Day in Dallas

Josh came to visit, with his girlfriend Kristin. I'm glad to see him with such a nice girl. Having never been to Texas, we showed her some of downtown Dallas tourist sites. The first destination was Swiss street, where some houses have been restored to their original state. For the kids, the most exciting part of this stop was the dog park right across the street.

Dallas has a full-time farmers market, which I have wanted to check out for some time. The produce seemed fresh enough, but I still can't figure out why there had to be dozens of vendors. They all sold pretty much the exact same thing, for the exact same price. I was a little bit disappointed with the variety. I expected there to be all sorts of exotic fruits and vegetables.The arts district had a fun reflecting pool, where we all learned to walk on water

Joe's mom works as the property manager at the Meadow's building. It was one of the first "high riser" buildings in Dallas. What was supposed to be a quick bathroom pitstop, turned into an hour long tour of the building. It amazing to look at photographs taken of the area in the 1950s. If only we could have bought some land back then!

We finished off the day with some clam chowder and roasted pinenuts. Somehow it got to be after midnight again....

Texan landscape

Texas has beautiful landscape in it's own way. We've had a very full and low moon the past few days. I would still like to learn how to capture the details of the moon.

Shop till you drop

I've had a fun couple of days. Yesterday Dee took me shopping in Frisco. I love shopping. We hit Sam Moon's where I got an awesome new purse. They even killed a croc for me. Just kidding, it IS my first genuine leather purse though. It's a little more flashy than my past purses, which is perfect because I'm Texan now. After that, I introduced Dee to the pleasures of Ikea. She was so funny, she was just so overwhelmed. and I can see why. I've shopped there a lot, and still get overwhelmed with all the ideas.

Today, Tracey Sparks drove out here, and we just hung out, and chatted. If I was a good writer, I would have a fun witty paragraph on how we ranted about all the downfalls of the public school system. But I'm not, so that's all you're gonna get. Tracey is the most dedicated sunbather I've ever known. She lays out about 9 out of 12 months of the year. (Starting in March at the Beach, and again today in my yard) I haven't even thought about laying out or swimming in almost 2 months. The pool is slowly starting to turn a lovely shade of green.

I like to experiment with new recipes. A few weeks ago I bought some butternut squash, and having never cooked it before, I did what I always do in that situation, and googled a recipe. I came up with a yummy carrot/ginger/squash soup.

If you want to make it for yourself go to Allrecipes for the recipe.

Keep working

How much can a person work in 1 week? I guess the answer is different for each person, but I think Joe should take away the grand prize. He was in Phoenix all last week. He left super early Monday to fly there, worked all night, slept 1 hour, worked all day doing his regular job, and then worked all night again. He did this all week long. Then he came home Friday night. He spent Saturday at home. Sunday morning he jumped in the car, to drive back to Phoenix to deliver 2 trucks. He drove all day Sunday, slept for 4 hours, stopped at the side of the road to do his regular job for 4 hours, drove until he got there at noon. He then went to the airport, got on a plane, and arrived in Dallas at 7pm. Tomorrow morning he has to do a bidwalk at 9am, which means he'll have to leave around 7am again. After all of this, he is STILL not appreciated at his job. What gives?

Smarties

Ginger has the endearing trait of willingness to share. Once in a while, I let her buy some candy at the grocery store, and without fail she'll make sure to save some of it for "her friends" (her brother and sister) As soon as I got out of my room this morning, Ginger came up to me and asked: "Do you want a smartie so you'll be smart"?

She not only a good sharer, but usually is also very willing to do anything to help. When I asked her a few minutes later, to throw the rapper in the trash, I got: "Now you'll be smart, right mom"?

Trunk or Treat

Tonight our ward celebrated its annual trunk or treat. It's fun to be in a ward where the grown-ups dress us too.

Winter was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz

Sterling was the leopard (just like last year)
I was the wicked witch
Ginger wore her unicorn outfit, just long enough to take this picture
I barely recognize myself!
I got quite a few stares, and some people couldn't figure out who I was. Note to self; don't grow a big nose, get glasses, and get too old... it's not flattering.

Unfortunately Joe couldn't be there, he was on the way home from a week in Phoenix for work

Easy to Please

I wish I was as easy to please as my kids. The elementary school had their annual Fall Festival/fundraiser. I usually shy away from these kinds of events, but I've been feeling cabin feverish, without Joe around. In an effort to ward off nagging, and disappointment, I decided to give the kids an appointed amount of money. If they would do their chores, without fighting or whining, they would each get $5. Winter and Ginger ended up only getting $4, after being docked for fighting.

Once we got to the junior high parking lot, they had to buy some tickets to be able to do the activities. When I asked for $5 and 2x $4 worth of tickets, I got a little bit of an annoyed/confused look from the helping moms. All the cool kids get to buy $5 wads of tickets. I distributed the tickets, determined NOT to be the one to tell them what they could and couldn't spend them on. They wanted to spend 8 tickets ($2) on a tiny thing of cotton candy? or 4 tickets to go down a blow-up slide ONCE? Fine. I wouldn't have. But the kids were happy as clams. Winter lost track of one of her tickets, and the only thing she could get from me was "sorry, I dont' have any more money". (which was planned of course). They excitedly threw bean bags in cans, went "fishing", and picked out candy and so-called prizes. I wouldn't give a penny for those Sonic toys.

The one thing that irked me most about this whole thing, was that their teachers wanted the kids to "donate" $5 so they could rent the bounce houses. So, you want me to pay $5 to rent it, and then come and spend another $2 to let my kids jump on it?? I think my $13 donation was plenty for 1 night. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping the school raise money, but I'd rather they don't use the money to rent huge bounce houses, and instead buy some art supplies with it! Neither of my kids have ever come home with any art. What's wrong with that picture?