Hide Your Puppies!!!

Well, back to wanting to kick puppies ... again. I am not proud of it, but there it is. Checked off three items on my To Do list and rewarded myself by getting a Sonic Diet Coke with cherry and lime. Of course I drove - would have actually accomplished one more thing on my To Do list had I walked in this beautiful weather. While I was out, might as well be lazier and pick up the mail I failed to pick up Saturday ... since I was so busy doing nothing.

There is nothing that can pull you out of a funk like wanting to kick some ass. Got a letter from Jessie's High School saying that she had incurred 4 unexcused absences and I was in violation of the "Compulsory Attendance law, Section 25.085, Texas Education Code" which is punishable up to $200.00 each day absent. Just so you know - never been sent this letter - even when Ryan runs away from home and skips school - I am smart enough to send some lame ass excuse to the school ... man, how stupid are people that there has to be a letter and law like this?

Well, ain't that nice. Tells me to 'immediately' call the attendance office to speak with them - criminal that I am now. So I have been calling for 2 hours just to get voice mail. Of course they are not the one's that I am going to boot in the butt. Tried to call Angie - the social worker at Richmond State School to find out what was going on without the dates Jessie was absent, but ... of course, voice mail. I did not trust myself to leave a calm, reasonable message, so now I am just looking for puppies to kick. Charlie is no where to be found.

Frustrating when I have no control over this situation, and Jessie loves school, so I really want an explanation. Hope it does not make me want to drown kitties.....

Apparently being depressed and mad as hell at the same time brings out the 'potty mouth' in me ... sorry.

Depression

I have ups and downs when it comes to depression. I am sure reading my blog this is apparent to a reader more than it is to me. One day I am fine, the next thing you know, I am walking through a parking lot to a Chinese restaurant with my husband, and suddenly ominous black clouds come rolling in. And in that minute, I know a storms a comin’.

Years ago I swore off anti-depressant pills – they make me someone that I am not. I realized this one horrifying day back when I was throwing up from Lyme Disease medication and had to go off all my meds. A few days later Gary said “You’re back”. I will never forget the realization that, yes, I was me again, where had I been and how long had I been gone?

The trick, I have decided, is getting rid of the clouds and finding the sun again.

I have yet to figure out how….

Friendship

Gave a talk in our new ward a couple of years ago when we first moved in. A talk I didn’t want to give – too personal, too much information people in the ward didn’t need to know – but felt I needed to give it anyway. After church a woman with flaming red hair stopped me in the hall and said “I am going to make you my new best friend”. I was a little stunned and since I blurt out everything that comes to mind without censoring it – I said “Good luck with that, I have not had a friend since high school”. She looked at me with a bit of skepticism. I said “I don’t think I even know how to be a friend anymore”. And that was the day I met Bonne. We started going out to lunch every week after that and discovered that we both liked to speak our mind and had much in common.

Soon, we strong armed Linda into going to lunch with us and we were a merry band of three.

I truly somewhere along the way had forgotten what it was like to have friends. I was used to being home with a handicapped daughter and in the beginning – spending much of that time in hospitals, doctor’s offices and at physical, speech and occupational therapies. There was truly no time for friends and then, I just lost the ability to make them.

Had it not been for a strong willed beautiful red head forcing me out of my house, I would still not know what it was like to have the support of others. We went on a cruise in February, with Linda praying things would go well for us. So – of course things were perfect. We leave on Sunday for another cruise and I am looking forward to it. Bonne is now in another ward and we don’t make it to lunch every week, but she still makes her ‘fly-by’ calls when she is in the car and we keep up with one another. Linda reads my blog almost daily (such a brave thing) just to get a feel for how I am doing before she calls to say hello and is there anything she can do for me.

Linda and Bonne – I have laughed and cried with each so much. They have taught me what a true friend is, and although I am not there yet, I am working on it.

How did I ever live without them?

My Son

Who loves me even though he knows I'm nuts ....

(Photo by Gary Hurst - all others by Lori Hurst)

Portent of Things to Come ....

Was out with Gary last evening to buy a fire pit for the scouts then to eat at a Chinese restaurant. As we were walking through the parking lot, a cool breeze past by, lifting my hair and smelling of trees and grass. It took me back three years to October in Oslo, Norway – a month filled with the promise of things to come.

