Yesterday morning, Hite called on my cell phone to see if we wanted him to bring us some Krispy Kreme donuts before we left Dallas. I kind of feel like he meant it as a rhetorical question because he’s known Gulley and me for almost twenty years and surely he must have known the answer would be YES PLEASE.
And as if Krispy Kreme delivery wasn’t enough, he also brought hats for everyone.
Even Ella.
Although she turned down the donuts in favor of one of Will’s matchbox cars, which AJ discovered later in the day when bits of Hot Wheels began to filter out of Ella’s mouth and other places we won’t discuss.
We ate our donuts, said our goodbyes and got back on the road for the second part of our Texas tour.
On the way to Waco, we called Gulley’s dad and asked him where we should stop for lunch. After he made fun of me for being a socialite due to my disdain for public transportation, he suggested we go to George’s Bar. It was a brilliant suggestion, so we played “George’s Bar” by Pat Green on the iPod for the kids (really it was totally for our own benefit) and headed that way.
Will didn’t make it into the picture because he was still back at the car searching for his Scooby Doo croc and the rest of us were broiling in the heat. We desperately needed to get in the air-conditioning and eat something fried.
After lunch, we made our big stop of the day, the Mayborn Museum on the Baylor campus. I have to say that it was one of the best children’s museums I’ve ever been to and was definitely better than sweating at the zoo looking at a bunch of lame birds and a gorilla who looks like he’s totally over the whole being in captivity thing.
Although I will admit that children’s museums can stress me out a little bit because some of the rooms involve science and exhibits like how a liquid turns into a gas and it’s only a matter of time before Caroline will ask a question and my shocking lack of anything and everything scientific will be put on display for a bunch of other moms to hear.
“A liquid becomes a gas by a process I like to call MAGIC.”
Fortunately, there were other things that required little to no working knowledge of anything useful.
My own little Mona Lisa.
Here they are in a Native American habitat formerly known as a tee-pee.
This was just like a real school bus but without the ripped green vinyl seats that stick to your legs and a surly, chain-smoking bus driver. Actually, the driver was a bit surly but he gave up smoking for his 3rd birthday.
Look! It’s what the ancient bloggers, also known as “writers”, used to use back in prehistoric times.
On our way out of the museum, we let the kids stop in the gift shop to pick one small souvenir each. Jackson and Caroline chose a small bag full of polished rocks and quartz. Will chose some kind of clear, plastic ball filled with bugs. When Gulley paid for it and handed it to him, he hugged her and exclaimed, “Thank you for buying this for me Mom! It’s a blessing to my heart.” I believe he absorbed some Baptist by osmosis while on the Baylor campus.
Finally, we got in the car and drove to the last stop of our trip, Bryan/College Station. The motherland.
Once the car was unloaded (again) and we settled in, there were three moments that made me so happy.
The first was this darling little ladybug cupcake cake that Honey (Gulley’s mama) had bought so we could have a little early birthday celebration for Gulley.
The second was when Nena came in and announced that she’d been in a terrible mood, but got a new permanent this afternoon and it changed her whole disposition. I’m sad to report that I have no pictures of Nena and her new permanent.
The third was when Gulley showed me this incredible magnifying mirror that belongs to Honey. She’d told me about it after her last trip because she said she couldn’t quit looking at her pores in horror and was certain it caused her to stumble in the way of over-tweezing her eyebrows.
Listen. I thought she was exaggerating, but once she showed me that mirror I was like the reincarnation of Narcissus, except instead of falling in love with my own beauty I was completely mesmerized by the fact that I not only have a unibrow, but some stray eyebrows growing down the side of my face. I can’t even discuss the fine lines around my eyes, it’s too painful.
So here’s my scientific fact for the day; It is never a good idea to look at yourself in a mirror that magnifies your face to 15 times its normal size.
Also, Gulley and I had a lengthy discussion (seriously, I’m embarrassed to even admit how long we passed that mirror back and forth and discussed it) about how we both have one really good eyebrow and one that is always a little unruly no matter how much we try to pluck and define. Our hypothesis is that all women have this eyebrow struggle.
Is it universal or is it just us? Do you have one good brow or are they equally appealing? Or perhaps you have a hobby that doesn’t involve staring at yourself in the mirror and have never really noticed one way or the other.
Whatever the case may be, we need to know. The science depends on it.