No Place Like Home

It is always awesome to be on vacation... especially when it involves sun, sand and... well, what else do you need? Anyway, it is good to be back home. We arrived home this afternoon around 5:30. The drive back seemed long... longer than the drive down, but it was smooth for the most part. I did some driving today. That always helps pass the time. I was making some great time until we hit a stand-still just south of Louisville. We were about 20 cars back when they halted traffic to load a wrecked car onto a flatbed... Everyone remained calm, and we were on our way in about a half-hour.

Mom and Dad are in Augusta now visiting with Dean, Mendi and Anzie. It sounds like they are having fun. Mom baked a praline pumpkin pie today. Yum. I think that they are heading back towards home tomorrow.

The fence folks have marked our yard with a string layout of where the fence will go. It looks like they will be setting the posts on Wednesday. Shasta's foster mommy has been hanging on to her for us. It sounds like there have been several folks interested in her... We go to visit with her on Wednesday evening.

Here are some pictures from the trip...

The beach (looking West) from the end of our boardwalk:



Dolphins! We saw dolphins in the water straight out from the cottage several days. It was just awesome to see them playing... they put on quite the show!



Mom celebrating her birthday with James and Amanda (big James is in the background). Amanda designed the birthday cake, and I decorated it. We even used real seashells on the beach part!



James concentrating very hard on the jigsaw puzzle that we were trying to complete:



Amanda on the beach. She is so photogenic.



A beautiful sunset that Doug and I enjoyed on our "date" night:



The whole gang on the night before we left for home. This was taken on the boardwalk that went from our cottage to the beach:

Long, Long Way From Home

Well, ok... it isn't really THAT far. But, it sure seemed like it during the drive down here. Of course, we didn't get on the road until far later than I had wanted, but it all worked out alright in the end. Doug had to work late (and then do a bit more work at home on Friday night). He didn't get to bed until about 1 a.m. So, we all slept in, took our time... and finally left home about 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. We made it to Cullman, AL and spent the night there. We stayed at the same hotel as Mom and Dad. That was nice... they were able to see the kids do their swimming stuff in the hotel pool. Yesterday's drive wasn't too bad, either. It seemed like we would never break out of the pines in the Apalocholia Forest. When we did, though, we caught quick sight of the water!

The house that we are staying in... affectionately named "Buns in the Sun"... is very nice. The rooms are painted nice beach colors. There is a boardwalk from the deck out to within a few feet of the water's edge. It's great! Grumpa has his own "bunker" that he can escape to... it is the lower level. You have to go outside to get to it. So, it makes a nice get-away for him to watch t.v., take naps, escape from the screaming kids. It works out pretty nicely. Amanda has already been shell-hunting. It is so fun to watch her and James discover in this part of the land that is so new to them.

Not sure what we will get into today... maybe some geocaching. Right now, it is cloudy... very humid and windy. But, hey, a bad day at the beach beats a normal day anywhere else, right?

By the way, I love this keyboard!!! I am typing on Doug's work computer that he brought. The "s" key works without trouble, and the entire keyboard has a very soft, easy typing feel. Nice.

Disown Me

I know that my family is going to disown me... not my immediate family... the people that I live with day in and day out. They already know that I am totally nuts with not one sane cell in my body. No, the ones who will disown me are the ones that gave me life, my mom and dad. They have told me and told me that we should wait, wait, wait to add a dog to our family. I have no idea why, but I have had this unending desire to bring yet another beast into our home. So, today I made the appointment to have a fence added to our backyard. They will do it the week that we return from our trip... As for the dog, well, we are in the process of taking care of that, as well. I know, throw all the words at me - stupid, nuts, insane, crazy, overstretched, overcommitted... I know. I have said them all to myself, too. But, I really do think that this is going to work out. Believe me, I have a horrible fear of failure on this one... especially since the last attempt didn't go well. I've researched. I've met the dogs. I've prayed. I've talked to Doug and the kiddos. And, still I have an itch that needs scratched. So, here goes nothing...

This is the girl that we are considering. Here name is Shasta, and we met her at PetFest. She is a "sweetheart baby", her foster mommy says.

Pictures!

