Turtles and bats and fish, oh my!

Last night we went to see the bats flying out from the McNeil Bridge with Sunshine's cub scout pack. Luckily we had ice cream b/c when we left at nearly 9 p.m. it was still 97 degrees out.

The event seemed to fit w/ the end of our vacation to Galveston, which included fishing, seeing sea turtles and Superman getting stung by a jellyfish (yeah - OUCH! is right!). For those not familiar w/ Jellyfish stings, they hurt. Bad. But, a little vinegar takes the sting out and the kiddo is back in the ocean before you know it.

Every year on our trip to Galveston we make a visit to the NOAA Lab to visit the sea turtles. They have a very short tour that lasts about 30 min. but seems like 3 hours b/c it's so freaking hot. Yet, it's all worth it to get up-close views of the turtles.

Add to that a day of fishing, a day at Schlitterbahn andsome time at the beach and 5 days just wasn't enough! Galveston has been our annual vacation for about 3 years now and the list of "must dos" grows each year. We must stay at the "place with the bunk beds." We must visit the turtles, go fishing off the pier

and eat at the Rainforest Cafe. We also must spend at least one full day at the beach, swim in the hotel pool and eat at least 2 breakfasts at Waffle House. I think Schlitterbahn will be added for next year b/c fun was definitely had by all there. No pictures b/c we were having too much fun to take them!

Only 4 more weeks of summer and then I may be back to more regular blogging. This weekend we'll be doing a Habitat for Humanity build w/ our church and next weekend the kids are visiting the grandparents. Sigh. I really wish I had time to get bored in summer.

School's out for summer!

Sadly, with all my volunteering at the school and such, I'm almost as excited as the kids. So far so good on our first day of summer. They actually let me sleep (w/ the aid of a little TV) until 7:30 this a.m. Yippeeee! I love summer. I can clean up their messes and entertain them all freaking day if I can sleep past 7. Sad, isn't it? That sleeping past 7 is heaven?

I have chocolate chip pumpkin muffins in the oven for breakfast, then we're off to the Y for my yoga class, which incidently I've missed for 2 weeks b/c of illness and school stuff. Then it's to Gattiland to use the free meal Sunshine got at the school awards Monday. After that, I figure they'll be content to watch TV while I get a few things done, then the neighbor teen is coming over to babysit while hubby and I go to a movie at Alamo Drafthouse. The only way we go out to the movies anymore. If all goes as planned it will be an awesome first day of summer.

Another busy week (or two)!

Whew! I'm ready for school to be out. I think. Dropped off the dyed rigatoni for the party at school tomorrow. For some reason Room Mom wants to make samples of the necklaces for the kids. They're making necklaces w/ pasta. Who needs a sample? I'm sure she will not be pleased when she learns that we dyed about 90 percent of the 3 boxes of rigatoni green. What can I say? My kids like green. There are three different shades of green, so there!

Last weekend we went to 4 parties. Yes, four. We were actually invited to 6, but declined 2 b/c it was just too much. It was all fun, but I'm wiped out. Kids are too I guess, since Superman asked to come home and take a nap at 10 a.m. hehehe Which means I finally get a chance to blog a bit.

I get the worst mom award this week for not getting my son fully covered w/ sunscreen and burning his back. I'd take a pic and post it but don't want any evidence just in case CPS comes knocking at my door. I can see it now. "She not only let the kid get a horrendous burn, but she was so proud of it she posted pictures on her blog."

Otherwise it was a lovely weekend. We spent all day Sat. at a church party at Emma Long park. Actually it was supposed to be our whole Sunday School class, but only 3 families showed. Meaning we got more boat time. It was hard to leave but we had another party that evening so we drug ourselves away.

Apparently Superman had even more fun at the evening party. Seems he now has a GIRLFRIEND. All I know is that she is 5 and she chases him and that means she is his girlfriend. Any guesses on who it is? I need a name for that wedding invitation.

