Yay for summer! The school year just slogged on mercilessly. It was a great year for both the boys and the reading work I did with my first graders was incredibly rewarding. But... but... but... The end just couldn't come fast enough.
We officially finished the first week of summer, and it was a great one. I am happy to say that the boys hopped right back into the chore routine very easily. Even happier to report that they remembered how to clean a bathroom! We spent much of the first week relaxing, reading, playing, swimming. Lots of hours at the pool, glorious wonderful cool hours at the pool.
We were fortunate enough to spend a morning with some very dear people at their farm in Leander. My curling friends invited me to visit when I saw them at the bonspiel a couple of weeks ago. I somehow or other managed to find the courage to follow up on the invitation. Something that would be so easy for most is something very difficult for me. Don't ask why, just know that it's part of my personality. Anyway, we met Spencer the crooked, special cow. And I totally fell in love with him. He's a bit lopsided, but totally adorable. Ben and Alex took turns feeding him from a bottle. We played with tiny little hyperactive wild kittens. We fed apples to the horses and watched all the geese, ducks, and chickens wander around looking for feed. We scooped algae out of a goldfish barrel. And we came home with 5 dozen farm fresh eggs! It was a great day.
We ended the week with a concert by the ASO last night, featuring the music of John Williams. The music was amazing, the orchestra sounded fabulous. Because it was a Pops Concert, the hall was filled with tables, and we had a lovely picnic dinner before the show. Because it was John Williams' music there were some Star Wars characters floating around and we took advantage of the photo op with the boys. Late night, but totally worth it.
Today was piano recital day. Happily, our teacher broke the recital into two groups. She has so many students, she didn't want people to have to sit through an interminably long recital! Alex and Ben were the last to perform in their group. They did a great job. A small hiccup at the end of Ben's second piece, but he persevered and worked his way through unfazed. The thing is he has played that piece perfectly dozens of times, including 5 minutes before we left the house. Had it been me I'm fairly certain that at a misstep I would have crumpled into a blubbering mess. But that's why I don't perform solo. As his teacher said though, it happens to every single musician at some point and he handled as perfectly as anyone ever could.
So this week the boys are off to art camp and who knows what else we'll do. It's summer, it's not school, we're happy.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Hello August
It's been awhile. I've thought about sharing some vacation pics. Truth be told, it was such an amazing trip and it was so very hard to come home that my heart just hasn't been into the retelling of it. I think of the trip and wish I was still there.
August is by far my least favorite time of year in TX. It's just hot. Stupid hot. And there is no break in the heat, ever. And we want to go out and do fun things and enjoy the end of summer break, but it's so stupid hot. Swimming brings little to no relief because the water temperature is like a warm bath and that's just gross in the middle of summer. And everything and everyone is all about back to school, except for me. So there it is. And I look at vacation pictures and in my whole heart that's where I want to be with my little family. Not here in hot Austin.
All of that aside, I suppose a bit of a recap of July is in order. Fireworks on the 4th - was hesitant to go since we were heading out of town the next day. But, we were all pa. cked and we had a great water balloon fight, there was a bit of a breeze that night and it was great. Fireworks on the 4th always make me happy. Then we left and we had 2 amazing weeks of hiking and travel and adventure. Came back, headed into appointments and real life and it mostly just sucked. Then my birthday happened and that was fun. My sweet boys (all 3) took such great care of me and we had a lovely lazy day and lots of great chocolate cake. We made another trip to the farm to visit my friend and her very special cow. The boys gathered eggs, we played, had lunch, lovely visit. And back to life.
So that pretty much wraps up July. I haven't mentioned anything about the ongoing efforts to sort out some minor allergy/asthma issues with Ben. It's not really noteworthy other than to say we've spent too many summer hours sitting in Dr. offices, too many follow up appointments. Even had fun with x-rays. There is no trouble, just a nagging little thing we are trying to sort out. Ben is in perfect health. It's just been an annoying part of the summer.
We were very lucky to get to meet Spencer the special cow, luckier yet to see him a second time. Sadly, he died last week. The heat got to be too much and with his health problems he just couldn't handle it. Makes us all sad, he was more like a dog trapped in a cow's body than a cow. Anyway, future visits to the farm won't quite seem the same without a tipsy cow following us all over the place.
