Summary

Summer is out.  It's so last season.  Fall is in.

This week I’m working more on hats because there’s a show on Wednesday and another in 3 weeks.


I’m thinking a lot about our vacation. It’s still a long way away (5 ½ months) but it gives my brain something to think about (obsess).

Today I thought I should look for my skis to make sure I still had them and some unnamed husband hadn’t given them to Goodwill. I can’t tell you the number of times he told me I should get rid of them. I have an emotional attachment to them I suppose. They represent happy times and it’s one of those sports that haven’t killed me nor makes me want to kill myself after doing it.

I have found the skis and poles and I know where the boots are at. I’m pretty sure I know where they are.

Bo, the puppy, is still a puppy if not twice the size he was. And I think he’s one of those dogs with….gas. There’s been some nose wrinkling smells and I’m not sure where they are coming from, but Bo always seems to be around. Onslo is not a stinky dog in that way. That’s because he’s wound so tight nothing could escape from his behind. They are getting along great except for the bed and they both want the same bed. Also, Bo has this thing about biting Onslo’s collar and Onslo doesn’t think this is a fun game. So there’s some yapping and I think Onslo would really like to punch Bo in the face sometimes. For the most part they happily coexist and play. But isn’t that what we all aspire to?

Museum Day..aka UT Parking: Fail

Today we found out it was Free Museum Day!  There were 30 museums participating so there were lots of choices.  We were very choosy because a) we would have to drive into The City  b) The City has lots of people.  There's a reason we live in the country.  But I decided we should visit one of these museums..today..when everyone else was going to visit them.  We immediately decided not to go to the children's museum because of all the children that would be there.  If you've taken your kid to any McD's playground, you know what I'm talkin bout.  There were lots of great choices but we chose the one with dinosaur and other dead animal bones.

We had a really terrible time trying to find parking.  In fact we gave up and went to eat lunch.  Apparently UT decided to have a broken gate into the parking garage.  All the surrounding parking was reserved for permit F20, whatever that means.  Some brave folks had thought that since it was Sunday and an event OPEN TO THE PUBLIC on a SUNDAY  that it would be ok to park there.  Well, I'm sure they'll be happy when they get back to their car and find that $50 ticket on their windshield (scam for increased revenue).

After eating we decided to make one last go round and we found the only spot available for 2 miles.  Rowan charged up the steps in her purple, pink, orange outfit with matching purple, pink, orange shoes and started barking orders like "line up here.  Blah blah blah."  

 

Inside we proceeded to look...in the gift shop where all the best fossils are.  We moseyed around, Rowan bounced off the walls looking at all these dinosaurs, and I took pics of all the bones of things.

I liked this one..

Me with the parking situation mentioned above...

I found these dead butterflies pinned to a board very pretty.

Here's Rowan sitting in a boat watching a video about fish but I think she was saying something like, "hi, you come here often?"  She was not watching the fish video...

After this Mom had to be driven to the nearest place of calm and quiet..for icecream.  Here is where Rowan showed her fashion sense by choosing icecream that matches her outfit...she's a weirdo. 

Join us for our next thrilling family day when we...stay at home and watch the grass grow!

And Lame-O Was Her Name-O...

I looked at the date of my last post and wondered where the time went.  It seems like I have been very busy and yet not really doing anything.  Folks, this basically does sum it up.  Busy doing nothing. 

I've been busy with trying to keep a clean shirt on everyone's back, cleaning house, bills, shopping, dogs, and school stuff.  And allergies.  Lots of allergies right now.  Allergies are bad in that they make you throw things like brownies and icecream into your grocery cart.  They make you want to just sit around and read magazines or sit and watch Facebook and bet on who will post something next. 

I'm also glad because there's no drama going on.  It's peaceful.  Not that there's ever drama going on.  I just tend to like things to be very lame and quiet. 

I did decide to start planning a vacation.  I want to go back to Yosemite in the spring.  We'd like to move there.  I asked Jace if he had been looking for a house for us.  He said he found a real nice Gremlin that sleeps 3...

Exorcism at the Mall

Yesterday we went to the mall.  This was a bad idea after all.  We didn't choose to go to the mall.  It's where the Apple store is located.  We didn't want to go to the Apple store but someone who's name starts with Rowan messed up Daddy's gigi (iTouch) and we had to get the doohickey that plugs into the thingamajig fixed. 

