Another Year, Another Birthday

Today was Sandy's birthday! He chose to go to a Mexican restaurant in Duncan which was great! It was a low key event. Our gift to Sandy is two tickets for him and Scott to see the Allman Brothers at the Beacon in NYC March 14th.

Sandy is never without his "crack"berry!

Birthday cake!

Tinkerbell has used up a few of her nine lives

Sandy trying to get Tinkerbell to drink something by making her jealous with licking noises. (It worked!)

I came home from Ocean Reef to a VERY sick cat. Apparently, Tinkerbell got into someones rat poison or ate a poisoned mouse. I took her to the vet where she had to spend the night. She is home now but she is not well yet. We are waiting to find out if she has permanent liver damage. We had NO hope on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. But she made an improvement Wednesday afternoon. We feel like she is improving a little every day. She is still not eating or drinking a lot. She's not out of the woods but we are hopeful. (Say a little prayer please! I really think that's what's kept her alive this week. Even Barbar's mom said a Rosary at church for Tinkerbell. To know Tinkey is to love her!)

Quick trip to Ocean Reef

At the last minute, I decided to fly down to OR to spend a long weekend with Len and Jaye and visit with Paula and Nancy who were visiting for the weekend with their parents. It got off to a REALLY rocky start. I got to the house around 10:30pm. At around 1am I started puking my guts out. This lasted all night long and through out most of the next day.....Note to self: When flying on a $29.00 discount airline DON'T buy one of those cute 5.00 meals. Odds are the pepperoni are bad.........I TRIED to rally at supper when Jaye lovingly fixed me chicken noodle soup. I did sit up about 15 minutes and consumed a 1/2 cup of soup before I went back to bed. Lucky for me, the next morning I was back in the land of the living and was able to enjoy the remainder of my stay. Thank you Len and Jaye for letting me come and stay with you! Len and Jaye make a handsome couple on the way to church.

Paula and Nancy relaxing by the lagoon.

Celebrating Paula's birthday!

Dr. and Mrs. Marks

Chris and Phil cooked every night! I felt so spoiled! Dinner time was too much fun. I have this picture of Chris and the one of Phil below. I neglected to get a picture of Chris' sister, Susan and her boyfriend Joe who were also visiting. I enjoyed getting to know them.

When I was getting ready to fly home on Monday Len gave me these two lemons he picked off the lemon tree in the back yard to give to the boys. I had NO IDEA if I could get on the plane with them???? I guess knobby lemons are not on the terrorist watch list because I had no problems. Len accused me of ditching the lemons as soon as I left the house. Here is the PROOF that they made it to SC!

shell shock

Tonight we had Le's Middle School orientation. I was sick to my stomach by the time it was over. I can't believe Le's old enough to be in middle school. I'm not prepared. I looked over at him. He looked SO sweet and innocent. The teachers look SO old, hard, and mean. It seems like the school is just push, Push, PUSH. They talked about stuff I didn't learn until COLLEGE. French, Spanish, Algebra, Geometry. They said colleges these days expect 3-4yrs of a foreign language. What the &!*# ! They also push the kids to be earning HIGH SCHOOL credits by 7-8th grade. Expect more work. Expect more homework. It's time to grow up. These were all direct quotes. Is it too late to start home schooling?

Wednesday night dinners

On Wednesday nights we join forces with our neighbors The Dietrich's (We call them the Von Trapps because they have 5 kids.) We alternate houses but pool resources for dinner. This week was at the VonTrapps. They had make your on kabobs. Sandy and I brought salad, rice, and cupcakes. Next week I'm making spaghetti and meatballs! I don't think Samuel likes his cupcake.......