Sometimes, you hit the jackpot

After last week's list of failures (which, for the record, did not include the fact that we missed the first 15 minutes of the 20 minute fireworks display for the 4th of July), it was about time that our fortunes reversed. And oh my... reverse they did!

We went to Horseshoe Bay this past weekend, a lakeside town just over an hour from our home. One of my cousins got married there, and while M and I weren't actually going to the wedding (we were invited, but it was kind of vague if our kids were), my parents graciously paid for a hotel room for the four of us, just down the hall from their room. It had a "partial view," which turned out to mean a view of the metal roof from the awning below the room.

The Marriott hotel

We were obviously really excited about the chance to get out of the house for the weekend and take advantage of the pool(s!), kids activities, and the sandy lakeside beach. Plus, I've been wanting to go to Mass there for the longest time, after a friend let me know about the amazing Catholic parish there.

The Chapel sits at the top of Thanksgiving Mountain-- and it's easy to give thanks with that view!

The Chapel is run by the Paulist Fathers

Well, on Saturday M and the kids and I were, not surprisingly, running a bit behind the schedule we'd set out for ourselves. He dropped me off at the hotel so I could get us checked-in. I went in and waited... and waited... and waited. Poor M had no idea what was going on, because my phone ran out of juice on the way to the lake. After 20 minutes or so of being the "next" person in line, I finally got to the desk, only to discover... there were no rooms available. In the entire hotel. Despite the fact that my parents had already reserved a room for us and then confirmed it earlier that day. My heart sank all the way down to my toes.

Thankfully, the woman at the front desk was determined to find a solution for us. The hotel leases some condos that are privately owned, and the woman started looking for... wait for it... a TWO-bedroom condo. Nice.

But no. No two-bedroom condos available. Sigh.

I figured that we could just spend the night in my parents' room, but it only had one bed, plus the pack-n-play we brought for H. Sleeping in a chair didn't sound incredibly comfy, but if push came to shove... 

Well, push didn't come to shove. The woman at the desk found THIS PLACE for us. You've got to look at the photos in the link-- it was unbelievable. It's a 3-bedroom condo with a balcony that looks out over the lake and the boat slips. It's 1455 square feet-- that's just slightly more than 200 square feet smaller than our entire HOUSE! It had a full-size washer and dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator and freezer, and everything else you could think of that's like home, only without goldfish snack crumbs hiding in the corner. We even had our own reserved parking spot in the garage under our building. And best of all, even though it usually goes for $800/night, the hotel honored the other room rate. Amazing.    

It was like heaven-- I could have lived in that feather bed forever, quite happily. Rolling over to see the water and boats was amazing. It was like being on a second honeymoon, just with a couple of kids.

And yes, we walked along the beach and built sandcastles and mud pies, went swimming in the pool, and checked out the boats and dreamed of someday having our own. The breakfast buffet put it over the top. M and I realized that, all in all, we spent a whopping $15 on our "vacation"-- and that was for the Mass collection and housekeeping tip. Between the wedding reception food and my parents' generosity at breakfast (though they only charged them for 3 buffets instead of 4, and the kids ate for free!), we didn't have to pay for ANY of our food... though we did stop at McDonald's on the way home for burgers from the dollar menu. :-)

We found out later that the reason our room was unavailable was because a guest in one of the upper floors made the brilliant decision to hang his clothes from the sprinkler head on the wall in his room. It broke, and for half an hour the hotel couldn't get the water shut off. It ran down behind the wall and damaged around 20 rooms. I'd feel badly for the hotel, but I'm still on a high from our swanky digs!

Finally, the big news... my parents took the kids back to Fort Worth for a week! They're taking turns with my in-laws this week keeping our kids. I'd like to say that C and H miss us terribly, but given the fact that my dad took C to see Winnie the Pooh Monday and my brother-in-law is taking her to Cars 2 today, and the fact the H has been "mowing" the entire house and lawn non-stop with the Little Tikes mower they bought him, I'm not sure they've even realized we're missing.

 

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 11), the "Where have I been?" edition

Sweet Leila wrote me an e-mail, asking where I've been lately. I thought I'd answer her e-mail with a blog post. :)

1. Having LOTS of overnight visitors. Mom came for around a week to escape downtown Fort Worth while the Steelers were in town for the Super Bowl. She accidentally took little H's carseat back home with her, so my dad drove it down the next day and spent a few nights with us. Then, my MIL came down to watch the kids while I took care of the next Quick Take item.

