Happy 4th of JULY!

Well not until Monday, but I took Friday off work too soooo....

It's the weekend...

It's a party...

Un huh...

Oh Yeah...

Let's do it!

I played the lottery night before last and I have to say...

I'm completely gutted (learned that turn of phrase in London, kinda like it, it's pretty graphic).

I didn't win.

I do not understand why.

Why not me?

Someone has to win...I'll do it...take one for the team...you know...sacrifice my anonymity.

Well it's up to 100mm for tomorrow.

That's the one I'll win...

And when I do - I'm not sharing it with anyone.

Just call me miss greedy pants!

How Come I Love...

My husband so much?

Maybe because he's awesome at taking self portraits on vacation? Or that he loves me in spite of, or because of, my craziness?!

Houston?

Because of the hippy art?  The great park system?  Both?

America?

This is the cemetery above the beaches of Normandy.  There are almost 10,000 Americans buried here.

What's not to love?  After living in Europe and the Middle East I know now that there is no better country in the world.  And I thank God everyday I was born here.

Thank you to all the veterans who make my freedom possible, especially:

My Grandfather who did 4 years in the Army during WWII, he survived the Battle of the Bulge.
My Father who was a door gunner who survived 2 tours in Vietnam, physically not mentally.
My Sister who's division supports the Marines, she did 2 tours in Iraq.

Gracie Jane?

Who in the world could resist this? I just want to smother her with hugs!

UGH!

Katie Marie?

Oh My GOSH!  How cute are my babies?!  What's not to love!?  And she's my little shadow, always at my heal.

And together....well look at them!~

CUTE! CUTE! CUTE!


My sister...

Oh yeah, because we laugh about everything and nothing.

My life!

 Breakfast at the Chateau in France...

Switzerland...

Koh Sumui Thailand...

Vienna...

Prague...

Edinburgh...

Brussels...

Santorini...

Istanbul...

Salzburg...

Germany...

What's not to like about my life now that I'm back in the USA!?

I have a husband who loves me as much as I love him, we travel all over the world, and have jobs we like.

Life is good...really good.

To Hell You Say!

If you look at the news it looks like the fricken' world has gone CRAZY.


Japan is suffering a horrible double tragedy - the Tsunami and Reactor failures.


The Middle East is...well...the Middle East.


And Obama is...well Obama.  Which is not a good thing.


I had a bit of a problem with the fact that he went to South America


http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/23/2129527/analysis-obama-earns-high-marks.html


Yes, I know it was most probably needed - but really with the crisis in Japan and the unrest in the Middle East he had to take what looked like a spring break trip with his kids to South America?!


And as for his "conciliatory tone" what the hell do we have to be conciliatory for?

Being successful?

Not having civil unrest?

Capitalism?

I really hate that we have a president who apologizes for who and what we are.

All I have to say is get over it, and is it November 2012 yet?

I Love America...but....

have to say that I am glad I did live overseas if for no other reason than this one...

Work. Life. Balance.

Before living in London there is no way I would have considered it normal or desirable to take six or more weeks off a year.

Now...

Now it is MANDATORY!

Of course I could only negotiate four weeks from work...but I'll stretch that out. I mean really?! I can't imagine only having two weeks off a year.

And guess where we are going the end of April....FRANCE!

Yes I know the frogs are shits.

But the country is beautiful.

And we have been to Italy many times.

Anyway we're going back to Italy next year. Fun, Fun, Fun!

So I'm looking at our schedule and deciding what to do.

We want to go to Paris, then to the Loire Valley, Bordeaux, Toulouse (because my husband HAS to see the boeing plant), Avignon, Ax-en-Provence, Marseilles, Cannes, Nice, then Monaco.

We have 11 days.

So I believe that we may have to cut some of this out. Because I am not super traveller.

I do want to spend two nights in Paris because we are meeting friends.

Two nights in the Loire Valley because I love Chateau and I found this place: http://www.chateauchallain.com/luxurious-suites/empress-suite

I either want to stay in the Empress Suite or the Tower because I LOVE canopy beds.

