More Mid Summer Updates

On Memorial Day Warren visited the pool at his apartments for the first time. Oh did he love that!

Warren with Aunt Laura and Uncle Lando

Warren and Nini

Mid Summer Update

Here I am again and we've had lots of fun so far this summer. Baby Warren (better known as Pookie or Bugger) has really grown. He's crawling fast and pulling up and walking along the furniture. Beware, he has four teeth now and chews on everything!

Sometimes the service at Logan's is so slow one is tempted to eat the table cloth!

Hey! Who did this?

First taste of ice cream, Blue Bunny No Sugar Added Bunny Tracks. It's good stuff!

He's Puppa's little guy.

He sure loves dogs. The louder they bark the better.

The beginnings of a pretty tough weekend?

Holy shitaki mushrooms*! One of those ten minute afternoon thunderstorms came along yesterday afternoon and with the first wind took two thirds of my 15 year old bradford pear tree and dropped it on my Escape!


Two of the daycare dads showed up as Rick arrived home from work and broke out the chain saw. They both pitched in to help him remove the bigger branches from my car. The Escape suffered only minor dents on the roof thank goodness. The real price it seems, other than a days work taking down the rest of the tree and clearing the yard, is that there was a robin's nest with three less than a week old babies in it. The nest landed still on the branch and upright with all three still in it. That's a tough Doozer construction there. We tried placing the nest in the other tree but it wasn't apparent that the mother would find them. Oh she looked and she cried for them. We finally put them back in the tree they fell out of but are not sure if she found them yet. That tree is coming down today so what to do with those babies? Oh my.

*Holy shitaki mushrooms! I must explain this one. Kevin, my friends seven year old foster son picks up a new phrase usually from a movie and uses it constantly for a month or so. The latest, and it comes out loud and in public often, is "Holy shit, talking mushrooms!" Dang that one is embarrassing. His mother couldn't figure out where that one came from except that Kevin said the movie "Spy Kids". One day Twyla called me from work, "It's SHITAKI mushrooms, Carol!" Oh that kid's a riot!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Sarah turned 19 Friday the 14th. For the last couple of years Sarah has been wanting a tattoo of a fairy on her lower back but I would never give permission. When she turned 18 she was pregnant and didn't want to do it then. After having the baby she no longer had any money. For her 19th birthday her boyfriend paid for her tattoo. Sarah's sister Laura and Baby Warren and I all trucked down the to tattoo place on 7th street (was it called Ink Slingers maybe?) and two hours later she's so proud that she's showing off her crack to everybody that will look! Yes, that's right. Sarah the little girl that's so modest she got pregnant with half her clothes still on. Ha! Here's the pics.

Being brave. This is before she told us to stop talking to her.

The fairies eyes are purple but when the artist first did them, they kept bleeding.
Looked kind of neat. You can click on the pics to make them bigger.

Take cover!

Last Friday was a stormy night in north Alabama. Rain, hail up to baseball size (we only saw quarter size at our house), high winds, and spotted tornado sightings. It was Warren's first storm warning and he knew just what to do, crawl up in the bathroom with a bunch of blankets and pillows.

Little snuggle bug.

Our roof was beat up, we were close to needing a new one anyway. Now insurance will cover it. The cars are slightly dimpled but the paint is not broke so we haven't decided if we are going to fix them are leave them. With God's protection we all came through safe and sound. With three or more tornados reported on the ground in our area, there were no injuries reported. Aint that somethin'.

Warren's Baptism

On March 5th we had baby Warren baptised at the same church I was raised and raised my children. The same pastor that baptised me, my brother, sister, and two daughters baptised little Warren Stowe. I had to fight back tears. My mother, Nana the Great, prepared a wonderful dinner afterwards and a few friends and family attended.

Sarah, Ricky, and Baby Warren

Nana the Great and my sister Pat

Great Aunt Pat with Warren

He's really growing up fast!

Auntie Tylerann loaned Warren some cool new toys. You can see they were an immediate hit!

Boing! Boing!

Poker Night

They wont let him deal. Something about the cards getting sticky. Oh but he's a fast learner!