2. Preparing for and having a colonoscopy. This is the 3rd one I've had in the past 10 years, and the only one where I was convinced drinking the prep solution (MoviPrep, which I referred to as MoviHell) might kill me. I kept vomiting it up at 4:30 am, and my loving husband was comically (very sleepily, in his defense) unsympathetic about my plight, telling me to 1) chug it all down at once (impossible), 2) stop throwing up in the sink (also impossible... I couldn't move), and 3) either drink it or go back to bed. Truly, this isn't meant to disparage my hubby-- he's just missing that sympathetic-to-his-wife's-pain gene. For instance, he didn't believe I was going into labor with H, since I wanted to shower and put on make-up instead of screaming; he slept through most of my active labor contractions at the hospital; and I'm pretty convinced that he thought I exaggerated all of my pregnancy and birthing pains. Ha!

3. Realizing that my online time and time I spend maintaining relationships with online "friends" (I only put this in quotes because I don't know many-- most-- of the friends in real life) is giving me an excuse to avoid forming new and maintaining old real life relationships. It was becoming unhealthy, and I decided to step back, the way I did with Facebook around a year ago. I still read many of the blogs and pop in occasionally to comment, but even needed to stop posting as frequently on my own blog because I was too interested in how many comments I had and how many people were reading.

4. Tying into #3, I've been questioning (yet again) the information on the Internet concerning my family, that I've put out there on either Facebook or this blog. I thought the other day about how I'm so glad that Facebook didn't exist when I was in college, because there are plenty of photos I'm more than happy to forget. Then, I thought about how happy I am that my mom wasn't blogging/updating every moment of my life, especially with photos of every awkward moment of my youth. Even when people take down their blogs, some of the cached posts can be found. While I don't post photos of my kids on the blog, I occasionally do on Facebook. I'm starting to think that it's not necessarily my "right" to expose them in that way, when they have no option, and when the photos may follow them, potentially for the rest of their lives. What if C runs for President someday, or H wants to start his own company? :) I think they are the ones who should be able to write their own stories, with or without photos. Thoughts on this? And would you have minded if your mom (or dad) posted thousands of pics of you online and wrote about everything before you had a chance to tell your own story?

5. Getting crafty. I've been finishing the kitchen countertops and reorganizing the kitchen, recovering the dining room chairs and our bar stools, planning some sewing projects for the kids, picking fabric to make new pillow covers for the couch and loveseat, making Valentine wreaths, and planning my spring and summer flowers, herbs, fruits, and veggies.

This took less than 5 minutes while my son was napping. I "Love" it.

These are berries from a tree in our front yard (see header). I've since added more berries and moved the wreath to the front door in case any berries fell off and H ate some. Just call me Mom of the Year.

6. Fishin' for rattlesnakes out of an old cistern. I wish I was kidding about this, but the snakeskin currently residing in my freezer confirms my story. As does this photo, with my FIL, hubby, and BIL (left to right).

I won't even explain what's going on here. Feel free to form your own opinions.

7. Trying tons of new recipes. I lost my HUGE recipe folder (ok, technically the freezer bag that I stuck all of my original and modified recipes in before I transferred them to my official recipe book.  This means I'm missing around 250 recipes) and my Macbook crashed (again), so I lost all of my bookmarks for online recipes that I like. I've decided to use this as a positive time to try new things and remodify recipes that I've made before from online recipes. I also realized that if I'd updated my cooking blog, I'd have a record of everything. Sigh. I've also been having fun with my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book. I made a delicious boule this week and then used more of the same dough to make sticky buns for M last night, since he had a big morning today at work.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 9)

1. This will likely get a post unto itself at some point, but if you smell dog mess, even if you can't see it, NEVER assume that it's a dog toot. You WILL step in it. With BOTH feet. On the 100% wool authentic ORIENTAL RUG.

2. I'm always surprised by the anti-Catholic hatred that is spewed around the time of papal visits. In this case, our Pope is in the UK now. Their newspaper comment sections are filled with absolute disgust for this man, and for our faith in general. I honestly can't comprehend the hatred of the Church and one of her servants.

3. My brother-in-law just clued us in to Arrested Development, which we're able to watch on our streaming Netflix. It's soooo funny! It's been a nice kids-are-in-bed-and-we-can-snuggle show to watch. Since it only lasts about 22 minutes, we can watch one or two easily without staying up too late.

