South Texas 101

I never expected to see so many differences from South Alabama to South Texas.  I have learned ALOT!!! And seen alot of differences. 

 

First of all you do not "grill out" in Texas you Barbecue!  Ok I have a problem with this one! I dont barbecue a hamgurger or hotdog Alabama folks "grill them!"  Barbecue is a sauce that you add to the meat to give it a seasoning!  ;)

 

Second, you do not take a shower in the morning (especially if you live in a camper).  You take it the night before to prevent all the sweat that will be rolling down your face and body and make it to where you need another bath after blowing drying your hair.  And forget flat irons!  Grab the pony tail holder and throw it up!  Its hot down here!

 

Third, forget the make up.  As soon as you walk outside the 15-20 minutes it took to put on the make up was simply a waste of time and make up.  Again, its hot down here!

 

Fourth, you will not find Dale's seasoning, red hotdogs, and grits.  Better love some hashbrowns and tater tots! 

 

Fifth, the beaches here are nothing compared to beautiful Flordia and Alabama's beaches!

For example:

Texas Beach

 

OR

Flordia's Beach!

 

I must say give me Flordia's White Sand anyday!!!

We even had a freind that is orginially from Texas say that you needed sunglasses to look at Flordia's sand!  hahaha!!

 

Sixth, County Roads in Alabama are 45mph.  Here in South Texas County Roads/Farm to Market Roads are 65-75mph depending on the county and roads.  Now that is one thing I like about Texas!  hahahah!

 

Seventh, WalMart in Alabama is still the same in Texas.  Not so socialable in the greeting dept, lack of customer service everywhere and still only 2 lanes of checkouts open with 47 lanes available.  When will they ever use all these check out lanes.  Hmmmm.....

 

Eighth, when people find out you are from Alabama they ask you to speak southern again and I have had several people sing Sweet Home Alabama!!  Hahaha!!  Sorry but I just could not bellow out God Bless Texas (and everyone knows I do love to sing me some songs)!

 

So with all these factors I must say.........I miss ALABAMA!!! 

Hahahaha!!  But on the bright side only 4 weeks to go!  ;)

And I leave you with this! 

 

 

 



Sea World in San Antonio

When we decided for us to come out to Texas for the Summer one place to visit was Sea World!!  Abigail had to miss tumbling camp and have a belated birthday party (in August we we get back home) we really wanted to make her 6th birthday really special.  So we loaded up the Birthday girl and head to Sea World for the day! 

 Wow!!!  6 years old!!!!

And my cheesing Anabeth!

 

We are about 2 1/2 hours away from Sea World and the drive wasnt too bad.  It was interstate all the way!!  And the sights of San Antonio was unbelievable.  Sorry No Pictures!  Had to help Dustin navigate!  :) 

We finally arrived at our destination! 

Now we can barely keep the girls calm and they kept screaming Sea World!!  But hey me and Dustin was just as excited as they were!  :)

 

Daddy with his Girls!

 Abigail waiting in line to ride a roller coaster!

 This was the only area that Anabeth could ride the rides.  But she had a blast seeing Elmo!

And of course Shamu!  Did I mention Anabeth only like seeing this characters from afar!  hahahaha!

 

And our 1st ride and only ride that we all got to ride together! 

Oh and special thanks to Southern Style for the shirts they made us!  They were a hit at Sea World.  Now if only Hanes would have got my order to me sooner Dustin would have matched in Lime Green!  :(  We were easy to spot!  All part of the plan!

Franklin!!!  Yeah Anabeth likes him on TV and from afar!  hahaha!

You can probably guess we were hot and its nap time for Anabeth!  But birthday girl is all smiles!  We were waiting for the Azul show!

Being Silly is what they do best! 

 

The aquarium was awesome!

Well it was about 8:30 when we took this picture and look how bright it is outside!  But this picture pretty much sums up our day!  A wonderful day with the family and 2 tired little girls! 

 

Sea World in San Antonio was AWESOME!!  We are ready to go back and plan to go to Orlando next! :)

 

And I really really wish I knew what was wrong with my videos not uploading.  I have some really cool videos of the killer whale Shamu and of course Elmo! 

