English Wonders

( F21 shorts, Kohls top, Target sandals and bracelet )

My cousins from England have been having a great time while visiting America, but it's weird for me to be a tourist in a city I spend almost every day. They've been taking pictures of things I see to be mundane, yet to them, they've never seen anything like it. For example, yesterday we went to Walmart to pick up a couple things, and they said, "Take a picture of us!" In my mind I think, why on Earth would you want a picture in front of a Walmart... granted they have great low prices, but really? ... Then I remembered they don't have Walmarts in England, but they know what they are due to news, television, and movies (I'm guessing). My cousin Matthew even wanted a picture with a box of Lucky Charms cereal. I told him to next time go for the box of Frosted Flakes... they're much more photogenic.

So far I've taken them downtown to see the Alamo, the Riverwalk, and up to the Tower of Amreicas. One thing they noticed is how many drive-through places we have, and that they're not all McDonald's (which is the only one they have in England) haha. I want to take them to my city's theme park and maybe even take them to Austin to show them where I go to college. We all went and saw the Green Lantern last night which was pretty cool. I told them about the certain theaters we have that serve food during the movie (other than popcorn, hotdogs, nachos, etc) to which Matthew responded, "why is this country always eating?" ...ummm..... because it's good!





These pictures were taken on Father's Day, so of course I had to sneak a picture of my dad in here! Don't we look alike? Some people say I look like my mother, but I think that's just because they can't look past my hair and skin color (which matches my mother's exactly). With no makeup on and my hair pulled back, I look just like my father. We even used to have the same teeth! But in high school I got braces, so I didn't have a huge gap anymore. Trae said it best when he told me I'm like "a female sketch of my dad, but with my mom's coloring" haha he is so right. My dad is an amazing person, and I'm so grateful to have him in my life. I am my dad's one and only child, so it's nice not having to share him :) Love you, Dad.

xx

Home Sweet Home

F21 skirt and necklace
Old Navy tank
Steve Madden sandals
World Market scarf (worn as belt)
Urban Outfitters sunnies

Got back to San Antonio this afternoon; I'm glad to be back, but I already miss Washington DC! There's so much to do in that city. You would have to stay at least 2 weeks to fully see everything! Sigh. I'll be back for sure!

Next thing to look forward to: two of my cousins from England are coming to visit! I cannot waaaait! They have NEVER been to Texas, and one of them has never even been to the United States! Eeeeeeep! I definitely want to show them a fun time. In England, they are old enough to drink but coming here they will be under the age limit, ha! So no bars for them :P But I want to show them the beach, theme parks, downtown, shopping, etc... y'know the works! They are going to fry in this Texas heat haha.

Tomorrow I'll finally be getting my new bed frame & mattress delivered to the house we're moving into! Finallyyyyyyy. Ciao! :)

xx

These Wedges were Made for Walking

Target dress, cardigan, & sandals
F21 belt
Aldo sunnies
Necklace was a gift

Some girls were born in heels. I am not one of those girls! Sure, they're no problem to me for a short period of time. But if I know I'm going to be walking long distances, I make sure to wear comfortable shoes or even flats, but never heels. In DC I see girls walking around in heels everywhere and I'm like, "how do they do it??" I would be in constant pain. My feet and legs just couldn't bare it.

So, last night Trae and I went to Chinatown for dinner, and I decided to wear my black wedges (which were only $8, cha-ching!) against my better judgement. Of course, I brought my flip-flops in my purse in case I wussed out. But guess what? I never needed them after all! My wedges were comfortable the entire time; I couldn't believe it. That was a first time for me! I felt like a "big girl" haha.

How about you guys? Were any of you "born in heels"?

xx

Upgrade: Stripes & Floral

F21 skirt & belt
American Eagle top
Target sandals
Aldo sunnies
Agaci bag

I noticed you guys thought my last post was an outfit post, but I honestly didn't mean for it to be! I looked so frumpy haha but thank you for the kind words! This is how I really like to rock the floral and stripes combo although I wish I hadn't chosen a top with sleeves because D.C. is just so gosh darn hot! I was sweating up a storm! Sorry, too much?

