My Favorite Monday

For this week's My Favorite Monday, Tiburon has asked for our favorite vacation destination. Mine is Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

I've only been once, in the fall of 1997, but it was the most relaxing, beautiful vacations I've ever had. We spent 9 days traveling through Colorado and Wyoming (and briefly detoured through Montana and Idaho) and the place that stands out most to me is Jackson Hole. It's a fun, funky little town with big personality, great shopping, the best panackes I've ever tasted -- sourdough pancakes at Jedidiah's if you ever happen through -- and scenery galore! We visited beautiful Grand Teton National Park (in the above photo), rafted down the Colorado River, went to Yellowstone National Park and saw the famous geyser Old Faithful. We stayed in quaint little log cabins with gorgeous views of the mountains and had coffee outside in the peaceful, brisk Wyoming morning, with the cleanest air I think I've ever had the pleasure to breathe. We saw bears meandering across the road like it was the most common thing in the world, moose in the front yard of the cabin, and the most beautiful elk you can imagine standing so close that you felt like you could reach out and touch them.

If you've never been to Jackson Hole, I highly recommend it as a great vacation spot, especially for families. Now that Cole is old enough to appreciate it we are looking forward to going back and taking him along someday soon.

The Passing of the Torch

Ron has been waiting for this moment for years...

FitFlops

I'm thinking about trying a pair of FitFlops. I figure since my foot wardrobe is limited to flip flops these days I might at least try them to see if they will get my legs in shape. I know two or three girls who have a pair and swear they can tell a difference in the tone and shape of their legs since they've started wearing them. For $50 they had better work miracles. Lord knows my legs need all of the miracles they can get! :)

Thankful Thursday

It's time for another installment of Thankful Thursday. It's surprising me how much I actually look forward to doing this. I find myself jotting things down all week that I'm thankful for so I will have a good list on Thursday. It's really helping me appreciate how many really good things I have in my life every single day! So for today I am thankful for...

1. Allergy Shots. Cole has been on allergy shots for a year now and he is a completely different child. I honestly hadn't realized just how allergic to everything he was until we went to the allergy specialist and now I feel horrible that he was so miserable for so many years, but I am thankful for the difference the shots have made in his life. He is a football die hard but couldn't play before because he's so allergic to grass that just touching it would cause him to break out all over in a horrible rash. But now? He started spring flag football last week and he is LOVING it. He is so in his element now and my guess is will move on to tackle football in the fall, and this is competely made possible by those bi-weekly shots of magic!

2. Doctors. My broken toes of 2 weeks ago are not healing correctly. They are still really painful and after a few days of looking better my foot has swollen back up and is looking rough again, so much that I can't wear shoes. I called my doctor's office this morning to see if she had a recommendation of how best to treat it and she insisted that I come in for an xray today to make sure I don't have a stress fracture in my foot. I'm so thankful that she's getting me in today and can give me a plan of action to get my tootsies feeling good again. I'm tired of not being able to wear my cute shoes. Which leads me to...

3. Flip Flops. While not the ideal footwear for the corporate America dress code, I'm so thankful I have a closet full of cute ones that have allowed me to at least be able to wear shoes to work the last couple of weeks and be somewhat fashionable. If not for them I would have had to go barefooted and let's face it, that would have been nasty! :)

4. Swiffer. A must have for the new floors. It makes keeping them sparkly clean so easy!

5. Kelly Reynolds. AKA my hair stylist! I am looking like a shaggy dog and am so thankful that I get to go see my miracle worker on Saturday. This growing out process is tough and she's doing a great job of touching me up every few weeks and helping me keep my sanity. We're almost to where I want to be.

So there you have it. What are you thankful for today??

100 Percent

This is a Mama bragging post so if that isn't your thing you can stop reading here...

We received the scores from Cole's reading TAKS testing yesterday. For those of you unfamiliar with the good old state of Texas, TAKS is the state standardized tests that children must take and pass at certain intervals to move on to the next grade level. You might remember that I posted about how nervous Cole was about the test last month, afraid he was going to fail and have to repeat 3rd grade, etc. I am happy to report that not only did he pass, he passed with perfection. My baby got 100%! I am so proud of him and he was very proud of himself. He's such a good boy and works so hard which made me very happy for him and his accomplishment!

"Do it from your thingie."

I am loving this season of Dancing with the Stars so far! The title of this entry was a hysterical quote from Julianne last night. Classic! As for my thoughts on this year's crop of contestants...

1. Kristi Yamaguchi. I love her! I'm a figure skating fan and have always loved her, so I'm happy to see that she is a good dancer and should go far. She's also paired with my favorite guy dancer, Mark Ballas, so I would be thrilled to see them win it all.

2. Jason Taylor. Holy hotness! I am very pleasantly surprised at what a good dancer he is. Unfortunately he is paired with my least favorite female dancer, Edyta, so rooting for him to win will be tough. I'm enjoying watching him though.

3. Marlee Matlin. She is a really great dancer and has such a wonderful attitude about the whole competition so I hope she lasts a long time.

4. Mario. I think he has the potential to be really good but his cockiness bugs me. He's also paired with one of my least favorite pros, Karina, so I won't be pulling for him to win.

5. Priscilla Presley. What the heck happened to her face?? I can't get past that to notice what kind of a dancer she is. Love Louis though, so I try to focus on him and not her face.

6. Marisa Jaret Winokur. What a cutie pie! Her personality is just infectious, though I think she might want to tone it down a hair or it could get obnoxious. I think she has potential though and I really want to see her do well. She's also got great hair! :)

7. Steve Guttenberg. I think he's a better dancer than the judges are giving him credit for. His whole "I'm just happy to be here...save the world..." rhetoric is getting tiresome already. I think he and Anna are a great team though.

8. Shannon Elizabeth. After last week I wasn't sure that she was going to do very well but she really redeemed herself with the quick step last night. I think she and Derek make a visually striking pair and she seems to really work hard and has a great attitude, which surprises me a bit, but I think I would like to see her hang around for a bit.

9. Penn Gillette. He isn't a great dancer by any stretch of the imagination, but he's hysterically funny so I would like to see him hang around awhile just to keep things lively.

10. Christian de la Fuente. Hot, hot, and did I mention hot?? But a meh dancer. I want him to stay in for the eye candy factor alone because I'm not impressed with his dancing or his attitude.

11. Adam Carolla. Terrible dancer and definitely needs to go home first. I don't find him funny either so I'll be fine when he leaves.

12. Monica Seles. Seems like a wonderful lady, but just not a great dancer at all. I think she will probably be the first woman to go home and should be. That's too bad for Jonathan though, because he seems like such a nice guy. I would really like to see him get a quality partner one season and have a chance to win.

My Favorite Monday

Thanks to Tiburon for yet another fun blogging idea! Especially since I seem to do such a poor job of coming up with my own ideas.

This week's theme is my favorite piece of jewelry. My favorite, other than my wedding ring, is my diamond chronograph Bulova watch.

I'll preface this by admitting that I am a watch girl. I love watches and ask for a new one just about every year for either my birthday or Christmas, so the members of my family have a serious aversion to spending very much money on a watch for me. I eyeballed this beauty for over a year and hinted to Ron and my Mom...okay who am I kidding, I begged one of them to get it for me at every gift giving holiday! It wasn't cheap though so neither of them wanted to get it because they thought I would wear it a couple of months and then move on to my next prey. I guess a year of lusting over it finally convinced them and I got it for Christmas this past year and I just love it more every day! It is the only piece of jewelry other than my wedding rings that I wear every single day without fail.