Where's Kelli?

Where am I? Need a hint?

Ok, how about another hint?

Not sure yet? Does this help?

Donkeys!

Ok, last hint. This should do it:

Flat? Donkeys? Oil? YES! I am in Texas!! Outside of Houston, to be exact!

I came to visit Noel as a belated birthday present (my birthday was 2 weeks ago), and also because I had a job interview here the other day. No word yet on the job - we'll see.

The kitties are being well tended by my dear Aunt Betty. Thank you for taking such good care of the boys!!

Anyway, it's great to be in the same time zone with Noel - he's been here for a month, and that's a long time to go without seeing each other. He's still working night shift though, so our together time is limited to a few hours a day. Difficult, but certainly better than nothing!!

He is a sweetheart - look at the gift he bought me for Valentine's Day:

Purple tulips!! Love them. And it's so nice that they're a living plant - they've already got 3 more buds on them and are just gorgeous.

So while I was prepping for the interview, I didn't go out much. Since the interview though, we've taken the opportunity to do some exploring. Noel found a cute house that might be a potential if I get the job and we move to this area soon:

Isn't it ADORABLE? An absolute dollhouse. Huge back yard too. Perfect for gardening!

(Speaking of, I'm obsessing about my garden for this year. Am toying with the idea of planting a purple garden - there are so many purple plants. Wouldn't that be fun? Purple broccoli, purple carrots, purple lettuce, purple basil, lavender, purple tomatillos!)

Noel found a gorgeous church that he pointed out to me the other day. I went by there today while he was sleeping at the hotel, so I could get some pictures of it. Gorgeous, no? The steeple is stunning.

Of course, knowing me and my sometimes stupid life, I didn't realize until too late what else was going on:

Oops.

For those of you who don't know, I have an uncanny ability to walk up to churches in the middle of funerals. Once I was admiring a car in front of a church, not realizing that it was the family car for a funeral until I looked up and a gaggle of people dressed in black were staring at me from the church steps. And another time, I walked into a church while they were preparing the body for the funeral. I have a gift, really, for dead people. Yeah.

ANYWAY. The church was so lovely! And being that it's a Catholic church, it had the stations of the cross. But instead of being plaques inside the church, they had a park set up across the street with individual crosses, with a plaque for each station on its own cross. This park featured a huge live oak in the middle of it. Gorgeous tree.

So of course, this was the perfect opportunity to do a few Things in Sky pics:

Now, speaking of gardening, I went to the local home improvement store and checked out their plants and such. It seems that this far south in Texas, they actually have TWO planting seasons, early spring and early fall. How cool is that?

Know what else is cool?

You can grow avocados here! (Or as the locals say, Avacodos. Apparently.) Catlyn - I took this picture for you. :)

Noel, who is not a guacamole fan, can't understand my excitement over the avocado plants. But! You can also grow key limes! And gardenias! Sigh....if only there were purple gardenias.

Also found a fun piece of graffiti:

Heh.