Happy Thanksgiving!

As Mike so eloquently stated, we did the "big eat" here again this year.  It was a surprisingly low-key day.  Not sure how it happened but there was no major rush and hubbub to get things done.  It just all happened easily, smoothly, happily.  Turkey was fab, as were all the sides and desserts.  I neglected to take but two pictures.  One of my fabulous drunken pecan pie and one of a headless lego turkey napkin holder - be jealous of that, very jealous.  Hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was just as lovely as ours.

Bookshelves!

Finally finished my bookshelf project last weekend. However, I can't seem to write a decent post these days about much of anything. So, maybe, just maybe it's sufficient this time to let the pictures do the talking.

Before...

After...

Time flies...

This blog has definitely suffered the effects of school.  Just can't seem to keep up with it.  Halloween was fun, the boys were adorable (when are they not...). Alex dressed up as Mike and Ben went as Calvin.

Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Michael came over and helped us carve pumpkins and we all had a great evening together.

My bookshelf project is almost done.  I am so excited about it.  I think it's gone very well and I am anxious to finish up the last few steps.

The weather has finally changed to fall-like most days.  Lots of rainy weekends.

I had Thanksgiving lunch with the boys at school today, kind of crazy to think that we are officially in "the holidays".  I swear school just started yesterday.

Other than that... I had a nasty case of severe tonsilitis in October, quickly followed by a badly sprained ankle and then happily a couple of weeks of good health.  Now I'm in the midst of either severe allergies or more likely bronchitis.  Allergies go away after a few days, or at least get to a place where it's easy to control.  This, well, anyway... it's finally starting to get better.  Fortunately, nothing is or has been contagious, so it's just me suffering through this crud. I have 16 kids that I read with at school a couple of times a week.  As much fun as it is I am looking forward to Thanksgiving break and Christmas break.

The boys are great.  Alex is flourishing in school, having a blast.  He has the most amazing teacher who is really bringing out a love of learning in Alex this year. Ben is doing great too.  He would much rather help everyone else do their work than do his own, but with a little prodding it all gets done.  Ben's got a great teacher too and he loves school and playing with all his buddies.

Mike is busy busy busy at work, but fortunately not traveling too much.  He gets some time to work on models and help the boys with their models.  His office is moving to a new location in December.  It's closer to home and hopefully that means he will have a much more pleasant commute to/from work.  I am happy he'll be closer.

And that... is us.

Rain, The Symphony, Bookshelves

There have been oh, 4 or 5 blog posts rattling around lately, but just can't seem to get myself to sit down and type them up.

We had a really lovely rainy weekend.  There hasn't been any rain to speak of since June, a few showers that fell in Austin but never here.  We hit the jackpot this weekend though - nearly 12 inches when all was said and done.  It was a great opportunity to just sit and watch it rain, so lovely to do that.

We did venture out Saturday evening to hear the Austin Symphony perform. They did the show "Bugs Bunny at the Symphony".  Long story short, the symphony provided the sound track to a bunch of looney tunes cartoons.  It was fabulous.  Not sure if it was more fun watching the performance or the kids.  They were so excited, laughing hysterically, and totally into the whole thing.   So fun.  Here's a link for more details, it's a great show:

http://www.bugsbunnyatthesymphony.net/concert.html

And that brings us to the bookcases.  Lots of progress.  Pretty sure the router is my new best friend, or at the very least my very favorite power tool.  We disassembled the library last night, I painted today and hauled the base cabinets inside.  With Mike's help tonight we may actually get those cabinets installed and the top in place.  The shelving units are ready to assemble once the base cabinets are done.  Then it will be on to all the mountains of finishing work that needs to be done.  All of it is a bit scary at the moment, moving things into the house and actually taking off baseboards and painting walls and such makes it much more real.  It is exciting though and hopefully it will be finished sooner than later.  I'll miss my self imposed end of Oct. deadline, but the wait is worth it.

Router Fun

There have been so many distractions/delays in my bookshelf project.  One little hangup has been the router.  At some point in the planning I decided that cutting grooves in some parts of this project would be necessary.  So I bought a router.  But it has been sitting in the garage untouched for quite some time.  I didn't actually know how to use a router, Mike had never used one either. So, long story short, last night we got some bits and today I found my courage and went to it.  Some youtube videos and piecing together of crummy instructions later I fired up the router and cut the first groove (in a test piece of wood).  It was terrible!  But, it only took another try to figure it out and in no time I was cutting very pretty grooves that won't be seen.  Anyway, the router is lots of fun and now I know what I'm doing with it.

I actually made some good progress on the shelves this weekend, and maybe, just maybe they'll get done before forever!

Birthday Fun!

I started this post way back in July to celebrate my milestone birthday.  Never got around to finishing it, we were headed out for vacation just after my birthday.  I'm not even sure where I was going with what I had written, so I scrapped it all and here we are.  I'm revisiting it because we just celebrated Mike's birthday and birthdays seem like a happy thing to post about.  Soooooo....

Turning 40 was grand.  Apparently my friends think it's a huge milestone to be celebrated.  Lots of people helped me celebrate in many ways.  The best part though, was getting to spend the day with my little family.  They were so sweet and spoiled me rotten.  I made myself one of those awesome milkbar cakes with a gazillion layers - it was a mint chocolate chip cake.  Best birthday present - Alex recorded a CD for me of him playing the piano.  It is so sweet.

