doing that again. I used to do big birthday parties when the kids were little, but they haven’t been into them for the last few years. Instead we’ve planned a trip, or an outing. I didn’t realize that I missed it until today.
So, I have blue and white crap all over the house. The whole place smells like pizza, and I’m eating potato chips and soda. My girl is in the living room with 3 friends, all coming up with 101 ways to get yourself kicked out of Wally Mart. My favorite? Run stealthily through the whole store with a toy Nerf gun, singing the Mission Impossible theme song.
They’re also preparing their questions and ideas for Truth or Dare. Do I want to know? Probably not.
Kelly and Bryce are having a Father/Son night at the Monster Truck Jam.
I’d say it’s a great night.
Oh, and you see that flower pot up there? That’s the cake. Dirt cake, with gummi worms. Awesome.
Happy New Year
January 2, 2007 at 4:00 am (Family, Home, Houston)
We had a good New Year’s Eve. Any day that starts off with sleeping in can only be good.
We took the kids to see “Night at the Museum” in the IMAX theater in the Museum of Natural Science downtown. Larry and Chelsea came a long and we loved it! I had heard good things about the movie, and it lived up to all of it. Super funny and lots of adventure with a good ending. The only problem I had with it was that the museum in the movie was supposed to be the New York Natural History Museum, which we’ve been to, but it was filmed in the Chicago Natural History Museum. All of the outside shots and the story line were set in NYC, but when the movie switched to the interior of the museum I kept thinking, “Hey, that’s not what it looks like!” or “That’s not where the door is!” or “Hey, that T-Rex was in the back, not the lobby!”
Dick Van Dyke was awesome. He always reminds me so much of my Grandpa that I like him anyways, so there’s that. If you have time, watch the credits at the end and don’t miss his dancing! I haven’t seen better moves since Mary Poppins. Who knew he could shake it like that?
After the movie Larry and Kelly made a really good dinner at home. Steak, salmon, asparagus, cauliflower and potatoes au gratin. Yum. Grandpa donated some fireworks so we had fun blowing up stuff for about an hour after we ate.
Salem made some confetti for us, which we threw around the house at midnight. Was anyone else disgusted with the new year’s coverage on TV? We turned it on to watch the ball drop in New York and had to suffer through the commentary about entertainment’s sleaziest moments of the year. I’m sorry, but one day’s worth of hearing about Brittney’s lack of underpants or Nicole’s lack of body fat was more than enough when it happened. I don’t need a recap, thanks. Dick Clark, we missed you this year.
Oh, also, we met our new next-door neighbors when we got home, as they were just unloading the last of their stuff from the moving van. A young couple with two very small kids and a puppy named George. They’re very nice and we’re looking forward to having them around. So far we’ve been lucky with all our neighbors. Everyone waves and seems friendly except the one woman across the street. She sits in her garage smoking several times a day but won’t make eye contact or wave back when we say hi. Weird.
So, again, we slept in this morning and are enjoying the slow day. We may do a little more Christmas clean up, but that’s later. Already we have the ornaments off the tree, all the garland down, and the bells off all the doors. It’s looking a little sad. I’ll probably take the lights off the tree today, since it’s about 10 minutes away from spontaneous combustion anyway. No reason to take any further chance by having electricity wrapped around it.
Happy New Year to you all.