 

Stay Tuned to for our Texas Adventures!



 

 

 

 

 

 



Texas Part 2

Well our first week in Texas wasnt too exciting.  And I do believe it was because we are all still getting adjusted and getting everything in place on the camper.  On monday because I was still unpacking and cleaning the camper the girls entertained themselves with legos and Doc McStuffins pretend play.  It was so sweet to watch both of them playing so sweetly!  And that my friends doesnt happen everyday! Hahaha!!  But Monday was a good day for them!  The girls wanted to go swimming and I guess Anabeth had to show me when she threw up swim diaper and swimsuit at me.  And to Anabeth its her "swimsoup"!!  So we changed clothes and headed to the pool.  We had the pool to ourselves! 

 

Both of my girls love to swim and Juddi help Abigail swim and dive so much better.  Thanks Juddi!!!  Anabeth is ready for you!  :) Now Anabeth is a little....hmmmm.....stubborn!!!  I know you cant imagine that but she is!  We have armmies for her at each grandparents house that has a pool so we dont have to carry a pair with us.  Well, I bought her a pretty pair of purple ones with yellow flowers.  And she HATES them!  I put them on her at Grandma Stacy's and she cried and cried!!  Aunt Kim is our witness!!  So our sweet Grandma Stacy bought her a pair of yellow ones (just like the purple ones) and you can see Anabeth loves them.  Now getting her out of the pool is our next battle!  Hahaha!! 

 

After swimming it was snack time and we had to go get groceries.  So off to Wal-Mart we go, again!  And let me just say I LOVE IGA more and more everyday!!  It took me twice as long at the grocery store and they don't have hardly anything we normally get.  For example I looked literally for 30 minutes for Dale's Sauce seasoning. And then I gave up and asked a faboulous WalMart employee and her response...."What the heck is that!?!?!"  Well I got the point that Texas does not have Dale Sauce.  :(  Poor burgers and steaks.  After that answer I asked her do you have red hot dogs and she laughed and said good luck!  Wow!  What great customer service!  So we came home with no red hotdogs and no dale sauce.  My crew was not happy because according to Abigail and Anabeth those brown ones are not good!  

 

Tuesday we ventured out to the waterpark.  The girls had a wonderful time!  They had waterslides for Abigail and a kiddie pool (1ft 6in deep) for Anabeth.  It was so nice to be able to sit on the edge of the pool and watch both girls enjoy themself. 

It was really bright outside and Abigail had a hard time keeping her eyes opened!

  After 4 1/2 hours at the water park (and let me say it was really cheap for out of state folks like myself!  Only $16 for the day for all 3 of us.  I do believe that is alot cheaper than water world in Dothan!) we headed home with some very tired girls.  Anabeth did not make it out of the parking lot and Abigail lost the battle as soon as we were home and on the couch.

 

Wednesday Night we loaded up and went to go see some 4th of July Fireworks!  yeah the girls were not interested at all!!!

(And for some reason my video will not load!!)

 The finale was the best but I didnt catch it on video.  The girls were more interested in the glow necklaces and the trash can!  Yes the trash can seemed to entertain them with going back and forth to put trash in it!

My Sweet Anabeth is always "cheesing" for the camera! 

Our 4th of July was a lazy one!  yay

 

That was week 1 in a nutshell!  And my next blog will be our trip to Sea World!!  We have alot of pictures and videos so that is one blog all by it self!  Stay Tune for: Sea World in San Antonio, Texas!



Texas Part 1

Texas Bound!!!!  Abigail and Anabeth were beyond excited about our trip to Texas! 

 

This was Bright and Early Saturday Morning!!  As you can see we are loaded down and they have the essentials Fruit Roll Ups!!  hahahaha!!!  We drove to Mississippi and stopped for a potty break and it STINKS!!!  Me and Abigail hurried back to the car because of the odor!  Anabeth was screaming "Yuck, it stinks"!  Our next stop was Lunch time!!  And a much needed break after 6-7 hours in the car.  And we stopped at McDonald's in Louisiana.  And beyond my control (and believe me i tried) Dustin had to wear that old Alabama Football hat!  And you know LSU fans hate Bama!!!  I told him we were going to get shot!! He said I was crazy!  hahaha!!  Anyways after Lunch we gas up the Tahoe and I look up to see this crazy sign. 

