Green with Envy!

Okay, here it is...the promised post featuring the bazillion pics I took of all things brightly colored and green (aka living things) which I'll never find growing at my home because I have a black thumb. My husband jealously pointed out that I was taking more photos of plants than of him and the kids. Pardon me, but has anyone seen a picture of me yet?!




I stopped counting how many colors



Ground-floor view of Rainforest Pyramid

Hibiscus everywhere



'Some sort of fig, but I wouldn't eat it' according to the guide



Brazilian walnut...smelled faintly like gardenia



Pitcher plant...where the bug gets eaten

Monkey-no-climb Tree (no, I'm not joking!)

It's a Chocolate Tree, ladies!!



African violets













Moody Gardens

Of all the sights we saw in Galveston, I must say my hands-down favorite was Moody Gardens.  We spent over six hours there and STILL didn't get to do everything there was to do and the kids had so much fun, they forgot to argue the entire afternoon!  Now, that's what I call FUN!!  Although it was very humid and putting on makeup was beside the point 'cause it just slid off my face, we all enjoyed mid-80 to mid-90 degree weather.  Back home, it was a sweltering 108!

There were three pyramids: Aquarium, Rainforest and Discovery and each one had at least two floors. 

The Aquarium Pyramid was the kids' favorite...

...aww, don't they look like they just loooove one another?  Smile like you mean it!!

This tunnel was pretty cool, surrounded by sharks and rays.  It was about this time that Seth wondered out loud what would happen if the glass cracked that Mommy had to pause and pop a pill.  Nice goin', kiddo!

The ray, Paige's all-time favorite!

Mom and Dad's favorite...the shark cage!  Too bad there wasn't a lock ;)

The offspring and Daddyo!

The Rainforest Pyramid had lots of gorgeous flowers and foliage which I will save for another post for all you folks with green thumbs (that would not include me, although I can dream).  This pyramid was MY favorite.

Please don't ask me to tell you what this was, but it was about two feet from my face...very cute, very furry...time to go!  Did I mention I'm not a nature-lover?

And finally, the Dino Alive exhibit, just outside the Discovery Pyramid, had life-sized animatronic dinosaurs that the kids just thought was AWESOME, MOM!!

For some reason, Randy Travis' song Diggin' Up Bones just comes to mind.  Sorry, I'm just weird that way!

We all watched (even Daddyo, who managed NOT to hurl...whohoo!) a 3D movie about prehistoric underwater life called Sea Rex.  Please don't ask for details because, yes I freely confess, I fell asleep!  But so did someone else's dad, so I don't feel so bad...nyah, nyah, nyah! 

And I managed to escape the waterpark without getting my photo snapped...go ME!!





 

Galveston, Here We Come!

I'm not sure if Galveston was ready for us, but our family was definitely ready for the Texas Gulf coast!  The truck was packed and the kids were hopping by the time I got home from work on Sunday...I'm still not sure how I made it through the work day...probably had a lot to do with getting a paycheck!  Dad already had that frazzled look from corralling two hyper kids all day, so we kissed the dog farewell and hustled ourselves into the truck.  To save our sanity, we pointed out the time and said in five hours we'd be there, so don't ask again (I consider this the smartest move of the entire trip).

Do you think they were the tiniest bit excited?

It was, indeed, about five hours later, what with stopping for dinner, and almost dark, when we rolled into Galveston and down Seawall Boulevard to our hotel.  You'd think, or at least I thought, the kids would've slept a little on the way down but they were wired, like they were trippin' on sugar and caffeine...and they hadn't had ANY of that...yet.

The next morning, before our Moody Gardens extravaganza, we took the kids down to the beach to get their first glimpse of the Gulf and to dip in a toe or two...

Paige got wet from the waist down (back to the hotel for a quick change)....

...while Seth said he wasn't stickin' his feet in water where he couldn't see what was comin' at him.  Fair enough, but wasn't it a cloudless day when that chick bought the farm on JAWS?  Anyway, he didn't seem too impressed.

More to come...later...when I'm not pooped.  AND they expect me to cook tonight!  Hey, didn't you get the memo?  MOM'S STILL ON VACATION!!

Snail's-pace Progress

Let it not be said that I didn't get something accomplished this weekend because it sure as heck wasn't the housecleaning!  I made some progress on my crazymomquilts quilt-along although not as much as I would've liked...after all, we did need clean underwear. 

I really liked how well the blocks went together when I followed Amanda Jean's instructions to the letter (funny how that works) and once I got a rhythm going, I set that pedal on fire ya'll!  I left that Singer gasping for air and begging for mercy...it was kinda like being sixteen again, only, back then, that was boys.

Big whoop, I got two whole blocks done, but that's more than I would've accomplished had I not sewn at all (Ma, what are you doing in my head?  Outta there, now!!)

I've got a nice little stack of strips ready to go under the presser foot, so I can grab a minute at the machine here and there.

The flip side of that is I decided 'baby-sized' just wouldn't be big enough, so there's plenty of strips left for me to wind up with a generous lap quilt.

Happy quilting!

Quilt-Along Progress

Since today was my day off and, miracle of miracles, no one got sick, I decided to work a bit on my quilt-along project from Crazy Mom Quilts.  

I spent the morning cutting fabric into 2 1/2" wide strips which quickly got boring, not to mention the fact that precise cutting is almost impossible when be-bopping to what's playing on the radio.  So, I switched to stitching and pressing and stitching some more and this is what I accomplished...

Many thanks to Amanda Jean for her suggestion about using a very short stitch length and pinning (which I never do) to help everything go together a little more smoothly.  You can check out her blog at http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com.