nothing like a ball game to bring out the criminal in a girl...

so, my awesome thurber-in-laws blessed us with a package of astros tickets for this season. they are predicted to be the worst team in baseball this year, but clint is a die-hard. so game #1 for us was cubs @ astros. i already knew who would win. not because i know my stats, but because i know my harry caray. and cubs win, cubs win.

anywho, the better half and i set out on the metrorail for minute maid stadium. all smiles and no expectations.

{ you know how you know you have been married long enough to understand eachother almost perfectly? well, my moment of realization came in route to the metrorail. i told clint that he looked like a very attractive ninja turtle in his shades. he said "thank you!" he totally knew what i meant}



{in case you haven't seen minute maid stadium, here it is}



so try not to think too many sad thoughts about me when i make this confession, but i promise i will sugar-coat my wicked way in delightful narrative.

you see, on saturday mr. sports-is-life and i went to the rockets v clippers game to watch blake griffin dunk & the rockets kill the clippers like everyone else does. the previous monday i had bought a 6 pack of coke to help clint through the exam week, but he didn't drink them because he actually didn't need any help because he actually is a ninja turtle. so i decided that the cokes were mine, and i would bring one to the rockets game. but i got caught at the door and had to dispose of the precious liquid.

fast-forward to astros game night. i was making preparations for departure. i grab the coke and a fist full of pads & panty-liners and shove those bad-boys in my purse. on the train: i expertly arrange the contents of my large purse. coke in the large middle pocket. large wallet open and straddling the coke. one pad sticking out one side of the wallet, one pad to guard the backside. panty-liners strewn across the top of this mess to ward off prying eyes. one empty water bottle in the main section of the purse as a distraction mechanism (which clint actually stuck in there so that he could drink water like a healthy human being. little did he know he was enabling both my coke-loving & coke-sneaking addictions).

so we walk up to the ticket-takers and are forced to separate into the bag-holders & the non-bag-holders. by this time i am sweating a little, palms are clammy, & there is a knot in my stomach. but at least my husband won't be standing right next to me if i fail.

so i deftly hold my bag out like it's no big deal. there isn't really a vessel of yumminess hidden amongst the feminine products. the man looks at the middle pocket, pads & all, and quickly looks away a little flustered. but he regains composure and attempts to look again, but this time he spots the empty water bottle and gets a little antsy. so i allay his suspicions--"is it alright to bring this empty bottle in to fill it up in the drinking fountain?"

and you wanna know what?.... it totally worked.

see!



{i felt such a weird rush after getting through that bag check. but now i just feel bad. because here is the confession: the day before in relief society i had totally taught a lesson on honesty. but they do say that the teacher is the one who generally needs the lesson, right? i obviously needed that lesson. hopefully i will remember it the next time i get the urge to sneak a coke...}





{the stadium meets the skyline. houston, you rock. i will maybe name my first man-child after you. maybe}



{the piglets enjoying the view}



{what i am trying to say is, thank you grandma darlene for this dapper cap & matching beads from africa. everyone was jealous. i could tell}



{i was having a really fun time picking out on the new and improve big-screen who had the craziest eyebrows. this guy's eyebrows were at least 20 feet long. but he has such a friendly face, huh?}

{we're the thurbers, and we are happy to be here!}
{{the comment above is misleading, i had probably just spit on clint out of excitement & he may have been wiping it off his face... or something}}

this next picture was the icing on this magical cupcake of an evening...



{baseball, high-rises, trains, & the american flag. God bless the USA}



the moral to this story is-- men aren't just frontin'. they really are afraid of feminine products.

religion much?...

today is monday. i usually complain about that. but i had a great weekend. and i am feeling pretty great this morning. and, although this will happen very rarely on this blog, i am going to tell you right now what i think it is all about.


all about.


"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins" (2 Nephi 25:26).




i do not need to nor will i ever apologize for my religion, my faith, or the family i can keep forever.

what do you believe?

rock its and rockets...

{last wednesday. weight 125.5. determination great. ran 15 minutes then got weirded out by the empty gym & made a fast escape. eating habits... a little better beginning with 1 hard-boiled egg for breakfast. tonight's weight 124. determination greater. it's a good start.}

{this picture really has nothing to do with anything, except that i was having a great hair day on friday, had to deposit some mula @ the bank and got caught by the teller snapping a pic of myself. i swear that is a disobedient frizz-curl, not a side-burn.}

{these are our ecstatic yay-rockets-game-and-blake-griffin faces b/c we love the rockets. and blake griffin. i mean, seriously. how could you not love that kid? and seriously, mr. clint is a hottie. expecially in his special rockets-watching spectacles.}

{doesn't it look like spectacles is trying to wink?}

how was your weekend? ready for monday bloody monday?

forgive me for my personal musing in public...

but it is monday, and i am feeling oddly upset.

