We're still here

Five months since my last post and things have been great. There's so much wonderful stuff happening but what brings me back to post is sad. So, I'll give the sad and try to of set it with all the good news. 

Last Monday, Bo was diagnosed with cancer. He had a large growth in his abdomen and a chest X-ray confirmed it had spread to his chest, most likely attached to his heart.  The vet said he probably had a couple of days. He actually got over a week until he stopped eating and we knew it was time to let him go. He passed yesterday. He had wonderful life, 9 years of love for a breed that has an 8 year life expectancy. He will be missed. 

Everything else, is great. The kids are both getting all A's in school. M was made the volleyball team and now the basketball team. W is taking drum lessons. Chuck's job is going well, and I have actually made some items to sell, finally.  We have been exploring Houston as much as we can, and this weekend we head to Tomball for a German Festival that is said to include a Dutch Santa. Not sure yet what that means. We took our family vacation over Thanksgiving this year. We went on a Disney Cruise. Of course, we had a great time! The next Disney trip will be to the parks. Yay!

Now the really good news. Butter and Luke are both doing well, and we have added Cupcake to the family. 

  

Cupcake is an 11 week old English Mastiff. She's huge, sweet, derby and already rings a bell to go out and potty. More pictures to come, at some point. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! 

Trip Home and More Visitors

The last 3 or so weeks have FLOWN by! When Chuck's parents left to fly back to NC, the kids went with them, and Chuck had a business trip. I spent that week painting the kids rooms. M got a polka dotted accent wall and W finally got rid of the soft pink in exchange for lime green. It went well, and looks very nice. The girls were happy with them when they got home, too. Today I added valances to W windows, complete with turtles, lizards and frogs. Now it looks like her room! I also got all their wall hanging stuff up so the little piles in the floors are gone. Yay!

Then on Saturday, Chuck and I flew up for a visit. It was a hectic visit to say the least. Next time, there will be more planning. I'm not very good at play it by ear. I did get a new tattoo (Disney), got to go on a trail ride on Angel, do some shooting, and some stamping. The girls saw everyone on their list, too, so we'll call it a successful trip. Just- next time- expect an itinerary.

When we left, we had arranged to bring M's friend G back with us to Texas. Our first order of business was picking up fireworks. We planned a 4th of July event with the neighbors and all contributed to the explosives and food. There was plenty of both. We took G boot shopping at Cavenders, got authentic Texas BBQ, went to the Houston Aquarium, skating at the Galleria, climbing at Iron Sports Gym and introduced her to bacon wrapped jalapeño poppers while shopping at the H.E.B. I think she enjoyed herself.  After her week her, her parents and brother drove down to pick her up. They stayed and explored a couple of days and we took them all to Taste of Texas- duh, it's custom. And took them to Cavenders. 

They left on Monday, and now we're getting ourselves back into a routine. I'm sure we'll find something else to get into soon. 

 We've been keeping busy this summer. The kids have been out for two weeks and we've been to a museum, to Galveston with the grandparents, to lunch with Chuck, and of course to the neighborhood pool. We've also had some craft time- making koala shirts, melted crayon art, and some painted fireworks.

Top left: I chose to do crayon splatters- I held different crayons over the canvas and melted them with a hair dryer. M's is top right- she made a flower resist and melted crayons that were glued to the canvas. W, bottom left- wanted a black background and a crazy rainbow pattern. The last picture is our July 4th paintings. We started with a black canvas and used fake flowers dipped in metallic paint. Lots of fun!

The girls and I went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and took our neighbor friend Raegun. Prior to going, we made matching koala tank tops for the girls. The museum is very nice. Their permanent exhibits include ancient Egypt, complete with human and cat mummies. The mineral exhibit has been added to the take-Mimi-and-BeepBeep-to list. There us also a great dinosaur exhibit, complete with an armadillozilla. There are several exhibits we didn't see, but the best part was the butterfly center. We watched butterflies hatching from their chrysalis', saw a butterfly lay an egg, and so many different species flying around the butterfly enclosure. There we also other types of creepy crawlies- W petted a walking stick and some other strange creature from Australia. Plus,  there were spider and roaches and beetles to look at. I think the girls had a lot fun on that adventure. 

