Well folks, it looks like we may be getting our wish after all. As we've mentioned before, we'd like to move to Pennsylvania, it just seems the place for us. Well, our lease is up July 31st (not August 31st as we previously thought), and it turns out that we have to give moving or renewing notice to our landlord by May 31st, 60 days in advance! We're pretty sure we won't have enough money to move cross-country by July 31st. Since he e-mailed us Thursday of last week, asking us if we'd renew, with a slightly higher rent, we wrote back and told him we didn't really want to move, but that this neighborhood is horrible. Did he by chance have any other properties he could rent to us?
It just so happens that he does. He told us about one place that's not too far from here, just on the other side of I-35 near Braker. We went to look at it and the neighborhood looks a little of a mixed bag. There are some spots that look a little trashy, but others where lawns are well-maintained and people friendly. At the duplex next door, there were some children outside playing, speculating out loud as to why we were there. At least the children had some healthy paranoia and didn't approach us to ask us for money or food (something that frequently happens here).
He also told us that he would look and see what else he has when he comes back from his Memorial Day vacation. So, I guess we'll get more then. The other neighborhood looks more our speed than this one and it's entirely possible we won't find a place in our budget in any better of a neighborhood than that one.
As a final side note, the lost kitten has a name now, Axl. We came to this conclusion because he was initially discovered in the wheel well of someone's truck. He's getting better now, eating and his nose has pink to it fairly permanently now. Sadly, he also has worms pretty bad, but he's not big enough to be dewormed. That's always the problem when tiny kittens get worms. They can't be dewormed until they're a certain size, but they have difficulty growing bigger when all of their nutrients are being sucked up by these parasites. He'll be 8 weeks old next week, so we'll take him back and try demanding that he's dewormed, even if he doesn't weigh enough.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Blue Mohawk, Dance, Stupid blog photos
So let's start with the dance since we talked about it in the last post. Andrea decided to stay home from the dance because she was so stuffed up, she didn't think she'd have any fun. She took some pics of the kids in their nice clothes, then was silly and didn't hand Sam the camera. Apparently, great memories were had and Andrea didn't get to see it. :(
Today, Sam took Karma out and fixed her mohawk, thinned it up on top and made it look nicer than Andrea was coming up with. Karma came inside, took a shower and then noticed how spiky her hawk was looking. She said, "Wow, it's long enough to dye now!" Andrea then hunted down the blue hair dye and offered Karma a dye job. Now Karma has a blue hawk. You can see the pic of it on the left-hand bar.
That brings us to our last subject. There is also a picture of the kids, ready for the dance, in the left-hand bar. The stupid blog thing-y cuts off the right side of the pics. So, if it looks like Caedmon was cut out of the picture by some bad photography, it just ain't so. The pic was taken centered, appeared centered in the add page, but is not centered when posted. You may notice this with some of our other photos as well. Same problem!!
Today, Sam took Karma out and fixed her mohawk, thinned it up on top and made it look nicer than Andrea was coming up with. Karma came inside, took a shower and then noticed how spiky her hawk was looking. She said, "Wow, it's long enough to dye now!" Andrea then hunted down the blue hair dye and offered Karma a dye job. Now Karma has a blue hawk. You can see the pic of it on the left-hand bar.
That brings us to our last subject. There is also a picture of the kids, ready for the dance, in the left-hand bar. The stupid blog thing-y cuts off the right side of the pics. So, if it looks like Caedmon was cut out of the picture by some bad photography, it just ain't so. The pic was taken centered, appeared centered in the add page, but is not centered when posted. You may notice this with some of our other photos as well. Same problem!!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Dance Plans!!
We're finally ready to rejoin the social world of homeschooling in Austin and what do we learn? There's a dance! Of course, we just have to go. Aurora and Karma have been jonesing to attend a dance and through one stroke of bad luck or bad memory, have not been able to. They've got beautiful dresses on loan from their Aunt Christine and my goodness, they will look great tonight. The dance starts at 8pm, so we will be getting ready around 6:30pm and heading out about 7:30pm or so. We'll snap some pics so everyone can see.
In other news, Andrea is very sick and may hang out in the car at the dance tonight. Also, we are planning to have a Garage Sale, but Andrea is not well enough to plan one. We've got all the supplies, but we need to finish going through our belongings and pulling out things to sell. Then, we need to sort and mark everything. I guess we'll see what happens.
That's about it for now!