And suddenly I was back in Texas, and disappointed….

I went to Norway with my family at a time that I was not really stable. I had been diagnosed with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) years before and was still dealing with the panic attacks and depression much more than I should have been. I was not losing chunks of time – which was what initially gave me a clue that my brain was not functioning normally in the first place. In Norway, I was unable to work even if I had wanted to since I did not possess a work visa. I loved Monday mornings when Gary headed to work, Ryan & Jessie were off to school and all of a sudden, the 100 year old house and the 2 ½ acres it sat upon were mine – all mine. It oozed peace and I soaked it up every day – until that last day, as the sun was setting, we said goodbye to an empty house and headed back to our hotel, for our flight to the US in the morning.

I came back in much better shape than I had been before. I can go to the cemetery and sit by Rachael's marker and not feel loss, she isn’t there, and I am OK. I can see a funnel cloud and I am not back in the middle of the tornado that hit our house. It makes me nervous, but that is all. I know that my panic attacks will go away and even in the depths of one, my calm, peaceful Norwegian voice I found, will whisper that all will be well, just ride it out, nothing to be afraid of – it always goes away – and I can almost function during one …. almost.

Yeah, the wind, and October: The thing that always followed was winter and that meant snow. Lots of snow:

And I loved it. If I was cold, I could put on down coats, and booties and sit closer to the fire, so cold was never the issue. It was all about the snow – so quiet, so peaceful, blanketing everything in Celestial white. And I would build a fire in “Lori’s Room” and read a book, and quietly, peacefully, cradled in 100 year old wood and a cocoon of snow … slowly heal. I loved the snow. It reminded me of growing up in Logan, Utah – and also made it no big deal to live in it.

In Norway in the winter, the sun would rise late and set early and stay very low on the horizon – and for a photographer – you know what that means. Entire days full of perfect light to take photographs. The only good time to take a photograph (you can ask anyone – don’t trust me, I don’t know what I am doing) is at dusk and dawn. And here I lived, right in the middle of magic light for 6 to 8 hours a day – and everything I looked at looked like a beautiful photograph.



But now I am in Houston, and will look forward to bundling up, and bringing out our winter dyne’s (duvet’s – Gary and I have individual ones, as they do in Norway – stops that hogging), but it is not the same. The cold is colder here- I guess the humidity – we blame it for everything else. I miss the silence of a snow fall, sitting in front of a fire, the feeling of being cradled in down, and light and snow and being able to sleep – really fall asleep.

I will miss the snow.

Pedro & Julio Siting!!!

I feel my parrots names need a wee bit of explanation. Pedro & Julio: clearly two male names. Is one a butch female ... no - my brain in the blink of a second evaluated that whenever I make assumptions I am clearly wrong, and wanting to see baby birdies made them a gay male parrot couple before I even knew what was going on. I looked up, saw two green parrots one day and out loud said "hello, Pedro and Julio". I thought it was weird also until I evaluated it and decided that it probably was the best chance I had of seeing little parrotlets. And who am I to judge - I just go with the flow of my brain which clearly:

A ) Has way to much alone, at home, time on its' hands
B ) Has disconnected from any portion of sane, logical sense that is still left up there

OK, that being said. I have not seen Pedro and Julio since before Ike. Where do parrots go during a hurricane with 70 mph winds? I don't know - I didn't see tons of dead birds on the road after so apparently they were watching the news also. I hear birds chirping in my chimney all the time - for all I know it is an Avian Evacuation Shelter - but if not, where do they go? I had assumed they just got out of town and stayed in parts unknown.

Yesterday, two familiar green birds landed on a tree outside and just sat there. To actually capture a photo of these very skittish fellows, I have to move as slow as a statue. For any of you who have seen the show Sneakers where Robert Redford has to move slowly through a room so he won't set off the alarms - Dan Ackroyds words go through my head every time: "Go real slow!!". I generally scare them off or don't get a good photo through the window. I need at least one siting during the day to raise the blinds.

