Seeing Red

These are Parker's school pictures. Is it just me, or do they have their color correction slider a bit too far towards the red head side?

I've had some uploading troubles lately...hopefully if this makes it to the internet, I'm back in blog business.

Library tip

Parker:  "I'd like to get a book about dogs from the school library."

Me:  "Really?!  I was there today for volunteer orientation!  Did you know that to find a book about dogs, you look for the shelf that has a stuffed dog above it?"

Parker:  "oh.  I usually just look in Non-Fiction."

Choosing Battles

A long time ago Parker's grandmother brought her this big stuffed chicken, with the explanation of "every little girl needs a big stuffed chicken", or something like that. He is really cute, I can see how it was a difficult purchase to resist. He made his way to the bottom of the toy basket, but has recently bubbled to the surface and become the favored animal that Parker drags around the house with her. And he's even big enough to have his own pillow to rest his head at night in her bed.
On friday she came home with a note that said since she had gotten x number of reward 'bucks' at school, she gets to choose a reward....one of which is bringing a stuffed animal from home to sit on her desk all day (*cough* cheapskate teacher) .
One guess which one she wants to bring.

I'm all for letting her express herself, but I'm drawing the line at Big Chicken going to school.

Kitchen Pictures

We are FINALLY nearly complete. There are still some decorative things I need to get done and the kitchen table needs to be moved back in.
More comentary coming soon.

Wiggly tooth

Not the cutest picture, but I was anxious to post it.  Parker has her first loose tooth.  It's not totally loose on it's own accord...she somehow bit her finger and that loosened it, but I'm assuming it will eventually come out.  She's a little freaked out about it, and so am I.

Hurricane, hurricane go away.

We've had a super rainy day today, I think they said 6 inches fell in a 24 hour period at the airport, but I bet we got more than that out here.  During dinner time, it get very tornado-y around the Dallas area, but it all fell apart before it got to us, thankfully.

Doing homework

Carla
- via mobile phone

Progress

The kitchen is still sloooowly creeping along.  Today someone was here for several hours just filling in nail holes with wood putty. I think he has turtle DNA.

We finally have a couple areas that we can 'move in' to this weekend if we want. The bar and the laundry room are pretty much complete.  There are a million areas over the entire kitchen that need little bits of trim or little paint or caulk touch ups...and that's before Bob make HIS punch list. 

Parker is a first grader!

I'm a little sore from doing handsprings and clicking my heels in the air, but I'll try to write a little something.  

Drop off went well....when we got there, most of the class were there already (translation:  we were running a little late), so Parker seemed a little shell shocked, but she found her seat and the place to put her backpack, and that was it. 

Here are the traditional pictures.  I think next year I'm going to change the tradition and post the pictures on the SECOND day of school.  Usually on the first day, by the time I get everything edited and put together just so, half my day is gone, and I'm way behind on all the things I had planned for the day:  hearing myself think, completing a task without interruption, and a lot of other NOTHING. 

I did my best to line things up and scale them the same, but it's still not quite a 1:1 comparison because she doesn't always stand the same distance away from the door.  Also this year, we've added the hip out/slouch pose. Remember, you can click on the pictures to see them larger in their own window.

I feel like I should have made her dress up more, but this is her uniform right now:  denim shorts and tshirt with a cat or dog on the front.  As soon as I let her, we'll change that to tshirts and jeans.  I sort of wish she'd want to get more dressed up, but it's hard to complain about only buying $5 tshirts.  You can also see how much my standards have dropped when you look at her footwear.  It doesn't show, but I did at least give her a fresh coat of polish on her toenails.

Stick a fork in summer....

....cause it's DONE. This has been a long hot one, and I'm glad to see it over with. They should change the school year in the hot states so that you get out early may when it's nice outside and go back early august when it's miserable outdoors. If you're going to be indoors at school, you might as well do it when outdoors is inhospitable (which is an understatement....it's not even really SAFE to be outdoors much right now). Parker was very sad to learn that I won't allow her to wear jeans and suede boots to school until the highs are out of the triple digits.

I hope all my teaching peeps have a good first day tomorrow too!