I would stay in the Royal suite but in the photo the canopy doesn't have a top.

And any room under which I have to call for price...please you might as well say YOU cannot afford this...

After the Loire Valley I figure one day in Bordeaux, because usually those world heritage sites are pretty nice but easy to get through.

Then on to Toulouse - I don't think there is much there but the Boeing plant so we won't even spend the night.

After Toulouse Avignon and Ax-en-Provence. I've looked at Ax and know there is a ton to see, but Avignon - not really sure so that may fall off the list.

Of course Marseilles, Cannes, Nice, and Monaco I cannot miss.

But they are all within an hour or so of each other (meaning from Marseilles to Monaco is about an hour) so I just need to pick a base and stay for a few days.

Then Sunday back to Paris, and home. According to Google maps all of that will take only 24hrs driving time....who knew France was so small!

Did you know it's only 166,757,337 Acres?

Did you know that Texas is 172,044,800 Acres?

And the UK (which is Briton, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) is 59,698,189.11.

Texas is bigger than France, and the UK.

Can I hear a whoop, whoop! AMERICA!

I can't wait for our holiday!

It'll be so fun!

And I have a surprise....but I can't share it right now in case it doesn't work out...but I'll give you an hint...

Expansion.

Au Revoir!

Rock Climbing

Oh I am so getting out of my comfort zone.

I went out with friends Monday night, Tuesday night, and Wednesday night.

And tonight?

Tonight I went to a rock climbing gym.

http://www.texasrockgym.com/

I climbed up a rock wall.

Really. Me.

Up. A. Wall.

Of course, least I forget there is something even more amazing going on here.

Me.  Out on a school night.

FOUR TIMES IN ONE WEEK?!

Geez - can you believe it?!

I think I'm getting younger and more adventurous.

Or it could be I'm finally recovering from living overseas for so long.

Anyway.

The wall.

It was quite interesting - I learned how to climb, how to belay, and how to get down off the wall.

Which, by the way, is the most important thing to know.

I went with the group Bayou City Outdoors:  http://www.bayoucityoutdoors.com/

I think there were only four people there from the group and the person I was matched with had never tried rock climbing either.

So there we were, with a little girl about half our age telling us how to use the equipment, while a group of kids (yes kids they ranged in age from about 10 - 16 years old) were climbing like monkeys all around us.

Little bastards.

It was like when I went skiing and my "friends" showed me one of the runs that they said was my level (beginner) and it was actually a black diamond.

Asses.

They thought it was funny to see me fall and slide down the mountain on my back because it was so steep I couldn't stop.

Then when I finally was able to stop myself this little kid - about 7 or so - skied up to me with my poles and one of my skis.

Like it was nothing.

"Here you go m'am" he said.

Little shit.

Don't get me wrong I appreciated the fact that he collected everything for me so I wouldn't have to...but really?!

Anyway, back to the rock climbing...

When I was up there on the wall I had an epiphany.

Oh, wait.

I had an EPIPHANY.

I realized that it is really no fun to do something like that with people you don't know.

I mean, how do you make fun of yourself, hanging in the air, with someone you don't know.

How do you make fun of the person you don't know without them getting offended and huffy?

Well, you don't.

Not unless you are a complete ass.

Which I am not (really I'm not).

So I left early.

But I'll go back...I'm just going to drag one of my friends with me...

With a camera.

Because really...I need photo documentation when I do something like climb a rock wall.

It's the week of Love

Monday was Valentines Day and my husband's birthday.

Yep, he was robbed.

Not as bad as it would be if he had been born on or near Christmas, but still.

Robbed.

Anyway I have that Michael Buble song in my head you know this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AJmKkU5POA

Be aware - there is a short commercial in front of the video.

Anyway...

Love, love, love, love!

I love my life in America.

I love my friends - just spent a lovely night out with some old ones.

I love, love, LOVE my husband.

Life is good people.

Really good.

AMERICA!

Cookies, Christmas and the Nutcracker

Why oh why can't I stay away from my cookies?!

