For My Son Who Inspires Me

Dear friends,

Shawn has been running in a running club for the past two years. Now, he has decided to run in a fun run next week for his school that will provide their school playground with a shade covering for these hot Texas days. 

His goal is to run 25-35 laps. Will you make a pledge to support him?

Let me know by leaving a comment or messaging me with your pledge per lap or flat donation amount and email address and you will receive a confirmation email. He'll let you know when he's completed his run next week and you can pay for his completed laps by check or online for a $2 processing fee due by March 20th.

Tomorrow, March 2nd, is the deadline for his pledges. If 21 people can each pledge $1 per lap he will meet his goal for pledges.

Thanks in advance. I wish I had the dedication he does for this and love supporting him in his passion for running.


Rose

A Behind-the-Scenes Zoo Tour

While Justinbustin was at camp this week, Shawners and I had Camp Mommy at home. We did SO many Shawners related activities that I'm almost ashamed to admit that it took me one week to set up events he had been begging for for two years. One of the highlights of our week was a behind-the-scenes zoo tour I just happened to see on a local daily deal site, Localiter, last Sunday, bought, and scheduled for last Friday. It was absolutely fantastic in every way.

 These kinkajous have appeared on David Letterman.

 Loved how their faces were perfectly designed to fit through the fence.

 Oh, just helping the zoo keeper.

 Wish I could remember the name of these guys.

 King Julian!

 Momma and baby

The lemurs were all over him.

 Bearded pigs that have also been on David Letterman. Who knew there was such a thing?

 Incredible power to watch.

 Apparently they stick their quills in by fanning them out and backing into you.

One of Shawner's favorite activities was putting this bird to sleep. That, feeding the baby deer, and the lemurs being on his head and lap were his favorites.

Life as I Know It

As I've been adjusting my blog and making information more up-to-date and easily accessible, I've come across old posts which have left me reflecting on where my blog has ventured along with me the last five years. My boys have grown up on this blog. From our days of toddlerdom, to home-schooling, to ventures through private school, and now public school. We've gone from the days of yore where we had nothing to do but fill our days with adventures to the duck pond, to the park, to Sea World, and fun trips. Reading over these posts, I feel a bit nostalgic for those days.

My life now is filled with three amazing men (okay, one's still working on the man part, but he's sure got the amazing boy part down) whose lives have grown individually outside of mine. 

One is a manager at a bank, a photographer, an amazing lover and husband, does almost everything in the house, amazing travel and adventure partner. One is a boy scout almost to first class,

a volunteer, a leader, involved in youth group, loves to text when he can get a hold of a phone, builds web-sites, creates movies, creates Power Point presentations. One is an excellent communicator, creative solution maker, lover of all things animals,

organized as much as an adult, creator of new spaces exactly to how he prefers them, runner. All these things I mentioned are things that weren't there five years ago when I started this blog. Who knew those lazy, fabulous, wonderful, precious, quality days of yore would lead to the amazing men I have in my life today? My heart bursts simultaneously with pride, love, an ache for the simpleness of those days, and an awe for the complexity and fulfillment of todays days. The men in my life surround me with amazingness each day, and though it no longer is captured in a photo of a precious hand reaching out to feed a duck, or a curled up sleeping baby on a pillow, or toddling little feet running to check out the newest sight, or eyes searching to find the airplane in the sky, it is reflected in the choices they make, the wonder of possibility in their eyes, the moments and the art they create, and the effect of their presence on others. Boys, I am SO proud of you. All three of you. You continuously blow my mind in every wonderful way possible.

This is going to sound like an advertisement...

Coolest Christmas gift EVER this year was a soda making machine. You heard me right. A machine that makes soda. Shawners started requesting one about two months before Christmas. When he first asked about it, I replied, "Hun, I don't know if that even exists." He was very upset that I didn't such a thing existed and very adamant that it did. Fortunately for him, the next day I heard about a machine that makes soda called Soda Stream on the radio in full on Christmas advertising from the radio DJ style - "best Christmas gift ever - never have to buy soda again - make all different flavors" and, though skeptical, added it to the Christmas gift list to email to Oma. Wisely, she decided to give his soda machine to the family so he didn't hog the soda to himself. Not that I thought we'd be worrying about having a soda out of a home machine - I mean, seriously, kinda ew, right?

Boy, was I wrong. The soda this thing makes is DELICIOUS. Not to mention free from high fructose corn syrup - the main reason I avoid buying soda and only splurge occasionally on Whole Food 365 brand or Blue Sky. Shawners and I made soda for Shawners' and Justin's friends and they gulped those things down in less than a minute. The best part? Oma ordered tons of different flavors. While I'm still not used to the strange look of the bottles, the variety and taste completely overrides any strangeness. Our flavors include Creme Soda, Root Beer, Cherry Cola, Cola, Ginger Ale, Orange Soda, probably more... and the best flavor of all Essence flavors with absolutely nothing added! The essence is literally an essential oil and super healthy to drink besides the carbonation, which secretly is the only part I crave about soda. So far I've only tried Berry Essence and haven't strayed because the berry is too darn good - reminds me of Clearly Canadian soda I used to get at the gas station when I was little.

