Basketball has arrived!!

Basketball season is here! In San Antonio lots of people get super excited to cheer our Spurs on! They didn't do so well against New Orleans. We lost by 7 points. A loss hurts no matter what.. but when the loss is by single digit points it seems more painful. I could NEVER, EVER do what they do physically, which is why I don't bash them but I can imagine they were not so happy to lose by such a small margin. And at halftime you could see Pop was none to thrilled with their progress as well.

Now Dallas Mavericks is a bad word here in S.A. I know I know. Everyone HATES Mark Cuban and to be honest... I don't really blame him, but it's his antics and childish behavior that makes watching him interesting. I love, love, love when the Mavericks go up against the Spurs because there is always some exchange of words or challenges between him and Pop. As much as I love the Spurs, whether they are winning or not, I must admit I am also VERY fond of the Mavericks.... Why you may ask? Because of this man right here... Dirk Nowitzki...

Let me in on our story. Yes, "our" as in mine and Dirk's.... Papa Bear and I were leaving Dallas and I needed to go potty of course. We passed on exit and he promised to stop at the next. We pulled in to the station and this beautiful huge BMW pulls up beside us. I unbuckle, get my stuff together and open my door to go in. Well the driver of the BMW opens his too and sprints up to the door to open it for me. I turned to say "Thank you" and had to look up, up, up... Yes my friends it was none other than the SUPER BEAUTIFUL Dirk Nowitzki, all 7 ft of him. And from that moment on I have had a fondness for Dirk. He didn't have to be such a gentleman and it was a small gesture but he made the effort and those small gestures are almost lost in this crazy, busy and often rude world.

This isn't my only encounter with one of the players. Mike Brown used to be an assistant coach for the Spurs. His boys were a couple of years older than Sierra but they went to the same school. One morning Papa Bear was being less than stellar and wouldn't take CC to school, even though it was raining and I was running late to work. So here I am dressed and in heels walking her in to the school when I go and fall down on the sidewalk. Mike Brown was behind me, picked me up and asked me if I was ok. Horrified was more the word. I told him yes and thanked him. Again, a wonderful gentlemanly gesture of manners that has made me follow his career even know as he is with the Cleveland Caveliers.

Former Spur Bruce Bowen shops at my Costco. Once I saw him buying huge cases of plastic plates and cups and napkins. It was right before the playoff last year. Everyone was nice to him, no one bothered him for an autograph and he drives a regular truck. Nice, nice man! His wife also owns a fabulous spa salon not too far from my house.

Here is Tim Duncan and Antonio Daniels. I remember one evening I was tired and Papa Bear wanted me to go to the gas station for lotto tickets before it got too late. I didn't feel like it. I just wanted to take off my work clothes and relax. I ended up going anyway. What pulled up beside me? A yellow Ferrari... and who was behind the wheel? Antonio Daniels! He was with a friend and purchased milk and bread. He came over to the car and autographed my "Selena" cd. It was all I had with me. He was very kind and respectful! I have liked him ever since.

Fabricio Oberto was once with the Spurs. He, like Ginobili, is from Argentina. Now I haven't met him personally but I have seen him on numerous occasions at this Italian restaurant at La Cantera that all the Spurs seem to generate to. Papa Bear has fixed his wife's jewelry on a few occasions and made a mother's day charm for him. It was kinda cool to see him waiting at the restaurant for Emil to bring his jewelry to the store.

Again, I have never met Manu Ginobili, almost wrecked into his red Ferrari once. Or shall I say he almost wrecked into me. He was pulling out of CVS pretty fast. But we ofter see him at La Cantera in his red sports car jamming out to music.

I could really care less about one of this half but oh well. We see Tony Parker quite often, well at least once a month driving his Bentley from Eva Longoria's parents house. They live down the street from us in a beautiful community. I haven't seen her but a few times when I've stopped at my Target the cashier will tell me Eva was just here. She bought pillows. Ok... I really don't care. I just don't like her that much. She could be super nice and charitable but I'm just not that fond of her. I think what made me not like her too much was when the Spurs won the championship and she was on camera with Tony singing "We are the Champions" in French. Then it's her story about how they met, she has said that she was asked if she and her father wanted to go meet the players after a game and she said "yes", then she said her friend who is a sportscaster here asked her if there was one player she wanted to meet and she said "Tony." I believe that one. THEN... for me the icing on the cake was when she changed her name to Eva Longoria-Parker. She said she didn't like adding and hyphenating Tony's name because it made her feel old. Well, I think she had to make that decision to change her last name. If she didn't like it, why did she do it?

