LOL....OMG....What the...?

Let's see.....how do I feel right now? Ummm, let's say your BFF planned a surprise party for you and gathered 100s of friends, acquaintances and strangers around your front door in the early morning. Then you stumble out of bed, look at the make-up smudged eyes you were too tired to clean the night before, pour a cup of coffee and take your first sip before hearing the doorbell ring. You answer the door in your bra-less tank top (cause it's Houston here and that's sleeping attire in April) and stare in disbelief at the crowd before you.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel thanks to one incredible Ms. Meg Cabot. That scene above is exactly me this morning right down to the eye smudges, braless tank and coffee. Except I really don't think we are BFFs, Meg (I am not stalker-like that way, though yes, I did know M&Ms were a snack of yours and gluten-free). And instead of a surprise party, Meg LINKED TO ME FROM HER BLOG read by fans of hers from all over the world.

So please excuse my blog's appearance, faithful followers of Meg. (I mean, a quilt post at the top of my blog? really? really? I could die of embarassment (Though girls, quilting is hip now. Seriously, you should think about taking it up. The fabrics! to. die. for. And, your generation needs to keep up this American tradition.)

Anyways, thanks Meg!! (I think?) We had such an awesome time meeting you yesterday. I will blog the entire experience when I finish a pot of coffee or two. (And cheer on my 8 year old's soccer team this morning....go Gators!)

And you may be a ROCK STAR author, but if I scroll through my photos and find one of you with say, your eyes half-closed or something, I am not above posting it to get you back. :)

Be back soon with pics of our experience!

QIP (Quilts in Progress)

Here are the two quilts I am currently working on. The top one is the quilt that is going above our fireplace in the great room. It is a fairly long quilt so it's hard to get a good picture of its'
full length. What do you think, mom.....does the inner border need to be wider? I'm thinking now it needs to be the same width as the top & side borders.

The quilt below is one I am just working on for fun. I purchased some charm packs a few weeks back and found the pattern for this coin quilt at the Moda Bake Shop.

What I really liked about the pattern is the back of the quilt with the pieced strip running through the backing fabric. Is that not so cute? Now I just need to decide what my backing will be. What do you think? Yellow, blue or maybe....red?

One more picture: Meghan had a school tennis tournament yesterday and played a total of 52 games before her last match was retired at 5-7 because of weather. She came home exhausted! When I checked on her in the early evening, she was sound asleep with her pal, Lucy. I swear, that cat is part mountain lion.

Breaking News:

This just in from Anna: I am the WORST mother in the world. And I quote, "I seriously want to pack up and leave this house."

Which reminded me of this hysterical post on a blog I've just discovered.

Almost Famous

The week before spring break, our local free newspaper, the FM 1960 Sun, ran an article about kids' activities for spring break. The writer is actually our neighbor across the street. She needed a photo to accompany her story and asked if she could shoot a picture of Anna by our pool. I wasn't home at the time...just Jack and Anna were, and Jack said sure and didn't think a thing more about it. Well, the following week, this is what landed on our doorstep:
And a larger version of that photo accompanied the story on page 3. Anna was so excited. There was even buzz at her school about the photo which thrilled her to no end. Sigh. Our little celebrity. She enjoyed her 15 minutes of fame. And she didn't even go all Paris Hilton on us. (Though if I had to guess which of our three daughters had the most Paris Hilton potential, Anna definitely wins that contest.)

Mother Nature vs. Shamu

Turns out it's no contest: Not even Shamu's fluke could bat the rain/wind/cold temperatures away. The highlight of our week, a day at Sea World San Antonio, was cut short due to low attendance/weather. As in, they CLOSED the park at 3pm.

We braved it out and showed up at the park opening at 10am after spending the night at my parent's place in Bandera. It was raining and 40 degrees when we got there. And I am not kidding, there were about 5 cars in the parking lot. In fact, the park was so empty, Shamu and Dolly were beckoning the kids to come over and huddle against them for warmth. I mean, pose for a picture:After going through the turnstiles, we said a quick hello to the Budweiser Clydesdale's and then went to the dolphin feeding area. Jackpot! There was only one other family there. Normally you have to stand about three deep at this pool to wait your turn to throw a $5 fish at a dolphin in return for a chance to touch it. Instead, this is what we got:
We all agreed. The dolphin experience was worth the numb, wet feet, layers of coats, and shortened park hours. It was really cool to have them basically all to ourselves.

The rest of the day revolved around the one showing of each of the three shows that were operating that day: the dolphin/beluga whale show (Viva!), the sea lion/walrus show (Cannery Row Caper) and of course, Shamu's big show (Believe). Here are some pics:Two things in that last picture: Check out how empty the stands are! Also, those crazy people actually ran down the steps to get splashed by the killer whales. Mind you, by now it was a balmy 43 degrees. Freaks.

The announcement that the park was closing was made right after the Shamu show. We were on our way to see the penguins, so alas, that did not happen as they were pretty adamant about kicking us out. Good thing I bought a Fun Card for all of us which is good for the entire 2009 season. We will definitely be back. Next time we want sunshine, 80s, low crowds and all the water rides OPEN. Bring it Shamu!

