Friday Five(or so)...

We are SO super freakin' busy these days that I barely have time to cook or bathe, let alone take pictures! Yesterday, however, the girls and I went on a homeschool field trip and got to relax a bit. Here's what happened...



Arriving at the nature trail.


Learning about prescribed burning and how it is actually good for a forest.


Soil and water testing.



Observing grapevines.


Learning about bee hives from the Bee Princess and Bee Queen of East Texas.


Thinking about a field trip here next!

The Birthday Week...

Sarah's was Wednesday, she turned 11, on the 11th of 2011. Pretty cool huh? Ryan will be 18 on the 15th, and Amy will be exactly 15.5 on the 15th as well. Soooo, we have lots of celebrating going on these days. I took the kids out to lunch yesterday to a new restaurant in Longview, El Pollo Regio, and to their favorite thrift store. Sarah found another bathing suit(her 3rd) and a beach dress. Amy found two bathing suits and a dress, and Ryan got a Bob Marley shirt. Not too bad for under $50!

Here are some birthday-ish pictures of them...


(Amy in her $8 dress)


(Sarah and Ruby)


(modeling with Rosie)


(Amy looking gorgeous)


(Ryan hanging out by the pool)

Ryan is having his annual pool party on Saturday. Not sure how many kids we'll have but I think we're gonna grill hot dogs for them again. One time he had over 40 show up! I need to tell them to bring their own towels and sunscreen!!! Shhhh, don't tell that I'm getting a cake for him too!

Friday Just a Moment*....

I've been away from my camera time for most of the week, busy with house stuff and kid stuff. So, today we went to the lake, cold and windy as it was....


(Sarah on a sandbar)

*inspired by my friend Nin.

What's been going on...

Thanksgiving started off with a bittersweet event. I looked out the kitchen window to see a large hound running across the neighbor's yard toward the street(we live on a busy corner). Sarah ran to see it and was just in time to see the hound's partner get hit and killed by a truck. The driver didn't even stop. We brought the hound in, hoping he had a tag. He was so sweet and stayed with us for 2 nights, sleeping on the bed with us. His owners had gone out of town for a funeral and came back Saturday afternoon. I hated having to tell them about their schnauzer mix.


Sonny and Sarah

We went the next weekend to collect our Christmas tree from Danville Farms. This is our favorite tree farm and we've been coming here almost 10 years. Of course this is not the first one that wasn't properly measured. The tag said 9 feet. I can understand 9.5 or even 9.9 or something, but 11 feet 7 inches?? That is WAAAAAAY off! We cut 10 inches off the trunk and it was still too big to fit under the ceiling beam.



We were pressed for time so there aren't many pictures. Here's Jasper doing his part to keep the tissue paper under control.







Meanwhile...



Fozzie was a busy boy and fathered, despite our best efforts to keep them apart, a litter of puppies with Sparkle. She went into labor on December 6th, exactly a year from the day we brought her home. Doesn't she look miserable?





Her babies, all female, are 1 week old now and we are in love with them!


Bijou, Biscuit, Maezy, and Macaroni

I hope everyone is having a wonderful, peaceful holiday season! I don't blog nearly as much as I want to, things are crazy with three extremely social kids.

CRRROOOOOAK!!!

ICE

Sarah and Amy have had fun playing with ice this past week. Since we've had such whack-a-do freezing temps they've discovered things that would otherwise remain a mystery. Such as hammers frozen in ice filled buckets...



And frozen swimming pools...



Yesterday I told them about an artist I know named Margaret Oomen lives up north and has fun freezing objects in bowls and such to make beautiful, but temporary, art. We were going to go online and look but got busy doing other things. This morning when I took Sparkle out for her doggy time...




(Sparkle IS in this picture! Hint, she's in the round)

I saw the bowl and remembered Sarah telling me she had put some leaves and berries in it to freeze. I popped the ice out of the bowl and hung it on the fence so I could run get the camera. When I got back it had fallen and broke into 2 pieces but all was not lost...

coming out of a whirlwind...

One hospital stay for chest pains and crazy high blood pressure(175/115), CHECK.
I'm now on meds for anxiety and reflux. Nothing is wrong with my heart at all, thank God. I'll be seeing my doctor in a few weeks to follow up. AND starting my yoga back up!!!



One family delayed by snow storm, CHECK.
My parents got about 17 inches of snow the weekend before they were to travel to our place! It was amazing to look at but had them unable to get down their driveway for several days.


(the horrid cat who loves nobody but his mama)

One nasty unprovoked cat bite, CHECK.
Tibert bit the crap out of my dad. He also bit Aaron a few times. I think he was very out of sorts with all the company, a new puppy-sister, Christmas goings on and so forth. He's never met my family and isn't used to so much activity.


Several crazy shopping days scoring lots of great thrift store goodies, CHECK.
I got some Christmas junk and two gorgeous vintage eelskin purses(pink doctor's bag for spring and a maroonish brown for fall), and some wool.(pics later when I find my new card reader again)


(girls ready to open presents)


(Sarah's Snuggi-wrap, she LOVES it despite her expression)

Many nice gifties for everyone, CHECK.
We did family gifts this year and got a nice rug for our concrete living room floor and a convection-toaster oven. The kids cleaned up with electronics, Mark and Ryan got cologne, and the girls got lots of clothes and such.

Crochet lessons for my mom, CHECK.
She is learning, slowly but surely. Being left-handed makes it difficult for me to coach her along though.