On to Mike's birthday. I tried to convince him to take the day off work to spend at home with us. It just so happened that the boys were off school on his birthday.   His computer crapped out Sunday night, I figured that was a good excuse! But, he had to go into the office to get his computer fixed if nothing else.  That's ok, it gave me time to make him a gazillion layer milk bar cake (german chocolate). The birthday gods decided he shouldn't work too hard though, the power went out at the office so he got to come home early in the afternoon and spend half the day with us.

Lots of presents and cakes later, I think it's safe to say we both had great days. Ben's big day is next and he's already making plans.  To finish things off, here are pictures of the cakes.  These are directly from the milkbar website because I'm too lazy to load my own pics at the moment.  But, my cakes did look just like these, and tasted amazing!

  

Signs of Fall

Yay for October!  In my book October is the best month of the year, for many many reasons which I need not go into.  Except, I will point out that it's a milestone month for Mike and me, we met in October, fell in love in October, and somehow or other through all of life we are still together this year, in October, and plan to be next October and every October after as long as we both shall live. So, it's a happy time :-)

October means fall.  We get our share of cool-ish weather.  It's all relative.  Instead of highs in the mid-90s, we get highs in the upper 80s - low 90s.  That 5 degrees makes all the difference.  More importantly, we get some slightly cooler mornings, which is just lovely.  I smiled to myself yesterday morning as I saw all of the neighborhood walking their kids to school, not just the dedicated few that do it everyday.  That's how you know fall has arrived here.  No leaves to change colors, no "crisp, cool, autumn days", just a few degrees cooler in the morning making it enjoyable enough to walk the half mile to school.

Then there is the pumpkin-everything craze that seems to grow crazier and crazier every year.  That's fine by me, I like pumpkin-everything.  I usually don't have pumpkin anything though until Thanksgiving.  But, we stopped to get ice cream after a bike ride over the weekend and they had pumpkin cheesecake ice cream.  It was pretty darn awesome.  Now I do want more pumpkin-anything.

The kids are planning their halloween costumes.  Looks like it's going to be another easy year on mom. Ben keeps changing his mind, he has been counting down the days and says he doesn't have to decide until the day of Halloween.  I reminded him that I needed at least a two week heads up so I can make his costume.  Ohhhhh....  didn't think about that!  I think he's all set now.  Going to keep quiet on what they plan until the day of though!

The bookshelf project is coming along.  The cabinets are very nearly done, close enough for now, just a small bit of paint on one side, and repaint the door that needed some corner repair work.  It's time to start constructing the top shelves.  Pretty sure we have that all worked out.  Mike helped me get the very large board cut this weekend, now it's up to me to actually assemble some shelves.  So very many things to do before this project will be done.

So, happy fall. Enjoy some cool-ish weather and lots of pumpkin everything.

Beginning to wonder...

I'm beginning to wonder whether or not the bookshelf project will actually get done.  Seems to be just one little setback after another.  Dishwasher, Sandy, I got sick, and now I find that the boys knocked over one of the doors that I had painted and smashed the corner.  It's fixable, but it's another setback, and I just want to be done with the cabinets so I can build the shelves and finish the project.  These cabinets were supposed to be the quick and easy part, and 3 weeks later, ugh, not done.

So that's my little rant.

Sandy

We lost Sandy a couple of days ago.  It was unexpected. I had typed up the whole story, but in the end it's not important.  All that matters is that Sandy was so very sweet.  And as much of a giant pain in the ass as he could be I would rather have that than not have him at all. He died in my arms knowing he was loved by many.

Tooting my own horn...

The dishwasher died a couple of weeks ago.  We ordered a new one.  It was delivered.  I installed it.  Yep, me.  Alllll by myself.   And it works.  So yeah, I'm just a wee bit proud of myself.

Confidence Booster

I'm no stranger to building things and using tools and all that stuff.  But it's been a really long time since I've gone beyond tinkering in the garage.  This bookshelf project is mine and given the nature of our household, I'll be the one doing the vast majority of the work.

So the cabinets I bought were staring me in the face and I decided that the best thing to do would be to build a little furniture dolly to help scootch them around.  Off I go to Lowe's to pick up a 2x4 and some castors and yay, it's time to build the dolly. I had no plans, didn't figure I would need any, I mean how hard can a project like this really be, right?

Well, I was right.  No plans were needed, it was not hard, and I successfully built a very useful dolly, complete with carpeted ends so that there is some protection for whatever I put on it.  The only stumbling blocks I encountered had nothing to do with the actual construction.  I couldn't remember how the darn saw went back in the box, and it was just silly and took forever to figure that out.  And of course we had a million screws, but none were the right size so in the middle of this project (on a hot day in the garage so I'm very good and gross) I had to go and buy more screws.

Anyway, this very simple project went a long way in boosting my confidence to tackle the shelves.  I did in fact take the saw to the cabinets over the weekend and cut off the bottoms.  Happily they sit level and more importantly at the same height!  Sanding and painting them is next.  One is sanded, the other I have yet to do.

I think the thing that gave me pause was that for so many years now I have had a partner to do thing with at all times.  This is the first time that a very large project has come along that I am doing solo.  Of course Mike wants to help.  We also want this done as quickly as possible, so that requires I spend my days working on it while he is at work.  So I'm ready to tackle these shelves.  Seriously. I think.  Maybe...

This & That

Vacation seems like a lifetime ago, yet I will at some point, write about it a bit, throw up a few pics.  In the meantime, here's what's been going on in our little world.

It's hot, it's Texas, it's supposed to be that way.  I'm still tired of it though.

