Picnik Time

Earlier this summer I discovered a great photo editing website (picnik.com) and was thrilled to find that they let you do collages as well.  The free membership lets you do a lot of awesome things (although the for-pay membership lets you do even more awesome things).  I was playing around with the collages and ended up making one for each of the nieces and nephews.  So here are the children, from oldest to youngest.

A New Den for the Salazars

First day in the new home (please forgive the backlighting):

Miguel found for himself a nice place to lounge...and roar.

In such a crazy day, David kept finding things to hug.  As he told me, Guanabana was his "secondary huggie" and Coke Bear was his "firstendary huggie"

"I'm not even tired!"

Alex found a quarter and wanted to play with it, so he asked for "Heads or Iowas"

We went to Texas Roadhouse for Andres' birthday and, no, we didn't make him sit on the saddle and have it yelled out to the restaurant that he was turning 25.  What we did have was Rachel drawing on a box.  You decide for yourself which is more entertaining, but I think we know where the boys stand.

Photo Hunter: Four

One of my favorite quotes from my nephew is "I want four because I'm four today." In two weeks he will actually turn five, but he has been saying that he's "four today" for the past year. This works out well when you want him to eat something healthy, like tomatoes because he'll ask for four even when you're willing to give him just one or when you want to keep him from eating something unhealthy like chips. It doesn't work out quite so well with cookies...

Photo Hunter

Taking a Break

This weekend I was accused of doing too much without taking a break. This was followed by a concession that I probably do take time for myself, but I never talk about it. Chances are that the first statement is more true, but my answer was that the times of rest or everything-has-gone-according-to-plan are not as interesting to talk about.

Indeed, I have been sitting here for 15 mins trying to figure out how to talk about the first part of Spring Break that I spent bumming around at my sister's house. I had a blast and we had lots of laughs and I have over 100 pictures (only 3 days worth) to prove it, but not a lot of words.

Tradition is well established. There is at least one trip to Kroger, one to Target, a lunch at Chick Fil A, some backyard baseball, and a late night trip "out" that my sister and I take after the kids have gone to bed. The first words I hear each morning tend to be "Aunt Sarah, do you want to play Sequence with me?" (the variation being "Trouble" or "Connect Four" instead of "Sequence"). Oh and I always take 4+ hours to be completely inaccessible while reading one of Rachel's books. These are the things that make my permanent address home and the ideal place for vacations (or weekends, but I tend to think of those as synonyms).

Here are some of the highlights from my sabbatical:


Alex's first T-ball game and the first game I have been able to attend. This is his big contribution on the last play of the game.












David had the foresight to wear his T-shirt that repeats "just one more level..." on the day I took this picture.










Miguel can do anything his brothers can do. Please note that he is missing a shoe.














A night "out" on the town culminated in girly indulgence.

Photo Hunter: Family

For me the term "family" is quite expansive. I was terrified by the thought of digging through the hundreds of pictures of my family and having to choose only one. Or two. Or thirty. However, somewhere in the course of my weekend, although I can't be sure if I was waking or sleeping, I was struck with inspiration. Baseball. When I was a child, we went from Florida to Texas to my aunt and uncle's house where all the family that could met for Thanksgiving and each year we would all get together and play baseball in the back yard. We do not meet like we used to, but my nephews are completely enamored of the sport. This is a picture of my nephew, David, and my cousin, Ben, playing baseball together last Christmas since baseball has been my family's sport for as long as I can remember.

PhotoHunt

Maybe I'm Easily Impressed...

...but this boy is really defying gravity!


I just felt the need to share :)

Labor Day's Labors

After one whole week of school, we have a day off! Good 'ol Labor Day. Somewhat miraculously, I went the entire week and weekend without rehearsal, so naturally the best thing to do with my time was visit family. My sister graciously let me come spend a couple day with her and her boys (David 7, Alex 4, Miguel 2 this month). It was a nice time of normalcy -- baseball, Cars video games, and shopping (much to David's lament) -- and the kids were entertaining as always. Here is one particularly amusing conversation that happened while we were trying to cross a street:

Rachel: Do you see any cars?
Alex: No.
Rachel: (pointing to a car coming our way) What do you think that is?
Alex: I think it's a Honda.

He was right; it was a Honda.

I came back home for the day so that I could clean up my apartment and get some work done. I had a chance meeting with my friend, Anna, at Common Grounds (Baylor's coffee place of choice) which led to a pleasantly long lunch and several hours of reading plays for class on my porch and in my living room. It would have nice if I did not need to read the plays, but it was more enjoyable to have a good friend sitting on the ridiculous and brightly colored patio chair next to me. I even pulled out the taco salad for dinner, which should have been delicious except that we found sugar ants in the Tostitos. My roommate, Christina, and I have been fighting the foul intruders ever since we moved in and have built up an arsenal of complaints against the unpleasant trespassers. Anna said I should share this one more often:

One day Christina made dinner for some friends then they went out to a movie afterward, so she did not have a chance to clean up the kitchen. I came home and found the counter absolutely crawling with ants, a whole colony. Some of the ants were moving spryly as usual, but some were sluggish, almost stumbling. I finally realized that a purple spot on the counter was some wine that Christina had used for the sauce and that the ants looked sick because they were drunk! You learn new things every day and that day I learned that even ants can become inebriated.

So the long weekend turned out to be a simple and cozy weekend with family and friends. A great time to take it easy, but get some work done too!