Natalie's 8th birthday!

My 3rd Grader!

I can't believe my baby had her first day of school today as a 3rd grader! Where does the time go? I could lie & say this picture was taken on the way to school this morning, but truthfully, it was so humid that my camera lens fogged completely!! So I took this one when we got home after Natalie suffered in the 111 degree heat index for 40 minutes waiting for me to get thru the carline to pick her up. Oy...I'll be glad when all the "new moms" figure out how to do the carline! It is always awful the first week until everyone gets the hang of it. Anyway, I think she still looks pretty perky after the long hot day. Too bad you can't see the fab leopard print backpack she has......pure Natalie!

Friends and sisters

I want to be a cowgirl

And I have the perfect pink boots to prove it!

Anna was upset recently when Natalie started wearing her pink boots (lovely with shorts :-) everywhere.....she asked where HER boots were. So off to the store & found this ultra cute pair....she cried giant crocodile tears this morning when meanie daddy told her she couldn't wear them to school. I took pity on her and saved the day by letting her wear them. Could her smile get any bigger? I've never seen anyone so proud of the pink cowgirl boots! Yee-haw!

By popular request...

Here he is.....the short-lived saga of "Joey" the truck-undercarriage-riding kitten... cute, huh?
A little scrawny....I think he needs to eat some of the squirrels in our back yard for sustainance.
He's very playful & loves to get into trouble.
And here is trouble. AKA Simon....who is our one and only cat.

He was NOT too thrilled that I was outside taking pictures

of the scrawny kitten when I could be inside, opening a can of cat food or scratching his back.

Happily, our worry over what to do about the kitten was solved the next morning when our neighbor's wife and son saw him. They called us at work and asked if they could have him. Duh...yep! And I said I'd even throw in a bag of cat food too.

They have named him "Joey". He spends alot of time hanging around our house, but that's OK. I just hope they take good care of him.

He is pretty dang cute!

But then again, so is Simon.

44 Ounces of Glorious Crack...

...also known by the street name Yuban coffee.

This is what my Montana sister sent me for my birthday.

An attempt I'm sure to get me completely hooked on a coffee that is very difficult to find here in L.A. Hmmmmm....I wonder what her ulterior motive is?

Roger's Bad Day...

Poor Roger. Yesterday was just one bad thing after another.

It started off with a stressful exit...we all hate rushing out the door to work. But it happens sometimes & we just move on.

Fast forward to yesterday evening. He comes in the door looking exhausted and with his usual workday dirt (it happens when you work in restoring old homes ;-)....but he had a new addition to his wardrobe....he had "accesorized" his forehead with a couple of poorly placed bandaids! What happened to you?!?! He said he smacked himself between the eyes with the prybar when it slipped. Ouch! So he has a 1"+ vertical split right between the eyebrows....We got it cleaned up & put some butterfly closures on it so hopefully it will be OK, and the imminent scar will just add to his craggy good looks :-)

In the course of the day, he also slipped with the hammer & knocked a hole in some siding or something. Geesh.

Just when you think things can't get worse, he was filling up his truck (yeah, I guess that could be considered "worse" too....hehe), he looked down and there was a KITTEN sitting on top of his rear wheel! What the ---- he mutters. He reached for it, but it scurried back up under the truck and settled into the spare tire. He spent alot of time trying unsuccessfully to retrieve said kitten, and finally gave up. He drove home & looks....and there is that blasted kitten! Still hanging out in the tire compartment.

He finally manages to get it out....a cute little kitty.....not sure how old, but a playful little orange and white tabby. Now what? First of all, we are not.....repeat NOT....equipped for another cat. Simon the cat is now a housecat & we're fine with just the family we have. But then again, we don't want the kitten harmed either. We know that it would be iffy for the kitty's future if we took it to the animal shelter. And the animal rescue foundation was full. So we ended up putting some canned food and water out on the porch & letting it out of the cat cage. It was so sweet and playful....after it ate a good bit of cat food from a spoon.

Needless to say, kitty was still on the porch this morning and was incredibly adorable...playing with each of our shoes as we walked out. Anna thought the kitty was so cute...that is until it started playing with the hem of her dress! She freaked with that and I had to pick her up to save her from the vicious kitten who tried to eat her dress! :-)

Anyone want a cute little kitty?

Anna's 3rd Birthday Party

More from Montana

Here are a few more photos from our wonderful trip to Montana.

For Natalie, one of the highlights of every trip is going to visit Dragon Hollow and A Carousel for Missoula http://www.carrousel.com/about.php . This carousel is amazing with all the hand-carved ponies. One of the few remaining in the country. Her favorite pony has always been "Paint". As the caroulsel spins, riders reach out to grab colorful rings from the dragon's mouth. There is always one brass ring inside....the lucky person to grab a brass ring wins a free ride! Natalie did not get the brass ring - this time - but she did grab 9 rings on one ride! This was her first time riding that she was tall enough to reach on her own! Way to go Natalie!!