Delish tortilla soup, CHECK.
3 ckn breasts(boneless/skinless), cute in 3/4 inch cubes
1 bell pepper
1 onion
2 cans pinto beans, drained and well rinsed
1 can no-salt tomatoes(diced)
1 tsp cumin, chili powder, garlic powder
1/4 tsp chipotle powder
3/4 cup brown rice
8-10 cups of water

Brown veggies and ckn til pink is gone, add water, spices, beans, rice, and tomatoes. Cook over med-low heat for about 45 minutes. Serve with cheese and sour cream over tortilla chips.

Two huge batches of my special Honey Mustard/Deviled Party Mix, CHECK.
I make a large roaster pan full of this, using almost all of each box of cereal, plus nuts and pretzel twists. Mine has Quaker Oat Squares too. I used 2/3 stick of butter, about 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 3-4 tablespoons olive oil, generous sprinkles of garlic and onion powder, 1/4 cup honey, several good squirts of mustard(spicy if you've got it), and a dash of cayenne. It was inhaled.

Dozens of snuggles with a cute puppy, CHECK.


(Aaron and Sparkle, she was a huge hit!)

It was a crazy, hectic but fun Christmas celebration this year at the Sonier Casa and I wish my family didn't have to leave so soon!!

A Lucky Dog...

About a month ago Sarah started in on us about getting a puppy for Christmas. Of course we immediately and resoundingly said "NO". We already have 3 big dogs, half-dozen cats, and half-dozen guinea pigs, another dog was NOT in our plans! Apparently the powers that be took that as a challenge on Sarah's behalf. They saw an opportunity to play a great joke....

One night last week, maybe Wednesday or Thursday, Mark mentioned that there had been a stray dog or puppy under a storage building at the place he works for a few days. I didn't think too much of it, dogs wander around a lot and we figured it would be long gone.

It wasn't.

We briefly discussed the possibility of making Sarah's Christmas wish come true but were 90% sure the dog would move on.

With temperatures expected to dip into the low twenties, the puppy didn't have much of a chance Friday night so the employees worked Thursday afternoon and all day Friday to lure her out with no luck. She would come out about a foot and then scoot back under, causing them much frustration. The boss finally brought a trap and baited it with turkey legs, something they'd fed the dog the day before. I think he was afraid she'd die under his building and they'd have to move it to get her out.

At 8pm Mark and I drove down(an hour 1-way) to check the trap. Nothing. We were able to see her back under the building so we parked across the alley and waited. Nothing. Except that Mark's boss drove up and checked the trap too. I felt much better seeing that. We could expect that someone would be around if she ended up caught. Still it was hard to drive away without that puppy knowing she'd probably be dead in the morning.

Saturday morning, still nothing.

Sunday around noon his boss called to let us know that she'd been caught if we wanted her. We were in the car less than 5 minutes later, telling the kids that Mark needed to go on a "pick-up" run to Carthage and I was going to ride with him to discuss Christmas presents. They had NO IDEA.

I think Sarah was in shock when I walked through the door with a puppy! She has been quick to let me know that she does NOT like surprises.

So, here she is. We have named her Pashmina. The vet says she's about 10 weeks old, 6.5 pounds, and probably a good bit Schnauzer.

Merry Christmas Pashmina!! We sure hope you love living with us!

My day...

Sunday night I got a call from my brother. Seems he found "the" table set that he's been searching for all his life, in my neck of the woods. Nevermind that he lives almost 1000 miles from me...


(this is the best pic I have)

I can see how it would be hard to resist. It isn't really my style, unless, of course, I had the whole 50s kitchen thing goin' on, but cute nonetheless. The 80+-year-old couple who owned the table set had it since it was new. I called yesterday morning and it was still available so I made arrangements to pick it up early today. Aaron had also sent a link from the same seller for some quilts. I asked about them when we were finished loading up and the owner of the table said the seller was working with her things on consignment so the quilts didn't belong to her. However, she wanted to show me one she did have(but not for sale!). Her mother-in-law made this one probably back in the 50s or so. The hexagons are in between the size of a nickel and a quarter, in other words, TINY! It is just gorgeous! It came to her unfinished so she and her sister sewed a few stitches and hand-quilted it. I was positively drooling and politely asked if I could take a few pictures of it. She obliged...

(click to enlarge)








Oh, and an emu runs the woods behind their property...

The difference a day makes...

I think I'm back!! I've been in a funk lately about my STUFF. The staggering amounts of junk in our house and not knowing how to deal with it, or having the time to address it has hog-tied me and kept me from enjoying anything. After a much-needed day of rest, I feel much better about things. It seems like something came up every weekend we thought we'd be able to relax. Finally, after spending most of the day Saturday running errands to the pool supply store, grocery shopping, mall shopping(ugh), and more, we stopped Sunday to rest(mostly). Ryan had a party from 1 to 6 so after we dropped him off we ran to Academy to get shorts for the girls($3.99 a pair) and then home to the pool. We stayed all day.


(Mark had to get up the last bits of glass first)


(my view from the pool)


(straight up from center of the pool)


(the girls swam while the adults floated)


Then, of course, comes Monday...


(my utility room shelf is going to the garage, being replaced by a rectangular table so the catboxes can go under)


(and this needs addressed, again)


(however, I have many obstacles in my way, some with fangs and claws and ill tempers)


(and some with the cute factor that keeps me from moving them)


(and the occasional distraction known as facebooking*)

*you can add me if you'd like, Molly Smith Sonier. Just tell me you know me from my blog if you've got a name I might not recognize.