Speaking of invites, I made the invites for the kids' birthday parties this year. I can't really post them b/c I used a cheap and easy program that doesn't save as any blogger-recognized file type. They were cool, but would've been cooler if the kids let me put what *I* wanted on them. I wanted Superman's to say "It's a bird, it's a plane......it's a Super party" but he insisted on "You're invited to a Superman party." Before you say who cares, kid can't read, remember that his lovely brother can and will tell him that Mommy did it wrong. Brothers stick together that way, you know. But, here's the photo I put on the front of Sunshine's invite:

Gotta amuse myself somehow!

Here I am again

I started blogging b/c some friends of mine blog and I thought it'd be fun to join in on their blog games. But, just like everything in life I've found that I just really don't have time to give 100 percent to this and do all the blog games weekly, post regular updates on my life and be generally witty and funny on a daily basis.

Not that I'm giving up blogging, but I'm going to be honest and say don't expect daily posts from me b/c it's just not happening. Life keeps getting in the way. And once summer arrives and Sunshine is home all day too, I think every couple of weeks might be the best I can give.

That said, while driving from one activity to the next, sitting at the doctor's office and in the library during story time I have thought of a few things I'd like to blog about.

First, I've been musing for weeks about weight and size and all those issues ever since TKW blogged about her trouble finding clothes a couple of weeks ago. I never responded to her post b/c I had way too much to say to fit it into a comment block.

Unlike me, TKW is skinny. Size 2, if I'm remembering right. Thin and gorgeous. Since I'm average weight and nothing fits me, you'd think TWK would have no trouble finding clothing. NOPE. She can't find a darn thing that fits right either.

What is up w/ these designers? I remember awhile back reading that big rears were in b/c of one famous singer or another. I was quite excited that now they'd start making clothes that would *fit* people who were larger in back. But, no such luck. They just started making clothes to *make your rear look bigger*. Um, thanks.

Seriously, if the fashion industry spent 1/2 the time thinking up designs that would *fit* different body types as they spend making clothes that empahasize or deemphasize certain features we'd *all* be a lot happier. And look a lot better.

Where's the sidebar?

Why oh why did my sidebar disappear. I use it to get to my friends blogs and I'm currently having to just follow the links on the couple of blogs that I have bookmarked. ARGH. I haven't changed my template in a week or so and I can't really find anything that looks like it's "off" in there.

Bleh. Maybe it will show back up tomorrow!

We have air!

Thought I'd let everyone know that our AC is up and running so you don't have to feel sorry for us anymore. Apparently there was some sort of crack in the unit so we were leaking freon and causing global warming. Which didn't help our situation any, now did it?

I'm on "break" right now. Sunshine had a choir rehearsal at church this morning. They've having "child-led worship" tomorrow and they wanted all the kids to come up and rehearse this morning. He's singing a song and taking up the offering. I'm so proud. Superman's job it to NOT YELL during the service. Of course, if he does I can dump him in the nursery.

Anyway, since I took both boys up to the church w/ me all morning, dh was going to watch them all afternoon while I did some things. But, alas, the highway is shut down so I can't get anywhere in less than 45 min. BLEH! So, I'm playing on the 'puter and then going upstairs to clean. Fun, fun, fun.

Aaaaah!

It rained last night so we left the windows closed all night. I woke up to 80 degrees inside, thought "my God, it's 6:30 a.m. it *must* be cooler outside." I was right - it's a chilly 70 degrees in my backyard right now. So I'm sitting here w/ all the windows open feeling a nice cool breeze. Not sure how long it will last, but hopefully at least until this AC guy comes to view my AC.

Aaaaah. Cool air. Aaaaaaah.

The few, the proud, the brainless

I really think my kids are sucking out my brain cells while I sleep. Seriously.

Superman had Cowboy Day at school today and I was supposed to bring chips (to atone for 2 parties of bringing nada) and help out w/ the sand art table. No problem, except that I thought the event was Thursday. So, he didn't wear the cute cowboy shirt I bought him and I had to mumble a lame excuse about *planning to run home to change and pick up the chips. After my record this year I'm pretty sure the teacher knows what really happened.

I get back and have to stand out in the sun in 90 degree weather helping kids make little jars of sand art. Fuuuun. I did get a couple of pics of him on the horse and jumping on the bouncy thing. Which I will post if I can find my camera. Made it all worthwhile.

