New Fish Tank

I have always liked fish. I had fresh water tanks growing up.  I have always had a Beta or two in the house.  there is a Koi pond out back with some Koi that Allen and I have had since they were tiny. About a year ago my neighbor was showing me that he had found a 14 gallon salt water tank to put in his daughters room.  As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have one.  So last weekend I took Alex and Mom to the best fish store in the DFW area. We bought a 14 gallon fish tank, some live rock, and some saltwater.  We were told to go home, set this up, and let it run for a week. We did that and everything seemed ok.  So this weekend we hiked right up to the fish store again to test our water and buy some fish.

We bought a coral, a peppermint shrimp, and a clown fish.  The clown fish is literally the smallest clown fish you could imagine. The guy at the store had absolutely no confidence in my fish keeping skills.  He knew that this was my first saltwater tank and that it was only 14 gallons, so he was literally cutting me off on my purchases.  I told him he was no fun. Several times.

So we put those three things in the tank and stared at them for hours.  Nemo looked so pathetic and lonely.

Allen played golf today with Pops and Alex and I was supposed to meet them at 1:00 for lunch in the clubhouse. I head out the door at 12:40 only to get a call as I get on the highway letting me know they were running really late.  SO I took my hungry toddler on a distraction trip to the saltwater store near our house. NOT really a great store, but a saltwater store nonetheless.  He was going to be moving locations very soon, so he didn't have much in stick, but what he did have he was really willing to let go of.  After lunch, we circled back to the store and picked up a Fire Angel Fish and a Frogspawn Coral.

Here are some pics of our new fascination around here. We love it.  With two fish, a few corals, and a peppermint shrimp, I think we will be good for a while! We will see how these guys do.

This is a Frogspawn Coral

This is Nemo.  Can you guess who named him?

No Clue what you call this stuff

This is a Fire Angel Fish.  She is incredibly anxious

She's certainly not shy, but she's not going to sit still long enough to get a picture either!

This is Allen and I's favorite coral.  It actually just happened to already be on the live rock when I bought it.  It survived the trip.  1 point for us, 1 less point for overpriced fish store. 

The peppermint shrimp will not come out at all for us to see him, so a photo op was out of the question.  Alex has named the peppermint shrimp Rango, the clown fish Nemo, and he wanted to name the Fire Angel "Girl"  I shot that down.  I started calling her Angel, but not sure if it will stick.  We also have two tiny starfish that are impossible to find.  They came off of the rock when we bought it along with what I call sea slugs.  Hideous slug looking things.  I am pretty brave when it comes to touching all this stuff, but I swear if my finger ever lands on one of those things I am going to flip out. They are gross looking.

Thanks for stopping by!

It's Summer In Texas

It's summer in Texas which means I have to cope with my usual obsessive fear dislike of bees for a couple of months. I took this photo from the safety of the Hendricks house in Huntsville.  He was on the glass on the front door. It's probably the closest I have ever been. They fascinate me......in a very scary way that makes me shiver when I think of them.

Fourth of July: 
We had a fairly mild 4th this year.  After hee-hawing around about what to do, we met up with the Eubanks and The Kastens in Addison for Kaboomtown.  Don't get me wrong, I think the fireworks display is great, but Kaboomtown has made a name for itself as one of the best fireworks displays in TX and people come from all around to see them. There were certainly plenty of people there.  In fact, the traffic afterwards is HORRIBLE! But I won't start in on it.  I could literally write an entire post about Kaboomtown traffic. Ugh.

All in all it went very well.  It was incredibly hot.  We were out there for hours.  We had a handful of kiddos with us.  The majority of the kids could not care less about fireworks. We had ZERO meltdowns. That's success in my book.

Fourth of July, Part Dos:

 Bobbie bought us a blow up Lightening McQueen pool with a side for the backyard. Since the fireworks were actually on the 3rd of July, we got up on the Fourth and filled up the pool.  The Monster just stripped down and got in (as he does, every day now).  I don't think that there is too much cuter than my boy running around the yard naked, so I got the camera out.