As of tomorrow we will have successfully completed 1/12 of the school year.  Only 33 weeks to go.  Sigh.  Not like I'm counting or anything.  I have been minimizing time spent up there thus far, and it is working out great.  Lots of teachers are asking me to read with their kids though so I imagine I will start that next week.

Speaking of school, bedtime is the time for the confession of transgressions for the older kid.  Tonight's confession - he got a warning for playing with his ruler.  A warning is an improvement, he's already had it taken away once this year for an extended period of time.  This from the kid who has always been a perfect angel.  He says he is bored, which I totally get.  I asked if he could just read a book or something, apparently not because the boredom comes during lecture time when he should be paying attention and not reading or apparently playing with rulers.  Sorry kid, have to follow the rules on this one, and you better get used to boring lectures.  Still have 8 more years of schooling before college.

I sort of unofficially started on a little house project I've been wanting to do for several years now.  We are going to build some swanky new bookcases for the library/music room.  Got the cabinets that will serve as the base a couple of days ago.  It will be lots of work, but should be fun.  No doubt there will be updates to follow.

And our dishwasher died last night.  It served us for the last 12 years and another family for 8 years before that.  I wouldn't say it served us well, maybe earlier on, but not anytime recently.  But, it has worked and now it doesn't so a new one is undoubtedly in our future.  In the meantime I've put some scrubby sponges to good use. I always think of my grandma when I have to wash ALL the dishes by hand.  She never had a dishwasher and would always wash the dishes first thing in the morning, never wanting anyone to help her.  She would say that it was relaxing and a good way to start her day.

Oops...

I didn't intend to let August slip away without a single post, but it happened anyway.  I knew there would be a gap because of vacation.  I did not intend to let the last week slip by though.

Vacation was lovely, so very lovely.  Three parts, two full weeks and not nearly long enough.  We found another city to love and explore, a return to a favorite spot at the beach, and much needed and unexpected rest and relaxation in a home from long ago.  I will eventually put up some posts about all of it, complete with pictures.

The rest of August ended in a flurry of back to school activities and illness recovery, all at once!  So many people at the beach had various bits of whatnot lingering it was inevitable that we would catch something.  I did not share it at the time, but I managed to also catch the strep that was making the rounds.  I managed to fend it off with my little oily pharmacy.  Chalk up another few points for essential oils!  The boys only suffered fevers for a day or so, again put to rapid demise by the oils.  I credit rampant use of oils for keeping the strep from spreading to them.  Mike managed to end up catching some variation of the strep as well.  His official strep test was negative, but something definitely gave him the same symptoms.  Sadly, I had exhausted my oil supply and had only enough to help him survive his business trip.  After a long week of suffering, a trip to the doc and some antibiotics finally cleared him up.  And yes, more healing oils are on order, in fact maybe they are sitting in my mailbox right now.

School started off with a bang for the boys.  They have some fabulous teachers this year and are very excited to be back amongst their friends.  My days are most certainly quiet without them around.  More on back to school later.

To wrap up loose ends, Tucker bounced back from whatever little episode he had at the end of our vacation.  Confirmation from a vet today that it was an idiopathic vestibular episode.  In other words, old dog disease.  He's hanging on for now, looking pretty good for 15.  We'll keep fingers crossed that he makes it through the winter, the cold is always so hard on him.  The other animals are also all doing well.

Heading into fall I'll try not to wish my life away - wishing I was someplace more exciting and fun, wishing the boys weren't at school and Mike at work, wishing I didn't have to do the mundane school things I have to do.  I'll try to enjoy my time, maybe tackle a few projects here and there, try to be productive at least some of the time.

40 Things

In honor of the start of a new decade, here are 40 things about me...

1. I'm sort of in love with all the free online classes that are available.  SO much to learn!
2. Chocolate
3. I love my stay at home life and my darling Mike for making it happen.
4. My fingers are very short - makes it hard to learn some of those guitar chords
5. I want to live in Oregon some day.
6. If I won the lottery I would travel far and extensively.
7. I love eating fruit I just picked off a tree or a bush almost as much as chocolate.
8. My favorite color is green.
9. I can't sleep without my blanket.
10. I've never had to live alone.
11. I don't like big groups or gatherings.
12. My hearing has deteriorated so much that I have to have subtitles when I watch anything.  Even movies in the theater are getting hard for me now :-(
13. My favorite part of the day is bedtime.
14. I think about baking something yummy almost every day.
15. I've had glasses since I was 8.
16. Definitely not pleasant to be around when I'm hungry.
17. Been with Mike longer than without.
18. I love the mountains...
19. and the ocean...
20. and the desert
21. Would love to be able to draw and paint and be really artistic
22. A house full of animals makes me happy
23. I really find it nearly impossible to fold my clothes and put them away at the end of the day.  Oops.
24. I think it's funny that I grew up on Spain Drive and now live on London Lane
25. I love curling, but not having done it for a year now, I don't actually miss it like I expected.
26. When the rain and sun are just right I always go rainbow hunting.
27. 3 years of teaching Spanish to elementary school kids and I only have vocabulary, no grammar knowledge.
28. Thought it would be fun to learn Mandarin Chinese online.  It is, but i'm dreadfully behind and doing just the bare minimum to pass the class so I'm not actually learning anything.
29. I've got grand plans for projects and hobbies when school starts. Reality is I probably won't accomplish any of them, rather I'll find a dozen other things to do instead.
30. I love garlic bread - really good soft, buttery, cheesy, very garlicky bread.
31. Think it would be fun to have the knowledge of a bartender though I have no interest in being a bartender.
32. I don't have any desire to write a book of any kind.
33. I want to drive a race car some day.
34. And go for a ride in a hot air balloon.
35. 3 is the right number of dogs.  4 is just one too many.
36. It's very difficult to spend so much time talking about myself.
37. Maybe I'll do another triathlon someday.
38. I like to read the ending of a book first.
39. Mike makes me happy.
40. Alex and Ben are my moon, and stars, and sunshine, the ocean, the mountains, the desert, life itself, the whole world. my whole world.