Can't end an odd and somewhat depressing post on such a sad note. So. Maybe just one pretty vacation picture. Carhenge. Just because :-)
August is by far my least favorite time of year in TX. It's just hot. Stupid hot. And there is no break in the heat, ever. And we want to go out and do fun things and enjoy the end of summer break, but it's so stupid hot. Swimming brings little to no relief because the water temperature is like a warm bath and that's just gross in the middle of summer. And everything and everyone is all about back to school, except for me. So there it is. And I look at vacation pictures and in my whole heart that's where I want to be with my little family. Not here in hot Austin.
All of that aside, I suppose a bit of a recap of July is in order. Fireworks on the 4th - was hesitant to go since we were heading out of town the next day. But, we were all pa. cked and we had a great water balloon fight, there was a bit of a breeze that night and it was great. Fireworks on the 4th always make me happy. Then we left and we had 2 amazing weeks of hiking and travel and adventure. Came back, headed into appointments and real life and it mostly just sucked. Then my birthday happened and that was fun. My sweet boys (all 3) took such great care of me and we had a lovely lazy day and lots of great chocolate cake. We made another trip to the farm to visit my friend and her very special cow. The boys gathered eggs, we played, had lunch, lovely visit. And back to life.
So that pretty much wraps up July. I haven't mentioned anything about the ongoing efforts to sort out some minor allergy/asthma issues with Ben. It's not really noteworthy other than to say we've spent too many summer hours sitting in Dr. offices, too many follow up appointments. Even had fun with x-rays. There is no trouble, just a nagging little thing we are trying to sort out. Ben is in perfect health. It's just been an annoying part of the summer.
We were very lucky to get to meet Spencer the special cow, luckier yet to see him a second time. Sadly, he died last week. The heat got to be too much and with his health problems he just couldn't handle it. Makes us all sad, he was more like a dog trapped in a cow's body than a cow. Anyway, future visits to the farm won't quite seem the same without a tipsy cow following us all over the place.
Can't end an odd and somewhat depressing post on such a sad note. So. Maybe just one pretty vacation picture. Carhenge. Just because :-)
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Separated
We can't seem to leave well enough alone when it comes to house projects. No sooner are the stairs done and we are jumping into the next thing. In my never ending quest to get the boys to clean up their toys I decided that we should rearrange some things in the house, making it either easier for them to keep things clean or easier for me to close a door and ignore the kid mess. We've been talking about this for awhile, but figured it would, in all honesty wait until the fall or the very least after vacation. Nope, just days after the steps are done, we're at it again.
The playroom no longer exists. Instead, Alex and Ben each have their own rooms now. We didn't set out for this to happen, it just sort of did. We planned on having the boys do a long overdue purge of toys and things and then move the remaining things upstairs, either to their shared room or to the art room. I think we figured that the art room/office would cease to be an office and maybe become an area for Alex to work on his models, or maybe move my sewing room in their or toy storage or something. Point being, lots of shifting of stuff was in the works. Anyway, what ended up happening was the big purge followed by the separation of rooms. We polled both the boys, they both wanted the new room, ultimately Ben was given the choice. In the end, he chose to stay where he was. I was skeptical that it would work. Not only has it worked, it's been amazing for them both. They love it.
As for the playroom. It's now sporting a brand new coat of paint and furniture will be moved accordingly tonight.
I think that really is it for the projects... except for the fence. Which we paid someone to do, and he did a horrible job. So now one side needs to be redone. Sigh. That's a topic for another day.
But, in the last year we have...
The playroom no longer exists. Instead, Alex and Ben each have their own rooms now. We didn't set out for this to happen, it just sort of did. We planned on having the boys do a long overdue purge of toys and things and then move the remaining things upstairs, either to their shared room or to the art room. I think we figured that the art room/office would cease to be an office and maybe become an area for Alex to work on his models, or maybe move my sewing room in their or toy storage or something. Point being, lots of shifting of stuff was in the works. Anyway, what ended up happening was the big purge followed by the separation of rooms. We polled both the boys, they both wanted the new room, ultimately Ben was given the choice. In the end, he chose to stay where he was. I was skeptical that it would work. Not only has it worked, it's been amazing for them both. They love it.
