Carl has a new blog. Its strictly dedicated to hunting and fishing. MaryAnne, you don't have to look at if if you don't want to. He was worried about you not liking it. The link is posted to the left.

I realized that I never put up pictures from my trip to see my best friend, Kirsten, last summer. We had an awesome time, and I'm super excited because my step-dad Stanley gave Carl and I each a round-trip ticket to go back to Santa Cruz in May. We're going to spend most of our time on the beach in Santa Cruz, but we're also going to take a day to make the hour and a half drive up to San Francisco so Carl can go to Haight Ashbury(the famous neighborhood where the Grateful Dead got their start and played a ton of shows). We can't wait!!! Its no fun not having Kirsten around anymore, but I love that she lives in Santa Cruz cause it makes it so much more fun to go see her. Here's a picture of the two of us at Pebble Beach.
And this is in the car on the way to San Francisco.
This was taken in ChinaTown. When we walked in to the herbal markets I felt like I was in a dream. All the herbs that they sell at my school for $15 or so were being sold there for only $2!!
This is overlooking San Francisco Bay. As you can see, I was struggling with keeping my skirt from flying up. Within 15 minutes of being in the city I had to change into some pants. I forgot how windy it is there.
We tried to go to the wine country, but the traffic that day was horrific. We decided we could wait for that trip. Here's the view heading back into San Fran.

The best thing about helping Mema clean out her closet is the new addition to my closet. Actually, its the second best thing because the first is a blue and white paisley robe that belongs to my bathroom. But back to my second favorite- I'm not quite sure what you call it. A top? An over-shirt? But whatever it is, I love it. Mema got it at a little boutique in Yoakum in the 70's, and it went with a white and blue dress. She says it was her favorite outfit, and she wore it all the time when she and Papa went out square dancing. I think its absolutely darling, and I am so happy to be its new and proud owner. I wore it to school yesterday, and three people came up to me to tell me how cute my top was. I told them all it was my Mema's and they all thought that made it even more awesome.

Last week I had a break from school and went to Sheridan to spend it with my mema. We had the greatest time together, and man were we busy! We sewed, cooked, cleaned out closets, took buttons off of a mound of clothes as tall as mema, drove all over Texas looking for a sewing machine repair shop, voted, and the list goes on. But definitely the most labor intensive and time consuming part was going through mema's closet. She sort of tricked me into doing it in her sweet little way of asking, and instead of taking one hour as she projected, it took 6. And that doesn't include the additional 4 hours it took to take the buttons off of the clothes that she wanted to give away but couldn't stand to part with the beautiful buttons. But it was worth every penny. I can't even explain how happy she was to have gone through her closet. She had clothes in there from the 1970s that she's just been holding on to in case she might get the urge to wear them again some day. And let me tell you, they may be old and out of style, but they still look darn good. She taught me her secret to setting the color. You just have to add a cup of vinegar to each load, and it keeps your clothes looking like new for 30+ years. One of the many things I love about hanging out with mema is learning these sorts of tricks that she has. I was pretty spoiled as a child, and while it was awesome, I didn't really learn all the things about cooking, cleaning, gardening, etc. I've learned how to get by with all that on my own, but mema has really helped me with all the extra stuff that makes all the difference, like the vinegar and many, many more.

My friend Leila and her husband Ty had a little girl on January 8. Her name is Emma Noel Harrington, and she is incredibly adorable. Leila and Ty live in San Marcos, and now that I'm only fifteen minutes away, I am a frequent visitor of the Harrington household. I visit at least once/week, and I am addicted to little Emma. And Leila's pretty fun too. Her mom came from Argentina to visit when Emma was born, and she just can't bring herself to leave.

Last weekend Carl and I went to Sheridan and Hallettsville for the weekend. Friday night we stayed at Mema's house along with Aunt Gayle. Gayle was doing the master cleanse while we were there, and she inspired me to do the same. I've had allergies all my life, but recently(about 4 months ago) they started manifesting as swollen, red, dry eyelids. Its been so frustrating for me because some days I wake up with eyes so swollen it looks like I got punched in the face. The swelling became particularly bad last weekend, so I decided to buck up and try the cleanse. And here I am, miserable yet feeling great and without swollen or red eyelids, on day three. I'm miserable because you can't eat, but I feel great because you can't eat. As crazy as this may sound, my mind feels clearer than ever. I am totally peaceful and feel like I can work through all my thoughts with a clear and rational mind and not become angered or irritated over crazy things. And most importantly, my eyes look great! This is the first time in I don't know how long that the skin surrounding my eyes is the same color as the rest of my face. I still have a little swelling, but its very miniscule. I plan to go for 7 days, and believe me, I could never do it without Carl. He is so encouraging and keeps me straight. He even goes to another room to eat. He's so great.
And for those of you who don't know, the master cleanse consists of water, fresh squeezed lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. The combination of those ingredients is very detoxifying and gives you all the energy and nutrients you need to make it through the day.
I always like to put upt photos when I post, so here are some of all my adorable sisters.

