Each year, a group of ladies meet for Fiesta lunch. It is always a day filled with laughter, fun stories, a little shopping and good times.

We were sitting outside and birds kept swooping down close to us, dropping twigs around. We were just waiting for them to make a deposit on one of us.

It reminded me of a story.....a story of how many years ago, beginning in my middle school years, I used to ALWAYS get pooped on by birds. Once in New Orleans on a field trip, once in Carlsbad Caverns, in a parking lot, on my car....etc.

Then, one day, my (then) husband was laying out by the pool next to me and HE got dumped on. I jumped up, sang, danced and celebrated because I knew that the curse was broken!

I told this story today, and then.....

The piñata was a tradition born in China. Piñata's were filled with seeds and after opened, the remains were burned and the ashes kept for good luck. The piñata came to Mexico during the 16th century. It is said that the Mexican Catholic interpretation of the piñata rested on the struggle of man against temptation. The piñata's photographed above are in a wonderful Mexican bakery....a temptation in it's own right!

A local Spanish channel asked if they could interview us about the Fiesta festivities. The director said "the first question we will ask is where you are from". So, the field anchor says ".....something something Nombre"....My reply was "San Antonio". He stops the tape and says "what is your name, I am asking your name". OOPS.
The second take went much better. I said my name when he asked, only with some Spanish flare. OOPS. I didn't even know I did it. When in Rome???


All in all, it was a day filled with great friends, a little crap and much laughter.....VIVA LA FIESTA!!!!!

Where do you live?

There has been a lot of traveling going on this summer. Recently, while on a 10 day trip to Louisiana, one of my friends in Texas said "you are never HOME, so where do you live?". Good point. I guess, based on my traveling adventures over the past 2 months, technically, I am homeless. I'm just a girl who lives in her car. That's how I roll...
Our whirlwind trip to Dallas for market is where the "vacancy" sign was first ignited. Less than two weeks later, off to Louisiana, 2 days following that trip, to Mexico, in the interim, Lexie turned 7 years of age. 
Soon, we will be in Austin for a reunion. Unfortunately, blogging hasn't been a passenger on these trips, however, my camera was a trusty co-captain. Below are a few of the festivities that we engaged in on our journey through summer. 

"The Parade".

A tradition that happens at Nan-E and Pay-Pay's house. "Here comes the Queen" is lovingly chanted as each child makes their way down the parade route. Every child is given the appropriate paraphernalia to attract their patrons.

This is what "JOY" looks like....Great Grandmother with her only Great Grandson.

And then, there is this kind of thrill seeking "JOY" that Lexie is demonstrating. Convincing.

Friendship.

The best woman for the job of raising the crazies below....no easy task.

What's a blog without some Eye Candy. 

Please deposit 25¢.

Happiest Birthday to my sweet precious "7" year old, Lexie. What a ride it has been to watch you grow and blossom into this wonderful, smart, funny, ENERGETIC, fun loving girl. None short of a gift to this planet. I love you and I wish I had a smidgen of your energy! Today, I celebrate you and thank you for all that you have brought into my life, you are a blessing....

Happy Birthday!

We ROCKED Camp Rock

It was a screaming, ear drum busting, rhythm gettin', hollerin out NICK JONAS 1,000 times, cotton candy eating, singing along to all of your favorite Camp Rock songs kind of night. The girls had a blast with some of their best buds at the concert. Bella was dancing in the aisle. Jess was dancing outside the stadium, actually there wasn't even any music, but the ringing in our ears from all of the girls screaming in the arena was music enough to get a beat to...

I mean, really, who needs to watch the dancers in Camp Rock when you have this crew???

Water Ride

This was our last trip out on the lake for the summer. The girls love this tube, especially with Austin and Landen. These guys are great with Bella and Lexie, they treat them like little sisters, it is adorable! Shortly after this picture, the tube flipped and everyone went for a dip, face down in the lake. Lexie was cracking up and Bella put on her brave face in front of the guys. All in all, it was a wonderful day on the water.

This is Austin, showing us how to knee board. It's a good thing they did not have a jet ski, I may have shown him some moves....Oh yeah, I can jump some waves, don't think I'm scared...knee board, please. Where is the skill?

Sparkle Independently!

Saint Emilion

This is Julien. He is syphoning the wine out of the barrel for us to taste.

