Chloe's Birthday!!

Yep, it is that time of year again! This year she baked her own cake. I'm not sure if I mentioned that John ordered her a "herd" of goats to go on her cake. I think I did mention she made them a small barn-like building with a ramp, so they could go on the roof. Yes, more "goats on a roof" she loves that place! This morning Jesse "helped" her ice and decorate the cake. Even though there were no goats actually sitting they used their imagination so some would sit, play, gallivant (yes, their word). It was fun to listen to them.




That is suppose to be goat poo spelling out "Happy Chloe/bday". LOL
That is exactly how she wanted to write it. Not sure why though.

The shed she made.



Yep, she even made haystacks for her goats.
And apparently Dad knew too because this morning the small ones were gone.

We spent the afternoon playing Chloe's favorite game. Do you remember it? Do you?

I'll give you a minute.

(Hum the Jeopardy theme song here.)

















Scrabble!!!!! We actually had a good game this time. You know where there are no big spaces where no words can go; we actually filled the entire board.

I think she enjoyed her presents. She had given me a list, then promptly forgot what was on the list. It made this morning that much more fun!



The last book in a series she is collecting.

From her sister, who now wants to borrow the necklace. ;-)

Sorry, Morgan! She is USC all the way.

Hank's way of dealing with the wrapping paper. lol

I went to feed the cats tonight and found a box on the front porch. It was from Uncle Sonny, Aunt Mari, and cousins Lawson and Morgan. However, we believe Morgan had a lot to do with this. :-) John had her laughing at something so she is all scrunched up.

I need more time in a day!

There is always something around here that goes undone because of a lack of time.  This week I was reminded John is taking of Wednesday through Friday. Well. I did not get it into my calendar. I still had him down as taking off Monday (to get Jesse home from an appointment for animation class) and Wednesday (for Chloe's birthday). I had also already completed our school schedule until the end of the month. Dang it!

All the things I thought we would get accomplished this week will have to wait. I already knew nothing would be done on Chloe's birthday. I am hoping to be able to use this week "off" to get myself caught up with some school items I need to work on. Yes, I got behind. I have not been behind all year and I don't want this to continue.

Actually, right now I should be typing a science test for Chloe. But instead I am going to say, "Happy belated birthday, Lawson!" I thought about posting it the morning of your birthday (we weren't home), then the following day (we weren't home). Seems like I would constantly remember when I was at a place I couldn't do anything about it. I'm sure you had a great birthday though.

And "Happy belated birthday, Alan" (brother-in-law, not cousin)!!! Your cards have been on the dining room table for more-than-a-week; we'll get them off tomorrow. :-)

My mother's mother's side of the family had a reunion yesterday. It was nice to see everyone who was there.

Lewis and Cynthia; they live around Columbia and we still don't see them often!

Two of the Mills Boys! Say "Cheese," Kevin!  lol

Another Mills Boy. Yes, he IS smiling. Oh, that Jon!

Yep, Chloe is behind those rabbit ears!

Coop!!!!  And of course, Dawn, love her!

The girls with Grandma Williams.

The Threatt Girls; they started this whole mess. ;-)

Cousin love!!

Then you have Randy. Well, that is enough on that subject.

Yes, I took more pictures than this. Most people, as usual, were not happy with having their pictures taken...like that ever stops me. I have one cousin I have to get at least fifty feet away and ZOOM in. I practice zooming everywhere. I am still working out the focusing problem, so...practice, practice, practice.

Lastly, our friends left today. They are somewhere between here and Texas. I hope they arrive safely in their new home and enjoy their new adventure.

Life's about change

A decade, or so, back there was a country song from a female artist all about life's changes. It is a song I think of often as our lives change for one reason or another. This week the change is coming from friends moving.

We've had several friends move from the area and we mostly say we'll keep in touch. We don't. Life is complicated. Life is always changing and it makes it difficult to keep in touch, even if we really have the desire.

And to make the change more significant...they are moving to Texas. It is not like we can drop by on our way to anywhere. Texas.

I know our girls will keep in touch. I know this because they already email each other several times a day, on a good day. They also keep up with friends, via email, in Oklahoma (I think it is Oklahoma...right Courtney?). But finding time to chat between adults. Well, maybe it is just me. Between always being behind with my end of the school work (creating test, grading papers, etc.), taekwondo, trying to keep a clean house (I really want to give that one up because it doesn't stay very long), and everything else I'm juggling right now I can't seem to keep up with others. Not even when they are right here in town.