Meanwhile, the boys are just getting smarter every day. Sunshine is now reading chapter books at school and knows all kinds of amazing facts about sea animals, dinosaurs and other stuff that I'm totally clueless about. And Superman knew that the mystery garden formation was a mushroom. And that Elmer's glue won't stick cloth to plastic. Although I had a hunch on that I just didn't have any superglue.

The AC is still out. We have this home warranty deal, which will save us a ton of money, but the catch is we have to go thru that company who then sets us up w/ a repair comany. I had this conversation with the repair company this morning. (WWFA = Woman with funny accent; Me = me.)

WWFA: I haaave a wark arder heee ee aaar to wark on you a-ear condi-ti- own-air.
Me: Huh?
WWFA: I haaave a wark arder heee ee aaar to wark on you a-ear condi-ti- own-air.
Me: The *air conditioner*?
WWFA: yeaus. We-ill you be the-air this afternoon?
Me: Yes. I'll be here anytime someone can come fix it.
WWFA: We-al, our guy ma-aybe we-ill (OK, I'm going to stopy typing like she talks now b/c it's giving me a headache) stop by this afternoon to look at it.
Me: Stop by to look at it?
WWFA: Yes.
Me: You mean to fix it?
WWFA: To look at it. Maybe. If he has time. We'll call you if he can come.
Me: To *fix* it?
WWFA: Maybe he *look* at it. If not today, he come tomorrow between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Me: Um, Okay (mentally trying to figure out if I can sit here and sweat all day)
WWFA: Will you be there.
Me: I should be. If not, please call me at (cell phone number)
WWFA: OK. We'll call you when he can drop by to see you

So, what I'm gathering here is that someone is "stopping by" to *look* at my broken AC, but they aren't really sure if they're going to fix it or not? Oookaaay. It was 100 degrees out there this afternoon. I think we are all going to die! Fix my AC already.

CECPUS???

What's that supposed to mean? Where do they get those words they use for the blogger sobriety test? CECPUS. I have no idea what it means, but I'm pretty sure it's obscene in some language.

Easter and my garden

Thought I'd share some pics of our Easter weekend. The boys went to an Easter egg hunt Saturday. Sunshine was really excited about it and even laid on the couch for an hour beforehand to rest up for it:

Superman, on the other hand thought the egg hunt was a terrible idea:

Until he realized they put chocolate in the eggs and everyone got a couple of prizes from the prize table after:


Sunday we went to church and out to lunch. Here they are in their Easter outfits before we went.

Took awhile to get Superman in it and I'm not sure he's all that happy about it, but we kind of got a smile out of him. Oh to have a child who will just wear whatever I put on him without a fight. It would be heaven!

I really liked the pics of a baby pepper that Lisa posted last week so I decided to copy cat her.

The baby tomato was really cute

You can't really see it in the picture b/c my camera is obviously not as good as Lisa's is. It's up under that brownish dead flower thing - a tiny green ball.

The baby cucumber was pretty cute too, though:

A little easier to see. And here is the mystery item in my garden:

Any thoughts on what it is? It is not doggie vomit. There are two of these things and I poked around on the other one to find that it's kind of a powdery substance that is dark brown under the top.

Finally, as long as I was in the yard taking photos thought I'd show one of our compost "bin." Not really compost yet, I guess - it's supposed to take 6 months to a year.

Oh, and our AC is broken. So, if I don't post for awhile it's b/c I've had a heat stroke. Just kidding. But, we may be spending the next few afternoons hanging out at Target since they have AC and it's predicted to be in the upper 90s this week.

A pain in the neck

Yes, I have a pain in the neck. A real one. Weird. I was fine when I woke up this morning. Then I was laying in bed watching the boys play, heard a crack and now I can't move my head w/o excruciating pain. UGH!

Hopefully the Aleve will kick in and I'll feel fine in an hour or so. Since I didn't take any pics yesterday I most likely won't be participating in SPF. : ( Hmmm, unless I can get the kids to take pics that will remotely work..... Hmmm.

Another quickie

I'm trying to post at least every weekday, but don't have much time now. E won the contest on why my jeans don't fit. Thanks girlfriend. I feel much, much better now.

I did yoga this a.m. and an hour, yes, an hour on the elliptical trainer yesterday. My butt hurts so it must be firm, right?

