Jamboozie 2012

If you're pretty new to Laredo, you may not know about the Washington Birthday Celebration that goes on every year in January-February.  I didn't when we first moved here.  I just happened to find out about the parade at the last minute, and we went last year.  It was really great!

This year I happened upon a booklet with a whole list of activities going on this year at the Birthday Celebration, and I was EXCITED!  Fun stuff to do in Laredo?!  What up!

I told my husband that we were going to Jamboozie whether he wanted to or not.  Maybe I wasn't that bossy about it, but I really did want to go and see what it was all about. Also,I found out that if we went before 6pm it was free, and I'm all about free stuff.  If you showed up later than 6pm, you had to pay $10 a person.  We went before 6pm, obviously.  "Free" is a great word.

I honestly didn't know too much about Jamboozie.  I knew there would be bands and food vendors aaand that's about it.  When we first came in, we heard a really, really sad-sounding Bob Dylan wannabe, and I wondered what the heck we had gotten ourselves into.  As we wandered around, though, we found a rock band singing about cheeseburgers and that made up for the terrible Bob Dylan guy.  I also found this gem at a vendor's booth.

I dont' really care anything about football, but ROLL TIDE! :D

Later we found a cool jazz band that my daughter and nephew cut a rug to.  There was a steel drum band that totally rocked! We also found a place giving away FREE sno cones. Rock on!

We found these guys in the street doing some cool stunts.

We walked by a church and saw what we thought was a wedding exiting the building.

WRONG!  That limo there?  It says, "Happy 15th!"  Wow, Quinceaneras... they never cease to amaze.  :)

Eventually, though, our kids kept complaining about how hungry they were.  I looked around at the vendors, and festivals in Laredo have a different variety of food than the ones back in Alabama...  tacos, menudo, corn in a cup, tortas, and a bunch of other Mexican dishes I can't remember.  I was looking for nachos, hot dogs, hamburgers, and FUNNEL CAKES!  There was ONE booth selling funnel cakes, but the line was so stinkin' long that I decided not to wait...  It was a sad day for me because any day without a funnel cake is a sad one  :(

NOTE TO JAMBOOZIE:  MORE FUNNEL CAKES, PLEASE!

The torta I got was awesome, though.  I love me some tortas.

We had a really fun time while we were there.    We even got a free mask with my torta, The kids had fun with it.

Lauren's one eye cracks me up.

My only complaint is that some of the bands weren't very "family-friendly" if you know what I mean... I was just glad my kids didn't realize what they were singing about like I did.

The kids dancing along to a song about drugs, politics, and sex.  Woohoo!

Will we go back next year?  Meh, I don't know.  If it's free again, then maybe.  It was fun enough for a free event.

But I would encourage those who are new to Laredo to at least check out some of the other activities going on with the Celebration in the next few weeks.  Laredo knows how to par-tay!

Why Laredo Winters Are Better Than Yours

Yes, that's right.  Those are my kids in swimsuits playing with a water slide... in JANUARY!

I. Love. It.

No shivering.  No bundling up so much you can't move.  No struggling with layers of clothes when my kids have to go pee.  

Just absolutely perfect weather.

I heart Laredo in the "winter."

The One Where I Wish Deer Would Bleed

When we got back from our 2 week Thanksgiving trip to Alabama, my front yard somehow turned into this:

Beautiful, huh? That, my friends, is a bunch of dead plants, and a tarp that had been blown away by the wind taking the mulch with it. 

I'm pretty sure I'm the white trash in my neighborhood.  (I have more proof coming up.)  

I decided that I needed to revamp.  Nevermind that it was now December and no other sane person was doing yard renovations.  The guy at Lowes made me feel pretty stupid, too, for not waiting until Spring, but HEY! Look at that mess up there.  That's ridonkulous.  I had people coming to my house for the first time at Christmas.  I didn't want my house to look like that.

Funny thing is I did this exact same thing at around the same time last year.  I didn't like my yard... I had people coming for Christmas... so I planted a bunch of stuff.  

