Hot Air Balloon Dreams!

OH MY GOODNESS!

Hot air balloons! Will be! In East Texas! In the city I work in. Racing all week July 23-29!

See today as I was driving to work I saw a hot air balloon. Crazy, I know. But it's East Texas, so not much surprises me anymore, lol. And I remembered a lady at work mentioning a hot air balloon race, but it had been months since she mentioned it.

It is NEXT MONTH!

I am so excited! This is like Bucket List stuff for me. And it's in the city I work in! And it's going to be beautiful. This are pics from the website.

I may just have to schedule patients in the direct flight of the races during the week so I can tack the balloons, not really, but maybe...

It's $12 a person, but free for kids under 12 years old. And there's food vendors, and a "balloon glow" and something called Special Shapes Spectacular. And there's even also a KidLand for $5 with bouncy blow up slides and stuff on the weekend.I may go Friday AND Saturday...

This is going to be AWESOME! I'm going to have to tell everyone about it and take lots of pictures and research hot air balloons racers before going...

And I'm going to have to convince my mom and dad to come, too. Although I know they already have plans for other things because they told me so... BUT they did not know about THIS!

Oh I am Stoked!!

Blueberries!

So we planted blueberries this year. Two plants actually... you know, so they could cross-polinate or something.

And then someone else ate our blueberries. Probably a bird, but who knows. The plants are still healthy and I ate one of the blueberries from the bush yesterday. And my husband picked good blueberry varities because it was THE BEST blueberry ever. Tangy, yet sweet. But there was only one of them. (Also I'll let you know what variety we purchased when I ask him. I kept the tag on the one I helped purchase... but the other one, who really knows...).

So with our lack of blueberries, and East Texas' plethora of bluberries. My and my friend Lindsey went picking (you know, Lindsey who lived with us last summer). We went to a local place called Barron's Bluberries. It was very DIY. Like, sign out front with the prices and buckets to use, and a cash box to leave the money when you're done. Total honors system. Love Lindale. :) Low crime rate right?

Anyway I had been before to a place called Bluberry Hill Farms in Edom, TX which was awesome too. They are more the 'we have a cute little store and we make fresh blueberries pies and soft serve blueberry ice cream and blueberry lemondade and you can take pictures behind a sign that makes you look like a farmer." Very cute. Def, and experience, and a fun day.

Barron's was more for the actual blueberries.  But Lindsey took pictures with her fancy phone and instagram.

8 pints for $8. Fresh, yummy, local, cage-free (lol) blueberries. They are very good. I think I've had blueberries every day since. I was going to freeze some, but I think I may eat them all.

There are bluberry picking and fruit picking places in a lot of towns, though, find one in your town this weekend and enjoy the yumminess AND the savings.

Happy Picking!

Mail!

Someone told me I had a package coming. Tomorrow.

But then I arrived home today and found THIS:

But it wasn't the package I had been expecting...

Instead it was THIS:

My THESIS!!

All printed and professional and DONE!

Yay for finishing things, and for Husbands who don't let you just play around but make you work on homework, and for God who really did all of it, and for the patients who decided to even try to lose weight in the first place, lol.

Finish something today. If feels great.

Lagerstroemia AKA The Crepe Myrtle

So we have this tree in our backyard. It's one of my favorites. I like trees.

It's real wide and makes it like we have shade in our back yard. And it's surrounded by a chicken coop with no chickens covered in Virginia Creeper (no, it's not poison oak). This tree is a trooper. I think it's a crepe myrtle, but let's be honest I'm no tree-ologist.

And Kyle said his parent's had trees like this one when he was growing up. He only told me this after he asked me why our tree didn't have flowers on it.

I had noticed that other trees like ours has flowers and had wondered the same thing. But then Kyle told me he was expecting the tree to make flowers and was a little let down..

Guess what:

Kyle got his wish.

Better late than never...

Happy Trees Have Flowers, Too Day!

Memorial Day with the Rents

So I mentioned that I got to spend the weekend with my parents! With the crazy summer that I have it was great to get to take the long weekend and spend time with my parents in the good ol Lake Charles.

Great weekend!

Mom's birthday was Friday so I got in a little early just to be festive. Saturday we filled a cooler with drinks and watermelon for my Dad who just so happens to be building a pool house in our backyard. Crazy!

And since I'm super-handy of course I helped.

Excuse the fact that the angle may or may not cause the woman at the top of the ladder to gain 27 pounds. Just ignore that... (Oh and that's my dad on the right... he's SOOO handy. He knows how to build an entire house!)

But I try to be as handy as I can. I think over the years I've learned that it's convenient to know how to fix things, repair things, build things.  And my Dad knows how to fix everything so I figured I'd pay a little attention while I was home for the weekend.

I also convinced my parents to take graduation pictures with me. Yep. See I was in Colorado on the day of my Master's graduation and I missed it. I knew I would, but when you finish your degree out of state, online, with a million edits and copies of thesis-ness in the mix, unless you attend graduation, it doesn't really feel over. I didn't have my diploma yet (it's in the mail) and I didn't have any pictures in my hat and hood and everything.

So when I remembered that my brother's girlfriend Kari graduations the same day, same time, from the same school, and the same department as I did. I realized that she would have the correct graduation attire. So I called her up and borrowed her stuff. And then convinced my family to take these.

Now it feels real!

So we swam and ate yummy food and hung out with family Aunts Uncles Grandma Cousins, all kinds of people. And then we swam and ate some more.

I love my family. And I love that I can convince them to dress up with me and pretend we're at my graduation ;)

Happy Family-time... and Happy Graduation.

Airport "Stalking"

So I got to the airport a little early.

You know like through security an hour before my plane boards, early.

I like to be a little early because you never know what the security line will be like. Like the little kid in front of me that was flying for the first time alone. Sweet kid, but he didn't quite know all the security rules yet. :)

So I popped open my computer and then out of the corner of my eye I spotted it!

The third Hunger Games Book! (I have not read it yet, I'm saving it for later in the summer!)

I know you think I'm crazy, but I love the books. I love dystopian novels, ever since my English teachers forced me to read them... I fell in love. I guess being a rule follower, I get a kick out of the people who dare to break the rules and fight for what is right in a crazy mixed up world even if it does mean crazy things will happen. 1982 anyone?

Anyway so I laugh a little when I realize it's an old man, very serious looking, reading this book written for 5th graders (yes, I know I'm 25ish and looking reading a book for 5th graders).  But it looks like he's really into it.

So I keep staring.

...

Oh, it's not Hunger Games, it's Genesis of Shannara. What?!

 

See they look alike. Right??

So I figure he really is a serious business man.

Then I googled it.

Nope. It's something they call "epic and urban fantasy." And then it said "elves" ... Who knew. Maybe he is as crazy as I am.

Happy Airport Reading! or Airport Stalking if that's your preference. :)