t-shirts

Last night at Vacation Bible School we made these cool t-shirts with paint blow pens. I've never done that before and it was pretty cool. Danielle's school is going to tye-dye t-shirts this week so she'll have quite the colorful wardrobe for the remainder of the summer.

VBS

VBS started tonight and it was great!

the "repressed" 80s??

So I finished the book I've been reading: eleven minutes that was a fictional story but in the afterword the author mentions that his "youth coincided with an age of enormous freedom, great discoveries and many excesses, which was followed by a period of conservatism and repression . . . " So I think "hmm? When was that?" Only to be answered in the next paragraph with "In that decade of excess (the 1970s) . . . " WHAT??!! The 80s was the period of "conservatism and repression?" I was a teenager through most of the 80s and I certainly wouldn't describe it as conservative and repressed...even in Bible belt area of Arkansas that I grew up in. Am I the only person who remembers Madonna from the Like a Virgin era? Tipper Gore trying to censor Prince and Darlin' Nikki? Rupaul as a supermodel?? 9 1/2 weeks then Mickey Rouke with Lisa Bonet in that NC-17 movie?? Hello . . . MTV??!!! Hmm . . . what do you think??

another good movie

Not as good as the Pursuit of Happyness but still good was The Illusionist. We started it a couple of weeks ago during D's naptime and finished up tonight during her earlier-than-usual bedtime.

good movie

Sunday afternoon we watched the Pursuit of Happyness. It was a great movie and I highly recommend. That's the first time in a while we've gotten to watch a movie.

D's latest school activities

I'm very impressed with Danielle's school. Beyond mastering the basics of reading and writing this fall, the summer has been a more "relaxed" structure with more cooking, art and science activities. I must say, I'm even more impressed. I think Danielle is learning even more from these activities. Coming up in the next few days are making trail mix (we're supplying the dried apricots), tie-dying t-shirts and the kids' art show. For the kids' art show the school is asking that the kids be allowed to take their own photos with digital cameras. The parents will then print out the photos from which the school will choose two from each child. I do miss the music class from earlier this year; the music teacher was INCREDIBLE! But this summer he is in Italy performing and should be back in the fall.

just a few photos from D's 5th b-day party

I promise to upload more later - really tired right now - I need a nap.

Harry Potter mania in Austin

Because I'm not completely clueless, I knew that the latest Harry Potter release was 7/21 at 12:01am. While in the local Wal Mart today a guy was handing out the colored wrist bands to the book sell. Not many people were asking about it and he kept saying "these are the red ones; they go to the front of the line." Since my neice likes HP so much and I will see her later this morning I thought, "well . . . if I'm up I'll come by" so I took one. Since I am up, I trotted down to the store with my red wrist band and picked up 2 HP books. I really wasn't expecting a crowd, since it is the Wal Mart in my neighborhood and, well . . . I just didn't expect the HP-reading crowd to be there. Boy, was I wrong. The line was already out the customer service area, through the shoes, past the baby clothes and to the food side of the store. Luckily, I had my red band and went to the head of the pack. I got my 2 copies and was home about 40 min. later. Since a friend's son was also standing in line somewhere, I called to make sure he was going to get a copy. Brian, apparently, had no problem as he said that he pretty much just walked into the HEB (at Mopac and Parmer) and bought one! So, now I guess we'll find out if Harry lives or dies . . . But, unluck the rest of the HP fans of the world, I am going to bed rather than stay up reading tonight. Good night all . . .

It's woot off time!

neices and cousins in Maine

Trey's Cousin Collin (and dog), Neice Emory, Cousin Erin & Neice Amberlin are currently in Maine. Here they are on the porch in front of a beautiful sunset. Apparently they are having a blast. I can not believe how grown up they all are.

Cinderella

We finally go the computer to work again with the nasty NORTON stuff. (Trey has written quite a lengthy letter to the Norton Co's CEO.) But now I haven't been able to get the photos from this weekend onto the computer. As soon as I do I will publish photos of CINDERELLA who came to cousin Lauren's birthday party. It was quite fun. Danielle thought she was fantastic!

our cup runneth over . . .

We have lots of ripe tomatoes, figs and green beans. So much that I am looking forward to learning how to can for the winter. I would love to stay home again - I would take so much more advantage of it. Working in a garden would be so much more rewarding . . . but our cup runneth over and we are very thankful for all we have.

Happy birthday to my little Native Texan!

Today is Danielle's 5th birthday. Here is the exchange that took place this morning while Danielle was taking a quick bath:
I finished washing her hair and said "I'm so glad God sent you to be my little girl."
Danielle said "yep, I picked you and daddy to be my mommy and daddy."
I asked "You did? You remember that?"
To which Danielle replies "Yes, well . . . first I picked Texas for the state then I looked and picked you and Daddy."
LOL! I'm guessing you can't get more Native Texan than that! Picking the state FIRST.

My little one . . .

I can hardly believe my little one will be 5 this Friday. For her birthday this year we are doing a time capsule to be opened on her 21st birthday (year 2023--isn't that bizarre to think of things in the 20xx numbers??!! I'm getting so old.) Boo bear has a little cough the last few days so I'm letting her catch a little extra sleep this morning.

Updates

We did a lot of swimming this weekend--Sat at a birthday party and Sun at a friend's house. It was fun!

Last night I made Ratatouille from a recipe on allrecipes.com --http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Summer-Vegetable-Ratatouille/Detail.aspx -- Trey and I enjoyed it but Danielle not so much. I used to be intimidated by cooking but not so much any more. Trey once said that it seemed my motivation for everything was fear--what an awful thought! So I've tried to forge ahead even when I'm terrified of something. Including simple things like cooking. So try a new recipe--it might turn out fantastic!

hey - this is a good thing

Thanks to Chris for the rating info.

Breaking the child labor laws . . .

Yellow T-shirt day

Happy late 4th!

We had a good 4th of July - we:

• woke up late (9:30am). Of course, I had woken up at 4am and couldn't go back to sleep until 6:30am
• had cinnamon toast for breakfast
• talked to family in Arkansas
• went to see Ratatiolle - however you spell it. It was cute - a little long but cute
• came home and cleaned a little (inspired by the Clean House episode I saw from 5:30-6:30am)
• talked to family in Washington
• went to friend, Paige & Mike's for dinner and sparklers. Their baby's nursery is so beautiful - can't wait to meet her in August!
• stopped by my parents' house and their neighborhood had LOTS of fireworks
• came home and cleaned a little more before bed

Now, back to work!

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