Check back for first day pictures tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited to see the comparison pictures and how (if?) Parker has grown over the past year.

She braids, she braids

Milestone alert: parker can braid hair now!

Fishing

Tile

Here's the tile floor. Bob designed the pattern (not a lot of patterns for rectangular tile) and the holes you see will be filled in. It's a slight upgrade from the sheet vinyl that was there before. Tile Guy left his levels there so we could see that everything was even.

Sunmer reading

All the big bookstores have a summer reading program for kids....you log x number of books, and then you can bring your log sheet in and get a free book from a preselected group. Parker started the summer really well, with independent reading nearly every day, but with all the remodel chaos, she's slacked off a bit.

The other day I reminded her that she just had 3 more books to read in order to get her free one, so inspired by potential shopping trip, she got down to business and finished up her list.

At the bookstore:

She was clearly not excited by the selection, even though there were a couple decent choices. I convinced her to get a Ramona book, which she is enjoying, but she would have much preferred something from the display right next to the display of the freebies. But haha Borders, your bait and switch didn't work on me. We got our freebie book and nothing else (mainly thanks to Parker's attitude).

Don't miss the outfit: Big green glitter flip flops make from a craft kit, black rubber ankle bracelet w/ skulls from the dentist's toy bin and a blue plaid scarf tied around her waist, with the ends hanging down in the back to make a tail.

Kitchen Progress

Here's the kitchen progress as of yesterday. There was more done today, but my camera battery is dead. Once it's charged, I'll try to get another picture.

So far they've installed some of the cabinet doors/drawers/shelves and primed some of the walls and woodwork, and done the backsplash. Most of last week things were covered in plastic, and the week before that we were basically homeless because of the smell from the spraying of the lacquer.
Today they installed 2 of the 3 faucets and some of the tile. It is so strange to have running water in those rooms that I'm afraid to use the sinks. Hopefully with in the next week we'll have the disposal done and all the appliances in. That will make a HUGE difference in the quality of life around here.

Granite install

Heeeere's the granite! It's super busy looking, which I'm sort of worried about, but it's really pretty with all the different shapes and colors. Sure beats the ~blue~ surface we had there before. The cabinets are stained too, but still don't have doors on yet. Do you think I overcompensated for having such short cabinets before?

Let there be light,cobbler

Here's a straight-on shot of the new window. I need to get a 'before' picture up there of the old, small, square one. Outside the window is the prettiest Japanese Maple that gives us beautiful spring and fall color, so it will be great to be able to see more of it.


Here's a picture of the cobbler i made in the toaster oven the other day. I'm really missing my oven, and I couldn't let summer go by w/out making a baked peach dessert somehow. I used cinnamon tortillas for the 'crust' and it was quite tasty. The Blue Bell Vanilla didn't hurt either.

Parker's First Fish

I can't remember if I posted this or not, or if this is even Parker's actual first fish....seems like I remember her catching one last year. Anyway, about a month ago we were in Granbury, and Parker caught a fish. This is her uncle Jeremy with her in the picture. The funny part is that she was pretty medium about fishing, but Bob got her to do it....and the minute she put her line in the water, she got a bite. *check* Done with fishing.

Kitchen Progress - week 4

The kitchen remodel keeps crawling along at a slow steady pace. This week they finished installing additional lighting and they tape, floated and textured the walls.

BEFORE

DURING: (One guess what Parker wants)

AFTER

There's a greenish color cast on the back wall, I guess from the window. Everything is white right now.

We're getting pretty bored around here. In the evenings Parker rides her bike around in the driveway while I wash dishes in the garage (bob dries). This is a picture of a fun game of Throw The Icecube Up In The Air And Watch It Smash On The Sidewalk. Helmet required.

Garden question

How do you know when a cantelope is ready to pick?

Happy Cabinet Day

The cabinets came today! It was a long day of hammering and sawing and people in and out.

BEFORE

DEMO

INSTALLATION

(The doors and drawers aren't installed yet, and countertops are a ways out too)

Kindergarten - Before and after artwork

Bingo

Pool tournament

round 1
Bob v. High school kid

****BREAKING NEWS*****

Bob won 2nd place in the pool tournament! He received a cash prize of $16.