Busy, Busy, Busy

Yeppers, its the busy time of year again. Letting go of summer and grabbing onto the new school year!

But first...S's birthday. It's still so hard to believe that my little surprise is 17. Surprise? Yep, she was our oops baby. But not really an oops though. I kind of knew she was coming. On Thanksgiving weekend in 1997 I had a dream that God asked me if I trusted him. I knew that He was referring to babies. I somewhat, hesitatingly, said yes. Well, 2 weeks later I was pregnant. It was really weird. After that dream I just knew that I was going to have a baby. We hadn't planned on more that 2 kids but we got more that 2 kids :) I've loved every minute of it!!!!! 

So here is her birthday cake. You can see her love of "nerd" culture :) Not said in any derogatory way. It's very unique too! The Hulk shirt, the Ninja Turtle candles and the One Piece logo. I'm sure you all recognize the Hulk and Turtles but the One Piece may be a bit unfamiliar. Unless, of course, you are into Manga! I haven't really looked into the One Piece stuff yet but its a Manga about pirates. I have promised S that I would sit down today and watch it with her. Not my favorite genre but for my girl I'll watch it.

School started for me on Tuesday. I've got all the Star testing to get done before I take off for Disney. We have quite a few new students so it might take a bit longer than normal. I really did miss my kids. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to come back this year. But looking at those faces and getting the hugs from the little boys who you wouldn't think would give hugs is just priceless!!

S starts school on Monday. A Junior in HS. I'm not sure she is ready. It kind of snuck up on her! We don't quite have all the school clothes we were looking for but we have plenty of time to go back after I get home from Disney.

Do you see  how I keep mentioning Disney? Bahahaha. I have 17 days!!!!!!!!!!
I can't stand it!!!!!!! I am SO excited. Just my sister and I. We  will be celebrating my 50th. A few months early but we won't tell anyone! I've been packing and re-packing since day 30 I think...if not sooner :)

Shopping With My Girls and Dealing with a Hellion Cat

Yesterday H, S and I drove into Houston to visit my oldest R. We were unable to go on her birthday in July so yesterday was the day! I think R had a good day shopping. I don't think she goes very often. Not for herself anyway. I did end up spending a bit more than I wanted but she is worth it. We also did a bit of school clothes shopping for S.

It was SO good to spend some time with R. Though she is only about 2 1/2 hrs away our schedules don't allow us to connect much. I miss her something fierce! I wish I had taken some pictures but I am horrible at remembering to do it!!

Tomorrow is S's birthday. We asked her what she wanted for her birthday meal, her answer? Red Lobster. Perfect! Especially since we don't eat meat on Fridays.( Not sure if I have mentioned it before but as Catholics we are called to keep Fridays as a sacrifice. It being the day the week Jesus died on. Some people think that the Church did away with that practice--not so :) We are still called upon to make Fridays a day of sacrifice. It's just that the Church has allowed us to make a sacrifice other than meat. We choose to continue the tradition of no meat.) But I digress....back to S.

I am making her a red velvet cake. No, not homemade, straight out of the box. It is double layered though! Her decorations? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle candles and one of her favorite Anime cartoon logos. For that I just printed it off and laminated it. Just gonna slap it on the cake. I'll be sure to take pictures of that one!! Should be interesting!

The hellion cat. I am ready for him to grow out of his kittenish phase! This morning he was zooming around everywhere and climbing on everything! I was wishing I had taken him back to R yesterday. Well, not really, but I was ready to do something to him :)

 See my Last Supper picture all wack-a-doo? 

See my gravy boat? He knocked that down yesterday and broke the handle. Good thing it didn't hit my tile floor!

This big piece of plastic was H's giant picture of a shark that we had pinned up for her birthday. The little stinker tore it down and has made a nest out of it. You see the two furry things with feathers on the end? Those are his toys that he drags around and brings back to his nest!!! He is one crazy cat!!!



And here he is with Moxie playing in his big plastic nest. You can also see the curtains he pulled down in the background. Along with all kinds of other stuff he has batted around and knocked down. At least he and the dog are getting along!!!

I can't wait until he becomes fat and lazy. Fingers crossed!!!

Summer is Almost Over

The winds of change are in the air. Ok, by that I mean the hot gust of a late summer wind that is bringing in the new school year. 

I go back to work on the 18th and S goes back on the 24th. But that doesn't mean we have a leisurely couple of weeks left. NOPE. 

I've already been up to the school helping move furniture. Started school shopping. Planning lunches/breakfasts etc. I'm dreading going back but at the same time I'm looking forward to it. This has been a very unorganized summer. You know when you are ready to take your first lick of your ice cream cone and it flops on the cement and splats? That's how this summer has felt. Just like a blob of melting ice cream. We've had our good/fun moments but it still feels like it's been wasted. 

So let's psych this brain up for some change and get this body moving!!

Last night my school had a fishing get-together. They grilled hotdogs and set some poles up for the kids and have a great get-together before school. Next week we will have a kayak get-together. What I like about these (selfishly, I might add) is that they are in my little town and I can walk to them. Not to mention the kids have a great time.

I will be facilitating the testing again this year. I think that's about all I'll do. I really wasn't much help last year with substituting. I ended up being a bit too busy. I almost didn't even do that. I'm kind of in flux right now with what I want to do with my time. I want to be home, I want to get a paying job and I want to stay at my little school. I know, I know. I just need to quit whining and do something and stick with it. 

