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.