I think I won the worst mom of the year (or at least the week) award. Superman had a party and egg hunt at his school today. First, I didn't sign up to bring anything. This will be the second party in a row that I've bailed on. Actually that's the fault of the Janes who apparently carry pens and sign up the second the list goes up on the board. But, then, I brought the eggs, but totally flaked on the fact that he'd need a basket to hunt his eggs with. His teacher said he was more than happy w/ his plastic HEB bag so maybe that's what he'll get for Easter too. hehehe

UGH!

Can someone please tell me why my jeans don't fit even though I'm trying to eat healthy and working out 3-4 times a week? UGH. Waaaaah!

That is all.

Spring fever

I really have no excuse for not blogging lately. I haven't been off on an exciting trip like Angela. I haven't been busy interviewing for new jobs like Lisa. I've just been feeling all antsy about life and not focused enough to sit for 5 minutes and give a shout out to the world. But, here I am. I'll do it now. Just be warned that it's silly ramblings and I probably won't bother to spell-check.

Let's see. Today we had a playdate w/ Sunshine's friend from school. He brings his little sis over to play w/ Superman so I don't have to entertain anyone for a few hours until his mom comes to get them. Usually it's a pretty relaxing afternoon for me, but everyone was in grumpy moods, so we had little fights breaking out all over. This one's not speaking to that one. That one hurt this one's feelings. Apparently no one likes grape juice....

My garden is starting to come up and one of the tomatoes has a couple of little yellow blossoms. Yippeee. I go out about 10 times a day to see how tall everything is. (which is why I'm never blogging. I'm too busy monitoring every tiny bit of growth) I need to thin the beans, okra and broccoli, but I just can't bring myself to pull up any of my babies. Maybe tomorrow I'll get my nerve up. Meanwhile, my basil, that I desperately *need* to be up NOW, is taking it's own sweet time. I even bought a starter plant a month ago b/c I needed fresh basil for my spaghetti. And it's all used up down to the dirt. I planted a whole big pot of seeds and there are 2, yes, 2, *tiny* little sprouts in there. C'mon basil. You've gotta be big and bushy by the time my 'maters are ready. And I'm not even going to talk about about the whole cilantro issue.

Anyway, if anyone knows what in the heck to do w/ "yellow bush beans," lemme know. I'm not sure how we ended up w/ them except that they looked kinda neat and I could fit 2 of 'em into the space I had available.

The hubby built me a little cage to try to compost and I guess that's going well. It's full of grass clippings and leaves, anyway. I won't really know if it's working or not for a few more months. I do, however, go look at it and poke at it w/ shovels and sticks a few times a day. Yeah, I'm using my time wisely.

This weekend is Easter, which reminds me I need to go fill some eggs w/ candy for a party on Thursday and go ahead and make up the baskets all pretty while the kids are outta my hair (in case I have trouble and need something else.) I don't usually do big gifts for Easter, but hubby had his heart set on this big basket at Big Lots w/ big, cheap toys in it. Of course, he didn't bother to buy it, just told me to. When I went back they were out. So, I went shopping and got a ton of junk to stick in there. Candy and the usual, plus Sunshine is getting a some Star Wars figures and Superman is getting a Superman action figures to add to his growing collection.

I'm really, really ready for summer. A couple of my commitments, which I'm getting really tired of, will be up come summer and I can hardly wait. I'd say I'll blog more then, but you can find me by the pool whenever I get free time.

World's Shortest Personality Test

Your Personality Profile

You are dreamy, peaceful, and young at heart.Optimistic and caring, you tend to see the best in people.You tend to be always smiling - and making others smile. You are shy and intelligent... and a very hard worker.You're also funny, but many people don't see your funny side.Your subtle dry humor leaves your close friends in stitches.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Nineteen... Nineteeen..... Nineteen Eighty-Five

I have to admit I love that song. But, the reason it's in the title is it's the theme of Way Back Wednesday this week. Brought to us as always by the lovely, talented and tipsy Kept Woman.

When thinking about this theme I realize that I actually still have some fashion items from 1985 in my closet. They all have sentimental value... Really... stop laughing..

First, I bring to you the red leather skirt.