These really need some ranch dip.

Update (and it's about time)

Some sad news first. Alligator was eaten by crickets. Yes, they finally got to him again and there was nothing I could do this time. RIP. Dust Bunny chewed his way out of the top of his habitat and found the pantry. He's now pinned to a mousetrap outside in my garbage can. RIP.

Now the good news. Mid January my husband had back surgery for a herniated disk and is recovering well. We managed to stay out of each other's way for the five weeks he was home and now he's happily back at work again. Speaking of hubby's work, last weekend was the kick off dinner for the second half of the sales contest. Hubby met the quota for the fall contest and if he meets it this spring we'll qualify for the trip to Puerto Rico! Whoo hoo! I can't wait! WOnt know for sure until something like july or August. Trip will likely be in October in the heat of hurricane season as usual.

Laura finally moved out! Ha ha. I try not to show my elation so much in front of her. She and Lando rented an apartment together just about Sarah and Ricky and Baby Warren. Now they share Saturday morning breakfast and a vacuum. It's really nice having them in the same place and they aren't but a few blocks from me.

Ms. Carol's been working hard this year too. I started a diet, my own version of the low carb diets that are so popular, and have lost 20.5 pounds! WOW! (50 to go) I began January 3rd and it took me 15 days to lose the first ten pounds, six weeks to lose the next ten but I'm still losing. Oh yeah, I've added Hot-Rox to try to speed it up a bit. I'll let you kow if it works. I've spent oodles of money on all kinds of diet pills that didn't work. We'll see how this goes. Sure gives me energy though.

Meet Alligator

We have a new critter in the family. A couple weeks ago Sarah rescued this little lizard from the parking lot of a friend's apartment building. She brought it home to me in a Solo cup. I should have known then that it was injured or it would not have sat in the cup all the way to the house. I received it with excitement and added it to my collection of frogs, toads, and newts. It quickly made itself at home and the daycare children and I named it Alligator because Sarah had suggested it looked a little like a baby alligator when she spotted it.


A couple days later one of the daycare children cried out, "Carol! The crickets are eating Alligator! Sure enough they were. It looked as if Alligator had one broken leg and the other was missing skin and maybe a little meat. Crickets being crickets and eating decaying matter, were feasting on him and he couldn't get away from them. I quickly separated the lizard in hopes he would recover or at least grow new skin so the crickets would leave him alone.

Christmas With My Family

Christmas Day was quiet around the house. Sarah and Ricky were relaxing at home while baby Warren enjoyed his gifts from Santa. Laura and Lando were enjoying Christmas brunch at his grandmother's home. Rick and I were sleeping in! Later in the afternoon everybody gathered at my house along with my parents for diner. I fixed a really simple Christmas dinner, my first time to host, it was so fun. Later in the evening it was poker time as usual.


Thursday evening my brother and his family from North Carolina joined my sister, parents, and my kids for a celebration at my home. It was really good to see them for the first time in almost a year.

Our Baby's First Christmas!

Hope everybody had a Merry Christmas! We sure had a good time celebrating with the new baby grand. We started a little early this year. The kids wanted to play poker the evening of the 23rd as is their Friday night habit. Laura begged me to let the daddy have his CHristmas present a little early so I did. It was a poker tabletop. Oh what fun.


Christmas Eve we celbrated at Rick's paren'ts home with his brother and sister and their families. Just the gift unwrapping is an all day ordeal. Eighteen of us, one at a time. I was number 13 or 14 so I took a lot of pictures.

Too many stockings to hang on the fireplace.

Mawmaw sets up a really skinny tree to fit all the gifts and 18 children
and grandchildren, and this year a great grandchild into her den.

The cutest baby in the world!

Merry Christmas Great Mawmaw!

Dust Bunny Update

Dusty is Thriving! He is still living in his little habitat in my daycare room. The children all adore him. And look how he's grown!

Get Spooked?

Halloween, my oldest daughter's favorite time of year! Laura has always been the pumkin carver in the family. This year she created three jack-o-lanterns and boyfriend Lando carved one too.

Spooky Laura

This year's Theme "Phantom of the Opera" complete with music.

