She's ours

Today we got a tag for Flower. Her official name is now Flower Savannah Gracie Ariel Lula Star, but the tag just says Flower with our phone number. The girls still go outside all the time to play with her. Since she is an outside only dog my feelings vacuolate between-poor Flower is outside all by herself, to poor Flower Gloria is laying on her again. She is soooo good with the girls, though we had to stop them from picking up her front paws to dance with her. She will go in the tea party house with them and sit on the table. I have also been walking her in the evening as Caleb is putting Lydia to bed. Its great, I am not alone yet I can be totally alone with my thoughts-no little mind needing to be engaged :) Every day or so the girls and I go on Poopoo Patrol (which Lydia calls Poopoo control) and so far no one has stepped in any (which was one of my biggest annoyances of living in apartments).

If you would have asked me if I was 'ready' for a dog, I would have probably said no, but now I am really glad we have her.

Camping!

Our campsite. Lydia & Caleb in one tent, Gloria & I in the other-a marriage counselor probably won't be impressed but we needed sleep! The creek was on the other side of the green.
One of the four dams in the creek built in the 30s by the (socialist) CCC. Caleb and I joked that after he got off his socialist job, checked the socialist weather reporting, we drove down the socialist road to the socialist park and complained the whole time that we wanted the government to get out of our lives.

Gloria loved touching the fish Caleb caught.

The last time I went camping was when I was 8 months pregnant with Lydia. She has been camping once with her dad & grandpa. Caleb took the half day off Friday and we were off to Lockhart state park (McKinney Falls was FULL!). It only has 20 camping spots and is rather small but still just 40 minutes from home.

We had a wonderful time. Down sides-poison ivy, lack of sleep, redneck invasion, burn ban and billions of burs in my pants.

Upsides-tons of family fun, seeing huge snakes, a turkey, a hawk with a mouse in her mouth, walking along a creek, catching a frog, hearing a waterfall, climbing and looking at an overlook, Caleb catching some fish, hearing the girls giggling in their separate tents, time for Caleb and me just to talk after they finally fell asleep, watching fireflies, eating lots of great food, enjoying a new twist on S'mores (let chocolate covered cookies melt in the car then top with marshmallows-see pic above to see if Gloria enjoyed them), splashing in the pond with our water shoes and finally hearing Lydia say that camping is awesome. Gloria also enjoyed showering in the bathroom and didn't want to get out.

Friends

When Mommy guilt attacks (which my mother said didn't exist in the 80s) because I am not crafty or cook that well or have taught Lydia to read yet...I remind myself that God has filled my life with friends instead of (not sure the right word here-talents, stuff...). This past month has been packed with people!

The Friendship International Food Fair is always a blast. The girls and I dressed like Texans and we sampled food from around the world. Pictured is Connie (Korea) & Amy (Hong Kong) who are in the citizenship class that I subbed for twice.
Then we said goodbye to Rachida who is going back to Morocco for the summer. Pam & Imane came over to visit too-I made a potroast. Lydia took the photo :) It has been so wonderful to have Rachida as a friend this year, we only speak in Arabic and I feel like in a small way I am being able to pay back the generosity of the Omanis who took me into their lives. Imane will be here this summer and I am hoping to teach her how to drive!
Saying goodbye to Remy who is returning to Taiwan for the summer. We got gelato from Central Market. I LOVE Gloria's face. We also walked around the pond and saw the turtles. It has been fun to be friends with Remy this year as well, we met through the UT program.
Lydia's friend Nita came over to spend the night, they giggled so much that they only slept from 9:45-5:45. The next day they were tired so they rested and practiced camping in the fort.

My bumper sticker

I have a new bumper sticker. I think it is funny. It is polite yet sarcastic (which my generation loves-think Colbert, Stewart and Stuff Christians like). It doesn't attack one side as much as promote what my side has to offer. It is magnetic so it can be taken off when we go visit my in-laws (I think enjoying time together is more important than discussing politics but C always brings it up anyway). Caleb joked that we would get kicked out of our church (we go to the largest most conservative Baptist church in Austin). I joked that maybe people will pray for us because they don't think we are saved yet; or it might help attract visitors by showing we aren't all cookie cutters. But I really hope it does make people think that wow, someone might really love Jesus and not totally agree with me on every political issue.

When we went camping the bumper stickers around us were extremely rightwing and the people around us were large, white and loud (I am all three of these things too!) As well as driving through Lockhart surrounded by huge trucks gunning it at every light, I realized that I do really enjoy living in Austin.

I could go on about politics (esp with Obama's new speech about Israel & borders and how then our preacher's pm service tonight was entitled Why I Support Israel-I didn't attend but Caleb went) but I'll save that for facebook......

Mother's Day

Lydia & I went up the tower three times, Caleb and Gloria (pictured) twice. They enjoyed looking at their shadow, doing hand puppets and waving to others below. And of course they pretended to be Rapunzel!!

To celebrate Mother's Day we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center after church. Going is a yearly tradition, this year we were a little late so we missed the best flowers, though there really weren't that many bluebonnets anywhere this year due to lack of rain. But we enjoyed the turtles and snake in the pond, our picnic in the shade, going up and down the tower and the children's area where the girls colored, read books, and played. I got a Nile Hibiscus tea drink.

Pool!!

The pool is open for the summer (right as it has gotten overcast and a little cooler). Laura came with us for the opening day. We've been twice and are looking forward to a summer full of pool fun.

Cinco de Mayo!

We got an email from a community group about a Cinco de Mayo Feista happening. Happy for something to do close to home, we went. Mostly seniors were there but one family from the neighborhood who has a daughter Lydia's age. We watched Ballet Folklorico, ate Bill Miller's BBQ, played with confetti eggs and were happy for Gloria to have a chance to wear the dress from Mexico we bought for Lydia while I was pregnant with her (Lydia also needed to wear a fancy dress so she picked purple velvet!).