Trae and I went to the Holocaust museum, and it was truly a heart-breaking experience but a memorable one nonetheless. If you ever site-see around Washington DC, it is definitely worth the visit. On Saturday we plan on going to the American History Museum which has Lincoln's famous top-hat, Dorthy's red slippers, Fonzie's (from the show "Happy Days") leather jacket, all the dresses the former First Ladies wore to the Inaugural Ball, and so much more! I can't wait!

xx

A Quick Hello

Greetings from Washington DC! We're having a blast!
Don't mind what I'm wearing, I only had a couple minutes to get ready so I just grabbed the closest things near me haha. And no make up too, blehhh! :P
Hope you all have a wonderful week!

xx

Market Square

Dress from unknown shop in England
F21 belt
DSW shoes
Necklace was a gift

Today was my dad's 49th birthday. He wanted to go downtown where the Market Square was to eat, shop around, and listen to some live music. If you can't tell, I get my looks (as well as personality) from my dad. He's a crazy fellow haha. It was so hot today though, even my sundress couldn't keep me cool. Days like today make me wish I had short hair! Still, I can't believe my dad is going to be 50 next year. I was telling him that I feel like he's been in his 40's all my life so to be another decade older is bizarre! Sigh. I wish my parents would stop getting older! It makes me sad for some reason.

Tomorrow Trae and I are off to Washington DC, so the posts for the next week are going to be minimal. But we're bringing the camera and his laptop, so I'll try to squeeze in as much as I can! I still haven't packed. I don't know what to bring! What if it rains all week while I'm there unexpectedly? Those unlucky situations tend to happen to me often. What are you guys doing for Memorial Day?

xx

A Dose of Optimism

I saw this uplifting message through a tweet that Little Chief Honeybee posted on Twitter, and it made me feel a little better after a long, stressful day. I just wanted to share it with you guys!

Today is my last day of school! I still have four finals so I won't technically be done until May 16th, but still, it's pretty nice to not have to wake my lazy bum up to go to classes! Until August, that is...
At the end of the month, Trae and I will be going to Washington D.C. to help work for my mom! This is the first time him and I will be traveling together to somewhere outside of Texas! So we're pretty stoked. I haven't been to D.C. since I was nine years old! I can't wait to check out the museums and visit good ol' Abe again. With all this talk of terrorists possibly attacking the U.S. for revenge, I hope nothing bad or crazy goes on while we're there! Yikes.

I'm going home to San Antonio tonight for Mother's Day weekend. I've packed the majority of my stuff from my room, so right now my room looks bleak and depressing without all of my pictures and decor on the walls. My parents are in the process of moving into a new house (to an even farther location, ugh), and I still haven't seen it so I'm gonna check it out tomorrow. From the pictures my mom sent me, it looks pretty sweet. I just hate driving so far! Bleh.

I finally get to see my new camera tonight when I see Trae, eeeep! This means my outfit posts can finally get started! Be excited. ;)

And be glad tomorrow is Friday! Whoop!

xx

Barak Obama and Egyptian Muslims Future

Well i do not see any future of Egypt now. What it seemed to be a peaceful country now seems like a dead one and soon a vanished one. We all muslims will always face such problems as we are not united. Barak Obama the president of USA wants Mubarak to fulfill his promise towards his nation. Well he is trying is level best and also Egypt aint that bad in Economy at the moment. But now i am sure its worse.

Egyptian muslims future is now at stake. I do not know about the others nations and races living there but muslims will surely suffer.

Like muslims in pakistan are suffering. Recently the killing of muslims(Pakistani) by American nationalists. If this was done in America i am sure that person would have been called a terrorist. Well UN exists then why still is'nt there peace.

Barak Obama needs to apply some good foreign policies for the muslim world. We all want peace but to have peace we need to stand united. And this can only happen if the powerful nations of the world like usa, china, uk, germany unite and help other third world countries.

Egyptian history is tortured now because of the riots taking place. The government is falling down. And as usual the muslim countries are doing nothing.

