I Can't Believe It

Three types of flowers bloom every spring in Texas by the sides of the highways - bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, and pink sundrops. I am in shock. I feel like God just smiled on me a little. Every spring I have seen them and loved them. The prettiest pink flowers ever. And wouldn't you know? They are called the name of my blog all along.

(will start posting pictures again as soon as I get this business of being too full all figured out)

Days Running Into Nights

Where have I been lately? Everywhere really. I've only been home two weekends from Thanksgiving but it feels like so much has gone on. Last weekend we had our fourth annual Christmas party for our Sunday School group. My favorite part is the pictures and the ornament exchange. I'm such a dork but I love getting an ornament somebody else picked out. The white elephant party is always a blast as well. The best gift was a box with three rolls of toilet paper, febreeze, hand soap, and two magazines. Awesomeness.

The rest of the weekend and week was filled with work, home-school, coffee with friends, catching up on appointments I completely skipped out on the week after vacation, girl nights, and decluttering the house for our holiday wine tasting party.

This weekend was our party which went off without a hitch. Twenty people in our TEENY house!! We set everything up so wonderfully it wasn't even a squeeze. There was dove chocolate, brownies, ham and swiss, salami and mozzarella pinwheels, seafood salad in fillo pastries, and spicy meatballs to go with the wine pairings, and s'mores for the after party. We were up til' 2am and spent half of the next day sleeping before we had friends over for dinner, games, and the Dark Knight.

Today Brando did a photo shoot for the same friends. The rest of the day was spent watching a Christmas cantata at church which Jen was in, and eating at P. Terry's of course.

Now it's time to start the week again. Happy Monday!

PS Oh, and I had my Texas Martinis at Trudy's with Kels last Friday night. Way too many, then we went to Sixth Street and downed some beers on top of that. We had fun people watching a group crash a bar with Goth Christmas though!

Weekends I love...

...dancing crazy in the car  to Rihanna's Disturbia, Pink's I'm Gonna Start a Fight, and Flo Rida's In the Ayer on the way to Dallas.

...Chinese food at the restaurant with the Chinese good luck cat keeping the beat with his paw.

...staying up til' 3am chatting with Allison.

...the kids playing video games all Sunday morning long with Marc.

...Sheep. Ball of fluff.

...Emmy. Adorable.

...going to see King Tut with Allison.

...waterfall walls.

...items created 3000 years ago with materials we don't even use daily anymore.

...details.

...being completely exhausted from so much insight that I slept an hour on the way home.

...dinner at Chipotle on a perfect evening with my fam.

...getting home to a girls' night.

...walking the Domain, having drinks and dessert at Starbucks, walking the UT Campus, and Town Lake all in one night, on the same day I get home from Dallas.

...falling asleep completely exhausted from a wonderful weekend.

...Pictures!!

King Tut at the DMOA

That's the waterfall wall behind me. Talk about vertigo.

Trying to upload more including an adorable one of Sheep but blogger is being picky.

This Week

Sunday - Lazy, productive day. Slept in, made a big, yummy breakfast with maple sausage, eggs, season fried potatoes, oj and coffee. Went to a talk at our church on how to talk to your kids about sex. Some of the same stuff we've heard before i.e. talk to them from when they're itty bitty with medical terms, and explain sex at their level, but more about the telling them of the actual action than we've heard before. Had milkshakes from P. Terry's on our way home.

Monday - Had off from nannying. Homeschooled Shawn. Dropped off and picked up the boys at their respective sport lessons, Shawners to a multi sport lesson and Justinbustin to his tennis lesson. Girl night watching The Hills, and Gossip Girl, eating chicken salad with feta, raspberry pecans, cucumbers, garlic croutons, and balsamic viniagarette.

Tuesday - Nannied. Had lunch with Kel Bel and her little Leprechaun, then walked Zilker Park Botanical Gardens with both of them. Rushed home late for a harried late evening of labeling items for a consignment sale at the Palmer Event center this weekend.

