Off she goes...

to Kindergarten. How this day came so quickly, is beyond me. She's doing great. I'm very proud of her.

I'm back

...well, sort of. I'm still feeling swamped by a million things, but I'm aching to get back to some normalicy. Whatever that is. A lot has happened in the past month. Sadly, the greatest event was the passing of our 10 year old Golden Retriever, Riley. I miss him terribly.

He was a really good dog. He was also the hairiest beast on the planet, and although I don't miss having to vacuum every other day, I do find myself stopping and looking around for him more than once every hour or so. He was always with me, always patient, always gentle, and he leaves a great, big giant hole in my heart. Nina wants to know when we're getting another dog, and I can't even begin to think about that now. Maybe someday. But not now.

Taking a breather.....

That whole "life is crazy sometimes" mantra that I have is hitting home lately - hard. I don't even have time to sleep this week, so the ole' blog is going to be shelved for a while. Here's a short, and totally random list of events:

• Blake unexpectedly switched jobs last week. He's now working in New Jersey and commuting 2 hours each way. We're hoping not to move, but we'll see. We already don't like the commute. Sigh.


• My grandfather went in for another heart surgery yesterday. He's "okay".


• School starts in 3 weeks, so although summer is winding down, we're cramming all the activities we can into a short amount of time.


• I have 3 shows in the next 7 weeks. No time to work during the day, so I'm pulling late, late nights.

I'll check back in with you all at the end of the month. Take care!

Rebecca

Detention Flowers

Gladiolas. They always remind me of high school - Mount Saint Joseph Academy. My high school was attached to a convent. And in that convent lived very, very old nuns. Whenever anyone got detention, it always involved the nuns. In the winter, you'd have to read to them, and it was usually a really racy love novel. In the fall, they would sit in their lawn chairs outside and instruct you on pruning the gladiolas. They had hundreds. All colors. They were beautiful.

The gladiolas bloom earlier here than they do at home - almost a full month. I love them. And the nuns probably thought that we were the biggest bunch of hoodlums because detention was always full. I don't think that they knew about the waiting list in the office. We always volunteered.

A rare moment....

of peace and quiet in an usually hectic time of day. The hours of 4-6 pm have always been a little stressful for me because everything happens at once. Dinner needs to be made, the baby is fussy, Nina's had it (and we're all paying for it), the dog wants to go out-in-out-in, cats wants to eat....and well, I start eyeing the wine a little closer with each passing minute.

Today, poor Nina has a migraine. Of course, she didn't tell me that her head hurt until we got to the grocery store and she walked around saying, "Oh - I'm gonna throw up", a little too loud. Boy did people move! We got out of there in record time. She fell asleep in the car, and she's still snoozing in her bed. I feel bad for her. I don't get migraines very often anymore, and I hope that she outgrows them.

So, Asher and I have been quiet downstairs, while she sleeps. He's finally able to use his toddler crayons. I gave up on the paper and just let him color his highchair tray. Gotta wash it up anyway. He's cute with them - and yes, he's eating them. A childhood right, I guess.



I'm not too sure why she got a migraine. Most of the "triggers" are food related, and she didn't eat any of them today. It might be because her ponytails were in too tight. Her hair had been braided the last two days, and we took it out this morning. She had the biggest white-girl afro, so we had to put it back up. Maybe that was it. Who knows?

So much for the candid shot

I was trying to get a picture of the funny cat sleeping in front of the door, and Asher came over and plunked himself down. Show stealer.

Meanwhile, in the other room, Nina was engrossed in some vintage Disney movie - probably Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - which drives everyone but her crazy.

If you get the same fortune twice

does that mean it's true????

....because I did. Several years apart, but the same, none-the-less. Oh, so true (LOL!!!!!).