4 Videos of Dogs with Toy - Tell Me - Can You See All 4?

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My Little Cuties!

I bought Halloween costumes for the boys because they went with me and my friend Annie on a tour of Glenwood Cemetery. This is a quite famous graveyard here in Houston. Howard Hughes is buried there and so is a 1940s movie star, Gene Tierney. Many of the early oil barons are also interred there. They have just opened a new section called "River Oaks Row" because Carolyn Farb and Bob Lanier have both bought plots and have already begun constructing elaborate sculptures to put on their burial spots. (For those who don't know much about the Houston social scene, I've included links to Farb's and Lanier's wikipedia pages. Just click on their names.)

Porch Boy the Pumpkin and Trip the Trash Talker were ooohhhed and aahhhed over appropriately by the tour group. You can see that Tater (in the background of this shot) remained uncostumed this year.

Here's a close up of Trip's outfit. With the collar up...

and with the collar down...

and an EXTREME close up!

Porch Boy wore his pumpkin outfit quite proudly...

from every angle...

But he REALLY did NOT want a closeup!

Happy Halloween!

We decorated the office and coordinated our costumes for the theme "Monstrous Mardi Gras" this year. I was the Devil King and here is my favorite decoration - the giant spider!


Here I am with the Ghost of Mardi Gras Past and the Witch Doctor Scream!



And here with Elvira Devil and Hannibal Lecter Jester.



We all had a great time and Dr. Scream won best costume in the whole Department!



Of course, I probably could have won if I'd just had the mask off when the judges came by :--)

Walk for Autism Speaks

Gina and I got to Reliant at 9AM and found the tent where we were to sign in.


Gina turned in the last of her off-line donations.

And because of the generosity of all our friends and family that donated to the cause, we both got t-shirts! I raised $175 and Gina got $174 (YEA! I beat her!)

Next we walked around to the vendor booths - I had no idea that there were so many agencies and others serving the needs of people with autism here in Houston! Here's Gina in front of the Avondale House booth.

It was an interesting looking crowd, but I couldn't believe my eyes. Was that who I thought it was????

OMG! It was! Obi Wan Kenobi!

Then I saw he was with some Stormtroopers who were more than willing to have their image captured on our primitive recording devices :-)

When I approached them for a photo shoot, they decided to arrest me!

Gina, Laura, and her sister Courtney were apparently unfazed by the rough treatment I was enduring from the Empire. (The balloons were the brainstorm of the Avondale House principal, Becky Ingalls - a good way to advertise their facility.)

Finally the walk was underway.


There were many groups walking to support a certain person with autism. Like this group who were all walking for Luis.

But others, like us, who were walking for all. Here's Becky, Lara, and Gina explaining.


THANKS AGAIN TO ALL WHO WALKED, VOLUNTEERED, AND DONATED $$ TO THIS EVENT!!!

Toy Story Bathroom - The Sequel

Gina really didn't like her Georgia O'Keefe print hanging in my bathroom with all those Pixar characters, so I finally found something on eBay more appropriate for the space over the toilet.

Now Ms. O'Keefe resides in the dining room.

I was lucky enough to find this cool Kleenex box at Kroger too!


Makes for a cute final addition to my bathroom decor, don't you think?

Generations of Roots

From the youngest generation...



to the oldest...



and finally one of the adopted generation.

4th of July 2010 Pool Videos

It took some time to get the kids interested in getting in the pool, so I found other things to record...

Soon the kids were both enjoying the water, and yes, I do feel responsible for what happened next...

the fight over the water source!


I was just enticing the kids to fight, so...


I tried to refocus on adult matters.

Toy Story Bathroom

Target had a sale on shower curtains. I needed a new one, so off Gina & I went with our friend Annie to spruce up my tub. But alas...couldn't find one that appealed at all. Until Annie pointed out the 'kids bath' aisle. Voila! Toy Story to the rescue!



And as you can see, I not only got the shower curtain with Woody and Buzz. I also got the Pizza Planet alien bath rug and the matching trash can.



Then it was a no-brainer to also get the Buzz and Woody towel set...



And finally the finishing touches of the alien soap dispenser and Woody toothbrush holder.



Every morning I get up feeling like I can go TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Back Yard Project

Before I got sicker than a dog last week, I got my yard guy to move the water fountain that used to be on my back porch...



to my back yard where it can be seen from both the kitchen, dining room, and master bath.