Some of the other photos are of the kids at Splash Montana. This is one of the many parks in Missoula and we are amazed at how clean and fun it is. And SO reasonably priced too! Aunt Laura took the kids without us....I was watching her pack some things to take to the waterpark....You know, the usual sunscreen, snacks, hats, magazines...Wait! Magazines?? I laughed!!! "You REALLY think you're going to have a chance to read those?" I asked. "Sure!" sayeth Laura. Well alrighty then, if you can, you're a better woman than I!! Needless to say, the magazines never made it out of the bag with water-crazed Anna around! I guess it has been awhile since she's taken a tot to a water-park :-) But I give her points for giving it a whirl.

3 Days at Seeley Lake, Montana

I've been working on getting some pictures ready, but between working, trying to catch up on sleep (ha!), laundry, and everything else associated with returning from vacation, it has been laborious. Here is one group of photos I took when we were at Seeley Lake, MT for 3 days, including 4th of July. We had a wonderful time and the lake was perfectly gorgeous while we were there! It was warm during the day, but when the sun finally set (after 10:30!) it was so incredibly cool. And downright chilly each morning when we got up to drink our coffee on the beach. All 9 of us shared a wonderful cabin just off the swimming beach. We were joined by our friends Reese, Eamon & their 2 children (they brought their RV). It was alot of fun having a campfire each evening & making s'mores & just relaxing and being mesmerized by the flames. This was a particularly memorable Montana vacation for us.

What a beautiful place.

105

That's what the temperature is here in Montana right now.
Leave it to us to leave the miserable, sweltering south to come to "cool" Montana for a record-breaking heatwave!!! It is 105 degrees at this writing....but I must admit, I have not broken a sweat once since we've been here! Not even on a 2-hour hike to a beautiful waterfall a few days ago. I feel like I should take a batch of cookie dough outside & let them bake! The hot breeze makes it feel like a convection oven, but only 11% humidity (compared to the current 79% in Mobile!)

I haven't had time to blog, but have just a moment, so I'll hit the highlights & hope to get pics on later or tomorrow. I spent the first 2 days dealing with doctor visits for Anna. She managed to get a respiratory infection just as we were leaving town. And she gets hives all over when she gets a fever, to further complicate matters. So the first doc says, oh, it's viral.....just give her benedryl & motrin. Humph I say, so I take his advice & move along. That night, she was coughing most of the night & crying with the pain of the miserable nose & throat. So the next day, & call & as mama bear who knows her child says "give me antibiotics NOW!" (Montana is one of those places that is all peace, love, happiness, and no antibiotics :-) I had to go back to see yet another doctor, who after a very thorough examination "concurred" with me that an antibiotic was in order. duh. Yesterday was the first day she was in great shape & she's been doing fine & loves taking her meds.

Also, within one hour of our arrival, Natalie was stung 2 times by a hornet. One below her lower lip and once on her back.....geez....her first stings & me not knowing if she was allergic or not....lucky for me (and her?) I had a handy dandy benadryl melt-in-your-mouth strip, so I popped that in while she was screaming her lungs out. Her lip swelled up much larger two days later, prompting me to thing another doctor visit was in order, but it finally subsided.

Let's see.....I'm in pretty good shape, Roger is allergic to some weed out here & mom is dying with am infected tooth or something that requires a root canal, so a dentist here kindly prescribed an antibiotic for her to get started on, but she'll be suffering the next few days.

Other than all the medical issues, we've had a wonderful time & just love it here in big sky country. We're out the door in a minute to go to some friends home for dinner. They live about 20 miles from here in the country....which reminds me, I must take pictures! I have not taken nearly as many as I wanted, but oh well...

Cheerio from the land of buffalo and pie!

Big Sky Country here we come!

The time is finally here for our long-awaited vacation to Big Sky Country (aka Montana)! We will fly out of New Orleans early tomorrow morning and fly into Spokane. From there we will make the very scenic drive (a few hours) from Eastern Washington, through the mountains of Idaho and into Missoula in the far western section of Montana.

The photo above is beautiful Seeley Lake, where we will have a cabin for our entire family of 10 for 3 nights next week. Another adventure we have planned is biking on the Hiawatha Trail. http://www.skilookout.com/hiaw/index.html We did that 2 years ago and it was amazing!

I'm looking forward to sharing lots of pictures and maybe even some fun stories :-) But for now...it is off to bed for a couple of hours of rest before the adventure begins!

Natalie's Dance Recital

Last weekend Natalie had her first jazz and tap dance recital. She has taken classical ballet classes for several years, but this year she wanted to try something different. She had a great time being able to put more of her personality into her dance routines and I hope she continues with it for the next several years. It is startling to us when I apply a tiny bit of makeup for the theater....a bit of lipstick, a dab of eyeshadow & one flick of mascara.....she changes from s little girl into an amazing beauty giving us a preview of how she might look years from now as a young adult. Wow.