Carl and I went to my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Stacy's house last night for dinner. Stace made the most wonderful chicken parmigiana and some pasta dishes. While we were having dinner, we started talking about the trip that Carl and I took to La Ticla in May, and I realized that I never put up a photo of the famous Catrina. She's been around for quite a while, and anyone who's ever step foot on Ticla sand knows her. You just can't stop looking at her. When we were there, she didn't surface for about 3 days, and I was becoming concerned that maybe she had passed away. I asked some of the local kids if she was still around, they said she was. So I waited patiently untl finally, there she was. And what a beauty.

And when I said famous, I really meant it. Everyone loves Catrina so much that the town store started making and selling bumper stickers almost identical to the photo above but with an orange dog that says her name and La Ticla underneath it. And I have one.

Yesterday was Carl's 3 year anniversary for being 100% clean and sober. We are all so proud of him. We read a statistic that only 1% of people that make the decision to become sober actually follow through with it for this long, and most of those people are in AA meetings every day. But Carl is special. He says that while he was still drinking every day he knew in his heart that it was not where he needed to be, but he just kept telling himself that today is not the day. Well, the day finally came, and he's made it this far without one day of AA. Many people told him in the beginning that he wouldn't be able to make it without attending the meetings, but he knew better. He found a tremendous amount of strength within himself and from God, and he could not be happier. He mentions all the time how grateful he is for everything in his life, and how none of it would have been possible had he not changed his life around. Here he is with some flounder he gigged about 2 months ago.

Since I moved to New Braunfels, I only see my Little Heather once or twice/ month. We've been doing some fun stuff though in what little time we do have. Last time I picked her up we had a day of cooking. I taught her how to make brownies, mashed potatoes, fried chicken, and sauteed okra. She said she really enjoyed it, and the food came out great. She's a very picky eater, so sometimes we struggle with the whole food thing. While we were eating a commercial came on with a little girl grocery shopping with her mom, and she kept saying things like, "i don't like broccoli" and "i don't like tomatoes". She started laughing, and Carl asked her if they consulted her for that commercial.

I hesitated to put up these photos because of a fear of appearing a hunting and fishing fanatic, but Carl is very proud of the buck he shot last weekend (and I'm proud too)- so here it is. For all of you who know about this kind of stuff, it scored a 197 and is a Boone and Crockett deer. His family owns a ranch in south Texas called the Tecomate, which is where he shot it. Carl helped me to find peace with hunting a few weeks ago when he explained that all the meat gets eaten, and they only kill bucks that are old in age and would die soon anyways. I think this one was seven. Its definitely the biggest buck I've ever seen.

Carl and I went off-shore fishing about a week and a half ago. We went 185 miles out into the gulf to an oil rig and trolled during the day, threw lures at night. We had a lot of fun. Carl fished way harder than me, cause I didn't quite feel up to par. But I was still lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time and caught some pretty good fish. Here we are with two of the fish we caught. Carl's holding a yellow fin tuna, and I'm holding a mahi mahi (also known as a dolfin or dorado.) Our good friend Matt took this picture on our other friend's dock once we got back to Corpus. This was my first off-shore trip, and I'm definitely going back. The yellow fin put up the fight of my life. The rod I was using snapped, and the handle of the reel came off. Needless to say, after all that I had to hand off the rod to the mate. But I was able to reel it in almost all the way.

I'm very sorry to report that my Papa, Del Sanford, passed away last Thursday, December 13, 2007. He was the most amazing man I've ever known, and I will miss him dearly. I feel so incredibly blessed to be his granddaughter, and my only hope is that I will grow to be half the person that he was. He was a man of God, a wonderful husband, an amazing grandfather, and a dear friend to so many. This was never more evident to me than at his funeral service. At both services (one in Texas and one in Oklahoma), there was standing room only. People came from all over to pay respects to a man that made such a tremendous impact on their lives. So many people stood up to tell their stories of how my Papa changed their lives and helped them get through good times and bad. He will most definitely be missed, but I know I'll see him again in Heaven and as long as I walk here on this earth I will carry with me the love and compassion that he so humbly exuded and instilled in me and all with whom he came in contact.

About a month ago we went to South Padre Island to celebrate Carl's Papaw's 80th birthday. Carl's parents own two houses on the bay, and they hosted the party. We had a great time. Papaw is hilarious. Here we are on the deck before the party.


