I have been writing down the books we read aloud this summer down as part of a summer reading program for my preschooler. Yesterday, we turned in the form and listened to a presentation about strangers from a police officer. It was a sad quick talk (of no significance) but the officer let the kiddos go look and sit in his police car. Now, that was the cool part for the kids. There was a moment where my preschooler turned around and had an expression of joy/confidence with barely a hint of a smile. It was an expression I've seen only a couple times. He didn't even say anything but I could see in his face and he kinda walked over and stood into me (while waiting for his turn to go see the police car.) By this time, he was patiently waiting for his turn to go outside and was incredibly patient. He got his turn and had a blast! I didn't realize that the back of the police cars were plastic seats (in our area) and that there was Plexiglas between the two seats. Afterwards, we went back in the library's children's section and sat in bean bag chairs (and read books.) At one point, we laid back and looked up. There were cool ceiling windows and a really high circular area. I put the baby on my chest and we both looked up. While he wasn't really sure what we were looking at as we leaned back and looked up, I pointed out all the things we could see above and told him what they were. I realized he was really paying attention and also pointing just like I had. For him to lay still for such a long time, I took advantage of it. I just loved smelling his neck/hair while I was talking to him. Our cheeks were next to each other and his skin was soft I enjoyed taking advantage of his curiosity to hold him as long as possible. It turned out to be more fun than I expected. An ordinary errand turned out to be a fun morning!!

Wow! Talk about FAST cleaning! A couple of friends were in the neighborhood (one was picking another up from a doctor's appointment) and asked to pop by to use the bathroom and/or hang out a bit. I said, sure! Then, it hit me...OMG! The place is a mess! I went into turbo overdrive...a speed I hadn't had in a long time I think. I managed to clean the kitchen (including dirty dishes from last night), vacuum the living room and halls and clean the bathroom in 30 minutes!! I swept but didn't actually do the real cleaning on the kitchen floor...there wasn't enough time for that. I'm feeling much better now. What's ironic is that they didn't come. They also said something in the original call that we could all go to lunch close by at 11 and it's getting close so I imagine that we'll all just meet there instead. I even sneaked a shower in too (no make-up though.) Of course, my kiddos are sharing dry lucky charms and I've noticed some on the carpet....sigh.

I went grocery shopping today. I really look forward to this task I do at least once a week. There are times that I only go do a great intensive shopping trip once or twice a month (and get milk and a few things weekly.) But I love looking around at different stores for new interesting things to eat (via sampling) or recognizing ingredients I had forgotten about in hopes of making a forgotten recipe. This afternoon, I took my teenager as well as the little boys. My preschooler was Wolverine today (complete in his mostly yellow costume and yellow and black mask.) He asked if he could wear it to the store and told him, sure. Naturally, my teen was having a fit thinking that she would be embarrassed or that he might cause people to look our way. I didn't care because he loves his costume and you can only get away with that at this age for a short time and then you're expected to conform (wear 'normal clothes' and play dress-up only at home.) I love his excitement when he pretends with his costume and voice and when he takes on the behaviors/phrases of his current superhero character. As it turned out, it was a positive experience and she even suggested he put on his mask to top off his whole wardrobe. That was wonderful to watch in and of itself. We did well during this trip not buying a lot of junk food. It was amazing how much fruit we bought as we normally don't buy a lot. I have eaten cherries this week. I haven't eaten cherries since I was a little girl. I don't know why I quit eating them either. I bought a bag a few days ago and have practically eaten the whole bag by myself. I bought another and will eat fruit when I get the urge to eat something sweet.

And a wonderful, scary, noisy thunderstorm rounded off the day giving us our much needed rain. It's still sprinking outside.

What a great day!

We were away for a week! Had a nice relaxing time at a relative's house! Of course, Optimus Prime (from the Transformers) had to go with us:







And I enjoyed another birthday!! I love celebrating them and especially, picking out my own birthday cake! Luckily, my sister-in-law Patti made me one....a Texas Sheet (sheath) cake! Mmmmmm!!

I have lived in this house for a year and a half. I moved from another house where I lived for over 20 years. I have yet to put any pictures on the walls, lol! I have many beautiful frames and pictures but enjoy the bare beautiful uncluttered walls that I haven't gotten around to arranging pictures. I don't really have any company to speak of either so I haven't been motivated to do anything about it either. I am going to pick up a picture tomorrow (a family one that was taken a couple of weeks ago) and will finally put it (and other pictures) up. I haven't had a 'family picture' made in over 15 years...and the one before that was when I was still a kid at home. I ought to take family pictures more often. It always seems that I'm the one taking pictures so I have albums and albums full of my family (those other than me) and have only taken professional pictures once in a blue moon. I am so excited about getting the picture tomorrow!!! Here's to change!

