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.