Mother's Day

I hope all the mother's out there had a fantastic day.  Happy Mom's Day mom! (I know you got the card, but a blog shout out can't hurt.)

I had a splendid Mom's day weekend. Smith took part in one of the kid's classroom's dad's camping trips (lots of possessives there.) So the boys were gone from Friday afternoon until Sunday.  So I was home. alone. in my own house. with no one to cook for, clean up after or schedule my day around. (except the cat. We named her Hermione, by the way.)

What I did:
-ran 2 errands for Smith, one of which was get his car inspected - I wasn't feeling lucky.
-bought a pair of shoes.
-went to see Jane Eyre.
-Drank 1 margarita. (it's been close to 5 years since I've had a rita. why? I don't know.)
-Stayed up late watching Downton Abbey.
-Went for an open water swim
-Went for a bike ride
-Painted my toenails
-Bought pre-cut, pre-chilled, perfectly ripe splendid watermelon. and ate it.
-Went to a friend's party with just us camping widow mom's and we tried really hard to not talk about our kids or what our husbands were doing (or not doing) while supervising hoards of children. Stayed up late talking and drinking ginger mojitos.
-Apparently slept in the next day. I woke to feed the cat and lay down again only to wake up what felt like moments later to my people coming in the front door after noon. yawn.

I also had a moment of nostalgia for my very first mother's day, 8 years ago. I walked up the hill to the pool and went for a swim by myself. It was the first time I had gone anywhere without Nbear. (that was a long 4 months.) And it was a great swim. On the walk back down the hill a boy had set out a table and was selling bouquets of lilacs from their lilac bush. I don't think flowers ever smelled sweeter.

Love to all, especially those who make us mothers.

Coming Soon!

The full trip wrap up!

In the meantime we are in the midst of  lovely back-to-schoolness. (It's not all at once for us. Jbird started first, but not for the full day yet. Nbear started on Thursday. Both will be full-on students this coming Wednesday. The annual Back To School Complete Floor Mopping is right around the corner.)

*****************************************

But first, I must report an important milestone of my own. I've lived in Austin off-and-on for 20 years now and I've never been to the quintessential cowboy-hat and boot wearing honky tonk: The Broken Spoke. Last night I lost my 2-stepping virginity. Smith and I are both equally skilled (ahem) at dancing so we took the lessons and continued to count out "quick-quick-quick-slow-slow" all night. This was to the confusion of one unnamed dance partner who only did ONE slow step. (She was leading, who was I to argue?)  But then  Dale Watson started singing a song of the same title. We were quick-quick-quick-slow-slowing for a good while. Smith and I also learned some fancy twirls, and we are still working on those. Smith needs to tone down his akaido-I'm-going-to-flip-you-on-the-mat grip though. And I need to stop leading. Also a note for the newbies: don't hit the floor right after they sand it.

Thanks to Sinda for the loan of the boots. She's so addicted to the toe slide she's got 2 pairs.

I slathered. I sweated. I completed another triathlon.

Last year I did this:

This year I did this:
(granted I only swam and biked this year, passing the baton for the run.)

If you give Kris a cup of hot tea...

she's going to want a cookie to go with it.

And if she has a cookie with her tea, she's going to want to read the newspaper.

And when she's done with the newspaper, she'll want to gaze out the window at the falling snow.

And when the snow has stopped, then she'll pour another cup of tea.

And if she has another cup of tea, she'll have to have a cookie to go with it.



what are you doing on this snowy day?

One of my favorite things

To watch the end of day succumb to dusk....

The Unexplainable.

Or weird things we used to only share with our spouses but now we can burden.. errr... share with the rest of the internet...


I've had one.

She's had one.

Do you have one?