On top of it all, making soda takes less than a minute. First you fill the bottle up with water. Then, you insert the bottle into the machine and screw it in. Pull the tab in short bursts until you hear a loud buzz, then keep pulling until you hear two more buzzes. Personally, I like more fizz so I add a few more. Not sure where the buzzing comes from - maybe from being too full? To get this part down took us a few times and included an exploding soda over the kitchen island, and a typical overflowing soda bottle, but, fortunately, in the sink. Unscrew the bottle - depending on the amount of fizz you put in you should get the traditional "opening a soda bottle" release sound at this point. Or, in one of our first cases, "exploding soda bottle" release sound. The tank of CO2 is housed in the tall white part of the machine, but is disguised so sleekly you don't even think about the heftiness of the tank after it's in there. Finally, pour in your flavor - in the case of the sodas, pour in a capful, and in the case of the essences, pour in half a teaspoon. Pour over ice, and enjoy - look at that smile on his face. Seriously that easy. And more delicious than soda out of an aluminum can or sitting in a plastic bottle for who knows how long. Now the idea of those make me say ew. Who would've thought making your own soda could be so simple and delicious?

Last but not least, not to mention economical! I didn't even think about the cost aspect since it was a Christmas gift with all the flavors included already, but now that I've been checking out the links to the actual product, I realize the economics of having one. The tiny little bottle of essence water has already made me three liters of soda and is barely touched. I'm positive I can get at least seven more liters out of it. Besides the initial investment which will pay for itself after awhile, that's less than twenty-eight cents a liter for totally natural soda. The regular flavors of soda come out to forty-one cents a liter. Now, I'm even more excited about having this soda machine. Eek!

Christmas Time

We haven't decorated at all for Christmas as we will be elsewhere, but tonight we made Christmas crafts. Specifically, Shawners made crafts because crafts get all up in my business of annoyance. I love when other people set up a craft, show me how to do it, and then seeing the end product, but the actual buying of the materials, setting it up, and then half the time ending up with a dud? No, thanks. Fortunately, my son has much more patience than I and spent an hour alternating between putting beads in a metal frame with tweezers
and painting etching cream on a glass ornament via a design punched laminate stencil while his brother created an animated cartoon movie. Shawner's finished product was nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately, I don't have a finished shot of the Christmas tree ornament, but you can already tell from the before shot that it is even more stunning afterwards. The glass etched ornaments were new to me, but I used to love these make it and bake it ornaments as a kid! I was so happy to introduce Shawners to them, and am so glad he loved them, too.

Did you know we got a new dog?

Now in addition to our 85 pound hunk o' love, we have a 10 pound sweetie. She was Shawner's birthday gift, and he named her Star Bear. She's Poodle and Chihuahua - a Poochie. She is house-trained, crate-trained, knows commands, learns easily, doesn't shed, is absolutely adorable, and loves her Shawners.

Dinnertime Conversations

For Christmas my sister gave me one of the best gifts I have ever received. It's a circle shaped tin with a stack of cards inside with a picture of a penny on one side and on the other side a conversation starter to help parents and young children connect. It's called Penny for your Thoughts. For the past six months, every time we have sat down to dinner we have pulled this out at the end of dinner and spent twenty to thirty minutes chatting over five to ten questions.

Here are tonight's Penny for your Thoughts' inspired conversations:

"Name 3 blessings in your life."

Justinb: A good education, parents, and the opportunity to go to college.

Shawners: My Mom, my Dad, and my good friend, Travis.

Brando and I: each person in my family.

"What do you suppose being successful means?"

Justinb: When they have done what they wanted to do, or almost done what they wanted to do. He then quoted something about Thomas Edison.

Shawners: I don't know.

Me: I like Justinb's answer so much, I'm going with it.

Brando: Making a goal and meeting it, in everything in life.

"Tell me about God."

Shawners: He...

helps people with stuff.

loves everyone.

always sees what you say and knows what you say.

knows if you're going to hell or heaven.

everyone loves him. Except for some people. Like Satan.

So Flippin' UNmotivated

People, Shawners has FIVE more days of school left. FIVE. And I am sitting on my ARSE avoiding every moment doing school with him that I can. Our afternoon is going to be filled up with school, only because I am wayyyy more an afternoon person. That is, when I don't eat breakfast, and long story short, I've forgotten to eat breakfast for the last two months!! I think I stopped when I started feeling like I was gaining too much weight. Ugh.

