I (heart) New York

In exactly one week I will be putting the last touches on packing for New York. We leave next week on Wednesday morning. We arrive Wednesday afternoon and my conference starts on Thursday morning. I'm in a conference all day and then Friday I have sales calls. It will be a nice getaway.

Places I want to go this time (if time permits)

The Museum of Modern Art
A Salt & Battery Fish & Chips for dinner
New Jersey- Stanley Theater
Frick Collection
Guggenheim Museum
Agave for lunch

Beautiful Girl & Boy

I love this picture of my daughter. My step-daughter took it at Club Libby Lu. She is such a cutie!

In all fairness to my son, here is one of him too. He is a beautiful boy!

I wrote a review of my cousin Sylvia's restaurant over at skirt! Check it out.

Why is motherhood such a crazy balancing act? Why is it so hard for me to do all the things that I'm supposed to do and more? I can barely get them bathed, fed, educated (my part), and entertained. I feel like it is so much sometimes. I've been feeling really overwhelmed lately. I need to stop and breathe. I need a trip to NYC!

I'm off to organize their school uniforms, socks, and shoes for the week. I also need to get my daughter to take a quick shower and to bed. AND I need to read to my son.

New Shoes

The kids and I went shoe shopping today. It reminded me so much of when I was a little girl and my mom used to take me to buy new shoes. I wouldn't want to take off the new shoes and my mom would put the old shoes in the shoe box so I could keep the new shoes on. That was what my kids did. They didn't want to take off their new Vans.

I couldn't find a picture of my son's Vans, but here's a copy of what my daughters' look like. Pretty much like this, maybe a slightly different color scheme.

I, on the other hand, found a gorgeous pair of Franco Sarto sandals for only $19.99! I went out to the outlet stores on 290 and Fairfield. There is super cute store there called the Brown Shoe Closet. SUPER cute shoes for really low prices! I can't wait to go back.

The Artist and the Rope Jumper

Daughter: Mommy come to the kitchen and see what I'm doing.
Me: OK, what?
Daughter: Watch me jump rope!
Me: Can you jump with both your feet together?
Daughter: Yeah, but right now I'm jumping like this.
Me: Give me the rope. Let me show you.
Daughter: (looking at me dubiously) Uh... Ok
I jumping rope and then I hand it back to her and she's looking at me in shock.
Me: You didn't know I could jump rope?
Daughter: No. Ok.. but watch me, Ok?

Later I tell my husband.
"I'M shocked that you can jump rope."
Thanks a lot!

(can't remember how we got to this conversation)
Me: (holding up a small print of one of Diego Rivera's famous flower paintings)
Who do you think painted this?
Son: Diego Rivera
Me: Very good! Where else have you seen these flowers?
Son: (thinks but can't remember) Are they honeysuckles?
Me: No, but come here and see. (We walk to my bedroom together)
He sees the print of the nude with the calla lilies.
Son: Hey! Those are the same flowers!
Me: Yes, they are called calla lilies.
We walk around the house after this and he points at different prints.
Son: Who painted that?
Me: VanGogh
(he repeats the name)
Son: And that? (pointing at another one)

Me: Degas

(he repeats this name)

Then he goes and finds a notebook and a pen and he starts to draw.

Son: Look Mommy! I drew a stink bug and a lady bug. I'm an artist!

Daughter comes out of the kitchen and looks too.
Daughter: I think Brother is an artist and I'm a rope jumper.

Watch Out SJP/Carrie Bradshaw

Good news: Patricia Field has created a 50-piece collection based on the Sex and the City wardrobe. Bad news: You will have to buy it on the home shopping network or hsn.com.

Seriously though, how cool is that? But unfortunately I went to check it out and for some reason the clothes did not remind me of anything I ever saw Carrie or any of the girls wear. It looked kind of cheesy for some reason. Check it out and tell me what you think.

I need some cute black shoes for the Hispanic Chamber gala in a couple of weekends.

Good news! My son starts school on Thursday. That gives me two days to ease him into school. Hopefully that will help transition him back into it and he won't have such a hard time going back. Especially since I don't think my daughter is going back the same day.