Well, that's about it. The Mavericks play the Clipper tonight and the Spurs play.... ummm.. I need to find out. But either way that is what I will be watching tonight. Emil knows that he has to watch TV in one of the girls rooms when basketball is on, or at least when the Mavericks are on. Boxing is really the only sport we watch together besides Spurs games.

Do you like sports? What is your favorite team/sport/player?

It's the Weekend!!!

This week has been another hectic one. And once again, I am glad to have the weekend here, if for no other reason than to clean!
Monday night Mom got really sick. She called me a little after 10 and told me she couldn't stop throwing up and she felt like she was going to pass out. She kept telling me she didn't want us to come, just talk to her on the phone. About 10:45 p.m. she said we better come. So here I am in my pj's getting Emil, who had just taken his Tyelnol PM out of bed and to the car to Mom. When we got there it didn't look good. She was out of it, vomitting, weak. I called 911 a bit after 11 and do you know when they got there Mom STILL didn't want to go?!?! They finally got her on the stretcher and close to midnight she was at the new hospital close to my house. I took Emil home and stayed with her til 3a.m. There was really no point to stay longer because again she was in and out and not really able to focus or carry on a conversation. AND... I had gone in to work at 6 Monday morning so with getting up at 4:30 a.m. I was close to being up for 24 hours straight. God drove me home because I was so super tired!
Mom was diagnosed with pancreatitis. (sp?) She came home Tuesday night. The hospital switched her primary care doctor and I am so thankful they did. The one she had did nothing for her. He told her he could only see her 15 mins a visit and only for one symptom. If she had mutliple concerns she would need to make appointments for each one!
My back got better but then my knee got bad. I think all the cold weather has been aggravating my arthritis. Gosh, I sound old don't I? HA! This at 31.... what will I be blogging in 10 years? I wore a brace on my knee yesterday. It's fine this morning, just a bit stiff.
And today is Halloween. I plan to do NOTHING today except fold clothes, wash clothes, get Lena to clean her room.. FINALLY!! I also plan to stay in my comfortable pj's, drinking coffee and watching scary movies all day. In fact, I had this planned so long that last night I went to Target and bought breakfast sausage and more bread so Papa Bear can make his French Toast and sausage patties! I am taking the day off! Well he just informed me I am doing the breakfast cooking this morning. Hmmmm...... whatever!
And I am taking the girls to go see Michael Jackson's movie "This Is It" today. Have you seen it?

Halloweens Past

Halloween is just around the corner. Where did the year go so fast? It seems like I was just putting my tree up and in a few weeks I will be taking it back down! KellysKorner is hosting Show Us How You Live Halloween costumes. Last year my girls decided not to celebrate Halloween by dressing up and trick-or-treating. They did the research and together they decided against it. And that's fine with me. I can't argue an educated decision. This year they are forgoing it as well. BUT that doesn't stop them from going to Haunted Houses and watching Halloween movies! LOL!

So these are their costumes from a couple of years ago. I look at them now and my babies seemed so young. I still can't believe my husband allowed Sierra to dress like french maid! He wouldn't even allow her to wear lip gloss but she can dress like that?
Lena, Sierra and our neighbor Lauren (in white)
The girls again. I love the look on Lena's face.

Lena-poo posing!

Now it's CC's turn.... she doesn't look 11 does she? (She's wearing MY fishnets and MY heels!)

The girls with voodoo daddy!

The three musketeers. CC and Lauren used to be best friends. The past year or so they just quit talking to each other. Each girl blames the other and I never found out what really happened. I've heard that friends come and go in your life and they serve a purpose while they are there. I wonder what Lauren's friendship with Sierra taught her.

I used to call Lauren (in the middle) my other daughter. She was with us ALL the time. She didn't have a stable home life, it's really very sad. She would call me "Mom" as well.

I LOVE this picture!

CC... she wanted her face painted like the girls on Marilyn Manson's "Mobscene" video. This was the best I could do given the limited amount of face paint I had. She's supposed to look like half skeleton.

Lena was a gothic princess. I think her face paint looks more like a vampire. She wanted to be the Corpse Bride but we couldn't find an old wedding dress to dye in time.

One more pose from Lena.

And Sierra bowing out!

