Fall

Fall means...
Squirrel Hunt! Actually this year we had Squirrel Hunt 2.0. We didn't camp or cook on the fire or do dishes in a plastic tub with cold water. Or go to the bathroom outside. We decided to meet up at the inlaws' house, sleep in beds, shower and brush our teeth in bathrooms, and still enjoy the outdoor activities we love and the family we miss. I really like the upgrades this version has to offer.

Fall means...
Birthdays! The girls turned six a couple of weeks ago. It's hard to believe they are so big. My dad's birthday is the day after the girls', so we got to party all weekend.


Fall means...
Football! We love supporting our local high school on Friday nights. It's fun to gather at the stadium and see friends from school, church, old church, work... And the excitement of college football is pretty great. We're still a house divided. This is Colt's last year and I really want him to have a great one, but Honey cheers for the Red Raiders all the way.

And...it almost always means a double date to a Red Raider game when my dad offers to let us use his season tickets.

Here's a fun little factoid: Brooke's student teacher dates Taylor Potts, so that's just one more college quarterback to add to my 6 degrees of separation list ;)

And...even when I'm home alone, I still watch College Game Day. But let's just keep that between you and me. It'll be our little secret.

Fall means...
Getting healthier! Honey and I have rededicated ourselves to eating better. I gained a couple of pounds over the summer. I guess now I know what happens when you say "it won't hurt just this once" two or a hundred times.

Honey recently had a physical and his doctor, who is this little Asian woman, told him " You loose 10 pouns...and after that, you loose 10 more."

So, we're continuing our journey...

Fall means...
My first 5K! Saturday I'm walking in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Several of us have a team and will be walking together. It will be so fun! Maybe next year I can run the whole thing.

Fall means...
Beautiful weather! At least this year. Sometimes we skip fall and go straight from 100 degrees to 50 degrees literally overnight. But this year it's been gorgeous. Cool, crisp, clear mornings for walking or drinking coffee on the back porch.

Fall means...
Socks! on my feet...because the floors make them cold...

Fall means...
Working! I've only been a substitute teacher for 2 weeks and I've worked 6 days. I'm really trying to limit myself to 3 days a week.

I love it though. It's been so fun getting to know the teachers on a different level, and loving on the kids, and meeting some of my own kids' friends.

Fall means...
Mums! I will absolutely plant some in the front yard this year. Maybe even today.

I don't guess I have a favorite season. I love them all. I love that they provide change and variety. I'm always ready for the next one when it's time to change.

I love decorating the house for the different seasons. I love the different smells that tell me the seasons are changing. I love my little pumpkin spatula. When it appears in the place of my pink daisy spatula, I know it's fall. It makes me excited to wake up early and scramble some eggs for the kids before they head to school.

Fall means...
Halloween! It's well documented that Halloween wears me out just a little bit, but I still look forward to it. Bubba is already planning his costume.

So tell me friends, what does fall mean at your house?

So . . . um . . . the wind is blowing. We've had sustained winds at 45 MPH all day and frequent gusts as high as 65 MPH. As I've said before, these winds combined with miles and miles of empty cotton fields make the dirt blow. This picture was taken at about 4:15 this afternoon. Don't try to adjust your screen. The sun really is shining. The haze on the picture is just the dust in the air. This is the very reason why I don't dust in the months of February, March, or April. Happy Spring!

Why I'm Not a Weather Person

Because we live in West Texas. And the weather here is less than predictable. And I hate being wrong. And weatherpeople 'round these parts are wrong taken by surprise quite often.

Case in point: Friday was a beautiful day with temperatures around a pleasant 82 degrees. The wind was unseasonably calm at 10 - 15 mph. Saturday was much the same with temperatures slightly cooler at around 76 degrees. Sunday was still beautiful but not quite as warm with highs around 72 degrees.

Here in west Texas weekends like that mean flip flops and capris. And if you're not a flip flop person, you wear your favorite sandals or just don your favorite flats sans socks or hose. It doesn't really matter that it's still February. We're weather flexible like that. We roll with the changes.

But until Friday, I never knew that there were parts of the country that didn't opperate like that. Since it was so beautiful that day, I walked down the street to visit a friend. They are living here in our town temporarily. Their permanent home is in Michigan. While we were visiting, she jokingly commented about my flip flops and gouchos saying, "You look all ready for spring! You're really on top of things, do you already have your flip flops out of storage waiting in your closet?"

I replied, "My flip flops never went in to storage! Did yours?"

"Yes, I pack away all our summer stuff in the attic for the winter."

"Wow! We don't do that! Mainly because it doesn't get cold until November. And then, what would you do on the 5 or 6 days in December that it's 80 degrees? You'd want your flip flops then..."