 Chuck's parents also came to Texas! Their first stop was to see some friends in Copperas Cove for few days, then they all came to Houston. On Friday, we all loaded into Leon's Suburban and headed to Galveston. It was a bit over and hour and a half with traffic. Our first stop was Moody Gardens. The Moody Garden complex includes a hotel, water park, aquarium, rainforest and zipline adventure. We chose to tour the rainforest. There were monkeys, bats, birds, butterflies, snakes, lizards and rays. We all enjoyed seeing the animals there.

Next, we went to the seawall and out onto Pleasure Pier. We had a nice lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp. It was a neat place, and the food was pretty good. Then we let the girls (and me) go out and ride the boardwalk rides. There were several we rode, but the heat soon got the best of us. We also fed some seagulls. W and M were throwing it out over the ocean, and I decided to hand feed them. M got brave and let them take a couple bites of food from her hand (eventually). 

Galveston was fun, and we're thinking about going for an overnight and staying at Moody Gardens to taken in the other attractions. Nothing firm yet, but there will be pictures.

Now we see what the next 2 weeks brings...

School's Out!

School finished up with a half day on June 5th, and it was bittersweet for both girls. I had the eating area decorated with balloons and even a Baskin Robbins cake waiting for them when they got home. Let's see what we can get into this summer in Houston!

I'm trying a new style of sharing pictures tonight. I have a lot to share and hopefully this will save lots of scrolling. We'll see. SO- here's what we've been doing…

First up, we took the girls to the Houston Comicpalooza. I saw a post about it on Reddit, found that Ming Na-wen was going to be signing autograph's, told M, and the rest is history. Now the whole family really likes the comics and sci-fi stuff, but not to same degree that SOME people like the stuff. Anyway, we saddled up and headed downtown. There aren't pics since they didn't want you using your own camera. M did her autograph, and W got Elizabeth Henstridge (another actress from the Marvel Agents of Shield). As a bonus, Chuck got to meet Lou Ferrigno and get his picture taken. Can't share because its a polaroid. The picture proof I do have is this ONE- with me and the girls at the TARDIS.

We've tried a couple of new restaurants in the area. We had brunch at Peli Peli which has South African cuisine, and we tried Cheeburger Cheeburger- um, yeah- burgers. Peli Peli was very good, Chuck got some kind of omelet type concoction and gave it 2 thumbs up. M had a berry crepe and enjoyed it, and W had a huge burger- not an ordinary American Burger, but she really enjoyed it (so did Chuck). I had a flight of steak- 6 different steak medallions with different sauces and seasonings. Very tasty. I also enjoyed W's cole slaw, which again, was not typical American cole slaw- it had fruits in it. Strange combo but yummy. 

Cheeburger Cheeburger is a burger joint with all kinds of crazy toppings and milkshakes with seemingly endless combinations. The shakes were great. The burgers were fine- nothing extraordinary. 

 For our most recent adventure, the kids and I tagged along with Chuck to a meeting in Ft. Worth. We headed out Sunday morning, straight up I-45. On the way, the girls and I had our first Buccee's experience. For the not Texans, Buccee's is an enormous carnival of a convince store. There's gas, bathrooms and bottled drinks of course, but there's also clothes, grills, food, jerky, calf skins, fudge and there are beavers on all of it. Yup, the logo is a beaver. He's cute. Then it was on through Dallas and over to Ft. Worth.

Once we got checked into the hotel we headed over to the Ft. Worth Stockyards. It's a historical site from when Ft. Worth was Cowtown. There's a cowboy museum and a cattle drive twice a day! We had a stage coach ride, our picture made on a longhorn, and a steak dinner. 

Dinner at Riscky's- steaks and ribs and potatoes all around. Chuck had the calf fries (some call them rocky mountain oysters) and a bloody mary called the Doc Holiday that included bacon and jalapeños.

Monday, while Chuck had meetings, the girls and I went shopping, and had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. YUM! We picked up Chuck, then headed home by way of a quick dinner at In N Out burger. Ok, not sure what all the hoopla was about on that one.

Kids racked up- I found this awesome Maleficent tank- also got a Lion King one

Finally, I have some pictures of the local wildlife. The 3 baby mockingbirds were sitting super still in the bushes while I watered all around them. Mommy bird was watching form the neighbors roof and must have gathered them later. The bottom right picture is a little lizard that hangs out on our bathroom window almost very night. I really like seeing him there. What a cute belly!

Now that the kids are out of school, we're hoping to get into Houston to the museums and the aquarium and other attractions. The girls also want to go to the pool a lot and do crafts. Cool- sounds fun!

Concert and Beach Trip

So the majority of the week was business as usual. I did make it up to W's school to visit the book fair. I also scheduled an exterminator visit since the bugs are moving in and there are fire ant mounds again.  Worthy of mentioning, Chuck and I completed our CHL class and range qualification. It's more stream lined than the NC version, and done mostly online. All the paperwork is in. Yay!

On Friday, we went to a concert in downtown Houston at the SPA (Society for the Performing Arts). We saw Christina and Michelle Naughton. They are twin piano players, and played pieces at the same piano and also dueling piano style. It was very good- we all enjoyed it.  We've already chosen some other performances we'd  like to see in the next season.

At Worthram hall

With my girl

pianos- duh

Saturday, after the traditional donut run, we headed to Surfside Beach. We've been researching different beaches in the Houston area and decided on Surfside. The weather was beautiful. Low 80's and clear. The sea breeze was very strong, so we did have to fight the wind a bit, but we all had a good time. The tide line had a wall of seaweed- sargassum specifically. It was not a problem for the kids, Butter found it to be a safe haven from the tide and Chuck wasn't  bothered by it. Me? I wasn't crazy about it, but of the 4 of us, I like the whole beach idea the least, so I mostly hung out by the Jeep while the others frolicked. 

I do like that you can drive onto the beach and park wherever. The best part was no lugging stuff from the car- it's just all there. The sand was nice, and the beach itself wasn't very crowded. There were lots of rental houses there, too, and  we talked about doing that next time. Butter liked her first beach trip even though she wasn't very fond of the water. All was well until the surf came at her, then she bolted up the sargassum bank until it receded again. Silly Bulldog.   After about an hour and a half of frolicking we headed over to Sharkies, a little burger joint right off the beach. They had outdoor seating and Butter was welcomed with a dish of water and lots of petting from the staff. Five stars in my book right there. We had beer or sodas (depending on age) and jalapeño poppers and burgers. It was decent food, friendly staff and other visitors, too.  Then we headed back to Cypress. 

Jeep on the beach

Noooo, not the water!

2 foot tall wall of Sargassum

Here and the chair is where I spent my time

Frolicking kids

Daddy saved me from the water! 

Happy Bulldog

This is about as far as I got 

 

Stephen Austin Monument on the drive down

Road trip with my girls

My beach pass. Woot!

Isn't he adorable? 

This week is looking pretty standard but we're all looking forward to the long Memorial day weekend coming up!

Limes Are Scarce

I really like tequila. I usually drink margaritas. My favorite recipe is with fresh limes. Limes are scarce. Really-there was a news story where drug cartels are now in the business of hijacking lime shipments and ransoming them back. Limes. Really? The ones at the grocery store are getting punier and punier, so I decided I needed a new way to drink my tequila. OK, besides just straight up drinking it. Anyway, here is my solution for when I don't feel like juicing the mini-limes. ?Drug cartels?

