Mom Day card from Jason

Bill Cosby said (not that I have respect for him anymore) a parent with only 1 child is not really a parent because there's not anyone for the child to fight and argue with.

Wildlife

I was walking this morning along the trail between the houses and saw an interesting looking small rock, so I stopped to maybe pick it up and keep it when I noticed it was rocking back and forth. Got down close - it was a snail.

I always walk along the trail, it's too noisy with the cars for me to walk on the sidewalk. Such a big difference from when we moved here just 3 years ago. Ah, progress, how I loathe thee when you interfere with my quiet and green walks.

Walk along creek with Alyona and Zoya

This is a beautiful walk down in a little valley by the creek and Dies Ranch, in some spots the golf course peeks thro, and in some places you can see houses up on the hillside thro the trees. Alyona and Chris did not know about it; I'm really sad that I never told them and we didn't walk there when they lived here. It is so green and a little creek bubbles and gurgles along, almost doesn't feel like it is here in Texas.

 

We did walk for an hour or so. Little Zoya had a great time, met some friends, enjoyed jumping in puddles, sniffing. She got to lean out the window on the 2-3 min drive home, which she also loved. But she was tired after we got home. Lots of picking those little legs up and putting them down.

Sniff, sniff, sniff...

...is it allergy season or did Scott leave yesterday?

Quit raining finally

And Scott is sunning at the pooling and hopping in. He's got his snorkel, actually said the water was quite nice. It was warm outside; if I hadn't been so lazy I would have gotten in also.

Glad I don't live in Houston, they seem to get bad weather; Dallas also seems to get more bad weather than Austin (knock on wood)

HOUSTON (AP) — Storms have dumped more than a foot of rain in the Houston area, flooding dozens of neighborhoods and forcing the closure of city offices and the suspension of public transit.
The National Weather Service says the area received up to 16 inches of rain in the 24 hours through Monday morning.

Mayor Sylvester Turner says city offices will be closed Monday and is encouraging people to stay home and avoid high water areas. Classes have been cancelled for the Houston Independent School District's 215,000 students.

Meteorologist Tom Bradshaw says about 70 Houston subdivisions are flooded, as well as parts of Interstate 10

Rain, rain, and more rain

We have been getting a lot of rain for several days now, and it's expected until at least Tues. Scott is disappointed to not be getting the great Texas weather he wanted. Oh, well, he goes to sunny Cali and the beach for 4 days after he gets home.

We had one day of sunshine and 90*. Same thing happened last year when he came, even down to cancelling the San Antonio trip due to rain.

The pool is so close to overflowing. Rick is waiting until after all the rain before he adds more chemicals and changes the filters (4 filters cost something like $600). So much rain will just mess up the chemical makeup of the pool and need to be redone.

The weiner of Yahtzee is...

...Scott.
Rick won the first game with a score of 294. I won the 2nd game and Scott was getting upset with his bad scores. On the 3rd game he started to pull out of his funk and won it. We were thinking about being finished until he rolled a yahtzee on his first toss, and the game was on. He rolled two more yahtzees throout the 4th game. All his scores were high and he didn't have to scratch anything.

And he dominated, kicked hinney, opened up a can of whumpum, took the cows out to pasture, and completely embarrassed his poor little parents.

He's still smirking.

Wildflowers in Texas

In the Spring the wildflowers in Texas are particularly beautiful. Lady Bird Johnson had as her mission, maybe when Lyndon was governor and maybe after the presidency, to reseed all the native wildflowers along the roads and meadows of Texas. The flowers, especially the bluebonnets but really all of them, are so beautiful in their natural glory along the roads, just stands and patches of deep blue, yellow and orange. I have seen a bunch of pics of photo shoots with pretty little girls in fluffy white and pastel dresses running thro the meadows, or bending over to scoop up an armful of flowers and hold to their noses, or some other cute pose.

I wanted some pics of my 3 beautiful ggrrls in these meadows of wildflowers. Alas, they are never here in the Spring.

So I decided to do the next best thing: snap photos of my youngest as he leaps and bounds thro a meadow of wildflowers. And I have my youngest here right now to do this very thing!!

Doesn't he look cute? His mother thinks so.

Utah trip

Rick and I left Austin to go to Utah on March 30, arriving Thurs morning at 1am (or something). We spent the next days with Paige and Family.

Thurs - Went to Walmart, we were all starving so we bought food from the Deli and sat at Subway to eat.

Fri - Hmmm, can't remember

Sat - Gymnastics with Stella. Macy went with us also but we weren't going to bring Hattie. She was crying and it broke my heart so along she came. Paige and Kincade met us at Sheels; rode the ferris wheel and then to McDonald's to eat lunch.

Sun - Gen Conf

Mon - Rick left; Paige and Family left; I went to Scott's.

Tues - At Scott's. I decided to not paint but was doing deep cleaning.

Wed - I went to Squirt's and stayed overnight, it was quite enjoyable.

Thurs - I met the dishwasher installer at Paige's. At Scott's, the food trucks were along the lake that evening, I thought it looked fun. Trevor, Scott's roomie is a nice guy. He is an Adam/Chris to Scott. Always nice to have a good roomie.

Fri - Paige and Family home, I picked up the ggrrls (not Hattie) to stay over. They love going to the townhouse, it feels like a hotel and vacation.

Sat - Aaron, Paige's friend who is going to finish the basement room in the townhouse, came and looked at the room to give me an estimate. I'm was impressed with his knowledge and professionalism, I think we will be happy with his work.

Went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast donuts, then gas station to get milk, then back to townhouse to eat. The ggrrls played for hours with Scott's Legos. They both have great imaginations.
We bought bread and fed the ducks. It was chilly and they didn't have jackets, so they put on yesterday's shirts and Macy put on her nightgown to layer for warmth. They thought it was funny. Returned to Paige's at 1pm.

Sun - The crazy trip back to Austin with Scott.

Back to Easter

I wanted to get in this pic from Easter with Chris and Aly.

Utah trip

Utah trip

Utah trip

Scott and I are in Cedar Park...

...after a crazy day trying to get here. Arrived at 1am Mon morning.
Rick picked us up, hence we were all quite tired, Rick still went into work and stayed regular time.

It began on Sunday morning with a text at 5:45 telling us our flight was delayed until 10:40, which I knew would cause us to miss our Oakland connection. A phone call informed me that they had a new plan - leave at 3:15 and get in at 11 after 3 flights and 2 connections. Fine.

After we get to Salt Lake airport, the delays began. In Phoenix a text informed us that the plane was delayed so we would get into Dallas too late to make our connection, so they would put us up in a hotel and on a new flight the next day. We made arrangements to have our luggage pulled and rent a car to drive to Austin. Then the flight was undelayed 1 hour so we would make our Dallas connection. We must have gotten 10-15 texts telling us of flight delays.

It was a crazy day.

But we are here, and Scott sunned himself by the pool yesterday in the 90* weather. Then he jumped in several times.