Counting Down...

1 - 2 hours until bedtime

3 days until my birthday (40!)

2 weeks until vacation

5 weeks until summer ends

Frustrations...

It's just that kind of day.  Every little thing is annoying me.  So why am I writing about it?  I don't know, probably because I feel like I should be doing something and this is as good of something as it's going to get.

Lazy mid summer day.  Not terribly hot.  Kids are in a good mood. I should be too.  Except, the dog is annoying the crap out of me, which is extra fun since there is one extra dog in the house, soon to be 2 extras.  Yay, fun.

Alex gets to spend the afternoon with a friend so I have to figure out some way to entertain Ben.  Sadly that probably means a trip to the grocery store.  Sorry kid. Mom's really phoning it in today.  So much so that Alex just made lunch for himself and Ben.

We switched up the hermit crab home, lost Sherman, but added 3 new ones to the mix (they don't really have names yet).  They should be much happier in their new home.  They seem to like grapes too.

And, that's all I've got.  Well, they can't all be winners now can they?

Happy July!

   

Once again I am playing catch up.

I think I left off with father's day and peach picking.  Pretty run of the mill everyday life stuff happening since then.

We had a nice 4th of July weekend, Steph & Michael came up on the 3rd and we grilled some amazing stuffed burgers.

We didn't do much on the 4th, kind of just enjoyed a quiet day.  We did go watch the local fireworks with some friend.  Afterwards we set off a few fireworks of our own at home (not supposed to, but hey, it was fun). The boys had a blast, especially with the stuff we played with at home.

This week the boys have art camp.  It's their first "camp" experience.  Hard to call it that really.  So the art teacher from our school and the art teacher from another school teamed up to do this week long camp.  The kids go to the one teacher's house (his detached garage is his art studio).  The kids are learning all sorts of cool stuff, making lots of neat artwork, and at the end of the week they will come home with a sketchbook and a bunch of supplies to continue using what they learned.  It's just for a few hours in the afternoon, but the boys are absolutely loving it.  

The boys and I have also started an online art class.  It's called "Playing" and so far it has been lots of fun.  Speaking of online classes - I finished the superhero class and took a few weeks off.  Mandarin Chinese started a couple of days ago, but I haven't started it yet.  Tonight.  

And that is the latest scoop.  I'm a little sad that summer is already half gone, but instead of dwelling on that, I'll try and savour what's left.

Water Fun

Very glad we made it out for peach picking on Saturday as Sunday ended up being another day full of rain and storms.  Regardless of the weather, Mike had a great Daddy's Day.  

We finally got to have some real water fun yesterday that didn't involve rain!  A friend invited us to tag along to the lake at Brushy Creek and play with their very fun water toys.  The boys and I had a blast on the stand up paddle board and in the kayak. I have been in a kayak many many times but the boys have not.  Last summer we did all get in a canoe together (that was an adventure - 5 people made that one wobbly boat!).  So Alex and Ben did know how to use the oars.  After about 30 seconds of instructions and making sure they had life jackets on, I sent them off for their very first solo kayak and paddle board adventures.  I'm not sure who was more surprised that I let them go by themselves, them or me.  There really wasn't much choice - it's a one man kayak and only one man on the paddleboard.  I was prepared to jump in the lake for a rescue if they should get stuck in the middle and not be able to find their way back to shore.  Happily, that was unnecessary.  I did end up going for a couple of swims though as I lost my balance on the paddleboard.  

Turns out that Ben is quite a natural in the water. His favorite was the kayak and clearly that was where he was most comfortable. He was maneuvering the kayak around like a champ. Figured out how to get himself turned around when the current pushed him into the reeds.  Alex was also a natural in the water - he had the paddleboard figured out in no time, and that turned out to be his preference.  I did ask the boys not to try standing up on the paddle board, we'll save that for the next time.  Here are a few pictures from the day.  Ben is on the paddle board, Alex in the kayak, and I am standing on the paddleboard.  Really fun day.  Someday I'd like to have some of those toys, especially since I have a place to take them that is close and perfect.

Rainy Summer = Lazy Summer

It hasn't been a total wash, but there has definitely been a bunch of rain lately, and rain makes me lazy.  Lazy means I let the blog slip and it's therefore blog catch up time again!

I never did mention much about Alex & Ben's mini vacation while we were in NOLA.  It was pretty much camp with Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Michael.  They took the boys fishing (catch & release), golfing (real golfing, not mini-golf, or pitch & putt, or top golf, the REAL thing), swimming, movies, cookouts with roasted marshmallows, squirt gun fights, video games, they made ice cream, and I don't even know what else.  They had a blast - all 4 of them :-)

We got enough breaks in the rainy weather to hit the pool a bunch last week, then Bill came and most of this week was pretty unfavorable.  We did manage to sneak in a swim Thursday morning.

I am loving summer break though.  No schedules, we've gotten into a sort of semi routine where we wake up whenever, have breakfast, kids do some chores and practice piano then we are free for whatever all afternoon.  This past week we had one of Ben's friends over most days (sick relative so the kid is being shuffled around while everyone takes turns at the hospital).