In other news, Andrea is very sick and may hang out in the car at the dance tonight. Also, we are planning to have a Garage Sale, but Andrea is not well enough to plan one. We've got all the supplies, but we need to finish going through our belongings and pulling out things to sell. Then, we need to sort and mark everything. I guess we'll see what happens.
That's about it for now!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Happy Mother's Day!!
To all the women we know, Happy Mother's Day! You may be thinking just now, "hey wait, I'm not a mother," but what woman isn't? All women have it programmed into our genetic codes to be a mother and try as we might, we find ourselves mothering everyone we know, spouses, siblings, co-workers, even bosses sometimes. As our parents grow older, we will eventually mother them, too in exchange for the parenting we received as children.
Now, I'd like to paste a speech called the Mother's Day Proclomation. I found this on a blog that I regularly read, Hathor the cow goddess.
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!
Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided byirrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reekingwith carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not betaken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teachthem of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of anothercountry to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. Fromthe bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.It says “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balanceof justice.”
Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summonsof war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for agreat and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to themeans whereby the great human family can live in peace, eachbearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that ageneral congress of women without limit of nationality may beappointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and atthe earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote thealliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlementof international questions, the great and general interests ofpeace.
Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870
Okay, we're off to enjoy a day together.
Now, I'd like to paste a speech called the Mother's Day Proclomation. I found this on a blog that I regularly read, Hathor the cow goddess.
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!
Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided byirrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reekingwith carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not betaken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teachthem of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of anothercountry to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. Fromthe bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.It says “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balanceof justice.”
Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summonsof war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for agreat and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to themeans whereby the great human family can live in peace, eachbearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that ageneral congress of women without limit of nationality may beappointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and atthe earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote thealliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlementof international questions, the great and general interests ofpeace.
Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870
Okay, we're off to enjoy a day together.
Monday, May 7, 2007
The Lost Kitten
Our good friend Steph was visiting us on Friday night, with the expectation that her husband, Greg would be over soon. When Greg arrived, he noticed a tiny black kitten trying to climb into the wheel well of a work truck. The driver of said truck kept kicking the kitten out, afraid that he would forget the kitten was there and drive off, injuring the kitten. A woman walked by and the kitten began following her until he lost interest, at which point he wandered into the road. Moments after wandering into the road, a truck came speeding by, nearly ending the kitten's life.
Greg scooped up the kitten and brought him to the door to safety. Andrea saw the tiny thing and made many exclamations about his cuteness. As she took the kitten from Greg, she noticed that Greg's hands were black with grease and the kitten had streaks of white fur. Andrea decided the kitten desperately needed a bath and had Steph get the cat wash/flea shampoo out. After his bath, the kitten was a little more scared, but still crawling with fleas. After Andrea saw how truly tiny he was, she decided not to use the flea shampoo again as it is not safe for kittens under 8 weeks.
After his second bath, this time with baby shampoo, everyone noticed that the kitten was not black as previously thought, but instead gray and white, pretty equally. The kitten was quite scared by this point, having only been inside for a half hour and having already received not one, but two baths. After drying him off, Andrea found the dry kitten formula mix she had bought for Qsmat and mixed some up for the new kitten. He stuck his nose in, but did not lap, so Steph and Andrea assumed he hadn't been weaned and set out in pursuit of a kitten bottle.
It was nearly 10 o'clock at night by this point, so Petsmart was long closed and Target was closing. Steph and Andrea managed to find some preemie bottles at Target and bought them in the hopes they would work. After getting the bottles home, the kitten decided he didn't like the bottles and would instead like to lap formula from a bowl! Cute kitten.
We managed to get the kitten into the vet on Sunday, but found out he was too small to receive most treatments. He was able to get some roundworm dewormer, but too small for Capstar and other parasite killers. The vet told us that he is anemic, most likely from the number of fleas he had on him. We are to give him a multi-vitamin twice a day until his nose and gums are completely pink and feed him whatever we can get him to eat.
Since we started perking him up with multi-vitamins yesterday, he has been eating KMR and wet food voraciously about every 6 hours. He's still sleeping a little more than average, but he's playing more when he is awake. He doesn't have a name yet, but we're sure he's a boy, he's 4 weeks old, he weighs 1.25 pounds and is as cute as pie!
We'll try to get a picture up in a a bit. If none appear, you can leave a comment asking for one to be e-mailed to you.