Wednesday - Dropped off items at the Palmer Event center for the consignment sale and volunteered the four hours I'd signed up for months ago to see what was going on behind the scenes. Met up with Tina for dinner at Z Tejas and desert at 360 Primo!! Fun and yum!!

Thursday - Nannied. Had lunch with my sister at Potbelly. Picked up a friend of Shawners at his school and brought them home for a playdate. Tried desperately to get a hold of the mom who picked up Justinbustin, but never succeeded. Ended up picking him up right before a meeting for the upper math program he is in at his school (woot! here we go again. i swear this should he be in upper/lower programs question will never end). Paid him, Shawners, and Shawners' little friend to babysit themselves outside the room of the meeting. Met up with Shawners little friends' Mom at Chick-fil-a afterwards. Met Jen at another Chick-fil-a a few minutes later for a solid hour of friend talk that I sooooo needed after that day.

Friday - LOTS of schoolwork to do with Shawners today. Ugh. Feel overwhelmed. Thus I'm avoiding it on here.

Breaking the Silence

Wow I don't think it's been that long since I blogged in awhile. The week of the seventh was VBS for the boys along with a million and one playdates, a dentist appointment, a haircut, and spending my birthday money on makeup from Sephora.

The weekend following VBS was my birthday weekend!! Whoohoo!! My girlfriends and I floated the guadalupe with sangria and beer. By the time I got out I was waaaayyyy more drunk than I realized sitting in my tube. One happy time! I spent the next two days recovering at home with Brando and the boys, who made me cupcakes for my birthday. We had bbq ribs, asian salad, and s'mores for my birthday dinner. Yummmm.

My birthday continued into the week with Brando being home for three days straight. I hadn't realized he was going to be off so I didn't plan any vacations. So we actually had some good at home family time. We did bike ride Town Lake on Tuesday and took Justinbustin's little friend. Other than that it was just good old hanging out at home and by the pool time. Oh and I forgot to mention I woke up on my birthday to ten different people wishing me happy birthday on my facebook via comments and messages. Talk about warm fuzzies!! I think birthday wishes from multiple people may be one of my favoritest gifts ever.

My girlfriend took me out to dinner at Maudie's Tuesday night for my birthday after I made a stop at a lakehouse for the Shawner's school get together for us who live in north Austin. Talk about a gorgeous house. I was kind of glad I didn't have to save face by keeping a big old grin on my face and talking about all our fabulous summer vacations while they tell me how they went to Hawaii for three weeks, and Colorado for two, and oh my how the rest of summer has been filled with expensive camp after expensive camp for their precious kiddos. You can shove it where the sun don't shine. By the way have you offered a scholarship to a kid in a less fortunate (or younger hehe) family? I think I may make a resolution to do that when I get to that point.

Any who *whistle as I look off into the sky* my girlfriend stole me away from all that and treated me at a new and fun restaurant. Her birthday gift to me, besides dinner, was beautiful earrings from my favorite store Francesca's. They are a single gold line in the shape of a paisley, if that makes any sense, and twisted at the point on the bottom to go back up. They are gorgeous, huge (which I love), and so so classy.

Speaking of those earrings I wore them to Allison's wedding in Vegas!! Whoohoo!! A friend of hers (now a friend of mine - I swear she has the sweetest friends in the world and it can only be because she is such a true friend herself) hooked me up with a plane ticket and we shared a hotel room. We both had to work on Saturday so we flew in Thursday morning and left Friday morning, but we sure did make the most of it while we were there. We even gambled at the airport on the way out - hehe.