They flew off and I raised the blinds. Then out of the blue - THREE green parrots alighted on my birdhouse - with one on the roof since there was no room. I froze and just watched and basically evaluated size. Nope - they were all the same size - no baby - just a tag along? In seconds the new one - looks 'fluffy' compared to Julio and Pedro - got nasty and had scared the two away. So either this is their 'child from hell' that eats way too much or a nasty friend. I named her Juanita for lack of anything else coming to my brain (and no, not because she was nasty - in all probability she is a male based on the actions of the other two, but I have way to many male names floating around already). Might just have to shuffle the names here now. I got one very poor shot off of the strange bird eating alone:

And in honor of Pedro and Julio's non-demise during Ike, I found two photos - one titled Julio and one titled Pedro (you realize I can't tell the two apart, right? - I'm insane but not REALLY insane) and thought I would post them:

Pedro

Julio

Karma

Apparently blogging about your Yearly Well Woman Exam can turn the Health gods against you. Have received exactly two calls from my doctor - which I should explain is a general practitioner who does Well Woman Checks so I got a complete physical also. The first was about my cholesterol. To prepare apparently I ate a stick of butter the night before since the results were through the roof. Pretty much they told me I was one of the walking dead. Put me on medication and said to come back in 3 months. Got a call yesterday and they left me a message to call immediately. That never sounds good ....

Well they had left for the day - so in my frustration, I decided to drown Bob and forget about it until exactly 8:01 this morning when I called back. They had my pap back and there were some cells they didn't like - squamous cells to be exact. Oh, and come back and we can do this all over again in 6 months! They said 'it was nothing, but could be pre-cancerous' (what part of that sentence seems weird to you?). Google 'squamous' and you get 'squamous cell carcinoma' EVERYWHERE. My good friend Wikipedia didn't have much good to say about it and had lovely photos to go with it. I'm not worried - I'm scheduled for a heart attack before I ever die of cancer - cool - quicker.

In that vein, I found Ryan and Gary the other night shopping for treadmills. They went out to Academy, were all fired up about it. It showed up on Saturday - the day after they gave me the news that I was going to die of a heart attack (actually they said it was probably hereditary since it just can't be that high - so thanks mom and dad - and medication should take care of it). So I'm thinkin' the treadmill delivery was a sign.

We put it together on Sunday - I had paid the delivery people to take it upstairs - being it weighed 260 pounds - I didn't want Gary and Ryan doing it. After putting it together, we promptly declared Sunday a day of rest and ignored it.

As you can see - we have decided what the upstairs family room is going to be when it grows up. We have not moved the furniture around / out yet, but the treadmill is in the perfect spot to watch TV, so I like it - I can also look to my right and see the family room downstairs - and watch the boys sitting, watching TV and eating Cheetos (kidding - I do it while they are gone). Speaking of the boys - each have been on it only once. I on the other hand have used it daily - put a gold star on my forehead. It does not hurt that I got the new year (last year) of CSI from Mr. Amazon (I don't watch TV - hate the commercials but do watch my favorite series on DVD) and told myself that I could only watch it while walking at 3 miles per hour .... up hill. Seems to be working.

So now I have two appointments to make - one for 3 months away where they will just take my blood probably/hopefully while I am fully clothed, and another 6 months away where I am sure I will be taking more photos of my feet. THIS is what you get for going to the doctor!

I wonder what this blog will get me ......

Wednesday's Theme apparently is: 'Water'

Torturing Bob

Got a new camera today - an Olympus Stylus 770 SW. It has 7.1 mega pixels, waterproof to 33 feet and shockproof up to 5 feet. I leave on a cruise with Bonne in a week and a half then we will be in Maui in November - I thought it would be fun to actually photograph what I was seeing while snorkeling. This camera got good reviews on photo quality - so my good friend Mr. Amazon sent me one.

I decided that since it was raining and Bob was already wet, he wouldn't mind being dunked head first into my tub so I could photograph something. I had asked Ryan to do the exact same thing and he said no. Bob was reluctant at first. Today was the first time I went in the back yard and couldn't find him. Put 'mind reader' on the list of things Bob can do. I finally found him hiding behind the shed. He seems happy enough, don't you think?

Hopefully, when I am in the water, I will be able to work out the half in / half out photo - I think they are cool. I can't seem to get rid of the blurry strip:

It takes pretty good photos out of the water also. This is my test shot. Basically because I can take the photo while sitting at my desk. The camera has a wider angle lens than my SLR - it cannot fit all this in to one photo:

All in all, I have had a pretty good 'wet' day. Bob is still in my tub, I told him he could swim for a while before putting him back outside. It looks like he may not know how:

Rain, Rain, Go Away .....