Laura as Padme and Lando as Obi Wan

Oh yeah, my little grandspook. Seven week old Warren dressed as a lion.

Boo at the Zoo!

Sunday was free day at the Birmingham Zoo so my friend and I took her son and we had a grand ol' time!

These guys need to stir around a little. The landscape is growing over them.

Emerald boas (I think), so pretty.

Scarecrow with camel toe?

Meeces, Mices

Thursday afternoon one of my daycare children yelled, "Come look at this!" So I did. It was a little bitty mouse running across the playroom floor. It looked like a dust bunny sitting in the corner when I finally caught it.

Aren't they cute?

We knew we had mice. We'd been seeing them and it seems to be a regular fall event. They've been kind of bold and noisy in an "I dare you" sort of way. We put out humane traps at first, then glue boards, then finally resorted to the good old fashioned snap traps. Finally we caught two mature mice over the weekend and the cat caught one previously so we thought they were all gone. Wrong.

I saved the baby mouse. It was so cute and we always have extra little critter habitats in a closet for just this sort of thing.

Then another one ran along the baseboard and the kids chased it. I Had to keep that one too. By noon Friday we had six baby mice a tad over an inch long. Apparently we caught mommy and daddy and now the babies had no one feeding them. I fed them chinchilla food (because the bunny food was too big) and put a water bottle in the habitat. The children watched the mice all afternoon.

Saturday they started dying. It was so sad. One by one they rolled over and stiffened up. By Sunday only one remained. looks like they were just too young to make it without the mother.

Now we have to keep the one and take care of it, it's all alone in a big world. I call it Dust Bunny. Welcome to our critter family Dust Bunny.

Our Cancun Vacation Day 4

I so did not want to leave but all good things must come to and end.

We rose a little earlier and set our luggage out for the bell hop and did breakfast as usual, we were not skipping any meals or snacks when they were free. Monday I did skip the coffee and went right on to a Tequila Sunrise. It counts as a serving of fruit, right?

We had an hour and a half until we were to board the buses to the airport so we sat in the lobby bar while I tipped a few Pina Coladas.





Just before boarding time Georgia came over to meet us. She was showing off a gorgeous CZ sterling ring she had just purchase in the shop next door. It was 7 marquis shaped CZs set in a circle to for a star and it was huge! Just $50 she boasted. I sucked down the last half of my Pina Colada (waste not want not) and Tonya and I headed to the shop. Tonya found a ring she wanted and went to call her husband to look at it. While she was gone I asked the salesman if he had any rings in larger sizes. He replied that he could have any ring sized in a short while. I asked, "In ten minutes?" He said no and moved down a case. I moved with him and my eye caught a brillian sunset topaz and CZ ring. He picked up the very ring I was looking at and it fit perfectly. I pulled out my Visa and it was on my finger when Tonya returned alone and a little down in the mouth. She said, "It's too late, they are loading the bus." I told her this was the difference between being married seven years and nineteen. At nineteen one doesn't feel that they need permission from the other to spend money. Afterall, my husband is the one that came home with the $16,000 Harley-Davidson without even mentioning the idea to me.

See it sparkle?

We jumped in line at the buses, claimed our luggage and it was loaded for us. Customs was a breeze this time. I didn't make eye contact with anybody and we flew right through. Of course Mr. D. pulled his new lighter out of his pants and it was confiscated again, duh. It was still stormy this morning, the winds strong enough to sweep children away and the clouds looked ferocious but no flights were being delayed.





Our flight from Cancun to Altant took off ok but soon got pretty rough. The pilot only turned off the seatbelt signs long enough for the flight attendants to throw a mini bottle of water at us an hour into the less than two hour flight and scurry back to their seats. Sometimes it felt like we were free falling. Maybe we were.

Heaven.

We arrived in Atlanta safely, grabbed a bite at Popeyes and were off and running again. Our flight to Huntsville was smooth and lovely. We left Atlanta at 7:30 facing the sunset and arived in Huntsville at 7:20 still facing the splendid setting sun. We waved farewell to our old and aome new friends vowing to see them here at the same time next year.