Guess everything has to have a Disclosure these days!!

 

Next Stop..........

 Drive Friendly!!!  Yeah Right!!!  These people are crazy drivers!!! 

 Here is Houston Texas.  Both of the girls slept right through it and the picture below was what our GPS looked liked!!!  Can you say "Take me Back to OPP, AL!!!!  Yep I like my 3 red lights and stop signs so much better after riding through this!  Hahahahaha!!!

Our Family Photo once we got to Texas!!!! 

Wal Mart Trip for Camper Supplies and the buggy was so full we had no choice but to roll like this!!  Girls thought it was too cool!  The simple things that amaze them!



 And Finally our new home for the next 6 weeks!  A very nice RV Park and if you are in Aransas Pass Texas we definitely recommend it! 

Since it rain on Sunday and we are told it hardly ever rains (and i knew it would because hey I am here!) The camper was late getting here.  But the girls loved watching the guys haul in the camper and setting it up!

Well that is all for now!!  Texas Part 2 will have our 1st week in Texas!  Stay Tune!  :) 

Big News!!!

Wow!!!  I just saw my 1st and until now last post!!!  Its been a long time!!  A lot has happened to us over the last 2 years!  Anabeth was an extremely sick little girl so most of my time was spent with her.  But now....I have a happy and healthy 2 year old!!!  And our Sweet Abigail will be 6 in a week!!!  Where did the time go!!!! 

Well we have big news!!!  Exciting news!!!  I am finally going to be a stay at home mommy!!!  AND......we are Texas bound for 6 weeks!  Oh my!!  What am I thinking staying in a camper with these 2 loud and silly girls!!!  The whole Nawlin Bunch is really excited about this adventure that we are about to go on!  I am going to blog our adventures of Texas so that all our family will get the "whole" story and not just the pictures!  Stay tune to Texas Bound!

Fashion Diva!

Abigail Grace, you make me smile!  You bring laughter and joy to every room you enter.  It may be all the sassy attitude you have in you but you make so many people smile.  Even when I am upset with you it is very hard to stay that way for long.  You know how to make me laugh with you.  The hardest part about getting on to you is keeping a straight face.  Literally!  I can be getting on to you for whatever you have done and you will turn around, look at me and say the funniest things.  All with alot of attitude of course.  My favorite one so far will have to be this one.  A few weeks ago we went to Pawpaw Jerry and Nana's house.  I asked you to clean up your toys so the dogs would not chew them and of course you "forgot" how to clean up.  You see this is an everyday battle with you.  After 15 minutes of telling you to clean up I had enough.  I looked at those big blues and tell you I am going to get a paddle and spank you if you do not clean up this mess.  Well, here is your reply: "Its not a paddle, its a flyflap."  It took all I could do not to laugh.  And yes after I went to the kitchen and laughed to myself you got the flyflap on your leg. 

One of my favorite tv shows is the Golden Girls.  And one day you will tell me how lame I am for watching it but I want you to know that you loved our Monday night Golden Girls date!  We would go get in my bed and watch the Golden Girls until we fell asleep.  Sophia is the spunky little old lady that start every story with "Picture This Sicily 19 something."  And now my little one mom with steal that line for you.

Picture this, March 26, 2011; 6 am.  You wake up from your sleep and walk into the living room wearing one of your creative outfits.  White panty hose and your princess sleep shirt.  Your hair is standing on top of your head because I swear you sleep on your head!  And your words are: "Do you like my outfit?"  Who wouldn't love your outfit!  And that very morning a great big smile came to my face!  And just when I thought your outfit could not get any funnier that day you proved me wrong.  I am sitting on the couch feeding Anabeth when I see you peek your head around the corner of the hall.  My first thought was what did you do!  After coaxing you to come out of your room you came skipping out it the funniest out I had ever seen on you.  You had on a light blue Cinderella shirt and this is the kicker, red snowman shorts.  Did I mention those red snowmen shorts are for the Frosty the Snowman you built at Build-A-Bear!  Now how you were able to put those shorts on I have no idea because they were pretty tight.  But that day I laughed with you about your outfit of choice.