This conversation got me to thinking. I really do like the unpredictable weather here. It's nice to have a break from the monotony of cold gray days with a warm 70 degrees in the middle of December. I guess my least favorite part about our weather is the wind. We live on the plains. Meaning flat and treeless for as far as the eye can see. On a very clear, calm day, if you get out of town, you can see the curvature of the earth. Really.

All the flattness and treelessness means that there isn't anything to block the wind. And so in the spring and fall when the seasons are busy changing we are left out in the open at the mercy of the wind. It isn't uncommon to have several days in a row of sustained 30 - 40 mph winds. And girls, that much wind makes the dirt blow. It goes everywhere. In fact, it is also not uncommon to see huge tanker trucks spraying water on construction projects that are still in the "dirt work" phase. The idea is that maybe the moisture will help keep the dirt settled and not blown to the next county. One day of 40 mph winds can really set the "dirt work" back.

The weatherperson's term for this is level of wind is "areas of isolated blowing dust", but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it's impossible for blowing dust to stay in its isolated place. It finds its way to every little knook and cranny. It gives new meaning to the phrase "when the dust settles". Some days my house just smells like dirt. Really. And the boxes in your attic that may or may not have summer clothes in them have no get out of dust free pass. So, we keep our clothes in our closets and dressers. It's the place that offers the most protection.

And it keeps them handy for days like today. For times when in a matter of 4 days we've gone from highs in the 80s to highs in the 30s. Oh, the wind is still blowing, but today it's blowing snow instead of dust. And I'm not worried that winter is back. Because tomorrow? We're supposed to be back in the mid-60s.

Happy Spring!

All things summer...

Any time a weekend involves 4 days, a date night, dinner with friends, lunch with family, swimming, planting a garden, sleeping in, drinking coffee with (meaning at the same time, sitting near one another) Honey, and shopping is, well, about as close to heaven as I can imagine!

Here are just a couple of things that made it great:
1. Honey had 4 days off IN A ROW! from the whole sale center.
2. No baseball, games or practice, to plan around
3.Total number of meals we ate at home (not counting breakfast, we always eat breakfast at home): 3
4.Total number of nights the kids spent with the grandparents: 1
5.Total number of high school graduation ceremonies attended: 2

Did you know that some high schools are opting out of allowing the class valedictorian and salutatorian to give a graduation address? The lone student to address the crowd at one ceremony we attended had to try out for her position. She must have done better at her try-out. She had prepared what seemed like 15 minutes of material, but she read it so fast it lasted about 5 minutes. No one could really understand what she was saying as she was reading faster than the echo in the arena.

And also, I am ready for someone to come out with a new children's book appropriate for inspiring graduates to achieve great things. Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss is great, but I am tiring of it.

And also, at the same graduation, we learned that the valedictorian had a GPA of 4.725. No that wasn't a typo, it was at least a FULL POINT higher than mine a little over 10 years ago, OK, almost 15 years ago, and I thought I had good grades!

I hope y'all had a great weekend as well!

It can't be a flood...

because God promised Noah that he would never destroy the earth with a flood again. But that, my friends, is the only reason I believe that the rain will stop. At some point. It has to. Mind you, I 'm not complaining, I know we need it. But it is cramping my style just a bit.

At this point in the year my child rearing strategy turns from occupying them with movies and popcorn, to takinging them outside to play in the hot, energy-draining sun and hoping to make them so dog-tired that they will actually sleep past 6:30 am. Yes, I said AM. (Please do not send messages telling me that your child/ren sleep til 8 every morning without fail. It won't make me feel better in the morning when my children rise before my alarm goes off, forget hitting snooze...)

Also, this is the time of year when I turn all of my attention to the yard, garden, and flowers. Traditionally, I spend lots of mornings, evenings, and weekends planting, watering, weeding, and you know...stuff. I love to be outside this time of year. It is cooler than it is in July and Bubba is still in school, so I only have to entertain 2 bored-out-of-their-minds-I-don't-want-to-play-with-ANY-of-the-thousands-of-toys-that-we-have children while I work. With the rain, although I don't have to water, it's just too wet to do anything, including lay the sod that has been sitting on our front sidewalk for a couple of days.



With the attention I usually give to the yard, the inside of my house usually goes to pot. But it's justified, because I'm working, it's just outside.

THIS year is completely different. I haven't spent any time working outside, except that one weekend. So I have absolutely no excuse for why my house looks the way it does. Even though I am starting my day every morning at least 30 minutes before I'd planned to, thanks to my little 3 year old alarm clocks, I still cannot seem to get caught up on laundry, get the kitchen floor mopped, or get the office organized. Or cook.

