i realized something

the other day while going through old pictures and playing with my new color-pop action. (By the way, everyone probably thinks this picture is over saturated but I don't care. I'm having fun with my new toy.) Anyway, back to my realization. There are only four months until Christmas. I haven't even finished Mother's Day or Father's Day!
Here are a few pictures that sum up last Christmas. Above we have Lauren and Brittany at Cindy and Earl's.

Below is the ride to Cindy and Earl's. The car was packed. Since the backseat holds three, I had to lay across everyone. It was cr-zazy. (See, I know what people are saying these days. Or would that be "off the hook"?) Either way, it was a wild 20 minutes.
Oh, take note of Cosme and Eric. The flash was blinding.
Another favorite that sums up the holiday... Lauren with her fingers up Eric's nose. I just love family get togethers.
There is one I'd love to post of the gangsta that showed up to play Apples to Apples the next night... but I'll spare him the humiliation. Also, on a side note, Lauren does shut her mouth - sometimes.

i have a new toy

for my computer and I'm having so much fun with it. It's a color pop action for photos. For an example, I'll show you the flowers I got for Valentine's Day.

BEFORE

AFTER

It's great.

i wonder if

he's as embarrassed about this video as I am for him. You gotta see it. It's bad. Somebody should have left his dancing shoes at home. I won't even get started on the hair.

look what i

made! I'm so excited. I've wanted to make pralines for a while and I finally did it this morning. I thought I'd be disappointed because they started to look like they'd be chewy. I was pleased to bite into one and have it crumble.
I only had one because I knew I'd have to taste-test the buttercream frosting for this chocolate cake I'd just pulled from the oven.
I made the frosting and yes, had to sample it. Okay, okay, I licked the spatula when I finished too. Now I'm completely sugared out.

mom took eric to

tour the new Cowboys Stadium and Strat got a scarf.
I know what he's thinking here. "Why do these people always do this to me? It's so humiliating."
I wanted to make him feel a little better so I stuck my foot out to rub his stomach. Seeing my toes compared to his stomach, I realized then that wow, homeboy does have a pretty big belly.
Sometimes he just doesn't seem that big. Then there are times like this.

it's time for the

first day of school picture. Eric was dreading the ponytail for dress code.
So BAM!
Cosme cut it off last night. We left the top long enough for him to put behind his ears. We still have to try and slick it back a little since the dress code states that boys hair cannot go past the eyebrows. Since it is long enough to go behind the ears, there shouldn't be a problem.His hair was shorter in the front so it all wouldn't pull back for a ponytail. He didn't want to worry about teachers saying anything so decided getting rid of it all was the easiest thing to do.

introducing

the chair. I took it out to the beach the other day.
You can't tell it's red in the first so I posted this next one
Now I'm off to find a cure for my headache and do yard work for some peace and quiet.

it's back

it's really, really back. Fed Ex came first thing this morning with an overnight package from HP with a new cord.

i'm so totally

bummed. I can't get the cord for my laptop to make a connection for the thing to charge. I called HP this morning. The customer service guy said my warranty expired 12 days ago. To make a long story short, a year from September 5, 2008 was not 12 days ago. Now I have to wait on another department to research the matter. I'm a disgruntled customer. In the meantime, I am left with the kitchen computer which is loaded down with everything but my camera software.

one day last week

I drove out to Surfside. I saw this bird.
I saw this feather.
I like going to the beach looking at shells. When I was little and we would spend a week out at the beach with Dodo and Johnny, that's one of the things I liked to do... or maybe it was just the idea of getting Dodo away from Johnny and having her all to myself. lol Either way, I liked doing it. We were always looking for sand dollars.