I want this change to be good for our friends, but I will miss them. All of them...even Riley.  ;-)

A quiet weekend

We spent the weekend not doing too much. The girls and I went to Charlotte yesterday for a quick visit. The dogs, okay...Hank, gets so excited when he sees his collar come out of the box. He may not know where he is going but he knows he is going. lol 

The girls have been preparing for their birthdays. Each one coming up with what they want to get the other. I love how they each focus so hard on what the other would love to have for a present. They both have great ideas. I can't wait for each one to see what the other came up with. Now, John and I just need to come up with ideas for Jesse. Chloe has a LONG list. ;-)

John is off tomorrow. Jesse has class in the morning, so I plan on taking Chloe shopping to pick-up her ideas for Jesse's presents. It will be nice to hang out with her a bit. Jesse and I hung out tonight buying Chloe's presents. I like being able to spend some one-on-one time with each of them. We rarely get that opportunity; I truly do not take it for granted.

Oh, happy day!

I have been stressing, somewhat, over the US Literature schedule I made for Jesse. I spent quite some time looking through lists then googling the books' summaries to see which books I wanted on the syllabus. It was only after the syllabus was done I realized some of the books (written in the early 1800's) are difficult, if not impossible, to find. {sigh}

This afternoon, I decided to take another stab at trying to find some of the oldest ones on-line. And BAM! There they were to my delight. There is a project (I don't recall the name right off) that has posted some of the oldest novels on-line. It was there I found the two I was beginning think I wouldn't find or would have to spend some ungodly amount of money to procure. Whew. I'm happy now.

I did finally show the literature list to Pam, one of our librarians, today. She has been giving me a bit of grief over Jesse's current reading book even though she admitted she's never read it. I told her it hasn't been that bad. Now, the introduction from the Columbia University professor was horrid. But the book itself has not been so bad. I feel for Teague though (character in the book). Anyway, Pam liked a lot of my choices for this year. A couple she gave me looks over, but you know you are not going to please everyone all the time. lol

Chloe had her second Battle of the Books meeting today. Her goat, Agent Meh, was chosen as one of the mascots. She is very happy with that. She made her goat sunglasses too, because every good agent has a pair. (I am suppose to post a picture but I've yet to download pics.) They still didn't choose names, but hopefully next week they will get to that.

Tonight is my book club meeting. I did manage to finish the book this morning. I liked it but for reasons most would probably not like it. It didn't end like some magical fairy tale, which I liked. I mean who's life is really a magical fairy tale anyway? I can't wait for the discussion tonight, especially Ms. Linda, she is a no holds bar kind of woman. It should be interesting.

Family fun and the fourth

I thought this was funny:

Chloe was sitting in a recliner but couldn't get the lever to move. John pulled the lever for her. Both their eyes went very wide as the recliner popped up and kicked her flip flop off her foot sending it sailing through the air. I was laughing so hard I could barely breath. I'm just glad Jesse and I had the perfect seat to witness it.

We had a quiet fourth of July. Well, meaning we stayed home, smoked ribs and didn't go anywhere. Quiet it was not. Hank does NOT like fireworks. I mean really DOES NOT LIKE fireworks. And we were so fortunate to have neighbors shooting them off from 8pm until after 2:30am. John was threatening to go down there. He did leave for awhile, but I'm not sure where he went or what he did.

While watching the news Friday night, I was horrified to find out how so few people (who were interviewed) knew what the fourth was even about. WLTX asked people questions from the US Citizenship test. Questions like: "What year did America gets its independence?" "Who did we get our independence from?" and other such questions. They showed two men who knew some of the answers; one man they showed knew three people who signed the Declaration of Independence. Everyone else, including some high school students, knew nothing. It was sad. I told the girls this is why we spend so much time going over all this. I want them to know, and understand, the history of their country. It is important to know where you've been so you'll know where you're going.

Another break

We may have started back to our school work, but we are taking a break from taekwondo in July. Yep, we're closed. Master Mike is going to have a belt camp the week of Chloe's birthday, but we are not going to attend or teach. Some of the parents were shocked when they heard we wouldn't be there. Honestly, I need the break.

So, this week has been our first week with no taekwondo. It has been nice to have dinner on Tuesday and Thursday at normal times, with John. It is nice to not have to wash uniforms twice a week. I'm still doing forms both nights along with sit-ups and push-ups. But I don't have to drive anywhere to do them.

I'm not sure how John feels about July (and December) when taekwondo is closed. He is so used to getting three hours to himself twice a week. He is a bit spoiled. lol  But I like him best when he's happy, even though he picks too much when he is.