Every So Often......

.....the moon can be seen in the daytime sky,

Rainbows come with double arches,


Four leaf clovers appear in a vast meadow,

Shooting stars appear out of nowhere on a dark and lonely night...


...nature's little pleasures.

Rainbows after a summer shower or pictures in the clouds.


Every so often nature brings little pleasures...

...like snow in the deep south or rain in the dessert


Every so often nature brings a surprise....

Memories From the Past - Carnival Cruise 2006

For me, there have been many vacations to remember - some bad, some good. One of my favorite vacation memories was our cruise in 2006. First, let me enlighten you. One of my biggest fears is deep water, large boats that are in deep water and large waves. Now you can only imagine what kind of psyching I had to do to myself in the months leading up to our cruise departure. In the end, I decided not to let my fear rob me of a fun vacation.

If you really want a real vacation I would highly recommend a cruise. For a little over $1000 we had a full week of being "Kings and Queens". Everything you need is on the ship. Meals..any kind of meal you are looking for, are served 24 hours a day and there is no getting in a car to drive around in an unfamiliar area in search of something to eat.

Entertainment and shows are also around the clock. At any given moment you can find something to do, so if you are one of those night owl kind of people you are in luck.

Gosh, I am lusting after another one just thinking about it.....

You would never have to even leave your cabin if you didn't want to. Room service was also 24 hours a day AND everytime you came back to your room from an outing the beds were made and your room was clean. There were also cute little animals made out of towels on the bed. The towel animals were one of Summers favorite things about the cruise.


If you have kids and are the type parents that don't like your kids hanging around, or you just want to enjoy some adult activities like the casino or bar, they also have round the clock child care called Carnival Kids. It was more than just a day care. They actually did activities with the kids all over the boat. Because of Summer's clingy nature she never participated in Carnival kids...I'm sure her fear probably stopped her from having a lot of fun and incidentally probably stopped Toby and I from winning a million dollars from the casino...or maybe stopped us from spending a million dollars...just kidding. :-)

Since I was not yet blogging during the time of our cruise I am adding some picture highlights of our Carnival Cruise 2006...
















Ahhh...yes, a perfect vacation and a perfect memory.

September 4, 2009 - Playdate in Pictures

A Hot Hike in Zilker

For some reason or another I thought we had a cool front come in. I guess I was being mislead by the comfy temps we have been having in the mornings and evenings. After all it is September..should there not be some sort of break in the heat by now??? As Toby pointed out, the cool front came in and left as quickly as it came.

Either way, my impatience and determination to get out and get a little exercise and enjoy some of the beautiful scenic hikes around here cost me an almost heat stroke today. The temps topped out at 105. In temps like that a hike is more exhausting than anything.

My chosen hiking trail was in the Zilker Nature Preserve outside the Austin Nature and Science Center. Summer never bores of the Science Center and I never bore of a good hike. Toby just goes along for the ride no matter what we do.

Summer and I hiked this trail last year by ourselves when Toby worked downtown. This would be the first time Toby would hike this particular trail with us.

I made sure that we conducted our hike before we stopped into the Science Center. I knew if we went there first we would never make it to the trails.

On the way through the bird sanctuary to the trail head Summer and I just had to stop and watch the turtles. The keeper had just set out their food tray so we got to see the
turtles eating their lunch. It was very amusing to watch them fight and push each other out of the way to get to the food. I never knew box turtles had such interesting personalities.

I really like this particular hike because of the lookout. Once you climb the many steps up the hill to the top you are rewarded with a view of downtown Austin. I really wish there was a way for me to capture depth with my camera. You can't really tell the steepness of the hill up to the top so use your imagination.




Here are a couple of shots of downtown I took. I was so excited about getting pics of downtown but none of them turned out as well as what I wanted. I guess I didn't have my camera set right.....




Even though it was hot as hell, we were all enjoying being outdoors. There is just something that is so alluring about being in the midst of nature in the middle of a city. I call it the best of both worlds...the city in the country. If I ever decide to relocate again, this aspect of Austin will have to be on my list of requirements in my next destination.

Sadly, because of the extreme drought all the creeks have become bone dry. I see evidence of a once flowing creek on all of our hikes. Here we are at an area that was once a flowing creek. I can see it in my minds eye and look forward to the day when it is transformed to it's natural state.




Finally, some much anticipated water back at the Nature Center...




Here are just a couple of miscellaneous photos I took. The first one is downtown Austin from the other side of Zilker Park where Austin City Limits is held, the Kite Festival, Zilker Trail of Lights, and many others I don't know about yet.



I just added this pic because I thought it was a good representation of Austin in artistic form. It was on the side of the Food Mart on Riverside Drive.

Happy Birthday Day...August 27, 2009

Toby turned the ripe old age of 35 today. We don't usually go all out for birthdays for each other...or for any holiday for that matter. Birthday celebrations at our house usually consist of a small gift and cake of choice. It's also always a given that we know we get to do whatever we want to do on our "special" day with no argument from the other.

So, Toby decided that he wanted to go canoeing on Town Lake (renamed Lady Bird Lake recently)in downtown Austin. Canoeing on the lake is one of the 50,000 things we have on our list of things to do in Austin.

