Tag Archives: daughter

Rash Promises and Blaky Wakey!

Posted on June 1, 2011 | 2 comments

Hi Everyone!

I’m a little bit late today, I know, but my bronchitis is trying to decide whether to come back or not, so it took  me a little longer than usual to get ready for work, which means my morning blogging time was interrupted.  I am now using my (late) lunch hour to accomplish the same thing.  For those of you who are worried about how Mandy did without someone sitting by her, at least she ate!  She had the chance to get entertained by the treadmill first, so that relaxed her a little bit first.

Mandy, Fascinated by the Treadmill

  • Rash Promises

Have you ever made a rash promise to your child?  One that just popped out before you really thought about it?  Well I have, and it is one that I’m going to get to have almost a whole year to think about! 

Grace and Poise I Shan't Have Come Next May!

Up until the day of her recital, Kayla was uncertain about whether she wanted to continue dance next year, and I couldn’t tell if she wanted to stop because she didn’t like dancing, or what was going on.  On recital day, I could tell that she did like to dance, so I asked her about continuing.  At first she wasn’t sure, but then the fatal words slipped out of my mouth – every recital, those parents who want to participate in a parents’ number at the recital get to do so  – “if you will sign back up for dance, I will do the parents’ number next year.”  She told me she wanted to think about it, but as we were walking out of the house for the second recital, she turned around to me and said, “Deal!”  I’m not sure what I was thinking, since I have two left feet, unless I am being led by my husband, and my sense of rhythm is only suitable for choral singing (not to mention that I am extremely out of shape, not helped by the bronchitis)  but I said the words, “I promise,” so I will live by them.  Mark finds it all highly amusing, and even my mother who was up for the recital thought it was a little funny too.

Please note that I will not be informing anyone in advance of the recital date, besides grandparents, next year;  however, I will tell you if I turn out to be the first parent in her dance studio’s history to be fired from the parent dance team!   

  • Blaky Wakey

As I mentioned yesterday, Kayla and I are now driving to work together, and while I did not have to resign control of the radio to the Disney Channel yesterday, this morning it was on before we left the driveway.  As we were driving, the DJ for the hour came on and announced something to the effect that we were listening to the “Blaky Wakey” show.  Kayla looked at me and said, “You’ve got to be kidding!  I’m just not in a Blaky Wakey mood this morning!”  I had to agree with her, but I also notice that the channel did not get changed, either. 

Have a great rest of the day everyone!

Nancy

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The First Day of Summer Vacation and Other Matters

Posted on May 31, 2011 | 6 comments

Hi Everyone!

I hope each of you had a great Memorial Day weekend!  We did; we didn’t do anything special, but we got to go bowling, nap, shopping, nap, attend church, nap, eat out, nap – you get the idea! 

Today marks a change in the rhythm of our lives for the next two and a half months – Kayla’s summer vacation starts today.  Until I taught, many moons ago, I didn’t realize how much teachers look forward to summer vacation.  Until Kayla started Kindergarten, I also didn’t realize how much parents enjoy summer vacation, too.  I don’t have to fuss about homework; bed time, while still important, is not essential; and getting Kayla ready in the morning amounts to being sure she is dressed properly instead of the list of things we have to have ready for school. 

Specifically for us, too, summer vacation is different because I take Kayla to a day camp near to where I work, which means that she and I ride to and from work together.  I am looking forward to the extra time with her, although I have to resign myself to the fact that I will be listening to the Disney Channel radio for the next two and a half months, also. 

  •      Rememborizing

On the way to the bowling alley this weekend, Kayla was trying to tell us that she either remembered something or had memorized it, I am not sure which, but the word that came out was “rememborized.”  She tried again with another variation, and finally got frustrated and said “Whatever,” which in 9-year-old parlance translates to “you know what I mean so let’s get past the pronunciation and on to the discussion.”

  • Santa Claus

When we went shopping this weekend, one of the things we needed were new white church shoes for Kayla.  We noticed Sunday that her feet were hanging off both the front and the back of her old church sandals.  (She is in the middle of a growth spurt.)  As we were walking into the store, out of the blue, Kayla started talking about maybe buying some underwear also, then, remembering that she had gotten some from Santa for Christmas (yes, folks, she got a lot of other things too, and they were all toys), stopped in the middle of the road  and asked Mark and I, “How did Santa Claus know my underwear size?”  I asked her if Santa knew whether she had been good or bad, why couldn’t he know her underwear size?  She answered, “That’s just embarrassing!  