See, what happened was... I didn't know anything about Texas weather, so my plants either a) froze in the 2 weeks when it was cold, b) were eaten by those cursed deer, or c) killed by the extreme Laredo heat.  Also, the mulch got blown all over the place by the strong Laredo winds, and I was left with a big, ugly mess.

After much thought, I decided I would plant little cacti for two reasons: 

1) If the deer tried to eat them, they would BLEED!!

2) Cacti live in deserts, so maybe the heat wouldn't kill them

So I set to work.  And eventually got everything planted.  Then, something weird happened.  It got cold here.  Cold enough to freeze.

What the heck, Laredo?

I was scared for my little plants, so I did something that I'm sure my neighbors thought was awesome.

Those are recycling bags that I cut open and draped over my little cacti.  Then I took some plastic bags and stuck them over my bushes in the back.  I even left it there for a few days to be safe.  See?  I told you I was the white trash here.

Eventually, though, after I let it sit there for weeks, I FINALLY finished my little front yard in time for guests to come over.  Whether they knew how much I worked and slaved over it, I have no idea.  Here is the finished result.

Isn't that nice?  Lava rock that won't blow away in the wind... tiny, cute cacti that will hurt deer... and eventually those bushes in the back will have pretty flowers...  I love it.

Here's hoping it'll last a whole year this time...

Feliz Navidad!

The holidays are upon us.  I never thought I'd spend not one, but TWO Christmas in Little Mexico. But, wait, maybe some part of me knew way back when or else why would I have created this...

Yes, that's a Mexican Santa complete with a chili-pepper sombrero, maracas, and a pinata.  There's even a cactus and a guitar on the side that you can't see.  

When I was in my high school art class, we painted Santas for Christmas.  Out of all the different varieties of Santa, I chose the Mexican one.  Who really knows why?

I like to think that this Mexican Santa chose me because he knew that I would one day be living less than a mile from Mexico, and I would return him home one day.

Yes, that must be it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, from the Browns and Papa Noel!  And a Happy New Year to all!

My Christmas Just Got Merrier

Have you ever tried to get your kids' pictures made with Santa?  If you can actually get them to sit with Santa without screaming their heads off and get a decent picture, then you have to pay like $10 for a crappy picture they printed off on their HP printer.  Yeah, thanks, Santa's Elves for ripping me off.  Of course, if I had to work at the North Pole making toys for minimum wage, I'd probably be looking for some ways to make some extra cash, too.

Thankfully, since I now live in Laredo, I get an opportunity to let my kids visit Santa Claus without getting ripped off by his under-paid elves.  And where is this magical place that I can get a free picture with Santa?

THE LIBRARY!

That's right.  The library staff reads my kids stories, does a cute puppet show for them, gives them a meal, AND they get to visit Santa complete with a picture.  All for free.

FREE, I tell you!  It's amazing!  I love the library!

Last year my 1-year-old daughter was slightly afraid of Santa, but my 4-year-old son was TERRIFIED!  He hid behind the bookshelves and cried when Santa came out.  So this year I decided I needed to have a talk with my now 5-year-old son.  It went like this.

Me: "Evan, Santa is about to come out, and I don't want you to be afraid of him like last year.  He's a nice man."
Evan: "You mean last year when I was a little kid?"
Me:  "Are you not a little kid anymore?"
Evan: "Nope."
Me: "Oh, okay then."

And he was fine and very happy to sit in Santa's lap.  See?

I guess I should've had this same talk with Lauren, now 2, but I didn't.  She was excited until she actually saw Santa.  Then she wouldn't look at him and cried into my shoulder.  We did get her to actually look at the camera long enough to get a picture.

Bless her heart.  And, I, being the loving mother that I am, laughed.  A lot.  I love pictures like this.  Really and truly, I do.

So, thanks, Laredo Public Library for being so freakin' awesome!  The kids loved it.  Well, sort of.  

I Discovered a Cool New Park!

Last Friday, my sister-in-law and I were in a conundrum. (I learned that word from Mickey Mouse Club House, believe it or not.)    We run together three times a week.  She usually drives over to our neighborhood, and we take turns watching each other's kids while the other runs.  It's a pretty sweet set-up.  But on Friday she texted me to say that she was without a car.  Sad, sad day.  In my efforts to be a nice person, I offered to go pick her up.  When I got to her apartment, and we were in the van, we both decided that we wanted to go someplace different.  Change things up a bit.  But WHERE?

