Cue the DJ Jazzy Jeff Song

It's the first official day of my summer. And there's already so much swimming around in my head- lists of things I want to do with my new-found free time! Being a teacher is one of the loves of my life, but this summer has been sorely needed and muchly anticipated! After all the stress of the potential impending budget cuts last school year- from Oh NO! They're laying off 50% of our faculty! To No, nevermind. Everybody's staying- which swung from one extreme to the next and back again for six whole months, the year was emotionally trying. People became more difficult to work with because the ax was hanging over all our heads. But as summer has approached, most of our jobs are still in tact and now we have a couple of months to rest and mentally recoup and prepare for the craziness that will begin again on August 15th.

This past year I've had some pretty amazing creative opportunities. My alma mater published one of my blog posts in an anthology by and about one of my college professors. I had the opportunity to begin writing book reviews for Penguin Books through BlogHer. And I was able to meet and hang out with one of my favorite musicians, who in turn encouraged me to up my game and my confidence a little in my singing and songwriting. (I believe chickenshit was the actual word he used. It worked.) So this summer, I'd like to keep doing more of the same, I guess. I feel like I'm on a creative roll and I'd like to ride it out and see where it takes me. And now I have the time to do it.

So I'm gonna go make some breakfast and see what the day holds. Send creative vibes my way and I'll send them back! :)

Running for A Cure: NYC Marathon

So. Check out my little sister, Dani. She's running the NYC Marathon in November. And she's running to raise $2,500 for Multiple Myeloma cancer research. Follow her blog and donate to help find a cure!

Much Ado About the Royal Wedding

So in two days the UK will witness the marriage of the heir apparent to the potential future queen of England. I've found no middle ground on opinions of this event. Either people can't wait to witness the event and have set their DVR's weeks in advance- some are actually hosting watch parties in the wee hours of the morning the day of the blessed event; or people could care less and don't understand what all the hubbub is about.

I read a great article the other day about why the Brits are so obsessed with the wedding. They're witnessing a tradition that goes back a thousand years in their country. It's history-in-the-making. It makes sense that they would want to feel like they were a part of the lives, at least in some small way, of the future heads of state of their country.

But why are Americans so interested? Well, besides the fact that up until 200 years ago, we also had kings and queens, at least for the girls I know, the interest falls into two categories. For some, Kate represents the little girl who always wanted to become a real genuine princess. And people will watch to see what her dream wedding will actually be like and imagine that fairy tale world where the peasant girl (or daughter of millionaires, whatever) gets rescued by the prince on a white horse and gets whisked off to the castle on the hill. But for others of us, I think we watch half excited for the pomp and circumstance of it all, and half astounded that a young woman would willingly step from relative obscurity into the very public and lifelong pressure cooker that is joining the monarchy by marriage.

We relate to it on some sort of personal level. We all know what it's like to have expectations placed upon us by the world around us. We try to fathom the pressure she'll be under once she says her I do's. We watch hopefully, cheering for her to succeed, but terrified at the same time that she might fail. We've already seen one princess succumb to the scrutiny of the crown-- and more than that, to the scrutiny of the public. And it eventually cost her her life. So we watch with high hopes, thinking of our own wedding days (and future wedding days), and wish her all the happiness and success in the world- and the strength to make it endure.

Old Lady Moment

So these little love birds have been sitting on my fence for an hour tonight.

I've noticed several birds doing lots of sitting around today. You don't normally see that outside. With birds, they normally flit down and twitch around like over-caffeinated crackheads, then they're off after two seconds. I think P displaced them when he trimmed some branches off one of our trees last night.

Today when I got home from school, there was a little guy pretty much laying down on an outdoor pillow the wind had blown underneath one of our patio chairs. I'd never seen a bird look so comfortable. He looked at me and we had a moment.

He didn't have to say anything. I knew that pillow was way better than that scratchy old tree.

So you're welcome, bird.

You Clearly Don't Know Who I Think I Am

So I spent TEN hours today working on my genealogy.  P is getting a little annoyed, let's be honest.  But there's some really super cool stuff in here.

