An Olympic style stolen snap

It's Wednesday, about 1:45 when I'm beginning to work on this post, so wish me luck that I get it finished in time to not fake it this week. I have plenty of hours to piddle and get distracted and find things to do until tomorrow night. I need to get busy looking for distractions. 

As I sit here looking out my backdoor trying to think of something to write about, I've found my first. I just remembered I was going outside to do a little spring cleaning in the backyard and pick up poop. It's like a minefield out there. A minefield of poop. I know because I was out there yesterday trying to take a pic of the tiniest flower with my phone lens John gave me for Christmas. I was walking gingerly...and not through the tulips. Oh wait, that was tiptoe through the tulips. But I don't have any tulips. I do have dog poop though. 

I think that was a stream of consciousness. 

I'll be back, the outside is calling me and I can hear it loudly. 

I'm back and it's 1:32 AM and I'd say I was well distracted for a very long time. Almost twelve hours to be exact. What I found when I was outside (after the poop picking up) was a lovely cool breeze making my wind chimes sing a lovely tune. So I sat in the swing and studied my yard in the hope of finding new vision for the coming spring and summer. Sadly, it needs many things to make it a better place. Starting with a fence and going from there. 

Now it's 11:47 AM and I'm leaving to get my haircut. This post is gonna be close...

OMG John texted me at 2:30 and said he wanted to leave for Texas today and not tomorrow! He never does this. I'm leaving in the next 30 minutes! 

I very much regret my distractions and procrastinations. I have tasted my own medicine and it is bitter.

Lucky for me I did most of this in spite of my putting it off. 

Lets get right to the Olympic snaps I stole in August or July or whenever they were! Our family loves the Olympics!! Come see what sports we participated in while snapping.

Beba loves the Olympics as much as anyone I've ever known.

It looks as if William does too. At least the snaps anyway. 

Anna had no idea about the Olympics, but she will learn.

Mollie looks pretty pumped about it.

Excellent Olympic Gold Medal in bottle drinking. Well done Jack. 

The flame burns bright in this one. That was a Star Wars reference if no one got that. 

Maggie! Is at the opening ceremonies watch party the girls always have. It's tradition.  That was an Ever After reference. FYI. 

I won the gold in the silly face rubber ducky competition.  

Either Lucas is singing or fencing. 

Engarde William!

James is all like, "Whaaa?"

I think that face on Beebs means she came in third which means the bronze. Better luck next time Beba.

Lucas has his game face on and ready for anything. Or the "Mikayla is not impressed" face. 

Eleanor was not feeling the table tennis that day. 

But William looked confident in his ability to bring home the gold for USA in ping pong.

Kit Kat looked bored...

Then surprised maybe?

That's a bullseye on William with a side of Carlie.

A William nose with a bullseye right on it. 

Last one of William. 

James doesn't seem sold. 

Is that you Lucas?

This was popular with the boys. 

Lucas won the gold in something.

That's a confetti covered Beba showing her patriotism. Not a snuggle toothed Beba.

That's me.

Anna is not amused or impressed.

But she looks good in those goggles. 

Beba's on the starting blocks. 

Jack may one day be an Olympic swimmer. We shall see. 

In other news, some of my family will be going to Corsicana starting tomorrow. It will be the first trip of 2017 for me. 

People! That sentence above was written yesterday so a lot has happened since then! 

I have to gooooooooo.

See ya after Texas. 

My February Texas trip

I'm currently living in a lopsided house. With Olivia out of town, it's Boys 2- Girls-1. And while I'm capable of holding my own against the tide, the boys don't like to do girl things. It's frustrating. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. 

I'm here to document my weekend trip to Texas. While there the weather ran the gamut from warm and delightful to freezing cold with 30 mile an hour winds. And because I forgot to bring flip flops we had to make an emergency stop at DSW and after I found some shoes to keep my feet happy in the warm weather, a DSW miracle happened. I found some flippers for $15 and I decided to pull the trigger since 15 bucks wasn't gonna break the bank. The girl checking me out asked if I wanted to use my coupons, "Duh....yes." She worked her little magic at the cash register and BOOM! Drum roll please....

That's one cent people! That's the greatest bargain I've ever experienced in my lifetime. Lets just take a moment and reflect. OK, I'm done. 

I will keep them forever. Probably. Maybe. OK, they may be given away at some point in the future, but they represent a thing that's as close to a Publisher's Clearing House win I'll ever get. Such a fine moment. 

On Saturday Caitlin and I drove to Waco to see the Silos and also to look for some of the Fixer Upper houses from the show. The Silos are easy to see and find...no maps needed if you're on Hwy. 35 because....