One productive thing I did today was go to his meet the teachers at Justinb's school, where Shawners will be next year. Wow, the variation in teachers threw me for a loop! All the way from fresh out of college and clueless, young but knew what she was doing, to been there way too long and shows it, to been there way too long and knows exactly what to do. The latter seems the best option for me, just because sometimes I feel like I have no clue what I am doing and need someone who really does to guide not only my kid, but me, along. Shawners and I ended up liking the same teachers. So now I put the names down for my "unsuggestion" and cross my fingers. I missed the meet the teachers for Justinb on Monday because of work, but I'm hoping his current teacher will know where to send him. Plus, Jen, his sub, already gave me a clue as to who is good. And she was spot on with Shawner's teachers.

Other than that productivity, I've spent way too much time on the phone, half hazardly picked up the house and it still looks like a wreck, and had Shawners working on his room for the last hour (yes, it's that bad. That and he's a sweet little organizer, so he's decluttering and organizing at the same time).

Off to be productive!

Caterpillars!

Last year Shawner's kindergarten teacher suggested planting a parsley plant because it attracts caterpillars. We bought some parsley seeds, and Shawners planted them. The plant grew, but no caterpillars. Somehow the parsley survived the winter and is now a huge lush parsley plant. The other day I came home to find this note:

There's over twenty caterpillars on there now! Some are as tiny as a staple, only a little thicker. The most I could get in a photo is nine of them.

This morning he wakes me up with, "Mommy, there's a caterpillar eating a leaf! It's big and fat!"

Later he says, "I'm the luckiest boy in the WHOLE city! Unless, there's a boy who has a bigger parsley plant."

Killer Weekend

We had such a blast this weekend! By 3pm on Saturday we had all already had a completely full weekend, and now we have just been relaxing.

Yesterday morning, my girfriend, KT, and I took Shawners and road-tripped to College Station for the annual A&M Veterinary Open House.

College Station

We listened to a lecture by an exotic animal veterinarian called, "A Day in the Life of an Exotic Animal Veterinarian". We learned they do surgery on fish, wallabies, tigers, cockatoos, bald eagles, and mice. And that's all in only one day!

The exotic animal veterinarian lecture at A&M

Some of the animals they work on.

After the lecture we stood in line to take a picture with Reveille VIII BUT before you get all excited if you're an Aggie, we realized after 20 minutes that is NOT what we came there for. When we realized it would be another twenty minutes (and we were going to have to deal with super awful lady behind us, telling her daughter she was going to knock her out) to wait for the picture and our legs were already hurting we moved on! Then we walked through the large animal clinic and learned all about how they do surgery on horses and cows, and how they move them about when they are anesthized with padded rooms, and three ton lifts.

After the large animal clinic, Shawners wanted to check out the agility dogs, so we did.

Shawners resting his feet on KT. Not sure why this picture is so small!

Our next to last stop was the hallway of dogs. There were at least ten different breeds of dogs, and at least thirty dogs in all. Shawners pet every single one.

Shawners was this way with every dog there.

After that we were going to stop by the exotic animal area, but when we realized the only exotic pets they had there were the ones that we go cuddle and hold at our local exotic pet store (ferrets, snakes, turtles, iguanas, etc.) we decided the thirty-five minute wait in a line wasn't worth it. KT suggested McAllister's for lunch and off we went. Man, was I almost as thrilled about lunch as I was about the vet open house, when I realized they have .99 kids meals with a full meal, side (chips, fruit, mac n cheese, or a billion other things), and graham crackers!! Dang! The best news is we have one in Austin, and I didn't even realize it!! So excited!

Being goofy with Mommy! Not sure on the size of this one either...

.99 Killer Deal!!

On the way home we honked at the cows and waved at them like we did on the way there (something KT's Dad always does, so we carried on the tradition), and while we were a little too tired to enjoy the view again, I did snap some pictures before I zoned out to music while driving home.

The pretty drive. Sorry these are so small!

While KT, Shawners, and I were road trippin' it, Brando took JT kayaking, to his art class, and to his flag football game. Unfortunately no pictures to show for it, but they had an awesome day taking two single kayaks out (JT is getting SO big!), kayaking with a three inch draft (how far the boat goes in the water) in a four inch depth. Brando took a nap while JT was at art class. Then, took him to his flag football game where he played a KILLER game and made two awesome catches and one amazing touchdown catch!

They got home at the exact same time KT, Shawners, and I got home at 3pm! I couldn't believe we got back so early with a two hour each way road trip! After San Antonio and this one, KT and I totally rock the road trips! We went our separate ways, showered all the gunk off of us and promptly relaxed the rest of the day (especially for me after staying out til' 2am the night before with my girl Genie at an art gallery showing of Peter Max's famous work at Russell's Art Collection downtown with complimentary Lemon Drops and Cosmopolitans, catered by NoRTH - Allison you would've SOO loved it!, then hitting 7th street for live music). Whew!