Like:  my great, great grandfather on my mom's side was Joseph Burton Matthews.  He was a first sergeant in Writght's Regiment in the Arkansas Cavalary, Company B.  The Civil War.  He fought for the confederacy and was also a plantation owner in Arkansas.  While I'm not totally down with that, he did have a daughter that he named Magnolia Gabriella.  And they called her Nalia.  Say it with a huge southern drawl.  Naaaaahhhlia.  Yeah, there you go.  And I sort of think that's kind of awesome.  I'm pretty sure she was the perfect southern belle.  I just picture her swishing her hoop skirt around, twirling her parasol and saying, "Why, I do declayah!"

Then there's my great, great, great, great, great, great (six greats) grandfather, Edward Moody, who was a first lieutenant in the continental army, fighting for the freedom of this great nation in the Revolutionary War.  That makes me proud.  His family came over from Ireland in the 1700's and he joined right in the fight. 

Then there's the connection I've known about for a while.  Yes, I'm a great, great, great, great niece of Honest Abe.  My maternal grandpa's mom was a Hanks, and so was Abe's mother, Nancy.  It's all weaved in there together somewhere.  And so is Tom Hanks, apparently.

Then there's dad's side.  I thought mom's side was cool.  Just wait.  I just thought I was only descended from train robbers who were shot dead trying to escape from prison in 1934... I was able to go all the way back to 1053.  Yeah.  1053, as in THE YEAR 1053.  Serfs, peasants.  Knights.  Lords.  Ladies.  Kings.  Queens.  Cornwall, England is where my people made their home for over four hundred years.  Talk about home bodies!  Jeez!  Not too shabby though, because as it turns out, King Henry the 3rd is my uncle.  And two of my (many) great grandfathers were knighted.  One was High Sheriff of Cornwall and one fought with William the Conqueror.  So we lived long and prospered.  Clearly.

I love this stuff.  I think I may be addicted.  I could probably quit my job and just hash out my ancestors full time and be perfectly fine with it.

P started putting away laundry tonight.  He looked at me and said, You've been on the computer ALL day!  I can't do EVERYTHING!  Well.  Whatev.  You should probably address me as Lady Ashly from now on. 

I've had a fun Saturday.  :)

Sorry for the Radio Silence

I've had a lot going on in the last couple of weeks! Well, mentally at least. And we traveled some. Now September is here and the ball is really getting rolling. Next thing I know, it'll be May! And you'll hear no complaints from me about that! :)

Last weekend we took a trip to the Texas coast. We stopped to see my sister in Houston-- and we stayed in her new swanky high-rise digs.

 She's on the eleventh floor overlooking all of downtown Houston. It's pretty nice.  I'm really proud of her.  She just got a second job working on-call nights and weekends at a community clinic just because she wanted to fill her time more. She's a pretty stellar individual.

And being that she'd only been in the place a week, we spent a morning fabric shopping and a few hours in the afternoon hanging curtains for her massive wall of windows in the living room.  

Then we headed an hour south to Galveston.  For some reason, water has a profound calming effect on me.  Even if it's not beautiful, tropical, Bahamian water.  Even Texas gulf water does the trick.  And we arrived just in time.  Hermine was just starting to kick up way off coast, so there were some amazingly beautiful waves, and the weather was still awesome.  It was hot, but it didn't really feel that bad because of the ocean breeze.  We drove down the seawall to our hotel, which was very impressive, by the way.  I'm a bargain shopper in every day life, but one thing I refuse to do is skimp on vacations.  So when we pulled up to this place, I was very, very, satisfied with my choice.

Not only is Hotel Galvez one of the nicest hotels on the island, it's also haunted.  BONUS!  Supposedly, in the early 1900's a lonely wife of a sailor hung herself from the top of the hotel when she learned her husband had perished at sea.  Only, her husband survived and returned to find she had committed suicide.  Supposedly, she had checked into room 501 that fateful night and now the entire fifth floor is haunted.  So of course, P had to drag me up there to see if we could see a ghost or anything.  We didn't.