I'm Running Away!!!

I finally get to live out my Ashley Judd fantasy. The one from "Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood" where she runs away in just a coat over her slip with a bottle of vodka. Only without the slip and coat...and in a plane..and yeah with my husband. But I am definitely taking the bottle of vodka. Or better yet, I'll buy it when I'm there along with a bottle of cranberry juice.

I'm going to one of my favorite places in the whole world in just two and a half weeks. YES! I'm going to NYC!!

I love that place. I'm going for a one day conference and for sales calls on the second day, but we're staying over the weekend too. I'm so excited! I get to see my lovely cousin (she's the editor, not any of these people featured) and I get to see the city that I love. I dream about actually affording to live there one day as a writer. A girl can dream, can't she?

Enough with all the Hurricane Stuff

Remember this yellow dress? I posted a picture in it a while back and it didn't used to close all the way. I wore a white tank top under it that time. Now it does. So here's an update of my slow but sure progress. I'm still down almost 40 lbs. More like 38 lbs but I want to say officially 40 soon.

I do not mean that enough with the hurricane business in an insensitive way at all. I just mean that I feel like my life has been in some crazy limbo since this crazy hurricane blew through here last week. I think a big part of it is that the kids are out of school. It makes me feel off schedule. Thank goodness my sister and mother-in-law have been able to help me with the kids. My sister kept them one day and my mother-in-law kept them the other days.

Another reason that this hurricane was a huge inconvenience is that my son was having such a difficult time with school. The last couple of days he had just started getting used to it and now when he goes back we are going to have to start all over again. Back to square one with him.

Thank goodness my daughter is very self-motivated. I will have no problem at all with her. I wish my son was just like her but I know that's very unrealistic of me to even say. I love him with his own unique challenging personality traits. I have to! He's mine.

I have been so off schedule with two important things in my life lately. Exercise and writing. I have not been doing either one. So I've made a list of three projects I'm going to work on that are due in the next two months. One is due October 1, another October 31 and the other November 30. That way I've given myself some goals to work towards. I need to do it that way.

P.S. Fall really has arrived in Houston after the hurricane. The nights are in the 60s!

Hurricane Help

Hello to all. It has been a tough week here in Houston watching how devastated Galveston looks. It literally looks like a war zone. If you don't believe me go here and look at these pictures. These are Bolivar Penninsula, one of the areas of the island hit the hardest, but it will give you a good idea of what happened here last Saturday. Only one week ago lives were torn apart and homes were literally destroyed. There are still people in the Houston area without power. Some were flooded the day after the hurricane with all the rain that followed.

If you want to find out how you can help some of these victims of Hurricane Ike contact your local American Red Cross to see what you can do. They are doing a lot for the Houston and Galveston area right now.

We're Fine!

Hello! We are alive and well. We rode out Hurricane Ike in central Houston and it was scaaary! Our power went out at 3 a.m. on Saturday but it was back by 7:30 p.m. We were some of the very fortunate few.

We are hurricane survivors! More later.

Hurricanes for Sale! Yummy Hurricanes!

Wouldn't it be cool if hurricanes were just a drink? Hey! We should have made hurricanes. I'm having cranberry juice and vodka and Rey is having Wellers and Coke. We're missing out! We should have gotten the grenadine, rum, pineapple juice and more orange juice.

So far we've only had a lot of wind. Some friends have lost power. Thank goodness not us! We're just hanging and waiting for the storm to hit! I thought that I read on chron.com something like 315,000 homes are without power. Wow! That's a lot. But when I went back to look for the story I couldn't find it. Hmmmm....

One sister stayed and has my father. My other sister also stayed and is at home with her son. I need to put the kids to bed so they can get some sleep in case we have to wake them up and skedaddle out of here in a hurry. You never know with all these pecan and pine trees around us.

I worked in the yard today, clearing junk from the small porch and taking all our lawn furniture into the garage. In the process I came across 2 of my husbands baseball hats cradled together and sitting on our wooden bench. I went over to pick them up because I wondered if he had forgotten them there and a wasp flew by. Then another one. I hightailed it then! I'm scared of wasps! I told my husband when he got home from work and turns out that they built a nest INSIDE his baseball cap. How weird is that??? Weird I know. I almost got stung in the least likely place I expected to find a wasp nest. I escaped!