Drips & Drops

Went to wash my hands this morning and there was no water - just a few drops:

I realized that meant no laundry, no shower, no cleaning, no running the dishwasher, no drinks from the fridge dispenser, no watering the lawn, no watering my indoor plants. That is a lot of No's. I did not realize how dependant I am on being able to turn the tap and have clean, wet refreshing water rush out of the faucet.

It came on a while later.

I want to give my water company a big hug ....

Yearly Well Woman Exam

I am sure that title conjures up fond memories for anyone reading this with double 'x' chromosomes. Being health conscious myself and not actually having had a Well Woman Exam since before I moved to Norway, I called last week and made an appointment. Unfortunately, they had an opening the next day. So no week of mental preparation, no calling to cancel (like the one I made 6 months ago), no fleeing the country, etc - just had to show up.

Got in the office, take my blood pressure - 120 over 64, looking good (notice we skipped the scale entirely), temperature fine. And no - I am NOT going detail every minute of my appointment - I just felt a RANT coming on....

The nurse pulls two small pieces of tissue paper out of a drawer and says: "Take off everything, put the top on with the opening in the front and drape the sheet over your legs". Yeah. It looks like the stuff I just put in a gift bag ... this is just white instead of purple (which I guess is a blessing right there isn't it?)

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So I'm sitting there, smart enough to have brought my cell phone with me to the table, and I am trapped. When the nurse left, she failed to pull out the 'kiddie step' and I am short, and stupidly climbed up without pulling it out myself. If I tried to get off the table, it would be a bit of a drop and I could see me splayed on the floor, a twisted ankle with tissue paper strewn about.... (the naked part goes without saying, right?)

My cell phone doubles as a PDA so has a multitude of things to play with. I am trying to distract myself by checking my mail, my calendar, but sitting there in a tissue vest made for a 6 year old and trying to keep it shut in front is just too much multitasking for me to handle. I reached over to fix the tissue sheet (we will get to that later) and tore the bottom glue spot out from under the right arm of my 'vest' - so now I just have a 12" long cape on - just flapping in the breeze...

The sheet - is supposed to cover everything else. Maybe if I was, again 6 years old. Take a piece of tissue you place in a gift bag double the length and there you have it - what is supposed to cover the entire bottom portion of my body. So, my thinking is, so as not to flash those opening the door and everyone in the hall - I will start on the right side - yeah - the upper flapping cape side, and tuck it behind me and use what ever I have left to cover the other side. I am tucking and feeling pretty good about myself when the thing ripped almost in half. By now I am deciding that they have seen women with no clothes on before, they probably rarely see them making confetti out of the only covering they were given and so I stopped while I was ... ahead? No ... most definitely behind - and I do mean behind.

They keep the rooms at about 65 degrees, I think just because they are masochistic and leave you in there, waiting for the REAL fun to begin for about 45 minutes - probably just to break your spirit. I think there is some sort of book on the subject because before this lapse in yearly appointments, I was a good girl, going yearly and no matter where I went - It always went the same - except some places had cloth coverings. As my lips were turning blue, I was dreaming about the cloth coverings with a flash or two (no pun intended) of 'do I have any duct tape in my purse?'. Next time, I am bringing my bathrobe and sitting in the chair until she walks in for the appointment. Seriously.

I played solitaire, but it was hard to move the itty bitty cards on my screen while shivering, so I gave up and did what I do - took photos:

Here are my feet turning blue and going numb since they are just hanging out there with the circulation getting cut off.

I discovered quickly that camera phones are a tad lower in quality than my 10.1 mega pixel Digital SLR camera - but you can tell they are feet, right?

For people who do such a great service in bringing new life into this world, you would think that they could come up with a better, less humiliating way to give a yearly checkup.

Or is it just me?

