When that sun is high in that Texas sky

What feels like forever but was really two weekends ago, we packed up The Monsters and drove south to San Antonio for Fiesta. “Fiesta?” you say? “As in a party?” Not quite. “As in an entire month of pageants and fundraisers culminating in a week of parades and parties and festivals? When parking restrictions and open container laws mean absolutely nothing? When asking to see a pretty girl’s shoes isn’t creepy?” Yup.

There is a historical side to Fiesta, however. It all began in 1890 as a singular parade put on by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to honor the heroes of the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto. Fiesta now stretches over 11 days with over 100 events, has a huge economic impact on the city of San Antonio and raises money for many charities and causes in and around the city as well. The Battle of Flowers Parade (where I took the above photo of The Joey) is second in size only to the Tournament of Roses Parade, and continues to be the only parade in the country organized and produced by women. Plus, it’s just awesome! 

When we (finally) made it to San Antonio there was just enough time to sleep until early the next morning, when we got up early to go to The Battle of Flowers Parade.

If you think I should look a little happier to be at the most awesome place in April, you’re right. I was miserable. As it turns out I am allergic to absolutely everything outdoors, most especially oak and pecan pollens, and grass. So springtime in San Antonio when it’s dry and windy and everything is coated in pollen and grass seed is not my friend. I took Benadryl and kept falling asleep behind my sunglasses sitting and waiting for the parade to start. Which is funny now because I’ve since learned that The Husband and my cousin Bucky kept talking to me only to find out I was asleep behind my sunglasses. Ha!

When was the last time you saw McGruff the dog?! I got a little excited, all those flashbacks to D.A.R.E. and all.

 

 

 

 

This is the army band. And what was so awesome was that they are playing tejano music! I will make a confession here: I still have no idea what they’re saying or anything, but something about San Antonio makes me love tejano music.

 

 

 

 

 

This is pretty much what San Antonio is like during Fiesta. Beautiful, tradtional and draped in flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m still trying to figure out why only Miss San Antonio was driven in a low-rider.

 

 

This is one of the more traditional floats I saw in the parade. I wish the photo could translate the fresh, earthy sweet smell of the flowers as they passed by. It was just beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

So then we got out the cascarones. Confetti eggs. And if you’ve never had the joy of cracking a dyed eggshell filled with paper confetti on the skull of your beloved cousins (shout out, R’s!), you’ve obviously never lived. The downside is that when you have insanely thick curly hair and you get that confetti in there because your aforementioned beloved cousins not only crack the shell on your skull but then rub it in you have to brush out your hair, immediately resulting in a Mexi-fro.

I didn’t take a picture of that.

Did I forget to mention that I had my wisdom tooth out the day before we left for San Antonio? I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to eat all the yummies awaiting me down south, but it all worked out.

Except for the cerveza-ritas.

My cousins Bucky and Rae kept telling me and The Husband about some wonderful drink called a cerveza-rita. So since our grandmother was out of town* and we were staying there with The Monsters and Izzy the Wonder Dog alone, The Cousins brought over some liquor and beer and made Trey a cerveza-rita. Since I could neither drink through a straw nor ingest alcohol due to the wisdom tooth healing process, I just took the pictures of the cerveza-rita. I hope to have one soon. Very very soon. It wasn’t fair, and I may have pouted.

 

And that was just the end of day one.

 

*Who am I kidding? My grandmother would have probably pulled up a schooner with the rest of them. She’s kinda cool like that.

Hello I've waited here for you everlong

Hello...?

Is anyone still out there?

[crickets]

While I never promised to be a great (or even consistent) blogger, months without a post is probably too long. So I'm sorry. I was busy growing a person.

I'm still not done growing a person... and I'm so over it. I think we're down to about 9 weeks, maybe less. I've lost count. Whoever decided that nine months would be a good amount of time for babies to grow needs to reassess the situation. It sucks. And I'm tired. And my back hurts after doing something menial like cleaning the stovetop and then I can't do anything for the rest of the day. I'm fed up with being useless and in pain. I want to be able to pick up The Joey or take him outside to play or get on the floor and color... something. Anything.