As for the playroom. It's now sporting a brand new coat of paint and furniture will be moved accordingly tonight.
I think that really is it for the projects... except for the fence. Which we paid someone to do, and he did a horrible job. So now one side needs to be redone. Sigh. That's a topic for another day.
But, in the last year we have...
- Updated the living room (new floors, new paint)
- Updated the library - new built-in book shelves
- Went from carpet to wood on the steps
- Converted playroom to dining room
- converted office/art room to bedroom
- rearranged master bedroom
- re-mulched the front yard
- new fence around the back yard
- had the trees pruned (yes, it's a noteworthy thing. They are huge, have to be pruned here in TX for several reasons).
Anyway, lots of love for the old homestead lately.
Friday, June 17, 2016
The Stairs
I finally finished the stair project yesterday. What was supposed to take just a couple of weeks ended up taking 3+ months. Yes, a large part of that was time spent waiting for wood to be delivered and then taking the time to properly finish said wood. But still, there was just a crazy amount of work on the installation, namely those bottom 3 angled steps. No part of those bottom steps was easy, at all, ever. Every time we had something figured out, we would have to tweak it. Every. Single. Time. Happily I only miscut one 99 cent piece of wood. Better to have the mistake there than on the much more expensive tread. Anyway, it's done, they look fabulous. It's time to move onto the next project.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
The End
We've made it to the end of another school year. Almost. As usual, I can't wait for summer break. There are lots of very amusing blog posts out there about the evils of May and limping to the finish line and all of that stuff. And yes, I see bits of all of that here. I sent Ben's half-eaten homework (courtesy of Winnie) to school last Friday and I didn't even care, didn't even bat an eye. Earlier in the year I might have printed out a new copy for Ben, but I certainly didn't care about it 2 weeks before the end of the school year. I see lots of people talking about how their kids' schools stop doing work and just play games and have parties the last couple of weeks of school. Not so out here, there are still assignments due, still homework to do, tests to take, it doesn't end until it's over next Friday. We are all struggling to get up in the mornings, so many more fun things await us all instead of a day at school. I'm up there too. I just finished reading with my charges last week. The teachers decided to give them a break the last two weeks. I need the break! I've replaced the reading with inventory. I am inventorying the book room. Thousands and thousands and thousands of books, and only one of me. Not such a bad job though, no one to talk to, no one to interrupt me. It does get tedious, but that's what breaks are for.
We may yet skip a few days before the end of the year - have to have a donut day, never did manage it during the school year. We'd like to pick some peaches, though it seems we may have already missed the boat on that this year thanks to zero winter and a very wet spring. We may just skip because we're done and don't want to go anymore!
At any rate, we're at the end. Summer awaits, it ought to be a good one!
We may yet skip a few days before the end of the year - have to have a donut day, never did manage it during the school year. We'd like to pick some peaches, though it seems we may have already missed the boat on that this year thanks to zero winter and a very wet spring. We may just skip because we're done and don't want to go anymore!
At any rate, we're at the end. Summer awaits, it ought to be a good one!
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Choose Your Own Adventure
There's always lots going on and I write these posts in my head all the time. I know, doesn't do you all alot of good that way. So today I write for real (sort of). You get a one or two sentence blurb of an event and you get to fill in the details on your own. Sounds fun, right?! In no particular order I now invite you to...
The stairs - construction is still ongoing, little by little, the end is sort of in sight.
Camping - took the boys on their very first real live camping trip a couple of weeks ago. You get to decide how it went!
Dogs - apparently bunnies are REALLY fun to chase, especially over a fence in the midst of a severe raging thunderstorm with continuous lightning and torrential downpours. Coyotes are also fun to chase at 11:00 at night.
Alex - new red glasses, no more booster seat, violin lessons, new bike, Rube Goldberg projects...
Ben - FINALLY got the "Out of this World Leader" award, guitar lessons, new guitar, still in the booster seat, robots.