Somehow or another in route our plans got changed and we decided to do the Austin Duck Adventures....another activity on our to do list. As with most downtown areas free parking is almost always impossible to find. Toby got to be a pro at finding free parking when he worked downtown when we first moved here, so he always finds us a spot with ease....me, I just pay to park to save myself the aggravation.

Anyway, it gave us a chance to walk a few blocks of downtown which is something I always love to do. Although I love the peace and quite of being out of the city limits I also could see myself as one of those city folk that take public transportation and live in one of those high rise condos overlooking the city.

Once we made it to the Welcome Center where we were to board the Duck Adventures we paid our hefty fee for the tour and got our tickets. We had about a half an hour wait before the next tour so we got us a snack at the little convenient store a couple of buildings down. We sat outside on the ledge of the music store and ate our snack and people watched. People watching in downtown Austin is always very interesting to say the least.

Although the temps are still in triple digits, I was not feeling it too bad....I guess you eventually get immune to whatever temps you get acclimated to.

I think Summer was enjoying the tour more than Toby and I. After all, what kid doesn't love hanging her head out a windowless vehicle feeling the wind blow in her face PLUS it rides in the water too! I don't think the lady sitting next to us was feeling the same joy. She was looking a little green and at one point was in search of a plastic bag. We couldn't figure out if she was sick from the heat or the motion of the giant rocking vehicle we were on.

Along the way, the narrator was giving little bits of history about downtown. It was very interesting and some of the stories were very amusing. We also passed by the filming of a movie they are making in downtown.

Here are a few pics of the tour...




One of the benefits of homeschooling....driving the Duck Adventures boat!





After our tour we were in need of some dinner. Since we were already downtown we decided to try out a restaurant we had never eaten, the Hula Hut on Lake Austin. I have to say the food was pretty good and we had a pretty good first dining experience. Being on the water with the tropical feel the restaurant gave off almost made me feel I was back on the coast....no seagulls there to beg for food though. :-)




Toby with his free birthday snack...and no thank goodness they didn't sing to him there. I don't know what the treat was called but it was very good.




I don't know about Toby, but I had a great day on his birthday. :-)

What's More Important???

Within the past year or so Summer has taken much consideration to the way her hair looks, making sure that it is brushed the moment she gets out of the bed. I know little girls start to get really obsessive about their looks at one point or another so I do understand.

Unfortunately, poor thing was also blessed with her fathers very thin, fine flyaway hair. All it takes is one gust of wind and it looks like she hasn't brushed it in months....matter of fact, I am sure most people look at me and wonder why I never brush my child's hair.

Although she is obsessive about her hair, getting her to brush her teeth takes an act of God. I have to constantly "remind" her to brush her teeth daily. After my gentle reminder she acts as if I have asked her to pull her own teeth instead of brushing them.

So, I decided to leave her to her own vices and let her suffer the consequences of halitosis. Only in this way I figured she would realize the importance of clean, fresh breath. During my experiment I was cringing but I knew it was a necessary evil. I really wondered how long it would take her before she would brush her teeth on her own without reminders from the evil mom.

I had only been a couple of days that she had not brushed her teeth before she came up to me after her bath one night and blew her breath in my face and asked me if it smelled fresh. Hmmmmm.....I asked her why all of a sudden she was concerned about her teeth and breath. I had to laugh to myself as she dropped her head and told me that while her and Philipe (her little boyfriend next door)were playing he had told her her breath stunk.

See if she had only listened to her mother she could have saved herself some embarrassment....but who ever listens to their mother??????

Hopefully the teeth brushing thing has been nipped in the bud. On to a new child rearing dilemma....

Life

While out and about today hubby and I were having a discussion. Unlike most typical couples our discussions usually don't revolve around kids or financial situations, but in-depth topics such as spirituality, fear, religion, education, etc.

For instance, today our topic was about living beings. e.g...why is is it considered by some to refrain from eating meat because it is considered a living being but yet it's o.k to munch on a salad or veggies (which are also living beings)?

The conversation was sparked by me today as we were passing by a farm on the way to errandville. I noticed a few cows by the fence. I made the comment that I had been made aware lately about the negatives of eating animal flesh. It's really something ordinary folks don't think about as we stick our teeth into that juicy burger or steak.

I made the comment that I thought the cow was cute and that I was rethinking eating meat products because the cow was a living being..like myself. I am using the cow as an example, but there are many other meats that are forbidden by "vegans".

Of course, hubby always loves a good debate and proceeded to inform me that if I were going to quit eating meat for this reason than I should quit eating salads too. After all, plants are also living things that also react to their surroundings and stimuli. Plant life can feel and react just as an animal can. Maybe not in the extreme but in their own living way.

This got me to really thinking about living things in general. It is so true...all living things survive off feeding off other living things. There is no way around it. Animals feed off other living things with no qualms at all...it's survival of the fittest...and yes, humans are animals in every form and fashion.

I began to think of all the alternate things that I could eat that I could sustain my life on and realized that there was absolutely nothing that I could eat that is healthy or good for my body that is not a living thing.

So to all you vegans out there I ask....my question of the day is what is the difference between eating a good burger and a salad???