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.

Betty Crocker I am NOT!

I was feeling really domestic last night.

I bought a 4lb brisket to cook, in the crock pot.

So I put it in last night before I went to bed b/c it takes 8hrs to cook.

And guess what I did this morning.

I forgot about it and went to work

So guess where I am right now...

Yep, that's right at home to put it up.

I actually don't mind coming home for lunch...

It's the going back to work that kills me.

Especially on a Friday.

Bleh.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

I have a follower!  I'm very excited!  Welcome Laurnie!

Will blog more later...

I just noticed my follower and had to comment!

Memorial Weekend

Well I'm still getting up at 3am to let this little one out.

It's a good thing she's so cute and cuddly.

And she's a total trip.  Today she decided she was still hungry so she dragged her entire food station over to my husband.

Hint. Hint.

So he fed her.

Then when he was taking Gracie out to go potty Katie took her food bowl out of the station and brought it over to me and dropped it at my feet.

Hmmmm

I think she's going through a growth spurt.

That was 4 cups of food she had today.

Gracie eats about 4.5 cups per day.

Gracie weighs a little over 100lbs.

Katie weighs about 25lbs.

So I guess we're upping her food intake.

At least we know she knows how to communicate if she feels like she's underfed!

Anyway this post was going to be about Memorial Day - It's a bit late...but better late than never right?!

My father in law came into town to celebrate his birthday.  In the Hindu way.

So we got up a an ungodly hour on Memorial Day Monday - to be in Pearland by 7am.

Where the Hindu Temple is.

Interesting that this is in Pearland...why Pearland?!

Anyway my father in law turned 71 this year and Hindu's celebrate the 70th birthday on the 71st by having ceremonies in the Hindu Temple.

I like my father in law, he's a very nice man.

But this is not exactly how I wanted to spend my Memorial Day.

I wanted to sleep in and have a cook out with friends.

But he did fly all the way from Dubai.  And I do like him.

And this is how I spent the day...

 The parking lot - I'm not sure what this is for...maybe to bless your car?

The priest came out to say hello and to dot us.

We've been dotted.

My father in law.

The priest doing the ceremony.

My father in law at the end of the ceremony.

 Me and my hubby at the end of the ceremony.

We promptly went home had a few drinks then took a nap.  We had been at the temple for about 7 hours.  His dad didn't leave until about 4pm.

Long, long day.

The Reason Why I Haven't Been Posting Much Lately...

Aside from just being LAZY, this...this is the reason why I haven't been as prolific on my blog. 

Give a warm welcome to our new furbaby, Katie Marie.  She's 11 weeks now - in this photo I think she was 10 weeks.  We just got her on May 14, 2011.  And she's a handful - a really fun handful - but a handful.  By herself she's a handful.

But with her partner in crime - Gracie Jane - it's not double trouble but trouble to the fourth power!

But man is it fun!  I'm so glad we got Katie.  She's so different than Gracie.  More alert, not as laid back and pokie.  They really compliment each other.  And they LOVE to play together.

So much so it's hard to get a good photo of them, but here's one I like...

Crazy eye one and two!

So cute!

Well I'm still here...

The world was suppose to end on Saturday.

At 6:00 local time.

Wherever you were.

The Rapture you know.

So...I had some cookies.

Some Martinis.

And didn't clean my house, because, well...why clean it if the "Rapture" is coming.

I figured I was either going to ascend to Heaven or die when the Earth blew up.

And really in either of those scenarios I was pretty sure I wasn't going to care what my house looked like.

Well guess what?!

It didn't happen.

So I'm here - with a tummy ache (I'm assuming from all of the cookies and alcohol I ingested) getting ready to clean my messy house.

Next weekend my father-in-law is coming to town and we get to spend our Memorial Day, not eating BBQ at my best friend's house, but going to the Indian Temple for a religious ceremony.

It's to celebrate his 70th birthday (which happened last year), so we can't say no.

Because

1.  He's having it here in Houston specifically so my husband and I can (will) go.
2.  It's his 71st birthday.
3.  He's flying all the way from Dubai to have the function.

My brother-in-law is coming too (he's not my favorite person, lazy is an understatement), his wife (really not a fan of hers), and their demon spawn (they never say the word no to the kids so you can just imagine - they are horrible and we can't stand them).

So the house needs to be spotless and doggie mess free, looking good so I can give them the virtual finger.

Here goes nothing....

btw if you are worried about your pets after the Rapture but before the world blows up.  Don't worry! Apparently you can pay a one time ten dollar fee to have a non-christian volunteer (who shall remain nameless due to privacy issues) take care of your animal.

Just Google "After the rapture pet care" you actually have choices.

Now the person who thought of that was a smart person...

Here I am!

Well I'm back from the wilds of France.

I've decided that I need to win the lottery.

The BIG Lottery.

You know, the one where you never have to work another day in your life.

Provided you do the right thing and invest your winnings, NEVER spend the principle, and live off the interest.

I'm talking about the 400 million dollar lottery.

Because if you win that then you take home about 240 million.

Invest that conservatively at 5% and that'll give you about 12 million a year in income.

70% of that (because, well taxes) is 8.4 million which is about 700,000 a month.

I can live off that, can you?

Anyway, our time in the Loire Valley was incredible.

I love this place:  http://www.chateauchallain.com/


That's why I'm blogging about it again.


I'm in love!  I want to live here forever!  Well not in France - I really just want to be able to go here whenever I want!

Those are the lions that you see when you first come into the house.  And I just realized this is the only photo I have of the foyer, one from upstairs. Well.  I guess I'm just going to have to go back to get one of the foyer from the front door because this photo doesn't even begin to let you see the beauty of the hall.

Perfect reason to go back right?!

Here is another photo

This is of the grounds - wow right.

Well that's all for now - the internet connection at the coffee shop sucks so it's taking forever to upload these.

We're in the process of trying to find a similar place in Italy for next year.

Ciao!