Texas Visit Highlights

Well I am FINALLY blogging about my other adventures during my trip to Texas back in May.

Vegetable Garden:
During my stay at my parents we decided to plant a vegetable garden for Mom!  I honestly do not remember everything we planted but there were some beans, squash and I think some zucchini.  Dad and Jeff did most of the digging and leveling of the area while Mom and I created the trellis for the bean plants out of string and strategically placed hooks.  The heat got to me fairly quickly so I would pause here and there to take pictures of the progress.  There are more pictures but Mom has this habit of somehow managing to bend over right as I'm snapping a photo so it just looks like I'm photographing her bee-hind!  Haha!  Dad and I tease her claiming she does it on purpose.

I am sad to announce the vegetable garden did not survive the crazy heatwave that hit Dallas.  There's always next year though.

Mother's Day:
Another reason I chose May for my visit was Mother's Day.  It was so nice to get to spend it with my Mom, Dad and Brother.  Since moving I have not been able to spend hardly any special occasions with them.  Well for Mother's Day mom and I woke up and went to Garden Ridge to search for more pieces to go on her Jimmy Buffet wall outside on the deck.  We managed to leave with another pink flamingo and we hung the Margaritaville sign she already had.  We had planned to take Mom out to dinner or cook for her but she decided she really wanted pizza, games and a movie with us!  We sat around outside most of the evening as a family just chatting and laughing.  Yahtzee soon followed and that was....interesting haha.  I kicked some serious butt both games.  Jeff and I busted out in one of David Bowie's musical numbers from The Labyrinth which Mom decided to record haha!  The next day Jeff and I surprised Mom with a pretty new necklace from the two of us.  I love my Mom!

Not taken on Mother's Day but this is my Mom :)

Ranger Game:
So my Dad is awesome for SO. MANY. REASONS.  Classic example of why: Ranger Tickets for mine and Jeff's birthday for seats in the shade!  We got to attend a game as a family and it was such a good day.  Well....it was a good day once we were parked.  Parking was out of control.  I think they just started making up places for people to park at one point.  Anyways, our seats were in the section where the price for food and drink is included with your ticket purchase.  That was pretty nice because I'm sure we all saved a boat load of money that way.  OH!  I did realize about half way down 75 that I left my ENTIRE wallet at home.  ID, debit card, everything.  So my parents were sneaking me beer! hahahaha  That cracked me up so much!  Rangers lost but it's okay because it went into a couple extra innings and that's always okay with me!  I did get caught trash talking one of the other players.  By "caught" I mean he totally heard me and turned around haha.  I was basically right above him and decided to quote The Sandlot by saying "You play ball like a GIRL!"  So at least I wasn't being a total jerk or anything :)

Fun Run:
My mother works for AT&T and, as I'm sure everyone knows, they are 2012 Olympic Sponsor particularly for Trey Hardee.  Their office held an event where you could go on about a 2 mile run with Trey in downtown Dallas.  It was supposed to just be for the employees but Mom had no problem getting them to let me go in her place.  Now, I'm not even going to pretend like I knew who this man was before this run.  I just thought it would be really awesome to get to exercise with an Olympian.  When he arrived I looked at Mom and said "Holy crap, Mom!  You didn't tell me he was freaking gorgeous!"  It was like the stupid high school girl came out in all of us.  Good grief.  Don't worry, though.  It's me we're talking about....it only lasted a few moments and I snapped out of it.  It was really funny to hear 4 people in a row ask "So what are your workouts like?  Do you stretch different?"  One guy tried to give him pointers on calf stretching.

Anyways, the run was a neat experience over all but I just don't think it was a good idea to do that downtown without a path blocked off for 20 mins.  We had to stop at every light and wait to cross, fire hydrants everywhere, parking meters, light poles and it was in the Texas sun haha.  I don't really have any sort of opinion of Mr. Hardee except that he's a great athlete with A LOT of patience!

My 25th Birthday:
I will post a separate blog about this because I'm waiting on pictures from Stephanie to go with it and it was just that much fun :)  My friends and family are awesome.

Visiting My Grandparents:
I was very blessed growing up.  I got to live in the suburbs but spend a lot of time in the summer and most holidays out in the country with my extended family. My grandparents live in Eula which is just outside of Abilene.  As well as a large chunk of the family on my Moms side.  Everybody knows everybody in this very small town and I think most of the people have known me since I was in grade school.  Anyways, we were supposed to have more time together but schedules conflicted at the last minute so I really only got to spend a day out there.  We got to do plenty though!  Grandma, Grandpa, Dad and I went to pick apricots at a neighbors house which lead to Grandma making this delicious apricot cobbler that night.  I'm pretty sure I almost got stung by a few bees picking those things though.  At one point, while I was relaxing on the couch with my Aunt Laura watching the Rangers play, my Grandpa came in with a little friend for me.  It was a sweet little kitten not quite weened from Mama Cat yet.  This little bugger slept on my chest and we napped together.  I later went outside to take her back to mama and saw there were about 7 or 8 kittens out there!  GAH!  When we were leaving, I'm pretty sure Mom and Grandpa did a bag check on me to make sure I wasn't leaving with any kitties haha