Category Archives: working mom

Of Waves and Pens

Posted on April 12, 2011 | 11 comments

Good morning everyone!

  • Waves

 

One of the fascinating aspects of living in a small town is learning the language, both spoken and non-spoken.  For example,when a person honks their horn at your car, the odds are pretty good that they are just trying to say hello.  I learned this lesson over 20 years ago, when Mark and I traveled to a small town in South Carolina.

In the middle of town, on the main 45 miles per hour thoroughfare, we got behind an elderly couple going 25 miles an hour.  Not being from a small town at that time, Mark honked his horn, hoping to encourage them to drive a little faster.  When he did so, the driver, the man, looked in his rear view mirror to see who we were and turned to his wife and asked her, “Do you know them?”  The wife looked in the rear view mirror at us and turned to her husband and said, “No.”  They both took one more look to be sure, and then, on cue, not wanting to be rude, both of them waved at us on the off-chance we might indeed be someone they knew.  We waved back, and resigned ourselves to going 25 miles per hour until they decided to turn left. 

  • Pens

I have a junk drawer in the kitchen.  Well, actually, I have four junk drawers in the kitchen and need to pare down, but one of them is supposed to be the designated spot for pens and pencils, so I always know where I can get a writing utensil.  I have decided that this drawer is magic – the pens disappear from the drawer, and never turn back up.  Ever.  I buy 10 pack after 10 pack of pens, with a few good pens thrown in from time to time, but there never is a pen in there when I need one.  The pencils, however, hang around indefinitely.  I am beginning to suspect that the pencils are the main culprits.  How else can you explain a drawer with the same 20 pencils I put in there originally, and not a single one of the 50 to 60 odd pens remaining?  Someday, I am going to find the place to which the pens are magically transported, and suffer a serious injury when I open it and the flood of pens pours out on me, proving yet again that a pen is indeed mightier than a sword!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

11 Comments

Posted in Just stuff..., On the Home Front, working mom

Tagged , , , , ,

The Southernmost Point

Posted on April 11, 2011 | 4 comments

Hi Everyone!

I have covered bits and pieces of our trip to Key West over the last few weeks, and considering that the trip itself was only four days, there has been an amazing amount of material, but now we are winding down to the last few topics. 

While the Hemingway House was both intriguing and inspirational, and the visit to the Key West cemetery reflective, a trip to the Southern part of the island is simply one of those cheerful touristy things that tourists do when they go to Key West.  Over towards the Atlantic ocean side of the island, the two or three blocks that lead to the Southernmost point are covered with things dubbed the “Southernmost” – the Southernmost restaurant, the Southernmost Hotel, the Southernmost Inn, the Southernmost grocery store, the Southernmost dog (well, they didn’t really have a Southernmost dog, but I am surprised that someone didn’t think to bring a dog and hang a plaque around its neck saying so!)

The Southernmost point in the continental United States is actually not quite the Southernmost point – there is an antenna off a jetty behind a fence that you can see from the point dubbed the Southernmost point that is a little more South, but a) you can’t reach it, and b) it is built on land that was created/dredged/reclaimed by filling in the water, so in a typically pragmatic fashion, Key West has continued to call the Southernmost point, the Southernmost point.

To be sure that it is recognized, someone placed a (very colorful, can’t be missed) monument there stating that it is the southernmost point. 

Mark and I at the "Southernmost" Point

There was a line to have your picture taken at the monument, and the family in front of us was kind enough to take a picture of both of us with our camera.

Although it is kind of touristy, it is not a complete gimmick, as there are some interesting historical sites surrounding the southernmost point.

The most  recognizable site  is the Southernmost House.  The history of the Southernmost house is set out in this plaque:

The Southernmost House, itself, is a Victorian mansion complete with all the trimmings.  We did not tour the house while we were there (after all, you have to save something for the next time), but we took several pictures of it, including the following.

As the posted sign by the Southernmost House noted, the mansion was built in 1897.  Technically, it is no longer the very southernmost house anymore, as someone came in and built one house right behind it on the block leading to the Southernmost Monument that is more Southerly, but, I guess, age having its privileges. this mansion was the Southernmost House originally, so the Southernmost House it shall remain!

