The view from here

This was the view from the pool last night.

T took that pic with his cell phone. Amazing, isn't it? I love how you can see the rays of the setting sun and how the clouds were "outlined".

Speaking of T, we celebrated his birthday this last weekend. T is an awesome husband, good father and works hard to provide for us. His tech skills and mechanical skills never cease to amaze me. Happy Birthday, Babe!

I am having horrible neck spasms, yesterday and today. I went to the chiro at lunch yesterday so I feel like I am lined up, just the muscles are going crazy. Hurts like heck. Maybe I'm stressed over another health issue that has reared it's ugly head. I don't know. The heat got to me yesterday too. I wasn't thinking very clearly by the end of the workday. I get a bit disoriented when I get over heated. I was so thankful for the AC in my car and house and for the pool.

A is still trying to finish up everything for college. Sigh... it's been a long hard road to jump through all the hoops.

R is having the same problem with her college stuff. Why do they make it so difficult to go to school? They are also looking for a new place to live that will allow 3 pets. R looked at another one yesterday.

J is enjoying 7th grade so far but this is only his third day. He's so funny. He's taking lots of time picking out clothes and making sure his hair is in place. I thought that was just a 7th grade girl thing.

Diesel fell off the steps last night. We were watching tv and he was asleep on the third from the top step. All of a sudden we heard a THUD! T looked over and Diesel was on the floor looking very dazed. He limped a bit and I picked him up and his whole little body was quivering. R said he was just shocked because of his extreme non-kitty move. He settled down after about 10 minutes and started purring. Poor little guy!

And that's the view from here.

The phone pics

Ok. T helped me get the pix off my phone and I just decided to do a whole summer long phone pic post. This first one is my cousin's cat in her princess bed.

This is another cousin's big mastiff, Mongo. He's over 200 pounds. I think most of his weight is slobber.

Pic of T holding R at my cousin's wedding. Obviously he was taking video. He had hair! And look at R's lips. Too cute!

My aunt and uncle raise golden retrievers.

And cattle. That little guy has a "phantom of the opera" face, half black and half white.

And they had puppies when we were there.

J's big fish at another uncle's pond.

The view from our front yard.

Apparently I have a thing for sunsets. I took this on the way home one evening.

Diesel chewing on the bathtub drain.

A pic of a pic of T and I on our first anniversary. One cake was new and one was the topper from our wedding cake. I took the pic because I was trying to show a friend that I had big hair in the 80's too. And T had hair. Look at us. Scrawny little babies.

Another view from the front yard. I am loving this pic and I forgot I even took it.

And another. Liking this one too.

Diesel likes to sleep on the computer desk.

S t r e t c h .

He has an overbite and his mouth never really closes. Too cute!

Are you tired of these yet? Apparently I never tire of them.

We put corn up last weekend. We had a couple of these "double decker" ears. Kind of weird, huh?

And here's the precious baby "It".

Chow time!

I'm so cute.

And I know it!

And "uncle J" loves me.

That's our summer so far in phone pics.

Baby "It"

My mom, J and I went over to see the puppies this morning. They've changed so much since we saw them 3 weeks ago. They are active lil furballs and oh so cute! R's is the most docile of the bunch.

Here she is with one of the tri-colored ones.

"Uncle J" really likes the puppies.

Isn't she too precious?!

An armful of love. Their human calls, "Babies, babies, babies." and they all run to her. They are even sort of potty trained at 5 weeks old.

They all loved this bed and loved to chew on it.

I have more pics on my cell phone but I don't know how to get them off. I will work on that. Actually, I will wait til T gets home and can show me. More pics to come!

Ahh, summer!

95 degrees here today. Tomato and cheese sandwich and corn on the cob for lunch, compliments of the garden. Staying up late and sleeping in the next day. Pools and boating (when they work!) Ahhh, summer! It all (well, some) comes crashing to an end on Friday. That's when school starts. It's too early! What are they thinking?! But actually J says he's ready to go back to school and see his friends every day. How's that for a change in attitude?

Want to know what this is all about?


Check them out at http://www.realhopeforhaiti.org/  Please give if you can. These people are saving lives.

Lost in translation

J doesn't always know how to word things so he takes what he knows or has experienced and tries to put it together with a new experience and explain it. That usually results in a funny "lost in translation" moment. When he first came home it bothered him that we laughed but now he knows we are revelling in the joy and not laughing at him.

He has experienced stepping in dog/cat poop. The other day he ran some over with his bike but he didn't know how to explain it. He said, "My bike stepped in cat poop."

Too funny!

"It"

Here is our new "grandcritter", It. Isn't she precious?!?

She is a four week old sheltie pup that I will be flying out to CO with in Sept. When I was getting the puppy ok'd with the airline as a carry on, they asked her name. R is still trying to name her so I said she didn't have a name yet so the airline labeled her as "it".

