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...