At the very corner of the turn to reach the monument, there is a structure known as the cable house.  It didn’t look like much, but appearances, as the placard on the cable house showed, can be deceiving.

The Cable House

Its history:

The Southernmost Point/House/Inn/Hotel/Motel was simply a fun, cheerful trip, and cost almost nothing (we even were lucky enough to find a parking spot we didn’t have to pay for!) and, in its own way, was as much a highlight of our trip as the other adventures were.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

4 Comments

Posted in Travel, working mom

Tagged , , ,

Cheese Grits, the Sequel and Where only the Brave Dare Go

Posted on April 8, 2011 | 1 comment

Hi Everyone! 

  • Cheese Grits, the Sequel

From Print Shop 2.0 - Rising Steam

Last night, Kayla was helping Mark while I was cooking supper.  I left the kitchen to go check on them, and when I got to the room, Kayla said to me, “I wish I could have cheese grits for supper, like the ones they make at school or that Grandma Pat makes.”  (Steam started rising from my stomach toward my ears.)  She then added, “That’s because they have the right kind of grits and cheese.”  (The steam hit my head and started to roll around my eyes in advance of a full whistle blast.)  She reflected a minute, then added cheerfully, “Well, you have the right kind of box but not the right kind of cheese.”  (Small wisps of steam began to slip out from my ears.)  At that point, I told her that she probably should quit while she was behind, and went back to working on supper, which, for the record, was NOT cheese grits and probably won’t be for some time!

  • Where Only the Brave Dare Go

The Inside of My Refrigerator (Not!) From PrintShop 2.0

I really looked at the inside of my refrigerator last night.  To really look at the inside of your refrigerator means that you have to intentionally look at every item on every shelf, as opposed to the instant identification search you do most of the time – ie., you want milk, locate milk, grab milk and return the rest of the refrigerator’s occupants to the comforting, cool dark that they love. 

When I did look, I saw that the inside of the refrigerator is beginning to be a very scary place, which means that the time to clean out the refrigerator has arrived again.  The last time I went through the refrigerator, say six months ago (Mom, I am just kidding – I have cleaned it out since Christmas!), throwing out all leftovers and other items I could not place a date on, I found three science experiments involving fermentation (I didn’t know until then that it was possible for lima beans to ferment), two new kinds of penicillin, three mutant bacteria that did NOT have good intentions for humanity, and four cures for cancer.  If you see the HazMat team headed toward my house this weekend, you will know what caused it!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Nancy

1 Comment

Posted in On the Home Front, working mom

Tagged , , , , ,

The Twins of Trouble and Easter Allergies

Posted on April 7, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning!  
 

Mandy (aka "Bad Dog")

 

Darwin (a/k/a "No-No")

  • No-No and Bad Dog at Bay

For those of you who have been wondering about No-No and Bad Dog, they are still alive and well. 

On Saturday we bought a four pack of stuffed animal chew toys, and so this week the Twins of Trouble’s (they look like twins, don’t they?) chewing efforts have been focused on the three of the four toys we went ahead and put out. 

I am glad the dogs like the toys, and even more amazed that they have lasted for a week!  Usually, it takes about a day, and then the stuffing has been released and strown all over everywhere. 

We still come across the occasional handkerchief lying on the floor in odd places, or the occasional shredded napkin or paper towel scattered somewhere far away from its point of origin or hear the occasional scrape of paws as they slide off of the kitchen counter, having ascertained that nothing is available for retrieval, but we haven’t caught either of them red-handed for a while. 

Most of the time, you see Darwin running by with a stuffed toy in his mouth, and Mandy in hot pursuit, or vice versa.  Occasionally, they are each holding one end of the same toy and running around the room in tandem.  One toy has been put carefully aside by Tyra, who doesn’t chew hers; her chew toy is a treasured doll that she doesn’t allow anyone else to mess with.  The other two toys appear to be interchangeable.  When we got home yesterday, and I was trying to let the dogs out to the back yard, Darwin, with one of them in his mouth, took a spectacular running start toward the back door, until he realized he was going to run out of floor much faster than he expected.  At that point he put on the brakes, sliding five feet plus on the wood floor and only stopping once his momentum took him underneath Mandy, pushing both of them outside.  I’m not sure Mandy knew what hit her; she is so low to the ground that this may be the first time anything has managed to slide under her. 

