Catching Up

It's been a while since I put up a blog post and it's been busy.  We had a power outage at work several weeks ago. It was kind of fun because it was still pretty dark so it was hard to do any work for a while.  None of the emergency lights worked and we were all very sad when the power came back on.  

Aggie (Blue)bonnets

We had a bad thunderstorm that was supposed to have decent sized hail. I had Sidney spend the night downstairs in the living room because I didn't want her upstairs that night. She wanted to spend the next night downstairs also so I said that she could. That night we had the windows open, including the ones to the back porch. Stormy started barking at something in the middle of the night and Sidney came to get me because she was scared. I went to the window to see what was outside and just saw a big black animal on the porch. I freaked out thinking it was a skunk and slammed the window shut just in case it was a skunk. All I needed was for the dog to bark and it to spray towards the house with the window open. After I got the window shut we took a closer look at the animal and think it was probably a possum.

Stormy jumped the wall behind Sidney

Around the same time as the possum, the school sent home a note and said they had found a dead bat. It was on the school grounds and they sent it to get tested for rabies. It came back positive for rabies so any of the kids that had touched it had to be treated for rabies. To say the least I made sure Sidney knew nothing about the bat.

I finally got my car back. I was ready to have it back. I didn't like that little rat trap I was driving. The car looks pretty good. They touched up a few of the other minor little dings that were on the front as well. They claim to have washed it but not to my standards. They also claim to have vacuumed it but not to my standards. So I had to do those again.

Also our hummingbird feeder disappeared without a trace. I came home from work one day and noticed it was gone. I looked all over the yard and couldn't find it. Sidney even went down and looked on the golf course.  So I put another one out that evening. I found it in the yard the following morning and the other one had been turned sideways on its hook.  I set up the security camera to try to see what was doing the damage but I was not able to see anything. I talked to the pest control people and they suspect that it was a raccoon. Unfortunately there's no way to make him go away except bring the hummingbird feeder in every night and put it out in the morning. As if I don't have enough to do.

One way to read

Sidney had her writing STAAR test and has her reading and math tests this coming week. Seventh grade stinks because there are three STAAR tests and I think there are three every year after this. Hopefully she gets it all together and does a good job. The only advantage of STAAR tests are there's no homework that week.

Stormy and Shandy went in for their annual routine vet visits. Shandy needed to get her teeth cleaned. Stormy needed to have a tumor removed from her foot. I took them both back at the same time to have their surgeries. Shandy decided that she didn't like the vet and jumped off the table.  Fortunately she did not break her jaw or teeth but she did give herself a fat lip. Otherwise her surgery went fine. While Stormy was asleep to take the tumor off of her foot they decided to also clean her teeth. When they got in her mouth they found that she had broken a tooth off completely to the roots. That one had to be removed. Both pets were pretty groggy when I got them home and Stormy had to wear the collar of shame. Because Sandy had slept all day at the vet on anesthesia she was up all night knocking things off of the counters and cabinets and causing trouble. Stormy at least slept fine. On Sunday though I noticed that Stormy was sneezing blood. I talk to the vet and we decided that it was not an emergency and she could be seen on Monday morning. Overnight however she started sneezing more and more blood and it sounded like she was having trouble breathing. I called the emergency vet but they couldn't see her for several hours because they had another case. That was around midnight so I decided to just wait and take Stormy to her vet in the morning. It was a very long night being up worried about Stormy. It turns out that she had an infection like kennel cough but not the same virus. She's been on antibiotic for almost 2 weeks and is doing much better. We were sure scared that we were going to lose our pup pup. While Stormy was wearing the collar of shame Sidney was calling her satellite. Also during all of this experience we learned that you can use hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol as they goo to do an ultrasound. That's what they used on Stormy's abdomen and chest so that she wasn't all sticky and gross. You learn something new every day.

Sewing practice

I've had some pretty good runs lately and some pretty tough ones. I am up to 8 miles on my Saturday run including all the crazy Hills. Unfortunately no matter which way I go from the house it is a hill on the way home for at least the last mile and a half. Sometimes the weather's been good, nice and cool or a little bit damp. Other times it's been hot and sticky or windy or very wet. 

Sidney and I both needed a new passports. My new passport came in fine and then a separate mailing my old passport came back. The envelope that it came in felt weird and when I opened it there was a tiny little charm that Sidney had bought me stapled inside my passport. It must have been in my purse and gotten in between the pages when I mailed it off. I was amazed and very thankful that someone took the time to staple it into my passport and send it back to me. I wish that I could thank them.

We went to eat dinner with some friends at their new house. We had a really nice time and it was wonderful to see them all settled. They got a new dog from the VA. Her name is Haley and she's a yellow lab retriever mix. She's terribly cute and sweet and well-behaved. She was in the training program to serve a veteran but they discovered that she had allergies and so she got kicked out. She found a wonderful home with our friends and we love her.  We also watched the movie Sing with our friends.  Very cute movie. 

The next day we went over to help another friend with her horse. The horse, Arapaho, is about 35 years old and can’t be ridden but but loves attention. He has been shedding his winter coat so we went over and brushed him with the shedding brush. When we got done and it looked like there was an entire horse on the ground from all of his winter coat. And he was a very happy horse. He found a nice spot to roll in just to soon as we got done.