At first we thought this would be a fun day out.  We have an outlet mall in our town but not a mall.  We drove to the mall without incidence except for that car from New York who was driving 55 (obviously lost).  Then we walked into the mall and transformed the rest of our day.

It was big.  It was shiny and twinkly.  It was loud.  Things had changed since the last time we were in a mall.  It felt like a big circus was going on.  There was entertaining things everywhere for kids.  Candy machines, bungy corded trampolines, choo choo trains. 

We had to find the restroom by the food court, also.  A must with a little kid.  I think all the restaurants were handing out free samples.  We could have not paid for any food that day because of all the free samples they were giving.  And those kids didn't care if they gave one sample or 10.  But after you take your kid to the same bathroom three different times you kind of get tired of the same guy trying to push the Chinese food. 

We did get the gigi fixed and that was worth the trip but the meltdown by Rowan was not.  Let me tell you, she came home a hot mess.  All that attention grabbing glitz was too much for her.  She was overstimulated.  She was crying at the drop of a hat.  Her nerves were so raw she threw up all over herself.  Daddy hosed her down, wrapped her up, and told her sweet things.  And then she was fine.  And then she was crying.  And then she went to bed. 

Suffice to say it will be a long time before we take her back there.  A note about the pic above.  Rowan has reached an age, which I had heard about, where she no longer wishes to have her picture taken except in a few instances.  Apparently she feels more like the paparazzi is after her.  She is starting to feel a need for her privacy.  Even though she doesn't understand this whole blog thing and the internet, I'm going to work hard to respect her feelings. 

Pets...

I think I can safely say that most of us have been ridiculously busy this summer.  I started my new business with my friends and it is still something I can have a passion for even after 107 degrees and a tornado warning.  It is fun to watch it grow and shape into something more than I ever thought it could be. 

Some of us were mad scientists creating horrors too scary to look at.  Rowan found out that she loves to craft something, anything right next to mom and dad.  All t.v. watching has become pretty much non existent.  She also has some gymnastic talent I'm contemplating.  Most 4 year olds aren't doing back flips off the bed, right?  She is.  All she needs is a balance beam.

This one of those rare, I can't believe the pic came out this good, moments.  I used a lot of zoom and stood far, far away.  No one wants to kill it because it's a momma spider.  We've also seen her in action and she is a professional killer.  One false move and it's all over.  Mostly, she's very pretty big huge and we're too chicken to squish her.  She keeps out all the big insects, so she can stay put in my book.

This is the momma spider's 13 trillion eggs in there. 

She will probably release them as I'm trying to leave for work in the dark. 

 This way I can get to work looking like I have

 lice or will be practicing for my role in a B horror movie.                                                                                          

I understand their part but I still get the heebie jeebies.  Moving on...

Out in the Garden there are lots of rocks and little nooks and corners to gather in or ponder big questions.  We let strange cats come on over, too.  They don't stick around for too long.  It gets too hot, there's no food.  Nag      

Now, we're approaching the pets that belong to us.  Here are the goldfish.  Happy as a fish can be.  There isn't a butterfly swimming with them.  Rowan got a hold of some butterfly stickers and decorated the tank.

Mostly this post is about Him.  Him is named Onslo.  Onslo is a chiweenie.  When you google pics of chiweenies they are varied as night and day.  I like to think he has a forever baby look on his face.

He had been getting a little more gamey lately.  He seemed depressed.  There's not a lot of White Fang gangs he could run with. 

So Jace said, "I'll allow that we need another dog to keep Onslo company."  I heard, "Julie you can go get another dog any kind you want."

So unbeknownst to us all:  He can train fast, loves to sleep, only wants to pee on paper, and takes his important business outside.  He's also showing his manlyness in getting to keep all his toys.  I'll be posting lots of pics here and on Facebook.

Rantings of An Allergy Head

Today I was miserable.  I am still miserable, but somewhat more bearable.  Jace will probably not agree with that.  I have taken my medicine and Rowan is fast asleep dreaming of karate chopping ninjas while being Princess Aurora on her My Little Pony.

