Category: Outings

Pixydust.net has been renewed for 2 more years! Not that very much has been or will be done with this website, but I just can’t let the darn thing go. (As much as it creeps me out sometimes,) there are too many visual memories saved here and I just can’t do away with it!

We got a 3-day (surprise weekend) at work, so I was off since Friday. It worked out perfectly since the girls had their Veteran’s Day program. Alaethia and her cheer team were performing and Emily’s class was singing. I’d missed Alaethia’s very first performance last month since it was when we had that delegation here from San Miguel De Allende.

Anyway, Mom actually went along for once, and their dad, too. It was a quick, but very sweet and emotional program. Of course I got goosies and was all choked up during the National Anthem, and got teary again at the end when Mr. Guerra sang “God Bless the USA”.

I didn’t get to take very many photos, especially because Emily was far and Alaethia was in the middle of her cheer team, but I snapped one when they were dispersing to their classrooms. Once I helped Alaethia change into her regular clothes, we hugged them goodbye and then Mom and I searched high and low for the new NES Classic console. I don’t know why I thought I’d actually find one, when all the crazies were out making lines at 5am 🙁 . I wish I could have been one of those crazies, but I forgot! Oh well. Maybe the next batch 🙁 .

Mom treated me to Wing Stop (those fries and nacho cheese. Mmph.), and then I dropped some off to Jorge, who was stuck at work without a chance for lunch.

I went back home afterwards and started taking down and wrapping up Halloween decorations. Mom went crazy buying little things here and there, which ended up turning into a dining table full of stuff to put away. I had to get another box.

I spent the evening watching Food Network and browsing Pinterest getting ideas on how to finish decorating my living room. Jorge and I decorated together when we moved in 5.5 years ago, but I wanted something bright and fresh that won’t break the bank. I started with dusting off two art pieces I had that I wanted to frame. So I went through my box of cheap Goodwill frames and found 2 that I would need to paint.

When Jorge got home from work he showered and then we had dinner at the Food Park!
We had our usual aguas frescas from Antojitos Beba and then we headed to Nuri Food Truck where I had a Q-dilla, Jorge had his favorite Devine Swine tacos and we shared the extremely delicious Bulgogi Pork Belly Kimchi Fries (Fries Carlito’s Way). They are literally finger-lickin’ good!

We went home and caught up on Grey’s Anatomy, and it wasn’t long till I passed out!

The girls had a UIL meet early the next morning, so I got ready, saw Jorge off and headed to their school to meet them and Mario.

It felt like time went by in a flash, then John (Audrey and Maddie’s dad) reminded me it’s because we used to have to stay all day for Chess! It’s a welcome change 😆 .

I saw my little ladies off when they were done with their stories/competing and I headed to Goodwill, for yes, another frame. I found nothing except Monster High and MC2 dolls for the girls.

I went across the street to Wal-Mart to purchase a bin for the Halloween decorations and ended up finding some AWESOME pillows on clearance that would match the theme I was going for in the living room in my head 😆 . They would match perfectly with my Otomí embroidered pillows I purchased from one of my awesome Artisans! I couldn’t believe my luck; they were $7 together!

I got home and started fixing things up, but not before I got bored enough to stop and meet Jorge for lunch :D. (I feel like my life really does revolve around food *sigh*.)

We went to Siempre Natural, where I had my usual turkey and bacon pita and fideo soup. I only ate half the pita and was so proud of myself. I dropped Jorge off at work and went straight to get my hair cut. It had literally been–wait for it–a YEAR since I’ve cut my hair. Jorge said if I didn’t go cut it THAT DAY, he and John would hold me down and he’d chop it himself!

So Ms. Rosie (my hairdresser) and I had a great, long talk while she chopped away at my hair. It’s still long (it was halfway down my butt; now it’s above it), but I should have asked for a more diamond-shape at the bottom like before 😕 .