And for the next two days we ate lots of great food and spent a total of like twelve hours in the pool.  It was nice.  And on the last day, I sat in the lobby looking out at the waves as P was having the car pulled around.  I didn't want to leave.  But we had to, and it was perfect timing because just as we were leaving the island, Hermine came ashore with buckets and buckets of rain and some pretty stiff winds.  We saw rescue helicopters over the beach in the rear view mirror.  But we made it out and back home safely.  It was a nice break over a long weekend that was still close to home.

And now September has begun, and our calendar is full.  P's got a ton of music stuff going on this month both in Texas and Oklahoma.  And Zoey Miller, my honorary niece and firstborn of my best friend, will make her world debut on Monday, September 20th, if not before!  Exciting stuff!  I can't wait to meet her.  And I can't wait to see Caroline become a mom.  I think it's going to be the greatest thing ever.


So, you won't have to wake me up when September ends.  Because this month is too exciting to sleep through. :)

Beaches, Babies, and Deep Breaths

School is off to a swimmingly good start. The kiddos have arrived and are ready to learn. For the most part. I think.

Sometimes I like to remember back to what I was like in class in tenth grade and think about what I thought about school back then. Learning? Who cares! Every once in a while, I'd be quiet and focused long enough to breeze through what ever ridiculous exercise we happened to be doing in any given class. So I try to remember that when I'm teaching.

OMG YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP ON THE NOTES!! JOSE IF YOU DON'T FOCUS ON WHAT WE'RE DOING RIGHT NOW I'M GOING TO RIP YOUR LIPS OFF AND BEAT YOU WITH THEM!! IF I HAVE TO REPEAT MYSELF ONE MORE TIME I'M GOING TO GO COMPLETELY INSANE ON YOU GUYS!!

It's not life and death here. It's English class. Who cares? I mean, I care. I do. And the kids should care too. We should get our work done in class, and I need to make sure they're getting the things they need, but come on. Let's not lose sleep over it. Or get high blood pressure because of it. It's tenth grade English class. And I think I'm starting to get a grip on this more this year than I have in the past three years. I'm learning to enjoy it. And if I'm enjoying it, they'll enjoy it. I think that's the key.

So in the name of enjoyment, P and I are taking a little and LONG OVERDUE mini vacation out of town this long weekend. We have nothing to do. Nothing on the agenda. No shows to put on, no records to record, no real set schedule. So we're heading to the Gulf Coast (of Texas) to see my lil sis and spend a couple of days holed up in a fabulous hotel laying out by the pool and staring at the ocean. I. CAN'T. WAIT.

And after it's all over, come Tuesday, the madness begins again. September is a crazy busy month for us. I have training for school, Texas Jack is getting back together for a reunion show at FarmFest in Chillicothe the 3rd weekend in September, and then the last weekend, we'll be back in Oklahoma City/Stillwater-- where P will be back in the studio recording, and I'll be (hopefully) holding little Zoey Grace Miller in my arms and spoiling her little newborn self rotten!

So it's a straight slide into October-- which if you didn't know-- is the BEST MONTH OF ALL. I turn 31 and my marriage turns 3! :) Gotta love it! Good things are one the way!

Hasta!

I. AM. IN. LOVE.

... with this day!!

Do you ever have those days when all the little things go right and all the planets are ever so correctly aligned? So far (knock on wood), today has been that day.

I'm loving my new pants that actually fit. Feels awesome. And not like I'm wearing pajamas for once. :)

I'm loving that it was 110 degrees two days ago, and right now, as we speak, it's 73 degrees outside.

I am IN LOVE with my entire first period class who actually knows what we use commas and semi colons for-- first class EVER in my history of teaching!!

And I am loving my new A Day block schedule that lets me plow through my classes from 9:00 a.m. until 2:25 p.m. when I'm done teaching for the day.

Life is good!

Boys Beware

This is, in fact, a blog about the Gyno.  If you're squeamish, go back to your techcrunch or gizmodo or farmville or whatever it is you use to pass the day til punch-out time. 