Yes, us "CO Ladies" are at it again. One of us couldn't go but we've added another. Poor R and JT! It will probably take all three of us crazy women to get the puppy to CO safely. R has already had a dream that the puppy arrived safely. I asked if the rest of us did and if we had smiles on our faces.

So, does "It" look like a Vixie (female fox from The Fox and the Hound movie) or like a Skylar? Leave a comment and vote.

Another day at the lake

We spent another awesome day at the lake. No, our boat is not fixed but it was just J, T and I with my dad in his boat. We went to a different lake and it was pretty quiet. It's a much smaller lake than we usually go to but it was nice. J tubed and we parked and swam for a while and rode around looking at the lake. Good times!

All in the family

Ok, blogger is so strange sometimes. But, whatever. Something I really wish I had are baby pics of J. He's so cute now at almost 14 I wish I knew what he looked like as a baby. I need to find a pic I have of him and his birthmom. He looks so much like her. Anyway, I was thinking about how the girls like us or like other members of the family. When A was born she looked just like my baby pics. Sorry this is sideways (thank you, blogger) but I'm in the black and white pic and A is in color. We could have been twins! There's another pic further down (again, thank you blogger) that's blurrier but at least you won't crane your neck to see it.

This is when A was about 5 and I was about 4. See? Twins.


And R looked just like her daddy. Speaking of twins, T is a twin. He's on the right in the pics. You can try clicking on them to blow them up.

A and I. Our hands, mouths, eyes and eyebrows are just alike.

T and R at about 5 years old.

As the girls grew, R ended up looking more like me and A reminds me of T's sisters somewhat. This is my senior pic, R's senior pic and A's senior pic left to right.

Yup, R and I look a lot alike except she got her daddy's eye color.

A and I. I was holding Franny the terror. I mean terrior. She was so cute but she was a pistol.

Some fav baby pics of R. She often did that little sideways pose in the top pic.

Fav toddler pic of R. Look how blond she was.

Fav baby pic of A. T used to say she was so fat that she didn't have joints, she just had folds.

Fav toddler pic of A. She LOVED to dance. This was her "I Wanna Be Loved By You" costume. She potty trained in order to go to dance class because I told her I couldn't afford both dance and diapers.

And just because he's so cute, here is Diesel sleeping in front of the computer.

He has an overbite which keeps his mouth from closing completely. If he had large front teeth he'd be buck toothed.

Thoughts

We are enjoying the summer even though the boat is dead in the water. Hahaha. Couldn't help it. It's actually disabled in our carport. Had fun with the kids in the pool last night while T worked late.

J is still cracking us up with his lost in translations. I can't think of any right now but we are always laughing at his command of the english language.

A is at college orientation today. It makes me feel old.

Looking forward to friends and Haitian food this evening. I hope our friends remember they are supposed to come.

I was reading a post on Livesays blog about the profound grief that adopted children go through. We've done a similar little exercise once where we listed things we knew and loved and then were told we had to give them all up. Everything we knew. And that we were going to a new family in a new country and that these people loved us. It's boggling to think about.

And then there are situations like this one http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2011/07/so-extremely-desperate.html where the child is absolutely desperate for a family. Can you help in any way?

Or go to this blog http://www.realhopeforhaiti.org/ and see if you can do anything to help. Cholera is refusing to leave Haiti alone.

Those are a few of my thoughts for today.

Summer

We are still here. Lots going on but not a lot going on, if you know what I mean.

The boat is out of commission for now. The gears in the outdrive are messed up. It's sad because we have enjoyed it so much and now we don't have much for resources for repairing it. Sigh...

T and I ate tomatoes from the garden this evening, straight off the vine. Heavenly! And then we went in the pool. Also heavenly! We are thankful. Would that be considered a thankful list? And I'm thankful for chocolate too. Have I ever mentioned that?

I walked on the treadmill this evening. It's in a new spot in the office/music room and now you can see the tv in the living room from the treadmill. Might be a good thing for getting T on it. I usually read while I walk. I feel fat. But that didn't stop me from eating a piece of kringle. Love that stuff. I just took the last of it from our trip to WI out of  the freezer.

A friend told me a story this afternoon about being bit by a possum. She picked it up by the tail and it swung around and bit her hand. What was she thinking? The story involves said possum flying involuntarily across their yard. Again I say, what was she thinking?! She did not get rabies shots but she did nearly pass out. I told her if she ever bites me or starts foaming at the mouth we are both getting rabies shots.

We have a huge number of lightning bugs/fireflies around here this year. Am loving them. One got into the house a couple weeks ago and was flying around the living room in the dark while we watched a movie. Too funny.

In an effort to show his congregation the meaning of "koinonia" our pastor and his family held a surprise lunch today. He was only about 15 minutes into his sermon when he invited all of us downstairs for lunch. That was church. How cool is that?! We were instructed to sit next to someone we didn't know well and get to know them better. At our table we talked about tires and being stopped by the police. You know, deeply spiritual and "get to know you" stuff like that. I wonder if we're going to have an extra long sermon next week?

Ah, summer.