I worked today and was asked to stop by the Super Grocery Store on my way home.  You know the store I'm talking bout.  The one who's entire parking lot plus store is bigger than some towns in Texas.  You (I) debate whether you (I) have enough water for the journey from the car to the store.  Can you (I) make it across the vast wasteland? 

Once in the store I find my items easily.  People stare at me and give me a wide birth.   Doesn't everyone look like this after being woken up at midnight because their (my) nose was swelling shut and my eyes were soon to follow.  Rescue tactics taken and I was back in bed till 4.  Beep beep.  Beep beep.  Yes, Satan's sunrise.  I am up making coffee to throw in my eyes.  I can make it through work.  It's only 12 hours. 

Back at the store.  I was buying things from the organic/healthfood aisle.  I was probably not the healthful picture perfect spokesmodel for said products.  My hideousness probably chose someone's lifelong path down the road to drivethru's. 

I decided to take the scenic route home.  It gives me time to ramble in my head about what I would like to put in a post.  So here's my rambles:

* Tomorrow is the day before school starts.  I am giddy with delight.  More than Rowan.  As a parent you know what this means.  The real vacation is starting for the next week.  Those delightful hours when the cherubs are nagging someone else.  The twilight time before all the intense school activities begin.  This week is golden. 

* I'm hoping to get the bedroom trim and doors painted.  Rowan scribbled on them and they are not art nor do they have any resemblance to Jesus or other miracle figures. 

* My one friend, that I have told you is a pirate, made her first paddling journey today.  Training for a pirate ship?  I've decided my other friend is an assassin.  Details coming...

*  When I got home I found out about the dog's bad deeds for the day.  Do not be surprised if my bedroom has no carpet by this time next week. 

*  I have 14 granny squares done.

*  I can't do anymore with Flylady till my allergies are better.  I may have to go see the ENT...my favorite doctor ever!  She will put me on steroids.  Steroids make me happy and sing "The Hills are alive with the sound of music."  Then I will clean house...and plot laundry room takeover plans. 

Sticker Season

I know it's a pretty bad picture.  I am probably one of the last people on earth who doesn't own one of the fancier, newest, latest, and greatest cameras.  I always use my phone and hence some blurry pics.  I think you can see the little spikes on this teeny tiny ball of fun, though.

Every July and August we look forward to this great event we call Sticker Season.  It causes all kinds of whoops and yelps of pain.  If you ever want to see a person walking normally and then suddenly stop, fall, or hop around while yelling "ow!", then you should C'mon Down to Texas! 

Since we are lucky enough to own property in the country it gives us a VERY BIG yard.  The problem with VERY BIG yards in the country is the upkeep.  There's lots of mowing..and rocks...and the heat.  The Stickers have figured us out.  By this time of the summer we are sick of mowing.  It's too hot.  We're busy.  We don't care.  The "grass" is dying anyway.  It's not even really grass.  Then the Stickers appear.

They are tiny, hard, and barbed.  They attach themselves to everything.  They jump onto you like little hitch hikers.  They anxiously await to jump off of you onto your carpet or your brand new bathroom rugs that took you 5 years to get a new one.  Ahem..  They are the main reason you are taking out all the carpet in your house.  Not that the carpet is nicknamed Flea Bag Rag.  It's to keep out the little ambushers.  They mock your vacuum cleaner.  That weak thing!  They will only be forcefully evicted having to use fingers, tweezers, and scissors.

I also do something terrible because of the Stickers.  I eat them.  No I don't.  I just thought that would shock you.  I park my car on the lawn very close to the front door.  This way I don't have to walk far.  I just don't like the way it looks.  Not many people in the country see your car in your yard anyway.  Unless it's a yard ornament.

Speaking of yard ornaments, I have a neighbor way down at the other end who has a hedgerow of cactus.  That's not unusual, I have my own cactus.  However, he takes the time to make smiley faces in the big "leaves."  So when I drive to town and pass his house there's all these smiling cactus looking at me.  He's an artist.  We call him Mr. T.  He looks like Mr. T.  His dog look likes Mr. T., too.  He's a nice guy.

Today I'm going to see another plant, maybe.  Feeling a little lazy.  I might hop over to the Lavender Festival.  I'm betting they don't have stickers.