Magnificent Manhattan

Riding on the Top of a Double Decker Tour Bus...

in Manhattan.....

one sees all sorts of things...

the Flatiron building.... always an eyecatcher....

Stop lights (or go lights) whiz inches away from the head....

and buildings that fade into clouds....



the random Sponge Bob on the square....



a ride of interesting sights everywhere....

Brownstone

I have hundreds of new pictures just begging to be published, but I decided, just like my life (one hour at a time), I'm going to post, one slice of an event at a time.

Last weekend, Kami and I and mom and dad traveled to New York for Kami's 13th birthday. Yes, New York City!!! Specifically, we stayed in Brooklyn, NY at my cousin Kristina's very authentic and lovely brownstone apartment (built in late 1800's; worth 1.5 million - rent, no telling how high). I've been to NY twice before, but both times I stayed in very cushy, comfy, lap-of-luxury hotels.

So I was kind of wondering (dreading) about how it was going to be with 7 large people in one small apartment. It couldn't have been better. Not only are those brownstones amazingly quaint, but Kristina has a knack of making things in her apartment feel "happy" as she puts it. I just wanted to share this sweet spot... Kristina and Gael (the dashing Frenchman), we loved every minute... thanks for hosting. :)

More NY to come....

What We Did on Spring Break 2011

Spring Break in Dallas. The Galleria....

Ice Skating! Luke and one of our TX cousins, Matt... Eating with the staff at Campisis.... SOOO yummy! Coaches kids ORU Golden Eagles Vs. SMU. Loss in overtime, but a great trip to the Big D

Cancuuuuuuuuun!

Here are some pictures of Cancun in no particular order because I am too crazy to rearrange them and if I would've been smart I would have uploaded them in the preferred order but I didn't so now they are all helter skelter and don't really tell a story but I can't worry about it because it is December 5th and this week of vacation in Cancun was so wonderful but put me behind Christmas-wise and the only thing I have done to this point is my Christmas cards, which is great, but there is not one, I repeat not one Christmas item up, they are all still in my attic. Deep Breath. So not as to neglect the documenting of our family story, I add these pictures with a few phrases to help me to remember in the future what fun filled experiences we had in Cancun, Mexico in November 2009.

Hallie and Kami on the beach,

Luke and Khloe bury Ellie alive!Luke relaxing in a hammock.

Every room at Moon Palace Resort had a hammock.
Interestingly, my mom and dad's hammock was stolen one night,
ut management replaced it that next day.

Kami and Tom taking in the deep blue expanse.Preparing to Parasail!Gotta love birds that dive headfirst into the water for their lunch.Game Time!

Luke and Josh poolside.

Hallie has excited eyes while parasailing!

Fun with sand.

We love our players.
Roderick is the one on crutches.
He tore his ACL just a couple days before this trip.

Thanksgiving Day fun? Wet and Wild Water Park

The kindergarten crew.

Luke and Lauren by the Palms

Don't palm trees make nice background?
This is Kami and Mackenzie waiting to swim with the dolphins.

Looking for shells our last morning in Cancun.

The "toilet bowl" - what we called this very cool ride at Wet and Wild.
This is Scott riding it
(before he was flushed out like a piece of well, you know)
and we all took a turn on it!
Never seen anything like it!This is Kiki, Kami an Hallie enjoying
an exhilirating trip on the parasail!

Airport Security Diaries

On our way to Cancun, we got to experience the newfangled x-ray machine at our local airport that looks like something Captain Kirk may have used. Forget the good old walk through xray. On by one, we stepped into an intimidating looking cylinder. We each had to space our feet apart and form our hands, strangely, into a diamond shape on top of our heads. Then, a whirring panel circled around until somebody in uniform yelled "clear!"

I didn't get the magic word "clear," but instead was whisked into a separate holding area, apparently for terrorists and moms alike. I stood there on the mat, my naked feet placed into the printed shoe outlines with my arms straight out in surrender. "Just relax ma'am," said the guard. How could I relax when I feared that someone may perform a body cavity search at any second?

At that same time, another guard notified me that I needed to watch him search one of our bags that had come through the x-ray machine. "Ok!" I said, relieved, dropping my arms. "Don't move," barked the first TSA official, "You are not clear!" 2 seconds later, he bulleted, "CLEAR."

I walked over to the bag searching area. The bag in question was Ellie's black carry-on, covered with neon colored peace signs. Did they think a bomb would be planted in a bag covered with peace signs? He began disassembling the contents of Ellie's bag with his rubber-gloved hands. Remember, this is Ellie we are talking about. The one who wore an elf hat the whole 12 hour journey to our destination. The one who loves gadgets of any kind. A strange little soul. Knowing her bag was being searched and picturing herself thrown in jail, Ellie's face soon matched her hat. He slowly pulled the following items out of her bag:
1 pair of large binoculars.
1 Nintendo DS case with a variety of games
1 pair of neon green vampire teeth
2 large bouncy balls
2 chapter books
1 small etch a sketch
3 rubber rats - 2 black and 1 grey
1 dog wallet
1 duck tape wallet
1 large white and black spotted leopard stuffed animal
and finally, he fished out....
1 pair of metal handcuffs.

Dangling them in front of my face, a smile spread over his.
"THIS," he said, stifling a laugh, "is the problem."

At that point the whole line of officers burst out laughing, as Ellie began panicking.
The tension finally broke and we all tried to reassure Ellie that everything was OK.

She was not going to jail, she was going to go to Cancun and she had probably made everyone's day. As we walked off, the head officer joked with my mom from his platform, "hey lady, are you the one who brought the handcuffs?" "No!" she yelled back, "can you guess who it is? The one in the elf hat!"