They're huge and hard to miss.

That's Kit Kat looking at her phone. 

It was a gorgeous day and while that was wonderful, it was also the motivator for every single person in the world to be at the Silos as well. It was claustrophobic and disconcerting. 

That's the shopping part and it's huge and filled with 9 gazillion people. I'm not exaggerating. 

After we sidled amongst the 9 gazillion, we herded on over to the bakery...to be herded in line for the privilege of buying some cupcakes. 

It's super cute inside. A step back in time for an old school bakery feel. 

We gave their cupcakes a huge thumbs up. My fave was this Nuts and Bolts cupcake as well as a big sprinkled sugar cookie. That girl is excellently sandwiched between the cupcakes. I did NOT do that on purpose. 

It was all delicious. 

One more pic of the cute cakes and the cookies. 

Documentation of our faces was required.

They have a garden shop and food trucks and places to play and many many people took them up on all of it. 

That's the garden shop. 

The food trucks are lined up on the outside and these tables are for gathering to eat your food truck finds. 

It was really quite something. 

We left the Silos and drove around Waco and I have to say I just don't get it. It's not charming to me at all. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I've now been two times and I still don't see what all the fuss is about with that city. I've looked for adorable and it's just not there. At least for me. 

We drove around Baylor, Billie June's old school. 

We couldn't find a place to eat so we went back to the Silos and ate food truck food and it was delish. On the way back to the Silos we found the shotgun house that was on one of the episodes. I read today that many of the houses they've redone are being rented out to people visiting the city. So it begs the question, did people get on board to get a new house, or a financial windfall? 

I think it's tacky. The is one that is rented out. 

Then we left Waco and drove to McGregor Texas to see the Magnolia Bed and Breakfast house. It's cute as well. 

The sun was not cooperating with me. 

We made the block and I tried again and was more successful. 

The front door.

The caretaker's house. 

We left McGregor and drove to Crawford Texas to see if we could find George Bush's ranch as well as Chip and Joanna's house. In a very non creepy stalker way. While on the road we saw much excellent Texas landscape. 

The day was gorgeous. 

We found JD's place, the guy who does the iron work for Fixer Upper, but we were unsuccessful in finding their farm. 

Caitlin took one gazillion pictures of JD's. I kept 2. 

We drove around Crawford and saw George Bush riding his bike. OK, that might not be true. BUT! We were riding down George's road and a big group of people were riding bikes towards us and we were talking to Olivia on the phone and I said, "Hang on and lets see if George Bush is one of these bike riders." Well, of all the riders...maybe 10, one man waved at us! That in no way means it was George. I'd like to think it was, but I really don't think it was. We passed them one more time...again in a non-stalker, non-creepy way, and decided it wasn't George Bush. But what a good story it would have made. I'm really quite sad I can't tell it with a better, happier ending. 

So lets recap our Crawford adventures shall we? We didn't find Chip and Joanna's farm and we didn't see George Bush. Eh, whatevs. It's not the saddest story in the world. But it'll eat. I know that saying doesn't apply here, but I like it, I felt like saying it and I feel good about it. The end.  

We stopped for a Sonic somewhere in Texas. I have no idea where it was. But I feel like if current day crazy feminists saw this little Sonic girl car hop sign? They'd lose their ****. 

This is the Bosque County courthouse in Meridian Texas. 

It was really pretty. 

We had a lovely sunset on the way back to Dallas.

On Sunday we ate brunch and went to see Ft. Worth since Caitlin had never been. She was unimpressed. Kit Kat is NOT all about the stockyards and pink cowboy hats. While she thought parts were cute, she will not be moving there. 

Saw these groovy clouds on Sunday. 

Love it. 

We got back to the house in time to watch the Grammy's on Sunday night. Let me rephrase that...Caitlin watched the Grammy's. I spent most of my time yelling at the TV and the idiocy I was subjected to. I just can't with celebrities. Really I can't. That's all I have to say about that. Except!! Put your boobs up!! Just put them up. Nobody has time for celebrity boobs. But that's really what most of them are. I'll give you a sec in case you didn't get that. 

I came home on Wednesday and then Olivia and Caitlin flew on Saturday to see Emma in DC, and they enjoyed a fun weekend celebrating Emma's 26th birthday. 

Now we are here, which is early Wednesday morning and I have a dilemma. Snapchat Thursday is coming and I've spent so much time working on this post, I'm now gonna have to scramble to have my snapchat post ready for Thursday! 

Crikey!!

I'll work something out, but for now, I'm about to go find a bed and get in it. Goldilocks I'm not. I know where my bed is. 

I have NO idea where that came from. 

I'm out like me in dodge ball.