Merry Christmas

Today I will be baking( not sure if the girls will be helping me out) and cleaning and gathering all things to pack.

The day after Christmas we will be heading to the in-laws for a couple of days. On the way we will stop at R's house to do a wee bit of Christmas with her. Looking forward to that.

We have someone to come over and feed the pets, etc, but I am a bit worried about the two cats being left alone. Egads, Simba will not leave Bella alone. I think I may have to put away all breakable things before I go :)

I had a great birthday. C gave me a duraflame heater. I know, I know. Not what you would expect for a 50th gift. But one VERY much appreciated. I've been wanting one for awhile now. It's really cute with its fake flame :) I LOVE it! He also drove nearly 45 minutes to pick up my birthday cake. Oh, and was it good!!!

All in all, a very nice birthday.

Don't judge me too severely on my little drawing. It has been years since I really drew anything. At one point I was going to major in art. It will take me awhile to really get back into the swing of things. I printed some vintage Christmas pictures to copy as best I could. I have always had a bit of a problem with proportions :)

Merry Christmas to you all. Praying that ya'll have safe travels and happy times.

God Bless

50

This is what I woke up to today. I'm just going to say it....one of the things I am most proud of my girls (and there are many) is that they have a sense of humor. A lot of people may think this isn't all that funny....more creepy than funny. Oh, but it fits right in there with my odd humor.  I nearly woke the house up with my howling laughter. 

H stayed up late last night making muffins for my birthday and left this sitting on top of the container. My girls always used to ask me what I wanted for my birthday and I would always tell them to make me something....to draw me a picture. One of them finally listened :)

The reason H made this- ahem- lovely birthday card is because not to long ago we sat down and watched Psycho. She had never seen it and it had been years since I had. Now, Psycho has a special place in my heart....WHAT? Um huh, a special place. When I was in 4th grade my friend has a sleep over with about 6 of us girls. For some reason--it was the 70's --her mom thought it would be a good idea to let us watch this movie. We screamed and laughed and all had to sleep with one of her stuffed animals. Would I let my 4th grader watch this movie...no. But then again when all my girls were that young they wouldn't watch ANY kind of scary movie. H is finally getting to where she will venture out and watch scary stuff. She is trying to gear herself up to watch Steven Kings IT. Geez, louise, that one scared the pants off me. That is until it got to the end and it was nothing but a giant alien bug. To this day I hate clowns and gutters.

S ? Nope, S hasn't ventured out into the scary move realm. She'll do the sci fi kind of scary but that's about it.

So, 50. 

The big 5.O. 

It sounds so weird. Growing up I never really imagined myself much older than my 20's. 

It's not really bothering me. I don't feel like I'm 50...except the wear and tear on the body. Mentally, I am still in my 20's. Some would say teens and others would still say younger :)

Today I am going to keep it simple. C went into town to pick something up for me--even after already buying me a present the other day. You've got to understand. C and I have never really given each other presents. So when he gets me something, it really means a lot to me. I think he might be picking up a birthday cake for me. Oh, fingers crossed. If it's from where I think(hope) its from, it will be a GOOD one. And he will be picking up some shrimp to boil later. What fun...a good cake and some boiled shrimp--obviously not too close together.

Hmmm, maybe I'll get the family together and make them all watch a movie with me. Or play a board game. Or make them play Farkle--a dice game that no one will ever play with me ( I usually beat C so that's why he doesn't like to play).

I know that I am going to have a great day so my birthday wish is for all of you to have a blessed day today as well!

Ah, I can't forget that today is also the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Happy Feast Day Mary!

Another Jaunt to Texana

H and I took another trip to Texana Park on Monday. We were going to go on Sunday but S didn't feel like going so we decided to wait til Monday morning. 

We arrived just before 9 am. The temperature was perfect, in the high 50's. Not too cold but just cool and crisp enough for a sweatshirt.

We walked about 3.3 miles in just under 2 hrs.

We only saw one deer at a distance. But we got to see a hawk at the end of our walk. We also saw several types of wild fungus that I had never seen before. For some reason I was really intrigued by them. They were just, plain ,foreign looking to me.

I wish I could name each of these and wow you all with my fungus knowledge but nope, I am completely fungus illiterate. 

