A Day in the Life

Started this morning out at 5:10 with an elbow to the back from the boss. Not sure if he was awake or not, but luckily for him, I had to be up to get Bean off to a before-school study session that began at 6:15.
Made lunches for the kids, did dishes, fed the cranky cats, carried Minnie downstairs to keep Maui from chasing her and another early morning cat-fight, got the girls up and re-set Tater's alarm so she wasn't getting up at 6:15 anymore.
By this time, a migraine had snuck up on me and as I sent the Boss and the girls out the door, I went back to bed.
Woke up at noon feeling worse than ever. Made it to the medicine cabinet and grabbed some ibuprofen and snuggled on the couch with Mickey. 
We watched several episodes of Terra Nova and one episode of The Stand before I went down to put in some laundry.

Was showered and ready for the day when Bean and Dizzy came home. I took the easy dinner route and made hot dogs for them and leftovers for me. Tater changed when she got home and she ate her hot dogs while I got water bottles together and filled and chased Dizzy to her room to change.

Bean had to run help a friend, so his dinner sat. We were headed to game and practice when he returned.

Tater and I dropped Dizzy at practice and headed early to her game to do her warm up pitches as she was the starting pitcher tonight.

It was a good game, not a great one, but Tater did have a hit and had both an RBI and came across the plate herself.
The game ended a bit early due to lightening, so we went for milk shakes to celebrate the hit and Dizzy being assigned to the  level she wanted for gymnastics next year.

Coming home was not a pleasure, as Maui has been very aggressive towards Minnie lately  and I found Minnie hiding in a pile of scat in Beans closet. 

Maui will spend a few days in isolation to see if that helps. Minnie is in wonderland, as Mickey is outside and she has the house to herself.

I'm watching another episode of The Stand and then calling it a night.

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to manage some mischief!

Dishwasher fail

This is, unfortunately, what happens when one puts a water bottle into the dishwasher when told not to.

This was a 32 oz bottle. Think I'll be lucky if it holds 8oz now!

On a happier note, my garden is half in, now I just need to find the rest of my tomato hoops!

Just corn and pumpkins left to plant!

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to soak up some sunshine!

New beginning

So, Mr Mickey has been lost (as have the rest of us) without Bitsey. Knowing we are very busy this summer, I knew a kitten would be more of a challenge than I had time for. Two weeks ago, I made a visit to our local Humane Society and visited both the Cat Adoption Counselor and the Cat room attendant and asked for help in finding the right adult cat to add to our household. 

They were amazing! I shared my household, kids, pets and busy schedule and they pointed out a few that might work in our home. The one I had gone intending to adopt was not going to be a fit for Mickey, so I had to  move on. 

Then I met this girl. She stole my heart at first glance. Shelter name Louise. An older Manx who is very shy.

I hadn't considered her because they had put down a quiet home with no children. But, having a great reference made us a possible home and they were very excited that she might be coming home with me.

I took Dizzy a couple days later, Tater, the Boss and Dizzy (and Tater's friend) on Saturday and she greeted me with a regal look and purred when I held her.

Saturday they also found this girl and thought she was great as well.

This is Maui (shelter and forever name). Now what were we to do? Two great girls, and either I was to be disappointed or the kids and the Boss were to be disappointed. Then the gals begin with the "two for $20" chant and you could have knocked me over with a feather when the Boss said he didn't care if we brought both girls home. 

I had the shelter put a hold on them and promised to come back the next day with Bean to make sure he agreed with the plan.

By Sunday, and the last day of a three day adopt-a-thon, the kitties were stressed and we didn't get any quality time with either one, but Bean had seen Maui on the website and liked her right off.

So, although we can never replace Bitsey in our lives, in her honor we have opened our home and hearts to two new cats in need of a good home.

Maui is very comfortable in the house and other than not getting along with Mickey yet, seems happy (especially when breaking out of the screens. She's gone through two so far!). Minnie (formerly Louise) is very shy and is going to take a long time to relax and be comfortable in the house. She's finally come out of the basement and will sit in the same room, but runs for cover if startled. 

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to manage some mischief!

Mother's Day Finale

So, it's been a rough week already (and we have another 7:30 pm softball game tonight--those don't finish until 9-on a school night and we have had 2 back to back! YUCK).

Bean is done with track, has a sore ankle but enjoying this strange concept of free time. I did get an "I told you so" moment when he actually enjoyed running the 2 mile at his last meet. Mom win!

Dizzy was supposed to have her last meet today, but was injured yesterday at practice, resulting in a sprained ankle. We'll still go and cheer on her teammates tonight, but I know she's bummed she can't run.

