We headed out to Utopia TX. this weekend. A friend of ours was getting married. My kids complained all the way there. This weekend was "Founders" weekend in Drippin Springs. Huge parade, BBQ cook off, great music, and a carnival. Everyone in Drippin attends this. It's a huge deal to the kids and to us...truth be told. . This was the first time since we moved here that we will miss it. So on the way there I had to hear things like.."Why is the wedding this weekend"...."I have to wait a whole year for Founders day to come again"...."I'm the only one who won't be there"..."I supposed to be in the parade"...."Why me". I explained to them that this wedding is way more important than missing "Founders Day". I told them I bet they are going to have more fun with us. I told them how much it means to our friends that we are there. Things that they probably will not understand until they are old enough to get the big picture. At least anything besides what's going on in their selfish bubble. I will be happy to report in the next blog that they saw the light and had a better time on our haunted weekend.
Hub's told me a few months back that he rented us a large house on the river. When we pulled up I thought.."this doesn't look half bad". We had some old neighbors driving in from Dallas to share the house with us. It was a pretty good price for being so large and on several acres and on the river. Later I found out why!!!!!!!!!!! When I walked in the house it was very old. In an old creepy way. Pictures of dead people filled the house. On the inside it was like something right out of a horror flick. The original part of the house was built in 1829.......Do the math. My guess is there is a good possibility that people died in this house! Now I have a very overactive imagination so visions of every scary movie I ever saw flooded my head. The kids right away asked if this was a haunted house. Insert creepy music!!!!!!!
The boys wanted to explore right way. Not the house but the outside. The river was amazing. The color of the water was this beautiful blue green. It was crystal clear and you could see right to the bottom. The trees were huge and must have been growing there for hundreds of years. It was actually breathtaking. Until I imagined a ghost dragging me down there in the night to kill me. We walked back and forth from the house to the river a few times that first day. One time I left the boys down there with the dog. I walked back up to the house. I could hear screaming coming from the river. I got this sick feeling in my stomach. I thought someone is drowning or got bit by a snake. I started running towards the river. They were all running towards the house screaming....dog included. Aidan...aka..Pig Pen was crying. I was yelling "What's wrong" over and over. As I got closer I could see the not so charming prince and drama boy laughing and then acting like they were screaming as they ran behind Pig Pen. Pig Pen caught up to me he was the first to reach me....He could hardly catch his breath. I couldn't understand what he was saying. All I could make out was "guy...guy...guy". I told him to take a deep breath. He said..."There is a guy with a gun". Now you never know...we are in Texas. The fact that the other two were running behind him laughing had me thinking..."Suspect". As the other two caught up to me they realized they were about to be in big trouble. So they ran up saying.."Aidan we were just kidding". I didn't find their joke funny at all. My Pig Pen already suffers from anxiety issues. I'm staring to get why!!!!! I came down pretty hard on them for teasing Pig Pen in such a cruel way. They tried to reason with me saying things like.."That's what big brothers are supposed to do to little brothers". I tell them there is a difference between a harmless tease and a cruel one. If I was an asshole I could have really gotten those two back staying in this house. But I'm a mom and mom's aren't cruel. At least I really had to talk myself off the ledge of revenge.
Someday Pig Pen is going to grow bigger than these two and hopefully put them in their place. Paybacks are hell! I secretly hope he gets them back good!
So we were in Utopia to see our good friends tie the knot. Blake and I were part of the wedding party. My friend was my neighbor in Frisco TX before we moved to Austin. A week before we moved to Austin she lost her fiancé one of our dearest friends in a very tragic accident. It rocked all our worlds in a way words cannot describe. It happened just a few weeks before her wedding day. I watched my friend who was a carefree spirit break into a million pieces. It's hard to even recall that time. For many reasons. It was so painful for so many people us included. She would come to see me on weekends in Austin. We spent many nights on my patio with her breaking down. For a while I never thought she would be herself again. I saw her almost self destruct. It was painful to watch. I hope I never have to see someone go through that kind of pain again. Hard to believe that seven years have gone by. There is a lot to tell with this story. It's not my story to tell though. I often wonder why some people experience such tragic things in their life. I don't know how people get through these things. I hope I never have to face demons like that.
Several years later she called one night to tell me she reconnected with an old friend. See "face book" is good for other things besides..."Look at me" "look at me". She wanted to bring him out for a weekend. She seemed to be my old friend again. The happy one. I was happy for her. I was also a little scared because I still felt a strong loyalty to my dear friend who passed. I knew I would compare him to him. I guess that's a natural reaction. He was a hard one to live up too. When I met the "new guy" I couldn't help but like him. He was kind and easy to talk to. He really seemed to care about her. He was sensitive to what she had been through. He was alright with us talking about our friend and telling old stories. He wanted us all the keep his memory alive. I don't want to say he fixed her. We can only choose to fix ourselves. I do believe when they met she was broken. He definitely helped her put the pieces back together. For the first time I saw a glimpse of my old friend. From that point on every time she came he came with her. Every time she seemed to get better and better. Every time he came I liked him more. My kids grew to love him. My husband and I grew to love him. He is by far one of the kindest people we have met. Not a mean bone in his body.