Allison's wedding was at 4pm on Thursday and we got to watch Marc cry his eyes out waiting for her and all during the ceremony. Okay, really he was pale and had tears in his eyes the whole time. She was beautiful, gorgeous, with feathers in her hair reminding me of Carrie in the Sex and the City movie. Afterwards we ate at one of the famous Las Vegas buffets and gorged ourselves on all kinds of culinary fare with creme brulee, ice cream, tiramisu, and tiny cupcakes to top it off. After dinner we went up to their gorgeous, ginormous suite on the 26th level and enjoyed a birds eye view of Las Vegas with champagne toasts, and lots of conversation and pictures. After the crowd filtered out the bride passed out after we waited way too darn long for some guys to join us before we headed to the club, so most of the girls minus the bride went out for a good time. I was thoroughly shocked by Vegas, mainly the fact that pr*stitution is LEGAL. Genie asked me to bring her back some cards from the girls on the streets, but when I saw the girls dancing in the club and handing out cards I was too scared I would be arrested if I went up and asked for one... until one of the girls I was with told me it was legal in Vegas. Oh!! We danced the night away and turned in not too late (although it was 4am my time and I'd been up since 5am my time). Good thing, because I was up at seven packing up for the airport. We enjoyed a last breakfast with the girls and took off on our shuttle. My view of the Strip, the Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, mini Paris, was all from that shuttle and boy did I look touristy trying to capture it all. Besides seeing Allison and travelling with M, seeing all the places I've seen in the movies has to be my favorite part of being there. Next time M we are so having that mint julep in front of the Bellagio! Although I might make mine a mojito.

I got back last night and went straight to pick up the boys where I showered them with plane handouts and gave my sis a box of See's for watching my boys overnight. I woke up this morning and went straight to work, grateful that Brando was not in fact working today like I thought he was so I didn't have to scramble around for a last minute babysitter.

We barbequed fajita chicken, fresh handmade tortillas, and grilled onion by the pool this evening and now I am about to upload pictures and look at ones we took on July fourth for the first time!!!

Texas Weather & January Christmas

It was snowing and 28F degrees on Tuesday and 69F degrees today with a beautifully clear blue sky. That's what we call Texas. We had a late Christmas after church with the my sister's family and were showered with sweet and so very thoughtful Christmas presents in a corner of a little coffeehouse in town. The boys gave sweet and thoughtful gifts of their own they'd picked and wrapped themselves. Christmas in January is perfect. The little coffeehouse we ate had a private room with five comfy chairs, a table, and a few lamps. It was perfect. We had our own little party going there and the employees got in on it. Shawners gave my nephew a gift and my nephew tells him I need a hug and one of the employees walks by and says, "Me too." Brando gave him a hug. Before we left they handed us a stack of free coffee certificates. On the drive home we stopped by this gorgeous restaurant we love to eat just to get pictures of us on the lake in the beautifully clear weather.Goofy Brandon

Sunny Day

This evening.

Brrrr

It is freezing and raining outside. We've been watching the temparature drop all day from 39F to 34F where it is right now. When the wind blows there's a windchill of 28F. Tomorrow it's supposed to freeze and everything shut down tonight. Time for scarves, wool coats, fur edged gloves, and my cute new cable knit bag. Love it!

We had the BEST small group tonight. Brando and I are the curriculum coordinators for our Sunday school class and us along with the curriculum team have lined up an awesome lineup for this year's curriculum. God really has done it all - we've asked the questions and scheduled as available. He's worked it perfectly. As a small group we've decided to delve into what we're studying Sunday mornings instead of going off on our own tangent which I'm so excited about. It seems to unite our group having a common thread to start with.

The speaker who spoke in Sunday morning class today spoke on The Five Love Languages and tied it to the Bible which is a perspective I hadn't heard before. He said something interesting, "All truth is God's truth." which I can understand. I read that book and knew it resounded true but didn't know where it was backed up in the Bible. He showed how the story of the Good Samaritan demonstrated all five love languages. I loved that. More than three people came up to me to tell me how excited they are about the curriculum coming up - it gives them a reason to actually want to come to class. I couldn't agree more for ourselves and am so excited others feel the same! It's nice to be really fed spiritually and feel like you're taking in something you can use.