Everybody still with me, this is a little bit of how my  morning went.  Ah, the joys of being a woman in the post-modern era of technology and yearly doctors visits and birth control.  Whatever did the cave women do?

Their lives were considerably less complicated, I'm guessing.

There's one thing you should know about me.  I'm not sure how I developed this, but I'm a meticulous life planner.  I've always been pretty laid back and spontaneous about everyday things-- like, hey!  Let's get in the car and take a road trip this weekend!  Or my personal favorite, Forget cooking tonight!  I want Pietro's! But for the big things in life, I've learned to be fairly calculated.  I think this resulted from my younger years when I completely flew by the seat of my pants, started and quit jobs just for the hell of it, skipped class and did very badly in school, and was broke and irresponsible most of the time.  Eventually I saw the consequences those kinds of decisions were producing in my life and decided to turn this ship around.  Ever since, I've been extremely careful to plan and prepare.  I had a plan for my career and started down that road, I knew exactly when I wanted to buy a house and patiently waited for the right time, and I've also taken the same care to plan for having a family.  I've heard all the arguments for "there is never a right time," but for me there is certainly a better time than others, so P and I have taken the matter under careful consideration and have planned accordingly.  And this is where the story starts.

I've had high blood pressure since I was 19 years old.  Or at least that's when I was told about it.  It may have started before then, but I didn't regularly see the doctor, so I don't know.  I think it's a result of several things, but mainly I think it's the result of anxiety.  So over the last ten years or so, I've done different things to try to keep it under control.  One of the ways I've managed it was to be on birth control that does not contain estrogen, as estrogen makes your BP higher.  It also makes you moodier which, of course, does not help with the anxiety.  So when I moved to Texas and got a new doctor, we discussed my options for birth control.  She thought it might be a good idea to try an IUD.  It doesn't contain estrogen and it's very low maintenance.  Perfect for a woman who's not planning on having babies in the near future.  One little hitch in the system.  It's not recommended for women who've never given birth.  This is because the IUD actually has to be inserted THROUGH your cervix INTO your uterus.  And that can be quite painful for women who've never passed an eight pound baby's head through their bodies.  But we soldiered on.  Why, I have no idea, but we did nonetheless.

So I came in for my appointment to have it placed.  It was a little painful, but it was quick.  Until she said at the end of the visit, "I don't think I got it far enough in there.  I want you to come back tomorrow and I'll try to push it in some more."  Ummmm, ok.  There was no turning back at this point, so I came back the next day.  Same thing.  A little painful, but not unbearable, and then it was over.  And I was set for the next five years if I wanted to be!  Nary a care in the world in the birth control department for years!  It was like heaven!

Until about a year ago.  When things started going wrong on a monthly basis, if you know what I mean.  It was not pleasant to say the least.  But I let it go, because I enjoyed the non-hassle of not worrying about birth control.  And then recently it got worse.  And I decided it was time to get The Thing (that's what we call it) taken out.  So I called and made the appointment.  I went in, laid down and let the doctor get to work.  She was down there for a few minutes and said, "Hmmmm."  This is never good.  You never want to hear your doctor say, "Hmmmm."

"I can't seem to find the strings to pull it out.  They must've gotten lost when I put it in."  They must've gotten LOST?!  So she brought in an ultrasound tech to try to help locate The Thing.  And then she brought in another doctor.  They both stared blankly at the screen.  "That might be it.  Yeah, that might be it.  We're looking for a shadow."

You're looking for a SHADOW?  I'm sorry.  Have you SEEN an ultrasound machine screen before?  It's ALL shadows!

And then the pain started.  They were manually trying to pry open my un-babified cervix.  I nearly came off the table.  I was crying and hyperventilating at the same time while they were fishing around trying to gain entrance to my uterus.  The doctor stopped.  She said, "I'm not going to do this to you anymore.  We're just going to have to reschedule you and use anesthesia."  This sounded grand to me at the time between my tears and the butcher knife that was stabbing me in the uterus.  Until the nurse called the next day and said, "It's gonna be $400 up front for the doctor. And that doesn't include the hospital's part."