Jessie's Sunday Visit

Ryan and I went to pick Jessie up for her weekly Sunday visit. I saw two women on the way in and they asked who I was. When I told them "Jessie's mom" they each said "Jessie is my friend" which felt wonderful. When we got inside to get her, she was with 'grandma' an adorable older woman. The first time I laid eyes on her was when Gary and I were touring the facility and she was in a game room. As we walked in, she raised her arms out in front of her as if imploring us to do something and belted out a pretty good rendition of the song: "The Old Rugged Cross" - it was great. She is quite high functioning and has told Gary before that she takes care of Jessie and looks out for her. She is about 4'9" tall, is always smiling (until today), has a beautiful twinkle in her eyes and a face that reminds me of my jolly Norwegian Mrs Santa Clause.

I told her Jessie was coming home for a while and she started to cry. She said she would miss Jessie so much, she did not want her to go. I was feeling bad and assured her that it would only be for a few hours and she started sobbing. I gave her a hug and said she would be back in no time and left her being consoled by three aides. I guess Jessie has some friends!

The first thing Jessie wanted to do when she got here was call her real grandma - so we left a message when we could not reach her. By the way - if you want to talk to Jessie and feel uncomfortable calling RSS, we generally have her from about 2:30 - 5:30 (central time) every Sunday so feel free to give us a call and you can talk to her - if you are local - you are welcome to stop by.

Gary had fixed dinner and had it ready by the time we had made the round trip - it was Stake Conference today, so no stopping by and picking her up after church. To our amazement, Jessie did not want to eat! She said she was not hungry. This is definitely a new situation for us. Maybe they are giving her something - I want some! So we ate while she watched TV ... quietly - also a new situation for us.

She then said she wanted to feed the ducks - where she got the idea we are not sure - maybe they do it at RSS - so we headed out: Jessie with a bag of bread and me with my camera.

Jessie was too nervous to walk down the grassy slope to the lake, so she watched while Gary fed the ducks:

This next photo I call "Afro Duck". I have no idea what is going on with its head! It is a lovely 'do, just have not seen one on a duck before"

A shot of 'fro duck with his friends:

Then to obligatory Frisbee session with Charlie. One of many she gets a day (when Gary is in town):



Then we got the inevitable "I want to go back" statement. We are used to it now and it does not phase us. She says she does not want to go back to RSS generally on the ride back a couple of times, but seems to be more to make us feel good, or to be polite than for real - her heart is just not in it.

Jessie not being at home has become quite normal for us now. I thought it would take much longer. I thought the panic and fear would be around for, well I was afraid forever - but they have eased to a manageable level. Now I am just basking in the 'weirdness' of a house without a very large 3 year old in charge.

Life is good.

Gary's Baby is Home ...

Gary's baby started swimming in Spain (at START) and ended at its' final spot off the coast of Italy (at END). For the fab photos and Gary's explanation click HERE. For towing photos and a lovely discourse on Archimedes Principle click HERE and HERE.

Here is his baby, at its' final spot and - as promised showing the installation of one of the Mooring Dolphins (the dolphin is behind the two red cranes):

Since I was a bit confused with all the ships and stuff around, Gary supplied me with a diagram of what it will look like when it is done. As explained in one of the previous blogs about Gary's baby, ships loaded with cooled Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) will pull up beside this and off load it. It is then heated and shipped to Italy via a pipeline on the ocean floor. The ships are so big they are almost the length of both Mooring Dolphins and the GBS structure itself - which is pretty darn big since the GBS structure is approximately the size of 4 football fields, so the length of two football fields. The ships tie off to the dolphins on each end and settle on the bumpers on the side of the GBS (they are blue in the diagram and yellow on the actual structure).

Here are a couple of more photos of the work in progress:

Our Contribution

The other day Ryan was ranting about the stock market troubles and decided to move on to the legacy we have left his generation and his children's generation. Somewhere in his comments he seemed to infer that we were responsible for the financial crisis, gas prices, global warming, wars and rumor of wars and pretty much everything else he sees wrong with the world today. I was sort of seeing his point until he made it abundantly clear (if just sort of kidding ... sort of) that the 'we' he was talking about was not my generation, but Gary and I personally. I was sort of amused since I have to give the kid points for the cleverness of his rant but I still smacked him (a girly smack - don't worry). I am a huge fan of rants - using them copiously myself.

When Gary came home from work, we discussed the days events - he likes to check up on me (my sanity level) and Ryan (see if he stayed in town ...) the usual 'normal' family stuff. I mentioned Ryans rant. We laughed and wondered if we ever worried about the plight of our generation or the world at the age of 18. We pretty much remember the world revolving around us, and could see no farther than oh, the next date.