We've been going out periodically with the kids to watch the wind, but now it's time to put them to bed. I sure hope it's not really crazy at 2 a.m. Good night to all!

It's a Hurricane and a Picture of Me in the '60s

So yeah there's a hurricane coming our way and yet I am finding time to do stuff like this. Jenny, the Bloggess, did this on Good Mom/Bad Mom and I couldn't resist. It's so funny! You have to try it.

We decided to "hunker down." I can't help but laugh every time I use that expression. That's what we've been told to do if we're not in the evacuation area. We decided to ride out the storm, so let's hope our roof doesn't get ripped off. I just hope it's not as big of a deal as the media has been making it.

Tomorrow we're getting the house prepared for the storm and then we'll see what happens.

If you get bored go here and make a yearbook picture of yourself.

My Super Cool Cousin

Check out this great article about my fabulous cousin, Sylvia Casares-Copeland, the owner of Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen in Houston. The restaurant is on Westheimer, at Dairy Ashford. You must read Spanish to read the article, not to eat the enchiladas.

Chill Out Day

After a month of: 20 year class reunion, kids' party, our wedding anniversary, start of school, a tea party for my daughter, New Orleans evacuees, parent-teacher conference already and a series of unfortunate events, among those the SUV a/c breaking down and rotten meat, I just want to chill out today. I don't really want to do do anything. I just want to relax. I want to stay in my nightgown as long as possible and sip coffee. I don't want any deadlines. I don't want any pressure. I don't feel like answering the phone.

I just watched The Other Boleyn Girl. It was SOOOOO sad. Of course anyone who knows anything about history knows that it can't end happily, so it's not like I'm giving you a spoiler. I cried at the end and I really admired Mary Boleyn. I never knew anything about her before this movie. Whenever I watch a movie based on history and I know it's true it makes me cry more.

I'm going to see what else I can watch today and just CHILL OUT!

I Love Houston in the Fall

(To the tune to “I Love Paris”)

I love Houston in the spring time
I love Houston in the fall
I [don’t] love Houston in the summer when it sizzles
I love Houston in the winter when it drizzles

But I especially love Houston in the fall. Today was the first day of fall for us. It’s funny, because Tuesday, exactly one day after Labor Day, I walked outside in the morning and I felt a difference in the air. I told my husband and he didn’t agree. He said he felt the same.

Last night we went to dinner with my step-daughter on her last night. She’s been an evacuee here from New Orleans. When we got home we felt the difference in the night air. It wasn’t as humid.

This morning I walked out and I felt an even bigger difference. There was a cool breeze! I was shocked! I can’t believe that as early as September 4 we are actually feeling the first coolness of fall. Is it actually here? I realize it may go away and then come back, but I’ll take whatever it’s willing to give us for now.

It's the feeling of football games, homecoming, and going to school. "Don't you love (New York) Houston in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address." (From You’ve Got Mail)

Fall and spring are dangerous times for me. They are the times of year when I feel the most restless. They are the times when I am the most dangerous. I’ve made life altering decisions when the weather is cool and the days are beautiful. That’s good and not good. So let me strap myself down to something before I do something crazy.

P.S. About that Thai Soup

And if you're not my good friend or sister then you need to go to BodegaPartyinaBox.org and you need to order the Bodega cookbook and you need to make the Thai soup recipe along with my recipe for pork in tomatillo sauce.

Thai Carrot Soup

Yummy! I finally tried one of the other recipes from the Bodega Cookbook. I tried the Thai Carrot Soup contributed by Ramona Padovano from dcfoodies.com.

My good blender broke in the middle of the process. It cracked down the side and sprayed soup at me. I had to move over to my older plastic pitcher blender, so the consistency isn't smooth like it should be. But the flavor is there and it is really good. If you are my good friend or sister come by and have a taste. It's a pretty big pot and it looks like I'm the only one who is going to eat it.