Alex has discovered Locust this year. I hate those things. I think they are creepy with the weird noises they make (now that I think of it, you would think I might have a problem with crickets as well. Simply not so).  We keep finding them in the backyard and Alex loves to look at them closely.  He won't touch them though. Smart kid. GROSS. 

Gattitown with Julian:
 Our buddy Julian came over to play the other day.  We took the boys to a place called Gattitown to have some fun. Well, fun for them.  There is nothing fun to me about a place with screaming kids, a pizza buffet lacking anything resembling good pizza and covered with, what I am convinced are, the rudest (or hungriest) people on Earth, and games the seem to sense just how much money you have on your pocket. However much is there, that's exactly how much it cost to play that particular game. BUT! Three year old boys think this is INCREDIBLE! So, they had fun and they were fun to watch.  I can't remember exactly, but I believe Julian is about three months older than Alex. He is very smart and having a conversation with Alex and Julian was hilarious.

Kate: OK boys.  We need to listen and have good manners right?
Alex: yes. Like saying yes ma'am or yes sir.
Julian: NO Alex.  It's NO ma'am and yes sir.

My other facorite moment was when we were on the way to Gattitown.  Julian is very expressive. he will tell you out of the blue in the most sincere manner that he "loves his Mommy and Daddy very very very much".  He also sings the alphabet in his own sweet way:

... O  P  Q  R  yes  T  U  V ......

It took me too long to do a post. I need to do more posts more often! 

Broken Bow, OK trip

My very close friend Alynn has a birthday very near mine, so this year we decided to do something fun.  We rented a cabin in Broken Bow, OK with one other couple who are also close friends of ours: Chris and Stacy.  ( I think that Chris' birthday is actually not too far off as well!)  So we all packed up the kids and dogs and headed to this cabin. We picked the worst weekend for it weather wise.  It rained the entire time we were there.  We still had a good time though.  The kids played non stop. We all watched movies and took walks when the rain let up.

We did try starting a bonfire on Sunday night when the rain let up, but we made someone up there mad, because the rain came back quickly and with a vengeance. No problem. We just roasted marshmellows and made smores inside on ou incredibly artificial gas fireplace.

Below are the pictures I took.  If Alynn uploads hers (AND I get around to it) I will add them to this post.

Alex wore Kennedy's rain boots for a bit.  He didn't want to take them off.

Alynn and I worked together to spill an entire half gallon of milk so violently that a lot of it actually ended up on Alex's face. 

 Alex playing outside the "Grateful Head" pizza place. It was actually some of the best pizza I have had in a while.

Bath time = play time in this house. 

Chopper found a good spot for himself within minutes of arrival

We stayed on the patio and blowed bubbles while it rained. 

Ken with a mustache. (This is also Alex's future wife!)

Madd's mustache

Morgan's mustache

Morgan sans mustache. Much better.

 Mustache mania!

Alex wtih an incredibly premature mustache!

I can't even remember what he was begging me for, but I know he was begging. 

Hey Mom.  Ms. Alynn made my toenails pretty.

Uh oh....

Sasha Fierce



Alex's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe he is 3 years old. I can't believe how old I am for that matter. We did the usual party at the casa for Alex. I love having everyone I love in my house and I will continue to do that for his/our birthday until he gets old enough to realize that there just might be more exciting places for a kiddo to have a birthday party. This year I did a sort of vintage carnival theme, although I didn't do much with it!  The invite looks like ride tickets, the cupcakes were in red and white striped holders with fondant popcorn on top.  I also had some snacks in vintage carnival treat bags.  We served hot dogs and nachos because that is what you find at a carnival AND those are incredibly easy things to serve a large number of people!

Below are some pictures from the day.  We have had a crazy windy APril this year and hot days as well.  The one day this tapered off was Alex's party. It was still and cool and we could not have asked for more perfect weather.  

Most of you know that Alex and I have the same birthday.  We did the party for him and for my birthday, we are renting a cabin in Broken Bow, OK with some friends for a long weekend, so I am looking forward to that coming up in less than a week!