I also took a picture of this guy fishing. I was being sneaky and don't think he saw me. I really liked the way the sun was hitting the water and left a silhouette. Once I got home and saw the image, the sun's cast wasn't exactly what I thought it would be but I still like it.

two images i

felt were camera worthy.

it was so funny

when we first arrived at Chickasaw. (Yes, I know this isn't exactly in order but hey... it's my story and I'll do it how I please.) We're driving through this forest area. We approach an intersection and can only go one way. There's a sign just this side of the road reading "caution, water over road". I panic (can we all say "Grandma"). I tell Mom we can't make it and we need to turn around... in the rv... with a big triangle for a median. Mom listens to me. (First of all, what do I know? I've never owned, much less driven an rv!) She proceeds to make the possibly disastrous u-turn. No need to describe the tension in the rv at this point. All fingers pointed at me. Luckily, a park ranger is on our tail and stops her midway to help. As traffic builds up on both sides, he helps us through. Once done, I have no choice but to say the long-running inside joke between the Brandt/Adame group, "that's what you get for listening to me". Afterwards, we found a parking space and went to hideout for a while. We joked the whole trip about everybody being on the lookout for that crazy rv.

Remember yesterday's post from the hike? Well, we took a wrong turn and had to back out of that. We laughed because a little truck pulled in behind us, saw us backing up and then hauled arse to get out of there (in reverse). It was funny.

Now I leave you with pictures from the u-turn. Here's Mom taking direction from the park ranger.
Here's traffic building up on my side.
This is the intersection.
The view that freaked me out. By the way, I couldn't sit in the passenger seat at this point. Eric and I traded spots. I couldn't stand to watch. It wasn't as severe as I thought. My bad.

driving through

Chickasaw we came across a sign with a camera on it. This obviously meant we needed to pull over and take pictures. We took these steps up to a trail.
We took the trail to this overlook (or... cliff). Well, I stayed on the trail. The overlook was too high and steep for my nerves to handle. I was already freaking out at this point telling Mom and Eric they were too close to the edge.
After the overlook, we headed down this trail... and I do mean down. Look at the slope. I glanced over the edge and saw how far down it went. I told them I wasn't going down any further with flip flops on. Also, Mom was the only one who brought along a bottle of water. We had tennis shoes we could have changed into once we got back to the rv but at that point we'd just had a pretty good workout. I mean please, who goes hikes downhill in 100 degree heat wearing flip flops, only having to go uphill when it's over? Not me.

Chickasaw

something's up

with the little "where are you" gizmo on the left. For some reason just about everyone shows up from Dallas. I don't understand. I'm not in Dallas but it says I am. The creepy thing is on our trip I was going to post some pictures. I looked at the thing and it showed two views out of Sulphur, OK from the day before. [cue "Twilight Zone" theme song] Coincidence or just messed up? I'm betting on just messed up.

UPDATE: I removed it for now.

some of the things

I saw in Oklahoma.
Of all the things I saw, I think this next is one of my favorites. I've thought about hanging it in my living room.There are more but I'll leave you with four for today.

a few views of

Chickasaw Recreation Area. This place was so relaxing. I don't like loud noises but I like a constant low noise. This place had that. It was quiet, but not. Just the sound from the springs could have put me to sleep. Mom and I agreed it'd be a great place for taking a nap. It's so pretty here. I recommend this place to everyone.

our reason for

taking the Oklahoma road trip was to visit Turner Falls. This is Turner Falls.
This is a castle at Turner Falls.
This is Eric looking over the falls with a popsicle doing his best Eddie Murphy impression. "You ain't got no ice cream, ain't got no ice cream..."
These pictures were made from an overlook. We actually didn't spend much time at Turner Falls. We first went to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. Eric and his friend loved it there. By the time we made it to Turner Falls and saw not only how crowded it was but how inconvenient it was to park the rv, we went back to Chickasaw. I'll share more pics tomorrow. I have so many.

on our way

to Oklahoma the scenery suddenly turned to this
Billboards were scattered down the highway for fried pies. We stopped for a couple but when Mom pointed out they were cheaper by the dozen, I had to get a dozen. They were okay and I'm pretty sure there are equally good or better fried pies somewhere out there... but that didn't stop me from eating.
One of the funny things that happened came from a passing truck. Being in the rv puts us way up close to those big trucks. It was funny when traffic was slowing down and all of a sudden Troy Aikman's big head was staring us down. We had to laugh.

before we even

reached the visitor center in Oklahoma, we had already passed one casino. I thought that was pretty cool. Here's a picture of the rv at the visitor center with all the Oklahoma flags.
More to come.