rio frio

I got back from the Frio River, in Texas Hill Country, on Thursday!

The last time I went with my family was about 9 years ago.. I can't believe it had been that long. BUT Dennis, Carolyn, Linda, Cindy, and I were able to make a stop there 2 years ago on our awesome summer road trip. We should do that again, for sure.

anyway, after driving through miles of nothingness:

we made it to the frio!

We always stay at Seven Bluff Cabins.. named because the campground is at the base of this bluff, can you see the 7?

our 5 day trip was spent relaxing at our swimming hole:

jumping off of rocks and rope swings. watching tubers float by:

We floated the river a few times, and we even rented kayaks.. those pictures to come when i develop the underwater camera.


Kendall and I found a little whirlpool near the bridge..

I miss it already, and definitely did not want to return to work yesterday.

In other news, Mao and I went to the vet on Friday for the junk on 'his' shell... and guess what!
well, 1. the junk is just minor superficial fungus and should be fine after a few applications of jock itch cream. yes.
and 2. Mao is a GIRL! calling him a her is taking some getting used to. I don't know how I feel about this yet. But it makes sense. This is one dramatic turtle we are talking about. hyperventilating when I take her out of the tank.. dancing on the water when she's hungry (which is all the time) and even swimming backwards when she gets too excited. explains a lot.

ps. that pic is really old. like oct 09 old. She's much bigger now. ahh!

martha foster womack

A few weeks ago I received four, yes FOUR boxes of fabric and crochet that were my grandma's. I have one box full of crocheted granny squares... they need to be stitched together into an afghan or something.. the other three boxes are full of cut squares of this polyester blend fabric. My grandma loved that stuff.. I don't really know why. Nor do I know why they are all cut into squares.. was she planning on making a quilt? out of polyester? (not the most comfortable quilt) And they aren't the most appealing colors either.. I assume most of them are from the late 60s early 70s and feature some awful browns and mustard colors. Anyway, Thank you granny for leaving me all of these projects to complete! hah

Anyway, I spent the better part of Sunday afternoon sorting all of the squares into colors and thinking about my granny.. I decided to dedicate a post to her and let you all know how wonderful of a woman she was and all the little tidbits I remember about her.

She was born in 1919 (side note: I found a 1919 penny the other day!) and married my grandpa, Lounds "Red" Samuel Womack Sr. (Now that's a southern name!) in 1956.

She was TINY! I tried on her wedding dress when I was like, 10, and could barely zip it up...

They had two kids: my mom and my uncle (Lounds Samuel Jr.).

She was the craftiest person I've ever known. She made me all of my dresses when I was little, and when I got an American Girl doll for Christmas one year, she already had a whole wardrobe that matched my own.

When my grandparents had their house designed and built in the 50's she made sure to have two pantries in the kitchen, and two huge closets in the hallway - one for fabric, and one for yarn.

She called the ladder to the attic the "dis'ppearin' staircase." And all little kids we called "Angel foot."

She was a pack-rat and kept everything. When I got her sewing machine, I also got every receipt from every service she had had on it.

She had the biggest sweet tooth and when possible, ordered dessert first.

Every Sunday was like Thanksgiving at her house. She had everything timed impeccably. We would go to church, and within 10 minutes of returning to the house, supper would be ready. I was in charge of filling the tea glasses with ice and mint leaves from the back yard.

She always had a fridge stocked with her newest dessert creation and glass-bottle cokes. Coke was always offered before any other drink.

She had this insane ability to make anyone and everyone feel right at home. She loved to have parties and would jump at any opportunity to have a wedding or shower at her house.. often accompanied by punch with a handmade ice ring (with lemon, lime and orange rinds carefully shaped to look like roses), and dyed sugar cubes in shapes to fit the occasion... hearts or baby booties.

If you ever had a baby born, a birthday, or a death in the family, you could count on my granny to be the first one at your doorstep with a basket of goodies and some handmade blankets or toys.

In the early-nineties, she wrote to Woman's Day magazine and asked for a recipe for cracklin' cornbread. We were eating that stuff for months because letters and recipes from all over came into her house in huge bags. She must have received hundreds if not thousands of letters with recipes from all sorts of people. We kept getting them for years and years, but they finally stopped. Then in 2006, a year after my grandma passed away, my uncle got one more recipe (he lives in her old house).

She made THE BEST chicken and dumplings I've ever had, and anyone who has ever had the pleasure of tasting them will say the same thing. And my mom is still trying (in vain, sorry mom.) to make her rolls rise and her potato salad taste just right..

And, when she got older, and moved into a retirement community in Friendswood, I would go have dinner with her after school. We would sit at the table of the, "most handsome young man" server and she would proceed to try to set me up with him. "He has the most lovely blue eyes." hahah

My dad says that they were so special because they just came from a completely different era.. My grandpa was 52 when my mom was born.. while my other grandma was still a teenager when she had my dad. They loved and lived life to the fullest and would never miss an opportunity to bless others.

on another note, I totally thought this was going to be my one-hundredth post. danshi, I had one unpublished draft in my post archive thing.. making this post my 99th published posting..

therefore...