Random photos and thoughts

This is a typical meal at my mom's:

We drank sparking wine and dined on its savoury goodness while watching/laughing hysterically at I'm Fluffy. He is that Mexican stand up guy on Netflix. 

We also went to County Line for lunch.  This restaurant is the epidomy of Texas. It's BBQ and the portions are outrageous. My mom and I order the appetizer size of baby back ribs. It's a half rack! Paul's ribs are usually the width of his shoulders, very flinstone-ish. Andrews apple juice was the same size as my pint of Shiner:

Texans are so friendly and I've lost my comfortability with small talk with strangers. I keep thinking they want to sell me something. They're not though, they actually just want to chat about how you can get a free ice cream cone if you return the kids meal toy at chick-fil-a. 

99 cent only stores:

There's something about the cheap, repetitive, excessive image of the candles that appealed to me. 99 cent Jesus. 

I saw this tonight. A kid let go of his balloon. 

I liked this display. It was at a midway game. 

I wanted to write something but I don't know if the person who I want to talk about reads this. To be vague, something is making me sad. It's unraveling before my eyes an if things stay the same, it'll never be repaired. I guess sometimes there's nothing you can do. Seasons I guess. 

Beach tomorrow. Very excited. 

Summer reading list: part one

Let me first say, twitter is a swimming way to contact authors. I give a shout out to the book and the author thanks me (hook and bait, suckers) and I get gratification (they heard me! I'm a somebody!)

I started off my reading with this treasure:

It's so great because I love reading about the 80s, or highschool in the 80s. It's why I fell in love with Freaks and Geeks and why I use quotations from The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day off in my everyday life. This memoir leads you back in time and plugs you into the music of a good era. 

Second book was:

I saw this on the wall at Chapters and I thought, who is Isaiah? This book is all modern and traditional at the same time. Mysterious and amusing. This guy works the midnight shift at a 24 hour bookstore and he stumbles upon some peculiar goings on at the store. People come and pick up odd books and he realizes these books are all encrypted so he tries to figure out the puzzle. It's so clever. It uses social media, Google, and old secret societies. It lulled for few chapters but then hooked me back in. 

I'm a fan of this next guy:

I've read all his books and each one has grown my faith, or at least led to some very serious and challenging discussions. I had high hopes for this one but it fell completely flat. It was boring. Nothing new came it of it and Bell definitely narrowed his audience with this one. I think you have to be a philosophy person who likes to go around questioning the existence of things, or an existentialist that doesn't even think things exist or exist in so many layers that it blows your mind, Man. Not my favourite. 

This next one, I DIDN'T finish. Good gracious!!

It was too strange! It's a book of short stories. I found this book on the short list for the Giller prize. The first story was about a girl who has an issue with eating. When I say issue, I mean she ate clay, dirt and terra cotta planters. Maybe I'll check out the other stories but that's just not my cup of tea...or mud. 

Now to my current read:

I'm half through it. It's not as funny as I thought it would be but it's entertaining enough to keep swiping the pages. Yup, this one is an ebook. 

Resort

Every time we come to Texas we usually come down to Galveston. It's an island. It has had 3 hurricanes smash throughout. Each time they lose historical piers. The last one took out the last one so they rebuild it and put an amusement park on it and called it Pleasure Pier. Frankly I think it's the worst name. This being said, I also saw a restaurant called Twin Peaks. The food is as good as the view. I guess it's like hooters. Now that's clever. 

I got dehydrated yesterday. It's rather foolish since it can all be avoided by drinking water. I remember to push fluids on my kids, but not me. So I feel achy, nauseous and have no energy. This is the antithesis to motherhood. I somehow managed to muster up strength to go to the water park with them. It takes a lot of mental power to enter a crowded pool where you have you have about a square foot of space all because your kid wants to jump in the waves. I avoid looking at the water because it's full of gross people things. 

I ended up finding a lost child and I tried to help her find her mom but she ended up yelling at me to go away. What mom doesn't know their child is missing? I just shadowed her and she seemed to find some people she knew and they took over. 

Can I also say that Texas is the best place to wear a two piece bathing suit. If you have body issues, you can guarantee that there are at least 8 out of every 10 women who are bigger than you. 

What year is this?

