Memorial Day Fun in the Sun

We had a pretty low-key Memorial Day. Mostly we played outside and even turned the sprinklers on for the kids and the dogs to run through. Moto Moto stayed safely in his box this time.

We found a cute little green caterpillar among our radishes. Joe was absolutely fascinated by him. Eventually he let him go to crawl up the block fence into our neighbor's lemon tree.

Great Quote

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

-John Wooden

Jocelyn's Sort-Of Recital

A couple of weeks ago Joci had her last Fairy Tale Ballet Class. Of course, after we got her all worked up and we all took time off to come see her little recital, the teacher didn’t show…AGAIN! Apparently this is a common occurrence from her. Luckily, they did have another dance teacher that was able to step in and help, but I have to admit that it was nothing like the ‘recital’ I had been expecting. True, it was a lot of fun to watch Jocelyn dance and spin and dress up in a Cinderella costume that was 4 sizes too big for her. She had a fantastic time, too, showing off for everyone.

After the class Jon complained to the director of the Gilbert Recreation programs. She stated that the teacher will not be back…so that’s good. We felt confident enough after talking with her to put Jocelyn in another Gilbert class that my Dad recommended…Hip Hop and Jazz class. He is going to take Joci every Monday afternoon for a “Jazz it up” class. My Mom already bought her a little jazzy outfit, and we still have to get her the jazz shoes. She is going to have so much fun. She is definitely into dance right now. She LOVES to watch Dancing with the Starts, and I think she’ll really enjoy the So You Think You Can Dance series that is back on now, just like her Daddy. Yes, that is Jon’s favorite show. Yes, you have permission to give him a hard time about it.

Happy Mother's Day

It was a VERY Happy Mother's Day for me today, I hope yours was as amazing as mine was.


I'll admit, I didn't think it was going to be all that great at first. Both kids came into our room early, as usual, and I just knew I was going to have to get up with them as I normally do. Jon really came through for me, though. He took the kids and let me sleep in until 9:45am, absolute HEAVEN!


Wait, it gets better...


Then, suddenly, the kids and Jon are there and they have brought me breakfast in bed. I have never had breakfast in bed, unless eating while in the hospital counts, ha ha. Jon made bacon, sausage, and eggs benedict over pancakes for me with a great big glass of milk.


Jon and the kids sprinkled my tray with rose petals and brought me my cards and gift. I'm not one for large gifts. I am very sentimental and would much rather have something homemade, and so that is what they did for me. Jon asked the kids lots of questions about what they like about Me/Mommy and wrote all their answers down for me. So cute. I'll have to post some of their answers here later.


My only bummer is that I didn't get to see my own Mom. She is really sick, and I just couldn't risk my house getting sick again, no matter how much I wanted to see her. I hope she had a good day, though. I can't wait to get her little gift that I made for her.


I got to take lots of pictures, too, I even did a little photo shoot. I hope you enjoy them...

My dog, Clay, is getting older and really showing it. He is getting very grey-faced.

Poor Moto Moto, you can see here how bad Logan had really gotten to him.

Trust me, though, it is looking better and he is getting around well now.

Osiris got his first bath today. He did really well, although he didn't seem to enjoy the water.

A V8 a Day

A new study from Baylor College of Medicine, presented at this week's Experimental Biology meeting, found drinking at least one glass of low sodium vegetable juice daily may help overweight people with metabolic syndrome achieve better weight loss results.(Photo: Business Wire)

The Best Snack EVER!

Not actual bruschetta consumed.

Jon just brought me some of his leftovers from lunch. Can I tell you I think I literally INHALED them!

I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but he brought me three different kinds of bruschetta, all were on an amazing ciabatta bread. One was goat cheese with roasted red peppers, the next was pesto with a great salami on it, and last, but best, was the fig spread with brie cheese and thin apple slices on top. The last one could easily pass as a dessert.

Thank you Sweetheart!

What Hairstyle are You?

You Are Dreads

You are accepting, peaceful, and connected with nature. You've reached a state of bliss. Your idea of style is being completely natural and comfortable. You aren't trying to impress anyone. At your best, you are simple and content. You don't need much in this world to be happy. At your worst, you are a little irresponsible. You are on "island time"!

