Life in the Middle Age Lane

Being the mom of a very amazing and beautiful daughter did not come easy.  It took hours of involvement in her school, extra activities and making sure she had a balance of girly things, camping, hunting, shopping, etc.  BALANCE!  Is the key word.  That being said.  I recently read a letter from a Houston Reverend to Victoria's Secret  and felt a need to re-post it.  Upon reading the headline, my first thought, was Oh Boy, another religious nut ranting about sexy underwear.  Well, I am glad I read on.  His concerns are well expressed and very touching.   All I can say is that I do buy Shelby underwear from VS, without hesitation, now do I buy sexy underwear or as Rev. Dolive describes Cheeksters. Absolutely not!  And I sincerely hope that she doesn't give a second thought to VS advertisement and the need to purchase such garments.  But then again, I think we raised her to worry about bigger things, then panties. ...

Looking at these old pictures the ones who have changed the most is the kids.  The years go by so fast.  We rented two beach homes and our friends rented one for themselves to share. Robin, Louie , Carmen and Mark.  Great families.  Unfortunately with our kids going to separate schools we have grown apart.  Except for Carmen, we seem to be sisters from another mother and pick up where we left off. Helen came down with her family and stayed in the extra beach house.  Others rsvp that they were coming too and ended up not showing, so they had this big house to themselves.  She has been my friend for over 19 years.  Wait that doesn't seem possible.  Aren't we still in our 20's?? My good friend Paula, is an amazing cook and she prepared our breakfast, including mimosas! I even had a friend fly down from California.  I forget how wonderful and good to me these women in my life are. ...

 Shelby has always been a beach girl. When I brought up her 18th birthday and what she wanted to do to celebrate it came as no surprise that she wanted to rent a beach house.  Since her birthday falls in the end of September she thought celebrating it on Labor day weekend would work out much better.  We found a great beach house that weekend that accommodates 12 and then my good friend and neighbor booked the house next to us.  Should be a lot of fun for all. Now that I recall when I turned 40, we did the same thing. Galveston, beach houses, friends, and gorgeous weather.  I will post those pictures tomorrow.  These pictures are from 2003, 10 years ago.  That would make Shelby 6 years old. John, barefoot as always I love this picture of my two honeys.  She always was very independent and her dad made sure she felt it.  Even when he was shadowing her. I think Emilio was at fiddle camp this weekend or perhaps with his...

I have been glued to the television, thinking of this beautiful city and what they are going through right now.  I just hope that it's over with and they don't find any more explosives. Prayers to all & grateful the death toll was minimal, though any loss of life is unforgivable. 

This post comes with a warning.  My daughter might disown me for posting this. Yet, my fingers are still typing.  You see I have a dilemma. What do you do when your beautiful baby girl comes to you and says, "mom, I want to pierce my belly button"? I am not ready for anything remotely close to this type of conversation.  Because my conversation is basically one sided.  It's me saying.....No tattoos, no piercings, and no underage drinking.  Three simple rules.  Not to be questioned, argued or challenged.   If only life where that simple. Love your body, do no harm, treat it like a temple.  Isn't that in the bible?!  Unfortunately, we raised our children to be free thinkers, with room for tolerance for all.  And look where that got us!  With a 17 year old wanting to pierce her belly button.  What next? Never mind, I really don't want to know at this point.   I won't change my mind nor teeter fro...

This past Sunday was an epic day.  Aside from having about 35 to 50 people at the house, we also had our annual father and daughter event that same day.  AT THE SAME TIME! My niece baptized her daughters on Saturday and I offered to host the party on Sunday.  I called Lasagna House and ordered a splendid menu of italian food.  I just prepared the salad. The weekend cooperated and the pool was heated to a cozy 78 degrees.  Kids had a blast in the pool and I had no left overs.  Our guest of honor:  Emmie and Liana Andrea taking a picture of the banner I created with my cricut machine.  Emilio made an amazing Sangria which everyone enjoyed.  I found the recipe on allrecipes.com here . We omited the brandy and did a jug (gallon) of Sangria wine.  $10.99 at HEB.  My little brother, Raul aka the grandpa treated the entire family to an hour of Mariachi's.  It was beautiful and well received by all...

 I started collecting the kids t shirts since elementary school.  My plan was to make them a t shirt quilt.  Because on Youtube they made it look so so easy.  Well, after a full year of assembling and buying material, starting, stopping, re-sewing, un-threading, sewing.  I finally finished my "unperfect" blanket.  Even though it's not sewn perfectly, it was made with love, sweat and a little bit of my blood. I only hope that as years go by and the day comes when I am not there for Emilio that he looks at this blanket and realizes how much I love him and always will.

While in Los Angeles, Shelby and I did a "Dearly Departed" tour with  Dearly Departed Tours .  It wasn't just macabre stories like the Black Dahlia and John Belushi, though it did include that part on our tour.  We were also treated to fascinated architecture like the house above. Part of our stops were at the witches house (I believe there are three in LA). This is the same house that was used in Hocus Pocus.  My kids favorite Halloween movie.  The tour guide Brian, let Shelby and I get out so we could take pictures in front of the home. The realtor ended up buying the home to save it from the two potential buyers who were planning on demolishing it.  Thank goodness he did, it's a great house! On Thursday we did the touristy sights like the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard, went to the Wonka Chocolate store, and ate the best burgers at 25 Degrees .  It was so good that we went back the next day for a snack and their adult mil...