P said, "Honey, you're just gonna have to suck it up and take one for the team."  Um.  I'm sorry!  Have you ever had anyone rip into YOUR uterus?  I think not!  But still, I knew we didn't have $400 to spend on this silly IUD removal that normally takes about three painless minutes in the doctor's office.  So I called the doctor back and let her know that wasn't an option.  What else could we do?

INJECTIONS, she said.

So I went in for the dreaded appointment this morning, and P came with to hold my hand and remind me to take deep breaths and tell me that someone shoving needles into my cervix really won't hurt that bad and that everything will be fine.  So I laid down on the table and the party commenced.  I breathed.  I sweated profusely.  The doctor applied a cold compress to my head.  P squeezed my hand.  She told me to cough and then she gave me shots of lidocaine.  And it didn't hurt nearly as badly as I expected.  But I still concentrated on my breathing, and P still held my hand and I reminded him to focus squarely on my face, because I didn't want to see a look of terror on his face when he saw the instruments they were putting inside of his wife.  Not good for my anxiety.  And he did it like a champ.

The doctor searched around inside the cavernous wonderment that must be my girl parts for a good ten minutes.  Then she sent the nurse to get another doctor.  Oh great.  Here we go again.  The new doctor comes in and says, "Let me give it a shot!"  And she continues the search for another good ten minutes.  Then exhausted, at one point, I said, "Oh come on!  It's got to be in there somewhere!!"  And then all of a sudden, the doc thrusts the dislodged IUD triumphantly into the air (just like Simba in the Lion King) and shouts, "HERE IT IS!  YESSSS!! TOUCHDOWN!!"  And she reaches over to give P a high five.  And she says, "I just delivered a baby an hour ago and this is still the best thing I've done all day!  We need some champagne!"

I said, "You're not joking.  I NEED A DRINK."  And then she proceeds to tell me how she was thinking about me all last night and was hoping things went well this morning, and I said, "Well, we certainly have that in common then."  And she left me to get dressed and went triumphantly out among the nurses station to celebrate the long-awaited removal of my IUD.  Everybody cheered.  And now, my uterus is famous.  And not worse for wear, and a little wiser, I think.

I've learned that I don't want to surrender control of my girl parts ever again to anyone or anything.  I've learned that sometimes, it's good to let your body have a break and just function naturally like it's supposed to.  I've learned that if something isn't recommended for you, there's a REASON for that.  Follow your gut.  And I've learned that doctors don't really know everything, even though sometimes we think they do.  And sometimes they're just as nervous about our appointments as we are.  And I've learned, once again, that my husband is the greatest.  He goes to the gyno with me and even buys tampons, people.  (Rarely, but hey, it happened once!)  Are you kidding me!  Every girl should be so lucky.

I certainly am.  And I know that today more than ever.  :)

Grapenuts

So my summer is coming to an end.  It seems like it goes by more quickly every year!  This one hasn't exactly been super relaxing though.  And you know what they say about how time flies when you're completely and totally stressed out!  :)  And isn't this always the way it works, *poof* the stress is gone just two weeks before I have to go back to school.  I plan on enjoying my two weeks.  

We have yet another trip to the 405 coming up next week, same song as last time.  El Reno, OKC, and Stillwater.  I've been to Oklahoma more this summer than I have in total the last 3 years, I think!  And I still have one more trip coming up at the end of September for the world debut of one Miss Zoey Grace Miller!  And the official facebook countdown has begun for my step-daughter, Robin.  TEN MORE DAYS til she moves in with us and officially "gets outta town".  I think the real countdown started like a year ago though.  Ah, seventeen and on the run.  How fun. :)  We also have some friends from Stillwater coming down for a mini-vacay the weekend before school starts.  So I guess it's really business as usual at the Cochran house!  Always somethin' fun going on!

I decided to make the most of my last really relaxing Friday with absolutely nothing to do and lay around in my PJ's all day.  Super inspiring, huh!  Then I decided to give the kitchen a thorough scrub down.  Like any good kitchen, it needs it every once in a while.  And while I was standing at the sink rinsing out my washcloth, I saw something that made my heart happy.  

