guess where we were....

1. 1st thing in the morning, she whispered very sweetly "mama can I get in the pack and play with Tallulah."

2. she ate chorizo and egg tacos.

3. she went down to the river to look at ducks.

4. she drew on bricks with chalk.

5. she picked pecans.

6. she had oreos as a snack.

7. she washed pecans. (not sure why other than she wanted to play with water)

8. she complained about being wet and took off her clothes***

8a. she had a minor fit when told to put clothes back on.

9. she examined her broccoli plant.

10. she tried to catch butterflies with her homemade net.

11. she towed her sister in a wagon with her trike.

If you are guessing castroville, you would be correct, sir.

***if you got my christmas card, you probably noticed that my girls were not in flouncy dresses or matching christmas pjs. they were in a diaper cover and underwear, because in the case of the diaper cover there is nothing cuter than a baby in a diaper cover and in the case of the underwear, that is what she likes to wear and in fact had an underwear tan/grime line for most of last summer. And even when it is 40 degrees outside, it is hard to convince her to put pants on.

spring break 2011

The Magic Wand




Calling for geese with grandpa




Charlotte the Snail

Little Kiss

Sprinkler Magic

happy reunion

I was tired, weary actually, so spring break found us at grandma and grandpa's house, which meant Annabelle's days went something like this: Wake up late, at about 8:00, get dressed, head to the big house, eat a hearty breakfast of some kind of pork product, and then time to go outside and get on the swing. But since grandpa has not taken his shower, she has to wait patiently and ride her bike or scooter. When he finally comes out, she gets on the swing for about an hour. Grandpa pushes her and talks to his next door neighbor, who by this time has mosied on over for gossip and an 11:00 beer. Then she is done with the swing and gets in the sandbox. She finds a snail, which we kept as a pet, and kept alive, I might add, for an entire week. She names the snail Charlotte and goes about finding plants and a suitable place for him/her to live. Then we eat lunch and watch the birds at the bird feeder outside the kitchen window. Then more swing, bike, scooter, with a break for some shop time with my dad, where they drill holes into stuff. Then she comes inside and makes a mess or paints herself with markers which causes my mom to shoo her outside for a run through the sprinkler. Then more swing time or a trip down to the river to call the geese. Then supper, and a bath. Then we head over to the little house and she sits out on the back porch to watch the stars come out and listen to the sound of the night on my mom's lap while my mom tells her stories. Then we work on our Lenten project which is a prayer cross, where every night we tear out a piece of construction paper and write down the name of someone we want to pray for. I placed behind my mom and auntie and uncle dale and Johnathan the Lion at the Houston zoo but ahead of grandma's cats and papa, so I am feeling pretty good.

Tallulah's day goes like this: eat, happy, put stuff in mouth, suddenly and for no reason decide she is pissed, screams f0r what seems like an eternity, then nap. Repeat until 7 p.m. then sleep till midnight and then wake up every three hours.

My day goes like this: corral Annabelle, make sure the baby doesn't swallow leaves, nurse the baby, play with baby, curse baby, fuss at mom for fussing at me for letting the baby cry it out. repeat.

I really didn't want to come home, but on Thursday Annabelle announced that she missed her dad and wanted to go home immediately, because she "can't live without papa."

Which is just as it should be.

Castroville Texas, pop. 3674

My mom and dad retired to Castroville, a town that is about 20 miles West of San Antonio. Because they are super friendly, well my dad is super friendly, my mom is friendly in a feisty way, they have made some really great friends in their next door neighbors. They did this with beer. My dad and Gerry are big beer drinkers and they spend a good chunk of their day drinking beer under an oak tree that they have dubbed the beer garden. While they do this, they plot against my mom and Brenda (I am not sure if they plot as much as make fun of, but my mom assures me that they are plotting).

This weekend we went to Castroville to participate in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Brenda organized the whole thing and our team was Toni's tigers. It would be hard for me to summarize Castroville in one post, but here goes it:

My mom was telling me about a bank robbery that happened where the robbers get-away car was a model-t. The scoundrels crashed it into a semi. The commotion caused the two cops who work for CPD (not to be confused with the cracker-jack Conroe PD) who were eating at the taqueria to run out the door at the same time. They were so fat their asses got stuck in the door so they had to radio the constable. But he drives a little camero and already had someone in the car so he had to call the dog catcher. She told me this story along with Brenda who was correcting her on the parts she got confused. When she got to the dog catcher part I said "really?" and she said "No, of course not, but that is what everyone is saying." Apparently one of the main forms of entertainment in Castroville is going to the coffee shop and telling yarns about how stupid and fat the cops are and these yarns get woven all across town.

The other form of entertainment/oral history is the hatred of anyone from Hondo, a town about 20 miles west of Castroville.

Brenda: "this relay is the only time people from Castroville, Hondo and Divine get along."

Me: "really, because of football?"

Brenda: "well, that and because Castroville used to be the county seat, but the people from Hondo came and stole it."

Me: "but didn't that happen like 100 years ago?"

Brenda: "yeah, we're still mad about it."

These pictures are of our relay team and the senile old lady who PASSED MY MOM on the survivor's lap. She thought I was cheering her on. And I was, I totally was.