Sorry about the title. Pop songs playing on Nick. Munchkin’s still up. Really…uhhhhh…OK fine. Even if she wasn’t up I would still probably be watching it. Why do these kids channels suck you in? You want to turn it off, but for some reason you just can’t. You don’t want to bob your head to the beat, but you find that it has a mind of it’s own when the drums thump. Should I know the words to the songs? NO. Do I? Well…since I’m being open, I must say that I do know a few of them. Her Dad has a few on his computer. If you ask him, he’ll probably tell you that they are for Munchkin to listen to, but I can definitely say that I have heard them eminating from the office when she wasn’t home. They’re catchy. And some of the shows actually have a good message to them.

But I digress from my original reason for posting today. I have wonderful news for those of you with mobile devices such as iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Opera Mini, Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm. The blog is now transformed into a more compatible format for these types of devices. You still have the option to view the website as normal (you can turn mobile on and off in the footer of the site). You can see all the pictures in the blog posts and also leave comments while in mobile view. Bookmark it today!

Finally, and update on the first week of school. 2nd grade seems to be Munchkin’s cup ‘o tea so far. She’s been doing all her homework as soon as she gets home - including reading for 20 minutes. She also finishes up her chores and then settles down to whatever she fancies (coloring, a snack, reading, playing cards, DS, Wii, trampoline, playing with the pups - you get it). She had great behavior all week! Now on to another great week! I hope everyone else had a great first week.

I can’t believe that there are only 2 days left before school starts back up. I took Munchkin to meet her teacher last night. I think she likes her from the first impression. We’ll see how it goes as the year progresses (like when there’s actual homework assigned). I know that we should start working on picking out a first day outfit. There is definitely going to be some back and forth and compromise. If today was any precurser, then it should be an intresting morning come Monday. Today we were going to a movie and lunch. Munchkin came out in a t-shirt and jeans about an inch to an inch and a half too short and shoes that should have been worn with socks, but no socks present. We spent 15 minutes discussing how the pants were too short and either 1) needed to be thrown away, or 2) needed to be turned into capri’s or shorts. For some unknown reason the girl won’t wear shorts. She’s a skirt and jeans kinda girl. Eventually we found some capris and flip flops and headed out.

Can I just say that I like Nanny McPhee. I liked the first movie and I like the second movie. I thought that the first movie was a smidge better than the second, but still enjoyable. I also like the fact that Emma Thompson was the writer for both films. Nothing like a writer to play their own character. No spoilers here, just if you liked the first one, then you will probably enjoy the second, so go see it.

Now it’s time to just relax for tonight. Tomorrow is full of a baby shower for a friend’s daughter. (Picture opportunities). And work on Sunday and then the nightly struggle of getting back on schedule for school. Then the big day Monday! If I don’t see you until then, everyone have a super weekend.

Well, we spent the last week at the ranch. I must say that it was a much needed rest, and I was sad to come home, but glad in the same breath because we came home to our other two babies. I did miss them, even though Ms. Grace has been nothing but a ball of gassiness. We’re planning another trip out there in December, but will probably hopefully make another weekend trip out there before then. We left Munchkin out there for the next 5 weeks. I’m not missing her completely, yet, but I’m sure I will in the coming weeks. I’m sure she’ll come home about 3-6 inches taller and tanner (not that she can get much more tan with her olive, Italian skin). I set her email up on her phone so she can send quickly without logging onto her computer. I’ve already had one email with the subject line “Houdy”. LOL.

We were supposed to go out for the 4th of July Rodeo. Unfortunately, due to the weather, the rodeo was canceled. They did have the parade, but not without sporadic showers. The kids scored tons of candy and the adults got t-shirts and koozies. We headed down to the craft fair downtown after the parade. Dad had a custom cutting board made for Hubster and surprised him with it at the vendor’s booth. I’m sure that day we probably saw most of the 387 population of the small town while we were there that afternoon. That night the girls lit sparklers. Munchkin held her ears as the sparkler dwindled down because she thought it was going to explode or pop in some way. I couldn’t help but laugh.

When we go out, I love taking pictures of the animals and various flowers and other plants out there.

Sometimes I see what I can find in the barn.

If I am lucky enough, I get to snap a quick picture or two of Munchkin.

