Alien Abductions

I am SO bummed that The 4th Kind was faked.  I never would have gotten it if I had read about it first.  Grrrr.  Not that I want aliens running around, but still.  Some sort of 'proof' that 11 million people have seen aliens or UFO's would be nice.  I have no doubts at all that there are 11 million idiots running around out there and the major lack of proof just seals that notion.  I feel the kind of cheated I did after Blair Witch-which I also fell for reading the box at the video store.  Though, in Blair Witch, I could not understand why they did not follow the power lines to the main road after finding the house.  There was clearly a hot water heater in there, and light sockets.  Why on earth would you run down to the basement of an abandoned house?  They deserved whatever happened for being that dumb.  


We also watched Primeval, which was based on a true story.  Final body count, 29 dead.  Only 10 were eaten by the giant crocodile, the rest were gunned down or machete...ed...sliced by bad bad Africans.  (from wikipedia: Gustave is the basis of the film Primeval (originally titled Gustave), which follows a news team sent to Burundi to capture an exaggerated representation of Gustave.)  Now, Gustave is real and living and he is a 20 foot long crocodile.  In the movie, they made him 27 feet long.  REALLY-isn't a 20-foot crocodile big enough?  I would run.  

Doldrums

Ugh, I had a tough couple of days trying to entertain myself!  hahaha!  
It was hot then rainy then hot again outside, there was nothing to watch here-no TV and no Netflix due in.
I had NO library books.
The kids are doing their own stuff for the summer and don't need much academic help from me.
We had everyone over Wednesday, so the house did not need any immediate cleaning.
I was BORED.


So, I got my favorite toy and went outside to take pictures of the flowers.  I was uninspired and ended up just making a catalog of what's currently in bloom or producing fruit.  Jake and I went to look at the local video store-yes, our town: population 500 has a video store, something nearby towns of 40k+ can't still say.  We may have to dial up for internet, but I can rent C.H.U.D. for a dollar.

There was nothing we had not seen or wanted to see.  This year has been really bleak for anything new and interesting.  The last couple of years, in fact.  Too many stupid comedies or war-related movies.  Blah.


Back home yesterday, I drug out the sun paper and played with that a while.  I got one print I rather like.  Then I polarized some of my flower shots and had one of those I kind of like.  I will post them both since, other than my t-shirt, they are the sole proof I even moved this week.  

Here's hoping I find some inspiration in the next couple of days, I am to the point of boring even myself.

Summer

After our great summer kick-off camping trip, it was time to get serious about the rest of our summer fun!
Tuesday, I went to Cathy's and we planned out things to do in June, which was our month to plan.  The moms split up the summer, so now I get to lie back and enjoy the rest of the season!  I am really looking forward to that.  I don't mind doing the bulk of the planning, but even dictators need a vacation.  LOL!

Wednesday was the t-shirt making day at my house, we had spaghetti and garlic bread, Karen made a wonderful salad and there were so many desserts!  After lunch, we waddled outside to decorate our shirts.

We finally got to use the table for more than group photos!

We did not make Heather go away, they just needed the shorter table!

Isn't my shirt so cute!
Look at Poppy!  OMG!
I will fill in more detail as we do things together all summer
I can't wait to see the finished product!

Thirteen!

How shocked was I when I hopped on the scales today-first time since before the camping trip-and saw I had dropped a couple more pounds!?  Excited enough to use double punctuation.

Who knew all that blood loss on the trip due to skeeter hordes was going to come in handy.  I do know that when a person my size starts feeling lightheaded from blood loss, it's time to rethink warm weather camping.

Luckily, the less-thrilling memories are fading, I can only recall peals of laughter, the warmth of fire and friends and the yummy food.  And of course all the animals other than the blood-sucking kind.  It really was an animal-heavy trip, I can't recall ever seeing THAT many critters before.  If Ben will ever heal from his latest poison oak infestation, I will have nothing but fond memories left.  : )  It's the same amnesia that makes me want to have more babies and get back on a ride that JUST scared the beejeebers right out of me.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Today is the day that Chandler and I are the same height.  Soon, she will loom over me like Jake does and then Ben will outgrow me as well.  *sigh*


Anyway, here is Goliath, I mean Chandler, making Frank Lloyd Wright's favorite breakfast scone.  She actually showed me the mixture of dry ingredients and told me what they were so I would 'know what's in the little pre-mixed packages I like to make'.  I am just glad she is old enough to get some pioneer skills because I have failed her since she was about 4 and realized I did not actually MAKE anything.

These are a nice, basic mix and then you can dip the cooked muffins into a mixture of melted butter and then roll them in sugar and cinnamon for more flavor.

They were quite good!

The next day, she doubled the batch and I got muffins in bed for Mother's Day!  She put applesauce in the second batch.

We re-purposed a corner of the living room into our nature study area

So far, it's been a huge hit, the kids are spending about as much time collecting bugs and looking them up as they are playing on their DS...es. DS's?

SUNDAY:

We went to the JSU frog pond for Mother's Day.  Yes, it was what I wanted to do.  It's ME.
We stopped at Gadsden at the playground and spun on this thing.
I am surprised it's still in operation, it's totally dangerous!  We loved it, we spun and screamed for half an hour, then wobbled back to the van.

Here I am doing a self-portrait at the frog pond!

On the way back through Gadsden, we stopped at took a picture of the bridge because when I lived in Gadsden, I loved going to the river walk, but I did not own a camera.
They added fountains since that time, so I took a picture of them, too.

They go off right at 9, so if you are taking pictures and your battery dies and you stop to change it at 8:59, you won't get a chance to take another picture.
  

Sixteen

Oh dear.  


Well, I am not too shocked.  Just need to get it going back the other way again! 


This week's plan:

Hiking twice, mowing once, I will make sure I am not snacking after 7-I can't really say I have been paying attention.  I am replacing one cooked meal a day with fresh fruit smoothies since so many things are in season and on sale right now.  I had blueberry and grape in the blender for breakfast!  Maybe some protein powder would help extend the staying power, fruit alone is good for about an hour.  


I just finished the most exciting book: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly.  I am all kinds of gung ho about nature study again.  Maybe that will lead to some exercise as well!  

May Underway

It's nearly a week into May already.  What the heck!

First, the play went well, then it went away.  It was amazing how CONSUMING that thing was, then it ended and we walked around for a day getting the tattered edges of our lives back together.  Now, it feels like the play was over months ago instead of just Sunday night.

Monday, we mowed and tinkered around the house, did some laundry and ran the vacuum for Tuesday.  

Tuesday, we had several friends over.  I love doing that!  It had been too long, I think the last lunch here was Chandler's birthday in February.

we talked about...everything and for hours on end.

We have a camping trip coming up in 2 weeks, everyone is so excited.  Matt found out today he can get off after all-that has been up in the air back and forth.  I finalized the rough draft for our vacation with his mom in June, we figured up his hours he will accumulate after that and we will be able to take a week in September if we use Labor Day in there.

I am so excited!  It's a great life when a camping trip with your family and friends looms just ahead like Christmas Day, filled with fun and who-knows what!  Every trip is like a holiday and a family reunion all in one.  : )  The very best kind of thing.