  • The Treadmill 

For Father’s Day, I got Mark a treadmill.  It came last week, a little early, so he took some time yesterday to put it together, with Kayla’s help.  She did a very good job helping him, both in reading the directions, handing him the necessary parts and sometimes getting to handle some of the tools, like the wrench and screwdriver, and even the drill (used as a screwdriver) once or twice. 

Once Mark and she got it put together, it was time to try it out, briefly.  Each of us spent about two minutes on it, just to see if it worked.  What we didn’t expect was the dogs’ reaction to it.  Tyra ignored it, but Mandy was mesmerized, and Darwin, unwilling to let his twin enjoy something without him, decided he would be mesmerized, too.  I thought maybe it was just a one day thing, but this morning, when Mark got up early to use the treadmill, the two dogs camped out by the treadmill yet again.

Mandy, Fascinated by the Treadmill

Mandy and Darwin Mesmerized by the Treadmill

You never know exactly what is going through the minds of your dogs at any particular time, except maybe feeding time, but I sure would like to know what they are thinking while they watch the treadmill! 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Dance Recital

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 8 comments

First Pre-Recital Picture

 Good morning Everyone!

I hope you had a great weekend!  I will give you fair warning about today’s post:  this is a Proud Parent Post, heavily laden with pictures of Kayla, because Saturday was the day of Kayla’s dance recitals.  The recitals are an EVENT!  Her dance studio has two recitals, one at 2 and one at 6:30 that last about two hours each.  There are classes in baton, jazz, tap dancing, ballet, and gymnastics for girls from age 4 to age 18 or 19 (seniors in high school.)  The teacher does an amazing job of scheduling things so that each class has a chance to perform their routines. 

There are at least three dance studios in our small town, and I think that each one picks a Saturday in May to rent the high school’s auditorium, but our recital is usually the last one.  It is an annual rite of passage from spring into summer.  (Yes, I know the calendar says it is still spring, but down here, we consider Memorial Day the unofficial start of summer, and as of this week have already had temperatures soaring into the low to mid-90’s.  Most of the schools in this area finish for the year in the next week.) 

Darwin Barges In

 My Mom came to visit for the recital, and took a picture of the three of us, with Kayla in her baton costume.  She took the first picture, then was lucky enough to get this one of Darwin barging in to the photo also.  Every once in a while something happens to remind me how very tall he really is, and this was one of those times.  I would guess from this picture that he is at least 5 feet tall when he stands on his hind legs! 

Anyway, with Darwin’s help we were able to get out the door and to the auditorium by 1:00 p.m., when the doors opened for audience seating.  Past experience has taught us that if you don’t show up an hour early, then you will not be able to get very good seats, and we needed end seats so that I could scoot in and out to help Kayla with her costume changes.  Since I chose to sit on the first floor of the auditorium, so I could sit with Mark and Mom, each time Kayla’s costume needed changing, I rushed up a flight of stairs to the second floor of the high school to reach the changing room, then rushed back down to get back to my seat in time to see her routine.  The multiple trips reminded me why I really hate elliptical training machines, Stairmasters and all other exercise equipment of similar ilk. 

I put Mark in charge of the camera because getting pictures during the recital is tricky between the lighting (dark in the audience, light on stage) and the movement.  He got this photo of Kayla during her baton routine.  If you look on your left, you can see the baton twirling around in a blur. 

Baton Routine

 The next routine was her tap dance routine.  She was concentrating!  (The tap dance and the closing routines were the only repeats between both recitals.)

Concentrating on her tap dance routine

 The first recital ended at 4, so the four of us (me, Mark, Kayla and Mom) hopped over to the local Pizza Hut for a very early dinner, had time to run back to the house for about 20 minutes to change costumes and freshen up her hair and make-up, and then get back to the auditorium at 5:30 for the 6:30 show.  By 5:30, a good part of the auditorium was already full, but we still managed to find end seats.  I estimate that there were between 150 to 200 people present at each of the two recitals.  For this second recital, her first routine was the jazz routine. 

Jazz

 

Jazz 2

It wasn’t until the very end of the routine that she saw Mark, who had slipped up the aisle, taking pictures, but after that suddenly she relaxed and starting smiling.  You can see this in the picture Mark took at the end of her gymnastics class’s  routine…..