Today we went peach picking.  It was a bit drizzly so no one was at the farm.  We had the place virtually to ourselves.  Not sure which the boys liked more - all of the hayrides to and from the orchard or actually picking the peaches.  Fun day, and now I have 4 1/2 dozen peaches to do something with!

New Orleans - Saturday

We spent Saturday in New Orleans wandering all over again.  We hit a place called Mother's for breakfast.  Again, Mike had been there earlier in the week for lunch, and a friend said it was the best place around for breakfast.  Anyway, two huge sloppy egg, ham and cheese biscuits later (they claim their baked ham is the best in the world) we were off for the day.  And yes, the ham was delicious.

One of the things I wanted to see while we were there was the cemeteries.  Because the water table is so high they generally don't bury people in the ground, the bodies would simply float back up.  So the cemeteries are all above ground and the crypts are very fascinating.

We took a 100 year old streetcar out to the garden district to check out the Lafayette Cemetery.  We came across one marker with 3 family members that died just days apart - most likely from yellow fever.  Interestingly, today families have to wait 366 days between crypt openings to allow for sufficient time for the bodies to "cook" down.  So, many family have two crypts side by side in case multiple family members die within a year of each other.  There is lots more to the whole cemetery bit, but that's a conversation for another day.

After Lafayette Cemetery we found ourselves wandering around the French Quarter again.  I wanted to go check out St. Louis cemetery.  Once we got there we discovered that you couldn't enter without a tour guide - new regulation to cut down on vandalism.  There is a very famous voodoo queen buried there and legend has it that if you mark her grave with 3 x's and ask for a wish granted she may do so.  If she does then you are supposed to return and leave her an offering.  Apparently this was quite popular with the homeless population as many of the offerings were bottles of alcohol or food.  So, the cemetery is now closed unless with a guide.  Anyway, Mike was hesitant to just tag along on a tour group, so we abandoned the cemetery and opted for a little horse and buggy tour, which interestingly enough, took us to St. Louis cemetery.  And it was very interesting, lots of cool stories.

Let's see... that gets us to lunch (more po boys), then the Louisiana State History Museum (very cool), a trip to Pat O'Brien's for their famous hurricanes, and that pretty much killed the day.  Cleaned up a bit, and back out to dinner at Kingfish.  

For the late night entertainment we wandered up Frenchman street, found a bar without a cover and listened to a jazz band for a few minutes.  Frenchman street is apparently the hangout for the locals - lots of music and fun, but without the bizarre craziness of Bourbon street.  

One more stop at Cafe Du Monde the following morning and then back to Austin.  We packed a lot in during our two days, and this barely scratches the surface.  Tons of fun, tons of pictures.  Wishing we could sneak away again.

New Orleans - Friday

It's tough deciding how to split up the bits about New Orleans.  The food itself could be a dedicated post - but that's probably kind of boring.  So, I'll just start with Saturday.

We headed off bright and early to the French Quarter and Cafe Du Monde for breakfast.  Just can't go to New Orleans and pass this one by.  There's just one thing on the menu and a couple of choices of beverages to go with it.  So if you aren't in the mood for beignets piled high with powdered sugar, best skip this stop.  I loved every bite!

Cafe Du Monde is across the street from St Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square.  Jackson Square is a very pretty fenced square surrounded by a pedestrian sidewalk.  On the weekends, the square is filled with vendors and street performers of all kinds.  Kind of fun to see everyone hawking their wares.  Lots of fortune tellers and tarot card readers.  You never have to wander too far to find some musicians.  We saw magicians, knife jugglers, a guy who painted himself and his clothes bronze and pretended to be a statue, and kids tap dancing all over the place. Turns out they cut the bottoms off soda cans, flatten them and nail them to whatever shoes they have on and those are the taps.

Anyway, St. Louis Cathedral is quite beautiful, inside and out.

Let's see, for the rest of the day we went museum hopping.  We stopped in first at the Insectorium and learned all about bugs and their relatives.  The boys would have had a blast. Then it was on to lunch at Cafe Maspero for some fabulous po boys.  And finally we spent the afternoon at the WWII museum - another very cool place.

We made dinner reservations at K Paul for the evening and then ended up cruising down Bourbon street for a late night drink at Lafitte's.  Lafitte's is the oldest bar in the U.S. and is lit only by candle light.  Bourbon Street is, simply put, an experience.  Crazy, and smelly, and pedestrian only at night.  You name it, you have only to wait a few minutes or walk a few blocks and you'll see it on Bourbon Street.  Here's a picture of Lafitte's to end this post.

New Orleans

There are so many things to think about New Orleans, so many things to tell.  I am so happy that we had an opportunity to sneak away for a few days.  The boys had their own super fun vacation (that's another post of it's own).  It was a good weekend for everyone.

In typical Christina fashion, I waited until the very last minute to do anything to prep for the trip.  The boys last day of school was Wednesday and we took off for our respective vacations Thursday afternoon.  I spent Thursday cleaning and packing and getting the dogs sorted out.  I had to get some paperwork in order to make sure Steph & Michael could do whatever they needed with the boys in case some emergency came up.  It was good in that it took my mind off of the little inevitable trip jitters - in this case because I was leaving my kiddos behind.  It also made me very tired and I ended up sleeping for most of the hour flight from here to New Orleans.

Anyway, Mike met me at the airport with a dozen roses and a big huge smile and we were off.  Quick cab ride to the hotel, we passed the Super Dome and got a first glimpse of the very cool cemetaries down there (more on that one later).

