She finally got some sense!!

Well, it's official! The Sistah is finally moving back home to the Lone Star State. Look what living in Utah did to her!

Trees

Everyone else seems to have the most interesting or fun blogs, mine is so mundane. Sax and his fire dept Lt., Whitey decided to cut down two HUGE trees around the pool. Cait TOLD US when we were putting the pool in, that those two trees should go. After our initial short swimming season, we decided that the trees needed to come down cuz they were providing too much shade. We never thought about " too much shade" in Texas before, but by noon, in the summer, the pool is in complete shade. This is not conducive to Cait and her tanning regimen. So, one full Saturday of hard labor later, the trees are down and Cait has adequate tanning space.

Polar Bear Plunge 2008

Ok, so Cait has been dying to get in the pool. It's our first season so she's very excited. Just last week we had six inches of snow (see story below for full details). This week it's 90 degrees. Cait decided she wanted to be the first one in the pool. She and her friend Stormi came up with the brilliant idea to try and see how the water was. The WATER temperature is a warm 50 degrees. They took the plunge, said it was soooo cold it took their breath away, ran back around to the deep end and jumped in again. Said they think they'll wait til it warms up a bit before trying again. As my mother says, "all the fools aren't dead yet".

Scene of the Accident

The day began well.... There was a chance of snow. Usually this means there is a "snowballs chance in hell" of any precipitation. 10:00 a.m., rain begins, 10:15 sleet begins to mix with the rain. This is what they refer to down here as "mixed precipitation". 'Bout 10:30, the mix included snow. Now when I say snow, this is snow like I have never seen in my 28+ years of living in the Lone Star State. It was blowing snow, horizontal snow, treacherous snow, visibility was less than 1/4 mile in places. Made it home in one piece. Of course, being Texas, school was dismissed early and the North Central Texas region began it's routine Snow Shutdown. Great! Now Cait and I can take some memorable pictures. By five o'clock, yes 5:00!!! the snow began to let up. I thought to myself "self, you should go measure the snow". Rounded up my camera, found a yardstick and proceeded to the back patio. For future reference, in the picture above, I am standing directly above the terrace steps. Yes, there are steps under that snow. I was going to gracefully waltz down those steps and measure the snow on the ledge to the right, right behind that rolled up hose. That was my intention; gracefully waltz.... About the second step, I felt my foot slide out from under me. I knew I was going down and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. Due to my athletic ability, I thought, I should tuck into this, maybe I won't hurt myself. Now keep in mind, this all happened in approximately three seconds. So tuck I did, into a "V" shape. Turns out, the bottom of the "v" happened to be my butt, or rather coccygeal region, tailbone, however you wish to refer to it. I later thought that if I had been diving off of the high board, the "v" would have been the perfect form. If Greg Louganis could do it, why can't I? Down I went, landed on my butt. I must say that it stunned me a bit. I felt immediate pain in the coccygeal region. I began calling for Cait to come assist me. After I reached a screeching crescendo, she came out the back door. (She later said that she only came out because she thought one of the dogs had gotten a little bird that was having a hard time flying in gail force winds of blinding snow). Upon opening the door, all five of our lovely canines descended upon my prone body, jumping on top of me, licking my face. Yes, I love to play with the kids but prefer to be upright when doing so. Cait is standing above me. This statement came from my lovely child, "Well, I wonder what neighbor saw THAT". Obviously, no one, as no one came to my aid.... I then attempted to regain my footing, while fighting off dogs, holding my camera out of the snow and gracefully regaining my footing. Cait continues to stand and watch, no offers of help forthcoming. Fast forward thirty minutes... I am now in the house, in dry clothes and my butt is in full throb mode. For those of you who may find yourselves in a similiar predictament, might I suggest some positions to sit: None. It is impossible to sit, stand, walk or move without excruciating pain. I have found that if I sit forward on the very edge of the recliner, turned to the side, and lean forward, the pain subsides a bit. I have also found that it is not possible to sit like this for any length of time. Once I have reached my pain limits, I attempt to stand up. It takes several minutes to scoot forward in the chair. It is best to lean forward as far as one can, head down. Tip forward til you are headed towards the floor. Now, put a hand on each knee and puuuussshhhh up. DO NOT STOP MIDWAY UP. As you are going thru these movements, you will scream in agony. Keep moving. Once you are upright, you hopefully will not lose conciousness, but will become light headed. Stand and steady yourself before attempting your next move. Do not, I repeat, do not, lift your feet when walking, gracefully slide one foot forward, swivel your body to meet that leg, then slide the next foot forward. For those of you who have carpet, you'll have to figure something else out. It is now approximately 26 hours later. Pain does not seem to be letting up. I did look in my mirror and my butt is, ummm, shall we say, BLACK. I must go now, I am stiff from sitting in this position. Head down, hands on knees, tip forward........ AARRRGGGHHHHHHH (^$@)^*$@%_&$@!#.

By the way, we got five and a half inches.

Huck

This is the latest addition to our family. Introducing.... Huckleberry. He is a mini doxie and has a mind of his own. And the best part, he STILL has puppy breath!!!!

The Pregnant Onion

I went to the local produce market to check out, well, produce. They had this amazing little plant. It is a Pregnant Onion. Of course, I had to have one. I took her home and gave her a drink and when the water went down, I noticed that SHE IS EXPECTING!!! What excitement! There is a newborn popping up on one side of her. I'm hoping to have zillions of new children popping off of her. If you would like to further investigate this cool new plant, go to gardenweb.com and check it out. Or, google an image. What fun!

Cait was asked to model for the Johnathan Kayne Trunk Show. He was one of the designers on Project Runway and now designs prom dresses for Wow Prom and state pageants.