Here's Grant's new shoes. We went to the running store to help find a good fit for his long, wide, flat feet. I think we found them in these Newton Kismets. He is usually resistant to bright colors but in the interest of comfort, I think he decided to just embrace the red.
Today Grant is 15! After he was done with his morning drivers ed class, we went out shoe shopping (wait 'til you see em!) and then had lunch together, just he and I. We found the bbq place is closed on Mondays so we went to Wang Gang instead. Grant was very open-minded about trying something new, including eating with only chopsticks. We had some great conversation and at the end, I told him all about him being born (9+ pounds and breech) and how he was without a name for some time until we could reassess how we felt about Alexander vs Grant. Guess you know how that turned out. : )
Occasionally he makes me feel like banging my head, but days like today I see he's pretty much a perfect kid. Can't imagine life without our Grant!
This weekend was also Rebicycling Day for us. The police department clears out their accumulated found bikes and the scouts assess, repair, and refurbish them to donate to the food pantry. This is the 21 bikes they were able to get through in one morning, but the rest will be worked on a different day.
I did my part by setting off the alarm in the Public Works building where they were working on the bikes (innocently enough, I was just in search of a bathroom after several hours of being sure to keep well-hydrated).
We went to a friend's 50th birthday party on Saturday. 'Tis the season for those, it seems. It was held at a beautiful wooded setting and the kids got to fish. Caroline caught two in a short time and Sam has yet to catch his first fish ever, meaning, in his whole life. Not kidding. I don't know why he hasn't, but luck is not on his fishing side, I guess. Maybe we just need to go more often?
You might notice, Caroline catches them but doesn't touch them.
We decided to gamble on some 4/$1 Ninja energy drink we picked up at Knapp's. Glad a quarter each is all we had into it.
So the original rug from the dining room ended up in the kitchen and I think that looks ok. No pictures of it, but the rug originally from the kitchen went down to the basement at the back door.
So, on Saturday I came home from yard saling with this rug. I bought it thinking it would work great in the kitchen. But then once I got it down, I wasn't convinced.
I have all kinds of little images like these stored in my pictures since I'm always thinking about how to develop a better deck set up, considering our super slopey yard here.
I recently downloaded an app that notifies you when it's raining. I don't know why I thought I needed it, but it could be a hold over from when I was a kid and you needed to know the minute the rain started so you could run out and roll up the car windows or get the clothes in off the line.
It's kinda reminding me of my earthquake app I installed years ago on my first smartphone. (I have always had a thing about earthquakes, thinking we are gonna have the big New Madrid rumbler any day now, any year now.) Well, the dang earthquake alarm was beeping all.the.time. because there's earthquakes occurring somewhere on this Earth all the time. Gary and the kids definitely still make fun of me for that one.
And now the real-time rain alert seems a bit silly when it has been raining off and on, many times a day now for weeks.
Thanks for the heads up that yesterday posted without the picture. The picture is the part I love, so we ·will· see the picture.
On our trip, I asked Caroline to put her hand up for scale by these gorgeous blooms. I had no idea what a model shot I'd gotten until looking for a picture today to wish her Happy Birthday, her twelfth. She's sweet, smart and beautiful and I'm so glad I've got my girl. There's no one else like her.
On our trip, I asked Caroline to put her hand up for scale by these gorgeous blooms. I had no idea what a model shot I'd gotten until looking for a picture today to wish her Happy Birthday, her twelfth. She's sweet, smart and beautiful and I'm so glad I've got my girl. There's no one else like her.
Books I've read lately. It started with Gone Girl, also by Gillian Flynn, but that was a library book, since returned.
Jack got his first paycheck the other day and decided to enlarge his deposit by cashing in some of the coins he's accumulated since 1998. He had $117 in change that we had to count and roll in the bank lobby since they, can you even believe it?!, had no coin sorting machine. That took awhile and can you tell he worked up a sweat handling all that money?
Continuing with the facial hair series.... I guess he just needed it to run its course and it did.