Final Gymnastics Pose

And in her ballet routine…..

Ballet Dance

And in the closing!

Closing Routine!

 

So kudos to Mark for the pictures he took and kudos to Kayla for her time and effort in dancing!

Have a great day everyone!
 Nancy

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Blast from the Past: 2008: Stories, Spell Check and Scorpions!

Posted on May 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Good morning everyone!

This morning I thought I would share some stories I wrote down in some letters back in 2008, when Kayla was 6 and in kindergarten.

From April 2008:

One morning, Kayla burst out into tears in the bathroom. Mark caught that call. When he went in to check, she told him that she was crying because she had brushed her hair but it didn’t look like she had brushed it at all! (Item: the hair looked fine.)

Two Sundays ago, she and I were awake and watching TV in my bedroom because Mark was asleep on the couch and I was trying hard to keep everyone (child and dogs) quiet in my room so that he could get a full nap in. I had to go into the other room to get something, and when I came back, Kayla was just walking away from my bathroom sink. I asked her what she was doing, and she said brightly, “I was going to get into your makeup, but then I decided that I didn’t want to get into trouble!”

From April 2008:

I did the funniest thing on spell check on one of my briefs the other week. I had to use the name “Schnitzler” a lot in the brief.  Schnitzler was one of those words that, to save my soul, I could not type correctly the first time, so rather than re-type it over and over, I used “SS” as an abbreviation, with the thought that when it was finished, I would use “find and replace” to replace the “SS” with Schnitzler.  FN.  It worked like a charm, except that I got slap-happy pushing buttons and ended up telling the computer to change every “ss” to Schnitzler, which left me with lots of words like “Congreschnitzler” (Congress), “ischnitzlerue” (issue) and “paschnitzler” (pass.) Spell check almost had a nervous breakdown before it was over with!

From June 2008:

The past week has been a week of weird wildlife encounters. Last Thursday, I looked out of the window after Mark and Kayla left, and saw a huge turtle on the side of the road – its shell had a diameter of at least 16 inches. I couldn’t help it; I took a picture of it.

Turtle, 2008

Yesterday, which was Wednesday, I started my day being stung by, of all things, a scorpion! Mandy, who has decided that one of her missions in life is to be my little alarm clock, waking me up by 5:20 whether I need it or not, harassed and harangued me until I got up, fed her and the other two dogs then went out into the garage like I normally do to get my Diet Coke. When I walked back in, something bit/stung my toe, and it really hurt! I couldn’t see what it was but jumped around and started screaming , which woke Mark up in a flash (Kayla slept through it) and brought him into the den to check on me. We sat down and looked at my foot, but unlike a bee sting, we couldn’t see anything. Mark announced that it must have been an ant that bit me, and went back to bed. I walked back over to the area where I had been stung, turned on the light and saw a brown form on the brown wooden floor that looked like a scorpion. I looked again, because I thought maybe it was just a leaf that the dogs had drug in from outside, and realized that it really was a scorpion.

 So next I did what any reasonable woman with a husband at home would do – I went back into the bedroom and got Mark! He looked at it, and not only agreed that it was a scorpion but also realized that it wasn’t dead yet, so he killed it for me. Never having been stung by a scorpion before, I was not at all certain what I should do, so I went and looked it up on the Internet. The information I found said that most species of scorpions in the United States are not poisonous, except for one species in Arizona. However, even so, you can have a reaction to the bite of one if you are allergic, and some of the symptoms of that type of reaction are an elevated heart rate and anxiety.

That symptom list was not helpful;  I already had an elevated heartbeat and anxiety because I had just been stung by a scorpion! It all turned out okay, although it will be a very long time before I walk anywhere in the house without my slippers on.

And on that unusual note, I will bid everyone good day!  Have a great weekend!

Nancy

FN.  To prevent any unpleasantness, the name “Schnitzler” is  changed from the actual name, but you get the idea.

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Lambert’s Cafe, Foley, Alabama

Posted on May 18, 2011 | 3 comments

Hi Everyone!

I had a strange malady hit me yesterday – I lost my sense of humor!  After searching for it diligently for the last 24 hours, I have finally recovered it so I am cleared to write. 