Mike made us a reservation at Peche for dinner. It was the first of our many fabulous meals there.  It was late by the time dinner was done so we decided to call it an evening.

For the 2 1/2 days we were in New Orleans we walked over 25 miles, ate amazing food, saw some very cool museums, visited cemetaries, got a little tour of the city via a horse & buggy ride, rode the 100 year old street cars, did the touristy thing on Bourbon Street, had hurricanes at the legendary Pat O'Briens, and never ever got used to the stench that permeates ALL of New Orleans!

Just Peachy

Look at this guy, isn't he beautiful?  For the first time in many years peaches on our tree started to mature and ripen.  There were easily 3, maybe 4 dozen sizeable peaches out there.  I started to think we might actually get to each some this year.  Then I started seeing all these peach pits on the ground.  But there were still many many peaches on the tree so I wasn't too concerned.  That is until I walked out one morning and found 12 half eaten peaches on the ground.  Now, I was mad.  Darn squirrels.  Step number one in the war was to hang lots of pretty shiny things in the tree. Enter the old stack of RevealNet CDs.  An hour later on a very steamy afternoon, officially covered in bug bites, dirt, and tree debris, the tree now looked like something that would earn reprimands from every neighborhood association group in existence.  Keeping a close eye on the tree for the next several days and I am happy to say that the shiny CDs and aluminum foil seemed to work.  For about a week.  More peach pits on the ground.  And just to taunt me, a half eaten peach on my front porch.  That may not mean much except that the peach tree is in the backyard behind a fence and no one else in the neighborhood has a peach tree.  Time for more peach protection measures.  Out comes the nylon net and plastic tarp and more bug bites, peach debris, etc.  Now the tree REALLY would get us neighborhood fines.  At this time, there are about 2 dozen peaches left that are promising.  By this time Mike is in New Orleans - it's Monday evening and I tell him to entertain his clients with my ongoing peach saga.  Keeping a close eye on the tree and making sure to let all 3 dogs out every chance I get, we seem to once again be doing OK and saving the peaches.  Along comes Wednesday and I find that the squirrels have once again gotten over their fears of the new stuff in the tree and have gone after the peaches. The ripest ones, the ones that probably only needed one or two more days on the tree were of course the first to go.  That beautiful one up in the corner?  I found it on the ground.  There was one tiny squirrel tooth mark in it and it wasn't quite ripe - very close.  So I took it inside, washed it, cut off the bit the squirrel tasted and shared it with the boys.  It was hard and not quite ripe but it tasted good and would have been amazing if it had stayed on the tree for just a couple more days.

The rest of the peaches... Well, I went to meet Mike in New Orleans and the dogs went to stay with a neighbor.  Left unattended the squirrels had a field day.  When we got home just a few days later all but two of the peaches had been eaten. The last two are still hanging on, so maybe, just maybe I'll get those at least.

One final note to this little story.  The other half of the tree is covered in tiny peaches that may or may not develop into a "second" crop.  I have no idea if I'll fight for them or not.  Darn squirrels.

A few more things...

Seems to be blog catch up day.  I've been so very busy at school that I just haven't found the time or energy to devote to this.  Here are a few random bits of what's been going on here lately...

The flooring was done a few weeks ago.  It is beautiful.  We repainted the room as well and absolutely love the results.  I would love to be able to rip out all of the carpet upstairs too.  Soon, hopefully.   Anyway, as promised weeks ago, here is a picture:

The kids art show was last weekend.  The district runs one art show for all of the schools. It was pretty cool to see all of the artwork, particularly in the older grades.  There was soooo much though, that it did get a little overwhelming.

The tooth fairy has been visiting a bit lately.  Ben has this mouth full of loose teeth, but he doesn't ever wiggle them, not even the tiniest amount so these teeth get so very loose and then they are sticking out at funny angles because the new teeth are already well on the way in (you can see a funny gap in the picture above, that's not a space where a tooth is missing, the front one is just so loose it's almost on top of the one next to it.)  I think he's afraid that wiggling the teeth is going to hurt. I have never seen a kid so reluctant to mess with loose teeth!

I finished the wine MOOC I was working on.  It was interesting, learned all about the process for making wine, learned how to do a proper tasting, etc.  I am now in the middle of a MOOC on superheros.  I have to create my own hero and villain and produce a fight scene for the final project.  It's more fun and way more fascinating than I had anticipated.

Just two short weeks of school left - 4 days this week, 4 1/2 next week.  We'll make it.  I hope!

Still Spring

It's still spring.  Yes, I know the calendar says we have nearly a month of spring left.  But, in central Texas, spring ends by mid-April. That's when the daytime temps are at least 90 every day and the sun is bright.  This year, thanks to El Niño, we are actually having a prolonged spring.  Lots and lots of rain.  Big, giant bucketfuls of rain.  Flooding, lots of flooding.  Terrific thunderstorms.  Even a tornado WARNING.  Yep, there was "rotation" in the storm the other night, headed right our way.  Enough of a concern that we became very alert to the weather instead of ignoring it.  Happily, that threat was nothing more than that.  Today promises to be more of the same, we are under a tornado watch all day and are expected to get several more inches of rain.  The lake is more than half full for the first time in 4 years, it rose 10 feet in 48 hours.  The extended forecast is for a wet, cool summer, with less than 10 days of triple digit temps.  Everything is very lush and green and the mosquitoes are insane.

