Texas, Our Texas

The first week of March is one of my favorite weeks of the year.  March means that Spring is coming... which will be a wonderful relief after this super cold winter.  I also love that this week is devoted to Texas.  For those of you that don't know (or live under a rock), today is Texas Independence Day. 

In honor of the day,  I woke up and dug out my favorite Texas shirt.

I've been wearing this shirt on Texas Independence Day since my freshman year in college.  Sometimes I throw it in at other times of the year too, but not as often as I used to.  Precious is getting a little tight.

It happens to the best of us.

I also spent the day listening to music about Texas and brainwashing my kids at school in to believing Texas is the only place worth living.

My very favorite thing about being an early childhood teacher is how excited three and four year olds are about everything.  I love that at the beginning of every year I get a group of "normal" kids, but by this time I've turned them into miniature versions of me.  They are dramatic, eccentric, and a tiny bit off.

Not to mention...  they love to dress for an occasion.

 I can not explain how thrilled I was when this little rascal came to school in his "cowboy best".    Check out the point on those boots. And check out that pose.  I love it!

With that said, I'll leave you with this quote from John Steinbeck...

"I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans."

 Happy Birthday Texas!

Happy Weird Shirt Wednesday!

If you are wondering what this piece of eye candy is, I'll let you in on a little secret...


Someone actually designed this lovely bird number for a brand called Victoria.  I imagine somewhere there is a matching set of stirrup pants that coordinate.  I'm hoping they are a hot pink and green pattern of some kind.  A flick of orange and yellow on them wouldn't hurt either. 

It really is a shame that I don't have a single pair of stirrup pants left.  I would love to bust them out with a pair of keds.  Until then, this will have to do....



I wore this beauty to school today. 

and i loved every minute of it.

Weird Shirt Wednesday!!

My job, like everyone else's, is stressful.   That's where weird shirt Wednesday comes in.

I've decided to search out crazy things to wear on Wednesdays.  Some are from thrift stores, some are from garage sales, and some (I'm sad to say) are things I actually own.  Take this beauty for example, it's loud and proud and wills spring to come whether it wants to or not...

It puts a spring in my step...

 a song in my heart....

and sets my feet to dancing...

The fun didn't stop there.  I absolutely continued the wild and loud pattern to my feet.  These shoes scream David Bowie to me, and that could be their appeal.  Labyrinth was a defining movie of my childhood.

Apparently, I had forgotten that I had multiple meetings in real places when I got dressed today.  I started to get embarrassed because I generally don't like to draw attention to myself and this outfit was the equivalent of a flashing neon sign. 

I got more than a few crazy glances, but surprisingly I got a lot of compliments too.  That tells you two things...Lubbock is behind the times and four year olds love anything bright and glittery. 

 I'm hoping to start a trend.  Will you join me?

day 60: when i grow up

there was an emergency at my storage place yesterday...someone behind me left their door open and my storage unit was flooded. luckily, i don't get stressed easily. so when the storage unit guy called me i rounded up the brother in law and we headed over to get as much stuff out of the water as possible. this required a truck...

a really big truck. jordan and i worked unbelievably fast and were able to get the truck loaded and unloaded in 2 hours. you would not believe how much stuff you can fit into a 26 food uhaul. and when it's empty you can easily do a tumbling pass down it...
that is, if you still have energy left over and if you can haul yourself off the ground. unfortunately, gravity is working against me. which is really a bummer because i have the ankles of a gymnast.

but since my gymnastics career won't be bringing in many endorsements, i will have to settle for another dream job...

a truck driver.

day 52: taking a break

we are days deep into taking off wallpaper, knocking out cabinets, texturing walls, repairing ceilings, and painting...and we are tired. not to mention the fact that i am sore. the insides of my fingers are screaming for mercy, and if i didn't have two more rooms with wallpaper in them i would listen to their cries.

