New privacy fence in back is half way done woohoo

We killed 2 rodents in one day... sad...

The middle of last month, we got the kids pets. Jamie got a hamster. Cassie got a gerbil. All was well with the world.

Sigh... yesterday afternoon I was out shopping and Tom sent me a note that Dark Blood (the hamster) was dead. Jamie was upset, but doing okay, he wanted a new one. Jamie is pretty laid back, so I picked him up and we went to get a gerbil. Rojo ("red" in Spanish because he has red eyes). We went to the pool and came back and Cassie's gerbil was looking pretty bad. It died a few hours later. The only thing we can figure is the food was bad or something? Maybe the water? I can't find anything that says tap water is bad. We are using whatever bedding they told us to. It's not green or anything weird.

Cassie took it really hard. She had Tom and I both tearing up. Worse, it was too late to go get a new one, the stores were closed. She kept asking to paint, so I let her. She kept losing it when she was painting and told me she was painting a picture of Fuzzy Wuzzy. Of course, I didn't really hold it together well either.

Sigh, she's so upset. We let her call the shots. She wants to sleep in the living room, fine. With me? fine.

Here's a picture of her painting, my cell phone because I didn't want to interrupt her private moment of reflection. Poor kid.



I swear we fed them. I swear I didn't buy the cat. We have no idea what happened, but it certainly is weird. They weren't in the same cage, heck, or even the same room. We are very confused. I hope to post an update tomorrow with at least pictures of the our newest victims.

Last night was bad bad bad bad. It took me nearly 2 hours and a small dose of Benedryl to get her to sleep (yes, I gave her drugs, she was really really upset). She wanted to talk about Fuzzy, she wanted to cry, she wanted to know what happened. OMG. I felt so bad for her. Poor little thing.

I've also decided that this mom stuff is hard. You'd think it'd get easier after the diapers, but it just didn't. Tom and I decided to get rid of Fuzzy's body before we told Cassie. Cassie was upset about that because she didn't get to see him for the last time. Dammit. I suck.

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YMCA pool and Jamie's teeth

The kids have been hounding us all Summer to take them to the YMCA pool and we've been dragging our feet a bit... but we went last week (yes, I'm always behind posting for some reason, bite me).

The pool is really nice if you want to hang out and let your kids play. There's a HUGE shallow area and splash pad. Me? I wanna get in the water! The "deep end" is only 4' deep, but is TINY. The really tried to jam too much in the space available. I like our 'hood pool much better, but I know that if I ever want to go read a book in the shade that's a safe place to take them - very safe - like ultra safe.

EXCEPT...

Neither of my kids can swim. They will take swimming lessons again in the Fall because they've learned what the consequences of not being able to swim are - like not being able to go down the slides and not being able to have freedom in the pool. BUT they will let Cassie wear her swim vest in the shallow end, but not in the deep end. What? So, we had to deal with Miss Wiggly Butt and when they called for the hour break, we high tailed it out of there. At least we know the score now though. I get that they want the kids to learn to swim - I do too - but the harsh reality is that Cassie sinks like a rock.

Like I said, they have now both agreed to take lessons and Tom and I know we would rather hang out the neighborhood pool.

In other news, Jamie's "fang" tooth is finally coming in, although a bit weird. I know it will straighten out, but he complains it hurts (ya think?) You can kind of see it in this picture - upper right of his mouth right under his lip, way up there:


and some other pics:





Cassie thought it was cool she could squirt me with Nemo.


Jamie stood under this thing for several minutes before one of them FINALLY dumped on him. It was HILARIOUS. He kept moving and the water would come down next to him.

Waiting at post office. I must be crazy w all these kids.

the eagle has landed.. Niece in for visit

Get him, Cassie-girl!

Jamie doesn't like to get sprayed with water, but he LOVES to spray other kids. Cassie's getting a little tired of their being no retribution, understandably. So I told her that if he wants to spray her, then he has to agree to let the tables be turned...

So she did... (see that look? She's wondering if he's going to go ballistic or not)


And did again... and Jamie is SMILING - hmmm... perhaps cooling down in the 100 degree heat isn't such a bad idea, huh?


YES!!! Score one for Cassie-Girl!


... in other news, Cousin Marie gets in today. She's 9. And I'm pretty sure that she is evil. Her mom is *laugh* Nah, we are looking forward to having a great time.

When the kids hide and the dogs run...

I practice on Tom...



Such a good sport. I looked outside and saw the light and knew I had to take a picture of someone - anyone or anything. Just something! Poor guy is out there trying to put the tarp on the pool (this was last week) in case it starts to rain and blowing wind... and I'm asking him to stop moving and smile.

Poor dude can't get a break. At least I found an "outlet" I guess. I bet they are wishing it was like oil painting or something right about now.

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Cassie's Trip to HEB (If you give a kid a camera)

In May, Cassie asked if she could borrow the camera to take some pictures. I gave it to her (we had one of those indestructible cameras - waterproof to 10', crush proof, you can drop it, throw it, whatever). A few minutes later she comes back in tears. She's lost the camera. Tom and I have been looking for this camera since then and we can only figure it's in some random place somewhere or it's gotten thrown out somehow. I'm not about to take my nicer camera to the pool or let the kids use it (hello!), so I buy a new one.

And If You Give A Kid A Camera's blog project continues....
http://ifyougiveakidacamera.blogspot.com
Yes, I still believe that eventually people will post to it on a regular basis *laugh*. I thought about making it a public blog - like anyone can post, but I know we'd get spammers.

Anyway, the above will show you a slideshow I posted yesterday of a trip Cassie and I took to HEB recently. She had a ball.

... and I made sure to take the camera back right away.

