(Allegedly) Snoring. In Texas. (Not Allegedly.)

When last I left you, The Coopers had traveled to Texas for Spring Break and I had promised you a story of snoring in Texas. However, things have developed (in the form of an e-mail I got from someone to whom I am related) asking me if I really HAD to tell that story, with NAMES and all. Given as how I am related to this person, um, on my MOTHER'S side, if you know what I mean (and I think you do), I will simply say that there was a LOT of snoring going on (some of it allegedly) and the punch line was that at some point when I was sleeping on the couch in the living room, Ana (12) wandered out and curled up on the other couch, saying, "Jane (9) is snoring." This made the snoring a universal issue, aside from my mother, for whom it was only alleged.

Given that we were all eating vast amounts of Tex Mex food, things could have been much, MUCH worse. Still, you might want to think twice about sharing a hotel room with any of the Coopers, including (allegedly) people in Barb's extended family.

Anyway, we went to Texas and hung out in Dallas for a few days and had just the best time with my (allegedly non-snoring) family.

Then we headed to Austin, our former home. Since we've been gone, my husband's brother and his family have moved to town, including this delicious little morsel of humanity:

This is our newest niece, Hallie.

Coop has met her before a couple of times--she's the daughter of his only brother--but I never have.  She's wonderful.  She's gorgeous and funny and smart and it made me realize that there is no way my children could ever have been that size.

It just so happened that Coop's brother's in-laws were in town over the long weekend and they had rented this fantastic place by the lake.  I say "fantastic" because it was clearly someone's fantasy --some CHILDLESS person's fantasy run amok.  I say "childless" because this place had the most amazing infinity pool--you know, one of those pools that goes right up to the edge of the universe and then drop off the side of it?  You know, one of those pools with an edge that attracts small children like an out-of-tune ice-cream truck?  I mean, just TRY to keep them away from that edge...

It looks more dangerous than it is.  But every parent around was hyperventilating.  So we all took a tour of the house, which included gargoyles.  I'm not even kidding.

(Is it just me or do gargoyles make you think of Ghostbusters, too?)

Anyway, we hung out with the family and went to dinner with some friends and then on Saturday, we visited our old street and old friends and had a big party at our former community pool.  So many people came--on EASTER WEEKEND--it left me weepy and breathless with gratitude for the amazing friends we have.  We've been gone more than two years but people were so welcoming and so happy to see us.

I went through about six million pictures looking for one to post here but none of them conveyed that amazing feeling of being home.  Not to take anything away from Long Island but I lived in Austin for more than half of my life and the friendships I made there are deep and lasting in a way that my friendships up here simply can't be.  It's so reassuring to know that I'm still welcome there.