The window above the sink looks out over the back yard and the forest and Hole 13 on the golf course.  It's a pretty nice view.  So I was inspecting my flowers out on the patio and noticed something hovering under one of our Spanish Grapevines.  And then there were two tiny black beady eyes staring directly at me.  After about a twenty second staring contest (that I won, by the way), he popped a big juicy blue-purple grape into his little squirrel mouth and started chomping away.  So I stood there for about five minutes watching him have lunch.  And I know that squirrels are supposedly just rats with poofy tails, and they can be rabid and really mean if you get on their bad sides, but this one was really cute.  He was just chillin' in the shade of the grapevine chowin' down.  And when he finished one, he'd just crawl back up the iron fence post and grab another one with his little paws, jump down into the grass, sit down, and start chompin' away again.  I think he ate about six grapes.  Which considering the size of a tiny squirrel and the fact these grapes are nearly the size of his head, was kind of a lot.  But I guess he got full, because when he finished the last one, he scampered off.

It was really cute.  And I was standing at my kitchen window, watching a squirrel having lunch, and listening to Ellis Paul on the iPod.  Life is pretty good.  I think about where I was in my life ten years ago-- when I was twenty.  I never in a million years thought things would be this good.  I love it.  And I'm very, very thankful.  

For clean kitchens.  And squirrels with full bellies. :)

Daisy Girl for Zoey Miller

Tell me that doesn't sound like a label. I told Caroline when she picked that name that it sounded like a great brand! My BFF's little girl is gonna do big things, I tell ya!

And as you can see, I'm clearly nesting for her.  We've been best friends since high school; now we're in our thirties and this is our first child together!  HA!  (I'm sure her husband appreciates that.)  I finished up the curtains for her nursery last week- although that may be an ongoing project.  Some of the colors don't quite mesh well with the last minute slip cover she's decided to use.  So I may be revisiting Fabric Row to come up with a couple more panels to match the hot pink and lime green sofa that has now made itself at home in the room.

In our shopping exploits to decorate the nursery, Caroline mentioned to me that she'd like to keep Zoey in gowns the first few months.  They're just so comfy and there are no tricky snaps to mess with when changing diapers.  But if you haven't shopped for infants lately, you don't know that gowns are sort of hard to come by-- and cute ones are even more scarce.  So whilst perusing the selection of custom-made gowns online, I got an idea.  Why don't I just make some?  It took me about an hour to figure out the logistics for the first one, but after that it was a breeze.  And by the end of the night I had four gowns for Zoey Grace.  I fully expect that she will hatch her first ideas and aspirations of being a well-known world leader and catalyst for world peace in one of these gowns. 

Two Newborn Gowns:

 

Two Three Month Gowns:

Onward and Upward!

Can someone please tell me where the first half of my summer went?  It goes too fast! 

I have five weeks left and they look to be just as busy as the first few were.  Then it's back to the 'ol grindstone.  But in the meantime, I surely have a few things to keep me busy!  P and I took a trip to the 405 last weekend and had an absolutely fabulous time with friends.  Caroline and I got a great day of shopping in for Baby Zoey and I came home with a bag full of fabric to make valences for her nursery.  Then later this week, I'll be trekking to my favorite spot in the DFW-- fabric row on Harry Hines-- to scope out some uber girly blues and purples to make her panels.  This baby girl is going to have the absolute happiest and most colorful nursery I've ever seen in my life.  Yay for starting your journey on this planet in a cheery, happy space!  And yay for my BFF braving the whole pregnancy and motherhood thing before I do!  It's been so fun watching the whole thing progress, and I can't wait for September to get here so I can meet this fabulous baby girl!

Meanwhile, the creativity continues to pump through the duct work at our house.  P has been on a mad streak writing, playing, and recording lately-- and we've even been working on some fun stuff together!  Thursday nights at Sons of Hermann is our new most favorite place to be.  The people there are some of the most seasoned and talented musicians, singers, and songwriters I've ever been around.  It's definitely an inspiration to be around kindred spirits who just enjoy the art aspect of music. It's just simple and honest, and I feel humbled to be in their presence.  I'm so grateful to have such creative people in  my life.  It's everywhere I look!  And it reminds me to get off my butt and do something! :)

Speaking of which.  Zoey's curtains are calling my name!  I'm sure we'll post pics later!