The garden - sunflowers, pomegranates, peaches.
Mike & Christina - still here, 19 years (almost), can't wait for summer vacation, those darn stairs.
Texas - usual crazy silly weather, missed strawberry picking this year, peaches are early and plentiful though.
School - ALMOST over, not soon enough.
The stairs - construction is still ongoing, little by little, the end is sort of in sight.
Camping - took the boys on their very first real live camping trip a couple of weeks ago. You get to decide how it went!
Dogs - apparently bunnies are REALLY fun to chase, especially over a fence in the midst of a severe raging thunderstorm with continuous lightning and torrential downpours. Coyotes are also fun to chase at 11:00 at night.
Alex - new red glasses, no more booster seat, violin lessons, new bike, Rube Goldberg projects...
Ben - FINALLY got the "Out of this World Leader" award, guitar lessons, new guitar, still in the booster seat, robots.
The garden - sunflowers, pomegranates, peaches.
Mike & Christina - still here, 19 years (almost), can't wait for summer vacation, those darn stairs.
Texas - usual crazy silly weather, missed strawberry picking this year, peaches are early and plentiful though.
School - ALMOST over, not soon enough.
Friday, April 1, 2016
Happy Spring!
Spring has arrived in most beautiful fashion here in central TX. Thanks to an extremely mild winter and a good bit of rain the wildflowers are stunning. Added bonus - it's still not hot. We've hit 90 once I think, maybe again some next week but that's ok because we'll be into April by then.
Let's see... not much new to update. Kids are still here, still great. Love them to bits. Got our annual bluebonnet pictures in over spring break. Some of our usual spots weren't in bloom this year - there were floods in the fall that wiped most of the flowers away. But, there are plenty of other places that are just beautiful. At some point I'll have to go back through the years and line up all the bluebonnet pictures in a nice little row.
The stairs - well, it's taken decidedly longer than I thought it would. Primarily because we still don't have all the supplies, namely the wood. The treads are on order, I expect them soon. Then we can knock this one out and get to something else.
I'm having the piano tuned Thursday. Why is that such a big deal? Well, it hasn't been tuned in my lifetime, probably longer. There is a key that doesn't work quite right, again, it hasn't been quite right for as long as I can remember, probably longer. Guess I'm jumping the gun a little, a piano tuner is coming, if he can, he will tune the piano. There is a chance that it cannot be tuned - rusted strings, worn out parts, etc. So, fingers crossed that this very special little piece of my family gets the love and attention it deserves and continues to bring us many more lifetimes of happy tunes.
Miss Winnie continues to be wonder dog - she's so sweet and gentle and kind. Just a lovely dog. I don't know how we got so lucky, but it certainly is pretty cool.
Easter weekend was nice - had a bbq with my sis and bro-in-law. Got to meet their new doggy, he's super cute. Belton is a blind pug, so they have a few challenges, but overall he's a pretty chill little dude. Nice that we all have the right amount of pets again.
Spring break was fun too. Nice and laid back. No schedules, didn't do too much. We took a little day trip to Waco, the intention was to head to the zoo, but there were some traffic snarls and such and it was the most beautiful day ever so the zoo was beyond capacity so we ultimately ended up going to the Mammoth National Monument to look at mammoth bones and then over to the Baylor campus to check out the Mayborn museum - fabulous place. It was a really fun day.
And since I started this several days ago, time to wrap it up and get it posted. More later.
Let's see... not much new to update. Kids are still here, still great. Love them to bits. Got our annual bluebonnet pictures in over spring break. Some of our usual spots weren't in bloom this year - there were floods in the fall that wiped most of the flowers away. But, there are plenty of other places that are just beautiful. At some point I'll have to go back through the years and line up all the bluebonnet pictures in a nice little row.
The stairs - well, it's taken decidedly longer than I thought it would. Primarily because we still don't have all the supplies, namely the wood. The treads are on order, I expect them soon. Then we can knock this one out and get to something else.