Side note...Kevin died from a fall. On our way home from the wedding today. I heard something from Cole for the first time ever. He told me that he dreams of Kevin a lot. I asked "what do you dream?". Kevin really took my boys in and treated them as his own. He said he dreams he is falling in his driveway...he catches him and saves him". He tells me he dreams about this a lot. It makes me sad in a way. Because he couldn't save Kevin. I often dream these crazy dreams too. Where my favorite dead people are alive. I often dream my uncle Kevin and my Grandma are alive. I'm always disappointed when I wake up and realize it was just a dream. I'm sure he feels the same way. I can't believe that was seven years ago...which makes Cole kindergarden. I can't believe he dreams such intense dreams.
So to say we were overjoyed when she called to say he popped the question is an understatement. We look forward to hanging out with them for many years to come. Guys like these are really one in a million or a billion! I wanted to make a speech like this at the wedding. I'm a big cry baby though! I would have never made it through a speech like that. I'm so happy for both of them.
The rehearsal dinner was at this amazing place called "The Laural Tree". Very whimsical. You pull up to these crazy red fields filled with poppies. In the backyard of this place chandeliers fill the trees. It looks like a place out of a fairy tail book. At least for women. My guess is guys don't feel this way. The food was great. Insert the song.."Can you feel the love tonight"!!!!
Utopia is a small town. A lot of her family is from there. When I told a few people where we were staying I got the "OH" answer. One person asked if I had seen "Mama" yet. Mama is a ghost if you haven't figured that out. So my guess was right. I was staying in my first haunted house. At least I think it was my first. Our friends from Dallas that were staying in the house with us met us at the rehearsal. First thing they said is.."Are we staying in a haunted house". Not a fan at all, I hope I never stay in another haunted house. My first instinct is to get drunk so I either pass out or don't care. I'm in the wedding though. I can't be pie eyed and hung over. So I deal with it and let my overactive imagination take over.
Of course my kids overhear all the haunted house talk. When we got home two little chicken shits ended up in bed with Hubs and I. The teenager is not even fazed by this talk. Remember teenagers are invisible even to nasty ghost. I ended up in another room not wanting to open my eyes. I did not want to see "Mama". I had a hard time falling asleep that night. Because we were all poking fun at Mama when we got back I feared we pissed her off. I thought as I laid there wide awake.."she is going to show us". I didn't want to open my eyes at all. I transformed back to my childhood. I laid with the covers over my face. I laid in the middle of the bed fearing something or "Mama" would grab me from under, someone would be standing over me.....or "Mama" would be crawling on the ceiling thanks to that recent "Mama" movie that the commercial was so awful for. I feared that "Mama" would get me. I didn't want to be the next "Mama" haunting the house. There were some strange noises. Probably "Mama" or Mama's" messing around in the house. The next blog will go into more "Mama" details. Think about it this house was built in 1829...there is probably a few "Mama's" fighting to haunt people. Did I say I never want to sleep in an old haunted house again?????
This is a picture of the parlor. The haunted parlor. A parlor that has been around for just short of two hundred years. Can you imagine the shit that must have gone down in here????? At least me the over thinker is thinking about how many people passed through this parlor. I wonder what has gone on in here for so many years. My imagination wonders if anyone died in it. I looked at everything in this parlor. It's very dusty. No one in their right mind is renting this place...the dust tells all..... There is old furniture, very old books that date back to the early 1900's, an old organ that doesn't work(though I fear I will hear Mama playing it in the middle of the night), it has a creepy old mirror(I fear if I look at it Mama will appear in it) it truly could be the set for a great horror flick.
On a final note. I looked fatter than I wanted to in that bridesmaid dress. Back fat is most annoying. When I was asked to be a bridesmaid at 43. I told myself I would lose 20 pounds. I started working out hard for the first time in December. My ignorant self thought I would be back to my 20 year old self within six weeks. I have stuck with "Zumba" at least three days a week since then. On a really good week it's four. Sometimes my overactive imagination makes me think there must be a 20 pound tumor in me. Then I realize yes there is but it's a fat tumor. I didn't lose 20 pounds. In fact I have not lost one pound. The closer it got I said..."alright ten pounds" ...Then.."alright five pounds"... I do have to say I love "Zumba", it's fun and I have at least shifted this new found fat. I have for the first time in years thought about me. Us Mom's get caught up in all our kids stuff. We drive them to school, to practice, to games, eat everything they leave behind. We forget about ourselves.
Diet, Diet, Diet, is what these workout people keep telling me. I hate that cause I love to drink sugar drinks all day and eat bad. I get that when you get to certain age you have to change. It just sucks wrapping my head around it. For all you young folk out there...those old ass people are right.....this shit catches up with you. If I could have a do over I would have always ate right, exercised regularly, and caked my face with sun screen and retinal. So I embark on yet another Monday...when I promise to cut out all my favorite shit....sugar drinks, bad food, and pure bliss. Only to try to revert back to the good old days where I had no idea I had a smoking hot body! I swear I will love it now if I could just get it back! Now if I get back I will run naked through the streets ......saying "look at me". Well maybe just through my house by myself. Sorry too tired once again to proof read...it is what it is, so judge away.
Here's the rap song I made up for Monday when I want sugar...
SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR
SUGAR, IS A BOOGER
SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR
IS A BOOGER THAT STICKS
IT's A BOOGER THAT CAN'T BE PICKED
SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR
I DON'T WANT THESE SUGAR BOOGERS.
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