Hasta!

The Sunny Side of the Street (where there are NO stop signs!)

Ok, so no doubt this month the struggle in my head has become more pronounced than usual, but I'm determined to talk myself out of it. There is absolutely nothing I can do to change any of the stuff that's going on in our respective bank accounts, and it's clearly not to the point where I feel like I need to take on a second job for the summer (eee-gads!), so we're just going to make due.

Speaking of eee-gads! I just got our utility bill for the month. And people, I know you believe me when I say it's HOT in Texas. And you know how they say EVERYTHING'S bigger here too? Well that includes utility bills. But I guess that's the nice bonus we get for buying a 3,000 sq ft, 2 story house with tall ceilings in which each and every one of the thirty-five windows is COMPLETE ENERGY INEFFICIENT. The bill ain't pretty in the summer time. Just trust me on this one. But I still look around me and say, Hey. I'll pay. It's not too shabby around here. We'll just crank the thermostat up a few notches and drink lots of ice water.

See how I'm being positive?

Then I got another sweet surprise yesterday from one of Dallas's Finest. As it turns out, the City of Dallas decided to throw an odd-ball STOP sign in on a "median-divided" right turn lane (where normally a YIELD sign goes). So naturally, since I've been driving and turning right for oh, nearly fifteen years now, I yielded and went on my merry way. WHOOP WHOOP! Flashing lights and sirens. I was clearly clueless as to why the officer had pulled me over. I had my seat belt on, I wasn't texting and driving (you're welcome, Oprah), and I was pretty much the only white girl in the downtown neighborhood. (Reverse racial profiling? You tell me. HA!)

Ma'am, you just rolled through a stop sign back there at the intersection. You slowed down, but you have to come to a complete stop when there's a stop sign.

I was confused. There was a stop LIGHT. But I wasn't at the stop light. I was in the median-divided right turn lane where there's always a yield sign. You look, and when traffic is clear, you go.

So I said, "Stop sign? What stop sign?"

He laughed. LAUGHED! WHAT STOP SIGN?! He mocked me.

And at that point, I was very confused. What was the right answer? Did he want me to tell him, "Oh yeah, I saw that stupid stop sign but figured, screw it. I'll just go anyway." Uh, no. I didn't see a stop sign. And anyway, what's a stop sign doing there? I just went through four intersections this morning with divided right turn lanes and every single one of them had a yield sign.

But he thought it was funny. So funny, in fact, that he wrote IN QUOTES on my $200 ticket, "Stop sign?! What stop sign?!" Oh, funny guy, are ya? I'm considering mounting a case complete with pictures of like TWENTY Dallas intersections with divided right turn lanes with YIELD signs and taking that ticket to court. I doubt I'd win though. DPD and DFD are laying off guys right and left because of budget cuts. They need the revenue-- I get that. But don't mock me, dude. That was not okay. P said he probably thought I was lying to him and that's why he laughed. I clearly was not lying.

But anyway, I guess I'll just chalk it up to a $200 lesson learned and a blow to my dignity. Dallas has odd-ball stop signs, so be careful if you're ever driving down here.

So yeah, I could choose to get really depressed about the mere pennies in my bank account at the moment, or my $415 utility bill in JUNE no less, or my $200 ticket for running a stop sign I didn't even know was there, but no. I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna look at the bright side.

All my bills are paid. There's a ton of food in my fridge. My mom is here and not 8 hours away in Kansas City. My husband is HOT, and my credit is GREAT. And I don't have to do a darn thing this summer that I don't want to. Life is good. And it'll only get better.

And there you have it. :)

Summer time...

And the livin's easy. Relatively.

