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Things are going well, no complaints. I'm still in utter shock that my child has not become sick yet. *knocking on wood over and over and over ...* His classroom has begun to double as a petri dish, and the kids are dropping like flies. Even his poor teacher has been out since last week. Everyone around me has a sick child, the sickest one being my dear friend Angel's son. He has the flu AND secondary pneumonia - at the same time. If you pray, please put in a good word for her boy!

My week started out pretty great - I was driving to work very groggy and not-yet pumped with coffee, when I heard the "best of" Dudley & Bob show on the air. I don't much care for morning radio shows, but something they were talking about peaked my interest for some reason. They went to a commercial, then some live person came on air & said, "caller 10 gets passes to ACL fest, call now!", then the commercial immediately started. It was so fast, I almost thought I didn't hear it right. I grabbed my cell anyway, and started dialing. First try - busy. Second try - busy. Third try - ring ring. Much to my surprise, I turned out to be caller 10 and won myself a pair of 3-day passes to ACL this coming weekend.

If you aren't familiar with my bizarre talent for winning things off the radio, this is a perfect example. My whole life, I've had the ability to win tickets, CD's, dinner for two - you name it. I'm convinced it's why I will never win the lottery. Instead, I'm destined for a life of random excitement, and lots of concerts, which is actually ok with me. To date, some of my more memorable winnings have included tickets to Morrissey, STOMP, Depeche Mode (which included backstage passes - yes, I thought I might die from that one), and a box set of Six Feet Under, one of my favorite shows of all time. Now I stumbled onto this. Here was my instant conundrum though ... I don't really want to go. I know, I know, it's unheard of and out of character for me NOT to want to go see the likes of Pearl Jam, Kings of Leon, Thievery Corporation, Flogging Molly, Ben Harper, Phoenix, & The Toadies (just to name a few) for free, but I guess I'm just getting old. The thought of having no choice but to use port-a-potties all day long, while mingling amongst very large groups of intoxicated people just doesn't sound appealing to me. Believe me, I understand the power of live music. It's been a driving force in my life since I was taken to my first concert at the age of 8, but these days, I'm just not up for fighting the crowds, especially outside. Oddly enough, there is a huge part of me that's actually sad that the desire isn't there. I know myself, and ten years ago, I would've begged, stolen, or borrowed to get a ticket to ACL. But now? Eh. *shrug* To give you an idea of how many people I'd have to put up with just to hear one of the bands, ACL's site has been keeping track of people who tag certain artists they plan on watching. As of today? 27,187 have marked Kings of Leon as a band they plan on watching.

27,187?!

Kill me. I'd rather listen to them on my iPod on my sofa or in my backyard. Thievery Corporation? 14,188 people. Pearl Jam? 20,821. Nope. No thanks. Besides the fact that I'm terribly claustrophobic & large crowds make me anxious, the thought of that many people standing in the exact same place I want to stand doesn't sound like very much fun. Unless you camp out all day long in front of the stage until your band comes on, you will be ground-level behind throngs of sweaty people, and the performers will most likely look about 3 inches tall. Those days are over for me, folks. I prefer smaller venues, smaller crowds, and being able to really enjoy the music. Not being elbowed by college kids, smelling the weird smells that come with outside events, and trying to hold my urine in all day to avoid a trip to the shit box.

*shudder*

So, I decided to go with my gut feeling & sell the tickets instead of toughing it out down there. I struggled with this decision at first, because the young me couldn't believe I would be passing up the chance to attend a 3-day festival, chock full of kick ass bands, at no charge. But, the older me won out, and made a better case in my mind to sell them to someone who wants to go but couldn't get tickets (they sold out ages ago), and put the money I make away for our impending cruise. I can't say I'm not still a little disappointed in myself for taking the money over the music, but it is what it is, and I have to own up to the fact that I'm not 25 anymore. Live shows aren't what they used to be, at least not to me, and I can't pretend this one will be any different. I'm just not that person anymore. Growing up & realizing things about yourself like this sucks sometimes.

Aside from my ACL quandary, we made a trip down to The Pecan Street Festival this weekend, as we do every year. I know, I just finished saying how much I hate crowds, then I go to something like this, but PSF is different. At least you can keep moving - that's a big thing for me. We saw lots of neat vendors, ate our way through $40 rather quickly, and met a really cool dog.

Drew.

He is a five-year old Cane Corso, and it was love at first sight. A rescue group for Cane Corso's was down there taking donations, and Aaron was so excited - he's always wanted one of these dogs. See, they are descendants of Roman war dogs, and you know how much Aaron adores anything Roman. They are gentle giants, very even-tempered, good with kids, and a quiet breed. (Essentially, the antithesis of my Elijah.) Drew didn't much care for cats, but that was the only thing his handler could tell us that was anything but complimentary. I wish I could've captured how gigantic Drew's paws were - males are between 90-110 pounds, and he was no exception. He was amazing! We may have to consider this breed when we get our next round of fur-children down the road.

As I mentioned, we ate our way through the festival, which included Aaron's tradition of shrimp-on-a-stick, my tradition of a Greek gyro, and Z's tradition of funnel cake. He was in absolute heaven.