I'm having the piano tuned Thursday. Why is that such a big deal? Well, it hasn't been tuned in my lifetime, probably longer. There is a key that doesn't work quite right, again, it hasn't been quite right for as long as I can remember, probably longer. Guess I'm jumping the gun a little, a piano tuner is coming, if he can, he will tune the piano. There is a chance that it cannot be tuned - rusted strings, worn out parts, etc. So, fingers crossed that this very special little piece of my family gets the love and attention it deserves and continues to bring us many more lifetimes of happy tunes.
Miss Winnie continues to be wonder dog - she's so sweet and gentle and kind. Just a lovely dog. I don't know how we got so lucky, but it certainly is pretty cool.
Easter weekend was nice - had a bbq with my sis and bro-in-law. Got to meet their new doggy, he's super cute. Belton is a blind pug, so they have a few challenges, but overall he's a pretty chill little dude. Nice that we all have the right amount of pets again.
Spring break was fun too. Nice and laid back. No schedules, didn't do too much. We took a little day trip to Waco, the intention was to head to the zoo, but there were some traffic snarls and such and it was the most beautiful day ever so the zoo was beyond capacity so we ultimately ended up going to the Mammoth National Monument to look at mammoth bones and then over to the Baylor campus to check out the Mayborn museum - fabulous place. It was a really fun day.
And since I started this several days ago, time to wrap it up and get it posted. More later.
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
New Project!
I've been needing a new project. So today I decided to tackle the stairs. Here's the "before" picture...
I have just pulled up the carpet at this point. Still trying to figure out exactly how to finish them. Couldn't determine that until we saw what was underneath the carpet. We got lucky, there's real wood under there, so that leaves us with a lot of options that aren't too difficult. The boys aren't overly thrilled that we're in construction mode again, they don't like the house being torn up. Hopefully this will be a relatively quick and simple project though. At any rate, here's where I stopped for the day. Clearly LOTS of work still to be done.
Alex's Week
Last week was a big one for Alex.
He got the ants for his ant farm and we had tons of fun trying to get them into the farm from the little tube they came in. You would think it would be a relatively simple process. I guess it's not too bad, except for the fact that the ants the company sent are harvester ants. Big red biting/stinging harvester ants. But rest assured, the bites and stings are not harmful, just irritating, or so the packaging said. Getting the ants into their home involved stunning them by sticking them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes and then attempting to dump them into the ant farm. Problem was they warmed up super fast and climb the walls, oh and they don't actually want to leave the tube so they cling to it, so it was a race to dump them in before they warmed up too much. They also move pretty fast when motivated. Anyway, after several rounds of stunning and dumping we finally got them all in. Now we feed and water them every so often (there's a schedule for this) and watch them dig their tunnels. It's sort of mesmerizing actually.
Part 2 of Alex's big week... he got braces! He's probably the only kid I know that was deliriously happy about having a bunch of metal glued to his teeth. It's not too bad - just brackets on his upper teeth, and just the front at that, and some metal spikes on the back of a couple of teeth. The good news is that the lower teeth will probably always be fine. But the uppers, well, that's a totally different story. This is round one, he'll most likely have to go through this again in a few years. Long story short, he's got some teeth coming in very badly and this round is to straighten out the front, close a gap and maybe create a space for the teeth that haven't come in yet, maybe just maybe they'll fall into place neatly. He's done a great job with it, not too much complaining about the aching/discomfort of the whole deal.
So that's what's going on in Alex's world.
He got the ants for his ant farm and we had tons of fun trying to get them into the farm from the little tube they came in. You would think it would be a relatively simple process. I guess it's not too bad, except for the fact that the ants the company sent are harvester ants. Big red biting/stinging harvester ants. But rest assured, the bites and stings are not harmful, just irritating, or so the packaging said. Getting the ants into their home involved stunning them by sticking them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes and then attempting to dump them into the ant farm. Problem was they warmed up super fast and climb the walls, oh and they don't actually want to leave the tube so they cling to it, so it was a race to dump them in before they warmed up too much. They also move pretty fast when motivated. Anyway, after several rounds of stunning and dumping we finally got them all in. Now we feed and water them every so often (there's a schedule for this) and watch them dig their tunnels. It's sort of mesmerizing actually.
