The Rattlesnake Climb

I have some seriously fun friends and yet quite a few are also a little demented as well. Take my friend Ms. J (I have several by this name but "you" know who you are!) as an example. Ms. J had a baby just 8 weeks ago (that's 8 WEEKS AGO) and this week decided that she wanted to climb a small mountain with her 5 year old and 8 week old in tow. Somehow she persuaded me and another friend to come along with her and include our kids just to make the trip even more enjoyable (because you know how much my kids love to hike up mountains!).

The weather for the day turned out to be stunningly perfect and thanks to my GPS (see how I've already claimed AH's birthday present) the kids were so enthralled with the hunt for treasure at the top of the mountain that they did the climb beautifully and with minimal whining.

Note super cute picture of Ms. J and her kiddos smiling beautifully for the camera:


Note my kiddo's and their faces (and this was the best of 3 shots!):


The descent turned out to be much harder than the climb. Lots of tired, whining kids and lots of falling and getting scraped up, and a scary fly that tormented Beeb and Mr. B. Alas we made it to the bottom intact and exhausted and as a treat to ourselves we had a nice Thai lunch wherein Mr. B quickly ate his food and then proceeded to lay down and fall asleep in the restaurant!

It was a great day and a great hike with great friends.

On a side note my questionably sane friend, Ms. J, is running a 5K race with me tonight (that's 8 WEEKS after having a baby).

Geocaching

Earlier this month while vacationing with AH's family we took part in a couple of Geocache hunts with his brother. This isn't the first time we've done this fun technology treasure hunt but it is the first time it has occurred to us that it would be a fun way to hike with our family (because we are sharp like that, it only took a couple of years to sink in).

So for AH's birthday I bought him a gently used GPS and we've had a wonderful time trying it out (more to come on this subject as I update our July adventures). Today I downloaded the coordinates for some nearby caches and we took our neighbor and her girls with us on the hunt. We found 5 caches in all and my neighbor even found $100 lying on the ground until Mr. B confessed it was some money he took from me and it fell out of his pocket during a tantrum (probably no more on this but serious consequences to be had later today).

All in all I am totally hooked; just what I need another addicting hobby.

Beef Stew

Beeb requested a bath this morning. While washing her hair some mysterious bubbles floated up to the surface. Beeb announced that she had tooted (obviously). "Or sometimes I call it beef stew,", she told me, "because it is funny."

Indeed.

We're Home

Well we are home from a nice vacation. We got to enjoy the lake, sunshine, boating and playing with all of AH's family.

I am still so refreshed that I actually put all our trip gear away today, the day after we got home - not 2 week from now like I normally do, but within 24 hours of returning home! THAT is a sign of a good vacation.

The Beeb Turns 6

Well she made it to her 6th birthday. I think the anticipation nearly drover her batty but she survived (with only a little extra craziness remaining). We surely do love our Beeb.

These Make Me Happy

The sun came out this week and it made me happy. We've had a very raining end of spring but now the sun is out and all is bright and cheery again, a little like my flowers. These are the last two from my plant and they make me happy too. I love their delicate lacy edges and soft pink petals.

M.I.A.

My kids are out of school for the summer and home full time now. Enough said.

Beeb - The Concert

The elementary school had the kindergarten concert tonight. Beeb looked beautiful and loved all the attention. At certain intervals in the program each kindergarten class was asked a specific question and then each child answered. Beeb's class was asked, "What are you most looking forward to in 1st grade?" There were a plethora of "recesses", "lunch", "popcorn Fridays" and then there was Beeb who answered, "Homework!".

That Stinks!

A few weeks ago my SIL reported a hefty unexpected expense of a new furnace when hers went kaput. I sympathized as I know that exact pain in the rear and wallet at the most unexpected time. In hindsight what I should have been doing was knocking on wood. . . every where. . . all the time. Last Thursday, as I was folding laundry in preparation for our weekend away, AH told me the dreaded news. . . our septic tanks were nearly over flowing and the newer pump (we replaced it a few years back) wasn't coming on. Ouch!



We called the septic repair service and scheduled an appointment for tomorrow but in the mean time the tanks did not fix themselves over the long weekend (as I'd secretly hoped) and the problem persists. Now I am just hoping we only need another new pump and not a new system (or loan to pay for that system); I'll find out tomorrow.

In the interim, after lecturing the kids about not peeing and pooping in the yard recently (seriously, I had the talk to the neighbor kids too - apparently our yard has a huge sign that says Honeybucket somewhere on it) I've had to recant and give the big thumbs up. Okay, not really but it is starting to get that desperate when you aren't allowed to flush the toilets. Even with three bathrooms your options run out quick.

Life Is Good Again

I got ANOTHER, this time new, monitor and HALLELUJAH it is finally calibrated after hours on the phone with the manufacturers tech support (of course their calibration tool didn't work right but luckily I had my other calibration tool that did).

I am a happy happy girl today.

Now to catch up on my client editing.

Oh, and I have two fantastic monitors to sell if anyone is interested. One for graphics/photography editing (CRT Monitor) and the other is a 6 month old, 26" LCD amazing monitor not for photoshop editing but really awesome for gaming. :-)

The Move. . .

THIS:



Is causing all THIS:









Why? Because the monitor won't fit on my desk in my office so now we have to move my office to another room with a deeper desk. It's a HUGE pain (requires cleaning out 3 rooms!) but necessary for my photo editing.

It's nice to know we are loved, and I hope a huge sigh of relief will follow. Sorry Jenn, I'll keep working on AH to move to your town. :-)

Husband Errand

Today I asked AH to stop at the grocery store on his way home from work to buy a cucumber. AH brought me this: