Like Sands through the Hourglass....

How has it been so long since I've blogged...???...

Let's see...when we last left our heroine, it was her birthday and she was heading out to celebrate the 30th birthday of another friend...we ended up at Howl at the Moon. Such fun. Love that place. I behaved and was home, like Cinderella, before midnight as my parents had arrived that evening.

Sunday we had the great photo studio meltdown of '08. Raise your hand if you have done the studio photo with kids....keep 'em raised if you loved every minute, everyone co-operated and you had a plethora of shots to choose from. Hmmm...where'd all the hands go?! Mr. B and I hire a photographer once a year and do 'photojournalistic' photos where we're at a park or outdoor setting and the photog just shoots us being us. We always get fantastic photos this way. For my mom's birthday, however, I wanted to give her a photo shoot with Miss F. So off we went to the mall studio and Miss F was precious until the camera came out. Then it was "No" and tantrums and hitting and crying. The photographer got some good shots and in the end (after them being completely untruthful about costs...argh!), my mom has a great photo montage of herself, my dad and Miss F. Whew. Remind me to just hire a photographer....

While my parents were in town we did the above photo shoot and then we visited the nation's only weather museum (or 1st weather museum or something of that nature) here in H-town. My mom loves the Weather Channel and this was a bit like living within the weather channel for a few minutes.

I taught VBS all week. That's Vacation Bible School for all you heathens (ha!). I did the Bible Storytelling rotation and enjoyed working with jr. high kids to present the stories to the kids at VBS.

Friday we went to the a performance of Disney's "When You Wish" at an outdoor theatre (see photo of Miss F enjoying the pre-performance picnic). We met some friends and had a wonderful time. Miss F danced with her friend Miss E and told her she had to be the prince because she was wearing shorts. Miss F, naturally, was Cinderella because she had the foresight to wear a skirt. I just love Disney...I love the music, I love the movies and I love being wrapped in a giant warm fuzzy whenever I experience anything Disney. Cheesy, I know but I have so many parts of my life touched by Disney. I remember seeing the movies with my Hud-to-the-son friends in high school (and planning to see the new ones when we came home on break from college), I remember going to Disneyland on the day before I moved from Cali and my parents let me bring a friend AND we got to walk around by OURSELVES at the ripe, old age of 11. I remember dancing to old Mickey Mouse Club records with my dad. Ah...so fun. I hope Miss F looks back fondly on the Disney memories we're making with her.

Saturday we went to a neighborhood block party (of sorts) and had a chance to meet new neighbors and visit with the ones we don't see as often as we should (even though they're, well, our neighbors). We also went on a bike ride to the pool and back. We stayed in last night and watched the movie "Babel".

Ok, let me rant for one, small moment and let me open this up to debate in the comments section if necessary. Why do I see movies? To escape. To be entertained. To leave feeling good and sappy and all mushy inside. To me, "Babel" was horrifying. It was awful (oh, and I know you want to tell me about camera angles and to use words like 'thought provoking' and 'poignant'). I need to drop all Academy Award nominees and winners off my Blockbuster queue. All they do is disappoint. Cheesy comedies and mild action/adventure only for this girl. Preferably with Drew Barrymore in them. Those are the best. So there.

Today we went to the Astros game. We sat in the last row of the entire ballpark. It was pretty high. It was quite a workout with Miss F and the myriad of times I went up and down to the potty, to the hot dog stand, to the potty, to the cotton candy, to the potty...check with me tomorrow, I may have some buns of steel to brag about.