Charlie's Birthday Bash

Good friends joined me in wishing Charlie a very happy birthday! Lots of laughter rang through the house as the children decorated a gingerbread house and made stockings.

(John & Connie McCarty, Charlie, Bill & Kendra Clough & their daughter, Kendall)


The night would have never happened without my girlfriends (why is Connie not in this picture????). Because it was a surprise, nothing was prepared ahead of time so everyone pitched in to get our party foods rocking.

A party's not a party without a little karaoke. The girls and I love to sing it loud and sing it proud on Fun Friday nights. Charlie and I do a killer "Love Shack" and we laughed and sang (terribly, I might add). Later we karaoked to Christmas favorites and a little Madonna. The kids got into the fun with a little Taylor Swift.

Thankfully you cannot hear the audio. : )

But I am sure you can tell a good time was had by all.

Gracen was cracking up at the video Steven was shooting. Heaven help us if that ever shows up somewhere! Charlie might have been suspicious that something was planned, but we all had a great time!

The Barbie Party Bus

When I was a little girl, I loved Barbies. I was the original Barbie girl and back in the day it was fashionable to play with Barbies (unlike today when 2nd graders are ridiculed for any Barbie reference). Way back in the 70’s, Malibu Barbie and her pals PJ, Ken and Skipper spent their days in the sun driving along in the Malibu Barbie Bus. There was a Barbie pool, the Malibu Barbie house, a Barbie townhouse, and Barbie even got a tan with real tan lines.

Now, I realize this sounds like sour grapes, but you see, my Barbies didn’t have the Malibu Barbie Bus, or the corvette, or any other fabulous Barbie vehicle. We drove shoeboxes at my house. Quite frankly Dr. Terry Brazelton would probably tell you that I had it better than those girls with all the Barbie accessories because I was forced to use my imagination. But really, have you driven a shoebox?

There is something magical about the toy aisles before Christmas. They have so many wonderful options, all made in China, unassembled, complete with tiny parts and decals. For just a minute, I slipped back into those bedazzled bell bottoms and ponytails and stood in amazement at the unbelievable Barbie paraphernalia. I had already purchased the girls’ gifts. I wasn’t supposed to be shopping any more, but there it was, the unattainable, the phenomenal, the absolutely fabulous Barbie Party Bus.

This year we promised to cut back, so I just couldn’t buy it without consulting Charlie. I had only called him four times, but he wouldn’t really mind one more buzz of the cell phone.
“Yes,” he said in an extremely annoyed tone.

“Charlie, I found the mother lode! It’s the most wonderful Barbie accessory of all. It’s a Barbie Party Bus. This thing has its own hot tub! This is AMAZING! Really, do you think we could get it? It’s just one more thing. You won’t believe it! It has lights and music and a REAL hot tub. I’m not kidding! You will not believe this!”

There was silence on the other end of the phone. It was deafening, definite and depressing. And then he said, “No. They do not need that!”

“But Charlie, you don’t understand! My Barbies had to ride in a shoe box. I mean you couldn’t even bend their knees! They had to ride everywhere with their legs sticking straight out. This is like nothing I’ve ever seen!”

“Who is this for? You or the girls?” he retorted.

He was right. They didn’t need anything more. We had promised to cut back and we had finished with their shopping. Hope’s birthday was coming up. Maybe we could get it then. It would give me two more months to convince him that it was something the girls would love. And that was it. I turned from the Barbie Party Bus and walked away. I was a little wistful, but I had to be the adult. I simply walked away.

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season proceeded. There were classroom parties to plan. There were salt dough gingerbread boys and girls to be made and decoupaged. Friends were in town and we were going out. Family would be coming in to celebrate Christmas.

Then without warning, my throat seemed a little sore. I felt a little tired. I was chillier than usual. And quicker than St. Nick could fly up the chimney, I had 101.5 temperature and I was on my way to the doctor’s office. I had a raging case of Strep Throat and was sick as a dog, three days before Christmas. I surrendered. Sometimes you get to a place where you have no fight left in you. You can do nothing but take your anti-biotic and lie down. I was there.

Each day I got a little better. I even made it to Christmas Eve services to hear the girls sing with the praise team. As the evening drew to an end, I found myself very tired and a little down. I didn’t feel well and it didn’t feel like Christmas! I would just have to muddle through.

Christmas morning is always great fun. The most enjoyable part of the morning is watching the girls unwrap their gifts and delight in the surprises Santa has left for them. Never did I expect to find something under the tree for me, from Santa. So on this Christmas morning, I was transported back in time to a place where we wore Holly Hobby nightgowns and crocheted slippers. For a moment in time, I was the sleepy-eyed little girl, discovering her fabulous gifts in great surprise. There were sparks of magic in the air, laughter, tears and wonderment.

In a big pink box there was a Barbie Party Bus, complete with lights, sounds and most importantly a hot tub, under the tree with a big gift tag reading, “To: Tara, From: Santa”. I think for a moment we were all a little confused. I read the tag and began to laugh and in a flash, I was back in the seventies, with MaMa and PaPa there behind me, Aunt Bobbie saying, “Tara, you must have been a very good girl”, my mother and daddy taking pictures with their Kodak Insta-Matic with the flashbulb cube and my brother grumbling about how I get all the good toys.