while we were waiting on the paint to dry we broke out into some spontaneous dancing. we had backward moonwalk races and spinning contests before everyone started doing their own thing. carly brought a bunch of cds for us to listen to while we were working. she is very proud of her ability to make a mixed cd. she loves it. she dreams about it at night, and if it wasn't illegal she would sell mixed cd's on the corner for extra money.

but that doesn't change the fact that dancing is not one of our genetic gifts. for that matter, neither is singing...

day 44: pocket t tuesday

we started a new tradition today...

pocket t tuesday!!!

pocket t tuesday is conveniently sandwiched between (but not to be confused with) matching monday and woven wednesday.


i love a pocket t. you'd be hard pressed to find a day that i'm not wearing one. it's more or less my uniform. they're so versatile. i, for one, feel like it's an upgrade from the assorted goodwill t-shirts i have loved in the past.

to celebrate kristen, allison, and i donned our pocket tees and headed to rosa's to have tortillas...

and take 80's pictures with the camera timer...

loved it.

day 40: "udderly" delightful.

what a crazy day! we started the morning at the crack of dawn with a garage sale. 7:30 is very hard for me in the summer. i can barley function. but, alas, some people were excited...

some were very ready to help...

and some, well, some showed their true morning colors...


we had record highs in lubbock today. at 12:30 it was 105 so we decided to call it a day. we were dying. it took us most of the afternoon and lots of air conditioning to get our core temperatures back to normal.

as soon as we did carly remembered that today was cow appreciation day at chick-fil-a. chick-fil-a was offering free combo meals for anyone who came into the store dressed as a cow. some were hesitant in the beginning, but things are less embarrassing when you are in a large group, so calli, carly, jordan, connar, haley, and i decided to go together.

we made our "cowfits"...

then we loaded up and took the herd over to the chick-fil-a. when we were headed inside people were giving us crazy looks. one lady offered to snap our picture outside the door...

calli, jordan, and i stated our love for cows with a kojie pop through...

connar and haley were farmers with cow ears...

and carly was a very proud dairy cow. the whole kitchen staff came out to gawk at us, and we drew all kinds of other stares...

i laughed harder than i have laughed in a long time...
it was so fun...

we can't wait until next year. we already have our outfits planned, and all i can tell you is that they are going to be FANTASTIC...

i think haley said it best..."it's always better when it's free!"

day 38: great minds think alike...

i went on a mini solo vacation today to slaton.

slaton is only twelve miles from lubbock and honestly, it doesn't have much going for it. it's a town founded and "supported" by the railroad. the santa fe railroad to be exact.

which explains why a train engine sits in the town square...

i love that there is a fence around it like it's a shrine. i imagine it's there to keep people out, but that would mean there would have to be people to begin with. unfortunately, slaton is a ghost town. but while we're at it, couldn't anyone over 3 feet easily hop the fence?

a really weird thing about the slaton town square is that the majority of the buildings are triangular. maybe the town planners were excited by geometry...


anyway, they were glad that i was there...which i appreciated. however, i assume they love any in town activity.

while i was there i stopped at the one open shop on the square. one half of the building is an antique store. the other half is the slaton museum.

i found a fantastic vintage sunbeam mixer while i was there. it's in a great robin egg blue. it needed some love so it was excited to come home with me. i couldn't wait to get home and show it to momma lou.

the sunflower fields were starting to bloom on my way home. soon the fields will be covered in yellow.

sunflowers are some of my favorite flowers. i feel a real compulsion to pick them and skip around while wearing a gingham skirt and mary janes.

but since i've outgrown my mary janes, i thought that frolicking in the flowers would be the next best thing.

yes, i did set the timer on my camera and run into the field. judge it if you will, but it doesn't scare me one bit. in fact, i took more than one picture.

when i got home i was so excited to show momma lou my fantastic "new to me" mixer. turns out she had picked me up a little gift while she was out today, too. what are the chances....

they are the exact same. but, seriously, could they be any cuter?