We were going to head back on Thursday so Hubster could do payroll for work, but he did it remotely, so we ended up staying until Saturday morning. We wanted a day to recoup. Hubster tackled the lawn while I worked on the dryer (he stuck his shoes in there and they scuffed the inside all to heck) and the shower door (gotta love hard water). I also worked on the business a bit. I updated the background image to the blogsite because Hubster wasn’t too fond of the watermelon colored polka dots. To be honest, I wasn’t either. I wanted something a little edgier, but wasn’t sure what to do at the time. I think I’m happy for now.

I also set up a Newsletter Signup. I hope to be able to send out newsletters regularly. If you want to sign up for our newsletter, go here and enter your email.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Recently we’ve had visitors of an eight-legged variety outside our house. Both vehicles have inhabitants either on wheel wells or side mirrors. Butters lives behind my side mirror. Almost every morning he makes a web and Munchkin and I look at it when we get in the car to head off to camp.

On our way back into the house the other night, we noticed some more “friends” camping out on our palm.

This hairy little dude was just hanging out, surfing the leaf that was waving in the wind.

On a close leaf, we found these:

Unfortunately, they’re not there today. I don’t know if they hatched, were eaten (we do have lizards who live in the palm too), or just blew away. A little further up the same leaf we saw this teeny, tiny young lady. (I’m assuming the mother to the above eggs?????)

There are more friends out there. Maybe this coming weekend we’ll go out and take a closer look. What’s in your front yard?

This weekend was a good one. Can we rewind it? It started with Friday off from work! Yay!

I spent the morning down at Blue Hole scoping out photography spots. I found some plants and wildlife (AKA flowers and bugs…lol).

Then I got a brilliant idea to plan a Trash the Dress shoot. Here:

The plans are in motion, so we’ll see how they pan out. Keep watchin’!

Friday was also little Seester’s birthday. We ate us some lunch and then I snuck off to the store and got a card and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake. MMMMMMMmmmm. It mixed Reese’s and Cheesecake (2 of Seester’s fave things) and whipped cream (which should be one of everybody’s fave things). Then we spent the afternoon looking for shoes. Shoe shopping with a picky shopper. LOL. It was store after store after store. Step after step. GAnd we almost found something. Well we did find something, but they were damaged and we didn’t have time to see if they lady had them at a different store. So we left empty handed. Soooooooo….If anyone knows where to get a Reef Butter Flip Flop in black size 6, please let me know and we’ll surprise her together.

Then Saturday. Munchkin spent Friday night with Mo, and they came to pick me up for a fun-filled Pioneer Day. She wanted to ride the horse drawn wagon, but alas we had no cash. So she ended up at the bubble table. She LOVED the bubble table. I don’t know what it is about kids and bubbles, but give a kid a tub of bubbles and the fun just oozes for hours.

She also washed clothes, made cornmeal, and made a cornhusk doll. Pics of those to come later.

Mother’s Day was awesome! I got a little pot of flowers (I don’t really like big bouquets. Don’t get me wrong. They’re pretty and all, but then they die.) I also got two cards from Munchkin. One Hubster helped pick out and the other she made by herself. Then she and the Hubs made chocolate/white chocolate dipped strawberries. Hubs got me a bottle of Asti Moscato and made delicious burgers with bacon, cheese and BUTTAH! (Thank you Miss Paula Dean!) He also made angel food cake for homemade Strawberry Shortcake. Mmmmmmmm. Then we all just chilled watchin’ Scooby Doo and Chowder. I love Chowder.

How was your weekend?

I went through some more Lemonade Day pics. For your entertainment:

This was during a lull. She borrowed my sunglasses. She had the hiccups and I told her that everytime she had a hiccup I got to take her picture. The first one is her “Are you serious?” look. Second one she just thought it was so funny that she couldn’t stop her hiccups. The last one was when she decided she needed a drink. Her little nose all wrinkly just kills me.

She took off the glasses long enough to show me her eyeballs.

Then it was time to get back to work and earn that bling.

Last minute Miss E decided that she wanted to participate in National Lemonade Day. We had like a week to plan it. She needed to decide on a lot of things: location, product, price, advertising, investors… She worked on her poster and we decided on the sure thing standby of Country Time Lemonade. Who doesn’t love Country Time (other than her Nini)?