Best of all? I can again freak out everyone at the pool by tossing the camera around and dunking it under the water, etc etc. *laugh*

(oh, and i know someone will ask -- this is the camera we have. It takes crappy indoor shots, but does well outdoors and it's basically indestructible).

They all fall down -- or why I won't win mother of the year...

Last week, a friend came over to play and they all decided to get into the pool. We had set it up the day before and covered it with a tarp after they were done so the water would be warmer. Well, it was apparently too warm and they wanted to drain some of it. (insert Beavis and Butthead laughter here)...

I told them all to sit on the long edge and it would make the water come out. So they did.

See, no problem - they are all sitting there and the water is going out...


Wooo... that water kind of tickles, plus it's really funny that mom is letting us do that (insert me sniggering behind the lens)


Hey, ya know... this water is coming out a little faster now... whoooaaa!


... and they all flop out...


Mother of the year, here I come!

*snicker*

Heard From the Backseat

ref: giving in to Cassie's whims...

Candy: "We always have to do things the hard way."
Jamie: "No, Mom. That's the easy way."

Kid learns quick, eh?

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More Kids In Trees - at dusk this time!

I didn't take a lot of photos (well, I took a bunch of the twins that I posted yesterday). Anyway, I did grab these of the kids playing in that tree in the backyard again. They love that tree! We had a great 4th of July!

My friend's twin girls are getting so big!

I'll have 4th of July photos tomorrow, but I thought I'd share these... these are my friend's babies... They even have their own blog HERE - or you can check out their sister HERE

In the meantime, can you saw "Awwww...."


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The "other" man in my life...

So, Tom came into my office today and said "So JAMIE is the one man, eh?"

Hehehehe.... Tom is SO easy...

I love you too, Tom. Plus, the kids will eventually move out and get lives of their own and hate us because we were horrible/weird/whatever parents. And then what? Yup. I'm stuck with you.



But, seriously, ladies... he is one hot dude, right?
(you can look, but no touch!)

:-)

The one man in my life...

... that holds the key to my heart...

He's funny and handsome. He can make me laugh and cry and is always there with a big hug. He's my cuddle bug. He's polite and friendly. He's so nice to everyone he meets. I look at him and think to myself that I've done pretty good so far. He truly is an amazing person and just watching him grow and change every day is a true joy. I took this picture because, like almost all of the ones of him, I always feel like you can see right into his soul, the true goodness that sits there. This little boy is going to grow up to do amazing things... just watch.

RIP Simon - we warned you about those cookies!

This is a worksheet Jamie brought home from school one day last year and Tom and I both laughed so hard. I ran across it again and figured I would share...



Why, yes, that is Simon laying there with a RIP over his head holding a flower. Guess he shouldn't have eaten so many cookies, eh? Jamie said that's what happened to him. Poor fella ate too many. I couldn't even admonish him for doodling on his papers (which he does ALL the time). It was just too cute.

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Sidewalk Chalk --- Artistic or.... ?

My kids are currently coming out of a Spongebob obsession right into a Pokemon one.



I'm told this is a jellyfish vs. pokemon battle.

Sigh, kind of sad though, watching them change their tastes. Oh, I'm sure Spongebob will always be alive and well, but it is kind of a battle raging in their little bodies to grow up, isn't there?

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The avocado seed experiment update...

We have some major root going on here, folks. I took this a couple of weeks ago... I keep waiting for the sprout thing to come up so we can watch it grow and pinch it back and then plant the stupid thing in a planter. I wonder why it's not dead yet? LOL. It's still hanging in there. The seed is completely in half now so we can't even really move it, thus the water is getting gross. I'm not real sure what to do about it actually. So far, ignoring it seems to be working.

TGIF - and Happy 4th of July!

I'm thinking this will be the perfect thing to go with the little party we are having here on the 4th with our friends...

It even SAYS TGIF and it has alcohol... score!



Oh, and this little baby that a client gave me (seriously, how cool is this?)

Monkeys Jumping On The Bed.... or no rules for Summer!

Okay, for the record, they aren't SUPPOSED to jump on the bed, but Jamie was in there doing it in the dark. I grabbed the camera (of course, gotta preserve the evidence). He then realized that when my flash goes off (it's a hot shoe and that thing lights up the entire world when it goes off) he could see himself in the mirror. So they start watching themselves and making faces - Cassie joined in when she heard Jamie giggling at making faces... of course. It's Summer - rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules!

Baby birds hatched in our begonia hanging plant...

No. I'm not making that headline up. Tom smokes (bad boy, bad bad bad) on the front porch and he comes in from watering the hanging plants while he was out there and he's wet. Apparently he was merrily watering away when he got poured water on a momma bird that had built a nest in our begonias. Momma bird didn't like that gave him a bit of a bath. Poor plant... he's been trying to water it a little from the side to keep it alive, but we don't want to disturb them. He noticed when he was out there, a daddy bird bringing stuff back to the nest and late last week, he heard little "meep meep meep" sounds. Sure enough, the momma's babies hatched. I made him take the basket down so I could take pictures. We were fast so the parents didn't notice and were careful not to touch anything. Now he's been watching them bring the babies food back and forth at dawn and dusk. It's been really cool. I can't wait until they leave so we can take the nest down and show the kids! Here's pics of the babies... they still have fuzz! You have to look close because they are DEEP down in this plant and we didn't wanna touch anything too much... but it's right in the middle of the picture... and as always you can click for a bigger picture. I left it so you could see how they built this nest a little... it's like sideways or something. LOL. It's just weird.

We made GOOP and it was SOOOOO cool!

Not great pictures, but frankly, I wanted to play in it. LOL. This stuff is way way cool! We saw it on Ellen and it really works, you can punch it and roll it into a ball and it turns back to liquid... it's WEIRD.

Recipe for Goop