Mom and I went to see Gramma and then to Walmart because I wanted to find another one of each of the pillows! After searching high and low (literally), I found one of the pinwheel ones. It’s something, at least! I got a few grocery items and then got home and made Jorge some lemon butter salmon and some zucchini noodles :).

After dinner, Jorge and I sat to watch TV while I paid all the bills online. He got to see first-hand just how long that takes me (almost 2 hours!!).

We woke up the next day and I made us some chorizo, egg and bean tacos with queso fresco. I’d bought some refrigerated tortillas from one of my artisans the week before, and he gave me 2 more packs! They are delicious.

We lazied around and then spent the rest of the day running errands, like purchasing bathroom repair stuff from Home Depot and then Jorge took me around 2 more Wal-Marts to find more pillows (only found 1 more pinwheel one, but for $2!! WIN!!)

We got home and he worked on the bathroom, while I stood by for support (and later tidy-up duty). I made dinner and we watched “The Walking Dead”, which I’d missed the week before. I was passing out before we could even watch the current one 😕 . Alas, as restful and productive as my weekend was, I could still use a whole other week off! It goes by too fast!

It’s been a crazy few weeks. What with the girls having their extracurricular activities and having to leave work at 4 p.m. almost everyday for them, and having to get costumes ready, bills, groceries and work, work, work–I feel like there really aren’t enough hours in the day. Best believe there’s been no time for working out or hobbies 🙁 .

But as tired and busy as I’ve  been (and oftentimes: overwhelmed) I’m glad that work events, activities with the kids and life in general have gone pretty smoothly.

Sally invited us to her and her friends’ Halloween party. We get invited every year, but for  some reason or another, haven’t made it. 

After paying bills and running  errands on a Saturday, the girls and I went to a thrift shop that I  used to frequent a lot about 10 years  ago. 

I had to figure out a costume for THAT evening because only I would buy my costume in September and try it on 3 weeks later only to find that it was completely see-through (and I could have done with losing about 10 pounds! That thing was skin tight!) The family is going with a Star Wars theme for Mia’s birthday this year, so no Princess Leia for me. Instead, I was going to figure out how to be an Ewok! Wicket, to be exact.

Emily unearthed this plastic turkey that we had an exact copy of  when I was little. Mom also  had a Santa and Rudolph! Of course it came home with us (not like I need more junk 😆 !)

Just as I was about to give up on finding something, I couldn’t believe my luck! Not only did I find the perfect  teddy bear to behead for his ears, but I also found some burnt orange fabric and brown plush fabric to match the ears! We got home and I  got to work while I made dinner. 

I realized I DID NOT know how to sew a skirt, especially since the fabric really was some type of plush upholstery, but I tried my best and put something together within an hour. I’m happy to say everyone knew exactly who I was!

Jorge and I are both a bit socially awkward when we don’t know people, so we didn’t think we’d stick around long but we ended up staying a good 1.5 hours! (Ooh, party animals!)

We had our Wine Classic event that was “The Great Gatsby” themed so I had to figure out how to run all these errands at work AND find myself a 1920’s looking dress! So of course I would run to thrift shops during lunch to find pieces to make this outfit possible. I ended up finding a black lace dress with beige liner and a kid’s-size flapper dress I wanted to cut the fringe off of. When I finally got around to working on the dress…the fringe wasn’t enough! So I conceded to the fact that I’d have to actually purchase some downtown. Meh.

So I found the fringe on one of our craft-shopping trips, and I found my shoes and headwear later downtown as well. I was literally working on my dress, hand-sewing the fringe during my lunch hour that same day!

I rushed around finishing things at work and rushed off to Quinta Mazatlan to help Gerry. I was posted at the silent auction room like I am every year 🙂 . Where all the yummy desserts are!

I’m proud of myself for maintaining control of myself throughout the event, but now that I’m looking at the photos, I’m having major regrets about not tasting everything 🙁 !!