Front of Lambert's Cafe in Foley, Alabama; courtesy of infrogmation of New Orleans

 

When we were at Perdido the other weekend, we made time to take Kayla to eat at Lambert’s Cafe in Foley, Alabama.  Lambert’s was first established in 1942 in Missouri, and eventually expanded to include another Missouri location and the Foley location.  The same family still owns and operates all three Lambert’s.  Eating at Lambert’s in Foley is unlike eating anywhere else (except, I suppose, the two Lambert’s in Missouri.)

 (All the pictures from here below are copied from the Lambert’s Cafe web site and reposted here with permission; my camera picked this optimum camera opportunity to run out of battery.) 

The Inside of Lambert's

Lambert’s signature food/event is the throwed rolls.  In fact, their website even reflects it at www.throwedrolls.com.  Whenever you eat there, they bring out pans and pans of yeast rolls that are over 5 inches in diameter, and if you want one, they throw it to you. 

Getting ready to throw

 Kayla did not believe us when we told her that the wait staff  throws rolls to the customers, and once she caught the first one thrown at her, her face had a bemused “I’m not in Kansas anymore” look.   
 
Our seating was ideal for Kayla to truly experience Lambert’s for the first time.  (Many Alabamians and people from other states that come to Alabama’s Gulf Coast will tell you that a trip to Lambert’s is obligatory once you are in the area.)  We sat along a hallway that connects two bigger main rooms with her facing the entrance to the restaurant, so that all of the Lambert’s staffers bringing pass-arounds could see her first. 
 

We were in a booth on the right down towards the end of the hall

 
One of the many things that Lambert’s does differently is that, in addition to the meal that you order, “pass-arounds” are brought by your table.  That is, the waiters will carry around pots of various items, like cabbage, black-eyed peas, apple butter and fried potatoes and onions, and offer you portions of them in addition to your main meal.  Kayla didn’t know quite what to think the first time someone came around and offered her some of whatever was in it.  She was both a little startled, and a little impressed, as she started to realize the sheer amount of food that was available to her.
 

A waiter offering a pass-around

Our waiter, a friendly young man, came to take our order, and then came back with a pot, offering Kayla a pass-around of something like fried apples, I think.  She opened the pot to look at it, and a toy stuffed ferret jumped out of it, kind of like a jack-in-the-box.  She gave a startled little scream, Mark and I couldn’t help laughing, and from that moment she never lost track of where our waiter was when he was in eyesight.  She was going to be sure she didn’t get fooled again! 

The menu allows you to choose a meat and two or three vegetables from the side menu, or a salad or sandwich with one vegetable from the side menu.  The quantity of food that you get is really remarkable. 

A sample plate

 

 It is even more remarkable that Lambert’s can give you this quantity of food while keeping up the quality of food as well. 

Our waiter tried a couple of other tricks on us while we ate – he brought by a pitcher that he said was for a refill, then dropped it sideways like he spilled it, but it turned out it was a fake pitcher.  Kayla thought long and hard about that one, but was reconciled enough with it to enjoy it when he tried to play the same trick on another table. 

In spite of our most valiant efforts, we could not eat everything in front of us, so finally we gave up and asked for the check.  Even Kayla, who is about to experience a growth spurt and therefore is eating everything in sight finally had to cry uncle.  The waiter brought the check by with a closed box labeled “Fresh Mints” and tried to get Kayla to open it.  She absolutely refused, since her trust in the waiter as far as closed boxes goes had been entirely shattered, so he left the box on the table.  Mark and I couldn’t stand it, so we opened the box gingerly to see what would come out of it – it was a toy mouse on a spring.  Kayla edged away from the box slowly, like she thought the mouse would come to life but Mark and I just kept laughing. 

By the time we left, Kayla had judged Lambert’s and not found it lacking, so she desired a souvenir from the gift shop.  My idea of a souvenir was a T-shirt;  her idea of a souvenir was stick candy.  I won, since I held the checkbook, and she yielded, since she was quite full already. Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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The Gulf Coast Beaches: Beautiful and Ready for Visitors!

Posted on May 16, 2011 | 4 comments

Good morning everyone! 

We recently had the chance to spend a weekend in Perdido, one of the beach towns that run along the Gulf of Mexico from Orange Beach, Alabama through Pensacola, Florida and on through Panama City, Florida. 

