Another Sleepless Night

It's 6:26a and I've been fully awake since 4a so I thought I would take this time to finally do some catching up on my online activities. Prior to 4a, I spent more time coughing or trying not to cough than sleeping. And when I did sleep, I had to sit and sleep b/c once I went horizontal, my throat starts to tickle and then the coughing ensues. :( I really, really am tired of being sick. Usually I am not down for too long but Mark and I have been under the weather since Christmas Eve. Enough already.

So the nice thing about being awake is that I have time to do things. Like notice how pretty the Christmas lights look, reflecting on our old wood floor in the living room. So I fixed up my digicam to my new SLR-size Gorrilapod and practiced some shots.

Things that are happening right at this moment:

1. It's raining! Yes. Really raining. With lighting and rumbling thunder, too! It's been wonderful to hear it and to see the water collecting. We've gone without rain for too long so this is a real blessing.
2. Mark put on a pot of beans in the slow cooker last night and now it smells delicious. And makes me want to eat.
3. I'm listening to some of my favorite, favorite jazz. Stan Getz, Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Charles Mingus, and many others. Very nice.
4. I am checking out all the pictures that my Flickr friends have added. Wow, I've been slacking on that; there are tons of photos to see.
5. I am thinking I should also post something on my La China blog. Haven't done that in a while.
6. I am also thinking I have not made a single earring since my little vacation started and I had said I would definitely do that. Yikes. Only got today to live up to my word on that point.

Okay, I am done drinking another cup of Theraflu so I'm going to try and close my eyes and see if sleep comes my way. I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday! :)

Gift wrapping trappings

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Well, I finally finished all my wrapping! Hooray! And I made a little time to finish off my David Balacci book I've been reading for about a month. The Whole Truth, it's awesome. I hope everyone is ready for Christmas and enjoying time with family and friends.

This is a gift tag that was on a gift from my sister's family to our daughter Melissa. I L-O-V-E beautifully crafted things such as this and it's always hard to decide if I will keep things or not. I have about 7 or 8 hatboxes of old letters, cards and other mementos that I have received and I love going through them once in a while. I may put this in a box. ;)

I am so blessed with all that I have in my life. I lack for nothing materially; I have a career I am passionate about at a company I have grown to love as if I've been there 20 years. And most importantly, I have a wonderful man with whom I share it all. I could not ask for any more or for a better person to be my partner. I just want to give thanks for all I have.

I love chicken!

Is this my idea of Christmas cheer?!? You bet! :) We had a gift exchange so the team at work decided to do it during lunch at Clear Springs, which is a restaurant I'm sure I have mentioned before here. It's on Highway 46, between Seguin and New Braunfels. Their mountainous plate of onion rings draws the crowds, along with all the other great food they have. I just can't eat like this too often; that's for sure.

So this is a regular order of the chicken tenders plate. It was divine! I got garlic mashed potatoes and the corn to go with it. I ate three pieces and took the rest home for dinner...for BOTH me AND Mark. LOL. It was still finger-licking-good.

I have been wrapping Christmas gifts but we are mostly done. Except I have four boxes for Mark that are awaiting me...they've been sitting on the couch...I don't think he realizes they are HIS! Better go wrap 'em up before he reads this. I'm off work the rest of the week so I hope to have many photography opportunities. I hope you are all doing well and that you are not too stressed this week. HAVE FUN!!!

Kitty, Kitty

It's been so busy! Here's a pretty kitty I met while visiting Mark's brother. That's one of the nicest things about the holidays -- seeing relatives you just don't get to visit with during the rest of the year. Life just gets you busy and then before you know it, it's been a year again. We had a great time with them, however.

Gifts for family have been bought, wrapped and shipped as of today. What a relief. I was just so unmotivated this year but not because I didn't want to find something special for each person. At any rate, it's done. Now I can take some time to enjoy pulling together some small things here and there for Mark and some local friends. I love looking for just the right thing. It's so fun!

Christmas Activities

Well, I finally got into the spirit. Normally, I am all about Christmas but this year was a bit different. So, I am behind in terms of shopping, wrapping and decorating. Mark boosted me along last week by bringing down all the Christmas boxes and we got started sorting through things.

Here's one of my favorite things to do this time of year...fixing stockings for family members. I love finding little goodies to put in there! We kicked off gift-giving yesterday by spending time with my stepdaughter with dinner and a gift exchange. She will be headed up north for a few weeks so we did an early Christmas and had a really, really nice time with her.