  • Easter and Allergies

Wednesday is our busiest day.  Not only do we have the regular activities of school and work, but Kayla has dance after school, and then we go to our church for Wednesday evening choir practice.  Currently, the adult choir is getting ready for our Easter performance, which is a beautiful musical arrangement entitled “A Hill Too Far Away.”  It has a great message and I am looking forward to our performance on the 17th, but it is a fairly demanding work, at least from the alto standpoint, with notes ranging from a low G up to the D that is an octave away from middle C.  When the choir finished practicing one particularly demanding song last night, we burst out into so many coughs that we sounded like a tuberculosis ward.  We couldn’t help it – all of us laughed. 

I have long known that God has a sense of humor; why else make sure that Easter and allergy season always coincide?  Maybe He just wants us to remember who actually gives us the ability to sing.  I also, however, have a sneaking suspicion that He laughed along with us when He heard all the coughing at the end of practice.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

2 Comments

Posted in dogs, Just stuff..., Pets, working mom

Tagged , , , , , ,

Cheese Grits and Pugliese Bread

Posted on April 6, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone! 

Even though it was a cold night, at least it was a stormless one!  We all got some much needed rest.

A Breakfast with Grits

  • Cheese Grits

Saturday morning, Kayla woke up and asked me to fix her cheese grits.  For those of you not from the Southern United States, grits are a breakfast food, consisting of flakes of coarsely ground corn and mixed with boiling water to make a porridge-like substance.  It is, I am told, very like polenta.  I would not know, since I have never been tempted to try polenta given my dislike for grits.  Kayla, however, loves them. 

Unfortunately, there was a problem with her request for grits Saturday:  I have never been able to make grits to her satisfaction, which means up to the culinary standard set by her Grandmas Dottie and Pat.  The last time I tried two years ago, I received enough of a critique from her majesty that I resolved to myself that it would be a very long time before I made grits for her again.  However, after a time lapse of two years, I decided that her home grits probationary period had run, so I was willing to give it another try, with a couple of caveats.  The first was that I wouldn’t make cheese grits since I only had shredded cheese, as opposed to a single slice of American cheese to place on top of the cooked grits, which is the way Kayla insists cheese grits should be made.  The second caveat was that no matter what, Kayla was not to tell me how much better either grandmother’s grits were, or give me continuous suggestions on how said grits should be cooked, since I intended to (strangely enough) follow the package instructions.  I almost had to perform a swearing-in ceremony on the last condition, but she finally agreed. 

She did try hard to comply with both conditions, but she had one or two minor slips.  She started to tell me the grits were too watery when I poured them in the bowl for her  but she quickly bit it back and said,”Never mind.”  Then, once she had possession of the grits, she got up, went to the refrigerator and condescended to put the shredded cheese into her grits after all.  I assume that was because she found some flavor to be lacking.  However, since she never did explain the thought process behind the adding of the cheese, technically she did not violate the “no criticism” rule.  

  • Pugliese Bread

I like bread.  While not exactly a connoisseur, I am interested in different kinds of breads and the variations in flavor and crust that can be attained, so when, on Saturday at Costco, I walked by two loaves in a paper sack labeled “Italian Pugliese Bread,” I thought I would give it a try. 

I have now concluded that “pugliese” must be Italian for “crust that can’t be cut with a chainsaw,” or perhaps “pugnaciously tough crust” since even our best and sharpest bread knife could only saw about halfway through the loaf vertically – and that only with a great deal of effort – after which you had to bend the bread to finish breaking it off.  It was not quite as difficult to cut the bread horizontally, but it still wasn’t easy.  Surprisingly, the bread when heated in the toaster oven with a little butter on it was not too tough to eat, although it was a little chewy.  Still, I am going to learn the Italian words for “soft crust that can be cut” before I try any more novel types of Italian bread!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

2 Comments

Posted in Cooking, On the Home Front, Out of the mouths of babes...., working mom

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

The Second Rite of Spring

Posted on April 4, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone!  I hope you had a great weekend! 