I think it might have something to do with motivation...because I just went outside to take this picture IN MY PAJAMAS! (It doesn't count as leaving the house if you didn't actually leave your front porch does it?) So, excuse me while I go take a shower and get dressed. I'm not making any promises about what will happen after that.

The weatherman said last night that there would be "areas of isolated blowing dust" today. I'm not sure how blowing dust can be isolated, but apparently we are in one of those isolated areas that have blowing dust. I wish the dust would isolate itself OUTside of my house and sinus cavities.

Yes.

I'm packing.

Are you kidding me?

I watched the Fox34 local news report last night to find out what they were saying about the snow storm that is scheduled to hit our area any minute. While finding out that we are expected to get 4" to 12" (depending who you listen to) and that there is a 100% chance of snow (who says anything is 100% for sure?), I heard a story that caught my attention. It confirms the feelings I got yesterday while running errands. This town gets crazy at the thought of 4 inches of snow! Let me just tell you some of the things that I experienced before I relate the news story to you.

First of all, our pre-school regularly dismisses at 2:30. I usually wake the kids from nap time at 2:15. At 1:30 I returned a message from Honey, and he said that about an hour before, our school district had decided to enforce an early dismissal for the next day, in anticipation of the storm that was forcasted to come in the next 24 hours or so. While I was on the phone with Honey, at 1:40, a mom came to pick up her child. She just wanted to get home a little early. I hadn't gotten the first child out the door when the next mom arived. I had a steady stream of "early"moms and by 2:15 my entire class was gone! Gone! 15 minutes early, my entire class was gone...in anticipation of the snow storm forcasted to come in the next 24 hours. So far I am not complaining, just in shock!

Anyways, I pack up and leave school early thinking I will have time to go by the bank on my way to pick up Bubba. I called my Dad on the cell and he informs me that one of our supermarkets is completely out of bread, milk, and eggs. Completely out! Still not complaining, but I am thankful that I did my grocery shopping early Wednesday morning. (Not really to prepare for the storm, mainly because we were out of food at our house!) At this point I am thinking, everyone is really excited to get snowed in!

After picking up Bubba I found the nearest place to buy gas that didn't have a 30 minute line to wait in, (again, not because of the storm, because my gas light was flashing) and went to fill my two water bottles up, because we barely had enough water to make coffee that morning. At the water place I experienced another first, I had to wait in line to buy water. I never have to wait in line to buy water! The lady in front of me had 9 (nine) 5 gallon water bottles to fill. At this point I'm thinking, ok, really, how long does it take for 4 inches of snow to melt? Do you really need all 9 of those? We ran a couple of more errands and finally made it home, where after the kids went to bed I caught a glimpse of this story:

NOW...ABOUT THAT AFOREMENTIONED BREAD SNATCHER. THE GROCERY SHELVES ARE BARE... NARY A LOAF TO BE FOUND.
WHILE SHOPPING AT THE 98TH STREET MARKET STREET THIS AFTERNOON, STEPHANIE AND JUDY KUNZ WERE VICTIMS OF A BREAD NAPPER. WHILE JUDY WAITED IN LINE...AN UNIDENTIFIED MAN LITERALLY WRESTLED TWO LOAVES OUT OF DAUGHTER STEPHANIE'S ARMS.

"I could understand, you know, hey, I need a piece of bread, or I need a loaf of bread... Can I have it? I would have been happy to give it to him, but to take it from my hand, and give me the nasty look like I was the wrong person... No"

TIME TO CHILL FOLKS. IT'S NOT GOING TO BE "THAT" BAD.

At this point I am thinking, are we really so fragile that a few inches of snow makes us crazy?!

We're Snowed In!

. . .kinda'. Our friends in Montana would call it watering the grass, but here it's a big deal! It snowed last night. . .a lot. So much that they had to delay school 2 hours this morning! Check out the weather pixie! She looks cold. I've often wondered what the snow graphic looks like :)


It hasn't snowed this much in 3 years. . .the winter after the girls were born. I have pics of Bubba playing in it.

We got up pretty much when we usually do even though we could have slept in. Who can sleep on such an exciting morning? It has snowed enough to make drifts on our back porch and it's still going. Honey just couldn't wait to get out in it. He "had to go get gas". Which I'm glad he will have some, because he will be carting our family around today. I'm not driving in it! The kids got bundled up and went with him. Here are some pics of our exciting morning.

Summertime, summertime, sum, sum, summertime

I know that it is only the first weekend of summer, but this picture says it all. It represents our children's 3 favorite summer activities.

1. Hair still wet from playing in the wading pool in the back yard.

2. Sitting on the new bikes that they all got. (Bubba's is a two wheeler. I told him I would put a pic of him on here when he learned to ride it.)

3. You can't tell unless you were there, but the girls were sitting on their bikes watching "High School Musical", the new favorite movie!

Happy summer!