Read this as well: UFO Hoax

Two for One Kitten Drawings

Here is a drawing of Inky and an illustration of our lil' family road trip we took last week. We packed up the two boys (ok, three if you include Damon) and headed up to Sonoma for a week with Damon's mom and family. The kittens immediately took to "grandma's" house and had a blast on their mini-vacation!

Cross Country: THE INCIDENT AT EXIT 88 Pt 3

continued from part 2...

Ha! I totally left you on a cliffhanger, didn't I?

The Auto Place

We get inside, and get the belt. The lady behind the counter tells us the broken belt might be from a busted water pump, but they don't have that part and won't get it until Tuesday. Tom gets really angry at the lady and storms out. Damon and I are a bit taken aback, thinking... "wait, did he just.. leave us? And why is he so angry?" The lady too, is a bit taken aback, as to why this guy is so argumentative, and asks us ... "is he a friend of yours?" Sort of in that "do you need help?" type of way... We explain, no, not really, we broke down and he offered to help us, and he gave us a lift from Exit 88. She comments, wow, that's a long way to drive from.

Yeah. We know.

The Ride Back

Anyway, we decide to buy the belt by itself and take our chances with not having a spare water pump. Plus, we don't want this guy to be angry at us for driving 140 miles roundtrip to not buy anything. And get back in the car for the hour ride back to our van. Of course, it's dark by this point, and raining. Dark and rainy night. In a strange car. I so wish I was making this up.

We're driving down the freeway in relative silence. First, Tom barely puts the windshield wipers on, so the visibility is horrid (and remember, this windshield is cracked to hell). Second, the speed limit is 75 mph, so not only are we barely able to see, in the dark, in the rain, but we're going pretty fast. Now, Damon saw this (thankfully I did not), but at one point, Tom starts clutching the steering wheel really tight and starts making the sign of the cross on himself. WTF??? Maybe he was fighting the voices in his head.

At one point, Tom decides he's going to smoke. He gets out a cigarette, and starts fishing around for a lighter in his jacket pocket. So, at this point, both hands are off the steering wheel, he's not really looking at the road, and he's busy fishing around in his pockets. Like that scene in "Planes Trains and Automobiles" where John Candy is trying to get his jacket off. Meanwhile, I'm sitting horrified in the back seat trying not to panic, because remember, we're going 80 mph on a dark and rainy highway, with nobody steering the car or paying attention at the moment.

He finally finds his lighter, and starts smoking. The whole car is full of smoke, and Damon and I are desperately trying not to hack and cough in the haze... Tom realizes we're suffocating, and puts down his window. All the way. So now we're windblown with wet and cold air. good times.

Back at Exit 88

We finally get back to the motel, and tell Tom we're not going to try and replace the belt at this point of night, because it's like 10pm at this point, and we don't really want him messing around in our car's engine. He offers that we can stay in the motel for the night, to which we ever so politely turn him down. We ask if there's some way we can roll our van down to this little campground that we saw over by the rest stop, and he says, oh, my brother's girlfriend is watching that place because he's back in jail after breaking parole again. (!) but she'll charge you $40 to stay there. You can just stay here for free tonight.

We decide to stay in our van for the night, but Tom opens up one of the motel rooms so we can use the bathroom and plug in our electric hook-up. He then says "if you need me, I'm over in that house over that way- just ask for Tom" and disappears into the night. Quite frazzled, Damon and I try to set up the van for the night. Ten minutes later, Tom re-appears, and asks "hey, do you have any food?" We offer up what we have, and he takes a jar of peanuts, and bounds back into the darkness.

So, anyway, we go into the motel room to go use the sink and bathroom. And this motel room is so questionable- everything's a little long in the tooth, the bed covers have cigarette burns all over them, and there's this weird 70s wood panel art thing hanging on the wall that has a cougar attacking a deer. We go to turn the faucet on in the bathroom, and first the water comes out muddy and brown, then stops and goes "KA-CHUNK KA CHUNK ka chunk."  So obviously, the water's been turned off at some point.

The Morning After

Damon and I end up surviving the night (after seriously considering a. if we could take on Tom if need be, b. if Damon should sleep with a knife under his pillow, or c. if we should even pop the top of the camper (because it's canvas, vs hard-top). In the morning, it's drizzly and gray outside. We call the tow-truck and try to subtly pack up the van without attracting attention. Because we don' want Tom coming outside and getting angry at us for not wanting his help.