Here are some pictures from around the house taken with our new camera. I really am getting the hang of using it. It is very similar to our older Canon... but, with a few more bells and whistles. I can't wait to take some photos on our vacation. Come to think of it, I can't wait for vacation! We leave in a couple of days... on Saturday morning. We're not sure what time we are leaving yet, but I would like to head out as early as possible. I'm doing great getting things ready to go. I even cleaned off the kitchen shelf - all of the tins, baskets, bottles - yesterday. Boy, that was long overdue.

I got my hair cut the other day. Doug isn't very pleased with the outcome. It is too short for his liking. Honestly, it is shorter than I would have asked for... but, it just kind of evolved. I really do like it, and I think that it will be very easy to care for. And, of course, it will always grow out. That is what I always tell Doug...

Anyway, here are some pictures... Enjoy!

Mallory working really hard at being the alpha cat in the house:



Buttons, our local neighborhood cat. She is SO sweet:


Doug and Amanda... a self-portrait:


Our pumpkin. I had told Amanda that we could carve it to look like a kitty face. She insisted that it have triangle eyes and a square nose. She's the conservative one of the family...


A couple of pictures of Amanda's "new" room... One with James on the new cat tower:


And, one of the other side of the room:

Great Weekend

We've had a wonderful weekend!! Doug hasn't had to do too much work. He had to do one thing yesterday morning... which kind of ran into swimming lessons. But, he was able to meet us there and see most of the lessons. Amanda did great again. Her teacher is doing so well interacting with her and teaching her. I'm not sure who enjoys it more... Amanda or her instructor. James did a lot better yesterday also.

I've gotten the yard mowed. I love to mow in the Fall. The grass has returned to its full, lush green state. It always looks so nice after a good cut. Doug trimmed a couple of our trees that were getting a bit out of control. I figured if the one got any lower, I would have to crawl under it while mowing. We enjoyed a nice campfire last night, complete with s'mores. Yum.

The eBay camera arrived on Friday. It doesn't work very well. We are hoping that the return/refund will go smoothly... you never now. On a related note, we went to our local electronics superstore and got a brand new one! It is awesome, baby! Amanda has even been taking pictures and movies with it. She seems to have a knack for it, too. Perhaps Santa will have to bring her her own camera this year... Anyway, here is our new Canon:


So, we've all been playing around with it. The picture are great... the sound on movies is wonderful. I just can't believe how much technology changes in the course of a few years. It's been about 4 1/2 years since we bought our other camera... this one cost about the same and does SO much more... Cool.

We are trying to get in the mode of vacation prep. I actually cleaned both bathrooms today. We've also been working on getting the big fish tanks cleaned up. We gave a trio of fish to one of our neighbors. He is into all kinds of critters... but, especially enjoys fish. He and his brother take care of our brood when we are on vacations. Anyway, we fished out three fish for him. You would have thought we gave him a pot of gold. It's cool when you can make someone's day so easily.

Well, our Pizza King is due to arrive any time. Gotta go for now. I'll try and get some of those new pix out soon!

Finally Fall

It finally feels like Fall around here. I guess that is why I am baking a pumpkin pie... I'm a little bummed, though. It still has about half the time to bake, and the crust around the top is dark brown. I covered it with foil in hopes that will stop the browning. We'll see. At least I know the filling part is good.

The weather turned a couple of days ago. It was so hot... and, now it is downright cold. I don't think that it even reached 60 degrees yesterday. On a warmer note, I have finalized our vacation reservations for a fall getaway to St. George's Island in Florida. It should be awesome... assuming no hurricanes decide that they want to vacation along with us. We still haven't gotten the digital camera that Doug won on eBay a couple of weeks ago. It really would be nice to have it before we go on our trip. Perhaps I need to e-mail the seller... AGAIN. We've never really gotten hosed on eBay before. Hope this isn't the time.

I'm hoping to get the stripes painted on the West wall of Amanda's room this afternoon. As soon as that wall is done, I'll be moving along to the headboard. I still think that I am leaning towards painting it pink... we'll see.

Gotta go for now...

Field Trip

The kids and I took a field trip yesterday... literally. My uncle is a farmer, and he is in the middle of his crop harvest for the year. We all went up to his place, and he took us for rides in his combine as he was working in a corn field. It was so much fun. I didn't know if the kids (especially James) would be brave enough to ride in it... but, they both did... and they both loved it! When I was young... about Amanda's age... I would ride with my uncle and often fall asleep. So much fun. The technology on this piece of equipment was absolutely amazing. It is so unbelievable to think about the advances in 90+ years. My grandfather used to have to walk behind a team of horses with a single-blade plow to plow fields...

