Living in Munchkinland

Did I ever tell you that Michael got his old job back? He did. Works from home again and still has his six weeks vacation. We are very happy. Sam informed me that he would like to stay a kid forever and have me as his mommy forever. We have these little chats every night after Davis leaves the room where I sing to Sam and in between songs we discuss the best and worst parts of our day. That time with Sam is my best part of every day. (Davis won't go for that. He just wants his dad right now). My dad and I were talking about the difficulties for him living with dementia. He said that while the rest of us were just easily walking down the street, he was hacking his way through the jungle with a machete. I thought it was a very good analogy. My grandparents got some elder care and all of a sudden I don't have to cook for them every day anymore. I'm making too much food now. Davis is loving to read all of a sudden. It's a breakthrough. He's really reading boo...

Last week I sat Michael down and asked him to play "calendar" with me. We had lots of invitations and fun events we wanted to go to and we had to sit down and see how they all fit on the calendar. We did it and quickly managed to fill up our entire fall. In doing this I realized that we only had one or two weekends until Thanksgiving where we could get away for the weekend and one of them was this weekend. I have been missing the beach so much and so I asked Michael and the boys if they wanted to leave Friday for Port Aransas and come back on Sunday. We all thought that was a grand idea and so on Friday we implemented our plan. It was just our little family of four, but we had a great idea. We got in late (but enjoyed the new ferry in the dark!)and the boys went right down and Michael and I went down soon after. Saturday morning we ate breakfast and lounged about and then went into town where we rented bikes and went on our first ever all-four-of-us-on-our-bikes bike r...

Hey I cut my hair! I haven't cut it since April and I really needed a trim. It was getting long, down to the bottom of my bra strap if I pulled it straight. I asked Michael if I should cut it and he said, "Yeah, cut it short, make a change!". So I did. I went in with a few pictures. I told her to cut it all off to about my chin. She did. I also told her to leave my bangs long- chin length. She didn't. She did some cutting and then said, "oops!". She accidentally cut off the bangs. It's okay though. I actually like it. What I like best is that I can get out of the shower, let it air dry and go. That's what I did this morning and this is what I looked like. I think if I add some gel or mouse or something it might be a bit better. And also I was tired of wearing it in a pony tail. I don't know if I totally love the way it looks, but I LOVE the way it feels. I'm going for sassy and sexy, not mom-like and I'm not 100% sure whic...

We managed to stretch Michael's birthday over two weeks. We had a family party, a trip to NY with family and friends and then a rockin' karaoke party on Labor Day weekend. (We were limited to our small room with how many people we could invite so please don't feel left out.) We rocked out until they kicked us out and then squeezed in some more fun at the Whip In before Michael and I got a ride (thanks Stephen!) to our hotel where we got to sleep in and have late hungover brunch at Guero's (thanks mom!). It was a fun birthday. Special thanks to Cheris Lifford for the excellent photos.

We had a little San Antonio Getaway this weekend. A month or so ago, Hyatt asked us if we would like to stay at a very discounted rate at their Vacation Club in San Antonio. We had to agree to a 90 minute presentation, but the price was so great, we said yes. We drove down Friday as soon as we picked up the boys from school. We had a beautiful one bedroom suite and a huge jacuzzi tub that boys were immediately in love with. We explored the grounds, played at the playground and then had dinner. There were no vegan options, (or vegetarian!) but I made do with sides and then we went up to our room where the boys took a very long bubble bath (Sam was heard yelling that we should do this every weekend!) and then took a very long time going to bed. The 8 oclock outdoor movie was very loud and kept the boys awake. Michael and I hid in our bedroom with a bottle of wine though so it really wasn't so bad. Saturday morning we hit the pool. It was great and there weren't very many ...

Like most women I have always battled the bulge. I've been down to a size 2 and up to a size 12. I changed sizes depending on what was going on in my life, but I almost always exercised and watched what I ate except while pregnant and nursing when I just ate everything I could get my hands on. For the last four years or so I got in the habit of working out a lot and eating very few carbs. This made me thin. And I liked it a lot. I liked the way I looked in clothes. It gave me confidence. It made me feel in control of my life. In April I started taking an evil hormone that helps my lady problems (which have gotten quite severe the last year or so), but makes me FAT. Okay, maybe not fat, but much, much bigger. Like 15 pounds bigger. This has been extremely hard for me. I still run four miles every other day and spend the other three days a week doing a mix of weight lifting, pilates and yoga. I eat low-fat vegan. But still I gain. I've had to go up two dress sizes (...

I've gone vegan. Mostly. I'm actually vegan+fish. I went vegan as a 21 day challenge with my sister in April. It made sense since I'm allergic to dairy, eggs and pork. Basically I just had to give up the other meats. I read "Skinny Bitch" and did some online research. I hoped a vegan diet would not only help my health, the environment (a biggie for me) and my karma, but would help keep my weight down. I found some great vegan blogs and subscribed to them. I love Peas and Thank You , Vegan Faith , The Snarky Chickpea , The Lazy Smurfs Guide to Life . I cheated while in Europe, but since we've been home, I've stuck with it. I love it. I feel good inside. Clean and fresh. I feel like I'm contributing to a better world. I'm giving a good example to my children. Michael and the boys are mostly vegetarian as well. At home I cook vegan. At restaurants we order fish or the rest of my family eats vegetarian with eggs and cheese back in. So ...

Holy heck, things are going on around here. You may think it's quiet on here because nothing is happening, but that is not true at all. The problem is that most of it is stuff I can't post about here. At least not yet. But things they are a'changin'. I'll give you the cliff notes version of what's happening around here: I have been suffering from foot-in-mouth syndrome for the last few weeks. Wildfires are burning across central Texas and everywhere outside is the smell of smoke. Michael had a rockin' 40th birthday party with some friends and we did karaoke and drank lots and laughed lots and loved our friends lots and got spend the night in Austin. We had a fabulous Labor Day picnic with our fabulous friends yesterday and again I felt how lucky I am to have them. Major Job Stuff is going on that I will tell you about later. (maybe, but you will never know the real details) My grandma is sick and going into the hospital today. And my camera hasn't ma...

Brown grass, hot winds, huge cracks in the ground big enough to put your foot in. Dust, burning steering wheels, sweat. When I walk outside this summer it's like walking into a kiln. The kids can't play outside and my lawn is golden brown in spite of the fact that we water twice a week. I just wanted to let you know. ...in San Marcos, so far this year: ...we've had 78 days of 100+ (all-time record) ...we've had 23 days at 105+ (all-time record) ...we've had 27 consecutive 100+ days (all-time record) ...it's the hottest summer ever with an average of 89.5 degrees ...our hottest August was also the hottest month on record

We had a fabulous time in NYC despite the hurricane. We got to see some good friends, we ate so much good food and we really enjoyed not being in the Texas heat. Here's a little overview of what we did. WEDNESDAY: We flew into JFK, checked into the Excelsior Hotel on the Upper West Side and met mom and dad for a happy hour bottle of champagne. Then we changed and met our friends Nick and Tina and walked down to the Ocean Grill for a delicious and very fun dinner. THURSDAY: Michael's 40th Birthday. We woke up and opened presents and then walked down to the Good Enough To Eat restaurant for breakfast. I had a divine asian tofu scramble and Michael lusted after it. We also had mimosas. Then we met mom and dad and shopped a bit for hotel snacks at Zabars. (I love to browse in there.) After we dropped off the snacks we walked across the street from the hotel to Museum of Natural History where we watched the planetarium show and explored the dinosaur ...