4. This probably should have been #1, but... LAUREN AND HER HUSBAND HAVE A BABY! Welcome, Abigail Chiara! We all love you, precious girl! Please continue to pray for this new family and the birth family.

5. Cloth diapering has, thus far, gone pretty well. H was soaking last night, though, at a 1 am feeding. I'm not sure what happened. The thing I have to remind myself when I get discouraged by leaks, is that they used to happen with disposable diapers, too. They've rarely happened with cloth diapers at night when I have a hemp insert in there with the regular insert, though, so I really have no idea what went wrong... it didn't even seem very soaked in the diaper itself! Maybe I didn't do a good job adjusting it just right???

6. While I would rather have been outside with my family under more pleasant circumstances, I had a great time last night on the driveway, washing the Oriental rug (see #1). I pressure-washed the driveway and garage, laid the rug on the driveway, shampooed the rug with Woolite and rinsed it, then laid it on the clean garage floor to dry. M finished building the gate for our fence (he's so handy, that husband of mine! He built an entire fence himself for our huge yard... 2/3 of an acre!), C skipped up and down the driveway, and H sat in his highchair and ate. It was fun to all be outside together, even if it meant the kids were up later than I would have liked.

7. I foresee a busy, outdoor weekend as we try to restore order to our backyard after havoc wreaked by the torrential rain and the broken water main (oh yes... adding insult to injury) that re-flooded our backyard. On a happy note, my tomatoes are finally turning red, and I even have a few new (very small) green ones on the bush. I may have enough for all of us to eat 1 pizza. Drat those deer!

I'm baaaaaack!

Whew! We just returned on Monday after a whirlwind tour of Middle America-- 8 states in all, counting our home state of Texas. M had meetings in Colorado Springs for a couple of days, so the whole family loaded up in our truck and headed northwest through New Mexico. Since M had to be in Iowa the following week for more meetings, we decided to spend a few days and nights in Estes Park, CO and explore Rocky Mountain National Park, then head east with him. The park was spectacular... and 44 degrees on top of the mountains! It was a welcome change from the 100 degree plus heat in Texas.

We then trekked across Nebraska to Iowa, where we were able to visit with some of M's family. The kids and I stayed with a relative for several days while M was in another city for meetings, then we reunited to visit more family before driving home (well, technically to our parents' homes, to pick up the dogs) via Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma to Texas.

And let me tell you... if you're still in love after spending 13 straight hours in a vehicle, after already spending 16 days traveling with 2 kids under the age of 3, you're golden.

If you don't believe me, here's the math:

16 days traveling + 2 kids under 3 + 13 hours in a vehicle = GOLDEN
(See... I told you)

All-in-all, we were gone from home for 18 days. I'd had elaborate visions of working on the homeschooling series,  reading for my book study, typing up recipes for my cooking blog, and doing a myriad of other things.

I think I may have been under the influence of mind-altering substances.

 Instead, I found myself without internet the majority of the time (my computer antenna decided to only pick up signal if I was RIGHT NEXT to a wireless source) and far too busy keeping a crawling baby from falling off hotel beds/a toddler from trying to eat dropped snacks off a hotel floor/both of them from waking up or disturbing everyone else. I missed blogging at first, but once I realized that by being fully present on the trip for the kids and M, I was doing the best thing for my family and myself, then the guilt dissolved.

HOWEVER...

Now that my new best friend, Jen from Conversion Diary, mentioned the homeschooling series on her blog, I REALLY have to get back to blogging. I have a TON more thoughts and I have several guest posters I'm working on lining up, so it should give a fuller view of what homeschooling really is, and how it can look different for everyone.

So, give me one more week to wash laundry, get the kids back on some semblance of a schedule, and cook a few meals, then I'll be back on top of things!

PS I have a giveaway coming up next week! Hint: Following this blog will give you one entry... go ahead and FOLLOW now!

WWJW

Further proof that my brother-in-law is the funniest person in the world...

The day after H's baptism we were all at my in-laws' house and someone commented on how good the chrism on H's forehead still smelled. I (or someone... I think it was me) commented that it would be a best-selling cologne for men if we bottled it. Then my younger brother-in-law came up with the tagline for the product:

Chrism. WWJW- What Would Jesus Wear.

Told you. He's HI-larious. That's even funnier than merely hilarious.