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.

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...

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.