Austin

Satsumas and Sunshine

It's a gorgeous 75 degree weather day out there. They are building an extreme home makeover home in our town and the boys and I went to the benefit concert with Trace Adkins on Monday night. It was invitation only and Brando received an invitation. I was expecting a mob, but there was less than a hundred people there which was really nice. Ty Pennington was standing next to us and Paul introduced himself to us. I was a little awestruck mostly because Brando wasn't there and I REALLY wish he could've been. That is his. favorite. show. ever. He cries. The boys are too young to volunteer so we're content with the concert. Keep an eye out for them on the show. They spent a little time with the cameras in the boys faces!

It's that time of the month and I haven't been taking my calcium and acidopholus like I should so it has been a roller coaster week. Monday I was in tears and lost on the east side of town. Tuesday was okay. Wednesday I don't think I wanted to go anywhere and yesterday I actually did go nowhere and stayed in my skivvies until 3pm. I even succeeded in painting my nails, letting them dry, talking on the phone, and falling off the chest in our living room that doubles for a day bed. Today I didn't eat all day until now when I finished off the fig newtons and started searching for something else. I went for the marinated beets and came up with an avocado, beet, and spring mix salad drizzled with balsamic and olive oil. Mmm. Not quite filling, so then I ate a delicious satsuma orange with the super easy peel skin. In a minute I'm going to finish the other half of the avocado.

This time last year I was looking forward to going to my Grandma's for Christmas. This year we are staying home, and with the rush of events we've had so far this year, I'm glad for that. At the same time it's always a little sad when there's not going to be extra family around. After the holidays last year I was extremely sad family wasn't around. Not so much this year, though I do miss the free whenever babysitting! Seriously so much drama has gone on back home that it reminds me daily of so many of the reasons why we are here and not there. Not that we don't miss them. It's just good that we're here. I'm glad I can say that now and mean it.

Christmas Cheer

We had our young marrieds class Christmas party tonight at our wonderful host's home. They've hosted it three years in a row and always have their house decorated to the T. This year I got to help decorate and went over there last Saturday and got to help put up all her fun (read: expensive) decorations. The party itself was sooo different from last year. I knew so many people this time and my favorite girl, Kelly, was there and we were Twinkies (which means twins, dressed the same, peas in a pod) totally unintentionally. Strangely it was more fun, but not by too far, than last year. There was a white elephant gift exchange. Brando wanted so badly the "it" gift of our group last year - a 70's drinking glass on a string. You wear it around your neck "so you can smoke, eat, dance, and even hold another drink". Somebody stole my Willow Tree Angels so I stole the drinking glass for him and then he stole my angels back for me. Only the hubby who had stolen my angels had stolen it for his wife so when I saw her later I had to share one. I gave her "Angel of Happiness" and kept "Angel of the Heart". There was also an ornament exchange. I brought a BEAUTIFUL ornament my MIL bought for me to give - a cross with turqouise stones in it. I'm not sure who got it thought I wanted Ms. Kelly to have it. I ended up with some crappy Target angel ornament. It'll be on the back of the tree. Hehe. Somebody took the ornament Kelly had for me so she had one sitting in her car that she gave to Brando to give me and it's beautiful. There was also a catered fajita dinner, flowing alcohol, and lots of dessert. I was good! Brando wasn't. Now it's bedtime and I'm exhausted.

Sugar & Spice

Justin came up with the idea to take the head off a gingerbread cookie and cut it into a triangle to make this Santa suit. He did so fabulous!

The boys and I spent the day at Kelly's house making cookies and decorating them. We were both SO excited!! The boys, too! We made thumbprint cookies which were delicious until we decided to add milk to the batch to make the dough less crumbly and made them taste like biscuits, then we made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate and orange spiced tea. Yum! Kelly had never made cookies before except for store bought. I love doing things with friends that they are doing for the first time!!

PS Where is everybody? It's been quiet lately!