From Print Shop 2.0

Our weather here was perfect, leading us to the second rite of spring.  (The first rite of spring is described in my March 23, 2011 post, “Spring!, Butterflies and Roosters.”)  The warm air and soft breezes, laden with pollen, begin to play tricks on the mind, and sudden images of me carrying a greatly enlarged metal typewriter stick, with a weird shaped mass of metal at the end of it that resembles a cross between a rectangle and an oval begin to dance through my overheated brain.  The sudden onslaught of ads for major tournaments such as The Masters feed the delusion and present images of me using said club to make graceful hits on a small, white pocked ball that send the ball soaring away at lofty heights only to be rivaled by the greats of the game such as Annika Sorenson and Nancy Lopez.  At that point,  my common sense is swamped, so I suggest to (or agree with) Mark that we should go play a round of golf. 

Such a moment happened this weekend, and before you could say, “Verily, verily I hath failed to hit the ball yet again,” the entire family was loaded into the car with two sets of golf clubs. 

My set is in almost perfect condition, even though it is over a decade old.  This is because my golf outings are usually limited to the first delusional outing each spring, and then the occasional trip with Mark.   The plan was to play at a course at a nearby city which often is uncrowded.  This works well for us because not only does it let me play as best I can under scramble rules with Mark, but Kayla, who usually acts as ball spotter and retriever with an occasional turn at golf cart driver if she begs long enough and hard enough, can come with us too and get to hit once or twice on the green .  (Scramble rules are where everyone who is playing hits the ball, and then everyone gets to pick up their ball and move it to wherever the farthest ball is.)  Most of the time, I don’t even try for a tee shot, just start my play about 100 feet or so from the hole. 

However, that plan was frustrated because the course we like was hosting a tournament, so no tee times were available, which led us to Plan B, the driving range.  Mark and Kayla reached the range first, so I had the opportunity to take a picture or two  before I had to start practicing myself.

Instruction!

Both Mark and Kayla get ready to practice

 

Mark right after one of his best shots of the afternoon

Kayla giving it her best effort!

 

Finally, it was my turn.  I reached the driving range, placed a ball in front of me, studied it carefully, placed my club up against the ball to be sure everything was in place, pulled back once, swung my club down slowly to double-check I would hit the ball where I wanted to, and then, everything on go, I pulled the club back one more  time and gave a mighty swing – at which time all the delusions in my head popped away.  The ball still sat exactly where I had placed it.  

The “missing of the ball” is the first event in my golf season every year.  Since we were at the driving range, I then began the process of trying to hack, ….er, hit the ball in progressively better ways to try to improve my golf game. 

There are unique rules to driving range play.  The first is that you will never hit a really good shot when someone is looking.  Resign yourself to it.  I do hit maybe three or four decent shots out of the 20 to 40 golf balls available to me each session, but they are always when Mark and Kayla are looking the other way.  The second rule is one of proportions – the amount of time I will get to spend hacking…er, hitting… the ball decreases geometrically to the number of balls Kayla wants to hit.  She needs encouragement and unlike adults doesn’t understand when Mom and Dad don’t see the good shots that she hits.  The third rule at the driving range is that just at the moment you decide that this is a really stupid game, you will never get good at it and you might as well quit, you hit a truly beautiful shot that stupefies your senses back into the delusion that you will be playing better sometime soon.   

While I was hitting, I unfortunately left the camera in a place where it could be accessed by all; hence Mark ( or Kayla) caught this picture of me meditating with the ball:

Pulling the ball into position

About an hour later, we finally had hit all of the balls in the bag of range balls we had purchased, (it takes a while when two of the players need two or three shots just to hit one ball) so it was time to head home.  As we drove home, I could already feel the memory of the bad shots (or non-shots) I had slipping away from me like water and the memory of the good shots expanding.  In another couple of weeks, the delusion will have set in again, and we’ll go back for more!

