Monday, January 19, 2009

A day at the beach

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, so after church we packed up the kids and headed to the beach for the afternoon. It was sunny and temperatures were in the 70s. What a fun day!

I took my camera (of course!) and took over 700 pictures. 700! I was shooting like a mad woman! At least I was until I made the mistake of switching lenses while on the beach - a very bad decision - and I got dust inside my camera. I will never make that mistake again! Now I have to go research how to clean it properly.

But, we did have an absolutely marvelous time. This is really a great time of year on the beach. It wasn't too busy, parking was easy and shells were plentiful. Galveston still has to a long was to go to recover from Ike. Some businesses are completely repaired and look untouched, but next door there will be a huge sailboat marooned in the parking lot far from any water. It's a very odd sight.

I'm sure more pictures will come soon!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 3)

Jen at Conversion Diary is hosting 7 Quick Takes Friday. Make sure you go and check it out!

---1---

This post was supposed to be for last Friday's 7 Quick Takes. It's taken me over a week to finish it (I started on January 5th!). So, just pretend it is Friday, January 9th and it will all make sense.

---2---

Jonathan was back in school this week after the Christmas break. We got up early Monday morning and I stumbled through the morning routine. My how quickly our bodies forget how to wake up before dawn! Eric took Jonathan to school, as usual, and about 20 minutes after they left I got a call from him.

"Are you sure Jonathan has school today?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Well, no one is here."

Oops. My bad. School didn't actually start until Tuesday.

--3--

Since Jonathan didn't have school on Monday, I had all three kids with me for my weekly grocery store trip, and things went pretty well. Jonathan helped me retrieve things from my list and Elizabeth and Gustin sat fairly contently in the cart.

At the end when we were checking out I noticed an older lady waving to me and rushing our way.

"There's a baby with no shoes!" she exclaimed breathlessly. "I bet these are his."

And, in her hands she held Gustin's shoes.

"I found these all the way over there," she said, indicating the far corner of the store.

What a sweetheart! She found the shoes on the floor and then searched the entire store until she found who they belonged to. I never even realized that they weren't on Gustin's feet! I must have a grocery store guardian angel. Doesn't it just make your day when you are the beneficiary of an unexpected kindness from a stranger?

Note to self: Never again buy velcro tennis shoes for a one year old. They are easy to put on, but are also way too easy to take off.

--4--

Eric worked late several days this past week. And I mean really late. Like he crawled in bed long after I went to sleep. And, you know what. I didn't whine about it. Not even once. I'm making progress!

--5--

Gustin got this cool new tricycle for Christmas. What he doesn't know, though, is that it was really a gift for me. With the cool handle, I don't have to bend over to push him around on his trike. I can even steer it by turning my handles. Isn't that cool!?! It absolutely rocks! No more back aches for me!

--6--

I received my first pair of capri pants over Christmas. I'm probably the only mom in the world to have never owned a pair.

I have to admit, I've never really understood capri pants. I'm a shorts girl. I'm most comfortable in them. At least when it's hot I am, which is about 9 months out of the year around here. If I'm not wearing shorts it's probably because a) it's cold or b) I haven't shaved my legs. In either case, I want my legs completely covered and capris just don't do that.

So, what do I think of my first pair? Well, I had to shave my legs to wear them and it's January so the bottom half of my legs were cold. I'll have to revisit them in the summer time and see if I like them any better.

--7--

I love my reusable grocery store sacks! I finally bought some and they function so much better than the plastic bags. They can fit about 15 plastic bags worth of groceries in 5 of the reusable ones, they're easier to carry, they don't rip and I don't end of with gobs of plastic bags all over my house. There is just one hiccup, though: remembering to take the reusable bags into the store with me in the first place. So far, I remember only about 20% of the time. Someone needs to invent a device that automatically beams the bags from my house to the grocery store because relying on my fuzzy mommy brain just isn't working.


Done! Whew, I did it! Hopefully, my next 7 Quick Takes will be a little more prompt!

I will post here again soon, I promise

I've actually been working on my 7 quick takes for 7 Quick Takes Friday for the last week and I'm still not done! I'm trying to be a good blogger. I will get a post done...eventually. Don't give up on me!

Sunday, January 4, 2009