Part 2 of Alex's big week... he got braces! He's probably the only kid I know that was deliriously happy about having a bunch of metal glued to his teeth. It's not too bad - just brackets on his upper teeth, and just the front at that, and some metal spikes on the back of a couple of teeth. The good news is that the lower teeth will probably always be fine. But the uppers, well, that's a totally different story. This is round one, he'll most likely have to go through this again in a few years. Long story short, he's got some teeth coming in very badly and this round is to straighten out the front, close a gap and maybe create a space for the teeth that haven't come in yet, maybe just maybe they'll fall into place neatly. He's done a great job with it, not too much complaining about the aching/discomfort of the whole deal.
So that's what's going on in Alex's world.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
One more for today...
I've hit the highlights in the last few posts. Ben, Alex, Winnie. As for me, I'm still trudging along with school stuff. Reading to all the kids is fun, although sometimes it is a little hard to keep track of all 15 of them and what they are doing. I seem to be endlessly busy but I'm not sure what it is that fills my time!
I do spend a few minutes stargazing every morning. Anytime there is a celestial event and it's somewhat doable I try to watch. Most recently it was the alignment and visibility of 5 planets. It just so happens that the prime time to see the planets every day happened to be when I walk out to get the newspaper in the mornings. Up until this week it was optimal viewing. The sun rises a little later here and it has been so clear that just about everyday I would get quite a show. The moon is waxing now and the sun is coming up earlier and the position of the earth has changed so the show isn't quite as it was. I enjoy my quiet moments with the stars though. I think the alignment and moon will be right again for another few days in August. Until then I'll watch my constellations, look for shooting stars, and catch all the eclipses I can. I guess it's no wonder where my son gets his love of space. I hope his dreams come true. I hope he can fly to Mars one day. I hope he can clean up all the space debris that's out there. I hope he can live amongst the stars.
Finally, in a rare work/school schedule difference I got a day off with Mike while the boys had school. While the rest of the US observed president's day, Leander ISD was just trucking along. The weather this winter has been mild to say the least and yesterday was no exception. After a nice leisurely breakfast Mike and I headed up to Leander to check out some dinosaur footprints. After about a half mile hike up a river bed we found them. They are real, they have been there for 65 million years (or whenever it was that the dinosaurs tromped through the area). It's so surreal though, hard to imagine what this area looked like then. Hard to imagine 1 million of anything, let alone 65 million, never mind trying to put that into terms of time. When we are lucky to live 90 - 100 years, and we can only really connect with history back a couple thousand years, how is 65 million of anything possible? Anyway. dinosaur footprints. A very cool thing, very close by, and very easy to see. It was a good day.
I do spend a few minutes stargazing every morning. Anytime there is a celestial event and it's somewhat doable I try to watch. Most recently it was the alignment and visibility of 5 planets. It just so happens that the prime time to see the planets every day happened to be when I walk out to get the newspaper in the mornings. Up until this week it was optimal viewing. The sun rises a little later here and it has been so clear that just about everyday I would get quite a show. The moon is waxing now and the sun is coming up earlier and the position of the earth has changed so the show isn't quite as it was. I enjoy my quiet moments with the stars though. I think the alignment and moon will be right again for another few days in August. Until then I'll watch my constellations, look for shooting stars, and catch all the eclipses I can. I guess it's no wonder where my son gets his love of space. I hope his dreams come true. I hope he can fly to Mars one day. I hope he can clean up all the space debris that's out there. I hope he can live amongst the stars.
Finally, in a rare work/school schedule difference I got a day off with Mike while the boys had school. While the rest of the US observed president's day, Leander ISD was just trucking along. The weather this winter has been mild to say the least and yesterday was no exception. After a nice leisurely breakfast Mike and I headed up to Leander to check out some dinosaur footprints. After about a half mile hike up a river bed we found them. They are real, they have been there for 65 million years (or whenever it was that the dinosaurs tromped through the area). It's so surreal though, hard to imagine what this area looked like then. Hard to imagine 1 million of anything, let alone 65 million, never mind trying to put that into terms of time. When we are lucky to live 90 - 100 years, and we can only really connect with history back a couple thousand years, how is 65 million of anything possible? Anyway. dinosaur footprints. A very cool thing, very close by, and very easy to see. It was a good day.
