September Acres

Well it's not likely that I will go fishing (tried it a few times and found it thoroughly boring!) but I am taking a little break. LM goes back to school the first week in August which is right around the corner. We'll be doing some traveling, making our way by car through a bit of the wild west. Reno, Virginia City , Elko , and on to Utah. If all goes as planned we're going to spend the night at a dude ranch & hopefully have lunch one day at one of my favorite places on earth . LM is a little unsure of what to expect but I know she'll end up having a really fun time. Right now she is just dealing with the fact that we will NOT be taking in a Justin Beiber concert this summer (thank goodness!) I want to get a little closer to nature than that! It is Africa hot here now. They keep saying it's going to cool down this weekend but frankly, going from 114 to 110 isn't really cooling down, is it? We'll be spending lots of time in the pool. I have a

Well, I clearly did not miss my calling as a dentist. I mentioned the other day that LM lost her last tooth. A couple of days later she had her 6 month check up and I mentioned to the dentist that I thought she had lost her last tooth. Boy was I wrong! He said she still has 6 on the bottom and 4 on the top to lose. I stand corrected...

Looks like we won't be spending time here this summer. Instead we'll be here. (which is actually not half bad!) I mentioned our water woes earlier. Let's just dub summer 2010 'the summer of water'. On top of the leak the water conservation guy found in our irrigation system we need a new pressure regulator. That is all scheduled to be fixed tomorrow. I purchased the stuff I need for the irrigation but our handyman will be bring the new regulator tomorrow so I am not sure what that will cost. The doozy is the new pump and motor we need for our pool (it's leaking too). We got the estimate today and while I thought it was expensive my husband said it's half of what he thought it would be. It's still alot in my book. So once we get that all fixed we'll be in that pool alot this summer in case you're looking for me. I am hoping that all this will help with the next water bill. I did get the late fee taken off due to the confusion with the last bil

Last weekend LM & I tagged along with my hubby to Las Vegas (my parents also went). Bill and my dad had a race (work related) to go to on Friday night & Saturday night. I knew that Rick Springfield was performing at Mandalay Bay on Saturday night (what a coincidence that I would be in town that night!) I pondered going to the show alone since none of my friends could go. One was leaving for Hawaii on Sunday, one was in Moab on vacation and my sister, whom I can always count on, is in Australia. Well, as luck would have it, the car my dad & hubby sponsor lost and they were finished & back at the hotel around 7 pm on Saturday. Talk about one door closing and another one opening - now Bill was free to join me at the concert! We had just enough time to check with the concierge to make sure there were still tickets, give a room key to my mom so she could get LM ready for bed and hop a cab to the Mandalay Bay. The concert was SOOOO good! It was on the beach @ the Mand

I don't get a ton of comments on this blog but I have to say I get excited when I see I have a new one. I am not excited however when they are not really comments but just someone doing heaven knows what with dots & dashes and stuff. I am not sure why this happens (fill me in if you know) but I delete those ones. Since these type of comments are showing up more and more - probably at least every other post I do, sometimes more - I am going to comment moderation so I can delete them before they make it 'out there' for all to see. I hope this doesn't stop anyone of from posting comments because I really like the legitimate ones. I really do!

LM lost her last tooth tonight. The LAST one. Yikes. They just grow up too fast, don't they?

Soccer isn't the most boring sport on the planet after all. I mean, look at these players. Actually, there was a time, way back in the day , that I kind of liked it. We lived in Scotland for a few years when I was younger where soccer, I mean 'football', is a big deal. I think I was 11 or 12 the summer my friend Diana came to visit. Unbeknownst to either of us her visit coincided with a soccer tournament taking place in our little town . A soccer tournament that brought boys our age over from America. They must have been there for a couple of weeks. We followed those boys everywhere, including watching all their games. We could walk just about everywhere in town and if we couldn't we took a cab. Can you imagine letting your daughter catch a cab across town with friends at 11? We got to be friends with the boys on the team and Diana & I even 'liked' 2 of them. We were pen pals with these guys for a little while. Until the novelty wore off, I guess

Normally, water is my friend. Not so much lately. My last water bill was $50 higher than it has been for the last 3-4 years. $50 is almost a week's worth of groceries for us. A big deal. After looking over my past bills I realized the difference was in the sewer fee. We just got a 'real' sewer about 3-4 years ago. Which jacked up our water bill but also put us in the 21st century. So I call the water company (which is also our city government) and talked to a nice customer service rep who explained why the sewer rate went up. It's some very convoluted equation of water use during certain months of the year, blah, blah, blah. All good and well but we haven't used anymore water this past winter than we have in the past few years. Honest. At least not intentionally. I try to conserve water where I can. Five minute showers. Use leftover water from boiling to water plants. Collect water from our evap cooler for outside watering. Turn off sprinklers after

We have some good friends who are leaving tomorrow to move to Idaho. LM and their daughter were born 11 days apart, attended the same preschool and have become best friends. They attend different elementary schools but see each other most weekends. I am not sure it has hit either of the girls yet. But it has hit the moms. We have become really good friends over the years and have very similar parenting styles. Plus we are both 'older' moms (she was 38 when her daughter was born, I was 37) which is pretty rare here. They all came over for dinner tonight and a swim (they picked a hot time of the year to be packing up and moving). We had fun as always but it was bittersweet knowing that it will be the last time we do this when they live 5 minutes away. We plan on keeping in touch of course and I do believe we will be friends forever. These are our first good friends who have moved in quite sometime. We went through a spell when LM was about 2 when about 4 or 5 friends moved with

Out of the blue yesterday... "Why can't we be Catholic like L?" asks LM . "What do you mean?" I ask. "She is Catholic but she doesn't go to church." LM says. "Oh, well we are Catholic and we DO go to church." (What I was really thinking was "Yes, Dad wants to know the same thing...") Where do kids get this stuff???

I recently made this for my friend M for her birthday. It turned out so cute that I had to share. And since she has opened it already I won't be spoiling any surprises. I bought the wooden M at Walmart and painted it white. Used Modge-Podge to put the scrapbook paper on and embellished it with some ribbon and scrapbooking accessories. I think it is the perfect size to put at a desk although I am sure there are tons of other uses, that's just what was in my head. M loved her 'M' and said it was reminiscent of the big M that Mary Richards had in her apartment on the 'Mary Tyler Moore Show'. Remember that? Check out more fun ideas at the Shabby Nest today for Frugal Friday and Just a Girl for Show and Share day.

First of all, I cannot believe it is almost Friday. The week as flown by. Thankfully, I think. LM went to Sea World on Wednesday with her Girl Scout troop. After MUCH deliberation, I decided NOT to go. I spoke with the leader (who is also a friend) and told her my concerns and she said whatever I decided to do was good. The biggest change about the whole trip was that one of the co-leaders (R) was no longer a co-leader (I don't know the details but I am sure there's a story) and would not be going on the trip. LM had already requested that she not ride with this leader. When an 8 year old asks not to ride with a certain person I think there must be a good reason (because she yells, LM said, which she does.) And LM is not a complainer (nothing like me!) so I took the request seriously and so did L, the leader. So when the co-leader wasn't going I felt a HUGE weight lift off me. Another mom had stepped up to take her place and would be going on the trip. I mentione