Way back in March, my kids and I went to the Laredo Kite Festival at North Central Park.  In my faint memories of the actual park that isn't blocked out by the bright colors of kites and free activities for my kids, I remembered a walking trail.  We decided to go there.  Mostly because the only other park I knew of with a walking trail was right by the river, and I didn't want to be watched by Border Patrol while running.

So we went to North Central Park, and it was awesome!  Behold!

I liked this view.  It was right by the new playground that they just built.  Well, I don't know about "just."  It wasn't there last time we were there.

It even has shade!  That is a blessing in Laredo!

Evan wanted me to take his picture. He's Mr. Cool.

Sunglasses, long-sleeves with a hoodie, and shorts.  He's rockin' it!

The walking trail was really great.  The only downside I saw was that at one point on the trail there's an area where water collects, and it kinda smells like sewage.  And for a Super Smeller like me, it wasn't too pleasant.  (Smelling is my super power.)

Oh, and also, some dumb kids had graffiti-ed some areas, but in some cases, graffiti can be funny.  Like this one.

STINKY North Central Park.  *immature giggle*  They said it was stinky...

Overall, though, I really loved this park, and it's trails.  I think we'll be going there more often.

What other parks in Laredo would you recommend we try?

My List of Pros and Cons

First, let me explain myself.  I haven't been posting in here regularly.  Duh.  The reason behind this is LMT told me they were updating the site and to hold off on posting until it was updated.  I waited.  Nothing happened.  So I've decided that I'm going to post anyway, and to make up for my serious lack of updates, I'm going to try to post at least once a week.  Does that make you happy?  Anyone even read this anymore?  Doubt it.

I recently went on a trip back to my homeland---Alabama.  On this trip I was not only able to visit where I once lived in Alabama, but we also visited where I once lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So these places, along with my home now in Laredo, have been on my mind, and I thought I'd compile a little list of Pros and Cons of all of these places.  Just for funsies.

Florence, Alabama: 

Pros 

• Trees!  Green!  Hills!
• My family
• Good southern cookin'
• Southern accents
• 4 complete seasons - Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
• Familiarity
• Woods
• No Border Patrol watching my every move

Cons

• Rednecks in abundance
• Crazy weather - freezing temperatures one day, then warm and sunny the next, and raining in the afternoon
• Over-the-top new immigration laws
• More rednecks
• I see too many people I know at Walmart
• Obnoxious Alabama Fans

Baton Rouge, Louisiana:

Pros

• Live Oak Trees
• Green, Green, Green!
• Cajun Food
• King Cake!!
• Cute cajun accents
• So much to do in the city
• Moderate temperatures

Cons

• TRAFFIC!!
• Huge scary bugs
• LSU Fans
• Rain pretty much every day
• Humidity!
• Rednecks

Laredo, Texas:

Pros

• The winters are amazing!
• The wind!  It feels so nice!
• HEB
• Every restaurant has a play area for my kids, so I can eat in peace
• Two hours from Sea World, Six Flags, the Zoo, etc., in San Antonio
• Two hours from the BEACH!
• A Dollar theater
• Sunny Days pretty much every day

Cons

• I don't speak Spanish, so I can't communicate all the time
• The scary stuff happening just across the river
• Border Patrol watching my every move
• Freakin' HOT!
• Desert landscape (ie: no big pretty trees)

What I've realized pretty much is that Laredo isn't as bad as I make myself think sometimes.  All the places we've lived so far have come with good and bad, and Laredo's like that, too.  Oh, and honestly, after listening to pop stations back in Alabama, I think that I prefer the Spanish music played here.  I was glad to get back down here and listen to my favorite Mexico station. (Ciento dos punto tres! Said in my best [ie: worst] Spanish accent.)  I do miss living in those other places, and I would love to live there again, but for now Laredo's home, and I'll take the good with the bad. 

Especially if the good is 70 degree temperatures in the "winter."  :)