From Print Shop 2.0 Professional

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

2 Comments

Posted in Just stuff..., The quest for health, When things don't go as expected, working mom

Tagged , ,

Kayla’s Day Off

Posted on April 1, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone! 

Isn’t it great that we have made it to Friday?  I am so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, at least as much as Mandy will let me! 

Kayla, as you may have guessed from my entry “Morning Interrupted,” could not go to school yesterday, but toward the afternoon she was feeling much better and was able to eat, for which I am thankful.  I had a conference call I had to take between 2 and 3, so she suggested that I turn on the WII so she could play games.  We almost got into a fuss then, because she asked me to help her get the right game on the machine, then got mad when I tried to hold the WII control so I could make the right selections.  Since neither one of us relinquishes control gladly (although I do get to pull rank, which usually guarantees a win, although often accompanied by high drama), it was dicey for just a moment, but we slid past the awkward moment.  Right as things were about to get rough, the WII put itself on the right game, in the right place, where she could start playing, and my phone started to ring with the conference call at the same time. 

The WII entertained her for about a half hour, then she decided to follow the dogs around and take their pictures.  She did a good job, too.

Here are some of her photos.  (She told me I could use them for my blog.)  I am not sure, and probably am better off not knowing, what she bribed them with in order to get them to sit still for some of the shots.  I have a suspicion that paper, which is not to be used as a dog treat, was involved.

Close-up of Darwin

Tyra in the Kitchen (Mandy and Darwin are in the background)

All Three Dogs Entering the Kitchen to Investigate the Crinkling Paper

Mandy Lying in State in the Kitchen

Five minutes before the end of the conference call, Kayla re-entered my bedroom to ask me if she could take out the trash.  In whispers I asked why and she told me that she was cleaning so that we could “paint together” when I finished.  I had housework to do when I finished my call, but what is a mother to do when her daughter asks that way?  The upshot is we painted some wooden and plaster-of- paris Christmas ornaments for about 2 hours.  (To work:  I early in the day had realized this day with her was going to have to count as a vacation day.)  Here is what we ended up with:

Our ornaments

She painted all of them except the train engine in the lower right corner, which I did.

This morning, Kayla is awake and well, with that “bounce-back” happy quality kids have once they are better from an illness.  She wanted to skip breakfast, but Mark and I insisted on at least a piece of toast.  When the toast was ready to be buttered, she came to stand by me and the toaster oven, and while she was waiting, she announced:  “Mom, I smell something spicy.”  She paused for a second and then said, “Oh.  I am standing by the spice drawer.”  I allowed as how that would make things smell spicy, and she laughed and said, “The aroma [yes, she really did use the word aroma – pretty good for a third grader!] is coming up here!”  She opened the drawer to make sure, I guess on the theory that if the drawer wasn’t what she was smelling she was going to refuse to eat the toast, but the drawer checked out, so the toast got eaten!

Have a great weekend everyone!  Talk to you Monday.

Nancy

2 Comments

Posted in dogs, Out of the mouths of babes...., Pets, working mom

Tagged , , , ,

Morning Interrupted and A Splash of Color

Posted on March 30, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning (or good afternoon in the Central U.S. Time Zone and those points further east) everyone!
  • Morning Interrupted

Today’s title, “Morning Interrupted,” was far more prophetic than I ever intended it to be.  Not only was my early morning (i.e., pre 6:30 a.m.) routine left in shambles but my mid-morning schedule has been disrupted as well. 

Powerful Spark (From Print Shop 2.0 Deluxe)

 Mark was out of town last night, so of course a round of thunderstorms chose to rumble in around 4:00 a.m.  Kayla is very afraid of thunderstorms, so she came padding into our bedroom around 4, and I let her go ahead and crawl up into the bed on Mark’s side.  Those negotiations taking a little time, Mandy and Darwin viewed them as a sign that it was time to get up, so they started jumping on and off the bed in great excitement.  You really haven’t lived until all four paws of a 55 or 60 pound dog hit you squarely on the chest at 4:00 a.m. in the morning!

