I've got a Secret...

This morning Mother called at 6:45am. I was sleeping of course, along with the rest of the household. This isn't normal routine for her thank goodness:

Her: "Did I wake you?"
Me: "Uhhhhhhhh." That's the sound of me trying to wake up and appear semi-coherent.
Her: "I thought you would be awake by now."
Me: "Uhhhhhhhh..what time is it?" I having a real hard time waking up.
Her: "6:45am your time."
Me: "Uhhhhhhhhhhh.." ..really REALLY hard time.
Her: "This is pay back for all the early mornings you woke me up when you were a baby."
Me: "Uhhhhhhh..thanks Mama."

The conversation didn't get much better. Thankful it was short and sweet. Big Daddy, who had answered the call, made a couple of incoherent comments (they may have been coherent, but I don't recall much of anything), rolled over and went back to sleep. I was almost back to sleep when O woke. I gave a little nudge to Big Daddy, who was my hero, got up and got him so I could sleep in. An hour later..my sister and nephews called:

Me: "Uhhhhhh..Hello?" Me barely awake again, wondering who the heck was disturbing my day to sleep in now.
Them: "Hellooooooooooooo" This is pretty much screamed into the phone by my 3 yr old nephew.
Me: "Hello?" Sounding just a touch more awake, though still groggy.
Them: "Hellooooo Auntie Erin" Again screamed into the phone by the Codster.
Sister: "You awake?" Her sounding all pleased with herself.
Me: "I am now thanks" Rubbing my eyes and trying to see what time it reads on the clock. "What time is it?"
Sister: "8 am your time. I was hoping you'd still be sleeping." Obvious laughter coming from their end.
Me: "Uhhhhhh..gee..thanks." Said in mock-ungrateful voice.
Sister: "Oh you're welcome." She says in bright chipper voice.
Codster: "..you look like a monkey and you smell like one too." More laughter.
Me: "I love you too little man."
Codster: Profuse laughing and random song.

Later that morning, my family and I drove into the city and walked around downtown Dallas. I was a little tired of my country view, wanting something a little more urban for today's photo adventure. I couldn't have asked for a better day. It was 80 degrees and sunny. There was a mild wind, but boy..it was gorgeous. We walked around for close to 3 hours taking pictures of the city scape. We still hadn't explored all we had wanted to when my camera beeps "Memory Card Full"(I'll be sharing some of those pictures when I have the time to resize them). We called it quits for the day with the promise to return. It was a fantastic time!

The rest of the day and evening were filled with more time spent outside playing in the yard and later friends (and neighbours) came over for an hour or so to hang around and chat. Critter and their son (who we call Superstar) had a blast playing with every toy they could get their hands on. What hooligans those two are when they get together! Lord love them.

...today is my birthday! Shhhhh