I have managed to get Sydney to the age of 11 before I ever bought Hamburger Helper. However she insisted that we needed to try the chili mac hamburger helper and so I caved and bought some. It was very easy and it actually wasn't too bad. And it's not like we eat out of a box all the time.

Sign on my desk

We have been back to the food bank a couple of times to work in the garden. The first time we planted watermelons. That was the best job ever. There are two seats on the back of the tractor. There's also water tank on the tractor that feeds water onto a big yellow wheel. The big yellow wheel turns as the tractor rolls and pokes a hole in the plastic mesh on the row and fills the hole with water. The two people sitting on the back of the tractor put the watermelon in each hole as a tractor goes by. Then other people come behind and put the watermelon plant all the way in and put some dirt around it so that it's nice and packed tight. I thought it would be terrifying to ride behind the tractor but it was actually pretty fun. The problem was that at the end of every row I had to get up off the tractor while they turned it around. At that point I couldn't walk so I gave up. Darn hurting hip. The next time we went back we did some tidying up on the watermelons as well as tomatoes. And we also weeded the potatoes.

Cone of Shame

I had the ultimate mother fail at swimming. You mark your swimmers arm with their events, heat, lane and stroke. I marked Sidney fine for the morning session. And she had only one event for the afternoon session so I wrote it on her hand. I was up in the stands watching her and waiting for her to swim. I saw all the swimmers start on that race and she was still standing at the starting blocks. I could tell by her body language that she was frustrated and upset. She did a good job and went to talk to the official. I saw them both look at her hand and realized immediately that I had made a mistake. She was supposed to swim in heat 11 but I had marked  heat 16. The officials talked about it and ended up putting her in the last heat of the boys. By then she was super cold because I had gotten quite chilly but she still did a good job. And I was very proud of how she handled the situation.

We learned Stormy will eat money.  We found some while picking up dog poop on evening. We did not however try to determine whether it was a one dollar bill or a five dollar bill. I certainly hope it wasn't a 10 or a 20. It was a little bit funny and I will pay more attention to where we put our money.

Kurios

While we were going somewhere or coming back from somewhere we got a good giggle by watching people push their Corvette. Apparently they ran out of gas and we're pushing it to the gas station. We laughed and enjoyed the event. I guess when you race to much your risk running out of gas.

We spent last weekend in Houston. We went over to see Cirque du Soleil. This one was called Kurios for cabinet of curiosities. It was a decent show in the big top but not my favorite. There wasn't a pot plot line and there were not any acts that were just super spectacular. I am always impressed by the contortionists and there was a juggler that could juggle while going up and down from the roof on a swing. But otherwise I was not that excited by any of the acts. I think it would be a good starter show though for anyone who had not seen Cirque du Soleil. And they did have the tiniest person in the show that I have ever seen in my entire life.  

Kurios

We also went to our old church and Katy on Sunday morning. I specifically looked online to make sure that I knew what time to be there. I did not however look at the calendar. So Sidney and I showed up at 10:30 for the 11 o'clock service and discovered that the service was already happening. Apparently we missed the memo that it was mission Sunday and that both services were combined and started at 9:30. However we did attend the last 15 minutes of the service and were able to participate in one of the missions even though we were wearing dresses. The mission that we helped with was making pillowcases for those with terminal illnesses or chronic illnesses. It was fun to actually help Sidney use the sewing machine and teach her how to put the pillowcases together. It was also really nice to be with the ladies of the church working together on a project that was really meaningful. I have the pattern and plan to make more of the pillowcases.

Curtains I made and fan I hung!

We have discovered the best way to warm leftover pizza. We love to get pizza from Papa Murphy's but the thin crust which we like only comes in a family size. And we are about the smallest family. But the pizza is never that great when you warm it up in the microwave. So I did some Internet research and the best way to warm pizza is to warm it up in the skillet. You put the skillet on medium high heat and put the pizza in and put the lid on. The pizza will be warm through and wonderfully crispy on the bottom. I would say it was almost as good or maybe even better then we had at the first day. The article I read also recommend to warm the pizza up on the grill. But to be honest the skillet was really easy and really yummy.

We had our dentist appointments this last week. Both sets of our teeth look really good. Sidney is down to only two remaining baby teeth. My guess is that means the orthodontist will be ready to get started on her pretty soon again. Which she will not like.

Friend on grill

And I just have my car back and got Friday night while driving home. I was getting off of I-10 onto 1604 and heard the squeal before I felt the impact. It was actually three cars. The car behind me was the car in the middle. That car was hit by a car behind them pushing that car into my rear end. My car is at least drivable and after 48 hours of working with the insurance have gotten everyone to describe the scene appropriately so that I can get my car fixed. The other two cars were already pretty old and pretty dinged up and probably won't get anything done. However my car is pretty new and now needs a new back bumper. I'll be taking it in on Wednesday and getting another rental car so that I can get my car fixed yet again. I have decided that when I plan to wash my car on the weekends is when I get hit. So either I need to stop washing my car or at least stop planning to wash my car and maybe I won't get hit anymore. 

This afternoon I went out to water plants and clean the fountain and was startled by a tiny toad on the grill.  Yesterday Shandy caught a lizard.  I thought it was dead when I got it out of her mouth.  It laid on its back.  I flipped it over and it started breathing then jumped up and ran off.  Both critters startled me.