Gary had apparently given it some thought that evening, and as we were heading off to bed he said: "Next time you talk to Ryan, tell him this is my nightly routine: First I take a 5 gallon container of gas and I pour it in the toilet and flush. Then I take a pile of money and burn it. Then, just for fun, I spray hairspray outside for a few minutes." "Is that all? (No cans of oil dumped in a field? No throwing away car batteries, cellphones, collecting barrels of toxic waste?)" I asked. "Pretty much that's it for now." He replied.

You gotta wonder why the kid has rants ...

Charlie's Friends

Meet Bob, The Cat:

This was a Christmas present to Charlie a few years ago. Don't know why his name is Bob, it just is. He is an outside cat. Charlie always tries to sneak him in the house and no matter how many times I tell her that Bob is an outside cat, Bob is not house trained, Bob will scratch the furniture, Bob has that crazy look on his face and I don't know what he is capable of - she always tries. One of my favorite games is 'Kitty Chucking'. I throw Bob and Charlie jumps in the air to catch him. In an over enthusiastic throw Bob landed on the roof - months ago. It took Hurricane Ike to convince Bob to come down. Charlie is thrilled that Bob has come back since she has only one other friend:

Meet Barney the Dinosaur:

Barney, on the other hand is an indoor pet. I get a perverse satisfaction of watching Charlie chew on him. I blame the media and PBS. Charlie has had Barney since I wrapped him up two years ago at Christmas for Ryan as a joke - I had found it unpacking. As soon as he opened it, Charlie ran over, grabbed it out of Ryan's hands and ran off with it to cuddle somewhere. I often find her on Ryan's bed spooning with Barney - she is the weirdest dog we have had ... Ryan blames me.

The funny part of Charlies relationship with Barney is that she is so gentle with him. She chews on him, but very gently. The rest of her toys (except Bob) have been ripped apart and stuffing strewn about the house - it is kind of creepy. The only 'injury' Barney has is a hole in the knee where he was hit with an arrow.

Yeah, an arrow - before moving to Norway, Gary Ryan and his friend Jordan were playing target practice in the backyard with the crossbow Gary had made (just so you know, there was a field behind our house - so they were not going to kill anyone with a stray arrow). They were looking for a good target to use and Barney seemed a perfect choice to all of us. They strapped Barney up by his arms and legs and went to town (obviously very bad shots) until Jessie came outside and screamed, horrified that they were killing Barney (with that huge mouth he has - it looked less like a friendly smile strapped up there - rather like a scream of horror - or he was smiling and enjoying it, and that is just icky). We took him down and gave him back to her. I packed it up when we moved to Norway and there it stayed until I unpacked after moving into this house.

Oddly, Jessie didn't care about Charlie adopting Barney - I guess she was over him.

Gary's Baby Dolphins

Nah, not that kind of 'dolphin' ....

THIS kind of dolphin: (OK, and the title should read: 'Garys Babys Dolphins'...)

Don't ask me, I have no clue about any of this. When Gary sent me the photos yesterday labeled: "Mooring Dolphin Progress and Photos", I was all "Cool - that is nice - what a lovely photo of Venice in the background ... would like to go there someday". Then promptly forgot them.

Today he sent me photos of his baby in place off the shore of Venice with one of the 'dolphins' installed. I said that I was going to use one of the photos of the dolphins being towed out since I liked the photo of Venice in the background even though it was not a structure he designed. This seemed to upset him, since apparently it is a structure he designed and asked: "Why do you think I had all those trips to Venice?" I shot back that we had lived in Norway for like two whole years and I was still a bit fuzzy on why we lived there, what's a few trips to Venice in the big scheme of things?

So - apparently I have no idea what my husband does at work - I do know the important things - like if he drops dead at work I get a boatload of money - important things like that, but I will need to take a refresher course on 'What my husband does for a living' before posting the rest of the photos - his baby is in place 17 kms out of Venice with a cute (baby) dolphin (get it?) installed beside it. The other one was installed today but I don't have photos.

Here are the lovely photos of his structure complete with interesting background (they look really good when you click on them to make them bigger). This way you can pretend to admire his structure and really just be scoping out Venice (just kidding Gary, really).

