Living in Munchkinland

By the way, I am still almost* overwhelmed, but I am keeping up. Michael was home for one week and is now out of town again for the next month. I will see him on weekends though and we saw him for a brief hour and a half yesterday as he drove from Dallas to Del Rio. I dropped out of Amahl, for lots of reasons that all led to the fact that if I had continued in the production I would have crossed that line into full fledged Overwhelmed status. I went to see a holistic doctor on Tuesday that had tremendous success helping my sister. I have great hopes that he will help me get rid of nausea that has plagued me daily since May. We did a full blood test for all foods, a celiac/gluten test and a hormone test. I'll have the results to the first two in two weeks. I was trying to go to Tuesday evening Unitarian church fellowship service and discussion group, but the time of day combined with the fact that the kids go straight from school to gymnastics to church was causing a certain typ

My Dad's band, The Lucky Tomblin Band recently released their fourth CD to rave reviews. They scheduled both their CD release parties on my dad's birthday weekend. Not only was it the CD release party and my dad's birthday, it was also my Uncle Larry's birthday and my cousin Manie's boyfriend Sean's birthday as well. We planned to go to the show at Cheatham Street here in San Marcos to help celebrate all these milestones. Lots of people came in on Friday and went to the gig on Friday. On Saturday, everyone congregated at my parents house to play bocce ball and horseshoes, lounge by the pool, bbq and just hang out and listen to music. On Saturday evening we all went to Cheatham street to hear the band play. We all had a great time. If you haven't checked out the band, you should have a listen. I've been doing all the social networking for the band and it has been easy promoting them, because they are so good. Enjoy the pictures.

All summer long an armadillo has been wreaking havoc on our lawn. The grass was being destroyed and we had huge pot holes in the yard where he had dug in the night. The other day I came home from visiting my mom and found our two big dogs lying on the driveway napping while a few feet from them an armadillo nosed about in the grass. I eventually watched it shuffle into the drain pipe that runs under our driveway. When Michael got home he set a trap at the end of the pipe and blocked the other side. In the morning, we had caught ourselves an armadillo. The official story is that we took it over the river, far, far away to "greener Pastures". You know, the same place we sent "pumpkin" the beef cow we raised.

A couple of weekends ago, we celebrated CASA at their annual fundraiser. This event was even more special to our family as CASA was honoring my mom for her long time support. The mayor of our town gave her a key to the city and named Oct. 16th, 2010- Becky Tomblin Day. It was very exciting. We are all so proud of her and love her so much. I wish I had taken pictures at the event, but I was too busy celebrating. It was a great day.

Aurora Porter of " From Farm to Farm" fame occasionally cooks for dinner parties in between her organic farming traveling. My mom has hired her to help her throw dinner parties over the last year. For the most recent dinner party, I was invited! I was so excited. I love food and I love parties and I love spending time at my parent's home. The evening was magical. We ate outside in the perfect fall weather. The house still had lights up from the wedding. Aurora made paella in the outdoor wok. The wine flowed and conversation was lively. After dinner we all sat around the outdoor fire place and laughed and laughed until we were drunk with laughter (and port). It was such a wonderful evening. Thanks Mom and Dad! Photo credit to Cheris Lifford.

There has been a lot of cooking around here lately. The wedding was wonderful, but exhausting. It took me several days to feel like myself again, like maybe I wasn't going to have a breakdown. Michael spent another week out of town and I continued to try to keep up with and feel on top of everything. When I am stressed, cooking is therapy for me. I put the ingredients together, sometimes from a recipe and sometimes from my imagination, and I do some spells and incantations and it turns into something at least edible and at most delicious. It feels good to make magic. It's restorative some how. I have been cooking dinner for grandparents at least five times a week. I cooked for the bake sale for the kids' montessori school fundraiser. I did some canning- made beautiful hot-sweet peppers that are divine on sandwiches, salads, chicken and fish. I suppose/hope that my kids will remember me in the kitchen with my red apron and the smell of spices in the air.

One of my very best friends got married at my parent's house this weekend. We have been friends for fourteen years and it was really special and amazing to share the joy of celebrating her marriage with her. I REALLY like her husband and so does Michael and this is also a wonderful thing. The wedding weekend arrived with a flurry on Friday morning with a wedding shower and ended this morning when I slipped their marriage certificate into the mail. I did all the wedding coordination and was also a bridesmaid. The boys were ring bearers and Michael was an honor attendant/DJ. My parents' house makes a stunning wedding venue. The bride picked beautiful fall colors and all the twinkle lights and candles and decor were so pretty. The weather was perfect and food delicious. A wonderful professional photographer who is also a friend and fellow mama took the photos and I can't wait to see them. I'll put some up here when I do. In the meantime I'll put up a couple of

We spent a lazy Sunday afternoon at my sister's lakehouse this last weekend. They have a beautiful home on Lake Travis and we were happy to go spend time there. My sister had her in-laws visiting and my grandparents and parents came as well. We had a great lunch and spent a lot of time on their porch. The kids LOVE their cousin and his cool toys. They jumped on his trampoline, rode his tire swing, and had a ride in Uncle Keith's new mule. Michael spent quite a bit of time in Kade's playroom as well. :) Tiffany had decorated the gate with fall foliage and the whole house had fall decor. And Keith made some amazing pork on the grill. They are great hosts and it was truly a wonderful afternoon. I took a bunch of pictures and thought I'd share some of them with you here. We are so lucky to have such a beautiful place to visit.

We have a great farmer's market that happens on our town square on Saturday mornings. Michael and the boys and I went last Saturday and spent a couple of hours lounging in the grass around the courthouse, chatting with friends and sampling and buying produce. My cousin Hank had a booth there for the first time and did a great job. The kids rode scooters around the sidewalks and picked pecans and weather was absolutely perfect. It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning as a family.

We had my high school reunion this weekend. I helped to throw it and it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. We had a skybox at the stadium for our homecoming game. It was really neat to watch a game from the skybox. It would have been even nicer with champagne and a winning team, but alas, it was not to be. It WAS great to see old friends and spend time catching up with them. After the game we headed to a local bar on the town square where I actually did a shot. Saturday evening my classmate and friend had procured the presidential suite at our local "fancy" hotel, where we all hung out and celebrated our reunion. The reunion committee provided pizza and wine and beer and snacks and we all dressed up and lounged and chatted. I had a really good time. Then we headed down to the ballroom where we attended to all-class reunion for my high school. I shared a table with my family and all together we represented the SMHS classes of '41, '54, '58, and

Michael got home early from Dallas and we had a couple of hours before we had to get ready to head off for my reunion. Davis pulled out a couple of mats and we all lounged about and enjoyed this absolutely gorgeous fall day. It was pure bliss.

Davis can whistle! Sam can't but he's still wonderful. Here is a picture of Davis whistling and a couple of pics of Sam looking handsome. Also breaking news: Davis' grownup tooth is coming in behind his only very slightly loose baby tooth. We have begun Project Wiggle to help loosen the baby tooth. Hopefully the tooth fairy will have reason to visit again soon.