Sky Watch Friday

I shot this one a couple of weeks ago on the way to work on Alt 90 right past Texas Lutheran University. It was one of the most unusual skies I had ever seen and I tried in vain to capture the full effect of the rolls of clouds. It was fascinating.

Check out other sky watchers for more cool photographs of our great skies.

Moon Over Seguin

Nothing takes your mind off being blue or feeling overwhelmed like staring a the big, beautiful moon. Before I go dig through more decorations boxes and then head to bed, I want to post a shot of tonight's moon. I would have missed this opportunity to see its beauty if a friend from work had not taken the time to call me to let me know that tonight would be a great night to get a few shots. Thank you, Alison!

Thanks to my wonderful man for fixing my tripod for me! I couldn't have gotten these shots without it honey. You rock!

Shopping

I saw this on one of my few shopping excursions this year. At first my sister and I just liked that it was a "Tini" toy, since my step-kids and close friends call me that. But then I see the dog is kind of over the top. Toys these day sure make our stuff look tame. LOL

Off to a Spurs game. Go Spurs!

Fall Along the Guadalupe River

We love to drive along the river, especially next to the golf course at Max Starcke Park. My eyes were so drawn to the colors and I would have walked along except for my fear of allergies. LOL. It's no fun to have to think about pains such as that when the view is so wonderful. We've been staying out of the great outdoors until Cedar Fever season is way past. That stuff is so fun for sure!

Guava-Mango Pop Tarts in Seguin

Who would have thought it. Not only is there an exotic fruit flavor of Pop Tarts, but it's right here in our local HEB! HEB stands for H.E. Butt Grocery Store, a huge chain here in Texas. If you want, you can read a history of the store on their website.

So last week, Mark and I were cruising through the frozen foods section when I spied this unusual sight in the clearance carts. I like mango and I like guava but I don't know what to think about both flavors in a Pop Tart. I didn't try it. Has anyone out there tried it? I was just surprised to see it in little ol' Seguin. :)

Pecan Trees in Fall

In contrast to the recent big, blue skies, we did have some cool dark days here and there. On the day I shot this, it was a cool gray in a dozen shades. I really liked it. Though I can't capture it really in a photograph, the pecan trees looked crisp and oddly golden and alive against the sky. Speaking of trees, the leaves are falling and piling up nicely everywhere. My plan is to wait until all leaves are off before raking. If I rake now, they'll be back! And with some wind action, maybe there won't be much to worry about later. ;)

I'm off to do more online Christmas shopping. Yesterday Mark and I did THREE stores in 1.5 hours at the Quarry in SA and we were tired. LOL. I used to be quite the in-store shopper but not today. We had a good laugh about it and went on to Big Kahuna where we had some really wonderful Vietnamese food. If you want to see and read on that, visit my La China blog.

Golden Fall Color

This redbud is next to the red Crepe Myrtle from the previous post. If you look at both trees and they are aligned with one another so that you see a great mix of gold, green and red, it's just really breathtaking. I can see this mix when I see at our kitchen table because I have a direct line of sight out our front door. And when I see our fall colors, it makes me happy and very appreciative of the beauty around us in the world.

Some Signs of Fall

We don't get fall colors here in Seguin like I knew in North Carolina, but we do have a splash here and there this year. I love this red color of the crepe myrtle in our front yard.

Still trying to play with the camera and I'm really enjoying it immensely. I love the zoom (15x) and the Smart Feature. Most of the time, I turn it on and really just point and shoot. Literally. It handles almost all my settings just right. That firmware update also made all processing super fast. I love it.

Currently it's about 42F degrees, but feels like 34F. Nice. I love this cold weather. And the Spurs are ACTUALLY 20 points up on the Nuggets at halftime. Also nice, considering the way we've been playing lately. :)

I'm a lucky girl

Thanks for the picture Laurie! Now I know how you guys must feel with me pointing a camera at you all the time! :)

There I am with a flat at work. These very nice CMC men came by to provide assistance by putting air in my tire so I could drive it to a shop, though my good buddy Tod did offer to change it for me and Mark even said he'd come to the mill to change it. Gosh, so many options! It all made me really appreciate my husband and my friends. Thank you for makiing me laugh about it all! It was the most stress-free flat I've ever had. Mark even headed over to Lippe Tires to make sure they knew I was swinging by there so they stayed opened and fixed me up in about ten minutes!

By the way, if you have never been to Lippe, I highly recommend them. Their staff and service have been great over the years for us and the pricing on tires are pretty good also.