Mark letting me take a picture of him while driving

Kayla in the car
We left for the beach Friday after work, having left the dogs at their kennel/day care known as Cutie Patootie Dog Boutique.  It is, quite frankly, the only kennel the dogs have ever enjoyed (as opposed to endured), although they are always glad to come home.  I think it’s because they get to play with the other dogs that are there, which means Tyra gets a break from everyone, Darwin can play to his heart’s content, and Mandy only has to play with someone when she feels like. 
 
It took us about 3 hours to get to the condo we were staying at (I rented it from an acquaintance).  The condo was well-appointed and comfortable.  Kayla was particularly fascinated with the narrow metal spiral staircase that led up to the loft.
 

Kayla on the spiral staircase

 She wanted (or at least pretended like she wanted) to try jumping off the top step, but both Mark and I quickly nixed that idea. 

Perdido is only 8 miles from Orange Beach and Gulf Shores to the west, and only about 15 miles from the heart of Pensacola, although from where we stayed it was only 8 miles to the Naval Aviation Museum, which is high upon our list of things we want to do when we go back. 

Some of you may remember from last spring and summer that this area was affected by the BP oil spill.  If fear of oil or tar balls on the beaches along the Gulf is keeping you away, let me show you what the beach we were playing at (one of the Perdido State Park beaches in Florida) looked like:

View of Perdido State Park Beach

Here’s another view:

Headed out to set up camp

 This view shows our own little “beach camp” that we staked out for the day:

Our Beach "Camp"

Here’s a view from the beach towards the water.  The dark stuff is dried sea weed.

View toward the water

Interestingly enough, we did see some BP personnel drive by behind us while we were there.  There were about eight people with two trucks between them, each with a mounted trash can on the back.  They sat in the truck for about 20 minutes, then eventually two of them sauntered down to the waterfront, walked around for a few minutes, then walked back.  I couldn’t help but think that what BP really needs to be doing at this point is figuring out how to get the tons and tons of oil that settled onto the Gulf of Mexico seabed cleaned up instead of patrolling beaches, but BP didn’t ask my opinion, either. 

Mark and Kayla played with the football while I watched, which is always fun to see.  Kayla can throw and catch, but it takes her a little while to warm up and stop being afraid of the ball before she catches it.  Here are some pictures of her while playing football with Mark:

A precarious catch!

 

Deciding whether to throw or kick

Getting ready!

Of course, the most obvious reason you go to the beach is to play in the water. Mark and Kayla played longer than I did, but I went in a couple of times too.  The water was cold, but not frigid.  What’s the difference?  Cold is where you go in and after a while it doesn’t bother you too badly; frigid is when you go in the water and everything just turns numb.  Frigid is usually experienced only by parents who have children, who seem to be immune from any water temperature from cold to frigid and who assure them, “Really, it’s not too bad!” or Canadians, who seem to be used to it, or Californians, because the water almost always seems to be frigid off the coast of California unless it is an El Nino year (I lived in the San Diego area when I was a child).  I knew how much my husband loved my daughter when he spent an hour in the water with her one day with the water temperature at frigid.  Mark does not like cold – at all!

Headed out to play and swim

 

Caught by a wave

 

Trying the Back Stroke

 

Hugging Daddy

 

Getting ready for the next wave!

We got there about 11, and it was almost 3 when we left.  Even though Kayla told us it was “across the law” (she meant “against the law”) to leave, she had reached the point where she was shivering and needed to rest, not to mention her parents!

We had sat down once between the two rounds of playing in the waves, and while we were sitting there, we saw one pelican dive for fish several times, and three dolphin go wandering by, probably investigating the same school of fish the pelican was interested in.  That had all three of us excited! 

Tune in tomorrow when I attempt to explain about Lambert’s and throwed rolls (an experience not to be missed!)  Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Why are the birds so happy? Don’t they know it’s morning?

Posted on May 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

Hi Everyone!

It’s morning again, and I am still trying to shake off the tiredness that comes just from having to wake up before 6 (or 7 or 8 ) in the morning, in between rescuing various articles of clothing from Darwin this morning – so far I have rescued a shoe (in time to prevent damage) and a sock (already crippled for life, but just as a matter of principle I don’t think I should let him keep it.) 

Darwin

But outside, even with the windows shut, I can hear the many birds that inhabit the woods around our neighborhood chirping at the top of their lungs.  It’s a pleasant enough sound, but it does cause me to wonder, WHY DON’T THEY EVER SLEEP IN? 

