Day 342

Worked today for the school. Thought I'd take another last sad pic of the tree for the year. It's been quite a year full of photos. Should I continue it for next year???

Day 312

Nick goofing around w/his Halloween candy. Does he LOOK like Edw Cullen???

Day 281

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY NICK!!!

Nick had 5 boys over for his birthday. They ate pizza & chips & M&Ms, played video games, watched movies, ate pancakes & cold pizza for breakfast. I think they all had a good time & I KNOW Nick had a good time. Glad they only turn 13 once. LOL

Day 252

Becca has a VB game tomorrow & REQUESTED that her dad go practice with her. I went outside to help retrieve the ball (and to laugh, mock & occasionally encourage. LOL) While they were hard at work, I took pics.

I LOVE This one of the tree in our front yard. I really didn't think our tree was turning yet. But it is!! The only time I like this tree is in the fall: it never looses all of it's leaves until spring so it looks scruffy all winter long. In the summer, the branches hang too low & catch me when I'm trying to mow (we always trim the low hanging branches but it never seems to get them all!) In the winter, we try to hang C'mas lights but it's too tall to get them far enough up & I think it looks half done. And my opinion on C'mas lights is half done is NOT DONE. Don't even bother!!

Ok, off my tirade. Pretty leaves!!!

Day 220

When you come upstairs, there are some things you DON'T expect to see. Like a dead bagel. I propose that Mr. Jack did it with the knife in the dinning room. I have no proof but, if I had to guess, I'd say that Nick decided halfway thru slicing his bagel he wasn't hungry anymore and left it on the table. The fact that there are kitty teeth marks all over the bagel lead me to believe that Jack knocked the bagel, napkin, knife & all onto the floor & attempted to eat it. Either he was frightened away or he just gave up.

Day 190

Nick wants to learn to dive. I can't dive (I'm even afraid to TRY!) So, Colton is trying to teach Nick (Colton swims like a FISH!) Nick gets in the right position but can't go in head first. I'm sure, by the end of summer, he'll have it down! 3 years ago, Nick was terrified of the water and wouldn't go under for anything, now, he's Mr. Swim. He'll embrace diving soon, I'm sure of it!

Day 160

This is the mess I'm trying to work in. I really, really, really need to clean it up but, I'm in the middle of 2-3 projects so I want all that stuff out. I try to pick the extraneous stuff up but, sometimes, that doesn't work so well.

But, the disaster that is my space caused real heartache. You can read about it here. The mess WILL get cleaned up this weekend as 1) Nick's having a friend spend the night & they will sleep down here & B) I'm leaving for Spfld, MO on Monday & will have to pack some toys to play with while I'm there. Yea!!!

Day 129

I'm sure y'all are tired of pics of my cat. Sorry. He sometimes just looks so cute, I can't NOT post him. (Plus I didn't take any other pics today. I TRIED to get pics of Nick getting his hair cut or Nick's new short hair but he REFUSED to cooperate!)

Day 99

This is gonna be a long story!

I have a leak in upstairs bathroom faucet. It's just a little drip. My dad has tried to fix it twice and both times, it starts right back up again. I think the next thing to be done is replace the internal workings. Calling a plumber out would cost ALOT more than the water that's dripping. Someday, my dad will be up here for long enough to fix it. I will wait until then. In the mean time, we have a Tupperware tub that collects the water so I reuse it (for watering plants and stuff) so I don't feel so guilty about "wasting" water.

Enter Jack the cat. He is fascinated by water! When anyone goes into the bathroom, he wants to come & hang. He jumps on the sink and waits until you turn the faucet on & then he plays in the dripping water. He's so goofy (he also likes to watch the toilet flush. I'm wondering if he was kept in the bathroom when he was a kitten or something. ODD CAT!)

So, Jack has jumped in the tub & played w/the bucket of water before. He'll move it all over the bottom of the tub, try to get inside it and has dumped it over into the tub before. No big deal.

I woke up this morning to the oddest sound. Scared me for a minute or two until I realized it was Jack, in the tub, playing w/the bucket again. Back to sleep. I got up an hour or so later & went into the bathroom. This goofy cat had gotten the bucket OUT of the tub & dumped the water all over the floor. The kids never put the bathmat up so I assumed that the majority of the water was absorbed into the mat. I cleaned up the water that remained & tried to figure out HOW he to got a 5" square, 8" tall tub out of the bathtub w/o an opposable thumb!!! I guess where there's a will (and an intense curiosity) there's a way.

Last night, I was on the computer & Nick came down to bother, er, I mean TALK to me. He was staring at the ceiling over my scrap table. He asked what happened. I turned to look & there was this horrid stain on the ceiling. I guess all the water was NOT absorbed by the bath mat and some (alot!) of it dripped THRU the register upstairs and onto the ceiling tiles. I guess we'll be trying to find a matching tile at Lowe's this weekend!

Day 68

Silly Cat. Jack knows he owns the whole house. He decided to sit with me while I ate my ice cream tonite. I'm fine if he's on the chairs but he KNOWS he's not supposed to get on the table. That doesn't mean he never gets on the table. He also knows he'll get pushed off if I catch him. LOL

Day 40

Driving home from the kids' school the rain started (on my nice clean van!!) The window was so clean (and maybe even treated w/something) that the medium rain didn't even require me to use my windshield wipers. The rain just beaded up & then slid off the windshield. It was really cool to watch. These pics don't even begin to show how cool it looked but, they are still pretty nice in my opinion.

Have I mentioned I LOVE rain!! I'd move to Seattle if I liked coffee.

Day 9

...didn't really turn out as cute as they were in real life! The cat was asleep on the back of the couch (where he TOTALLY isn't supposed to be!) I took him off & put him in his bed and covered him w/his blanket. Being the contrary creature he is, he decided he was no longer tired and got out of his bed. Unfortunately, the blanket didn't leave him. Static had it stuck to his hiney. It was hallarious to watch. The pics, not so much.

After that 5th pic, I did take pity on the poor thing & removed the blanket from his hiney. Did he appreciate it?? NO! Silly kitty!