I love the green ones. They really are quite beautiful.

 I found this tree fascinating because that one branch that is coming down at an angle to the right, isn't a branch. It was a completely different tree that grew into the other one.

I just love the hawk. He stayed there for quite a bit before he flew off.  

All in all we had ourselves a great walk. While the weather is nice, I really need to plan more trips out there. My goal is to eventually walk the entire trail system. At one time :)

Thanksgiving Is Nearly Upon Us

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us

. I had a lovely day yesterday at Hobby Lobby getting some of their fall stuff on sale. And yes, I even bought a few of their Halloween stuff too. I, also, found some pretty cool stuff for Christmas at Goodwill. 

What I am working on right now is painting some of the little $1 ceramic Christmas houses for a Thanksgiving village. I bought some brown, yellow, and orange spray paint. Yes, I know that they didn't have those kinds of houses back at the original Thanksgiving but I'm going for cheap decorations here!

So far they are turning out cute.

We are planning on staying home this year. It will be just the four of us. Nice and simple again this year.
We'll be having turkey, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, sweet potato supreme, pea salad, brown and serve rolls, cranberry salad, green bean casserole. Wow, as I write it out that sounds like an awful lot of food for just four people :) At least I won't have much cooking to do over the weekend! OOhhh, I can't forget the dessert. Pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Not to mention any other pumpkin thingy H decides to make all week!!

On the following Sunday, the girls and I have a baby shower to go to. My husbands niece is having her first baby. We are all excited.
We'll be able to drive to R's house and pick her up to take her too. It's a bit out of the way but it's worth the extra miles so she can go too!

Hoping ya'll have a very Blessed Thanksgiving!

My Favorite Disney Souvenir

My last couple of post were about my trip to Disney and Halloween. What could be better than combining the two? Ok, so maybe Disney and Christmas? Hmmm, that post can wait for a later date.

So, my favorite Disney souvenir? Actually, everything I bought at Disney is my favorite :) I mean, come on? Anything bought at Disney has to be a favorite..right!?!

Disney World opened a new shop over by The Haunted Mansion called Momento Mori (as seen here) about a year ago. It sells all things Haunted Mansion. I wanted to buy up the whole store. The Haunted Mansion is one of my favorite rides. Which I find somewhat funny because I don't really like scary things and I can remember being terrified on it when I was a kid.

What did I buy? Plates, dish towels, something with the hitch hiking ghosts on it? 

Nope.

This.

Don't mind the glare from the flash. It was a rainy, dark day.

I LOVE this photo!! They sit you down and tell you to be still and they take the photo. All creepy like! You have to wait about 10 minutes( we did anyway) and then a bell rings and a creepy cast member comes over and opens a cabinet and hands you the photo. My sister and I couldn't resist!!! As long as they are offering this photo and as long as I go to Disney I will get this photo taken!!! Next time I'll try a creepier expression.

On a side  note---my grandmother or great-grandmother made the runner. My Mom wanted me to have it and try and fix it up. Yeah...I'm not that talented. H saw it and decided that it would make a great Halloween runner. And right she was! It works perfectly!

I hope ya'll have had a nice weekend. Mine was lazy and full of wind and rain. Thanks Patricia. With that being said I want to offer up prayers for all those in Mexico who got the worst of it and everyone else dealing with flooding!

Gearing Up for Halloween

 

Making some tombstones. Not quite finished. I need to come up with something to write on them.

I made some apothecary bottles. Most were made from old pill bottles and one was a hand soap bottle. Mine and H's favorite is the brown "ash of skulls". It's just so creepy!! I really had fun making these. Now, every time I see any kind of bottle, my brain goes into overdrive thinking about what I can do to it to creep it up!

I saw this on Pinterest and LOVED it. It worked out SO well. I thought for sure I'd have a "nailed it" with this. It really is extremely simple. Just spray paint a halloween bucket with some stone spray paint. Done!

 That's Big Al in the fireplace. H named him. The story is that we found Al's remains...he crossed the family and was stuffed in fireplace....said in my best mobster voice....which isn't good at all. Simba had a high ole' time exploring the fireplace!