And this is a picture of the whole family(well, most of it). Papaw is in the middle. His
Granny is the one to the right of Papaw.
This is a picture of Carl with his brother Brian, Dad, Step-mother Suzanne, Granny, and Papaw.
For the dinner part of the party, there were tables set up on the dock. This picture may not do it justice, but it was beautiful. They always have such exquisite parties.
The next day we spent the majority of the time on the water. This is a picture of me, Matt, and Carl poling to a black drum we saw tailing out in front of the house.

Time sure flies! I felt like I had just put up a new post, and then I noticed that it has been almost two months!
One of my really good girl friends got married two weeks ago. Kirsten, Dez, and I were all bridesmades. We had such a great time together. Kirsten flew in from Santa Cruz, and Dez flew in from Holland. It was great to all be together again.
Here is a picture of me and Brandi at her bachelorette party.


After the rehearsal dinner we took Brandi out dancing for a few hours. This is a picture of Dez and Brand.

And here we all are. We all worked together forever at the Hilton. Definitely the best group of people I could ever work with.

Kirsten's boyfriend Eric was a groomsman. It was his first wedding to be in and his first time wearing a tux. We all agreed that he was super handsome.

this is my friend fernando. he would come hang out with me while carl was surfing. i taught him how to play slap jack. he thought it was so much fun, but he would cheat. every time i would catch him trying to slip a jack on the top of his deck i would tell him i saw him and he would just crack up.
this was our camp site. we used the tent to house all of our belongings, and we slept in the hammock. it was the most wonderful sleep i've ever gotten. it is a two-person hammock. i would put my head at one end, carl would put his head at the other, and it would pretty much make two hammocks. one morning i woke up (at i'm guessing about 7:30) to three donkeys. they were just standing about 5 feet away from us and staring. it was a pretty amazing sight.
the carnival came into town while we were there. it only consisted of these foosball tables, some trampolines, and a snow cone stand, but the kids went nuts over it. they would run from school and gather around the tables. i never had my camera when the whole herd was there, but i got this shot of two little boys playing. every time i snapped a picture they would run over and want to check it out.

the beach was filled with coconut trees. fernando shucked one for me and made a hole so i could drink the fresh coconut milk. man it was GOOD!

well, its been quite a while.... carl and i have done quite a lot since february, including a 1 week trip into mexico. we rode a bus to the pacific coast, more specifically, la ticla in the state of michoacan. its a little surfing village. we had the time of our lives. we slept in a hammock, and did nothing but relax the entire time. i'll post more pictures later, but this is a little taste of what our week looked like. all of the photos were taken from our campsite, which was about 25 feet from the water. the weather was perfect, the people were wonderful, and we can't wait to go back.

Unfortunately, I left my camera at Kirsten's house last weekend, so I do not have any new photos for you. Lorena Kanak had a baby shower for her sister Amy in Hallettsville, so Kirst flew in for the weekend. Since I had to work on Saturday, I went to Hallettsville on Friday after school. I had a lot of fun. Its always a blast hanging out with Kirsten's family. They're really great people- very genuine and tons of fun.
Carl and I have been out on the bay twice now since we've gotten the boat. The first time we were skunked, but the last time Carl caught this baby red. We decided we might wait for it to warm up a bit before we go out again. Carl could probably fish in a blizzard, but I'm just not that die-hard of a fisherman. Don't get me wrong- I really enjoy it, but when my hands and toes become numb, I find it a little hard to keep myself motivated.

Well, after over 6 months of schooling I finally know how to administer acupuncture needles. Carl, of course, is and will continue to be my pin cushion. Here he is acting scared when I gave him his first treatment. He's such a great sport. If you look closely you can see one needle in each hand. I gave him a very simple treatment that consisted of one needle in each hand and one in each foot. My teachers call these the "American points". They are the best combination for stress, and apparently they are used with much more frequency in America than anywhere else. Carl is definitely a good candidate for such a treatment.

Carl and I took the boat out for its maiden voyage this weekend. We went to Copano and Charles Bays around Rockport. We had such a great time, and I can't wait to go back. Hopefully we'll go this weekend again. As you can probably tell, the weather was not very conducive for fishing. I had on two pairs of pants, three long-sleeved shirts, wool socks, and a jacket, and I was still freezing! But it was definitely worth it.

Carl fished from the tower all day. I decided that because of my unexplained tendency to fall, drop things, and stumble, I'd wait until the weather was a little warmer to try fishing up there. Even Carl lost his balance once, so I think I made a good decision.
Here's the view from the tower.

This is what Carl's boat looks like today. School is cancelled for today and tomorrow, so I've just been relaxing. I guess I really could be studying, but who wants to do that?