Venting - done.

So I have a ton of things coming up, and most are requiring my craft skills to be in top form. I'm still working on the picture frames for the nursery (pictures will follow when the room is complete, probably January 2010), and then next on my list is a tablecloth for the table The Husband made for the living room. Yes, made. Handy husband + crafty wife = more money in the bank! So then after the tablecloth is done, I'm going to have to put everything aside and start working on holiday madness. I think I've got the design for my younger sisters' Christmas gift done in my head. Actually I have two ideas, but I don't know which one to go with. I was going to make a set of two....

Luckily we're purchasing more than creating this year, solely to preserve my sanity. But when you're purchasing for three of the hardest people to shop for (The Husband's family) sanity is pretty much out the window from the get-go. I love my in-laws and I know how lucky I am to have a great relationship with them... but they are soooo hard to shop for!!!! And The Husband is not really very much help. At all. And my suggestions are all met with, "I dunno...."

Apparently I wasn't done venting. More apologies. I think I'll have some egg rolls for lunch and the world will be a better place.

Look at me, look at me, Hands in the air like it's good to be

Slacker slacker slacker! I wear my title proudly. It's not like I haven't been doing things - I've been doing TONS of things. That's just the problem....

The Husband and I have reached a critical point in this pregnancy. I like to call it "Yeah... but how did it get in there?" Because that's the question Joey seems intent on getting an answer to. We tried to sugar-coat it with "Well, it takes a little bit of Mommy and a little bit of Daddy and a whole lot of love," only to be answered with a pause and "Yeah... but how did it get in there?" So we try again, with "Well, Mommy and Daddy love each other a whole lot and we love you a whole lot so we decided to have another baby," - "Yeah... but how did it get in there?" So I have no idea what to tell a four year old about sex and any book I could find at Barnes & Noble would probably make me giggle so we're just kind of not answering him for now. The Husband says he wants to wait until The Joey can be fully embarassed by the answer to the question. I plan on waiting until he's old enough to be truthful with.

So I guess I'll work backwards from here on out because honestly, I can remember what I did this week but not really what I did last week.

I am in the middle of an embroidery marathon. I can't stop, and I really shouldn't. Because I am the smartest person in the world, I decided to make a gift for a friend's baby shower but didn't really assess the project as a whole and there's a hell of a lot of embroidery to be done by the end of next week. Since she's probably reading this (hey Lauren!) I won't go into detail as to what it is but I can tell you I'm very happy to do it because I love this girl to death and am so happy for her and her husband and their baby girl. And I'm not even being facetious - I really mean it!

We also ordered our tickets to the circus next week! And I actually found badass seats for a badass price! See, The Husband brought home a flier from his work advertising 25% off ticket prices. So upon deeper research it was impossible to find good seats with the discount. So I remembered looking at the website last year when we thought we wanted to go and finding a military discount... for 50% off ticket prices!!! So then I went to the Ticketmaster website and looked for the best seats for every day the circus is in town. We wound up with center ring seats in the first row of the balcony for $7.50 a ticket! What we've found out about the whole circus thing is that The Husband and I are more excited about going to the circus than The Joey. I'm sure, though, that once we pay for parking and cotton candy and a glow wand and a souvenir cup The Joey will be more excited to be at the circus than we are.

Tuesday I ordered this (thanks Lauren!) for The Joey's Robot Room. and it said it would take 3-5 business days to arrive. So imagine my surprise when I saw the man in brown drop a big box on my doorstep and drive away yesterday afternoon... it was the sheets! We had an awesome time looking at the robots and talking about getting a new Big Brother Bed and then when the novelty was gone The Husband and I discussed putting a waterproof mattress pad on the Big Brother Bed. I wonder why they call it waterproof... everyone really knows it's being peeproof that really matters.