It's been pretty nice so far, but yet still pretty busy! Mom is here for 2 1/2 weeks while she waits for all of her stuff to get moved down from Kansas City so she can get moved into her new house. There are a lot of benefits of having your mom come to stay with you for a little bit- namely the grocery shopping and cooking duties she takes on. That's very nice. We're pretty much in heaven food-wise at the moment.

I'm also getting ready to put my car up for sale. This has been a ridiculously tight year financially for us because the state made a SERIOUS error in P's child support payments and so far has taken seven months to get the paperwork sorted out-- even AFTER they realized they screwed up. And it has no clear end in sight. And since we're basically operating on one paycheck, I've been trying to find ways to free up some money. I've canceled most of our movie channels, I've turned the thermostat up in the house, and now I'm going to try to unload my car. It's not a bad payment at all, but I want to try to find something else a little cheaper. Every little bit helps I'm finding out.

I'm learning these are the times in a marriage when you learn what the word "partnership" really means. Even if it's not technically your problem, it is NOW! So you have to get creative, try to keep your head up, try not to get angry, figure out ways around it, and realize it will not always be this way. We're giving ourselves this pep talk nearly every day. And we'll continue to until the problem finally gets resolved.

So the summer has started out with a bang, but regardless of the craziness that sometimes happens, it's actually been pretty good. We have a lot of creative energy flowing through our house and that helps make it a happy place. So we're just going to keep that up.

And I'm going to go to the pool more. I need more free Vitamin D! Ciao!

Ah, this is the life.

So P walked down the hill from our patio tonight to chip around on the 13th hole. The course is so peaceful at dusk. Especially after rain. I sort of can't believe I get to live here.



I watched him putt around for a few minutes, then turned to walk back up to the house. We have the most awesomely huge Pecan trees that form a huge tundra over our entire yard at the bottom of the hill. When you stand under them, it sorta feels like you're in a movie-- like some classic romance that never goes out of style. And in the spring, the fireflies swarm around my feet as I walk back up to the house and I feel like I'm the girl in Midsummer's Eve.

And I see the lights shining out from my pretty kitchen that my hubs worked so hard on when we first moved in, and I think buying this house is probably one of the best things I've ever done. Thanks Mimi. And thanks for the fireflies. This always was your time of year.

:)

Hippy Chic

What's the deal with the beards lately? I mean, my mom married my dad because he had a beard back in 78. And quite honestly, I just don't get the re-emergence.

Beards are the new emo. You heard it here first.

The fog is lifting.

It's almost summertime, people! It's all I can do to sit tight in this classroom for three more weeks! I know they'll fly by though.

Big plans for the summer! We get it kicked off with a sweet Ellis Paul show in a very intimate setting at dad's store in Oklahoma. Check it out here. That'll be good for the soul for sure. Then two weeks later, mom moves down and starts her new jobby job. Two weeks after that, it looks like Robo, my uberfantastic step-daughter, will be moving in with us and getting settled for her first semester in college in the Big City! And in the middle of all of that I plan to be zumba-ing my butt off (quite literally) and gettin ready to maybe start doin' a little babymakin'. Ha ha! :)

We shall see. We have a timeline set. If we get to the end of that timeline and one or both of us says... mmmmmmm, maybe we should just forget the whole baby thing and take a vacation to Mexico?? Then we wait. But it's on the radar at this point. We'll see how it all pans out.

This summer's going to go by faster than I want it to. I can already tell. So I'm fully prepared to enjoy it when it gets here in just a few short days!

Roses are red, and these are fabulous!

I just cut the most fabulous bunch of trellis roses to put in mom's room this weekend when she's staying with us. It is an act of God Almighty that I have not killed these things yet. Just had to share!

Gettin Happy in the Same Pants

These pants fit just fine the last two years. Now, because there are no belt loops, they're falling off and I'm stepping on them. Please ignore the lady who looks like she's wearing pajamas! She needs a shopping trip badly!!

Sunday Sushi Adventure

Sushi on McKinney

Started with a little Miso & Edamame

Then we got a whole table full of sushi. The Tanuki Roll on the right was the BEST!


Then we ended with a lil green tea ice cream. Mmmm!