Happy Birthday Alex!
The kid is 10! What more is there to say? We had a great birthday weekend. Alex got a special birthday lunch with Aunt Stephanie & Uncle Michael on Saturday. Sunday was full of love and orange, all things orange. Orange pancakes with orange syrup, orange birthday cake with orange frosting. Orange chicken for dinner. Orange wrapping paper and streamers and balloons. Orange plates and napkins and utensils. I don't know why orange, but it was fun. And the kid was happy. Love you little dude!
Meet Winnie
You knew it wouldn't be long before we got another pup. Winnie is probably about 1 1/2 years old. She's a boxer/black mouth cur mix. And, she came fully loaded: completely house broken, crate trained, and knowing a few basic commands. She doesn't jump (much), and she's so very very sweet. Yeah, pretty much the most perfect dog ever. We adopted Winnie through a rescue league, which, out here anyway, means we had to jump through plenty of hoops. But it was worth it. She's a great new family member.
Ben's Special Day
Ben was chosen to be a greeter at a leadership conference downtown last week. It was a pretty special honor, just 4 second graders and 3 first graders were picked to participate. Long story short, the conference was for educators to learn about the "Leader In Me" program. Our school is currently undergoing certification in the program right now so a few Cypress kiddos were there to show off their skills. Ben was the perfect choice for this. Mr. Personality always has a smile for everyone.
I rode the commuter train with Ben and the other kiddos downtown bright and early Thursday morning. He did his job and we rode the train back up our way and headed off to school. It made for a long day for Ben, but a happy one. He was thrilled. Perhaps the most exciting part (aside from the train) was that the people running the conference made each of the kids their own name badges and gave them lanyards and a couple of other little trinkets to remember the day. He proudly wears his badge every chance he gets! Here are a few pics from the day...
I rode the commuter train with Ben and the other kiddos downtown bright and early Thursday morning. He did his job and we rode the train back up our way and headed off to school. It made for a long day for Ben, but a happy one. He was thrilled. Perhaps the most exciting part (aside from the train) was that the people running the conference made each of the kids their own name badges and gave them lanyards and a couple of other little trinkets to remember the day. He proudly wears his badge every chance he gets! Here are a few pics from the day...
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Caverns of Sonora
Got to take a little road trip a couple of weeks ago. It feels like forever since we've done that. Ben is doing a project for school on the Caverns of Sonora and it just so happens that this magical place is right in the heart of Texas. So, to help boost our sad hearts after losing Tucker and CoCo we decided to spend a weekend having a little adventure. We headed out early on a Saturday morning and drove out to San Angelo. We spent the afternoon touring Fort Concho and enjoying the sights of San Angelo. Found a great burger place for lunch, spent some time along their little riverwalk area, wandered through an art museum for a bit and ended our afternoon designing t-shirts and playing in a park.
Sunday we drove down to Sonora and toured the caverns, grabbed some lunch and headed home. The cave was absolutely spectacular, thus far easily the most beautiful cave I have been through. The formations are stunning. Calcite is the mineral responsible for most of the formations. Everything is glassy and beautiful, crystals everywhere. There is one part of the cave where you are actually walking through a geode. Very beautiful. You can visit the website for more details about the cave, but I'll put up a few pictures for you.
Sunday we drove down to Sonora and toured the caverns, grabbed some lunch and headed home. The cave was absolutely spectacular, thus far easily the most beautiful cave I have been through. The formations are stunning. Calcite is the mineral responsible for most of the formations. Everything is glassy and beautiful, crystals everywhere. There is one part of the cave where you are actually walking through a geode. Very beautiful. You can visit the website for more details about the cave, but I'll put up a few pictures for you.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Hello!
So many posts have gone through my head, I just plain haven't felt like posting anything here lately. I intended to, then life happened, and well, I didn't. So. Merry Christmas a little late. Happy New Year a little late. Happy 8th birthday to Ben. Might as well be pre-emptive at this point and wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day and a very happy early 10th birthday to Alex, because I'm not sure when I'll sit down and update the blog again.