{this is the best sulky musing picture i could find... sorry.}

it is primarily because meggles, the apple of my eye, has left me sisterless (well, blood-related anyways) in texas once again. she is such a delight, and when she leaves there is a gaping hole of emptiness in my soul every time.

i think it also has something to do with my dream saturday morning where i had a baby and had no idea how to take care of it. i felt only an estranged love for the small infant, like it was someone else's. but i kept fumbling around like i knew nothing about how to care for another human being. like motherhood wasn't woven into my very core. and no, i'm not pregnant, so don't even think about it.

and then i have been reading this book. an oprah's book club book, so you know it's gonna rip your heart out. and there is woman who falls in love and has a beautiful life and her husband grows bored and moves on. he keeps telling her that she needs to make things easy on everyone and to have some dignity. really? really? and she does, though. she is dignified.

i don't know how; from me there would be muching wailing and gnashing of teeth, i assure you. there might be name-calling and all sorts of childishness. there would certainly be things thrown across the room. that already occurs (not out of anger, mind you), but sometimes you just get an urge to chuck something, ya know?

in fact, in real life i heard a very similar story recently. from a very kind woman. one day her husband came home and just didn't want to be married to her anymore. i wanted to know right away did she throw something at him or break down and cry. but i didn't ask, of course. but i did cry.

that was the other thing-- this couple eventually got back together. the wife in the book wants nothing more than her husband to just wrap her in his arms and stay with her. and how?

you know, i guess i wouldn't have understood that before i got married. "stand by your man" has never been my moto. more like "if the man is a lying sneak, he doesn't deserve a second chance." but i do understand it better now. love--the real kind-- doesn't just disappear in a flash. you can't erase it like that. it's not just a part of you; it is you.

and so, on this monday (which is already sad merely by virtue of being a monday) has been spent in sad, worrisome pondering. and i have some questions...

do your dreams ever bother you?

what are your monday musings?

"remind me where you currently stand on drinking coke"...

is what clint said to me the other day. because i can never seem to make up my mind whether i am or am not drinking it anymore. and maybe i never will.

do you drink it?

could we be, maybe?

i can't shake it. this itchy feeling in the pit of my stomach. this feeling that i'm possibly, maybe, quite probably falling in love.


with india.

have i been there? no.

but i went to hawai'i, you see. and while i was there, the clintman and i went exploring in hippyville. what we found may have quite possibly changed my life forever.

i found india again. yes again.

in a little store. there was india everywhere. in frames, on beds, on the windows, on wooden hangers, splayed on walls, across the floor. india to rest your feet on, india to put your feet in. india to wear, india to taste, india to smell (well not for clint to smell), india to write in, india to rest your head upon.

india to love.

and now i want to go and to see and to love and to know all that india is. but maybe i will never be able to go to india because that one time i sat on the elephant at the hare krishna temple and i'm really very sorry. really.

but i don't think i should be banished. not quite yet, please? because you see... india has really always been there inside me. really.
like that time when i had an indian friend in first grade. she was lovely. skinny as a rail, big eyes, hair the color of ebony dreams, seriously. but it was her grandmother who planted the seed of wonder in my tiny 6-year-old soul. she made me a satchel. not just any satchel. hand-woven. bright reds and greens and yellows. just for me.

their house smelled lovely. and the grandmother had great big holes in her ears that hung low low low so you could see through them. and she was gentle.

around the same time i met sushmita and sanje. they worked with my dad and dressed in suits. but at home she wore a sari and her bindi, and she was stunning. she glowed in her home. and he was so kind. and the air smelled like spices. and i fell in love again and again but refrained from touching all the pretty things on the shelves.

so you see, it was inevitable that i walk into that shop in hawai'i with my clint. and find india again.

{serenity in the fabric and the trees and the graceful movement}

{oh, the colors! don't they just make you want to live!?}

{flowers blooming out of the dessert sand}

{isn't she beautiful? eyes like thunder.}

now i will collect treasures from here and fill my life with colors and spices and try to share the love with everyone else and wait for the day when i can visit.

because india, could we maybe be sisters, you and i?





do YOU have any loves like this?

stinking it up like a monday morning...

ya know, monday mornings are un-fun. especially after really awesome weekends. you are living it up, playing word games, eating junk food, staying up late, sleeping in late, then here comes monday carrying those big fat drops of blah to rain all over your parade.

monday, you are such a kill-joy.

and not only does it summon the end of your awesome weekend, but i could swear mondays steal a few of the sleepable morning hours. just completely kid naps 1:30-4:15! and THEN monday has the audacity make you have to pee like 10 minutes before your alarm goes off.

rude!

so you know how i am gonna handle that???

you guessed it-- fat babies.

pictures of huge, chunky inches of babiness.

{how badly do you want to flick those cheeks on a scale from 1-10? 15, am i right???}

{think he is dreaming of a giant tootsie roll? me too.}

{oh yeah, baby!}

{mom, how can you not love my face, really?}

{is it edible?...}

{sir, don't panic, but you have a  giant hungrychild on your head}



{happy monday!}