Tater's softball team got their first win last night. Pretty exciting for them and she also got her first hit in a game, as well as pitching an inning and closing out the game.

#1 fuzzy son is clingy and lost without his sister, but not without his breakfast. Boy am I in trouble if I don't have that food in his dish as soon as I get out of bed!

My final bit of Mother's Day is to share some of what I accomplished on Mother's Day, as well as share some of my spring flowers.

Hollyhock

 New Columbine plant to replace a rose bush that didn't make it

 More Hollyhocks

 New Peony home

 Pink Bleeding Heart fern

 White Bleeding Heart fern-the blooms are almost bigger than the plant!

 Tiny Viola

 And the beginnings of the vegetable garden, tomatoes and green peppers

and 2 flats of pumpkins - carving and decorative size

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to manage some mischief!

Mothers Day part two

So my family is awesome. Not only did I get to celebrate how I wanted for Mothers Day, but they gave me amazing gifts!

From The Boss:

Add to these beautiful flowers (and yes there were two baskets), he made a great dinner and dessert:

Anyone want to guess my favorite part?

Bean gave me caramels (they were yummy) and this candle:

Yes, that's a candy wrapper and all that is left of said caramel.

Dizzy is my girlie girl, so from her I received:

The picture is from Tater's first birthday, which was a few years ago...

Tater is still in elementary school so I have the wonderful homemade gifts:

The seeds are Morning Glories and are headed to my garden before work.
The book in the bottom corner is a book of poems, some of which she wrote for me, others she copied down and a great multi-colored bookmark (or necklace).

Hoping for a great Tuesday for you all! Have my fingers crossed here that the rain holds off so we can play Tater's softball game tonight.

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to manage some mischief!

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day.

A day to celebrate moms.

A day for mom's to do what they want.

Really.

Not a day to make mom do all sorts of stuff that she may or may not want to do.

I have to thank another blogger for this advice (Foxy Wine Pocket). She schedules a spa day for herself. I took it upon myself to get in some dirt therapy.

My pumpkins are planted, flower bed cleaned and stray flowers (I've had some great volunteers) moved to another bed (I'm taking over the play area, since the kids aren't using it much anymore--to be fair, I'm working outside in, so they don't loose their space yet.) I also removed some dead plants and moved a pair of peonies to new spaces to see if they do better by the house.

Need some serious tutoring time this summer to pay for some rocks to finish off the bed. I'm also re-making a bed I tore out a few years ago to expand our deck. We didn't expand it so I'm putting the bed back in with new edging stones and will move another trio of peonies and get a couple of rose bushes back.

Ambitious summer planned, but so much less expensive than actual therapy. Looking forward to next weekend and garden plants and a couple of new columbine plants for my big flower bed. Need to find some plants that don't mind hot and dry.

Rough week last week. Way too much planned and we had to put our Bitsey kitty to sleep. Mickey is lost without his little sister and very clingy. Her healthy deteriorated all of a sudden and while we hoped she would make closer to the 18 months, we were blessed to have her a year. Both of the older kids put touching tributes to her on Instagram. Made me cry! We're in discussion now of whether or not we want another cat and if so, adult or kitten.

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to manage some mischief!

Welcome softball season

I know it's been way too long, but life got away from me. 

Things are good. Almost done with Girl Scout Cookies, but are diving in head first into softball season.

Tater is my only softball player this year. Dizzy decided to try track instead with gymnastics. The best part is Tater's team colors...Making hair bows was great fun, loving the colors!

Yes, this geeky mom just spent 43 minutes making hair bows for the team.  This year was a new challenge. Tater has a teammate with short hair! Never had this challenge before. She has a matching bow attached to a barrette instead of a hair tie. Thought about a hairband, but with batting helmets, I didn't want to go there.

Worked until 2, ran and found ribbon and hair ties/barrettes and headed home. Met Tater at the bus, drove down the road, had her feed cats and dogs, change, put lunch stuff away and get changed. We need to leave shortly to pick Dizzy up from track practice, take her to gymnastics, head to softball, enjoy the game (I'm the dugout mom...I get to keep the kiddos organized) and then meet up with parents to collect cookie money. I'll be home by 9. Tomorrow is only track practice and I  may have Dizzy come home with Bean or the Boss.

Big projects on their way. Lots of landscaping and a big project for work. STEM and STEAM anyone? More on that as I get some more plans in place for that.

 

Bean's trying to decide between the 800 meter and the 3200 meter race. He has the pace for the longer race, but is not a fan of running in circles. Dizzy is hurdling, sprinting and jumping. I'll be upping my vitamin D absorption for the next month!

Be Happy! Be Healthy! Be sure to manage some mischief!