I'm usually surprised by something in Texas and today it was the library. First, they way they organize books is horrible for visual people. It's all on shelves. You any see the covers and since this is how I pick all children's books, it was annoying. Second, they did the same for DVDs and covered the spine with a horrible coding system. They also mixed all genres. They kicker was when I watched the librarian check out the books. She kept flipping the front cover open an sticking a card in the archaic pocket that all books, pre-1980 have. She's putting the return dates into the book! Oh my goodness! Someone hand stamps these every day? What century am I in?

So the art of redundancy is not lost after all. 

The flight out was alright. My two year old was too excited to also and was awake the entire flight, pressing any button available and watching 2 minutes of each kid cartoon available in the inflight entertainment. She didn't sleep until 1am. What a nut!

Oh an another thing about this backwards first world country. You know they don't recycle, at all? Wine bottles are thrown in the garbage! It killed me today to pull an egg from a styrofoam egg carton. There is so much styrofoam. I'm not a big environmentalist but I think you should at least try. 

I'll do that, thank you very much

Man! This kid of mine is making me self reflect way too much. I have an issue with control. I like it, because it makes me feel safe to manipulate the environment around me. I don't like surprises, change or conflict. Hey, guess who has inherited this destructive quality? A four year old. He was born with it. How on earth do I teach him tht he can't control his environment when it's the very thing I strive to do daily? It is a constant battle with him. The type of socks he wears, how they go on his feet and how they settle around his toes. If it is at all slightly off, a huge tsunami of tears and frustration, anger and stomping will ensue. 

Last week I raised the volume on a song in the car, which evidently he didn't want to hear and he screamed all the way home. 

Now, I see this as a direct reflection of my inadequate parenting. I give him to much choice so he thinks he can manipulate every situation. I do to much for him. I don't give him enough opportunities to be independent. I am not tough enough. I am not consistent enough. His bad behaviour is a direct reflection of my failures and weakness. 

Healthy view? Certainly not. Manipulating the problem so that it is somehow something I can control because I love control? Yes. 

I do not let paul discipline the kids. You know why? Control. It's my job. I know how to do it. He should do it my way. Every time he tries I undermine him, interrupt, critique, or sabatoge. You know why? Control. If he does it better than me, then I'm a failure. 

So in our discussion tonight, after a doozy of a four year old temper tantrum where I tried to control everything involved, I decided (I, I, I) that I will now take cues from paul. My way is not working. I have to yield. I have to try and work with Paul and I have to let go and encourage him to grow in the area and also support that relationship between him and the kids. It's so hard for me to bite my tongue but if we want our kids to be independent, active members of society who vote for each level of government and know how to put on their own shoes, let alone sort recycling then I have to let go. Ughhh. Let go. 

Book it

I have a pain in my toe. It's like a numb area that spiders out tingles. Sometimes it aches. I told my supportive husband about it and he said:

You have the gout. 

What are we in, the 18th century? Wealthy people who ate rich foods would get the gout. Do note the added "the". It's so much more dramatic. So it's not gout but maybe it's another embarrassing old person issue like a bunion or corn? That's disgusting. 

I have kid stories that make me laugh by if I were to retell them, you'd skip over this paragraph. However, this is my blog. They've both started air guitar when music comes but they don't get the "air" part. They rub their chests on the diagonal and make a scrunched up face. I have many videos of it. Elsie does air mic as well but it looks as if she's trying to eat her fist. 

I have set up my reading list for the summer. I'm hoping ebook borrowers from the library be swift. Here is my list:

What we talk about when we talk about God- rob bell.    

Radio belly -    Buffy cram     

Pulphead Essays - John Jeremiah Sullivan 

Lets explore diabetes with owls - Dave sedaris

I have completed

1982 - jian ghomeshi

Mr. Penumbra's 24- hour Book Store - Robin Sloan

They were both great. I recommend both. 

 

Ramblings: about me

I reread my blogs. I continually check out my Instagram pictures. I reread status updates and twitter posts. I tend to think I am the best thing since sliced bread. 

False. Completely insecure and need to check if someone has commented, liked, retweeted or shared something I have thrown out into void of social media. 

It makes me laugh when people use "the" in front of Facebook and twitter. It brings me great joy when they use it before a pluralized Internet as well. 

I have to go back in 3 months for another breast ultra sound. They have a classification system for cysts and fibroids and I'm at a 3 which is "probably benine but dr. wants to track it. I'm not worried. 

I need to get clothes that are boho chic because I have decided this is the image I need to portray to the world. Anthropologie carries this image for a hefty price tag. Have contemplated hoofing it to VV and aiming lower to just boho. 

Chic is quite over rated though, no? Everything is chic these days.