Speaking of my grandpa and grandma, we stopped by to see them, too. Way too much time passes between my visits with them. My grandma was rather sharp yesterday. Some days she is not really quite in her own mind. Thankfully, I have never witnessed this... at least not to the degree that Mom talks about. Grandpa was really with it, too... although he just looked so tired. It's hard to see him looking so tired and frail. He was always such a big, strong man. Nonetheless, our visit was very nice. The kids did great. I think that it really did grandpa and grandma good to see the little ones.

Oh yes... and it was my birthday yesterday as well. Honestly, it was one of the best birthdays I've had. There really wasn't anything earth-shattering that happened. It was just nice to be around my family... The kids and Doug gave me my gifts before he went to work. Amanda is just so sweet. She had picked out a fall wreath with beautiful "plastic" as she calls them leaves. They are artificial... and, I suppose that they may be somewhat plastic... Anyway, she had seen it and picked it out just for me. Then, we had the field trip... I also had several calls throughout the day from friends and family. Those really touched my heart. One of our neighbors remembered my day and brought me a gift and card. The gift is YUMMY wash and body butter in the lime/coconut flavor from Bath and Body works. Oooh it smells good. Doug had to work late... but, he did meet us at Don Pablo's for dinner. Busy day... but a great one.

Today is set to be another busy one. We have swimming lessons. Then, we are headed to PetFest to meet some Great Pyrs!! I know, I know. We aren't going to adopt one... just meet some and see how the kids do. Later in the day, we are hooking up with the aforementioned neighbors for a little cook-out. Both "dads" in the families love to cook on open fires with their dutch ovens. So, they'll be doing some cooking. Should be awesome!! Oh yeah, and somewhere in there, Doug and the kids still have to bake and decorate my cake!!

Questions, questions

Amanda is at that stage right now where it is a non-stop barrage of questions... from the time she gets up until the time she goes to sleep. Some of her questions are quite funny - Mommy, why are you vaccuming? I think that she assumed we were going to have visitors since that is about the only time that the vaccum roars to life. I think that she was surprised to hear that the floor was dirty and needed cleaned. Sometimes her questions are repetitive... I think that she has mastered the concept of infinite loop logic. But, I try to remain patient and answer her questions to the best of my ability. I can't help but think if she was in a traditional classroom setting that her questions would get swept under the rug... perhaps even ignored.

Mallory is still doing well. We actually got the 35mm pictures developed last night. Here are a few of our favorites...

Getting ready to take her home from the rescue:


Mallory "helping" Amanda with her schoolwork:


Ooh... that tickles! Mallory giving James some love:


James, James and Mallory. She knows no strangers:


The three "amigos"... well, not yet:


Who loves their new kitty?


Whew... being a cat here is hard work!

New Month... New Outlook...

Ok, here we are starting another month of 2007. I have no idea where August and September went... They both passed by way too quickly. Fall is officially here now. The days have been aweome lately - very warm days and cool brisk nights. Doug got our firepit built on Saturday. We enjoyed a wonderful campfire on Saturday evening, complete with S'mores! Yummmmmm! We had another fire last night. I could just sit and stare at a fire for hours... literally.

I have started painting Amanda's room. It is looking so great! It is actually turning out like what I had imagined... and, I am so excited about it. We left the lavender paint on as a base, and I am painting pink stripes on it. The stripes (alternating pink and lavender) are about 13 inches wide and go from floor to ceiling. I am over half done. The West and South walls still need to be finished. It shouldn't really take long (theoretically), but it will involve moving some heavy stuff. Right now, I am SO unsettled about one of the stripes. I squished a teeny bug on the paint last night. No big deal, I thought. Well, when I went to clean up the smear today, it left a bit of a different color. I guess that the worst case is that I tape and paint that stripe again. Why do I let these silly little things grate on me?

Mallory is still doing well. She really is roughing up the other cats a bit more than we would like, but I guess that is how the animal world works. The way things are shaking out, it looks like Mallory is going to be #1 in command... followed by Felix... followed by K.C.

Oh, and good news! Doug won a digital camera on eBay last night! Hopefully it will arrive in a couple of days. It is basically like our old one... but more megapixels! Woohoo! Gotta run... have a good day.