Exhibit A: The Rooster That Crows at Dawn

If you are up early enough (and I try very hard not to be) they are even happier and louder immediately before sunrise.  WHY?  They don’t have to be anywhere at any particular time, although all that foraging for food certainly does take a lot of time, but always are up at the (pre-)crack of dawn anyhow.  They must have a lot of the foraging done before noon, because by that time of the day, at least our suburban birds have grown for the most part silent, except for the occasional red-winged black bird that likes to sit on telephone polls and make sporadic cries all afternoon.  The mocking birds will occasionally get into a spat around mid-day too, but other than that it gets pretty quiet. 

The Red-Winged Blackbird; Photo by Alan D. Wilson

Are they able to get up so early because they get to take a nap mid-day?  If that’s the case, how do I sign up for the whole mid-day nap thing?  I lost the right to take a mid-day nap somewhere around kindergarten and would really like to re-claim it at some point!  I kept begging Kayla to hold onto her nap privileges as long as she could when she was in pre-school and kindergarten, but alas, like most short-sighted 5 and 6 year olds, she couldn’t wait until she didn’t have to take one anymore!  The birds get to keep nap time; why can’t I?   

 All of which proves yet again that I am NOT a morning person.  I’m not the only one  – I suspect the Owl inherited the night because he didn’t hold with all this bright and perky morning stuff either!

The Great Horned Owl, taken by Peter Manidis (AKA falxius)

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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A Triple A Day: All of the Above and Art Work

Posted on May 10, 2011 | 6 comments

Good morning everyone! 

  • All of the Above

Kayla’s grades from the week before come home in a red folder every Monday.  Yesterday, she came home with one of the few not so good grades that she gets from time to time.  I never get upset at what she makes if she was trying, but I do get frustrated when she earned her “not so good” grade because she chose not to study the study sheet conveniently provided to her at the beginning of the week. 

When I had the temerity to suggest that she should have studied more, Kayla got quite cross with me.  The test was multiple choice, and Kayla snapped out, “Well, she (ie., the teacher) should have explained what ‘all of the above’ means.”  I asked if she had noticed that more than one answer was correct.  She told me yes, so I explained that “all of the above” meant that all of the previous answers in the question were correct.  She said, “Oh.  I kept looking above me trying to figure out what the answer was talking about.”  So, she either gets credit for creative thinking, or creative excuse making.  My vote is for creative excuse making; what’s yours?

  • Art Work

I got caught the other day.  Usually, I wait until the dark of the moon in the dead of night, put on dark camouflage and rubber soled shoes, tiptoe carefully through the den to the kitchen, past the three or four creaking spots on the wooden floor, gingerly place the articles in a plastic garbage bag, ferry them to the outside trashcan while I hold my breath and then breathe a sigh of relief as I re-enter the house unnoticed.

What am I talking about?  The multitude of paper that Kayla brings home from or creates during school, day care, and nap time at home.  It doesn’t take long for a parent of a child in school or pre-school to realize that at least some of that paper must to be disposed of, or you will have to buy a new house with a room solely dedicated to storing paper.  By now, we would need a house the size of the Biltmore estate!  Don’t misunderstand me; I save some of her stuff every year, and take pictures of other items but at some point something has to go! 

Sunday night, however, I got in a hurry and when she wasn’t looking slipped some posters she had pulled out of a coloring book  (they were just posters, folks; she hadn’t colored on them, or done anything to them, just pulled them out of the book) into a garbage bag.  I thought I had them well camouflaged, but didn’t realize they were face up pressing into the side of the plastic where she could see them.  She tried to tell me they were in there; I tried to tell her she was mistaken (yes, I know that was wrong of me, but I was desperate); ultimately she pulled them out of the trash bag to prove to me that I was wrong.  Sigh.  The upshot is I have two posters sitting on my kitchen counter that probably will be there until the year 3000, or at least the next night without a moon! 

Art Work from 2007 That I DID Save!

Have a good day everyone!

Nancy

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Zoo Day and Pictures

Posted on May 9, 2011 | 2 comments

Hi Everyone! 

I hope your weekend went well.  Both zoo day and Mother’s Day went well, so I am now awake, rested, refreshed and ready to face the new work week.  (All right, at least I am awake!)  For a change, I managed to wake up and start writing before the sun rose – the birds appear to be much more enthusiastic about this whole “pre-dawn” thing then I am.  Morning people, how do you do it?

