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!!!!!

A Busy Break.

This Spring Break was special. Family was in town! We went downtown and explored the city in the rain. We ate some incredible food, went to a vineyard, played at the park, visited a museum, had an American Girl cupcake swaree', tie dyed t-shirts...

It was a busy week filled with great times and loving, creative memories.

Below are some of the moments captured on my iPhone or with my camera~

 

La Familia.

My Dad and Pat came to visit the girls and I for a week. Dad and Pat stayed in their RV at a local RV park. We were able to have dinners with them and show them around our city a little bit. 


We ate at some really great local restaurants, having "the best hamburger Pat has ever had", eating wonderful Mexican food (twice). Of course, you cannot be in Texas and not eat "chicken fried steak"...so, we did that too. We also went on a glass bottom boat tour!
The only thing we didn't do was saddle up a horse and ride along the river. Next time perhaps?


It has been 3 years since my Dad has come to our little neck of the woods, so it was a nice change of pace for us. The girls enjoyed the time with their Grandparents and I enjoyed having my family around!

On a recent photo shoot, my subject turned the lens on me. 

In college, I modeled for a company that made evening wear. It was the most fun I could have had in fashion college. Make money while trying on dresses all day long, hello, dream job! I feel pretty comfortable in front of a camera or on a runway. 

Just don't ask me to read a book to 21 Elementary school kids, I tremble. Lexie's 2nd grade teacher and I just had this conversation. I spoke at a conference in front of 13,000 people in New Orleans, about 17 years ago....yeah, I was a little nervous at first, but after a few seconds, I was clear headed and calm. Give me material that I am unprepared for, put me in a room full of happy 2nd graders and I get freakishly nervous. Strange.

Here is a little history to crack you up. When I said "model", I didn't say that I was good at it......Click on the photo to see it larger. Get ready to laugh.

Old School

On this particular day, a year and a half ago, I spent most of the day conquering that "jump" that I used to be able to do about 250 years ago with complete grace .....It is all my brother's fault, he provokes a sense of youth in me and likes to challenge me to pull a muscle in some random place. It is ON like Donkey Kong, we like to take it back to the "old school" when we are together.
Honestly, we are 12, it is so fun.
On this day, I chose to jump around, pose with statues and relish in some of the most simple, unplanned, free spirited good times that a girl can have. These days, I appreciate the simplicity of movie night at home, dinner on a blanket under the stars and occasionally, taking it back to the old school, cuz I'm an old fool...(you are welcome for humming "can you dig it? we can dig it" for the next 8 hours). The small, simple pleasures in life do not have to cost anything at all, but can become a priceless memory.

Christmas 2010

This Christmas was a season of simplicity, change, love, strength and faith for us. Many aspects of our lives have changed over the course of the year.

Back in June, I took an amazing trip to France. I was able to delve into the culture, see the appreciation that the French have for life and to understand first hand the way they celebrate it. It was an eye opening experience to see such happy people who seemed to hold a great deal of value in family, friends and the enjoyment of life with less of an emphasis on the size of their homes or the make of their cars. I'm not saying that this doesn't exist in America, but what I am trying to say is that as a culture, the French seem to have figured out that "things" don't create happiness.

This was a subtle lesson that I didn't even realize I was learning, at the time. However, the experiences that I took away from France aided in the transition that was soon to come in our lives.

Sometimes we fail to "see" all that is magnificent in our world. Whether it is a sunbeam that created a rainbow, an outburst of laughter from a child, the kiss of a loved one or the simple fact that you have a roof over your head and food on the table. I hope that you celebrated the glory of God, the love of your family and the many blessings in your life this Christmas holiday.

a do over.

I have these L brackets on a wooden shelf, only when we moved, I donated all of the L brackets except for 2, on accident. The 2 that I kept, were conveniently connected to the other wooden shelf...right. I went to Lowe's to buy 2 more L brackets (because i donated 6 of the same bracket and thought it would be amusing to BUY yet 2 more).

I went to screw the brackets into the shelf and one side was too loose. Realizing that the screws were too long on that one side, I went to back them out with the drill, but, the screws were stripped, damn them. What do you do to get stripped screws out of a bracket that is connected to the shelf that you are trying to hang because you have already hung the other shelf that had the brackets perfectly screwed in them forever, son of sh*t? Well, if you are me, you take your thumb and put it on the top of the screw and put a wrench on the bottom of the screw and turn really hard until a shard of metal is embedded in your thumb.

That is day 1.

Day 2:

In this new home, I have to orchestrate myself and the doors in the master bathroom. It is a daily synchronized beauty regimen. Open one door, go in, slightly close that door to open closet door. Close closet door to open linen closet door....but watch out for bathroom door that you originally slightly closed because that MO FO creeps open and tries to jack up your symphony of moves. This happened to me, this morning and my elbow took the hit, in the form of a black knot.