One thing I forgot to note about our trip...I don't know, maybe it's better if I don't go into it. But, well, since Debra noticed on Day#192.3 and asked in the comments: What the heck is on my brother's top lip?, I'll go ahead and share.
Here's the first half progression. Hold on for the ride, kinda scary at times.
We could name these Mr. Arkansas, Mr. Texas Kolaches Day, and Mr. Austin x2.
Ross had watered my inside and outside plants while we were gone and they were just flourishing. And then some varmint apparently thought the plants by the garage looked beautifully delicious a couple nights ago and got into them and decided to devour most.
Last year a coon uprooted some out of the pots, but I'm suspecting a deer this year because the things were eaten so cleanly and completely. I don't know exactly what animal it was but I know it's not my favorite for sure. At least the spikes, sweet potato vines, and a few violas were left. But they were just so full of so many colors with petunias and big beautiful gerbera daisies. Just makes me mad. : /
Gosh, it took me so long to get through the vacation days that now I'm a week behind in posting to be up-to-date. Oh well, it's summertime right? Everything's more relaxed in summer.
Grant's in summer school taking his drivers' ed class. This was taken on his first day of school which was a week ago today. He'll get his permit and be done with his class in mid-July. Woohoo!
Vacation final day
We left Hope pretty early and drove on diagonally across Arkansas. Most of our trip, we chose two lane drives. With the speed limits of 75, we made probably as good time as being on the interstate but saw so much more. In Arkansas, we noticed there wasn't much to Little Rock besides the river, it has some really poor drivers, and has acre after acre of fields of cotton and rice.
On the whole trip, we saw a few corn fields and no soy beans. It was different agriculture than what we are used to, but just like at home, we were easily entertained by watching crop dusters.
We held off lunch until making it to Sikeston Missouri at about 3 pm. The plan was to let the kids experience Lambert's Cafe, home of the throwed rolls, but it has obviously turned into a 'destination' for many people and required an hour wait. We were disappointed, well, probably not Gary, but we drove on to Cape Girardeau and ate at a nearly empty Ryan's there. We drove through the hilly SEMO campus for Jack's sake. It seemed like a cool town.
We traveled up Interstate 55 quickly with a stop in Arnold Missouri for gasoline and then we were home. 2320 miles, five states, no disasters, and lots of new family memories--definitely worth it!
We would definitely visit Texas again.
Vacation day 9
We packed up the van, complete with two nice souvenir rocks, said bye to noisy Petey, and left Wimberley late in the morning.
Not far down the road, we stopped at an outlet boot place in San Marcos where we found you can buy a plain black Stetson for $999, a pair of Luchesse boots for $949, and a leather belt for $350. Where were our good deals for western wear in Texas? We sure didn't find them.
We got some Chic-fil-a to go for lunch. For dessert, it happened to work out
well that we needed to eat the rest of the ice cream in the cooler that we had brought from the house, so we all took a turn with the vanilla or rocky road to get it finished off.
I had hoped for a picture of a longhorn during the whole trip so when passing through Midway, Tx, Gary spotted the opportunity and did a quick u-ie, pulling into the parking lot between the church and post office. There were two longhorns and a regular cow standing in a pasture. He and I left the kids in the van and approached each with phone camera in hand. Gary walked more directly and closer to the huge animal than I ever would have. And dang it, he wouldn't listen to me when I said "Gary, that's close enough. That picture's fine. Do not walk closer. GARY!"
We had earlier noticed very tall, very well-fortified fences in other places holding longhorns because they are long legged animals and can hop a fence, but the fence here was just a typical few-strand type. I just knew that bull was gonna come through. Finally when the bull stomped and pawed the ground, Gary decided he had a good enough picture and retreated with me back to the van.
We focused then on getting across the rest of Texas, investigating briefly a cemetery in Nacgodoches, passing through an almost non-existent town called Gill, and nearly running out of gas before we pulled into Crockett where we discovered a cool bird, the scissor-tailed fly catcher.