These are the wines that are created at Chateau La Fleur Morange. It is really cute, the Mathilde is named after Julien's daughter. He said the wine is much like his daughter, young and sweet.

Some things I learned about wine...(the good, the exceptional and the ugly)
1. Drinking wine straight out of the barrel gives me a serious headache. The grapes are too ripe. Must drink wine from a bottle, got it!
2. It costs 700 Euro for ONE grape/wine barrel, which translates to about $940 USD. From that one barrel, you get about 600 bottles of wine.
3. To properly pick the wine grapes, you pull all grapes from the vine, EXCEPT the one closest to the leaf....when the time is right, you pick only the grapes closest to the leaves and that is the crop that you will work with. The juice of the grape, the skin and the meat all must be the right color to make the wine taste good.
4. Once the grapes are chosen and picked, they are put into large silver containers, that I couldn't translate the name of, kept at a specific temperature. The grapes will sink and the juice will rise in this container. Once this happens, the juice (wine) is moved into the aforementioned barrels, where the wine will ferment for 18 months. (The wine I tasted out of the barrel that caused my head to throb was only about 7 months old).
5. The older the grapes are when you pick them, the longer the wine can sit in a bottle and the better it becomes, for example....the wine that we tasted was from 100 year old grape vines. So, essentially, their wines could sit on a shelf in a bottle, unopened for up to 20 years and taste better with age. A younger grape would not last very long in a bottle, shelf life is much shorter and will sour as time progresses.
6. Some wine vineyards will use cheap barrels and throw a piece of wood into the wine as it ages to give it that "aged to perfection" taste, but Julien told us that the reason that many people get headaches (like myself) is because of this method. Your wine is supposed to age in a barrel, which is where the wine gets the oak undertone from, so, vineyards will cheat to get the same flavor quickly and turn their wines around faster....however, Julien says that in the end, it is not a good product. Wine is not supposed to happen quickly, it is supposed to take a while and that is what will make a wine's flavor exquisite.
7. Julien is the owner of the vineyard, Chateau La Fleur Morange Julien gave us a private tour of his winery. He was both entertaining and informative. He said that when he first began making wine about 10 years ago, he was very proud of his first batch of wine, so he tasted it from the barrel (too early, he said) and discovered that he would be named "Chef Vinegar". Ha. He said that he had to ask himself, what have I done? I have bought this vineyard, so I will make vinegar?
Saint Emilion is the top choice for locals and the French for wines. Everywhere we visited in France, we would say that we were going to Bordeaux to see the wine country and people would tell us that we must see Saint Emilion. In the US, 10 wines from Saint Emilion were listed in top wine magazines for being some of the top wines of 2010.
On a side note, many of the "vinters" (winemakers) or "viticulturist" put rose bushes at the end of their rows of vines. They say if there are bugs in the roses, there are bugs in the grapes. Interesting approach and the brilliant roses at the end of each row of crisp green leaves and grapes offers a beautiful contrasting landscape.

Don't try to rob a bank in France

A day of rest in town....the quaint and lovely town of Combourg. We had lunch at L'Orangerie with Patrick (Pat-wreak is how you say his name En Francais). Stephane was speaking French to Patrick, as was my Mom. Kenny and I would pretty much nod and have little or no idea what they were talking about, it's how we roll. Anyhow, Patrick turns to Stephane and says:

"Wow, your French is very good"

Stephane says "I studied a lot in school, I am French".

Patrick must have assumed that Stephane was American since he was with us, in which case, his French was very good, lol. To be honest, Stephane's English is very good too. A good friend of mine recently said that to be truly fluent in another language, you must understand the humor and slang of that language. I guess, if that is the case, I am not fluent in English! haha~

After our delicious lunch and HOMEMADE Chocolate Mousse (OMG!)...we went to the Postale to mail our post cards. While Mom and I were mailing post cards, Kenny and Stephane went to the bank to exchange my American dollars into Euro. Stephane asked the banker if he could exchange this money at their bank, since some banks do not offer a currency exchange. The banker informs Stephane that "they do not have any money". Stephane said, "what do you mean? Is this a joke, aren't you a bank?". I suppose that is one way to save money while traveling, eh? Don't try and rob a bank in France, people, they don't have any money.