Christmas and Evite

I love Christmas. I love Evite. And I love Christmas and Evite together. My Evite box fills up and it fills me with Christmas cheer seeing all the fun parties we get to go to. And the shopping for ornaments and white elephant gifts I get to do. The money part for that isn't so fun but the shopping part is. I saw these GORGEOUS gold dipped real leaf ornaments at Whole Foods. I have no idea how much they are but if they're affordable I am going to get them for a party or two, if not then I'll just get one for Brando's stocking. Oh and I just went searching for an image of it and found out Whole Foods has ice skating on top of their building downtown again this year! SO excited!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

The boys are tucked in bed, and my parents are sleeping soundly on their raised queen air bed beside them. The marbled pumpkin cheesecake, orange and spice pumpkin pie, raspberry chocolate cheesecake are made and the green beans with herb dressing and sweet potato souffle are ready to be finished up for tomorrow. We have an oven bag for the turkey which makes the moistest turkey and fresh sage, parsley, and thyme to cook with it. My christmas china set of 20 is out and on the counter waiting to be run through a rinse in the dishwasher. The holly berry design is soooo pretty and I can't wait to use it for the first time! Brando has finally gotten on the same page as me and is helping out so sweetly, down to making one of the cheesecakes tonight and getting the tables and chairs ready. I can't wait!

The bat girl costume. This is the best I got - in the other the top of my mask is cut off!

Here is the one with the top of my head cut off. I decided to show it since it shows a little more of the costume including my super cute earrings and that bat tatto on my arm : ) . Excuse the pink, our Sony camera was on our way to a bloody screen (pink lines all up and down the lcd screen) aka "known sensor malfunction" that I need to send it into Sony to repair for free - yippee!

I'd Camp Out! (had I known)

Brando heard on the radio that the last three or four IKEA stores to open the first person in line got a new car or a furnished room or something as spectacular. I heart IKEA but I'm STILL not if I really would've camped out for that.

Early birds camp out at IKEA
11/13/2006 6:45 PM
By: News 8 Austin Staff

Anxious customers are already getting in line at the new IKEA store in Round Rock that’s set to open on Wednesday at 9 a.m.

A handful of people have set up tents hoping to win grand opening prizes while workers put the finishing touches on the store. The first 100 people inside the doors get an IKEA chair worth about $80.

"I'm here for IKEA, being here for three days, I have nothing else to do, take time off and I'm here because I love IKEA, love the furniture and the free chair," camper Andrew Tingley said.

Moments before the doors open, store manager Jeff O’Shaughnessy will welcome the community with a traditional Swedish log-sawing ceremony, bringing good luck to the new home and all its future visitors.

To celebrate the grand opening, IKEA will give away thousands of dollars in gift cards:
• Pick a Card, Any Card – The first 2,500 people to visit IKEA Round Rock on Wednesday will receive a random prize envelope with vouchers for goodies such as IKEA Gift Cards ranging from $10 to $250 or “Buy One, Get One Free” hotdog or frozen yogurt treats.
• Enter to Win When Entering our Home – From Nov.15 – Nov. 19 visitors may enter a drawing to win one of ten $1,000 IKEA Gift Cards. IKEA will match the prizes (a total of $10,000) with a donation to benefit the Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center, a local assistance provider to abused children.
• You Say It's Your Birthday – Bring proof to IKEA Round Rock on November 15 that it is your birthday and receive a $10 gift card.

Additional grand opening festivities and customer appreciation prizes include:
• Take a Seat (And We Mean Take It!) – The first 100 adults (18 and over) in line at the IKEA Round Rock grand opening will receive a free POÄNG armchair.
• For the (Truly) Young at Heart – The first 100 children (under 18) in line at IKEA Round Rock grand opening will receive a free FAMNIG heart-shaped cushion.

The 252,000 square-foot store is located along Interstate 35 at the University Boulevard exit. The store employs 300 coworkers, and features 10,000 exclusively designed home furnishings all under one roof, a 300-seat IKEA Restaurant, a supervised children’s play area and 1,200 parking spaces.