Then, my kids were having a terrible horrible no good very bad day and therefore, used their Mommy, me, as their personal punching bag to release ALL emotions. Aww, for me? Thank you.

I was being nice and going to make popcorn for them while we watched a Christmas movie together, only when I took the popcorn out of the pantry, a glass jar of pickles fell onto the tile. Immediately following it was a jar of pepper jelly, guess which one shattered? Yep, GREEN pepper jelly jar. AAAAHHHHH.

I went into the garage to get the broom and dust pan, when I grabbed the broom, the rake fell and gouged my eyelid. Are you *&*%^$ kidding me?

I swept up the glass, cleaned up the jelly, cried the whole time because my kids are also in the background fighting over what Christmas movie to watch, Polar Express or The Smurfs. Now, that's the spirit.

The corn is popped, nearly burnt, my eyelid hurts, my elbow now has a mass growing on it but hey (after a lot of tears, tantrums and crying, while my children watched me) we are watching Polar Express together, which is our family tradition.

I get up to get something out of my room and SLAM my shin into the aforementioned shelf on my bedroom floor that cannot be hung because it has the cockeyed L bracket with the stripped screws that have taken up residency in my thumb. S E R I O U S L YYYYYYYYYYY

Can I have a do over, please?

PINK

Some people have a mid life crisis, some people buy a sports car or get a tattoo....I got pink hair in honor of my 40th birthday. 3 pink streaks! Cheaper than the 2 door Mercedes I had my eye on......

Who knows what I will do when I turn 41. Look out!

40

Thank you Tim, Shannon, Jessica and all of the wonderful friends that surprised me on my 40th. I will always be grateful. It was a total blast.

Paris - Chapter 2

Deux Paris. There are two versions of Paris, the one during the day, then, there is Paris at night (ahhhh, amore')
Yesterday, it was the boat tour and ooh la la, the Eiffel Tower.
Today, the red bus tour and a celebration of my 40th 29th birthday! It is indeed, my last day in France and I am thrilled to spend it galavanting around Paris.

Madame and Monsieur, à droite (on your right) is the Arc De Triomphe.....the largest triumphal arch in the world, sitting about 161 ft high and 144 ft wide. Do NOT step foot on the street to get to the other side, you must take the underground passage. Why? because you would be engaging yourself in a no win game of chicken, with about 500 cars. It is the busiest traffic circle in Paris. The Arc de Triomphe sits at the western end of the Champs-Elysees. I don't remember what Champs-Elysees means but, to me, it translated perfectly into "SHOPPING BABY!". Miles of stuff to finagle into my suitcase.

Notre Dame sat for centuries, 6 to be exact, as the Gothic masterpiece of the Middle Ages. Notre Dame was far more interesting on the outside than on the inside, to me. I sat at a bar and looked at it from afar, with a beer in hand, very interesting! haha~ On one side of the building, there was a carving of a woman holding a baby, but the baby was decapitated (weird, I thought, why don't they fix that, gothic satanic freaks, isn't this a church for Christ's sake!)...then, I did some research and found out that the woman was a 13th century Virgin, a unique survivor that originally adorned the facade. I was unable to find out more about her story, if you know it, tell me, please!

Um, Pardon, Madame, q'est your toilette f...d up? I need un couvercle, a compart-e-mente? Oui? Comprendre? You know (and I say it louder) something to SIT ON...(the public toilets are weird in France, I'm sorry, no disrespect, but weird nonetheless). One place had a box with a drain, that's it. Like the basin for a shower, but without the doors or a shower head. Squat and piss? UM, LIKE, HELLO, I'M LIKE TOTALLY A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N and I need fluffy tissue paper, a door with a lock and a clean lid to sit my purty little tush on. After all, I am 29 and I am a princess in my own right.


I went all the way to Paris to try escargot. It's French and if I had to potty in a non lid toilet, I should certainly be ok with eating snails, right? I was a little nervous, but they were so good. Buttery with a garlic basil pesto, on bread, with a mouthful of vin, amazing! I mean, what wouldn't taste great with French wine in your mouth? don't answer that.

This was the celebration of my birthday in Paris. I look scared, not because I am turning 29, but because I was terrified that with all of the hair product I had saturating my head, coupled with the wind, that waiter was going to catch my curly q's on fire! AND, I did not want to come back home to the USA with spiked hair and have to pass it off as the most bad ass hairstyle fresh off of the Paris runways.