You have always loved clothes and shoes.  I think you get that from your Aunt Tab.  :)  You will change clothes all day long if I would let you.  There have been days were you changed 6 to 7 times.  No wonder my laundry is enormous!  You outfits will go from one extreme to the other.  And no matter how hard I try to help you match your clothes you always tell me "it matches, see!"  And that is when I back away and let you wear it.  It is no worth the battle.  You are only expressing your creativity and who you are.  I hope you never let people change your personality.  Whether it is through your clothes, your spunky attitude, or your touching words of I Love You.  Be yourself because you have a gift of bringing happiness and joy to so many people.

P.S. Yes I do have pictures of these creative outfits that you will hate when you get older!  I think that they will brought out when you start dating!  :)

When I grow up I want to be a........

As parents we all ask our children "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And from being a mom and daycare teacher for several years I have heard all kinds of answers.  Some answers are the typically teacher, doctor, lawyer, etc. and some answers are really out there.  I know at one time I told my dad I was going to be a dolphin trainer. :)   He just laughed because he knew I would change my mind.  I often ask Abigail what she wants to be and today she wants to be a Bobcat Cheerleader.  But after so many years and so many different occupations there is one occupation that I have never heard anyone of a young age say.  I never tought of this occupation as an actual job to be honest.  And I was wrong.  It is one of the biggest and most important jobs of all and the pay is wonderful!  You get paid with love, laughter, hugs, kisses, and seeing your little one grow up.  You have probably guessed by now that I am referring to a Mom. 
When I had Abigail the thought of being a stay at home mom was there lingering around but I just pushed it away and went back to work.  Then on January 20, 2011 things changed.  Life changed.  Anabeth was born and my world changed forever.  My heart grew bigger and bigger and my love grew stronger for both Abigail and Anabeth.  I remember sitting in the hospital holding Anabeth; our 5 pound bundle of joy.  She was so tiny.  Abigail was sitting next to me looking at her new baby sister and asking all sorts of questions.  I remember just sitting there looking at Abigail and then at Anabeth and I just could not get over how big Abigail was.  It seems just like the day before I was sitting in that same hospital room holding Abigail.  I didn't realize how big she really was until I held Anabeth.  Just looking at their hands, fingers, feet, and toes just made me realize how fast time truly passes us by.  And now Abigail has grown into a lovely little girl with a little attitude to go with it.

Now I sit here tonight writing Anabeth's name on all her belongings that are going to daycare.  Making sure she has everything needed for Becky's on Monday and all these thoughts are going through my head.  Abigail started daycare at 13 weeks old.  I remember crying the first time I found out she rolled over at daycare.  Crawling for the first time, making her baby steps for the first time, and I missed it.  I missed alot of things with Abigail, and now I have to prepare myself to miss the same things with Anabeth.  My heart is breaking because I am not ready for it.  I have always said I work to give my children a better life, but I am wrong.  All my children need is the love. 

Stay at homes moms aren't given the same respect as women who have a goal driven career.  I have so much more respect for stay at home moms more today than I did yesterday.  It is not an easy job no matter what people say. But the pay is so much better!!

Working moms don't always get alot of respect either.  I have heard so many times that I am being a bad mom because I "pay" someone else to raise my children.  Not true.  I pay a great group of ladies to hold my little ones so that Dustin and I can provide for our family.  Give our family a little bit more.  But then I always have a great answer to this nosy people.  I work 2 full time jobs.  On one job I do not get sick time or a vacation.  I eat cold dinners and get up at all hours of the night.  You see I have the best part of the day.  I get to rock my little ones to sleep and hold them as long as I want to.  I make the most of the time I do have with my children.  My children are happy and healthy; so you can see that I love my job as a working mom.  Now if I was given the chance to stay at home would I?  Well of course!

So to wrap up my sentimental blog, a word of advice to Abigail and Anabeth.  Go to college to earn your degree in whatever your heart desires.  Whether it is a doctor or a stay at home mom enjoy each and every moment you have with your little ones.  Life passes quickly and you can not get those tiny little it seems so meaningless moments back.  Don't rush through life and miss the important things in life.