His funnel cake, frying up nicely.

The finished product.

The momentous first bite.

It passed the test.

My guys.

I'm also happy to announce that we recently started a workout regiment that kicks a bunch of butt! I stumbled upon this page on Facebook called "Couch-to-5k" and it's a workout plan that can get you off your couch & trained enough to run a 5k without dying - in just 9 weeks. Sounded intriguing, so I showed it to Aaron & Z, and they were on board. So, we started week one on Monday, Sept 21st, and it rocks! We actually look forward to going each time, it's so great! Zach has been doing it with us as well, and he's amazing! Only drawback at this point is that we all realized we need a new pair of running shoes. Ouch. Guess that will be on our list of things to do this weekend. Since I have such ferocious feet problems, I have to go to a specialty store and fork out a little extra cash to get shoes that will help me, but until then I'll just keep doing a lot of this:

Three things I'm grateful for today:

1. Winning ACL tickets.

2. Stumbling upon the Couch-to-5k plan.

3. The continued rain.

Peace and pastries to everyone, until next time. ♥♥♥

The last thirteen days

Dang. Time is flying by. To quote a great man, "life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Of course, by "a great man", I meant Ferris Bueller.

Let's see, where to start. School is going great & work is going great, so that just leaves us with finding ways to keep ourselves busy until the much anticipated holiday season. Not to worry though, life throws us curveballs to keep us on our toes, and that makes the time go by quickly. For instance, another car problem came up over the past two weeks. I won't bore you with the details or the annoyances that came up along the way, but problem got fixed for $50.00 and my car is riding smooth again. Gotta love the small victories in life.

Aside from minor car trouble and minor dog trouble (the old guy is getting stiffer by the day, and no amounts of glucosamine seem to make things better - sniffle sniffle), we went to a wedding this past Saturday night. Aaron's best friend Jamie finally found the girl of his dreams, which I'm happy about, since his first wife was ... well ... not so nice.

The happy couple.


Aaron & the bride.


Best friends.




Aaron wandered over by the television while Zach & I were dancing.
I can't blame him - Jamie got married during the Tech game.

(FAIL Jamie!)


Knuckleheads.


He REALLY got into dancing at the reception.

This was Z's first "grown up party", as he put it, and he is hungry for more. Uh-oh. Now that the little man has gotten his first taste of what it's like to party, he can't wait to do it again. Aaron always said he could see him growing up to be the life of the party, and I must say, he fit the bill that night. It was such a truly fun, yet surreal moment when I was teaching him how to do the "YMCA" for the first time. He honestly *couldn't wait* for the chorus to come again during the song, he was having so much fun. I remember thinking when he was little that 9 months to a year was my favorite age, then I said two or three was my favorite, etc. I'll have to contradict myself yet again & say that seven is my favorite. I know, I know, I'll be writing eight is my favorite in about a year. Hey, what can I say? I'm a sucker for my kid.

Me & my homey.

Yesterday was "Austin Museum Day", and that meant you could go to any of 34 participating museums in town for free and rekindle your love of the arts. What a fabulous idea! We ate this up & jumped in the car to go museum-hop and see what new exhibits had been set up since the last time we did this. I didn't take many pictures, because they had Camera Nazis roaming at each one we visited, but here were the few I got:

From the Texas State History Museum -
I just thought it was a rad picture.


The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.


My personal favorite, The Blanton Museum of Art.


The Austin Museum of Art.

The coolest exhibit of the day? Personally, I thought it was this one, at the Blanton:

It was on the ground, in a dark room, and it was a conceptual film exhibit of a man swimming. Live motion, with leaves and various debris floating in the water, like a real pool. It was wild! Looked very real, sounded real, and it was awesome to watch small kids, including my own, approach the exhibit in absolute awe. If you want to check out more about it, click here. It's called Swimmer, by Bill Lundberg, a trained painter who is also a professor at UT. Awesome.

Lastly, I've been seeing a lot more of Amy lately, which is a great thing. She's pregnant with twins, so we're stocking up on all the visiting we can cram in before the little ones arrive. Not to mention, our boys love playing together, so it's a win-win every time we go to her house.

Ask boys to smile, this is what you get.


Very proud of their block tower.

I hadn't realized until now how blindingly bright those last two photos were. Sorry for that. Either way, Amy is doing great, and is hoping she stays pregnant for 10 more weeks. That will give the twins enough lung & brain development to not have to struggle if they come early. Her doctor won't let her go past December 22, and 10 more weeks is right around my birthday, so she'd be happy with something in between. I can't wait to meet the newest (and last) additions to the Clark family!

That catches us up to this week. One last thing - I think I'm about to plunge into a new hairstyle. After 15+ years of the same thing, I'm finally going to change things up a little. Yes, I'm a dork and I'm nervous, but it's an excited nervous. But, I'll post more about that later. Like, after it's done, & with some photos. (eek!)

Three things I'm grateful for today:

1. Dancing.
2. Taking my son to the museums this weekend.
3. That my biggest problem in life is finding a new hairstyle.

Peace & pastries to everyone.