 And last but not least is Lil' Al. All we found was the head. I made the toboggan to wear with my Mr. Smee costume I'll be wearing to a friends Disney Villains party. It just works for Lil' Al, doesn't it? 

We have never really done a lot of decorating for Halloween. No reason really, I just never bought the stuff. We are slowly adding onto what little we have. My goal is to give the place a bit of The Haunted Mansion from DisneyWorld. I'm failing miserable but it is fun trying!!

 

A Bit More of Disney

My sister made some Mickey hand parade wavers. I know. We didn't have any kids with us but she thought it would be fun and we had plans to pass them off to some kids when we were done with them. Hmm. We never were done with them. I understand your confusion. 

Before the parade started we killed some time over on Tom Sawyer's Island. Almost the best part of the trip. I was taking a selfie in one of the gold mine shaft( I had to prove to H that I actually went in a small, dark space) and my sister photobombed me with herself and the Mickey hand. And thus a Disney Picture Taking Prop was born. From that moment on it was in almost every picture we took. Yes, she is 51 and I am almost 50 and we acted totally silly at Disney with a Mickey hand. 

 On Tom Sawyer's Island, Magic Kingdom

 

 Looking across from Tom Sawyer's Island to Big Thunder Mountain

 Near the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom

 On the Expedition Everest ride at Animal Kingdom

 Same as above

 The Tree of Life..Animal Kingdom

 Coming into Magic Kingdom

 Hollywood Studios. Notice the giant Magicians Hat is gone. I didn't think I would like it gone but I do!

 Heading to the best ride EVER! Front row is the only way to go!!

 Just before the Star Tours ride. I giggle like a little girl on this ride. It cracks me up for some reason.

Epcot

These are just a few of the Mickey hand pictures we took. Most of them are just too silly to post. Silly little things that tickled my sister and I. We are already trying to figure out how we can go back. It'll probably be years before we can go again. Too many other trips to plan. Not to mention my husband is getting a bit tired of me going off and having fun without him :) He can come anytime he wants!!!

Hope ya'll have a lovely weekend!

Heat and Feet 2015: My Disney Trip

My Disney trip has officially been dubbed Heat and Feet 2015. Pretty obvious why! The heat was rough. And the feet? Well, blisters abounded! Not to mention how they hurt due to all the walking.

Other than the heat and the feet, it was an ABSOLUTELY fantastic trip!

There were a few highlights to the trip. We met some incredible people. From young teens to newlyweds to well established couples. Not to mentions some great Cast Members. Shout out to Travis and Edwin and Jose!!

The best part of the trip was riding in the front row of Rock N Roller Coaster, discovering that the guns really make shooting noises at the fort on Tom Sawyer's Island, and being terrified, for some reason, on the Dinosaur ride.

Rock N Roller Coaster: I had read somewhere that you could ask to ride in the front row. We did. I had NO IDEA that there was a separate queue for that. The most awesome ride experience EVER! If you have never ridden in the front DO IT.

Tom Sawyer's Island: When my sister and I were younger we played cowboys A LOT. We always tried to build forts with my cousins. And  imagined our backyard/cul-de-sac as a fort. Well, Walt got it right on TSI. It was perfect. The rifles up in the little turrets/parapets really made the shooting sound. When we pulled the trigger we both gasped and danced around the little room. It was like we were transported back to being kids. It was amazing. There is even a mine shaft at one end of the island that we were able to walk through with no one else around. Again, transported back to being kids.

Dinosaur ride: There were maybe 5 of us total on the ride when, I think, it can seat about 16. My sister and I were in the very back row. Very exposed feeling. I'm guessing that is why we were terrified. We screamed and laughed and screamed some more. SO MUCH FUN!

My sister made some Mickey hands to wave during the parade. Being the people that we are, the wavers became props. Of course we had to have them in just about every picture we took. You know, pointing things out, on the hand rails etc. Again, SO MUCH FUN. I'm sure some people will be talking about those two dorky women with the Mickey hands for a long time!!!

So with out further ado I'll start with pictures of our hotel-Pop Century and our walk over to Art of Animation

Pop Century was a great hotel. Standard as far as hotels go. The Disney kitsch was great. I do prefer All Star Movies kitsch better though. Buzz and Woody are the best!

Next time I might try a stay at Art of Animation.