From today:
Round Rock's new IKEA store officially opened for business Wednesday morning.
KVUE News

Customers walk through the doors Wednesday at the new IKEA Round Rock.

More than 2,500 people had already walked through the doors of the new store by 11 a.m. Wednesday. It's located at the La Frontera shopping center off Interstate 35.

Amid much fanfare, IKEA opens to mass crowd on first day
Austin Business Journal - 11:40 AM CST Wednesday

Dozens camped out overnight and thousands lined up in the blustery winds this morning to be among the first to enter the massive retail store. The doors opened at 9 a.m., and by 9:30 there was still a line of people waiting in front of the store.

For Sale SOLD

An excerpt from an email to a friend - Hi Bec!: We sold the van today! Yay! It was an answer to prayer! I prayed it would go to the right family and asked my Mom to pray for that as well. A wonderful couple who have older children bought it. It's perfect for their 15 yr old daughter who has band practice, and her friends, and their 20 year old son who is at Texas State. I believe they were Christians as she mentioned how God works that out where it goes to the family who needs it, as he did for them when they sold their station wagon to a man buying it for his wife and brand new baby when they left Tennessee. Such a comfort! They offered $250 over asking price (we also had another offer at that same price, and one $50 over). That's a praise you could pray for and not a concern : ) ! I am praying that it would serve them well, especially on their road trip back to Tennessee they want to take it on.

Go for the Gold

A little update on the money situation...

Currently we have four cars. Tomorrow we will try and be selling one (pray we don't get scammed! selling a big ol' van to who knows who kind of scares me!) to be able to get another out of the shop, then we will hopefully sell that one and pay off the VW a bit. Or buy another car and then sell the VW. We've decided not to keep the minivan with that many miles on it. We are currently working on having some sense of a budget. My leader at Bible study shared her budget that she's been using for 33 years with me. SO cool and SO simple I couldn't believe it. We are working on personalizing that for ourselves. Later this month we're meeting with a guy at our church who ran his own financial planning business for six years and see if he can work with us (I don't think he realizes our income situation yet : ) ! In January Lord willing we'll be able to start a Financial Peace University class and hopefully continue on the path of changing our money mindset.

San Marcos Camping

We went camping this last weekend just ten minutes or so from the San Marcos outlets. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL with tons of greenery and huge trees directly on the San Marcos river. It was the guy who had invited us family's private property of 1500 acres. They are all tradesmen so it had a full kitchen, covered eating area, men's and women's bathrooms with two toilets in the women's which I almost took a picture of to scrap but forgot. Hehe. He has a boy who just turned seven whose birthday the camping trip was for. He also had some friends out there with another little guy who was celebrating his birthday as well, so we had two pinatas Saturday evening. The two of them provided all the meals and good ones at that - hamburgers and hot dogs Saturday night, sausage, potatoes, bacon, eggs on Sunday morning and sandwiches Sunday lunch. All we had to do is set up our tent and go! The boys fished, waded in the water, went out on the row boat and had a blast. There were a few other boys there to make six in all, which was great! Brando and I enjoyed the conversation, roasted marshmallows and s'mores (oh yeah the kids enjoyed those too : ), and I played board games with the girls while Brando fished with the boys. There was another young couple that are our age who came Saturday for dinner, pinatas, and cake, but didn't stay the night. It was fun to be able to meet them and hang out with them for a bit. We had such a fun and relaxing weekend and a camping trip that was more than anything I'd hoped for!


The setting


Fishing


By the riverbank


Rope Swing Tree


The setting


View from the kitchen


Our tent


The s'more producing device, and one of the bathroom's and a cabin in the background. It wasn't THAT close!