I don't know why, but Halloween is my favorite holiday! I love to drive around and look at

everyone's decorations! Do you dress up to hand out candy? Does your family stick with a theme or each do your own thing? Don't forget to stop by Kelly's and see everyone else's Halloween costumes!

Show and Tell Friday - Bohemian Vase

Cindy is hosting another week of Show and Tell and I have decided to show my bohemian vase. My cousin-in-law's mother had a boutique in Los Angeles selling these. One year when we went to visit them in Vegas her mother, Suzanne, gave me this as a gift. She has whole tea sets, vases, pitchers, you name it. I picked this cobalt blue vase. I love the cobalt blue. She also had red, green, and this blue. This particular one stands about ten inches high and is about eight inches in diameter.
I keep this baby put up... way up... because it is super expensive (this one around $500) and I don't have a china cabinet or curio yet. So for now... this is it!
Here we go....
It's home for now....
Lid off... turned upside down..
You ready for the rest?

My beautful blue baby!!

This bohemian vase has 24K gold overlay and floral detail...

A close-up...

It's so delicate and elegant. All the details are handpainted!

Inside...

Another full view. The white background makes it more visible.

I love this vase.. or bowl... I love this piece!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog to see my show and tell. I always look forward to posting and seeing everyone else's show and tell. Don't forget to stop by here and see what everyone else is showing!

Girls Night In Karaoke Party

Remember I told you that I kinda went crazy giving the girls homework? I usually try to get it to where they do 3-4 hrs a day but Lena has been finishing it in under an hour. So, this past week I tried to give them more to keep them more focused on homework and not the computer. Well.... Lena had been falling behind on turning her homework in. When I got home from work Friday afternoon I told her she had to take a shower, do homework for one full hour and then clean her room. She took her shower and stormed off to her room. It was waaaaayyyyyy to quite so I opened her door and found this....

She was knocked out cold!

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Today Mom called and asked me if I wanted to meet her at Barnes and Noble. I hadn't seen her in a few days, so I got Lena ready and we went. I also snuck in Bath and Body Works. They had their lip glosses buy 2 get 1 free. I bought Frozen Blackberry, Whipped Vanilla and Plucked Grape. For my b-day this year a co-worker gave me a gift card to BBW. I finally used it and after buying their new lotion, Twillight Woods, and my three glosses I only had to pay $6.44! Not bad!!
So after BBW, we walked over to B&N to meet Mom. I ordered us a venti Pumpkin Spice Frappicino. Oh was it wonderful!
Of course I had my camera with me. Since I started blogging more regularly I seem to carry it with me all the time. And I love Barnes and Noble... so why not take a photo or two in there?

Or three? Or the many, many more that just didn't make the cut. Of course we waited until other customers weren't around! LOL!

My back is STILL hurting me. I was supposed to go to the Going Away Karaoke Party at Lisa's house. I didn't really feel like going but decided just for an hour or so. The party was for Theresa who is leaving San Antonio and moving to California. She works with Lisa at the hotel. Theresa is so sweet and funny. It was wonderful getting to know her.

Here she is singing "All My Exes Live In Texas" with Lorena, another of their hotel co-workers.

This was our table of snacks. Everything was sooooo good. But it always is when we go to Lisa's house.

Jakob singing "Bad" and doing his tooooo funny Michael Jackson impersonation. And for the record, he loved MJ before the accident happened. I can't stand people who didn't like MJ and called him names and made fun of him before the accident but now that he's not here anymore they are his biggest fan!

Lisa and LaTricia. LaTricia is just the nicest, funniest person you will ever meet. She used to work with them at the Gunter Hotel too. And if any of you are familiar with that hotel and it's history, yes, even as recently as a week ago a guest had to move from her room because the ghosts were bothering her!

Lisa and I tried to get a good picture of us but Jakob slid into the picture and Jenny couldn't figure out how to press the shutter.

But after many, many, many tries she finally got it and we finally got it!

I was planning to go around 7 and leave about 9. But we had 6 bottles of wine and all those good snacks. I didn't leave until 2!!! However... if you look closely at the last picture of me and Lisa you can see she is still drinking... and me... I am having instant Starbucks VIA coffee. If you haven't tried it you need to. Oh Man! It is good!!!!