To recap, fill in, catch up, all that jazz...
Had a lovely Christmas here in TX. It was very warm. Grandma Rita was here, and we all had a fabulous time. I think the kids were very happy. This seems to be the year that they discovered that mom & dad are really Santa. The best part is, they don't really care, and are very happy to keep on playing along. Makes it a little more fun actually.
Kids are doing well in school and piano. Work is going well for Mike. I seem to be busy, but who knows what I'm ever actually doing! It's about time for another big house project, but that's a post for another day.
The weather has mostly been warm. The drawback to a mostly warm winter is the mostly part. Because on days when that mostly goes away, the sort of cold feels REALLY cold. Like today. Yesterday was up to 76 and sunny. Kids wore shorts & tees to school. Today topped out at about 52, warm for all those east coast people sitting under 3 feet of snow, but feeling terribly icy cold to us longtime Texans. Instead of shorts, we are bundled up, even wearing coats today. But, it will be warm again, and soon.
Along with the good comes some sadness too. Everybody knows by now, but I'll post again anyway. We lost both Tucker and CoCo recently, just 10 days apart as a matter of fact. CoCo's loss was very unexpected - her epilepsy sent her into a series of violent seizures that we couldn't stop. It was a horrid way for her to go, but she wasn't alone. Most importantly I like to think we gave her a good home and loved her madly. Losing Tucker was just as devastating if a little more expected. He was very old, and that hit him hard in December. We did not expect for him to make it to Christmas, and he hung on for another month. He went peacefully, with all of us with him. He's got CoCo to take care of now and we'll meet again someday. He gave us 16 wonderful years. Arthur is the only 4 legged friend left for now. He's a bit lonely, but is hanging in there. Overall, the house is far too quiet and I miss the chaos of a trio of dogs. In the words of Winnie the Pooh "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."
I've got the urge to travel and no plans to do so. Time to plan some trips. We may head out to western Texas this weekend to see some caves. Thanks to Ben's school project for clueing us into a little adventure. If we go, well, maybe there's a blog post in there. In the meantime... here's a final thought.
To recap, fill in, catch up, all that jazz...
Had a lovely Christmas here in TX. It was very warm. Grandma Rita was here, and we all had a fabulous time. I think the kids were very happy. This seems to be the year that they discovered that mom & dad are really Santa. The best part is, they don't really care, and are very happy to keep on playing along. Makes it a little more fun actually.
Kids are doing well in school and piano. Work is going well for Mike. I seem to be busy, but who knows what I'm ever actually doing! It's about time for another big house project, but that's a post for another day.
The weather has mostly been warm. The drawback to a mostly warm winter is the mostly part. Because on days when that mostly goes away, the sort of cold feels REALLY cold. Like today. Yesterday was up to 76 and sunny. Kids wore shorts & tees to school. Today topped out at about 52, warm for all those east coast people sitting under 3 feet of snow, but feeling terribly icy cold to us longtime Texans. Instead of shorts, we are bundled up, even wearing coats today. But, it will be warm again, and soon.
Along with the good comes some sadness too. Everybody knows by now, but I'll post again anyway. We lost both Tucker and CoCo recently, just 10 days apart as a matter of fact. CoCo's loss was very unexpected - her epilepsy sent her into a series of violent seizures that we couldn't stop. It was a horrid way for her to go, but she wasn't alone. Most importantly I like to think we gave her a good home and loved her madly. Losing Tucker was just as devastating if a little more expected. He was very old, and that hit him hard in December. We did not expect for him to make it to Christmas, and he hung on for another month. He went peacefully, with all of us with him. He's got CoCo to take care of now and we'll meet again someday. He gave us 16 wonderful years. Arthur is the only 4 legged friend left for now. He's a bit lonely, but is hanging in there. Overall, the house is far too quiet and I miss the chaos of a trio of dogs. In the words of Winnie the Pooh "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."
I've got the urge to travel and no plans to do so. Time to plan some trips. We may head out to western Texas this weekend to see some caves. Thanks to Ben's school project for clueing us into a little adventure. If we go, well, maybe there's a blog post in there. In the meantime... here's a final thought.
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