What Hairstyle Are You?

I want to write this on Jocelyn's wall somewhere...

She's A Butterfly

by Martina Mcbride

She remembers when she first got her wings

And how she opened up that day she learned to sing

Then the colors came, erased the black and white

And her whole world changed when she realized
She's a butterfly, pretty as the crimson sky

Nothing's ever gonna bring her down

And everywhere she goes

Everybody knows she's so glad to be alive

She's a butterfly
Like the purest light in a darkened world

So much hope inside such a lovely girl

You should see her fly, it's almost magical

It makes you wanna cry, she's so beautiful
God bless the butterfly, give her the strength to fly

Never let her wings touch the ground

God bless the butterfly, give her strength to fly

Never let her wings touch the ground

Someday

Someday…

I may be able to decorate my home with these:
And these:
But for now, for my children’s safety, and my sanity, I will refrain from most things tippable and breakable, irreplaceable, or flammable.

When someday will come, I don’t know. Something tells me it may never arrive. Not unless I get rid of the dogs and the husband, too. So, I will find other beautiful things that are less breakable and find new and inspirational ways to use them in my home.

Until then, I shall dream of apothecary jars filled with pretty decorative things, and burning candles on the coffee table.

Bad Mommy!

THE VICTIM!

I have learned a very valuable lesson, and hopefully, it will not cost anyone their life.

Let me explain…

We have a new puppy, our two older dogs, a baby tortoise, and some fish. We have a regular menagerie going.

We have been trying to acclimate the older dogs to the tortoise being the in the back yard together. Always being very careful to keep an eye out for Moto-Moto, our tortoise.

Well, I messed up. We had our little neighbor girl over and they wanted to play with Moto-Moto. That’s fine, I said, as long as we lookout for him. Well, it turns out none of us looked out for him at all, and since I was the adult on duty, it’s simply my fault, what happened.

Jon left with his brother to place an OTB for the Kentucky Derby. While they were gone our neighbor (little girl’s Dad) stayed and chatted with me. All was great until…

Joe suddenly realized Moto-Moto was missing. The search was on, we were all involved looking everywhere until our neighbor noticed that Logan (our adult white lab) was actively CHEWING on little Moto-Moto. Then Joe saw it. Our neighbor got him out of Logan’s mouth. I rinsed him off with the hose and immediately put him back in his turtle box.

Jon and Chris came home and Jon was angry with Logan. I have to say, as unhappy as I am that it all happened, I can’t really blame Logan. After all, Moto-Moto looks like a moving ball, and it was MY job to keep him safe.

We slathered antibacterial cream all over the punctures on Moto-Moto. One of his little tiles was loose, and he had a big gash with some blood on it. So far, he seems ok. I hope he makes it.

Joe was upset. He never cried, which surprised me, but he was very depressed over it all. He asked a lot of questions, most of which we couldn’t answer. That and he was MAD at Logan.

I feel so awful. It was MY responsibility to watch out for that poor little creature, and I let him and my kids down.

New rule: No Moto-Moto and Dog mixing right now!

THE CULPRIT!

Our New Puppy

His name is Osiris. It's a bit of a long story in how he came to join our little Hooge family. I'll post more about him as we go...

Bees!

Cute Here:

Not Here:

We played in our backyard all day on Saturday. We were up in our apricot tree picking the ripened fruit, playing with our new puppy, and working in the garden. There were absolutely no bees then. So imagine our surprise when we went outside today and there were bees...LOTS of bees. Now we are all stuck inside. No playing in the backyard for us. We called our pest control experts that we use (and just love) and they said to leave them alone for a couple of days. That it might just be a swarm resting before moving on. Before that call, of course, Jon tried a few things to get rid of them. I won't go into that now, but lets just say I am sorry that I wasn't taping it. I could have won a lot of money on America's Most Funny Videos. Yes, we could have easily played the "You know you're a redneck when you ___________ to get ride of a bee swarm in your backyard" game.

Apparently Gilbert is on some kind of bee swarming alert right now, so this isn't a big surprise as much as it is a bummer.