Trick or Treat

There was JustinBatman, ShawnyBatman, RoseBatGirl and BrandonZorro. That about covered it for black attire, masks, and capes. I do think I had the cutest mask but the kids came pretty darn close when they had them on and they were much cuter IN them than I was. We spent the night at our church fall festival. Which I love, but honestly nothing beats trick or treating and next time we're going to do more of that, and less of the fall fest. And this time they didn't have the petting zoo that Shawny was sooooo looking forward to. He was so broken hearted when we found out they didn't have it this year. That's one trip to a zoo with a petting area we'll be making soon. Fortunently I made an earlier run by the grocery store to fill the kid's bags with "good" candy (Reese's, Butterfingers, Twix, Milky Way's, Peppermint Batty's)... for Mommy and Daddy to eat later of course. Pictures later, for now I'm crawling into bed.

Fun Weekend

It's about time for one of these posts! Friday was all day fishing with the boy's cousins at a natural spring fed pond. Shawners caught three fish right away and Justinbustin caught four soon after. We stayed for four hours and enjoyed the surroundings while the boys climbed and fished and fell in the water. Don't worry, it was shallow! Just cold.



Saturday Brando had a showing with some friends of ours so the boys and I spent the day at the local Fire Department's 45th Annual Anniversary celebration, sponsored by my neighbor's company. She was there handing out free footballs and frisbees. We had free bbq, desserts, strawberry lemonade, and iced tea with her, played on the antique fire truck out front, enjoyed the warm sunshine, watched the firefighter's use the jaws of life on an old Volvo, watched them spray the newest and more efficient than water foam from the fire engine hose, fished for magnetic fish and came home with fire chief hats and lots of candy.



Sunday we woke up bright and early and went to Border's to attend a book signing by Jan Brett. My favorite children's book author ever! If anyone thought the kids were excited you should've seen me. She did a fifteen minute presentation before the book signing of the history of her latest book, Hedgie the Hedgehog, and talked about her childhood a bit, where she got her ideas for this latest book, and did an quick art lesson which Justinb promptly followed along with. We bought five books for her to sign - we just couldn't pass up that once in a lifetime chance - and she signed them along with Justinb's artwork. She put a cute little sketch related to each book on each one. She was soooo nice. She asked Shawners what his favorite animal was. His answer was bats. She signed Shis favorite book, On Noah's Ark, and we told her how excited he was that she had drawn a leopard gecko on one of the pages like his. She asked what the gecko's name is which is currently Jurgen, but usually Gecko. She then told him about how there are two extinct animals in that book, a marsupal and a dodo. She told him the marsupal went extinct in 1937 which wasn't that long ago so some think there still may be some around. She noticed Justinb's drawing when Brando was handing it to her to ask her to sign it for him and said, "Who drew this?" He got a big smile on his face and said he did. She asked how old he is and he said seven and she says, "Wow, when you grow up you're going to be a famous artist." His face beamed and he stood next to her for our picture instead of against the backdrop.



We got out of there just in time to make it to the end of church. We were able to be part of circling the entire church property along with the rest of the church goers and praying for the church. First we faced inward and prayed for the church, then we faced outward and prayed for the world and individuals we know by name who we want to know Christ, then inward again to pray the Lord's prayer.



This afternoon we went to a photo shoot at a local garden here that Brando's company put on. They had pumpkins set up and a photographer to take pictures of families. Brando had a few of his clients there that we chatted with. They had the cutest little baby girl dressed as a goldfish. The boys didn't dress up but we did get a family picture together and a few of them in the pumpkins and on the tractor. We were there long enough to sunburn a little and then drove out to see a condo that Brando's boss has that we were thinking about renting. It doesn't quite work for us, but dang it would be a good price just for us.

Art Day

We found a place to take the boys for art classes. It was beautiful and so relaxing. I wanted to stay there all day and just sit on a bench next to the pond and read.


Walking up from the parking lot


The view outside the door


The studio


There was random peacocks wondering about. This was one of them.


View to the left of the porch just outside the studio.


Pretty scenery in the garden.