When my house gets dirty, I try to clean up a room at a time. I started in an inner closet today and then thought of an idea. What if I could move some furniture around to make the room better? So, I changed a bunch of stuff up! I now have a tiny room that includes a twin bed for a nap bed for my preschooler so that he can sleep there without toys (or in a room with a sleeping baby brother having to be extremely quiet) and a bookshelf with books if he wants to read before/after his nap. It took practically all day to move the stuff around (and move the bed from the other side of the house into there.) Unfortunately, all the other tasks were neglected, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. It can even be a small guest bedroom (ok, so it doesn't have a door but....it works.) I am going to try to tackle that huge mound of clean clothes tomorrow. I always feel so much better when things are in their place and it smells clean. That is my goal this week....summer cleaning! My fingers are crossed!

It's almost the end of crawfish season. We decided to have one last crawfish boil. It was a good time to sit and enjoy the afternoon too.

Crawfish up close.


Cooking them.


Transferring them into an old icechest to keep hot.


Enjoying conversation with family...


...and entertainment.

I had no idea so many alligators lived in my neck of the woods. A recent news story about an alligator being found swimming in a local swimming pool prompted us to check out a nearby 'gator place. It was awesome! There was a restaurant there that also served alligator (although they buy it and don't serve the alligators who live there.) I chose to get something else though (I've eaten alligator before...tastes like chicken!) We fed them hot dogs via weedeater line that is tied along the raised wooden areas above the manmade ponds for them. We had great time!

There were a few other 'friends' there too.



I had to 'beg' to get a picture of him he was interested in watching the alligators and turtles swim around.


Getting a pic with the owner!

I've enjoyed some quiet time away from my baby this last week as he gets so tired that he goes to be around 7 or 7:30pm instead of an hour later as usual. The only drawback is that he gets up an hour earlier. I am not a 5am person!!! I repeat, I don't like waking up at 5!!! Ugh! I am just not very productive that early in the morning! I guess, I should start doing something to ease the guilt though. Perhaps I can start filling in his baby book that I've been neglecting for months.

Where's the baby?


Peek-a-boo!


Wait...big brother wants to get involved too!!


It's just another day at home....

I bought a fake snake for my preschooler yesterday from Target, our favorite store. Since he already had one already, having them together made him very creative today. This morning, he wanted to go on a snake safari. He had gone out and placed his fake snakes in the yard and when I went out with him, it made it fun to go 'hunting' for them. He had a little device that he would pretend to shoot them and then pick them up to put in his little plastic bucket. Who would have thought....a snake safari! LOL!

I've spent most of the day cleaning...it seems the more I clean, the more it gets messed up! I think I'll just take a break until the kiddos go to sleep. I'm currently wanting for the pizza delivery person. :)

I love gardenias. It's my favorite flower! This morning, I picked bunches of gardenias from my gardenia bushes in the yard. My husband had propagated several bushes from one bush years ago and each year, they get bigger and have more flowers. The flowers are so fragrant that it makes the each room smell great! We often give a bouquet of them to our neighbors. As a child, my window was near a gardenia bush and whenever I opened my window, I could smell them. And when I was older, I used to bring them to work and the whole hall where my office was located had the gardenia scent. It's amazing how nature produces such a sweet lovely scent....


Here are a couple bunches I grabbed this morning (I took the pic late tonight.) They still look good. I just noticed the tomatoes behind them (from the tomato plants we planted weeks ago.)

Today was last day at PK3 school for my preschooler (3 year old class that was a few days a week for half a day.) I really liked his teacher (she was wonderful especially when we were dealing with a few issues in the beginning.) My kiddo made great friends and I made a few acquaintances and a friend from there.

I just went through his stuff that we took home including a video that his teacher made for all the kids. It was a compilation of a lot of pictures of the kids throughout the year, for special occasions and in the daily schedule (recess, computer, library, etc.)

The pictures were shown with songs (great ones) and seeing my own kid (as he changed throughout the year) along with his classmates, I cried like a baby.

How thoughtful of her to do that! I will cherish that for many years as he grows up...how quickly a year has gone. Sigh.....

I went to a Senior Recognition Award Ceremony last night. My daughter has spent the last couple years trying to make up credits in order to graduate. She hasn't graduated from school yet because she has to first pass two parts of the state achievement test, but she will have finished the credits in order to graduate this year. Hopefully, she can get actually finish in July, and/or October when she retakes the tests. It was a nice ceremony and she was very pretty! She has had a very difficult time in school and has overcome some obstacles in order to go this far. Her attention deficit and other issues with her learning made school really stressful for her. I am very proud of her.

It's summer again! Hot, humid, mosquitos and grass! Luckily, my kids LOVE to mow grass!


They have been playing outside a lot lately. My preschooler will often push the baby around...and they both really enjoy it!!!


At the end of the day, they sleep well.