I threw them outside into the thunderstorm to do whatever they felt they needed to. (Tyra knew better than to wake up.  Besides, she is not going into a thunderstorm unless she is thrown out into it, so she got to stay inside and asleep at the foot of the bed.) 

Once they came back in, around 4:10 or so, my only hope of getting any more rest before 5:30 was to separate Darwin and Mandy, so I put Darwin up in his carrier (he usually sleeps there or in the den at night – he only got to sleep in the bedroom last night because Mark wasn’t home and our routine was disrupted anyhow) and kept Mandy in the bedroom with me.  Mandy settled back down, but Darwin felt it was his sworn duty to bark with his loud “intruder alert” bark every time a strong thunder clap sounded over the house.  This practice guaranteed that even if Kayla could get to sleep, she was going to wake back up once he started to bark, which further ensured that I wasn’t getting back to sleep either.

After about 45 minutes of that, Kayla got up and ran into the bathroom and started to be sick.  I got her settled back down and we finally got maybe an extra half-hour before we had to get up.  After we got up, I took her temperature, and she was in that no-man’s land between 98.6 and 100 (at 99.3), so I gave her a choice on whether to go to school or not. 

She elected to go because the school is doing the Stanford Achievement Tests and she was going to try to finish the test (this is the second, and last, day of testing).  I let her off at school at 7:15 with a wish and a prayer, and toodled my way to work, where I hoped to have an uneventful, but fruitful, day. 

Alas, as you probably suspect, that was not to be!  About 9:45 the school called and said that she had left the test, with the principal at her side, saying that she was too sick to keep taking it.  I asked the nurse about her temperature, and she was still in that no-man’s land, although a little higher at 99.7, and hadn’t gotten sick again. Even though I wasn’t sure that she was any worse than she had been when I dropped her off, I left work and traveled back to our home town to pick her up.  It was a good thing I did; as soon as we got home, she was sick again, and then when I took her temperature, it was up around 101.6!  Fortunately, our doctor can see her at 2, and right now she is asleep on the couch, in which state I hope she stays for a couple  hours, since sleep is the best thing for her. 

I would like to go to sleep, too, but as every mother knows, your child will never get sick on a day when you are fairly caught up, so I have a project I get to work on for a while here at the house.  However, as I have said before, I am very grateful to the people I work with for their understanding about family and priorities and I am grateful that I can work on a project at the house to keep caught up.

All of which is a long way of saying nothing this morning, so far, has gone according to plan, but maybe the new improved plan will have better luck!

  • A Splash of Color

Even though a sick child is something every parent can sympathize with, I hate to end my blog on such a damp note, so instead I am finishing this entry off with a few pictures of some of the flowers around Key West that Mark and I enjoyed seeing.  This is a very small sample compared with what is avaible to see down there, but I hope it brightens your day.

Picture of a house taken from the Conch Train

 

Tubebuia Tree, Key West

Bougainvillea

Tabebuia Tree Flowers, Key West

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

2 Comments

Posted in dogs, Pets, Travel, When things don't go as expected, working mom

Tagged , , , , ,

Rules I Never Thought I’d Need

Posted on March 24, 2011 | 187 comments

When I pictured being a mom, I realized that it would be necessary to have rules of conduct for my child.  That being said, after over 6 years of being a mom, I have compiled a list of rules I never expected to need:

Do not cut the screen out of its frame in the window.  (The need for this one arose when she was 6.)

Do not put anything in your ear, including rocks, without consulting an adult first.  (Age 4.)

Do not put anything in your nose, including wooden sticks, without consulting an adult first.   (Age 4)

Which led to:  Do not put anything in any body part for any reason unless a parent says it is okay, with the exception of food or drink in your mouth.

Do not cook eggs on the stove without a parent’s presence and permission.   (About age 7:  this one is harder to justify because the one time that she did cook the eggs by herself, she did a good job and remembered to turn the stove off, which is more than I do sometimes!)

Do not try to pierce your ears with the end of a paper clip, even if it looks like an earring hole is there.  (Age 6 and 7).