I got to spend last Sunday with The Doctor, and we had a blast. Luckily she works REALLY early in the morning so we get tired about the same time in the afternoon, so I wasn't out too late. We went to see "The Proposal" and were greatly surprised that we enjoyed it so much. I thought it was going to be your typical formulaic romantic comedy and while there were some of those elements to it, the greater proportion turned out to be hilarious and awesome. Then we went in search of pregnancy church clothes and athletic shoes... not to be worn together, of course. In between there we got some beyond-yummy-lunch that made the parasite very very happy. It was spicy!

I have no idea what else has happened since I last posted. All I can think about is embroidery. Someday I will be sane again....

Meet me in the crowd

So I went to the doctor's office yesterday and apparently I have super-human powers of knowing when I'm pregnant (this time, anyway). Apparently I am 4.6 weeks, and I had known for 2 and a half weeks. The math doesn't lie, people - I'm a mutant. My other mutant power is randomly knowing what time it is. It really freaks the husband out.

While I was filling out my new patient paperwork in the reception lobby at the doctor's office this HUGE lady came in with this pod-child zombie boy. That means he was connected to an ipod or some other thing like it, with his head buried in it responding to the nudges of his mother (?) as directions of where to go. This lady was on her phone talking so loud about somebody trying to get someone else's parental rights terminated and why. I was really relieved that I hadn't missed my daily quota of trash tv, except this time it wasn't on tv. Then the pod-child zombie boy started singing along with whatever thing he was plugged into, and kicking the chair to the beat. Unfortunately he and I were sitting back to back and as a result I wanted to throttle him.

And now for your robot room update:

We have a finalized quilt pattern! And I have been persuaded to join a quilt group to help me through what is sure to be a trying process. Next week (should I make it) we will be calculating how much fabric I will need for the whole thing.  Very exciting, I know. I need to work on my mother's Mother's Day present, as I will be seeing her in about a week and a half.

Hey - what the hell is the deal with taking pictures of yourself? I have to just touch on this for a second because it makes no freaking sense to me, and kind of angers me - which means I have to tell a story to make you understand why it angers me. So the husband's friends came over for his birthday this year and I was like, ugh... okay. Their insular-ness is more than aggravating and genuinely distasteful. Really puts me off and I don't really like the time I spend with them but I give at least 80% for the husband's sake. Anyway, we ran out of beer at said party so I went to Wal-Mart to grab some more. When I came back and was looking through my camera for photos to delete so I could take more without uploading to the computer first, I saw a bunch of pictures taken by the subject and the subject's friends. On my camera. So now I have photos of people I don't really like taking up a ton of my camera space. So of course these people happen to be on facebook and such and there's like a million of these type of photos of themselves! I can't help but laugh about it (at them, of course) because it's just so vain and, well, silly. You can't take pictures of anything  else but yourself and the same 5 people? Whatever.

And for fairness' sake, I took the picture on my profile myself. So maybe I know nothing.

Spinning on that dizzy edge

So bored. So, so, so bored.

The husband has his drill this weekend so while he's at the base I'm just kinda here. I cleaned yesterday and I'm sure there's more to be done, but I'm too bored to do it. Same with the art - too bored to do anything. I'll bet it has something to do with the weather - it's rainy and gloomy and muggy and windy and I just want to curl up on the couch and doze off. Which I've already done, but I'm still bored.

Of course, in the time it took for me to type the last two paragraphs Joey has gotten up on the couch and fallen off, knocking over my filled-to-capacity embroidery thread box. I have to have at least 100 different colors in there. So at least now I have something to do... but instead I'm sitting right here in front of the computer. If Trey gets home before I get around to cleaning up the mess I'll just say I was leaving it there for him to see because it made me SO mad I couldn't bear to do it right away. Works every time....