 

Next week will be a busy week. Monday S has her Jr. year registration and both girls have a dentist appointment. Wednesday, the girls and I are going to visit my oldest to take her shopping for her belated birthday and Friday is S's bday. My baby will be 17. She is such an amazing young woman. Her heart is SO kind. Even when she was being picked on by some girls in her class she still wouldn't do/say anything unkind about them. A saint in the making! She is so full of love!

 

Since I do not have any pictures of anything I have posted about I will throw in some random pics of this summer :)

 

 

S reading a Manga book at the beach

 

  A cute, chubby seagull

 

And, though the picture doesn't really capture it, a very vivid blue/green dragonfly

 

Hope ya'll have a very Blessed weekend.

A Rare Happening

Yes, indeedy. We have a rare occurrence happening at my house a this precise moment. Complete and total silence. Why? Why is there complete and total silence at my house at this precise moment? Because I am the only living human being here. Everyone is gone. I am completely and totally by myself. YES!! My husband is off at work and the girls are at their friends house.

Don't get me wrong. Love my family. But I am one of those who needs to be by themselves every once in a while. 

I wish I had something fantastic planned but I don't. I'll just do the same thing I would have done if they were home...except in silence!

This was Simba yesterday. He had to go back for his follow up shots. He did NOT like being out and about at the vet. He immediately headed straight back into the carrier. I have never had a cat that voluntarily did that. Now, if he would just voluntarily leave my other cat, Bella, alone! 

 

A a bit of an update on my Rapunzel blanket. All is going well and I seem to have gotten the hang of the ripple.

Hope ya'lls Saturday is going as nicely as mine is!

Rapunzel Ripple

 

 I have started on a Rapunzel ripple blanket for H's best friend. She will be graduating highschool this year and this is what H wants to do for her. Rapunzel is, of course, her favorite princess. 

As you can see, it started off pretty going pretty well. But let me preface this with the fact that I have never done a ripple before. I have never been able to do a ripple before. I don't know why, it just never worked out.

 See! It never works out for me. I messed up somewhere in the second row and had to pull the whole thing out. Eeerrggghhh. Ok. put it down and come back later!!! Yea, great advice!!

 

 Alrighty! I put that pattern and color down and picked up another of each. Hmmm, I like this a little better. The color is right and I seem to have a flow going with the ripple pattern. This just might work!

YES! Ha, ha!! I think I'm getting the hang of this! Whew.  I refuse to believe this will not work out! I will get this done. 

It will be mostly the lavender with a few golden stripes. I may applique a sun on it at some point.

H's other best friend is also graduating this coming year, so she wants me to do one for him as well. He is a Disney freak also, but his will be a bit different. The challenge will be to keep it manly while adding princess and cutesy characters. His will probably be done with different granny squares. Not sure yet. But I really need to get moving because I also need to do one for my niece getting married in a year. 

I just love having a full crochet plate :)

The Zoo

On Monday we went to the zoo. Oh, our zoo. It took us maybe 45 minutes to see everything. Probably more like 30 minutes. Yes, it's that small. They are working on expanding and building it up. But, of course, it is taking a while.

After the zoo, we took a quick drive to another part of the park for a picnic. What serendipity, my husband made burgers the night before. It was nice and hot!

 Unfortunately, I can't remember what kind of snake this guy was. As far as snakes go, he's pretty cute

 

 This is a red-tailed hawk.

 This little guy was in the same enclosure and the next "little" guy. 

 I just want to kiss his nose. I've got a thing for cats. Little, big, it doesn't matter :)

 Fan tailed doves. It was so loud they were cooing so much.

 A scarlet ibis and roseatte spoonbill. I get the privilege of seeing  spoonbills flying close to my house on a semi-regular basis. From what I understand they were declining in the late 1800's because women wanted their tail feathers in their hats. I can see why, they are beautiful.

 This guy wasn't too happy because he was close to a couple lioness' and they were, somewhat, stalking each other through the fence. Again...would love to kiss the nose.

 Cute little lemurs. They used to be my oldests favorite animal.

 One of about 5 peacocks walking around. NOISY thing it was!

They were all very passive and let you get somewhat close. Hmmm, could be because of the little feeding machines located next to their free space.

And....a parting shot. Or he was just telling me what he really thought of me taking his picture.

 This ugly thing. Emu?  We got to feed him. He was kind of sweet.

 The coyotes. Or kyloties as my girls used to call them. Quite prominent in our area. They were all yippy because some monkeys started howling. I guess they felt the need to join in.

 I thought this was quite comical. It looks like he is floating above the water. Nope, he was just standing. It was quite shallow.

 An ocelot. They are somewhat frequent in our area. They are endangered. I'm hoping they are making a comeback. My daughter and I have seen a couple of them, dead, on the side of the road. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Good because they are starting to populate our area again or bad because they were killed by cars? So cute!!

 Red fox I believe. Can't remember. This guy was cute because he shared his home with a "rescued" pet racoon. It said they were best friends and like to wrestle and snuggle.

Bobcat. Look at that face. I don't need to say it. His nose. Want to kiss it.

All in all it was a nice little trip to our zoo. We needed to get out and have a bit of family time. I did miss having my oldest there though. She always did love the zoo.

Speaking of my oldest, she turned 23 yesterday. My baby, not so much a baby anymore. Her boyfriend texted my husband on Monday and asked if we wanted to come up for the surprise bday party he was going to have for her. Unfortunately, we were unable to make it. We will get a chance next month to go up so I can take her shopping for her bday. Should be fun. She is only a couple of hours away but it feels like a world away. I miss her terribly! Glad she is out living her life though.