Little did mom know that her time was coming. On our way home from Cancun, she was pulled into a separate area and searched with a metal detector not once but TWICE! Can you picture that scene? The officer waving the wand over every part of her body and mom fit to be tied. At least we got a good laugh from it all!

A Getaway

We have been at Moon Palace in Cancun, Mexico for the last 6 days.

I know. I feel guilty saying it after my last blog whine.

That blog post was typed up around 2:30 AM... just a couple hours before I peeled my kids out of bed to get to the airport by 5AM. Tom had been gone for days on end and I was reeling from a truly heart-breaking injury to our point-guard. We had gone and won a HUGE game at Stanford... it was so exciting and gave us great hope for this season. Then the very next game, the oil that makes our team run suffered a horrible knee injury.

The team that was is no more. And the season has just begun. If you are an OU fan, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Anyway, in all that drama I somehow forgot to mention that we were leaving in a matter of hours to meet Tom and the team in sunny Mexico for a basketball tournament.

I just could hardly bear to think of seeing our injured player, the look on the faces of his teammates and my husband try to hide his disappointment. It didn't seem like a Getaway when the stuff I wanted to Getaway from was not going to Getaway from me!

But I really need to start focusing on the positive, don't you think?

It of course ended up being a lovely, beautiful, fun-filled Getaway. Pictures shall be downloaded soon and include lots of beach shots, parasailing photo ops and even swimming with the dolphins. And don't forget some snapshots with our tall tree players. I will include those too.

We played two games. Lost the first one in a gut-wrenching shootout... it was sooo close. Then we won the 2nd to a poor team that is winless this season. Talk about difficult... this team left their home on or about November 15th and still has one game to play before they return! Good grief! You think the NCAA will pay for marriage counseling for those coaches' wives left at home? I have long thought the NCAA needs to do something to help preserve families. And I'm not kidding about that.

We had Thanksgiving dinner together as a family... because though I haven't mentioned it, my sister and her coaching husband and my mom and dad and mother-in-law all came along on the trip too! The dinner was an interesting mix of authentic Mexican dishes. The most unique Thanksgiving dinner I've EVER had. But the tortilla soup didn't make up for Granny's mashed potatoes.

I also must say without going into great detail that God has worked great things in my heart during this time. He has reminded me of some things and taught me some things that He could not have done any other way. And for THAT, I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving to you All! Hope you all had your little Getaway of sorts.

I Went on a Trip

...not just any, ordinary girls' weekend! Oh no! Instead it was a week-long, 40th birthday blowout cruise for a near and dear friend, whom I've happened to know since, oh... 1985.
Here she is, and the shirt fits, if you know what I mean! Doesn't she look amazing? We found that hilarious shirt in a vintage store in Tampa the night before we left on the cruise. It's going to become the traveling shirt, as we each hit the fabulous age over the next couple of years! The three of us were LAK growing up... Linda, Anne, Kim... we were inseparable, forging our way through high school and college ... the time we spent together molded me in ways that I am still discovering. God gave me a gift of lifelong friendship when he gave me these girls! We haven't seen nearly as much of each other since starting our families a decade ago, so there was years of catching up to do. We added a new friend in college, named Chrissy (in purple.) She is darling and fun and a blast to go cruisin' with! I have not seen or even talked to her in over TEN(!) years, but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her and learning about her life as a mom of three and ER nurse! We definitely rekindled an old friendship! Then there is Rhonda (in pink), the spunky little sister (also mom of three) of the birthday girl... she kept us going... laughing... and smiling. Sweet, funny and thoughtful, so thoughtful that she brought us all matching, pink, embroidered robes! Grand Cayman was our first stop after a couple days at sea. Amazingly, hurricane Paloma had passed over the area just two calendar days earlier. But the day was sunny and pleasant! We went snorkeling and got to gaze through our masks at the swimming jewels of the sea, flitting around the ocean floor. Then... we had the unusual opportunity to hang out with the Stingrays. So the story goes that years ago, on this particular sandbar, a fisherman began feeding the stingrays his leftover fish pieces. They became rather tame stingrays, unafraid of human contact. Yes, I know that Steve Irvin was killed by a stingray, and believe me, that did race through my mind at the time, especially given the huge size of these things. But we decided they were quite like puppies as they rubbed up against our legs and let us hold them. I know it sounds crazy, but the stingrays were lovable creatures. Never thought I'd use that word in the same sentence as stingray.Next stop was Cozumel, Mexico, where we basically rented a little slice of our own beach for the day. We just did nothing but listen to the beat of the waves on the sand, beachcomb for shells, read our novels, talk and laugh ourselves silly and tell Carlos what next fabulous food or drink we would like to have delivered, beachside!Wow! What a trip! We talked a wild streak, laughed till our ribs felt sore, danced like no one was watching, and sang as loud as we possibly could. We shed some tears while talking, stirred up old memories from the dead, and made plans for the future! We sang and danced some more, freaking out every time we heard one of our favorite songs, such as "Push It" or "Jessie' s Girl." We went to a comedy show and dressed up like the 80's. Big hair and bright colors. Did I mention we ate and ate? We had to take advantage of the free buffets! Right, Chrissy? We celebrated a very special person in our friend Linda. And we took zillions of pictures of it all. Truly, through it all, we felt the very strong hand of God on all we did. It is no coincidence that everything went so smoothly. Yes, we believe that He cares even about 40th birthday parties, and especially His birthday girl... Linda Ruth! We give Him praise for the ways He watched over us, big and little. Everything good and perfect is from above.
In the end, leaving was mostly sweet. The vacation was more than I could have expected and the time with friends was irreplaceable. However, I missed my family so much that I could barely sleep our last night on the boat. I was so thrilled to finally be back at home with my loved ones, but......

I am very glad I went on that trip.