Souvenir Saturday - Texifornia Tee

I like to search for funny and interesting "stuff" related to Texas and California. This week I found a particularly Texifornian T-shirts at Zazzle.

TEXIFORNIApopulation: 1 by dustinvs

LIKE IT! Though I might argue that Texifornia has a lot larger population than one!

I'm gonna try to do this "Souvenir Saturday" every week. Originally was going to make it T-Shirt Tuesday, but that just excludes entirely too much good stuff (like bumper stickers and postcards and strange little figurines). Should be fun!

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A White Texas Christmas!

God blessed us with a White Christmas this year. Snow during the holidays was not uncommon back in the mountains of California where I spent my high school years, but this has been my first white Christmas since coming to Texas over 10 years ago! We were spending the holidays with family in Fort Worth. The snow started falling mid morning on Christmas Eve and kept coming down all day. The wind made it hard to stay out for too long, but we still made a few ventures out and had a good snowball fight. It stopped snowing that night but the snow was still there Christmas morning. The sun came out and melted the places where the wind had swept most of the snow away, but where it had drifted up it stayed. The day was glorious...warm enough to go out and play but cold enough to let us enjoy the snow all that day.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Though much of the snow gradually melted, there was still patches left when more snow started falling yesterday. This snow falled slow and thick...coming straight down without any wind. Most was gone this morning, but it was wonderful while it lasted. All of it is gone now, except a little mound where my son's snow-man was yesterday, but this was the longest, deepest snow I've ever seen here. What a wonderful Christmas!

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What's Hot and What's Not Wednessday

It's time again for What's Hot and What's Not Wednessday...that great little meme hosted by Loobylu.

Here we go...

HOT
A mid-day snow flurry in Texas, in December! Here in Waco it melted nearly as soon as it hit the ground, though the flakes were big and beautiful. Up in Dallas I heard it stuck for a little while! (Hey, if it snowed in your area too...leave a comment and let us know how much snow you got! I'd love to hear!)

NOT
Seasonal colds and fussy babies.

HOT
These alternative Santa T-shirts designs from A Christmas Trail! Love em, love em love em...


A very Texas Santa (though wait...Sun Glasses? He might just be a Texifornian!)...

Santa's Other Gig by achristmastrail
Browse more Santa's other gig T-Shirts

And a Californian Kris Kringle...

Surf'n Santa by achristmastrail
More Surf'n santa T-Shirts

So fun!

What's Hot & What's Not Wednesday

It's time for Hot and Not Wednessday - I missed it last week, so this covers two weeks of what's hot and what's not.

NOT
Seasonal colds.

ACTUALLY, SURPRISINGLY HOT
Thanksgiving plans that fell through, then fell together in ways I couldn't have expected.

HOT
My son's excitement over making pumpkin pie.

NOT
That in spite of being all excited about making it, he didn't much care for eating it. My middle child wouldn't even try it...and my husband can't eat it because of food allergies.

HOT
Getting to eat nearly a whole pumpkin pie myself, shared only with my 1 year old (the only one of the boys who couldn't get enough of the pie).

NOT
People mis-using the Bible and putting it on an T-shirt so others can do it too.

HOT ('cause it's not)
It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, even here in Texas!


If you would like to take part in What's Hot and What's Not Wednesday, head over to Loobylu's Mr. Linky and join in!

What's Hot - What's Not

Its time for my second What's Hot/What's Not Hot Wednesday ...thanks to Lubylu for getting me to post a post a week here!

OK, so here's whats HOT and NOT this week!

NOT
Whatever it was that had lunch on my feet and ankles when I dared walk barefoot through the Texas grass (what was I thinking...this is Texas for heaven's sake!) and the mosquitos which chomped all over my forehead while I tried to get to sleep.

HOT
Chiggerex Plus--the stuff that made my feet feel better when after itching woke me up in the middle of the night.

NOT
Realizing that I've grown to be such a cold wimp. Used to wear shorts and sorrels in the snow up in the California mountains, and now I'm feeling frrrrozen at 68 degrees! Sheesh!

HOT
Plans for a laid back Thanksgiving with my mom....without "all the fixens" (sometimes simple is better).

Prayers for Fort Hood

I just read the text of the speech Obama made Tuesday honoring the 13 people killed in the recent Fort Hood shooting. He named each of their names and told their stories, and I was saddened and moved as I read; Moved by the lives that they lived, saddened by the breadth of the loss. For those who pray, I encourage you to read this speech, praying for the families of each person named as you read...and for the Fort Hood community and the wounded still recovering.

I'd also like to share something a woman I knew shared with me shortly after the 9/11 tragedy. I was reminded of it as I wrote this today. The following is her words:

Trying to explain today's tragedies to my 6 year old son, I said, "Jonah, we need to pray to Jesus, because bad people have crashed airplanes into big buildings, and lots of people have had one of their family members die today."

Jonah said, "O.k. Mommy" and he folded his hands, then on his own initiative, he began to pray outloud. He prayed a prayer that both surprised me and humbled me.

Jonah said, "Dear Jesus, show those bad men your goodness. Blast the devil from their hearts Jesus, and blast it full of your goodness."

I was shocked. I had not asked Jonah to pray for the "bad men", in fact, it had not even crossed my mind to pray for the terrorists behind these awful events.

Just a few weeks ago in Children's Church, Jonah's memory verse had been "Love your enemy". Jonah had been very impressed by this particular verse, because he talked about it with me and his Daddy, and his prayer today proved that he took that verse to heart.

Today God used my son to show me that we are truly to be "as little children", and to put our trust in Him, our Father. In such a fearful time, He is the only one we can turn to who can bring comfort and healing to our hearts, and to the hearts of those grieving.

Only God can bring change to a heart, and God desires that we pray for all who have been effected by todays tragedies, the innocent hearts, as well as the guilty hearts.

With this in mind, remembering Jesus' call to love our enemies and pray for those persecute us, I believe that God would also want us to also pray for the shooter who caused the Fort Hood tragedy, Nidal Malik Hasan.

What's Hot - What's Not Hot

Decided to join in on a meme I stumbled on: What's Hot/What's Not Hot Wednesdays (even though technically it's not Wednessday anymore.)

HOT

A trip to Austin with no kids...first trip we've taken without any children since our oldest was born. And might I mention that Austin is the most un-Texan city I've been too. It's sort of like the artsier places in California...without as much of the Hollywood fake glam.

HOT

My husband, for various reasons!

HOT

My in-laws for taking the kids. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

HOT

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. It's GORGEOUS! Check out the picture my husband took below.




HOT

Stumbling on the same little Mexican restaurant we had eaten at but forgotten the name of during our last trip to Austin (Curras Grill), and feasting on unique food the kids would have turned their nose up at.

NOT

The parking at Curras. They really need more parking...though I suppose it does keep the place from getting overcrowded.

HOT

Google maps on I-phone. Saved us from much mis-direction, traffic jams, and other frustration.

HOT BECAUSE IT'S NOT HOT

The weather! It's been wonderfully NOT HOT and NOT COLD! It's been gorgeous!

NOT

My living room, bedroom, bathroom, etc. They're a disaster. No, you can not see pictures.

NOT

The quantity of posts on this blog...sorry I've been slacking here. It's because I've been not slacking other places. Check out my Art Blog (and yeah...I did the hot/not hot meme there too, with a few changes).