Here are a few pictures from the recital day. We couldn't take pictures in the theater, but I do want to buy the professional video. Also threw in a few other pics just for fun.

We're getting ready for our long-awaited vacation to Montana....it has been too long since we've been there. Hoping it stays cool there so we can get a break from this horrendous heat.

To all the daddys out there - HAPPY FATHERS DAY! Roger has taken his girls to the pool this afternoon. Obviously, he is MUCH more fun at the pool than I am :-)

Cwock-A-Licious!!!

You've never seen anyone be so proud of UGLY shoes as Anna is of new Florida Gator "CWOCKS" Last summer I bought her some greens ones just like her sissy, but she has the tinest feet I have ever seen and although she LOVES Crocs, they are just huge...so since her feet are still the teensy size 6 that they were in October, I finally acquiessed and bought some smaller ones that fit better. I must do a video of her explaining how they are "MY cwocks" with her ever-expressive facial expressions
EVEN SIZE 6 IS TOO BIG FOR THESE DAINTY FEET!!!!!So Proud of these BEAUTIFUL and GLAM shoes :-)

A perfect day at the beach

Last weekend the Layden family came down from Atlanta for a weekend visit and beach trip. (Here's the link to their blog http://ianandlili.blogspot.com/ which has MUCH better photographs than mine, and Debbie L. writes much better prose than I :-) (Just scroll down to "Beach Weekend") Bottom line is we really had a wonderful time and it was nice to take ourselves away from all the work that faces us 24 hours a day. So a BIG thank you to the Laydens for helping us get away from it all for a little while. Hope they can come again SOON!!!

My girls, my heart

Another summer is here. As soon as school is over, it seems the rest of the year will zoom by in a flash. I keep saying I will have my holiday shopping and cards done by the end of July. I've said that for several years now because I know how quickly time slips away. Think I'll be successful this year? One can always hope, but I'm sure I'll be in the usual rush.

We've been spending a little time at the pool....no pool pictures as I keep forgetting my camera. Anna is a fish just like her big sister. But she is scary! She has no fear of the water and seems to think she can swim just like Natalie. She keeps me on my toes for sure. But the good part is that she should learn pretty quickly.

This is typical dinner attire in our household :-)

Anyone seen my other glass slipper??

My very first EBay purchase! Yay! I bought this Dora inflatable sleeping bag for our trip to Montana....and it was just like it was advertised...new! Anna LOVES it & I'm so pleased that I found it for her. Now both girls have these inflatable sleeping bags....I highly recommend them! Natalie slept on hers for 2.5 weeks on our China trip.

What can I say about this photo? These girls are true sisters. And their tigers are too. Natalie bought them last year at Disney and sent one to Anna while she was waiting for us. Happily, the tiger was with her when she came to us in China and now resides here in her bed.

Time? What's that?

Seems I never have time to post anymore. I guess that is just what 2 kids and a full-time job do. I know plenty of other bloggers who manage to post regularly, and that is my desire, but sometimes I'm just too dang worn out....and then time has just slipped away.

These past few months have been busy ones for us all. Natalie finishes 2nd grade this week with all "A"s.....we're so proud of her. And she has been selected to participate in the PACE program next year (that's the advanced class). We couldn't be prouder of her for that accomplishment! And Anna has been doing so well in learning the lingo here in the States.....she's just like any other soon-to-be three year old! Albeit much bossier than most :-) And I'm still trying to find my way thru parenting 2 children. Where is that path? It keeps shape-shifting every day. I'll get there though....

I love hearing from my friends and cyber-friends about their referrals for their new children....I remember so vividly the emotional time for TA and travel! Congratulations to all of you! Can't wait to hear more.

We....oops....just got back from dealing with Natalie and a nosebleed. Hmmmm. I wonder what that is al about. She's never had any until this past month & I think she's had 4.....anyone else deal with that?

What I was going to say before that episode was that we're looking forward to our trip to Montana in a few weeks....we love it there! Looking forward to that much needed break.....and maybe I'll even post some pictures between now and then :-) Cheerio!

Beware Apolo Ohno and Arcade Champs :-)

Some folks are just born to skate. :-)

Some are born to swing...

And then some are just blowing their cares into the wind!

Easter slideshow

Roger's Antiques Roadshow segment

Roger will make his television debut tonight on Antiques Roadshow! We got tickets last summer to the event & took several items to be appraised. Imagine our surprise when they pulled Roger aside as soon as they saw the Gale Sayers football jersey he had brought!! We were so excited & they filmed his segment of the appraisal, which will premiere tonight on PBS. So check your local listings and watch my usually calm and cool husband get a little rattled on the Roadshow :-)

His segment has also been featured this past week on the AR website. Not sure how long it will stay there, but you can click this link and then click on the Gale Sayers jersey video & see him in all his glory!
(Go to Program #1111 & that's where the jersey is)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/roadshow/series/highlights/2007/mobile/index.html