The Limes are Scarce
3oz tequila
2oz cranberry cocktail
2oz Orange Juice
1oz peach schnapps

It's sweet and fruity and would be good frozen, too. It also turns out a nice happy coral color.

I was at the local Spec's (soooo much wine, beer and liquor) and struck up a conversation about tequila with the rep. He told me the best tequila is 100% blue agave. That's what I'm drinking now. It's really good andI chose the one with a pretty bottle.

Aha Toro Tequila

In related news, the new keg is tapped and while awaiting return for deposit the empty keg is sitting out in the living room. Enter Bo. He knows there's beer in there- even if it's just a couple drops. So he licks the keg. And licks. And licks. 

Empty Shiner Bock Keg

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. No plans, both kids spent the night at different friends houses. Correction, I plan to sleep in. Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's!

Catch up!

Whew!! It's been busy here in Houston the last couple of weeks. After the last installment we had visitors -not the scary outer-space kind- the friends form Boston kind! That's right the Cohens came down April 19th- 24th. It was so great to see them! We took them to some of our favorite restaurants and they explored Houston on their own some, too. The Easter Armadillo visited the girls and we dyed eggs. It was sad to see them go but the Herrin Hacienda had to quickly ready itself for the next guests- my parents! Mimi and Beep-Beep drove down from North Carolina to check out the new homestead in person. We fed them well, introduced our new friends and took them to a crawfish festival. Mimi even wore her cowboy boots! They were here from April 24th-29th. Chuck and I celebrated our 17 year anniversary while there were here- we all went to Taste of Texas. So yummy!

With all that going on, plus the regular stuff it's hard to keep track of what happened when so here's a random brain dump of whats been going on… and then some follow up pictures.

Tomball Crawfish Festival- very small, Chuck like the crawfish OK, I had beer and fried pickle and Chuck bought a chair that should be delivered tomorrow.

W got 2 tortoises. They're redfoots- should be 8-10 pounds when fully grown. They're supposed to be females, and are about 3 months old. Their names are Shelly and Gloria. When they're a year they can live outside here especially in the summer, but for now they're in W's room.

Chuck finally finished off the keg of Shiner Bock and we hooked up the Dos Equis Amber 1/6 barrel this evening. A big thank you to all that helped drain that Shiner keg, and a big hugs to Matthew Cohen from Chuck for getting the coordinating Dos Equis Amber tap handle.

Mom and Dad helped me plant some more in the back yard. I've added a kiwi, a pomegranate, 3 more hibiscus and 4 more foxtail ferns. I also discovered that I have a bumper crop of volunteer passion flowers! I always wanted to plant them in NC but you have to get the one that are cold hardy. Here I have them as weeds! I'm letting some of them grow now that I know what they are, but left unattended they would totally take over my garden.

I've been getting a few cherry tomatoes and even picked 5 blueberries the other day. Then zucchini is not far behind and there are a few peppers forming. It's crazy how much earlier things are here.

Our shower is done! Glass and all. I also added a bench with guest linens, a Mickey curtain and some Mickey art to W's bathroom.

Sewing was on hold while the visitors were here since the sewing room is the guest room. I have since finished some mothers day gifts that are currently on their way to NC. No pictures- its a surprise!

Best margarita recipe- 1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice, 2 oz blue agave tequila, 1 oz grand marnier, 1/2 oz light agave nectar.

The girls have 4 weeks of school left.

Chuck's parents are visiting soon and taking the kids back to NC for an extended visit.

And now assorted supporting photos.

Not the haul we're accustomed to- but ours.

Fresh margarita! The ice cubes are Texas shaped! 

Gloria and Shelly enjoying a banana slice

W's bath

Best weed ever

Tapping the Dos Equis- see the awesome tap handle?

Ok, now that we're back to a normal schedule, I'll try not to lag behind again.