This evening, we had drinks with my cousin's family, John and Marjorie, at their wonderful home in Combourg. Marjorie has a knack for planting and has some of the most beautiful planters I have seen. John is most certainly a captivating story teller. I would like to sit and write a book on their travels and experiences. We truly enjoyed their time.

Then we went on to have a feast with our spunky French amis, Sonia. My Mom promised Sonia that she would make her famous chocolate cookies. This photograph of Sonia is of her coveting the cookies like a king protects his gold. Sonia, even though I speak very little French, is so animated and funny. I couldn't understand a lot of what she was saying, but still found myself laughing quite a lot.

This was our last day in Combourg and we truly celebrated our time here. I cannot wait to return to this town someday.

U Tube

Sunscreen on, snacks on board, life vests securely fastened, drinks on ice. We are ready for a day of good times!
Only, within the first 10 minutes of being in the water, we look over and see a water moccasin swimming about 40 yards away, heading straight towards the kids...We ordered a "KIDS, quick, get in the boat, DO IT NOW!!!!!!!!"...but, I didn't want to terrify the girls into never getting into the lake again. So, we told them that the boat was drifting onto a sand bar. (Sand bar became code for "anyone see a snake?"). Thankfully, there were no more sand bars on our excursion.

The girls got out on the tube with their buddies and had a total blast. We swam, dove off the boat, did cannon balls off the back of the boat, floated in the water, used the tube as a water trampoline and really enjoyed our day on the lake.

On our boat ride back to the dock, Lexie started crying and saying that her arm was burning. She got stung by a bee, while the boat was in motion, going about 30 mph. Poor baby, we got the stinger out immediately, put ice on her and wrapped her arm up in a moist towel. Once we got to the car, she got a rock star band-aid and was suddenly healed. It is amazing the healing power that comes in the form of a decorative adhesive strip with a non-stick pad. Ha!
All in all, it was a wonderful day on the lake.
We are starting our summer off with sun, water and fun! Hope your summer is filled with good times and lots of adventure :~)

River Brats

The girls like to hang out on the river. They catch minnows, an occasional crawfish, a little seaweed (is it still called "sea" weed if it is in a river?) and some sun rays. The girls hopped on a raft and paddled down the river to a big tree that hangs over the river....where a rope swing was waiting for them. The way that the trees sway and float their branches over the river is so calming and beautiful. Anyhow, Bella and Grace braved the rope and swung out into the 70 something degree water. Apparently, the temperature of the water stays the same year round. Bella LOVED it, my little adventure child. They even went off of the diving board (I missed that photo opt).

When I was a kid, we swung out into a totally brown, swampy, alligator habitat, muddy water pond in Louisiana, from an old rubber tire swing that someone hung from a Cypress tree. Our kids get a knotted rope and steps leading up to it, even the water is prettier for our kids, dang it. They have it SO good.

A quick visit

Reese, Lexie, Ashton and Bella got to have "coffee" together while Sarah, Johnny, Tatum and I drank chocolate milk....uh, wait, or was it the other way around? Nonetheless, it was early in the morning...

We were able to spend a little, tiny, smidgen of time with our friends before our drive to Houston over Spring Break.
It was great to see our long time friends....can you believe that Bella and Ashton have been friends for almost 7 1/2 years? Actually, I remember meeting Sarah when I was in the hospital after having Bella. We have been friends ever since! Bella was born in September and Ashton came along in March, so they have sort of "grown up" together, even though we haven't lived in the same city, or at times, the same state in many years.
That kind of friendship is what this beautiful life is all about....no matter where you are, no matter how many miles separate you, the bond is still strong, like a sisterhood.
Thank you to all of my dear friends for being a part of my growth, my life, my world...I am equally blessed to be a part of your lives.

Notorious M.E.

So I ain't nobody famous, but I've been known to party like a rock star....

Girls night out consists of either a planned dinner or....I get a wild hair and call my friends, give them oh say 15 minutes to get ready, and we head out to a local pub or club. Sometimes you get the crew all dressed up, sometimes, you get sweatshirts and baseball caps...Either way, we have a few drinks, dance, reminisce, laugh A LOT and head home. Spontaneous good times, LOVE IT. So, look out, you never know when you are getting your 15 minute warning!

Here is some of the evidence of those good times...