Anyway, my outfit worked out (the fringe never unraveled!) and I managed to throw my hair into an up-do that sort of made sense. (It actually worked out much better during my trial-run at home!):

It was an awesome event, Gerry always outdoes herself! Clean-up was crazy but seemingly fast and Gerry, Ryan and I ended up having our actual dinner at 1am at Whataburger, hehe.

Briana, Dina and the kids had arrived while I was working the previous day. We got up and got ready to have Mia’s 7th birthday party, Star Wars themed! Briana goes all out! It was a crazy whirlwind of going to Walmart, getting tables and chairs, attempting to help Briana with snacks (my Jello brain was good, the white chocolate I bought for our pretzel mummies was so bad! Stick with the good stuff, even if it’s more expensive. Then we had to get ourselves and all the kids ready, but the end-result was awesome! Jorge, Briana and the kids even did the Imperial March as the big open 😆 !

It’s a good thing I got a group photo!! The boys lasted all but 15 minutes in their costumes!

It was so fun! Glad Sally and the kiddos got to make it, too! I never got around to trimming the “hood” of my costume (it was supposed to be v-shaped at the front *sigh*), but all-in-all, it was a blast and the kids were chocolate-wasted and strewn all over the place. Love those family gatherings!

We, thankfully, got to take a trip to Austin to visit the in-laws with the kids this year! My wonderful mom-in-law spear-headed the entire trip and we were so grateful. Of course, Briana (who is the queen of finding things to do in Austin!) planned activities and even had an itinerary ready for us. She’s seriously that. AWESOME!

So in our usual fashion, we were running late for everything. Some of the laundry wasn’t ready so we still had packing to do. I even forgot to pack my pillow and my blanket, which I hate to leave the house without on trips. BUT, the kids were super well-behaved (and entertaining when they weren’t asleep LOL), and we only made about 2 bathroom trips to gas stations.

Our first stop was Drury Inn and Suites, which Briana chose for us. It was seriously one of the best hotels we’ve ever stayed at. The staff was super friendly, too!

So after checking in, we all went to Slab BBQ for dinner. It was SO GOOD! Of course, Briana and I started with the picture-taking :D.

Naturally, I got nachos. And like usual, I didnt finish even a third. When we were done, we stopped by the apartment to drop dinner off to Javi. Even though we’d all just stuffed ourselves silly, we headed to Jump USA with the kids and hoped for the best (i.e. no barfing!).

Eenan stayed with us mostly; he wasn’t too into having to go play, nor be followed around by the 13-14-year-old girls following Nick and Jorgie 😆 .

We got back to the hotel and the kids took brief showers and we settled in for the night.

The next day, we got ready as quickly as possible to go to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. My kiddos had already gone this summer for a day with their dad, and Jorgie and Justin went with their school but Jorge hadn’t ever been and Julien hadn’t either. I hadn’t gone since the boys were toddlers!

Google Maps managed to find the “better” route for us to Fiesta Texas, but we were still in a terribly long line for about an hour. Then came the long wait for bag checks and buying an additional ticket. When we finally broke through the crowd, our first stop was bathrooms, and then Briana and all the big boys, except Eenan, broke off to find the Superman roller-coaster. The rest of us went to get some lunch for the little ones.

After some drama waiting for the train ride and we finally got to get on, we went for 2 consecutive rides.

And then we waited for the tire-float river-ride thing…for 1.5 hours!! Briana and the kids followed, but were about 80 people behind us!

Jorge hadn’t gotten on any rides (and I’m not one for roller-coasters! I’m too short and feel like I’ll fly out–worst feeling!) so I told him to go with his sis and the boys to get on rides. Eenan stayed behind with me and the little ones, whom we spent the rest of the time taking to the smaller rides.

And then we all met up after the Batman ride, which Jaylen, Jorge and Briana went on. The ride was so intense they were all pretty sure they died for a few minutes and came back to life 😆 .