I looked up at Charlie in utter disbelief and caught him staring with a gleam in his eye and a smile as big as Dallas. He had captured the Christmas magic of years gone by. He had saved the “Strep Throat Christmas” and given me the most precious gift a girl could ever imagine. I’ve been blessed to receive beautiful jewelry, precious stones, diamonds, the finest perfume, expensive clothes; but this year, it was the gift of love from a wonderful husband who wanted to give me Christmas ’76—bigger , better and totally Barbie!

I don’t know how you can top that!

The Green Drink

I have this friend, Laurie, who has been carrying around a mason jar with some funky looking liquid in it, drinking it. No, not moonshine. I finally asked her about it and I learned all about juicing and how the enzymes in raw vegetables (preferably green ones) have super anti-oxidant properties, plus a whole lot more. Now don't get me wrong. I was still VERY skeptical, but I am adventurous so I decided that I would let Laurie make me a "green drink".

She kept telling me, "It's really not that bad."

It wasn't bad at all. It was sort of strangely refreshing. Before I went down to Macy's and spent a small fortune on a tremendously FABULOUS Breville Juicer, I thought I had better have Laurie make me a few more green drinks. So I carried all my vegetables down to Laurie’s and she made me my own little mason jars full of green drinks. I started sipping and before I knew it, I was not hungry. I was very satisfied. I had energy. I just felt great! It had to be the green drinks, right?

Well, I went to Macy's and bought a fancy-shmancy juicer and a new high powered blender to boot. You never know when you're going to need to whip up a good frozen margarita. I stocked up on the best organic green vegetables that HEB had to offer and I was in business. I found that the "green lemonade" recipe and my many variations of it make the best concoctions.

Here's my recipe:

1 lemon (no need to peel, just juice the whole little yellow enzyme machine)

1 apple (2 if they are itsy bitsy apples)

2 stalks of celery

2 carrots

1 bunch of cilantro

1 head of Romaine lettuce

1 large cucumber (sometimes 2 if I'm feeling froggy)

Okay, here's the key. You don't want to drink your green drink from a Mason jar. No offense, Laurie, but presentation is extremely important when you're talking about drinking seriously GREEN liquid. So, I highly recommend drinking it from a footed crystal iced beverage glass with a straw, of course! If you ever want to give Green Drinks a go, just pop over around 10 AM and I'll whirl one out for you! Yes, I really drink these!

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike came with a vengeance. During the storm, Charlie stayed up, just in case he needed to alert us to move to safety. The girls slept on an air mattress at the foot of our bed.


All during the storm, the wind blew so hard I thought our bedroom windows would surely break from the force of the debris being blown into the glass.



I would lie in bed, not able to sleep with the wind rushing past. I prayed for my family's safety, over and over again. I would at times creep into the den where Charlie was watching the news coverage. First at 2 AM, then again at 3 AM, then again at 3:45 AM and so on throughout the night. We lost power at 5:45 AM. The storm still raged. The children were up around 8 AM and the winds were still blowing. We watched the storm in the dark until the winds died down and then just rain came.

This is what my street looked like Saturday afternoon. Every home on my street had enormous limbs down. Three homes had large trees down. One tree crashed through the garage, flattening two cars. Another tree tumbled through a fence and onto the garage, leaving behind three or more gaping holes. Another tree was down, crossing the road and blocking our driveway. All in all, we were very blessed. Two streets over there were trees resting in homes and ceilings caving in.


The next few days were filled with yard work. We cut branches, picked up sticks and debris, and raked the remnants of vegetation. The conveniences of the electric blower were sorely missed as we had to do everything the old fashioned way. Charlie couldn't get his chain saw started. Everything took twice as long, but we felt better getting the yard cleaned up. Even the girls pitched in filling trash bags with all the debris. Charlie says I can really push a crew, but I had them all working and accomplishing a lot.


Here's Charlie standing beside his manly pile. It's twice that size now since he took advantage of the debris pick up and cut a jillion branches and bushes. He transplanted aspidistras from the backyard to replace the variegated pittosporums that had not weathered the storm in the front of the house. He is the hortaculture superman!




So we weathered the storm. We were without power through Wednesday, September 17th around 5 PM. For all the grief I've given Charlie all these years about his hurricane survival kit, I am so thankful he had it! Because of Charlie's preparations, we had battery operated lanterns and fans. We had flashlights and candles. We had a Coleman gas camp stove so we could cook decent food for our children. He even made a make shift oven out of foil and baked biscuits on the grill. I do not think I will ever be a candidate for Survivor. I am not interested in being hot or camping out like pioneers. I am grateful for the safety of my family and that my home did not withstand damage. I have learned that generators are a godsend and that electricity is my friend. Do I dare tell you that I know for a fact you can't use your Chi flat iron plugged into a generator? I didn't think so.

Hoping and praying that you are all safe from the storm, cleaning up, rebuilding and now with power.