Paris

We arrived at our hotel, checked in and got to our room, which was the cutest hotel room I have ever seen. Complete with a Queen Bed and a single bed in the same room (it was as if they knew that we were coming, Mom & Kenny and myself were staying in the same room), a terrace with a table and chairs, a dressing area and closet, a bathroom with a BATH TUB (highly unusual), wood floors....and our room was built (literally) right above the Metro. So, every time a train would go through the station below, we could hear the train on the rail. It was cool, actually, an experience that I would, otherwise, never have encountered. The walls would vibrate and the floor sounded like it was humming. Unlike hotels in, say, New Orleans...you hear humming alright, but it ain't the Metro!

This was my first view of the Eiffel Tower from ground to tip. It was a sight, and I hate to be a cliche', that was unlike anything I had imagined it to be. A magnificent monument that you never get tired of staring at, being around or taking in.

We took a boat tour at dusk and one of the most romantic scenes, for me, was the dance lessons at riverside. They are teaching the tango and the salsa. More than the buildings, more than the intricate carvings of the architecture, the thousand year old bridges overhead, I was drawn in by the sound of music and the bodies that swayed along with it. SO incredibly romantic...seriously? dance lessons, on the river, in Paris......orgasmic actually! (no offense)

After I watched the dancing, as far as I could see them, until they were a tiny spec and the music was gone, I had my cigarette to wrap up the um, oooh, ahhh, yes! yes! yes! experience and went on to enjoy a view of the sunset via boat tour, at around 10:00 PM.

To wrap up a perfect evening, we sat at a bar, on the water, looking up at the Eiffel Tower in all of its glory, while drinking champagne. Vendors on the street were selling their wares (lighters, mini Eiffel Towers, paintings, key chains) and most of these street salespeople are from Africa. brain does not compute. I perched myself on the edge of this magnificent experience and did my best to absorb each sound, the smell, the air and the romance of it all so that I could bottle it up and sell it to you here, on My Sassy Pants blog.

When the Eiffel Tower lit up and the lights began to dance, with the beam of light shooting out of the top of the tower, the moon approaching in the distance, as if to see what all of the fuss was about, I realized that this experience would change me. In all its intricate details, and yet simply, sitting on a red leather chair, on the deck of a restaurant floating on the water, sipping champagne with my family, I would walk away knowing that in my heart I would have a fullness that will nestle in to my memory forever. Maybe the same or similar way that Stephane felt when he came to the USA for the first time? Oui?

So, I encourage you to take that trip you have always wanted to take, go, now. Life is full of twists and turns, you don't know what tomorrow holds, so go grab that experience, orgasmic or not, and relish it, let it sink into you and allow it to change you in a way that only you can understand....then, come back and tell us about it so that we can celebrate with you!

Emotional Farewell

After a glorious day in Bordeaux, we returned to have a casual dinner with Stephane's family. It is our last night in Sanguinet and we are digging our heels in hoping to soak up the Verdet family at maximum volume. When I tell you, we truly fell in love with this family, our French family. Alain is hysterical, a modest man with a fantastic sense of humor, a romantic beautiful love for his wife and an obvious passion for life. Sylvaine is a nurturing and angelic woman, creative, happy, kind and armed with her own sense of humor, along with a true and endearing love for her family. Arnaud was hesitant to jump right in, but seemed to ease his way into our hearts. He looked at us out of the corner of his eye and was relatively silent but would give an occasional dig into his brother, Stephane, which would make us laugh....sibling rivalry in another language is after all translated the same, rivalry. Haha.

Stephane, where to I begin? Stephane is smart, he is super funny, although he feels like he cannot translate his humorous side from French to English, he manages beautifully. He drives fast, so I think he has a thrill seeking side to him, he is a gracious and kind host. Literally giving me the shirt (sweater) off of his shoulders when I forgot my jacket. I am forever grateful that Stephane took my family around France. I believe that, in large, this trip was so meaningful and had a richness to it because Stephane was there with us. So, chin, salute', cheers to you Stephane for being a wonderful friend and brother, you are a treasure.

Tonight at dinner, we received gifts from the Verdet's. Mom and Kenny received a cheese cutter, called a Girolle that is from Switzerland. We had the most AMAZING cheese, called Tete De Moine (photographed above). My girls were given cookbooks, I received a vin necklace from Saint Emilion that was handcrafted and filled with red wine as a momento, along with a photo frame book that held pictures from the area of Sanguinet. It was a heartfelt and emotional evening...see below.

We waited 18 years to meet Stephane's family and now this Chapter of our trip was coming to a close. It was bittersweet. The time we spent with the Verdet family is time that we will all treasure and hopefully repeat many times over in this lifetime.

Pour la famille Verdet: nous vous aimons et nous nous réjouissons d'apporter notre famille de nouveau ensemble, afin que nous puissions célébrer la fusion de nos deux familles. Sylvaine, vous avez non seulement acquis une fille, mais deux petites-filles ainsi. Beaucoup d'amour à vous tous!