Saturday, June 16, 2012

back from the beach

As I did last summer, I went to the beach with Elizabeth and her family.  We were on Padre Island, and enjoyed some splashing in the water, playing in the sand, and seeing the sights in Corpus Christi.


Elise did really well on the trip.  She handled the long drive in the car by keeping entertained with technology.  She has her apps, and knows what to do with them.  Sorry if its a bit blurry, I used my phone and it may not enlarge the best.   Notice her bandaids?  She's reached the age that I don't think there will be a day without at least one bandaid...needed or not.  :)


Surf was up at the beach.  We saw a surfcamp class at one end of the area, and noticed that they walked on down by the pier to go in the water.  It didn't take long to figure out that the waves cause you to drift down to their starting point.

Lily and David got out with their boogie boards and played quite a bit.  Elise wasn't thrilled with the water coming in to cover her feet, so Elise, Elizabeth, and I stayed out to build sand castles.


Elise is somewhat like her mother at that age, and not always wanting to cooperate or automatically smile at the camera.  Here's a family photo.  :)


One day David surprised Lily with letting her get her ears pierced.  He thought it would be fun for her to be able to tie the memory in with her beach vacation.   Here's the before, during, and after shots.

And Elizabeth told me that she's heard of a new trend to take pictures of your feet when you travel if you're not thrilled to have your picture taken.  I've actually done this before, but here's this year's beach picture of yours truly.
Yep, that's me.  I've been to the beach!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

happenings


Things seem to stay busy these days.  I just finished watching Elise for the school year.  I'm available to give David a break here and there, but basically its now the "lazy days" of summer.  Lazy?  More on that in a bit.

I went to Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend, and contributed a small amount to their local economy.  I do remember now why it's been 7 years since my last visit.  Las Vegas really is a town that requires some walking to see it right, and I don't have the stamina for that.  But, we did have a good time (I went with niece Tammy, and met up with Nolene and Joe who were vacationing there).  We went to a chocolate factory, made the hike from the Excalibur over to the M&M store via New York, New York, enjoyed the dinner/show presentation of Tournament of Kings, and remembered that Wheel of Fortune is my favorite slot machine.  I enjoyed some relaxation at the hotel when the others made the trek up and down the Strip.  Nice little get-away weekend.

This week my cousin Mary made it into town.  She's been on a cross country adventure from New Mexico to Florida and back, and managed to come through our area for an overnight stop.  As we visited, along with John, Nolene, and Joe, we figure its been well over 40 years since I'd last seen her.  Its ironic that as I was going through some papers this morning, a couple of years ago I had commented on one of my writing exercises that Mary would be a relative I'd like to get to know better.  She had polio as a child, and as would be expected has faced a lot throughout her lifetime.  Encouraged by her doctors to get an education because as she got older her limitations would increase, she not only got her Bachelors degree, but also her Masters and PhD.  She is semi retired, working part time teaching at  a college to give her "play money" for adventures.  Just a couple of weeks ago she posted pictures in Facebook of her para-sailing!  An interesting woman, and a strong advocate for the disabled.  This world could use more Mary's. 


Now about that comment of "lazy days".  Ha!   I decided to paint my bedroom, so Friday night I started the cutting in process.  Saturday I was up at the crack of dawn, and went to work.  It was a lot of trips up and down the tall ladder, but by early afternoon it was done.  I'm planning on putting in tile flooring, both in my bedroom and bathroom, so getting this done was the first step. Well let me clarify that....I'll have someone put in the tile flooring!  I do know my limitations.   Knowing that job will be coming up, and hopefully soon, I'm tossing some things out, and taking others to the Salvation Army drop-off point. 




This silk flower arrangement survived the cut and is still in the room. When I transferred from one department to another at work, either in 1998 or 1999, my co-workers gave it to me.  Surviving several moves, a few of the flowers have started to shift, but I just couldn't part with it.  I dusted it off,  moved it to another wall, and there she'll stay.  By the way, the wall color is Cup of Cocoa, a Behr color at Home Depot.

Guess that's all for now.  Makes me tired looking at what I've done, so I think I'll take a nap.  ;)