Note:

I was quite suprised that Wikipedia came through for me yet again: "A dolphin is a man-made marine structure that extends above the water level and is not connected to shore."

Guilt Trip

So Gary and I are sitting in the office Monday night and decided we wanted to go on a vacation for Thanksgiving. The next thing you know, we have airline tickets to Maui. We have very few vacation opportunities left with Ryan and want to make the best of it, but there is that Jessie thing ... yeah, we are totally awful.

I had not planned on bringing her home for a week at Thanksgiving anyway, and dinner would not mean anything to her, but still ...

OK, we fly back on Thanksgiving day and we will pick her up the next day and do something wonderful with her just to assuage our guilt - take her to Disneyland, buy her a pony, something ....

So here I am doing what I do before a trip (except for Prague) - studying travel books, googling 'Maui' and trying to come up with an itinerary. But ... there are too many things to do! If any of y'all have suggestions on the best places, especially to photograph, I would appreciate the input.

I'll probably feel guilty while in Maui, but boy, am I going to have fun doing it!

Double Duty

Yesterday I got to play with babies!

The Oldroyds are the proud parents of Nathan and Alexa shown here waiting patiently for their doctors appointment. I got to help feed them then help mom, Alisha, take them to their 2 month checkup. Not fun to see all those shots go into those little legs, but they were troopers and only cried for a bit - hopefully the next few days will go smoothly for the Oldroyd family.

(Crazy) Bird Lady

It all started while living in Norway. My desk faced a window and I had a beautiful view of our deck and yard full of trees. One day, I saw the cutest birdhouse, and had to have it. I placed it where I could watch the birds feed - as I found out - all year round. I was smitten.

Unfortunately my Norwegian bird house met its demise one day when a huge gust of wind sent it flying off the deck.

Found a bird house for our new Texas home one day at a fair and promptly set it up - outside the window in front of my desk:

My most exotic visitors are two parrots - Julio and Pedro - yeah, I named them. They have wonderful conversations ... complete with Spanish accents and, of course completely in my head. That's when I started wondering if I am one of those creepy 'bird people'. I am not sure, but I do know that I am a 'bird house person'.

Ryan and I were picking up the corsage for his homecoming date at a florist shop and I found yet another bird house. I had to have it. My thinking was that it matched EXACTLY a bench I purchased in a small village in Norway and they were meant to be together. And, it sort of filled up the hole left by one of my ficus trees that had a branch die and left a gap that I feel is my mission to fill. The nest (complete with the cutest little eggs) did not seem to be enough, so .... a bird house:

I am pretty sure the next stage is me sitting on a park bench somewhere in tattered clothing and a bag of birdseed muttering to myself while tossing food to the birds.

***

Maybe Julio and Pedro will come visit me ....

Fences, Trees and Sunlight

I took these photos on the way out of Richmond State School after dropping Jessie off this afternoon. I like that she has an equestrian center in the school right near her 'home'. It also doesn't bother me one bit that it is so beautiful and peaceful...

One of these days I will get around to taking photos of the umpteen other acres of RSS. All I have photographed so far is driving to and from where she lives.

Cool Building

Linda, Bonne and I were having lunch the other day and as we left the restaurant in the historic section of Richmond, I spotted the top of this building:

Of course, we had to go take photos ... I throw our small camera in my bag whenever I leave the house because you just never know what you might find.

It is the Richmond Police Department. Looking awfully fancy for a police department and looking awfully similar to a building in La Grange, Texas that some helpful passerby had mentioned used to be a jail - I wondered aloud to Linda if this was the case here. Good 'ole Wikipedia came through once again to tell me yes, this used to be the jail. Incarceration in style!

Linda is no stranger to my forcing her to drive somewhere so I can take a photo - probably the most memorable (to her) would be this photo:

It is the bridge over the Brazos river. She acted as 'spotter', and as always: 'good sport' while I parked my car on the rail road tracks and snapped away.

Jessie's House

I went and picked up Jessie with Linda today and we went to dinner. Since it is over due, I thought that I would put the information people have been asking for (address & phone number) here and some photos.

Address:
Richmond State School
2100 Preston
Richmond, Texas 77469

Phone number (this rings to the San Jacinto - her house name - aides station):
281.344.4356

Here are some photos that I snapped today:



I am sure Jessie would love a call from any of you!