The controls on the dashboard in the car,  including the radio, are MINE!  Please leave them alone.  (This has been a running battle ever since she was old enough to ride in the front without a car seat.)

Do not drag a dog into the bathtub with you.   (Age 6).

Do not dump the entire bottle of shampoo in the tub to use as bubble bath.  (Ages 6 through 8).

Do not dump the entire bottle of liquid soap from the sink in the tub to use as bubble bath.   (Ages 6 through 8).

Do not dump the entire bottle of conditioner in the tub for reasons I have yet to understand.   (Ages 6 through 8).

It’s not a good idea, either, to dump all of the bathroom dixie cups in the bathroom sink and then fill it up with water.  (Age 6, but she had help from a visiting 4 year old.)

Do not wash your hair with conditioner only.  (Age 8 through 9).

Soap is required for a bath to really be a bath.  (Age 5).

And, last but not least,

Paper is not a proper treat to give a dog.  (Age 9).  (Darwin and Mandy liked it  but at least Tyra was smart enough to say no.  I guess I should be grateful Kayla didn’t decide to hand out socks for all!)

Have a good day everyone!

Nancy

187 Comments

Posted in When things don't go as expected, working mom

Tagged , , , ,

Spring!, Roosters and Butterfly Farm

Posted on March 23, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone!  We have made it to Wednesday, and the weekend is in sight. 

  • Spring!

The same thing happens to me every spring – no, I don’t mean allergies.  At some point in the spring, I find myself wandering through the garden section of  the local Wal-Mart or Home Depot, looking at all of the flowers and vegetables that are available.  Even though I know any flower I plant has a less than 40% chance of survival (it’s the whole watering thing that gets me), visions of luscious gardens on a par with those at Calloway Gardens or Bellingrath gardens dance through my head, causing me to fall into some kind of a trance.  I wake up from the trance headed toward the car with a buggy full of flowers to plant that probably will die since they are not cacti and can’t live without watering.  Sigh.  I did manage to restrain myself somewhat this year; I got two big pots of peonies for the front porch (last year I managed to keep two similar pots alive through about June), some grass seed and fertilizer to use on bare spots in the back yard, and then caladium, lily and gladioli bulbs for two specific (small) areas in the front.  I envy all of you out there who are great gardeners!

  • Roosters

On to the roosters – here are two pictures Mark took for me of a rooster in Key West.

The most unusual thing about the roosters of Key West is the fact that is it not unusual to see one – they (and the hens and chicks) wander the streets freely and are protected from any harm by a city ordinance.  I never did quite figure out why there are so many of them and why they are allowed the run of the city streets, but they don’t bother anyone  and their colors are striking.  We not only saw a lot of roosters, but a couple of hens with their chicks following them at various places.   I was trying to imagine what it would be like for our family to live in Key West, and couldn’t get much past the image of No-no (Mandy) and Bad Dog (Darwin) repeatedly escaping from our yard to chase the roosters, and being brought back by the Key West police with multiple citations for us to deal with!

  • Butterfly Farm

For those of you who were wondering where Kayla was in the middle of all of this, she was having a great time with her Grandma Dottie.  One day, for example, they went to the butterfly farm, where no less than three butterflies landed on her! 

Mom said that Kayla sat still as long as this butterfly was sitting on her foot, and that that was several minutes!  One of the attendants was kind enough to take their picture together.

You have to look really close at Kayla to see it, but there is another butterfly on the foot that is toward the front, which is why she is standing so still. 

Kayla likes a lot of insects.  About the only ones she doesn’t like, and won’t handle or come near, are stinging insects like bees and wasps, spiders and cockroaches.  I have learned how to kill spiders if called upon to do so (revolutionary though that is to those who knew me in my youth) but I still won’t do cockroaches.  Mark has to be called in for a job like that.  Fortunately, we have only had one to kill the four years plus we have been in this house, and it conveniently appeared on a night when Mark was home!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

2 Comments

Posted in Just stuff..., Pets, Travel, working mom

Tagged , , , , , ,