I am so loving this cooler weather. I am so happy to be wearing and shopping for heavier shirts and sweaters! I love ordering my pumpkin coffee and feeling the chill in the air! I love that soon I will be lighting my fireplace and watching the flames dance! I love making soup, especially the Russian Borscht!! That is truly the best!!!

What do you like best about fall? And how is your weekend going so far?

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!

Thank goodness this week is FINALLY over!! It seems like it just dragged on forever. I don't think I can remember ever being so thankful for Friday to get here!!!
It started with Sunday..the day I always prepare the girls homework. I bought a membership at a edhelper.com. I went a little print-happy and the girls walked away with almost a book of homework. If you homeschool, this website is WONDERFUL!! What usually takes me about three hours to do (their homework schedule) took me 8 hours!! That's right .... 8 hours!!! I was EXHAUSTED!!!!
Then this week was just super busy, helping the girls with their homework, finding Sierra's required reading, groceries and more groceries, then back for the one or two things I keep forgetting. Misplaced the keys more times than I would like to admit.
Luigi fell in love and he's keeping us ALL awake. His whining/crying/calling...whatever it is still hasn't stopped. We had super heavy rains and found out our back door is leaking...thanks to Luigi.
Work has been non-stop. Thank the Lord I am part-time at 32 hours weekly. The FT employees put in 50 hrs this week. But it's still stressful none-the-less. Everyones negative attitudes can definately damper your spirits even when you're trying to be cheerful or at least optimistic!
Wednesday I had two appointments after my work with Emil's company. So even though I was off at 12 I didn't make it home until almost 6!
I woke up early Thursday so I could take my time driving in the rain. Since I had just washed my hair and had to dry it I thought I'd go ahead and put some products in it and style it somewhat. Well, smart April was in such a rush that I pulled a back muscle and have been in pretty much pain ever since then. I slept on the heating pad last night and pumping myself with Motrin is all that helps. I don't want to go to the doctor because I don't want muscle relaxers. I'd rather stretch it out. And after all that..... the rain made my hair fall anyway. HA!
So now Friday is here. I came home to a nice sized hairball on my bedroom floor and another on my side of the bed. Thank you Charlie. I love you too baby!
Tomorrow I am supposed to go to a karaoke party. Only because I have to bring the karaoke machine. I don't think my back will feel good enough for me to go. Sunday is another birthday party. Plus about four loads of laundry, mopping, cooking.... oh goodness!
There is absolutely NOTHING a good cup of coffee can't fix. I am going to get me one now. I will sit here and do nothing except look at all the wonderful entries on Kelly's Show Us Your Life Fall Decorations (only to remind myself of all the things I could have decorated but didn't) and also Cindy's Show and Tell because everyone's things on there are just so pretty and I really enjoy looking at each and every post!
So, there was my week and I guess my weekend in a nutshell...or a blog post. How has your week been? Anything planned for the weekend? And...if you're reading this... what is your favorite way to have your coffee? I'm just curious.

Show Us Your LIfe - Fall Decorations

I love fall and I love decorating for it. However.... my husband doesn't see the point in it...so..... I don't get to do too much. I had been wanting to redo my mantle for quite a while so I went to Michaels and came back with the following.
I will start off with the befores....
The mantle was just a hodge-podge mixture of Russian nesting dolls, Russian eggs and a porcelian Russian doll, drawings from my girls, gift cards (the only place I couldn't lose them) and even coins and batteries! LOL! Something needed to be done!

The "before" view from the right side.

The "before" view looking from the left side.

My mother in law bought me these candle holders. I love them!

I bought these hurricanes many years ago and knew I would use them eventually. I think they go very well here.

The right side. Do you see the hidden pumpkin?

The centerpiece was actually a little wreath. I pulled the natural leaves and stems through and then added a floral centerpiece through the middle.

The lace is actually a real shimmery brown. It matches perfect! And of course a pinecone! The finished product. Do you think it still needs something?

My floral fall arrangement.

The colors in my living room are mostly espresso, gold and creme. I wanted to add a punch of color...enter the maroon sunflower.

I love pinecones and I love hiding them in all my arrangements.

The friendly witch next to the tree. The one on the porch fell over.

Scarecrow family and a cute lighted pumpkin.

These decorations were taking while walking around our neighbor hood. It's been pouring rain here and I haven't been able to go outside and take a decent picture of our outdoor decor. This weekend is looking to be nice so hopefully I can get that posted soon.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. Don't forget to stop by here and here to see more of everyones lovely decorations! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!