There have been a few breaks in the rainy weather.  We got out last Friday evening to see/hear the Williamson County Symphony Orchestra.  They concert was superhero music - you can guess the program.  It was great, lots of fun.

QUEST Projects

One of the last big things of the school year is the QUEST research projects.  QUEST is our school's gifted and talented program.  Personal opinions about the particulars of the program aside, the boys really enjoy it. While I'm not certain that they are learning much, they do get an opportunity to practice giving an oral presentation and an early start into the kinds of projects that will dog them throughout their entire school career.  In any case, both boys did a great job this year and I am very proud of them.  Speaking in front of a group is almost more than I can bare so I avoid it at all costs.  To see them do their projects so eagerly and speak so well touches my heart.

The third graders researched countries. Alex chose Haiti - for obvious reasons. Most kids made a typical tri-fold display for their projects, Alex opted to make a "photo box", which was really more like a big diorama.

First graders researched marsupials this year. Ben's project was on the tasmanian devil.  I had no idea that the tasmanian devil was a marsupial - see, even I learned something!  Anyway, again, he did a fabulous job.  Again, he bucked the trend and his project ended up being in a different form from the other first graders.  First graders were given a big piece of poster board to make a "lap book".  Ben was the only first grader who chose not to set his up in the infamous tri-fold fashion.  Rather, he made it a true "lap book".  It was hard not to do the entire project on the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil, but we resisted the urge and instead just included a few pics of Taz in his presentation.

So that's QUEST this year.  One more thing to cross off the list as we limp across the finish line.

The End is Near...

Oof, school just will not end!  So  very very tired of it all.  Sadly there are still 4 weeks left and lots of presentations and whatnot that require my participation.

Yesterday was "Leadership Day".  Long story short, the school managed a grant to implement this "Leader In Me" program.  It's a fairly big to-do, we'll be the only school in the area with the certification when all is said and done.  So, as part of the program the students had this program yesterday.  The entire thing was student run, and they did a great job.  Alex and Ben had minor rolls, as did virtually the entire 1st and 3rd grades.  Third graders (Alex's group) sang the "Leadership Song" to those in attendance, and Ben was in his classroom sharing some of his projects from the year with visitors.  Older kids led tours through the school, presented poems, talked about various careers, etc.  It was an interesting event and included all the students in all the grades in some form or other.

So, in the next 4 weeks of school we still have 1 more QUEST presentation to build and do, the actual QUEST fair, field day, the student art show (both boys had a piece chosen this year), student led conferences, and I don't even know what else.  The kids are still doing research projects, still getting mountains of homework.  Sigh.  We will survive, one day at a time and only 18 1/2 to go.

House Love

A couple of months back we decided to replace the carpeting in our living room.  Today is the big day.  Some beautiful new hardwood flooring is going in.  I spent a chunk of yesterday emptying out the room of everything except the big pieces of furniture.  It's a disturbing thing to move stuff that has not been touched in over 11 years.  Happily I can report that aside from a couple of tennis balls, nylabones, and one lego piece there was nothing stuck under any of the furniture.  

Good riddance to the nasty old pet worn, scorch marked carpet.   Hello to my pretty new hand scraped hickory floor.  Pictures to come, it's only half installed at the moment.

We'll also be repainting the room, that's my project for tomorrow. Figured if everything was out, might as well give the place a facelift.

Our neighbor mentioned quite a few years ago that he and his wife give the house a present every year - repainting something, yard work, etc.  Just a way to keep it fresh and if they ever sell it, they won't have piles and piles of work to do.  I like this philosophy, it hasn't been entirely practical with kids and other needs, but it's nice to do something for the house now.

So now, I sit back and listen to the endless stream of Mexican music and banging.  The results should be fantastic!

Field Trips

The kids had field trips last friday.  I was a bit bummed that they fell on the same day, I always like tagging along with them.  Happily, Mike was able to take Friday off and join in the fun.  Mike and Alex went to Pioneer Days and Ben and I went to Inner Space Caverns.

Inner Space Caverns

First graders get to go on a cave tour, it's pretty darn cool.  There are lots and lots of caves in central Texas, some of them quite large.  Inner Space Caverns is up in Georgetown, and the cave itself extends a good 4 1/2 miles.  The part we got to see was about a half mile one way, so it ended up being about a mile walk.  It's very beautiful.  I did not get to see the cave when Alex was in first grade.  I went on the trip but the other child that was paired up with Alex couldn't stomach the stale cave air.  I had to take him back to the surface and hang out with him while the others were on the tour.  Anyway, this year I was determined not to get shorted again.  I love caves, would love to go spelunking at some point.  This one was beautiful, the tour guide brought along a black light so that we could see the calcite formations glow.  Apparently that is not standard, so yay for special treats!  Here are a few pictures:

After the  cave tour the kids each got a bag of sand that they got to take to the water troughs and sift to find treasures - all things that may have been found in the cave or surrounding area at one time.  Ben's bag included several different kinds of minerals, some fossils, an arrowhead and a sharks tooth.   He was thrilled with his loot.  We got to picnic outside and visit with the resident zebra, horses and goats.  Yes, there really is a zebra by the cave.

Pioneer Days

Mike went with Alex to a park in Round Rock for Pioneer Days.  They said it was also lots of fun. This is an annual event and the kids learn about life in pioneer times.  They got to make rag dolls, learned about making rugs, traditional clothing, music, school in those times, etc.  Alex also got to dance around a may pole (they went on May Day, and this area was largely settled by Germans).  Apparently there was much more to do but they ran out of time and only got to visit about half the stations.  Sounded like fun and if we don't go next year on our own, then at least I know I get to go with Ben in 2 years.    A few pictures for you...