Here, take it, I had a good day! That's what I said to the man at the store who walked my cart full of groceries out to the car and unloaded them for me. All I had was a $5 dollar bill so I offered it to him. He said, no, that's too much. He was an older gentleman, probably in his sixties, and he let me know of a sale of soft drinks at another store (with a good deal on them as he noticed I had bought some.) It was a good day...my mother-in-law was happy and I was feeling like my shoulders were being unburdened. I insisted he take it and I wanted him to feel as happy as I was right then.

My mother-in-law can't remember whether all of her kids are alive at times or where she is...I bet living alone in her house was incredibly lonely and scary for her. She is happier now at this assisted living home and has people around her who are really nice to her. This afternoon, she had the hugest smile on her face when I went to see her. She's had a good day too.

What a week! So tiring, emotionally and physically. My youngest son was sick (it's been a week and he's finally feeling a little better) with a sinus infection that left him very congested and unable to nurse. He just wanted to be held and sleep well. There were a couple of nights that I stayed awake most of the night because it was stressful to hear him trying to breathe through his nose, then cough, then wake himself up and repeat the cycle. Fortunately, that only lasted two nights.

And the stress of moving my mother-in-law into her new apartment, empathizing with her feelings (of not going back home as well as being frightened in a new place), and having inlaws come stay with me (so that they can also support their mom as she moves.)

It was a really long week. Yesterday morning, my husband mentioned wanting to see my youngest son smile. Usually a happy baby who is always smiling, he has had a blank face or one of pain/discomfort. This afternoon, though, he started smiling again and my husband quickly alerted me to his smile! He's feeling a lot better...and so are we.

If I were a millionaire, I'd have my hair washed and fixed by someone else every single day! I absolutely love that feeling as well as how it looks when someone else does it. It always seems to look better too!

My hair has grown so slowly in the past decade that it takes forever to grow enough to have to get cut. Earlier today, I remembered about fifteen years ago that it was so thick that I couldn't even put it in a pony tail because it was so heavy. Ugh! Now, it's so thin that pony tail holders seem to fall out! As I watched my mother-in-law get her hair set today with her very thin strands of gray dry hair, I thought to myself, she was probably envying my hair. I should enjoy what I have and be thankful!

I still like the dream though...and maybe one day,k I'll win the lottery!

With all the recent steps insuring my mother-in-law gets the best of care with what she can afford, I keep hearing over and over to invest in Long Term Care Insurance now, while I'm young. And you know what, I had no idea how much it cost to live somewhere like at an assisted-living facility. For instance, my mother-in-law does not have any Long Term Care Insurance therefore has to pay out of pocket if we want her to be in a place other than a nursing home (which would be paid by medicare because she doesn't have much money.) It costs around $4,000 dollars to share a room with someone else at an assisted living place here where we live.

I finally found one which has a studio apartment where she doesn't have to share (a big room where she can put a bed and a couple of chairs which is huge compared to the half rooms I have seen at other places.) Since she is a widow of a soldier who served during war time, she may be eligible for a little money from the VA but it's going to take up to 6 months for it to kick in. So, of what little money she does have, it'll go toward that assisted living until it's used up, then she'll go to a nursing home (hopefully in a couple of years or longer.) We may rent out her house to subsidize her when her money runs out but as it appears now, we'll be taking care of her taxes and house insurance out of our pocket. She'll still going to have a deficit of about $2,000 each month. How sad... I can't see putting her somewhere like in a nursing home where she shares half a room...there is no room for anything except a bed for each resident (and a tv stand maybe.)

She had 8 kids...5 are still alive and has grandkids and great grandkids. But for her illness, it is quite burdensome to whoever cares for her. I love her but can't do it. You have to really love someone to care for them in this situation. While I do, I don't have the time with two small kids and the work schedule of my husband. But, I'm doing the very next best thing. And, I'm going to be looking into this insurance...I don't want my kids or grandkids to be in my shoes right now.

Decisionmaking is so difficult when you have such big decisions to make. I have to decide what to do about caring for my elderly mother-in-law now. She isn't able to care for herself. She doesn't have enough income to afford an assisted living facility. She has been in the hospital several days and they've determined she can't live on her own and probably has early Alzheimer's. So, what to do.... I'm debating on the outcome...find someone to live with her at home, move in with her, have her move in with us (no, scratch that idea), rent her home out to have enough income to afford an assisted living facility (we'd still need to pay for some of it.) I have such big pits in my stomach with the thought of someone not being patient or mean to her (because, really, she's a pain...she can be a really mean person and is so set in her ways and grumpy.) I want to do the best for her and am spending a lot of time getting all my information in order to make the best one. For now, they're trying to find a nursing home for her (for low level physical therapy) so that we have time to make that final decision. Sigh....actually, it's almost a panic attack I feel at times because I'm so torn up on all of this. I've tried cleaning her home up a bit and have someone doing intensive cleaning tomorrow. I want her to be comfortable, but safe and when she's not taking her medication properly, losing her mail, forgetting important people and relationships from time to time, there's a problem. That I know...and I have to continue thinking that I'm doing the best for her.