After leaving the park, we grabbed some yummy Mexican food for dinner and then headed back to my parent's house. Poor Jack. He was hoping to watch some college hoops, but when you are one guy in a house full of girls, this is what you are going to end up watching. And it was a marathon too! Lucky guy.

Three weeks later.....

Oops. I last posted three weeks ago? Really? I didn't mean for that to happen. I must have fallen asleep at the keyboard. Not that life has been a whirlwind of blogworthy entertainment around here lately. But still.....

The kids are on Spring Break this week. So far, it's been low key....sleeping in (even more so thanks to the time change), Wii games, lots of Gilmore Girls, and a family lunch on Sunday:


Yeah, the McAfees like to do it up big while on staycation. Everyone got their own hot dog and soft drink!

Let's see....what else is going on? Anyone else follow The Bachelor this season like Meghan and I did? As Meghan said on her Facebook page: WHAT THE HECK JASON? Can I please have those 10 hours of my life back?

I have been quilting again. I am working on two quilts. One is the "over the fireplace" quilt I have been threatening to make for almost 10 years now. We have a vaulted ceiling in our great room and a long, narrow insert over the fireplace. I have not decorated that space in the 9 1/2 years we have lived here but, I am almost done with a quilt top that I have been working on! I just have to sew borders on it, have it quilted and then it will hang in that space. The other quilt was inspired by this one I found on the Moda Bake Shop site. I am using Urban Chik's Sweet charm squares and Mary Engelbreit's Basket of Flowers together and it's coming together really cute. I will snap pictures of both quilts for my next post.


I have been playing lots of tennis too. The spring weather has really hit Houston and since I play on three leagues, I am on the courts at least 3-4 times a week. I have been consistently inconsistent with my playing this season. Some matches I am on fire....others, I would like to have back every dime I have spent on lessons. I do love the game though. It's fun, especially when you are playing well!

This is the book my Reading Between the Wines club is currently reading. I am about half way done with it and it is really charming. It has gotten really good reviews too. Unfortunately, I won't be at our gathering tomorrow evening. We actually are doing a little more over spring break than taking our girls to Costco for lunch. Tomorrow we are heading over to San Antonio to spend some quality time with this guy:


Pictures when we return! And maybe video too. Jack bought a fun little toy last week.

Thank you Meg Cabot!

So Friday afternoon, on my way to the corner that I greet Claire and Anna at after school, I check the mail. Immediately, I notice a stuffed mailer envelope and I think, hmmm, what did I order from Amazon that I don't remember? I turn it over in my hand and this is what I see:
Meg Cabot. Are you kidding me? The Meg Cabot?

She is equal parts entertainer, idol, mentor, and rock star in this house. For those of you who don't have teenage/pre-teen girls, Ms. Cabot is most famously the author of The Princess Diaries series of books. She actually is a prolific author of books for teen and pre-teen girls as well as adults. Check out Meghan's bookcase to see if you recognize any other titles. Also note that Meghan is a HUGE fan of hers.
Ms. Cabot has a blog that Meghan turned me on to about a year ago. Meghan insisted I check it out as she was funny and owned cats....two things this household holds in high esteem. I have been reading her blog ever since and that is how I became a fan of hers. She is funny (hysterically funny at times), loves reality tv (hello! Intervention anyone?) and celebrity gossip, and is a wealth of information about other books and authors. I have yet to read a novel of hers (that will certainly change), but I love her. And I love that Meghan and Claire love her. And you can be sure, Anna will love her. (Claire is passing the Allie books down to her.) So, anyways, long story short, a couple of weeks ago Meg posted on her blog that she was giving away some advance copies of her newest Allie Finkle book to the first few people that emailed her. I thought I would give it a shot so I wrote the following email:

Dear Ms. Cabot,
My 11 year old daughter,Claire, would absolutely love an advance copy of your latest Allie Finkle novel. Here is our snail mail: Claire McAfee (omitted for obvious reasons) Thanks!!
Tracey McAfee
ps I am attaching a picture of my 15 year old's bookcase so you can see exactly how esteemed you are in this house full of girls!! Meghan can't wait for the Airhead sequel. Thank you, thank you, thank you for inspiring my girls to LOVE to read.

A few days later she posted on her blog that the winners were notified, and not hearing anything, I didn't give it another thought. Until last Friday when I checked the mail. I was shocked to see the return address label and I impatiently tore open the package while waiting for Claire at the corner. Inside was an advance copy of Allie Finkle's Rule for Girls: Best Friends and Drama Queens! And it was signed by Meg Cabot!!

But that is not all. She also included an advance copy of Being Nikki, which is the sequel to one of Meghan's favorite books, Airhead. And she signed that copy too!!!
Meghan and Claire were in heaven! It was so, so cool to get that package. I cannot even tell you how excited we all were! It was a genuine surprise and I will forever be grateful that a busy author (and her assistant, I'm sure) took the time to read an email from a mom of a couple of fans and send a little something their way. Such a little act of kindness that meant a great deal to all of us in the McAfee house.

Meg, you have fans for life! You rock. And your assistant (Nancy, I think) rocks. And Allie rocks....and Nikki.....and Mia. Thank you!! Also, if anyone in the Houston area is reading this and is interested, Meg will be in Houston at The Blue Willow Book Shop on April 3rd. I just may have to pull the girls out of school that day so they can thank her in person.