The tow truck finally arrives, and we're saved! Well, now we're worried whether or not we'll even be able to get the van up and running to make it the rest of the way home, because like we said, we weren't 100% is was just the belt that was broken. We get to the mechanic in Buffalo at 11:55am on a Saturday (they closed at noon), and mercy, they were angels. Totally took care of us and didn't rush us out the door.

The mechanics asked where we had spent the night, and we gave them a very brief "oh, that abandoned travel mart place on exit 88." They go... "oh, that place! That guy Ted owns it, but I thought he was in jail," to which we go, yes, yes he is, and his brother Tom is watching it for him. They totally know who we're talking about, and say "yeah, he's real squirrely. That whole family has had a lot of trouble with run-ins with the law and drugs."

So, it turns out it was just the belt that was broken, and they get us patched up and back on the road with assurances that the van should be fine for the rest of the trip. And so off towards Yellowstone we went!

Cross Country Day 6: Stuck in South Dakota

An evening in the Badlands! After setting up camp for the evening, we got hit with a crazy thunderstorm (the same one we saw ominously in the horizon the night before)... we seriously thought the van might tip over the gusts of wind were so strong! I convinced Damon to help me haul in my huge rubbermaid bin of My Little Ponies into the van in the middle of the night in our PJs in the storm... I was afraid of the top blowing off and my whole collection getting drowned!

Anyway, we woke up to a beautiful blue, clear sky, and when I peaked out the curtains to check the crack on our windshield, we saw that it had gotten WAY worse!!! : / We called our insurance, and got an appointment to get it replaced the next day. However, that gave us a whole extra day to explore Badlands and Rapid City.

While driving through the Badlands, we saw our only glimpse of wild Prarie Dogs. They were too adorable! I jumped out of my car and snapped some pics of them with my telephoto...

After the Badlands, we made our obligitory stop at Wall Drug, and got many a great photo goofing around in their sculpture garden. Ride'em Jackalope!

That evening, we drove out to see Crazy Horse (impressive!) and Mount Rushmore. We narrowly missed hitting two deer on the road; they sure give you a scare when they get that close to your car!!!

Another great site in the surrounding ticky tack of Rapid City was some place that had a collection of fiberglass busts of obviously their picks of "presidents who should be on Mt Rushmore": Kennedy (ok), Regan (eh, but I see why), and.... W BUSH? Seriously? Weirdest three pairings of "great" presidents ever.. unfort, we didn't get a pic since we were so in shock driving past it both times...

(also, I could not stop confusing "Rapid City" with saying "Park City.")

Cross Country Day Four: Wisconsin Chedder and Spam Museum

Our fourth day cross-country started out with rain, and we drove north up into Wisconsin and then headed west into Minnesota...

In Wisconsin, we saw that yes, they love their cheese! We saw a store advertising "Cheese, Fireworks and Gifts." I think that says it all right there. We also drove past Wisconsin Dells, which looked really neat- they have the largest concentration of waterparks anywhere in the world, plus some really beautiful natural scenery along a river.

After crossing the Mississippi, we made it into the long stretch of southern Minnesota. We went by where they make Spam and have the Spam museum, but alas it was too late in the evening to actually explore the inside! At least we got a photo with a giant Spam can. Ha!

Cross Country Day Three: Chicago and beyond

Early in the morning, Damon and I hiked down to the lakeshore to check out the scenery before heading out to Chicago. I got a little pocketful of sand to go with my sand/rock collection I have...

We then dropped the car off at a mechanic to have a check-up, and took the train into Chicago, where we had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern, walked around downtown some, went by the Bean and zipped by the Art Museum. Alas, again a case of not enough time; would love to return and give it a few days to explore!! (PS- I totally dug seeing the Bean in person- I had seen so many photos of it before!)

That evening, we picked up the car and made it an hour or so outside of Chicago to set up camp. We totally impulsed purchased some chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmellows, and had ourselves the incredibly healthy dinner of hot dogs and S'Mores  ; D