Ok…it’s a blog…I can’t really give you the sounds, but here’s some great sights. If you have a chance to see the Varsity Marching Band in action…take it. They were fantastic!

This is our wild/rabid sunflower. We planted some last year and this one just popped up on its own. I think it’s trying to eat our house.

Sofie Sparkle is doing fine two weeks into our life with her. She knows “gimme paw” and “sit” (mostly) and my personal favorite, “go potty.” She loves my daughter’s pant legs and killing stuffed animals. She hates her leash and my shop vac. Who doesn’t.

So, 8 more days school starts. I have one child starting kindergarten. My baby. Of course, playing into my neuroses, I pull out the Kindergarten Readiness check list and see how we’re doing. Let’s see if I’m ready for kindergarten.

Social Development:

1. Can be taken away from parents without being overly upset. (um…check, unless my Mother’s giving me her opinion on what I should wear or how clean my countertops are)

2. Can spend extended periods of time away from parents. (um…not really)

3. Explores and tries new things. (not usually without self-medicating)

4. Curious and motivated to learn. (well…)

5. Puts away toys and helps with family chores. (not without griping profusely)

6. Meets visitors without shyness. (check, yay!)

7. Finishes tasks. (not without griping profusely)

8. Describes some basic emotions and feelings. (chuh, yeah…just ask my husband)

9. Expresses feelings and needs. (not without griping profusely)

10. Recognizes authority. (I own a mirror!)

11. Gets along and plays cooperatively with other childern. (flarg!)

12. Can take care of own toilet needs independently. (ok, I can…but there are others in this house…)

13. Feels good about self and talks easily. (I’m not answering that.)

14. Dresses self and cares for own belongings. (except everything I own ends up covered in Spaghettios)

Yeah, it’s no longer the baby I’m worried about.

Yes, you read that right. Sofie Sparkle Dec. She weighs about 2 1/2 pounds dripping wet. She is a cockapoo. She is seven weeks old and she is currently trying to lick hand lotion off my knee as I type.

Sweet dreams…

I’m baaaack!  It happened at first by accident, then on purpose. I needed a little blog vacation and actual vacation. I’m back from both.

We’ve just returned from Higgins Lake. It’s just north of Houghton Lake. My husband used to camp there with his family 25+ years ago and he wanted to go back (but in a cabin with lights and plumbing…Robin doesn’t do camping…but that’s a blog post for another day).

Let me just say, if you have little kids with any sort of water phobia (or are a parent with little kids who don’t have a water phobia but you are pone to water/kid related panick attacks…ahem…like me) Higgins Lake is the place to go.  No seaweed. Crystal clear water with a white sand bottom as far as you can see. At our particular cabin, the water was no more than 3 feet deep for nearly 1/2 mile from shore. Mahvelous!

I’m standing in waist-deep water here.

Our friend visited with his son for part of the week. Jim posed them for this one (after he and I got in a debate about how to line ‘em up…it’s see evil, hear no evil, speak no evil right???)

A rare moment of sibling tranquility.

And here’s one for your Monday Morning Mental Health Break. Ahhhhhh.

Hopefully, we’ll make it back there someday

Robin

The search is over. We have a winner. She comes home in 1 month. Feast your eyes.

She’s (currently) a two week old Cockapoo. She’s very snuggly and smells nice. I wuv her and will be fighting the kids to hold her (yay for me…I’m way bigger and can knock them over if I need to ;)  )

I am now taking suggestions for names. We have a big white board in the kitchen. Any ideas?

Guess what this is???

Story developing…

While clearing out his Grandpa’s attic, my husband came across boxes of old pictures, yearbooks, trophies etc. Basically, a 1980’s time capsule. One item I found particularly telling. This is a birthday card I gave him, probably when he turned 17 or 18 (which would put me at the same age).

Okay…fine so far. Then you open it.

No truer words have ever been spoken. Yay me for knowing who I am at 17

Lemme just say, I love Paint Shop Pro.  A few months ago I realized I hated the photos on my blog. They were blah. I’ve said numerous times I don’t/can’t scrapbook. I blog. Anyway…I went on ebay and purchased for about $18 with shipping an older version of Paint Shop Pro. I have version 9. Did I mention I luuuurve it?  I know Photoshop may be the work horse of amateur photo editing, but it’s too confusing for me. It must involve math.

Last week I posted a tribute to my Grandfather. To complete it, I broke in to my parents home while they were on vacation and stole a picture of said Grandfather. Though lovingly framed, the thing was in pretty bad shape. 60+ years can do that to a photograph. It was badly creased, washed out and covered in old tape glue.

Here’s what I started with:

Here’s the finished product.

Ta da! I live to impress/amuse myself

P.S. Er…um…you don’t want to know how much time I wasted spent doing this. Heh heh.

I found him like this. He watched for 20 minutes. There you go.