The snow storm this past winter killed all my flowers so I had a coupon at Houston Garden Centers and got all these replacements, including the hybiscus, to plant in front of it for just $29 - not bad, huh? Here's a close up of so you can see the pretty colors...



and a long shot so you can see how it flows with the rest of the landscaping.



Here's how the back patio looks now.



Quite a difference from what Lennar built as a back patio, huh?

More Kaden UnBirthday Videos

These pretty much speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Kaden's Very Merry Unbirthday

Better late than never, right? Both on the boy's party and this post! Here's the cake announcing the festivities...



and how it looked on the boy later in the party...



This is us singing to him. The baby in the background is our neighbor Cristian with his folks Joel & Julie.


And last for this post is an action video of him and the cake. Cristian loaned him the high chair so he could take full advantage of the ritual first piece. More photos & videos will be posted soon!

Easter Weekend Revisited

Already have Kaden's unbirthday party posting to do, so figured I better get busy finishing up our special Easter trip. After Mom had visited with her friends at Harding and we attended Spring Sing, we went back to Hot Springs and took a dinner cruise on the lake. Here's an extreme closeup of Denise & Shari on the boat.


A little less close of me & Mom, sitting on the opposite side of the table, where we had the dinner part of the dinner cruise. You can see Mom's big margarita, so she was feeling pretty good!


And here's a much better photo of Denise on the deck, looking a little less drunk than in her close up :-)

And here's a nice photo of me & my sisters taking in the beauty of the lake...

Finally, here' s Mom holding up the certificate she was given when everyone on the boat heard it was her birthday. Of course, we fudged that a bit since her birthday was back in January...but the weekend celebration was for her birthday! Looks like Mom really enjoyed that margarita!!!

Video - 1st Day of Easter Weekend Trip

Gina is visiting her aunt in California and I've been busy with the campaign. But I wanted to link to this fun video that JD made that shows them in San Antonio, Mom's surprise on the plane, the fish place we had lunch in Little Rock and the Clinton Presidential Library. Oh, and there's a brief moment of Mom standing outside the condo where we stayed and Denise & Shari doing some grocery shopping at WalMart. Click here to Enjoy!

Easter Weekend - Part 1

Some of my friends were concerned that I hadn't blogged in awhile. Sorry friends! I have no excuse. Just lazy. Since my last blog in January...MLK day...hmmm... oh yeah! I threw my hat in the ring for local office. About as local as you can get. I'm running for Director of the Water Control District for my neighborhood. Check out the blog I started for the campaign.

In February, I went to my neighbor's son's first birthday party. And we had planned a first birthday party for Kaden. But that's been put off until May 1st when we'll have a merry unbirthday party for him! Mid-February I got a big fat tax refund, courtesy of my wonderful Uncle Herb who does my returns every year. It really helped since Gina has been on medical leave this semester. We've had difficulty adjusting to just my income.

In March, I had some new health concerns. A few tests that showed nothing wrong and an inconclusive biopsy left me with exploratory surgery as the next step. Ugh. It's scheduled for May 10th and hopefully will resolve the issue. And that brings us up to April.

My sisters and I had bought a memorial brick for my Mom at her alma mater, Harding University, back in October. It was supposed to be placed on campus near the lily pond (or what is now called the Bud Davis Memorial Fountain). The original plan was to show it to her when Gina & I took her to Arkansas for Christmas. But Gina wound up going to see her family alone. Mom & I were scheduled to go see some of her old (and I do mean OLD!) college buddies over her birthday weekend January 8th. But Arkansas had snow that weekend so we canceled and rescheduled the trip to Easter weekend.

Since the brick was a present from all 4 of us daughters, we had hoped all 4 of us could go and see the brick on campus. But unfortunately, Lori couldn't make it. JD filled in for her. We decided to keep this part of the trip a secret from Mom. She thought it was just going to be the two of us. Shari, Denise, and JD were on the plane that came from San Antonio to Houston and ultimately dropped us off in Little Rock. As you can see, Mom was truly surprised when she saw them on the plane!


In fact, she was so surprised, she didn't even recognize Shari! It was a running joke all weekend. We had a great time, which will be revealed in future posts. For now...signing off...