Greg scooped up the kitten and brought him to the door to safety. Andrea saw the tiny thing and made many exclamations about his cuteness. As she took the kitten from Greg, she noticed that Greg's hands were black with grease and the kitten had streaks of white fur. Andrea decided the kitten desperately needed a bath and had Steph get the cat wash/flea shampoo out. After his bath, the kitten was a little more scared, but still crawling with fleas. After Andrea saw how truly tiny he was, she decided not to use the flea shampoo again as it is not safe for kittens under 8 weeks.
After his second bath, this time with baby shampoo, everyone noticed that the kitten was not black as previously thought, but instead gray and white, pretty equally. The kitten was quite scared by this point, having only been inside for a half hour and having already received not one, but two baths. After drying him off, Andrea found the dry kitten formula mix she had bought for Qsmat and mixed some up for the new kitten. He stuck his nose in, but did not lap, so Steph and Andrea assumed he hadn't been weaned and set out in pursuit of a kitten bottle.
It was nearly 10 o'clock at night by this point, so Petsmart was long closed and Target was closing. Steph and Andrea managed to find some preemie bottles at Target and bought them in the hopes they would work. After getting the bottles home, the kitten decided he didn't like the bottles and would instead like to lap formula from a bowl! Cute kitten.
We managed to get the kitten into the vet on Sunday, but found out he was too small to receive most treatments. He was able to get some roundworm dewormer, but too small for Capstar and other parasite killers. The vet told us that he is anemic, most likely from the number of fleas he had on him. We are to give him a multi-vitamin twice a day until his nose and gums are completely pink and feed him whatever we can get him to eat.
Since we started perking him up with multi-vitamins yesterday, he has been eating KMR and wet food voraciously about every 6 hours. He's still sleeping a little more than average, but he's playing more when he is awake. He doesn't have a name yet, but we're sure he's a boy, he's 4 weeks old, he weighs 1.25 pounds and is as cute as pie!
We'll try to get a picture up in a a bit. If none appear, you can leave a comment asking for one to be e-mailed to you.
Settling back in
It seems lately that there's always so much to talk about and so little time to say it in.
We are settling back into our family life here in Austin. The kids resumed school work today and are cracking right through it. The awesome part is, they didn't even have to be asked, it was like they were just ready to go at it again.
Caed blew through about six different books while we were gone. He finished what we own of the Warriors' New Prophecy series, then read Eragon and Eldest, Raising Dragons (a gift from Aunt Christine), and read a book from the Ice Age cycle of the MtG card game. He's now in a book from the Time Spiral cylce in the MtG card game.
Aurora has also finally got the reading bug. It took her forever to read Goblet of Fire, but once she had finished it, she was driven to finish what we own of the series. She picked up book 5 as we were departing our family in PA and finished last Friday (the day after we arrived home). She started book 6 that same day and here it is the following Monday and she's already half-way through. She's read a lot over the weekend.
Karma has always had the reading bug, she loves to read. She's enjoying creating her art work as well, so she spends her time divided between the two activities. She finished books 5 and 6 while on vacation and is involved in another book at the moment. She was also commissioned to create some art work for a website her Aunt Christine is working on and she has been pleased so far.
Andrea and Sam are working on getting household things taken care of, Sam finally has his license back. Since the entire family seems deadset on making the move to PA as soon as possible, we are also working on getting things ready for that. It will be another cross-country move, our fourth in our 8 1/2 years of marriage. Of course, it will take several months, possibly a year to coordinate everything, but we're hoping to never move that far again.
Sam's birthday is tomorrow, but since everyone works, we celebrated this last weekend. It was a lot of fun involving two birthday cakes, some board games, a lost kitten, and lots of rousing conversation. Sam got Supernatural Season 1 for his birthday from our good friends Greg and Steph, he also received issues 3 and 4 of Full-Metal Alchemist from Caed and Aurora. Karma got him a Spider-Man montage puzzle which he says he'll put together soon, Andrea's mom and Aunt Peggy bought him the Diablo Battle Chest (again), and Andrea got him a Planar Chaos fat pack and a pre-constructed deck from Future Site. All-in-all, he says he had a great birthday.
The lost kitten story shall follow.
We are settling back into our family life here in Austin. The kids resumed school work today and are cracking right through it. The awesome part is, they didn't even have to be asked, it was like they were just ready to go at it again.