So I've been thinking of all the nontraditional jobs I could do to bring in some money. I only need about $200 a week (post taxes) to make a difference; more if it were to mean I'd need to put Joey in daycare. But if I could work overnight somewhere I wouldn't have to worry about that. How cool would that be - working overnight doing something completely nontraditional? Talk about life experience.... I'm a night person anyway, sometimes to a fault. Those are the night/mornings when I'm still up at 3:30, 4 o'clock in the morning, just because. Or if someone just wants to hand me $200 bucks a week for being me - that would be pretty cool, too. I'm pretty damn good at just being me.

I cannot wait to receive a special package in the mail from New York City. Big Sister is sending me a GREAT fabric sample (from SoHo, no less!) for Joey's robot room quilt. I think I may be nesting - although is it possible to nest before one gets pregnant? Anyway, I want to get on this Robot Room right away, even though I have never quilted before or designed a room from scratch. Let's all just say a little prayer: "Dear lord of the sewing machine, paint brushes, and all things crafty - we're gathered here today to beg your blessing of the Robot Room Project. Many drops of blood, tears of frustration, and curse words will be sacrificed to you during the completion of this undertaking. Please forgive me, for I know not at all what I'm doing."

Come on, even the real God has to have a sense of humor.

When you smile it is like a song

Ladies and gentlemen... we have robots! Mr. Y is going to be changing colors to a dark midnight navy blue, but I think you can get the idea. I just had to share the fact that I made the decision to skip the gym this morning to sit down and color robots. Now I'm working out the math of a quilt in my head which means I'll have a headache in about an hour.

I think Izzy the Princess Dog is upset with me for turning off the air conditioner. I just checked the thermometer and it's allegedly 95 degrees outside, although it feels slightly cooler than the devil's asshole in the house. But hey, we all need to do our part and it's Earth Day for goodness' sake. Also, and this is motivation number one, I was able to lower our electric bill for last month by about 70 bucks by turning off the air conditioner so in my opinion cool air can just suck it.

I believe in snow cones.

Now everything is cool as long as I'm getting thinner

I need robots.

No, not to do my laundry and clean my floors and cook my meals (although wouldn't that be the coolest thing EVER?). I need robots to model for me so I can paint them and sew them and put them in Joey's room. OR... I need robots to come live in Joey's room so he can finally have the robot room he's been asking for since before we moved 5 months ago.

Back in our old house he had the cutest room. I dreamed it up after a trip to Pottery Barn kids to register for his nursery bedding - Moons & Stars. However, 5 months was not enough time for The Sisters to acquire said nursery bedding and it was discontinued. A fact I still have issue with and I hope someday they have the pleasure of going through books and catalogs to find the perfect nursery bedding then have the picture playing in their heads for 9 months ripped right out of their super-pregnant high-octane hormonal hands, resulting in permanent trauma. But really, it's fine...

Anyway, Joey's room in our old house was fantastic. It was pale yellow for the upper half of the wall, then pale blue for the lower half. Where the two met there was a thick white stripe and in the white stripe was a very thin pale green stripe. His furniture is natural wood color and white, and it was a beautiful bright room at any given time of day - a perfect little boy's room. So to help ease the transition between the houses I talked to Joey about what his new room would be, and he had just seen WALL-E and wanted robots. But his slacker mother has been too "busy" to make this all happen. You know, cleaning, cooking, unpacking, looking for a job.... But since we've decided to wait this whole silly recession thing out and make babies I've decided to commit some time to my little boy's new and improved Robot Room.

But not just any robots are fit for the Robot Room. I want old school robots. Like back in the 1950's, when people were obsessed with alien robots from outer space and communists. I want communist robots in my son's room. Gotta love Cold War culture. I thought I might find some web images to work from, but that would be wrong. I've been looking at Amazon because if I have to buy a book to work from I think it would be worth it, but still nothing. I may have to go into a book store (gasp!) and look at books to make sure I get a good one with plenty to work from. And don't even get me started on the library where I live and why I can't use the huge central Fort Worth one downtown....

I just want some good, old-fashioned communist robots!