Surf and turf.

Hello friends far and near and in between. In Whoville around here we are a busy little family. Not busy in the walking and texting kind of busy in which people pretend to be busy by answering non urgent text messages from other friends while walking into traffic and/ or forgetting to hold their child's hand while crossing the street- no, the real knd of busy. The busy kind of busy- spending half of your day in a vehicle transporting, picking up, and moving your family members around as needed. Then, in our case spending the last two afternoons at the beach watching my husband learn to surf. The waves are brawling and nasty, calming now but menacing as the front turned our normally aqua and white beaches in to a pit of brown froth and wind that makes sand enter one ear and fly out the other. this is the panhandle in late winter- the locals venturing out, taking advantage of warmer days (above 40 but below 60) to fight the elements of weather that come to us via Texas and the Out West. It teases us and we take the bait. We drove out there the minute after picking our D up from school- us scouring the blasted white sand and finding tons of shells, eating picnic dinner and squinting into the wind watching my husband paddle hard against the waves, riding them in, attempting to stand and trying again. I love this thing- this learning thing we have in common. Trying new things has always been a part of me and I am blessed to find a soul mate in that particular trait. I'm never one to stay "still" and love doing new things and having new experiences. P got his board last year and now a wetsuit, braving the cold and joining the other tribes of local surfers to enter that cold inspiring water. This is a surfing town - SURFING TOWN. There are surf clubs, surf shops, surf heros (Yancy Spencer who has a statue on the beach now) and surf documents filmed here. It is a place of rad people, craft beers, centuries old buildings, gourmet food, and inspirational artsy fartsy kind of things. And it breathes live into me- that feeling of large sprawling college towns, this one with the hills, the bayous and the intense green everywhere due to the canopies of oaks, magnolias and azaleas.

For now, this post will stand as a reminder that I will return later to finish. I have just returned from a family trip and was told by several older second and third cousins who follow this blog that I have a gift. I would call it a love simply because I love to write. However the timing was great because as I was encouraged by many friends the past year, I am currently writing two different types of books that they can enjoy, from me, to be published soon. Be on the lookout- I may get back on Facebook if only to show them off. After all- that's what FB is for right?