Caed blew through about six different books while we were gone. He finished what we own of the Warriors' New Prophecy series, then read Eragon and Eldest, Raising Dragons (a gift from Aunt Christine), and read a book from the Ice Age cycle of the MtG card game. He's now in a book from the Time Spiral cylce in the MtG card game.
Aurora has also finally got the reading bug. It took her forever to read Goblet of Fire, but once she had finished it, she was driven to finish what we own of the series. She picked up book 5 as we were departing our family in PA and finished last Friday (the day after we arrived home). She started book 6 that same day and here it is the following Monday and she's already half-way through. She's read a lot over the weekend.
Karma has always had the reading bug, she loves to read. She's enjoying creating her art work as well, so she spends her time divided between the two activities. She finished books 5 and 6 while on vacation and is involved in another book at the moment. She was also commissioned to create some art work for a website her Aunt Christine is working on and she has been pleased so far.
Andrea and Sam are working on getting household things taken care of, Sam finally has his license back. Since the entire family seems deadset on making the move to PA as soon as possible, we are also working on getting things ready for that. It will be another cross-country move, our fourth in our 8 1/2 years of marriage. Of course, it will take several months, possibly a year to coordinate everything, but we're hoping to never move that far again.
Sam's birthday is tomorrow, but since everyone works, we celebrated this last weekend. It was a lot of fun involving two birthday cakes, some board games, a lost kitten, and lots of rousing conversation. Sam got Supernatural Season 1 for his birthday from our good friends Greg and Steph, he also received issues 3 and 4 of Full-Metal Alchemist from Caed and Aurora. Karma got him a Spider-Man montage puzzle which he says he'll put together soon, Andrea's mom and Aunt Peggy bought him the Diablo Battle Chest (again), and Andrea got him a Planar Chaos fat pack and a pre-constructed deck from Future Site. All-in-all, he says he had a great birthday.
The lost kitten story shall follow.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Safe and Sound
We arrived home at about 11:30 p.m tonight, safe and sound, well maybe not so sound. We saw some lovely thunderstorms while crossing Dallas, several points where we had to drive 20 mph and even one point where we had to pull completely off the road and go hide in a truck stop with about 20 other people. Had it not been for the weather, we'd have been home around 10pm. C'est la vie!
We're of course exhausted, but not quite ready for bed. We sent the kids off to bed, they were passed out in the car anyway. We're just chillin' out on the couch now thinkin' about everything and nothing all at once. We got some crap to do tomorrow, gotta go pick up our mail, clean out the rental, maybe get it returned (has to be done in 12 hours), get Sam's license, and go to the bank.
The cats are very happy to have us home. At first, they looked at us like, "Who the hell are you people, and where is that nice calm couple that's been coming over?" Then, when they recognized us, they got some preliminary pets and proceeded to ignore us for about a half hour in protest of our 3 week absence. Now, only Cyrano is really cuddly, cuddled up to Momma, of course. Everyone else has had a bit more love, though.
The rats are happy to have us home also...Poor Demi, Karma's rat, needs a one-way trip to the vet. She has a mammary tumor that in the 3 weeks we've been gone is now about half of her pre-tumor size. Foxie rang her bell for some attention, got some, then proceeded to ring her bell again because she wanted more. The girls told her she will just need to wait until morning.
Well, there's a lot more to talk about, but that can be another post.
We're of course exhausted, but not quite ready for bed. We sent the kids off to bed, they were passed out in the car anyway. We're just chillin' out on the couch now thinkin' about everything and nothing all at once. We got some crap to do tomorrow, gotta go pick up our mail, clean out the rental, maybe get it returned (has to be done in 12 hours), get Sam's license, and go to the bank.
The cats are very happy to have us home. At first, they looked at us like, "Who the hell are you people, and where is that nice calm couple that's been coming over?" Then, when they recognized us, they got some preliminary pets and proceeded to ignore us for about a half hour in protest of our 3 week absence. Now, only Cyrano is really cuddly, cuddled up to Momma, of course. Everyone else has had a bit more love, though.
The rats are happy to have us home also...Poor Demi, Karma's rat, needs a one-way trip to the vet. She has a mammary tumor that in the 3 weeks we've been gone is now about half of her pre-tumor size. Foxie rang her bell for some attention, got some, then proceeded to ring her bell again because she wanted more. The girls told her she will just need to wait until morning.
Well, there's a lot more to talk about, but that can be another post.
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