Since we hadn’t been able to get a photo of the kids all together, we took the opportunity to take a few before we left.

We weren’t able to see at least half the park (or more) and didn’t get to see the shows because there were just that many people there trying to get just one last vacation in before kids returned to school.

The next day, we had breakfast and we all went to Voodoo Donuts, a famous donut shop that’s even been featured on Food Network (or Travel Channel, I forget). Javi was treating us.

The line to order was long, but the donuts were totally worth it. I had thee best Bavarian Creme one! The decor was cute AND there were chalkboards in the bathroom stalls!

It started to drizzle as soon as we went outside, but that didn’t stop us from continuing with our original plan: checking out the murals!

Jorge got a photo with Mr. Nelson:

Next stop was an eclectic little old-fashioned candy shop! On the way there, we were playing Pokémon Go, of course, and saw a Gyrardos out “in the wild”! How unfair is that?!

We finally found the candy shop and it was a dream! The kids had a blast checking everything out 🙂 .

A few stores down was this adorable boutique with this rainbow wall of dinosaur succulent planters! Dina bought me one!

It started getting drizzlier, and we were hungry from all the walking, so we made our way to IHOP. Needless to say, we had pretty bad service 😕 . They failed to tell us they were out of just about everything (avocados, soup, mac-n-cheese for the kids, I forget what else), 30 minutes after they took our order. But, I have to admit I was pretty happy with my plate.

We went back to the hotel after lunch to chill out and then a few kids stayed with Dina and the rest of us went to Pokemon Hunt at a park.

It would have been even more awesome had the ground not been so muddy, but we still had fun. All the Littles needed to go to the bathroom so we headed back to the hotel. We made it just in time for dinner at the hotel, which was included with our rental! I was still full from lunch, so I snacked.

We continued with the Pokemon Hunting later that evening. A little difficult to do with all the busy streets and parking, but we found this pretty cool spot near Franklin BBQ.

The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel and then went sight-seeing (and Pokemon Hunting 😆 )! I’d been wanting to visit the Hope Outdoor Gallery for around 2 years, so we Googled it and were on our way.

It was drizzling more than the day before, so we didn’t want to get the little ones down, so we admired it from the car. I would really love to walk through it, though!

We met Dina, Briana, the kiddos and Javi at Kim Phung Restaurant. I had to have the steak Pho, of course!

(I’m having regrets right about now about not being able to finish my bowl 🙁 !)

When we all finished up our meals and Dina and Briana went back to work, we went on a search for the “You’re My Butter Half” mural. We googled it and found it on the side of the United Way of Greater Austin building. It was a bit of a slippery climb, but we quickly assembled and took our photos!

It immediately started raining as soon as we snapped our last pic, so we climbed in the car and did a bit of shopping at Marshall’s (boys needed socks, Emily broke her flip flop and she was missing a pair of clothes!). We didn’t get to find the “I Love You So Much” mural, but that’s definitely one to do on our next trip!

We hung out at the hotel, had dinner there with Dina, Briana the kids and Javi. The kids wanted to swim but the pool was closed, of course, due to the drizzle. We didn’t get to do any water parks or pools this time, boo.

But we did get to go for one more PokeHunt–with Dina this time! And we had such a blast, too! We went back to our spot in front of Franklin BBQ and it made us realize just how slim our PokePickin’s are here in the Valley!

We said our goodbyes the next morning 🙁 and headed to East Austin Succulents before heading home.

I wanted to lose my mind with all those beautiful succulents, but I behaved myself and let the kiddos choose some instead :).

It rained tons on the way home, and we had bad service yet again in Georgetown at McDonald’s. Cashiers were rude and frankly, didn’t know how to count. Oh, and a passerby asked Jorge if I was his wife and if those were all our kids. He said yes and the man said, “Congratulations, she’s a keeper!” Buahaha 😆 . All-in-all, it was great and I can’t wait to go back!