I ate the last 7 (yes I said SEVEN) that I had left out of the batch I made last week.  You might as well call me Santa Clause.

My cookies are REALLY good - I use coarsely ground sea salt in them and add extra butter.

Oh, sorry I mean Butter.

Because you know Butter should always, at a minimum, be capitalized.  I prefer that it be capitalized, italicized, and put in BOLD.

Fortunately I gave half of the cookies away to friends.  So at least I didn't shove the ENTIRE batch in my mouth.

Only 1/2 the batch was shoveled into my mouth.

Isn't that an unsavory visual?

My goal is to not make anymore this year.

Or at least not this week.

I WILL lose weight (this is something I chant to myself).

Well I usually think it's to myself until I notice people moving slowly away from me...

Anyway, I've lost 9lbs since my surgery and so far so good with not gaining it back.

I also lost 2 dress sizes, but I think that's because I no longer have fibroids.  Apparently my uterus was more than twice the size of a normal one.

So my stomach is no longer poking out.  Which is EXCELLENT!

And I already feel better than I have in ages.  Of course part of that I'm sure is due to the fact I'm back in AMERICA!

Where life is SUPER GOOD.  This is what I've been working on for this month...

I made plans with the hubby to go see the Nutcracker http://www.houstonballet.org/TheNutcracker/


And I'm hoping I can find someone to go to the Lights in the Heights with me:  http://www.woodland-heights.org/lightsintheheights.htm

I really enjoy it but haven't been since we moved out of the country.  This would be my first time in 6 years, but my husband is in the UK this week and will not be back until Sunday.

So I'm looking for someone else to go with.

We wanted to go to Dickens on the Strand (http://www.galvestonhistory.org/dickens_overview.asp) but didn't for 2 reasons.

1.  We forgot

2.  Even if we didn't forget the hubby went out of town this weekend and we had a Christmas party to go to (which was fun!).

But we mostly didn't go because we forgot.

I'm going to see if there is anything else in town this month - and we may go to Asheville, NC and who knows I may go see my sister.

Decisions, Decisions....

My First Post In My New Blog!

What a life I have...

 My husband took this photo of me and Gracie sleeping about 6 days after my surgery.  No she doesn't sleep in the bed with us at night - it's not big enough for a 6' 2" man, me and 160lb dog.

Yes I said 160.  She's not that big now - but she will be, or is estimated to be that big.  And I don't feel like trying to get a very large dog to stay on her bed on the floor at night after she's been sleeping in my bed every night.

She's only in the bed because she had been in the kennel while I was out with surgery and she wanted to see me.  She'd been whining and walking around the bed trying to see me.  I was all drugged up so wasn't really in a position to sit up and make nice.

So my husband asked if I wanted her on the bed.  And I said yes (clearly I was completely doped up on pain killers, thank God, because this photo was taken literally minutes after I said yes).

I may regret it in the future but I figure as long as I don't let her sleep overnight in the bed we'll be OK.

If not I'll deal with it then.

So I decided since he got a not very flattering photo of me sleeping with the smush I'd get one of him when the opportunity presented.

Well it presented tonight.

And here it is...

Now I ask, how in the hell is that comfortable in any way shape or form?  You can't see her bottom half - but she's completely splayed out on her back with her legs hanging open and her neck and head are at a 90 degree angle to her body.

And I didn't have the camera ready earlier but Gracie was literally walking on my husband and he didn't wake up.  He had to get up very early this morning for a conference call with either Europe or the Middle East so needless to say he sacked out about 8pm.

Gracie was laying next to him, then she started walking on him.  And he didn't wake up and I was so disappointed that I could find my camera (which has video) before she stopped and flopped over next to him.

Oh well - maybe next time...

Anyway this new blog is taking place of my old one because I'm not an American living outside the US any more - YEAH!  So I needed a new blog about my most excellent life in America.  And this is it!

I need to spend more time on the format but I figured it was more important to write then worry about how pretty it is .

Aren't you excited?!  It's a whole new world!!!