Birthday, Shower, Crawfish and Some Sewing

Ok, running a bit behind- oops. Last Tuesday was my birthday. Chuck took the day off and we went to a Texas gun store, and when the kids got home we went to Taste of Texas. Yum! Happy Birthday to me!

My apple dumpling dessert

Chuck's Tomahawk Steak

The guys finished our shower - we're only waiting for the glass to be installed but that's a different group and they come on the 29th.

There's another shower head and handheld on the other wall,too. 

Last weekend, our neighbors had a crawfish boil to celebrate their anniversary. Chuck wheeled over the kegorator and had good food, cold beer, fun times with friends. For their anniversary gift, I appliquéd a couple of personalized kitchen towels.

Crawfish kitchen towels

Chucks plate of crawfish and bowl of butter

This week has been spent getting ready for our visitors- the Cohen's and my parents will be visiting the great state of Texas soon. Yay! In addition to the towels I was able to get some other stuff made- some is a secret still. So glad to have some time to be creative!

For my Mom's birthday - a Texas potholder

Texas quilted placemats for me

More after this weekend with Easter stuff happening. I'm making a Peeps Trifle that I found a recipe for on pinterest. Should be fun. Plus all the other Easter goodies. Have a great weekend!

Armadillos!! Real ones this time!!

Finally! Armadillos! That's this weeks big news- for me anyway.  Today, we went to the Pearland Crawfish Festival.  I bought a Groupon for it, knowing that Chuck is really excited about the start of crawfish season, and on the website they listed Armadillo Racing as some of the entertainment-bonus! We headed out this morning in spite of the wet weather and drove the 45 minutes southeast to Pearland. On the way, Chuck read some reviews and actually decided not to get any crawfish- instead he ate all kinds of other cajun food- alligator, boudin, and shrimp meat pie and I had the jambalaya. 

Then it was time for the races! The kids were finishing up a bungee bounce ride so I headed on over. I met the dillos and got to pet Van Gogh, and watched the other racer wander around the track. The kids and Chuck made it over and enjoyed the company of the critters just before race time. They are so freaking cute! At race time- they asked for volunteers. Yes, I did! W did, too. We got to go in with the armadillos, hold them by the tail and then herd them to the finish line. My race buddy, Quesa-dillo, won! Bean was racing Speed Bump and the other volunteer had H. Ross Burrow. Then, I petted all the armadillos. I really love those little guys! Totally worth the time, money and rain to go see them. 

The company that does the armadillo racing, The Sparks Agency, also does other Texas themed events for parties. I think I need a whopper of a 40th birthday party complete with armadillos and longhorn. Got that honey? You have a year to prepare. Friends and family- you have a year to make your travel arrangements. There will be armadillos. Now for the pictures...

W and M pet Van Gogh

Seriously- How cute is that?

He peeked in my boot

On your mark..

Get set

Go! Ok, so Quesa-Dillo got a little turned around. 

Van Gogh officiating

 In more mundane news the shower is coming along slowly- hopefully it will be done Tuesday. Most of the wall tile is up- just a few trim pieces left and they still need to do the floor tile. We tried a new Italian restaurant, La Parmigana, the food was really good and fresh, service could have been better. We also had some Chinese delivery, Hunan River Bistro. Our neighbor recommended this one and it was very good. We had some neighbors over to the patio for beverages, Chinese food and we even roasted marshmallows on the fire pit. The kids played out in the yard and on the playset till the wee hours. It was a good night.

This week is my birthday week! We're going to Taste of Texas for my birthday dinner, YUM! Chuck is getting me big tires for the Jeep on Wednesday. The shower should be done, and we're going to Collectors Firearms one day! Woot! Now that I have my license…. YAY!

It's not long before Casa Herrin will have visitors! We're really looking forward to showing everyone around and sharing Houston with you- and we MISS you!

I'll leave you this week with a picture of naughty Butter, caught in the act. Nope, not getting food, but balls. The kids got balls for their birthday and Butter needed them. Silly bulldog.