Beary Best Friends

My friend Claire says that we are "besties." She could be right. I don't know... I've never really been a person who qualifies my friends as "good, better, or best."  I DO know that this particular friend is a very special person, and I am soooo thankful to have her in my life. And best of all, she conveniently lives right behind my house. 

The two of us always find interesting things to discuss. And we laugh -- a lot!

I've discovered notes, cookies, flowers, earrings, and other offerings at our back door. This isn't a daily occurrence, but I find something with my name on it a few times each month.

I smiled as I read, "We are pretty much BFFs, aren't we?" on a recent note.

It would be more convenient for the two of us to visit if there were a gate between the two backyards; however, the absence of a gate doesn't slow my friend down one bit. Claire has no trouble climbing/hopping/scrambling over the privacy fence.

Since I'm not much of a hopper, I leave notes for Claire under a rock on the top of the fence. I've also put homemade cookies and other surprises for my friend (and the rest of her family) out on top the fence. I just have to make sure foodstuff is in a container that the wildlife cannot get into before Claire discovers it.

Our friendship is most definitely a give and take kind of thing; neighborly, even.

Before you try to conjure up the image of an adult woman hurdling over a wooden privacy fence, let me explain that my friend Claire is nine-years-old.  She's a nimble, cat-quick, usually barefooted, beautiful tomboy, yet very much a girlie-girl all bundled into one adorable package. She effortlessly pops over the six-foot-tall fence just to say, "Hello!" or to give me a hug. Claire eagerly hands out hugs to the rest of the family, too -- including the living, breathing (and usually purring) cats and our not-so-real stuffed bears. (Bear hugs?)

Frequently, I get to see her latest dress-up get-up. She is a princess in the photo above -- complete with ruby red lipstick! Princess Claire is holding her pet skink. Sadly, I cannot remember what she named this critter. (This girl is a miniature Ellie Mae Clampett!) The skink peed down Claire's arm after I snapped the photo. The princess and the pee? I suppose the paparazzi proved to be too much for this lil' guy.

Sometimes we just chat across the fence. No hopping over is required. And other times my friend brings her friends or her cousins over the fence to visit the Smith Haus. The welcome mat is always out for this neighbor girlie, yet there is no actual mat at the back door. :-P

I think Claire has actually ridden her bike the L-O-N-G way around the block twice, but that takes too much time. The shortest distance between two points IS a straight line, you know! The sidewalk route from our house to hers measures .25 miles door-to-door. The over-the-fence route is roughly .02 miles. Rain, shine, hot or chilly weather makes no difference to my fence climbing neighbor.

I wanted to do something nice for my friend, so we decided that getting her a ginormous bear would be a fun thing to do. Claire LOVES our trio of oversized stuffed Costco bears. She even remembers their names: Harwood, Norwood, and Derwood. 

On a recent shopping trek, we adopted a bear for Claire. I wasn't sure when or how I'd present it to her, but I wanted to have it on hand. I thought about keeping it and giving it to her for a birthday present in October, but decided she "needed" the bear as a back to school surprise.

The gigantic stuffed animal was positioned on the fence early one morning with a note attached for Claire. She was giddy with excitement when she saw the bear, or at least that is the story I got from her parents. 

She named her bear Elwood. Love it!!

Harwood, Norwood, and Derwood watched the rescue operation from the upstairs windows. Yes, "Goldilocks" noticed that she was being watched by the three bears. 

The three Smith bears and Claire's bear are definitely beary best friends... I guess that would mean they are BBFs instead of BFFs. Hmmm... 

Oh, it's soooo good to have a (good, better, or best?) friend, but I think it feels BEST to be a friend. 

Books and SBUX

"We" have almost one week of school under our collective belts, and so far, we're off to a great start!

Last week, we took our neighbor girlie, Katie, to her school to pick up her class schedule and meet her teachers, as her mom and dad were both traveling out of town on that day. 

I laughed as I followed Millie Girl down the school corridor. I just HAD to snap a picture, even if her braided coiffure is starting to unravel. ;-)

 I can almost hear Grandma Betty saying, "Oh, she's an ANGEL!"

Yep.

The Smith girls and Katie agreed to pose for a picture outside the junior high building. "Go, Titans!"

"First Day" Photos:

 UTA classes are underway as of August 23rd.

I am not envious of my son's commute to campus. Road construction and workday commuters makes for a challenging drive. :-(

TCC classes began on August 27th.

(I just might get in trouble for posting this pic., as it was taken at 6:30 AM.)

Yawn!

Keller Middle began school on Monday morning, too.

My lil' KMS "Comanche" is ready to roll, and so am I!

As soon as the middle school drop was made, it was off to S-bucks for a cup o' joe with my friend Barb. We both "needed" a drink, and sadly, Peet's is toooo far away. The coffee was good, but uninterrupted conversation was the frosting on the cake -- or the foam on the latte?

Cheers! 

We toasted our roasted brews (decaffeinated, of course) to a great year. 

