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?

Carl's boat finally arrived yesterday. He's absolutely ecstatic about it. I've never seen him more excited. Its a 14.5 ft Shoalwater Catamaran. Unfortunately an arctic front is arriving, so he can't take it out for a while.




Carl took this picture of River the other day. I think its super funny.

There is a super cool park by my house that River loves to go to. What makes it so cool is that its more like an escape to the country than a park. There isn't a playground or anything, but there are tons of dirt trails that spread out over acres and acres of park. Even though you're in the middle of the city, you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. There are places like that in every town, and I'm sure glad to have one right by me. A couple of days ago River and I were driving by to go to the post office and noticed that there was not one single car in the parking lot. I just had to stop because River especially loves it when she can just run free and not be attached to a leash.





I don't remember if I've written about this already or not, but I started making duct tape wallets over the holiday break. Its really quite fun. I found about 6 different colors and just started going to town. Then I got the idea to paint designs on some of them. Here are a couple of examples.

Heather and I went to the Witte Museum a couple of weeks ago. I told her we were going to start throwing a couple of learning days in with our play days. She was not at all enthused when I told her we were going to the museum, but she ended up having a really great time. The first two buildings had exhibits about animals and history, and I encouraged her to read all the descriptions. Then, we got to the last building- the children's part. They really had a lot of fun toys. Here she is on a bicycle that is suspended on a cable about 2 stories high. You can see the river below. There was also a huge treehouse and a room full of science projects.

I just love the new hit counter I got(on right of screen). It makes me want to post all the time because I feel like people are really reading my blog. I got 19 hits in one day! It was probably all from random people that I don't even know, but oh well, it still makes me feel good. So I think this might be the beginning of a new era for me. I'm not making any more promises, but it looks like I'm addicted to blogging.

I've added two links- one to my mom's blog(bean anderson), and one to Carl's sort-of blog(extreme coast). He doesn't write on their every day, but he does pretty often. His name on the forum is shepnuts, and I'll alert you when he puts up a cool post. He usually writes some pretty interesting stuff and puts up great pictures.

Here's a picture of Carl and Kennedy playing at Aunt Shelly's house. I left them alone for 3 minutes, and I came back to an entire room full of bubbles. It looked like a lot of fun. Kennedy and Carl got along so well. I can't wait till she's old enough to come stay with us.

The weekend before Christmas(which was also the weekend before finals), Carl drug me to the beach. We had a really good time, and I actually got a lot of studying done. Studying on the beach is so much nicer than sitting in a library or something. And I think the ambiance may have made the material stick in my head better. This is a picture of Carl's St. Nick present in action. We never would have made it that day without the waders. The water was 62 degrees, and I wasn't about to step foot in it. He took care of getting all the bait out in the water for us.

And here's me with the largest red I've ever caught (28.5 inches). It was so beautiful. I wanted to throw it back, but it was really tangled in the line and while I was trying to get it off, all the other poles started going off too. Needless to say, we caught a lot of fish that day, but this one was definitely the best.

This is a picture of me in my absolute favorite Christmas gift this year. I've wanted a U of O hoodie for so long, and I finally got one. My mom told me she was thinking about what all she should get me for Christmas, and she thought,"Stacey didn't ask me for a hoodie this year- I should get her one." Isn't that so funny. And it was extra awesome because I was not expecting it at all.

I had such a great Christmas! I got a lot of family time, and it was awesome!
But the one downer- Kirsten moved to California. I'm so sad about it. We got to spend a lot of time together before she left though, so that was good. I tried to throw her a surprise going away breakfast at her mom's house, but only one person could make it- Anthony. We had a lot of fun though. It was probably better that way because we never get to see Anthony since he lives in Ohio, and we got to do a lot of catching up.
Kirsten and I got back to San Antonio on Wednesday, and she was supposed to leave the next day. However, things took longer than expected and she didn't actually take off until Saturday afternoon. When they drove off on Saturday, I stayed behind a few minutes so that I wouldn't have to see them again 'cause we were both a crying mess. But I ended up catching up to them just as I was turning off to my house. I looked over and saw Kirsten waving her arms and crying, and I just started bawling again saying, "They're so cute!!" They were in this huge yellow Penske truck with her car in tow, and they looked so adult-like.


And I'll end with a couple of pictures of the best little girl in the world doing some yoga. Kennedy is just the cutest thing you can imagine, and that's an understatement.

Most of my life, I was super jealous of my cousin Jason for a lot of reasons, but mainly because he got St. Nick presents every year, and I never did. So this year Carl and I started something new- the celebration of St. Nick day. It was totally exciting and very fulfilling.
I got Carl some waterproof waders for him to wear while he's paddling out baits.

And he got me some cowgirl boots. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!! I've always wanted some. Try to ignore the pajama pants and just focus on the boots.

Carl and I went to Austin a couple of weeks ago to visit his parents, and they ended up having two extra tickets to the UT game. We all went downtown, had some chili, and headed over to the game. On the way to the stadium we scored this foam hand, and as you can see, it ended up on Carl's head.


On the walk down, we also ran into some face painters. They were actually just engineering students trying to make a little cash. Becky and I both got a longhorn on our cheek.

But they just weren't quite what we envisioned, so we went to some professionals once we got to the End Zone Club and asked them to vamp it up a bit.

Last week Heather and I carved pumpkins. When we went to buy some pumpkin carving knives, we ran into some face paint, and I asked her if she would like to look like a clown. She got super excited, so I did the best I could. It looked nothing like the picture on the package, but she liked it anyway.

Last weekend Carl, Heather and I went to a cornfield maze. Heather had never been to one, so Carl and I showed her the ropes. We all had a lot of fun. Here we are before we went in the maze.

This year they added a new feature- a goat walk. It was actually just a pen you could go up to and feed the goats. We all got a food-filled ice cream cone and started feeding.

Then we headed over to the corn shooter. We all attempted to shoot a corn on the cob at a painting of the Statue of Liberty. Heather was the only one that hit it- on her first try! She won us a bag of freshly made kettle corn. Carl was really excited. That's his favorite part about going to the cornfield maze.

Once in the maze, Heather got a little tired and Carl carried her on his shoulders. It didn't last too long though.

It took us a while, but we finally made it out. Then came my favorite part of the evening- s'mores!!! I LOVE s'mores. We all had our s'mores, picked some flowers, and headed back home. Heather was passed out by the time we left the parking lot.

I was in my friend's wedding last weekend. Her name is Ericka Sluka, formerly known as Ericka Goode. It was a lot of fun. It felt more like a class reunion than a wedding though. Most of us girls from Hallettsville were in the wedding. It was really fun catching up with everyone. This is a picture of my friend Neil and the groom's Grandpa. Carl wasn't able to join me for the wedding, so they were both my dates for the Grand March.

This is a picture of me and Toni. I miss that girl soooo much!! She lives in Brenham with her husband, so we hardly ever see each other. We talk a lot though.

Anthony flew in from Ohio for the wedding. He moved there a couple of months ago and is in the process of starting a bakery. He'll have so much fun with that.

Here's Ericka with all the girls. There were a lot of us, but it made it a lot of fun. There was a DJ at the reception, and I requested our group song from high school- "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks. When they played it we danced in a big circle and sang our little hearts out. And the best part- the whole hall was watching us and they all said we were super cute. I love that.

Kirsten and Eric are moving at the end of next month. I'm absolutely devastated. It seems like it snuck up on me really fast. I'm so excited for them, but I'll miss them sooooo much.