Kept, first, because my beloved Nana bought it for me for Christmas despite my mother's protests. And because I have a fantasy of one day fitting back in it and shaking my ass on Whitesnake's car.

Next, I bring to you the Limited jacket. This is circa 1983.

I don't really know why I've kept it except that I remember begging for it and promising my mom it was the only jacket I would ever ask for again... I actually wear it around the house when the Man has the AC on in winter. It's nice and soft and old enough I don't mind it getting messed up when I'm cleaning or whatever.

Finally, what we've all been waiting for BIG EARRINGS (I never fully managed to acheive the big hair thing so I stuck w/ big jewelry):

Did you play?

My week

Well, it's been almost a week since I've posted! Not that much of interest to write about really. Kind of back to the same old routine this week.

Saturday we took the kids to ride the Cedar Rock Railroad . Just a little kiddie train going thru a park. We'd planned a picnic, but got chased into the car by bees. After that we had to come home and clean the car....

Sunday had the cub scout Bicycle Rodeo. The kids had fun. Two hours was waaay to long for me out in that wind, though!

Got a little worried about the garden since it nearly froze on Thursday night. But, everything survived. Still have more stuff to plant but I'll have to wait until it's less rainy. Mark set up a wire cage for a compost pile, so we'll see how that goes. I guess we won't really know for a few months. I'm not sure I can bring myself to put actual food waste (like lettuce, etc) in there. We'll see. It will def. be a good spot for all the yard clippings and such.

Here's hoping for a more exciting week.

How to make the raised beds

I've had a couple of questions on how we made the raised beds for my garden, so I thought I'd post how Mark made ours.

Get four 8-foot long boards at Lowe's, Home Depot, whatever. If you have a few old boards laying around in the yard you can use those. I think the ones we used are about a foot wide, but don't quote me on that. You can get longer if you want a bigger bed, but that was as big as we can manage in our yard. The bed we built has room for 4 tomato plants and a cucumber plant in the back row, probably 2 more rows of short plants. They are a bit crowded, but it cuts down on weeds.

While you are there, get some of those metal board corner connector things. I'm sure what they are called, but someone who works there can probably help you find them.

Cut two of the boards in half. I think they will do this for you at Home Depot as they always offer to cut boards for me. But, since we have a couple of fancy saws, hubby did it himself. Use the connectors to connect two long boards to two short boards, making a rectangle. Do the same with the second set of boards, then put it on top of the first and use the straight connectors to make it stay steady. I think you can do this all with nails, but those fancy connector things just make you feel like a real carpenter, ya know?

Fill the beds with lots and lots of dirt. Preferably good dirt, but whatever you can get is fine. Like 5,000 wheelbarrows full or so should do it. Then, you are done.

Oh, and don't buy the treated lumber. It looks pretty, but can leach stuff into the soil and contaminate your veggies. We used plain old pine. I'll post a picture of the sandbox later to show you what color the veggie box will be in a couple of years.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a yard...

(Hoping blogger will let me post these today..)

First, here's the "after" on the yard:

I realize that there is still some dirt around the edges. Hopefully it is filling in the gaps between squares of sod and helping the grass grow together smoothly and all that. The new flower bed is in the back left corner.

Here's my garden box. I went out and bought some stuff for it today and we'll probably plant it after Sunshine gets home from school.

And, while blogger is letting me post photos, here are some of our other Spring Break activities.

In front of the state Capitol:

After seeing Shamu:

No, he's not crying b/c he's wet. He's crying b/c we made him look at me instead of the whales for 10 seconds.

Flamingos and ducks:

At the Magic Time Machine:

What is up w/ my laundry?

Now, last week was Spring Break. Although we were working like crazy in the yard 1/2 of it, I did 2-3 loads, as usual, every day. Then, on Wednesday, the hubby helped me push a whopping 6 loads thru to be sure we had everything to pack for San Antonio.

We get back Fri. night, I do 3 loads on Sat, 2 on Sunday. Soo, I should be "all caught up", right? NOOOOOOO. My downstairs laundry sorter is overflowing and the kids laundry hamper upstairs is full. What do these guys do? Just periodically empty their dresser drawers into the laundry hamper.

Grrrrrr....