Sigh...

Let's see... I am behind in posts, again!  So here's a laundry list of the last week.

• Clearly in the last post I was rather miffed with the pets. They still are irritating me. Tucker has decided that as an old dog he clearly doesn't have to go out to potty past 8:00 at night.  Which means that as soon as he wakes up in the morning if we aren't up he'll stand right by the bed and bark and pee on the floor.  Great.  So now we have to be mean and get his creaky old bones outside late at night. CoCo is being retrained to go potty outside.  That's mostly a success as dogs will do anything for treats.  She doesn't like the wind, or wet ground, or pollen, or dry ground, or oh, let's face it, ANYTHING on her feet.  Fun times. again.  She really is getting a bit better, at least about doing what she needs to do outside.  She's not really keen on going to the door to be let out and I have to stand out there with her with a constant "Come on Coco, go potty..."  What the neighbors must think.  Actually, I don't care what they think.
• If the existing pets weren't enough, we added more.  Had an empty fish tank, there are now some neon tetras in there.  So far only limited success in their survival rate.  Oh well.  And we thought Sherman might be lonely so now he has a friend - Herman.  Herman and Sherman are really the only non-annoying animals at the moment. 
• Got a new grill on Saturday.  Mike is in heaven :-)  Dinner has been great this week.
• School stuff is winding down, no more Spanish after this week.  
• Both kids have field trips on Friday - I am going with Ben, Mike is taking the day off and going with Alex. 

There's a few other little things going on.  But I'm not much in the mood to write about them at the moment.  Alex got sick this evening, just some little stomach bug.  A sick child throws me so far out of balance and worries me more than anything imaginable, even when I know it is a minor quickly passing thing.  It's almost more than my heart can bear to see my littles hurting like that.  I know, I have got to get over that one. 

So that's where I'll leave it.  Hoping my little guy sleeps peacefully and wakes up hungry and full of energy.  Regardless he will be spending the day with me tomorrow and that makes me happy.

Meet the Gang

So you think you know our 4-legged family members.  Think again, and allow me to enlighten you.  In no particular order, I now present: Sandy, Tucker, CoCo, Arthur, Sherman, and the Fish

 I'm Sandy.  At 17 years old I really don't do too much.  My favorite thing to do is find a sunny spot to sleep in, preferably on mom & dad's bed.  I have inflammatory bowel disease so I get to eat rabbit every single day because it's the only thing that doesn't bother me too much.  Otherwise I'm healthy for an old guy.  I do have a bad habit - if my litter box isn't cleaned every single day I'll pee on the floor right beside it.  Oh yeah, and because of the IBD I tend to have more "hairballs" than most cats.  Hehehe, mom and dad have to keep their bed covered with plastic so that I won't puke all over it.

I'm Arthur - the baby of the bunch.  I'm not quite 1 1/2 yet.  I'm pretty stinkin' cute and everybody knows it.  My favorite thing to do is sit on mom, she's nice and snuggly.  It's great in the winter, we keep each other warm and she covers me with a blanket.  I'm still kind of a puppy but I'm learning.  I jump on people when they come to the house, I like to dig in the yard.  I love to chase a tennis ball and go for walks.  My bad habits?  I LOVE to eat lego tires, yummy yummy things.  I also like to jump up on the kitchen table when nobody is watching. CoCo is my best buddy and we like to play together.

Hi - I'm Tucker.  I am almost 15 years old.  Like my cat brother Sandy I spend most of my time sleeping, usually under the bed or in the office.  I'm definitely Daddy's dog, but I love everybody.  It's my job to bark at every single thing because I can hear things that nobody else can, but that's only when I'm awake.  I still like to take walks but I can't go very far, my knee starts to hurt.  I'm actually kind of obnoxious to walk because I like to pee on everything and bark at everything, but hey, I'm old so I should be allowed to do what I want.  Bad habits?  Yeah, everybody has at least one.  Mine is really gross, but I'm a dog, so who cares.  I like to eat dog poop.  Yep, that's it. Fortunately I don't try to lick people anymore, they probably wouldn't like that.

I'm CoCo, and I'm 6 years old.  I am a very special girl; super needy, and I really hate being separated from mom.  I have epilepsy so I have to get pills 5 times a day which I don't really like but I usually do pretty good taking.  Seizures always make me confused and I feel really bad that I have them even though it's not my fault. Mom and Dad are good about taking care of me through them and afterwards though.  I don't really like pollen or rain water on my feet so I don't really like going outside right now.  That means that I pee in my crate a lot (but nowhere else in the house), but I'm working on it and I am getting better.  I like to play ball and I'm really good on walks.  I get nervous when there's too much noise so sometimes I bark if I don't understand what's going on.  But I don't eat poop, or lego tires, so that's good, right?

I'm Sherman the hermit crab.  I don't have 4 legs but I still live here and insisted that I be included.   Right now I am very happy that it is spring, winter is too cold and I didn't like coming out of my shell.  But now that the weather is warm, I am out all the time.  I do like to be held and I have recently discovered that I like to climb.  It's a pretty good life, and the cage keeps me safe from the other crazy animals in the house.


And finally, "The Fish".  There are so many of us. It's really not quite fair that there is no picture.  We are loved though.  Some of us live in a big tank in the playroom, some in a small one on the mantle, and some in the two tanks in the kids room.  Lots and lots of fish.  We are peaceful and calm and restore the balance to this house full of crazy animals.