The trip to the zoo was fun.  Basically, the school buses pull up to the zoo and let the kids off, the kids are distributed to assorted parents and then all of us are turned loose for the day with instructions to return at 11 for lunch and 1:00 for bus loading.  In addition to Kayla, I had her friend Rebekah with us.  There is a walk through aviary in the front part of the zoo that Kayla wanted us to go through (twice), so that’s where we started.  Kayla found a feather in there, so I took her picture holding the feather.  I took Rebekah’s picture holding the feather, too.  To forestall any issue about whether Rebekah or Kayla got to keep the feather, I told them they needed to leave it in the enclosure.

We then worked our way around South and North America, including a visit to the reptile house (not my favorite place), the spider monkeys, several tamarin species, the jaguar and the ocelot.  I had to explain to both girls that the “cute” ocelot was not the kind of cat one would really wish to have in their house!  We also saw a sloth bear and several Patagonian capys (imagine something that looks like a cross between a rabbit and a kangaroo, but about three times as big as the rabbit.)   The girls had the chance to go by the otter exhibit also, which is always popular. 

The giraffes and lions are at the very center of the zoo, so you really can’t miss them as you travel across the zoo, and the female lion, the only one out on Friday, was roaring.  With just a little imagination you can see what an eerie sound that would be out in the wilderness. 

After lunch, we rode the train, and then I succumbed to the same temptation that seized most of the other parents at the zoo – I took the girls to the playground, turned them loose and found a comfortable bench.  I was certainly not the only parent found on the park benches around the playground! 

Of course, Mother’s Day was this weekend, and Mark and Kayla had a special surprise planned.   They had gone to Sears and gotten their portrait taken for me.  In addition to having several photos in various sizes printed out, they also purchased the disk of their photos, with a full release of copyright, so I can share some of the pictures with you (Hang in while I go see what Darwin is tossing up and down in his mouth…..ahhh, it’s one of my headbands, but I got it before too much damage was done.  He’s not too happy with me.) 

Anyway, here they are:

I am thrilled with them and am a lucky woman to have such a wonderful family! 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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6000+ views, Style and Dog Update

Posted on May 6, 2011 | 4 comments

Good morning everyone! 

I am really excited to have passed 6000 views yesterday; thank you for reading this blog!  A view happens every time someone comes to this blog to read something, not the total number of readers, so some of you have done a lot of reading to help me get here.

Kayla just announced that she had her own style; Mark told her that with respect to grammar that wasn’t entirely true.  They are joking with each other as they leave the house, which is always a fun way to start the morning.

Kayla with "her own style" for herself and her pumpkin last Halloween

 

Today is the 3rd grade field trip to the Montgomery zoo.  I am one of the chaperones, and very much look forwarding to it.  I am (again) very grateful to the people at work for their flexibility with a working mom.  I also am lucky about being chosen as a chaperone; for some reason, whenever there is a field trip and I ask to be a chaperone, I get chosen.  I don’t know if that says something about me, about Kayla or both! 

Kayla's First Train Ride at the Zoo (age 4)

I haven’t written much about the dogs lately.  I cooked hamburgers for supper last night on the George Foreman grill, and Mandy came to the kitchen and parked herself between the counter where the grill was and where I was standing in the hopes that a stray speck of meat or fat might fall her way.  When she parks somewhere like that, you can’t move her – it’s like trying to move Mount Rushmore! What she really was hoping was that I would leave so she could lick the fat that drips off from the grill into a special holder, but I was aware of this plan (having observed it in action before) and so put everything out of her reach when I was done, much to her disgust.  That did not stop her from investigating the issue, anyway. 

Mandy, the immovable object

 

I left two pair of shoes out in the bedroom the other morning, and while I was blogging Darwin entertained himself by bringing them out one at a time and “plopping” them down on the floor in front of me to get my attention.  When it didn’t work, he then considerately only chewed one of them, on the place where the shoe manufacturer had sewed on a loop to help you pull the shoe on.   

Please let me go chew something else!

As the weather warms, Tyra is starting to feel a little better; she has twice been able to jump on the bed at night this week without being lifted.  She looks so proud of herself when she does so, but is even prouder when she manages to get one of us to lift her up! 

Tyra Happy

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there, and have a great weekend everyone!

Nancy

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