Texas Part 1

We - my Mom, Sheri and myself - are out in the big longhorn country of Texas visiting Julie on her spring break! It's been so fun and we have just bombarded poor "J" with questions about everything from: "What is that big tall white thing?" (A water pressure pump so that people can actually get running water) to "Why do all these houses not have any garages?" (They're all accessed from an alleyway at the back of the houses). She's been very patient and great about it.

One thing that really strikes me about Texas is all the ROOM. They have everything very spread out with plenty of parking and fields around to break it all up. Unless you're in one of the really big cities such as Dallas or Ft. Worth - and IN the actual CITY - there is plenty of space around you. Not that there aren't some really cool areas around. We went to an exceptionally large mall that has an ice skating rink and a 24-plex movie theater inside of it. It also has almost any store that you could think of surrounding it, including....

Sam Moon! Wow - this is like a girl's dream come true. It is this massive department-type store (think the size of an Old Navy Store) and is completely full of BARGAINS! Purses, wigs, hair do-dads - as my Dad would say - necklaces, earrings, finger rings, toe rings, anklets, hats, scarves . . . Well, you get the picture! We had quite the time today looking at all sorts of girly things. Actually, it's rather overwhelming, there's so much stuff to look through. And all of it's for bargain prices. Probably because it's not the highest quality, but that's not the point. It's cheap and it's fun! We found tons of rhinestone necklaces and earrings. Guess where we'll be buying jewelry for the next big event?

Julie lives in this neighborhood called "The Trails." Guess why? Well, there's trails running through the whole thing so we walked a 3 mile "square" today. And didn't even touch half of the trails. Remember how Texas is huge? The neighborhoods are as well! There's tons of wildlife to see: birds that sound like creaky doors and rabbits everywhere! We even saw a rabbit-dog! Okay, he wasn't really a rabbit, but he looked like one. I'll try to take a picture of the rabbit-dog next time we go out.

We gave Julie a surprise shower the first day we were here. More on that when I get pictures loaded! (ooo - also, remind me to talk about Texas pride!)