There are only 179 more mornings to get my middle-schooler to school on time... 

I'm thinkin' we're probably going to need another coffee break thrown in here and there to make it through the school year. :-)

Play Ball!

We joined 45,823 fellow MLB fans as we watched the hometown favorite Texas Rangers take on the Minnesota Twins. Although we waited until pretty much the last minute to purchase our tickets, we were pleased with our tippy-top row seats. We had a perfect view of the scoreboard, there was a nice, cool breeze, but most important of all, we were on the shady side of the stadium.

This was our view from the upper deck nosebleed section. This shot was taken well before the ballpark filled up with fans. We would definitely pick these seats again, since the tickets cost a mere $10 each. 

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the RANGERS,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."

We didn't buy peanuts and cracker jack, as the song suggests, but we did get some fantastic ballpark treats.

We ended up spending more money on food than we spent on admission to the ballpark, as we ordered:

• 1 "Boomstick" -- a two-foot long, one-pound hot dog and bun loaded with chili, melted cheese, grilled onions, and jalapeño peppers - $26  
• 1 normal sized hotdog - $4.50
• 2 Nolan Ryan beef burgers - $14
• 1 pop corn - $4.75
• 1 cotton candy - $4
• 1 bottled water - $3.50
• 1 16-oz. draft beer - $5
• 2 32-oz. sodas in a souvenir cup - $11 (Refills of ice and water are FREE!)

Grand total for ballpark fare: $72.75
(An extra helping of indigestion was included at no additional cost.)

The peanuts and cracker jack route would have been a more economical option at a total cost of $9.00. I'm certain the caloric totals would be significantly smaller, as well.:-P

                      

Who knew that it was so much fun to play with one's food -- or at least the food container?

STRIKE! 

I was pleased with how close I could get to the players by using my 75-300 mm lens. This view made it a lot more enjoyable to sit high atop the playing field. If you look closely, you can even see Josh Hamilton's tattoos. :-)

Beltre and his "boomstick"

Adrian Beltre completed his second career cycle when he hit a seventh-inning single. Beltre hit a triple in the 1st inning, a double in the 2nd inning, and a homerun in the 5th inning to make for a very exciting evening at Ranger Ballpark! 

 Rangers won the contest: 8-0. Woohoo!

"Rangers Captain" (the official mascot of the Texas Rangers) inspected the bats and helped set the stage for an after-the-game exhibition. The Long Haul Bombers showed their skills at hitting softballs 400-500 ft. in a homerun derby. 

A sing-along fireworks display capped off the evening with oohs and ahhhs!

The remains of a "boomstick" of another kind...

Singin' and Dancin' in the Rain

It's true. Everything IS bigger in Texas. 

Despite what this may look like, this isn't a heavy rainfall. By Lone Star standards, this is merely a light sprinkle. :-)

I cannot tell a lie. We experienced a gully-washer and a toad-strangler all rolled up into one incredibly wet package. We ended up with just over 5 inches in the rain gauge after just a few hours. The rainfall offered welcome relief after a long, hot, and dry summer, and it provided an opportunity for fun.

 Our little neighbor girlies were singing, dancing, splashing, and laughing in the rain.

Even this really big kid didn't have enough sense to come in from the rain. Although I didn't witness it with my own eyes, I'm pretty sure he was out there bustin' a move in the moisture condensed from the atmosphere that falls visibly in separate drops. Or maybe that was singing I heard... Or maybe both. One thing's for sure, he's all wet!

Mushy Message

The voice message from my beloved went something like this, 

"Hey, it's me... I'm still at the office, but I will be heading home soon. I should be there in about thirty minutes. Let me know if you need me to pick anything up on the way home. I love you, (insert my nickname here)!"

Short, sweet, and to the point, huh?

There's one little problem -- I never did get it.

My mister hit the wrong contact on his cell phone, so he left that message on a coworker's voicemail. (Obviously, Smitty does not listen to the outgoing messages on VM. Or else he thinks my voice is becoming deeper; manly, even.) YIKES!!!!! 

Mr. Smith called me immediately after realizing his error. As he was explaining the somewhat embarrassing blunder, he received another call, so he put me on hold. The incoming call was from his coworker, Tim, who was just calling back to tell my husband that "he loved him, too." HA! Thankfully, the recipient knows Mr. S. well... or he thought he did! 

I am not deliberately trying to embarrass Smitty by sharing this anecdote. I actually have permission to laugh at Mr. S's expense. 

Although I have never left a voice message for the wrong person, I have sent  embarrassing text messages to another person with the same first name as Mr. Smith. The two of 'em show up one right after the another on my contact list, since I have my address book arranged alphabetically by first name. More than once, I have made my recipient selection too hastily. These blunders have made for a flurry of subsequent texts of apology. While embarrassing, it is pretty funny. And I can certainly laugh at myself -- and at (or with?) my husband. :-P

Technology (especially in the hands of awkward people) is great, isn't it?