Three Weeks Condensed Into One Post

One might ask how 3 weeks could fit into one post, well make those 3 weeks of lazy hosting and BAM! you have a short post. My poor sister got the tail end of a slew of visitors and I was plumb out of ideas. Ok, really I am not so good as hosting people even when there is a lot to do. Nevertheless, there was fun to be had. For example:


FHE/SCRIPTURE STUDY while playing on monkey bars at Mia's school.



Enjoying a hands on Museum before a rainstorm.


Getting free Chick-fil-a sandwiches for dressing in our Favorite College Shirts.


Driving to and from the gym and other day to day errands!

I am glad that my sister Emily had a little more oomph then I had because we got to a whole lot more then I would have done. Like:







Make believe in Mini Town



Rock Climb at the gym





And celebrate b-days and school and time together

In any case, I realized that I need to explore this area more for any potential visitors who may come at a future date. That way San Antonio could be showcased in a better way. Thanks for the adventures and giggles and patience Woidkas.

Grasshopper Rescue: A Good Place to Start

With all the back blogging I owe, I thought I would start with a harrowing rescue wrought with fear and betrayal.

The reason for the blogging neglect was due to the stream of family visitors that have ensued for the past months. That isn't to suggest such visits were unwanted, but that blogging took a back seat.

During a Walmart run in preparation for my sister and her kids visiting us, I noticed a large set of dragonfly wings protruding from my windshield. On closer inspection, I discovered that the wings belonged to a fairly largish grasshopper who had become lodged in the small space between the car trim and the windshield. I knew two things instantly, we must rescue the grasshopper and I wasn't about to touch it. I thought my kids who are avid bug touching fans (see here) would be thrilled at such a chance, but the shear size of the beast made Tiago shrink in fear.


Luckily a nearby stick help pry the near dead insect from its bird bait position. Afraid for the limping grasshopper, we tried to take it to a safer place. Unfortunately, the grasshopper wasn't trusting of our motives and stung Tiago with its spiky hind legs. That's gratitude for you. Which made me think, how often do I give a harsh response when the intention is to help. Good thing Fernando is patient.

Home

What mother books a flight for her and her 3 kids that leaves at 8 pm and arrives almost at midnight? Well, this was the question racing through the mind of the well dressed business man with the blue-tooth in his ear. Thank heavens for male flight attendants who lack relational aggression and think to make a balloon out of plastic gloves and alcohol to fuzzy up the other passengers. The flight was a bit rocky, but out of sympathy many of the passengers found me afterwords to commend me on my willingness to attempt such a insane feat solo and how wonderful my kids were. All of you who have flown with kids realize what a blessing loving words can be after such an ordeal. But we are home now and have much to blog about. First. . .I have to unpack.

Oh, before I forget. I can not begin to tell you how glad I was to come home to a clean house. I understand why my mom always made the house spotless even though we would be gone. One less thing to think about.

What Matters Most

How grateful I am for a Heavenly Father who loves His children enough to send prophets to remind us of how to live.

For What It's Worth

In the past few weeks we have had the chance to go to two events due to free tickets we received. The first event was for a baseball game between one unknown team against another unknown team. (hence the free tickets) Uncle Daniel was here which made the potential for fun that much greater. Hype for the game wasn't enough to make the experience very memorable, but hey, it was a freebie.

Then, just the other day, accompanied by my sister and her kids, we went to the Alcazzar Circus! The kids got in for free, but the adults plunked out some serious cash for our seats. There is no real way to delineate the badness of this circus. Was it the carbon monoxide poisoning from the 20 or so old cars driven through the enclosed arena that was less then adequately ventilated? Or the Las Vegas strip club dancers who had more clothes on then dancing capacity (which wasn't very much)? Or the equally near naked announcer who was unintelligible? Th potentially interesting tiger trainer turned into a freaky over processed blond middle aged man thrashing about the ring smacking the obviously depressed tigers. How have animal rights activists not shut this guy down? We finally got up to leave when Tiago requested the chance to go home to nap above the "show". Just in time. As we were leaving a scantily clad contortionist began a sultry routine to Unchained Melody.

Moral of the Stories: Free tickets are usually a means by which lack luster programs can get some audience. So, unless everyone can go in for free, may be it's not worth your time.

Need for Speed

While driving one of my normal dog trails to Big Willy, I noticed that I am traveling over the speed limit and try to adjust my driving accordingly. In San Antonio, the freeways are littered with frontage roads that vary in speed levels between 45-55 mph. They are kind of random and you have usually about a few seconds to notice. Unfortunately, a sleek silver sports car also was aware of the inappropriate speed I was going and decided to reveal his true identity.

Cop lights blazing, I am hailed to pull into a grass field over a loud intercom system. The police officer mosies on up and gives me a chance to tell the truth. I admit that I noticed I was going over the speed limit, but that I honestly thought that it was 55 mph. He let me know that I was going a whopping 57 mph. He then proceeds to ask me if I was in a hurry to get anywhere. I was more then a bit baffled about the question. So, I repeat the facts of how the frontage roads are usually 55 and when I noticed this one was 45, I started to hit my breaks. It wasn't that the presence of the police officer was known and I was hoping not to get caught. I truly was trying to go the speed.

Really, he didn't even care. After 15 minutes of him sitting in his car, I get a ticket for $176. He kindly lets me know that I can take a defensive driving course for only $107 and then it wouldn't go on my record. Instead I would have to waste a day in court and waste another whole day doing the course.

What irks me to no extent is that I am being punished for trying to be a good driver. There have been plenty of times that I am being reckless and going at least 20 mph over. I would have no problem pleading guilty and going to defensive driving. So, do I appear in court and hope for validation or suck it up and take the ludicrous ticket?

Ants in my Pants! Really?

Our usual Wednesday schedule involves library story time and a trip to the commissary. This particular Wednesday we were accompanied by my nephew so I decided get Taco Bell and eat under the wing of an airplane. I mean how cool that we could sit under the mammoth wing of a C137 (ok, I can't remember what plane it was). Sitting in the shade seeing all the historic planes on a towel in the grass, I realized that there were friends enjoying our picnic with us. A few ants began swarming our small crew and so I decided it was time to leave. I guess I didn't decide fast enough because during our walk around airplane row, I felt a familiar bite in an unmentionable area. So startled by the bite, I instantly whacked a near by area too embarrassed to hit the actual location.

I won't get to all the sordid details and how many bites and where (yes more then one), but I think that I have a better understanding what a boogie dance is.