She sold at the church in the morning. We started out slow (boredom almost drove her to insanity - she resorted to dancing, picking flowers, and scrutinizing roly poly pillbugs in their daily routines), but as she got more customers, she became excited with high fives at every sale. The rain did spatter on us a bit. We cautiously watched the darker clouds roll in and roll on by without seeing a downpour. The umbrella later served as a shield from the blazing sun which had emerged from the clouds and helped push them on their way.

See there in the picture below - she has REAL lemon slices which were a hit. People just love putting those in their drink. It’s all about the flourish.

Then it was time for a break and relocation. We were supposed to be at home, but management changed her mind at the last possible second. We went to the playscape. She sold a little there, but was definitely more interested in playing, rather than selling. But….because she made a committment, I made her sell until at least 3:30 and then she could play. And she did.

Overall she made around $50 and is donating some of it to charity. I’m proud of her for committing to it and seeing it all the way through. Maybe she’ll want to do it again next year!

Tonight was the 1st grade Barnyard Moosical. When I got home we tried running over Munchkin’s lines once again, but she insisted that she knew them. She loved being dressed up. She got to wear a button down shirt like her Daddy wears to work. She even put on an undershirt. She slipped on her boots and tipped her new hat. Every 5 minutes from the office she announced the time. I did tell her that we would have to be there by 6:45 and we only live 5 minutes from the school. Of course it would take about 10 minutes just to get her all together and into the car. So at 6:30 we headed out.

She was right in the middle. She sang those songs the best that she could. Wide open and loud. I couldn’t help but giggle. Then it was her turn at the microphone. I just hoped she was right when we left, and that she had those lines down pat.

She did!!!!!

She says she can’t wait until she has more plays to be in. I’ll be at them, watching the little cutie! I love my little “Farmer 5″. (I have to admit that I didn’t take the photo below just because she was a farmer in the play. I took it because it was the first time I remember seeing her voluntarily wearing a cowboy hat and I just thought it was so darn, stinkin’ cute. Total Mom mode there.)

Yesterday my Weather Channel app said 50% chance of thunderstorm. Now it says 0% precipitation. Granted, I was inside all day so I can’t say I actually witnessed no rain. But I did see no evidence of rain when I exited work. So I am assuming that it did not rain as the meteorologists predicted. Sooooo….since there was no rain, I took Munchkin and her new light-up Twinkletoes out for a little nature walk. We saw several flowers:

And more flowers:

And on our way back in, we found a new little friend:

Then she came inside, finished up her Easter eggs, and headed on over to a friends house with her Mo for more egg dyeing fun. I encourage everyone to take a walk around the neighborhood. You might be surprised what you find.

I did have a shoot scheduled this weekend, but it was rescheduled to next weekend. So….this weekend was full of photo opportunities at home. This was the weekend that Munchkin and the Hubster were going to paint her room. There were stipulations. First, it was part of her early birthday present. Second, she had to stay on Green at school (those of you within GISD know what I mean). Thirdly, she had to help. I don’t know if you’ve ever painted with an almost 7 year old. It’s quite an adventure. I added the stipulation that neither of them could paint another human being or canine. Let’s just say that Munchkin ended up with paint miraculously in places that her Dad just didn’t know how it got there (insert innocent face here). Code also ended up with a pink chin (he delved into the trash can when no one else was looking so that would be his guilty face).

During the week, she and Dad trekked to the Home Depot for a color selection field trip. They headed on over to the Disney paints and she selected “Happily Ever After”. They went back Friday after school and picked up the supplies. She suited up in some non-frequently worn clothes. They dipped their rollers and set out to cover the green walls.

She worked, and worked….and worked. (I promised Hubster no pictures of him, but you can see his black-socked toe behind her below. OOOOOpsie. My bad!)

When she was done, she enjoyed all her early presents (the freshly painted room, her loft bed, and her paw-paw surprised her with a TV). Almost her entire room is new except for toys we moved back in.

This was just the beginning of the weekend. We did more, maybe there’ll be more pictures. Who knows. You’ll have to stay tuned. -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -

OK. The wait is over. Munchkin and I went on a little hike in the neighborhood. She liked the small stream running down to the river about 20 yards away and down a cliff.

I found a patch of bluebonnets (the same patch I took munchkin’s pictures at before). I found an albino one!