We stopped at Porky's BBQ in Marshall Tx for supper. Grant had a sandwich and ended up ordering an additional order of ribs since the sandwich was really from his confusion with the menu. Jack and Gary had pulled pork and sausage, I had a hamburger, and Caroline had chicken strips. Sam had his two favorites: corndog and grilled cheese.
Our goal was to get to Texarkana which we did, but then decided to drive on a bit longer since it wasn't that late. We spent the night in Hope, Arkansas.
Vacation day 8
We drove the kids through the river front of Wimberley to let them see what an unbelievable force Mother Nature can be. A peaceful river that's usually at 12 feet grew to over 40 feet. You can not believe water can undo giant 100 year old cypress trees, but it can. And not just tipping them at the roots, but literally breaking them in two at the trunk.
Jack spotted a Suburban that looked like it'd been in the worst kind of demolition derby, somehow placed to be resting many feet above us in the trees on the steep hillside of someone's yard.
I saw a simple wooden chair dangling from a branch, so high up I couldn't even imagine in my head how the water could've been so high.
We saw houses half standing, broke in two and remnants of foundations where entire houses were washed away and crashed into bridges. The safety railings of the main bridge were so twisted and deformed, practically demolished, and still full of green leafy tree debris.
It was just unreal and certainly tragic that this weather event had happened, but amazing to witness the aftermath ourselves. So somber though to consider the lives and treasures that were lost.
The water levels of the Blanco River had returned to normal by the time we were there, but the Cypress Creek going through town was still a little high. It was still such a beautiful place though. That's where these pictures were taken. I need to get the river pictures off the good camera still. I don't even know what I captured, Gary was driving and I was just pointing out the window clicking. I will definitely share once I download them.
Vacation day 7
Another day in the country where we enjoyed the peace and quiet. The two story house had two long decks overlooking the hills and canyon. It was a fabulous place to look out at the night sky too. The weather was just perfect. Even though it was 90 degrees, I wasn't sweaty. There was no humidity and always a breeze. That's my kind of climate! The deck around the pool and the lounge chairs on it sure did take in the sun though. They got hot!
Vacation day 6
We were staying in a log cabin house a mile outside of the now famous Wimberley, Tx. Famous for devastating flooding and loss of homes and lives on Memorial Day 2015.
When we drove into town for groceries, I tell you, the people were so friendly! More than once in our stay when the topic came up we were here on vacation, I heard 'thank you for still coming here and supporting us.' I didn't really realize that was a big thing until more than one person said it. And so we did support the local Brookshire Brothers' grocery store, a few of the artsy shoppes, and the Italian restaurant. More than a week after the flood, we saw news crews in town as we walked around shopping, admittedly, mostly looking. And wow, the shopping! Such neat places. I decided if I was ever to become rock star-ish famous and rich, I know exactly where I'd get my wardrobe. I bought four thin bracelets as my trip souvenir. And a $2 votive candle that I wish I had 20 more of. It's Orleans brand, thinking maybe I can find those around home possibly.
Caroline and I bought some popcorn at Papa Hoos Popcorn which is noted as the Trip Advisor #1 Place to Eat in Wimberley (of 29!). And, funny, it's just a little popcorn shoppe. Very yum, though. We got two bags to take home but they didn't last long. Zebra (white and dark chocolate and caramel I think?) and Dallas (butter, cheddar, and caramel mix) were the flavors.
At the house, the peacock quickly went from cool to pain in the butt. Here it was outside Caroline's window. It was a noisy animal for sure, day and night. But I will say, so beautiful too. In the morning he would strut around with his feathers fully up but when I'd come around with the camera, down they went, every bloomin time.
The pool felt great and Jack enjoyed his downtime too.
Vacation day 5--concluded, finally!
We drove on and reached the Canyon View house we'd rented near Wimberley. Gary loved the house and location. Petey the resident peacock greeted us. Jack got first choice of bedrooms. Grant occupied the office with a couch. Sam and Caroline shared a room and so did Gary and I.