Ahhh, September

Work has calmed down to a relatively normal pace, at least one I can deal with a little better. There is plenty of paperwork to keep me busy, but at least the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter by the hour. Everything should snap back to normal within the next two weeks, and that's a good, good thing.

We finally got some rain, and broke our bizarre, icky streak of 100+ temps for endless days-in-a-row. Whew.

A storm rolling in. Yay!

The view above my house, before it broke loose.

I finally caught lightning in a photo.

I've been trying for this for years - it's not

as easy as you would think, when you don't have

the right lenses & aren't familiar with the different

speeds on your big, bad camera.

It actually got down into the 80's for a day or two, which gave everyone the break they needed to continue their will to live. That heat streak we had going for 60-some odd days was obnoxious, and won't be missed. We've settled into the high 90's these days, which I'll take. Anything is better than heat indexes of 112.

Last Thursday we celebrated the Z man's SEVENTH birthday! Holy moley! What the ... ?! I still sit around trying to figure out where the time has gone, but I'll never really figure that out. Just gotta keep going with the flow, right? He asked me to make vanilla cupcakes for his special snack at school on his big day, and he also requested they be Transformers. Not a problem!

Fun with food coloring, part I.

Fun with food coloring, part II.

The naked little cupcakes.

One part of the Decepticon batch.

A close-up.

The Autobot batch, as well as the one for him

and the one for his teacher.

A close-up.

Didn't want her to feel like she had to choose

good or evil that day. With 22 kids, you never

know which side she might pick, bless her heart.

Z wanted his to look different than everyone else's.

He was thrilled with how they turned out, so mission accomplished. That evening, my parents & Ken came over and we opened presents, then went to the birthday dinner of Z's choice. This year, it was Pizza Hut. Did you know they only have one left in north Austin/Round Rock/Pflugerville that you can go sit down and eat? I was sad to hear that, because I remember what a treat it was when I was a kid, for all of us to go sit in a Pizza Hut and devour a pan pizza. Here are some shots of him opening gifts, then at the restaurant:

Happy to see a Transformer from his bday wish list.

Getting a Lego set from his list.

More Legos.

The moment right before he nearly passed out at

the sight of the GIANT Indiana Jones Lego set on

his list, which he didn't think he would get.

Studying it, up close.

Ma is a little camera-shy.

Thoroughly enjoying his pizza.

Then shooting the last of his ranch dressing

and making me gag.

The fam.

The cake at home, after pizza. *burp*

Since his birthday fell on a school night, we decided to have his party the Saturday after. This year, he picked a Spongebob themed party to take place at Chuck E. Cheese, and we all met around noon for more pizza (gag), more cake (notice I did NOT say gag here), and lots of games. Sidebar: if I see another piece of pizza again before I turn 40, I might vomit instantaneously.

His kick-ass Patrick cake, courtesy of

The Cake Plate.

He and Kate riding a faux roller coaster.

Going downhill on said roller coaster.

My parents, my sister, and my brother-in-law, Eric.

The whole group, mid munching.

I'd say he looks content.

Kate, not caring much for all the noise.

They gave him a special crown & medal.

He was thrilled!

Dancing with the rat.

Kate asked Chuck, "do you know me?

I'm Kate, and I'm four."

Everyone got a high-five from Chuck.

The birthday boy.

Some of the kids had already left by the time I

got around to taking a group picture. Here are

the last few standing, all looking cracked-out on

coins and cake.

And, the sad aftermath of Patrick, post party:

It's in my fridge still, even though it's 5 days old.

It still tastes damn good, don't judge.

As you can probably imagine, the party was a huge hit, and we had one very happy child on our hands afterward. The Longhorn season opener was in the evening, on the same day as Z's party. What a busy day! Of course, the Horns smeared Louisiana-Monroe, and looked really good doing it. I was also able to finally have the hot wings I've been dreaming of since last season. I only let myself eat them a few times during football season, then I stay away from them the other eight months of the year, so they don't lose their "special treat" status. Between pizza x 2, birthday cake x 2, then wings, I've been walking around with the nagging desire to go running. Right now. For miles and miles ...

This year, the two celebrations wore us out, and we took all day Sunday to recover and do a whole lot of nothing. All of us were home, with nothing to do, and it was so nice. Zach and I got Labor Day off too, but Aaron had to work. Darn retail.

That catches us up to today. Things are back in full swing with school - homework every night, tests every Friday, etc. He made a 102 on his last spelling test, because she gave two extra credit questions and he got them right. Hooray! Tomorrow I have to drop Z off at school, then walk across the parking lot to attend a room-parent meeting. I'll then have to pick him up after school, go home, then turn around & go back to school for back-to-school night. Sheesh. Maybe I should just stay on campus & work remotely all day. It would save me some gas, anyway.

Three things I'm grateful for today:

1. That we were able to give him his dream party.

2. That we only have one child, so we only have to

do this once a year.

3. Days off together.

Off to watch reruns of The Office with my hubby. Peace & pastries to everyone.