Good Monday morning. How the heck did it get to be the last Monday in July? My "summer" has just whizzed by.

I'm deeply tired, chickies, and may not be very chatty this week. I feel like I've been going flat out since mid-June with Fair, community stuff and visitors. This week is looking better though and I'm going to take more "me" time.

The Fair pulled out after midnight last night. I didn't mind wakening up to hear big transports roar out of the village. I suspect we lost money this year because of the rainy days, I'm sure glad I'm not the treasurer anymore and have to do the number crunching.

Hope everyone had a fun weekend - I know I did - and is ready for a productive week.

Good Morning Ruth,
I'm glad you're taking some "me" time this week. I'm not a chatty person at all, and when I'm tired, well...even less. So I'm with you there.

Not much going on around here. Waiting for DH to return from out of town, training the puppy, and writing. I ate a little too much fruit yesterday, so this week I'm cutting down on fruit and no more organic cherries!

Good morning chicks! Yes, it is hard to believe less that July is almost over.

Ruth - Hope you get some much needed rest!

Belle - puppy!? I don't remember reading about that! (I've been gone more lately though..)

Me - Very short day at work (!). Camping was great this weekend, so today will give me time to grocery shop, clean up, work out, etc. Going to the doctor as well (who's NOT apprehensive going to the doctor?), so hopefully that will go well.

I resisted toasted marshmellows this weekend!! But....That will probably what I'm having as a treat! GOSH they looked good...one of my favorites!

Morning all! Ruth, you are right about the summer! I have to go back to school one week from today...that's crazy! We just got out!! Still don't have a full time position, but do have the lab job...but you never know..sometimes you get a call the day before school starts.

Belle, have fun with the puppy training. My Bijoux is getting ready to pop with puppies. She looks like a little white walking basketball. Hope she has them while I am home this week. She just lays around looking sad. I remember looking that way myself.

Got up very early to get some work done. Client decided here at the END of the summer that she wants her whole site completely redone. augghhh. I'm headed outside now to torch driveway weeds/grass before it gets too hot.

**Twynn, we were posting at the same time. Way to go with the marshmallows.

I have a 9 month old Maltese puppy. She's 5 pounds of pure joy!

Good morning chicks,
Time to get back to business today, heavy sigh. At least I'm not going to Dallas today, that trip got cancelled while I was away. It is very cool and nice here right now, in the 60's and I've got all the windows open. DS had a friend spend the night, and I don't know what time they went to bed, hopefully they will sleep for a while so I can work in peace. If it gets warm enough I hope to make it to the pool later and might run some errands. I need vacuum cleaner bags, hair dye, and a new water filter. Such a glamorous life I lead!

Cat I can't believe you're back to school already! When do the kids start? My kids were shocked and dismayed to realize that they have only one month left.
Ruth, hope you have a relaxing week
Belle Mer, easy to overdo with the fruit. I'm trying to phase I but the peaches are so nice this year, they are really tempting me.
Twynn, great job resisting the marshmallow! That's one of my faves too. Toasted just right, not burned, gooey inside, mmmm

On that note, have a good one chicks!

Just checked the weather, now I'm really glad I'm not going to Dallas, yikes! Try to stay cool Barb and Kiko.

Belle - I LOVE maltese!! What a great little dog!!

Schnoodle! - aren't these cool evenings/mornings AWESOME!!??

Have a good one!

Schmoodle, I think the kids here start on the 8th. Isn't that crazy??? But we do get out in May.

I have a maltese too named Stitch. I've attached a picture of all of my babies that I sent my daughter not too long ago. Stitch is a charecter. Wish he was the daddy of the new puppies that are on the way, but our catahoula is. Stitch is "fixed". Bijoux is the ratshi in the middle and Roux, the catahoula is on the right.

Oy. Morning. We went to bed at 9:45 last night. I guess we were all pretty wiped from an adventurous weekend. Now it's back to the daily grind, including getting Little Guy to school. We still haven't figured out our mornings yet. Who showers when? Mass chaos.

Schmoodle, I've never known chigger bites to spread either. Aren't those the ones who burrow into your skin? (ew ew ew ew) Are you going to the doctor? The only reason I went so quickly to the doctor about mine was because I was afraid it was some sort of skin infection and didn't want it to spread anywhere. Infection type stuff makes me nervous. Keep us posted on your spots!

Well, it's time to start getting ready. Hope you girls all have a good day!

Lisa

Good morning, everyone!

Ruth: I know what you mean about the summer zooming by. I do hope you get lots of "me" time in. You definitely sound like you need it.

Belle Mer: Mmmmm...organic cherries. We've only had one decent shipment of cherries this year and they definitely weren't organic! Oh well. Enjoy your day of puppy training and writing!

TwynnB: Congrats on resisting the marshmallows while camping this weekend! Wish I could say the same! Hope you have a nice day of getting things back in order. Good luck at the doc's.

Cat: Your furbabies are too cute. Looks like they're best buds. I can't believe you start school back up so soon. Where has all this time gone?! I hope the website overhaul is over quickly and that you can focus on enjoying the last of your free time this year.

Schmoodle: Good thing you don't have to go to Dallas. I'll have to check there to see what the forecast is. It's nice and cool for us in Alpine. Hope you get a lot of work done today.

Me: Well, DH and I had a GREAT time camping this weekend. We spent a little more money than planned, drank a bit more beer than planned and came back with sunburns to boot. (We did SPF 50 every hour while down at the river...not sure what happened.) Anyhow. I came back 3 lbs heavier as well. We did a lot of working out, so hopefully it's mostly water weight that will come off in the next two weeks or so.

I had a great time while there, and being there put things into perspective for me. I thought constantly about how much more fun I would have been having if I was at or near goal. So, since we decided to make this trip an annual thing, I have a year to work my butt off. I know I can do this, I just keep tripping myself up and making excuses. The sudden epiphany was that it may take a year or more to do this, but after reaching goal, I'll be able to have a weekend like we just did, eat and drink what I want, and then get back on my workout and eating plans. Duh! Why does it take so long to sink in?

Well, today's a new day and so far, so good. I've got to go pack my snacks for the day and then off to work. Hope you all have a great day and here's some for those who, like me, really need it!

~Kim

Good morning Chickies!!!

No time for personals have to run to a class in a couple of minutes. Cute puppy love the little ones, my dh only likes big dogs.

My guys start back up to school on the 15th yikes.

Have a great day

Ruth - Good for you on taking some "me" time, you deserve it!

Belle - Who can resist cherries? Maltese puppies are too cute.

Twynn - Glad you had fun camping. Hope everything is well at the doctor.

Cat - ugh. Good thinking to get outside early....stay safe in the heat today.

Schmoo - I envy your 60 degree weather....

Weezle - good luck with your morning schedules....it is tough to coordinate people sometimes.

Kim - Glad you had fun camping...and what a great epiphany! Good luck on this next year!

--

DH has to give a test this morning...there is a girl in his class whose work conflicts with class quite often - this time for a test. The end of the semester is tomorrow, so she has to take the test today...she decided that 9:30 at night would be a good time for her. Needless to say, DH said no to that time and told her she should have planned better. He did tell me that he would drop this test grade for her though....although she is already failing.
Since when did students start taking their profs for granted like this? It seems to be happening more and more lately.

Even though we did nothing yesterday...we still made quite a mess! DS' room is a mess and I didn't do any dishes yesterday. Those are on my plan for today as well as some ironing for our trip. I don't even know if I should iron, as we put the clothes in space saver bags...

Off to make french toast with an egg in the middle - DS' favorite!

Good Morning all, I'll do personals in a minute. But man, what a weekend! Around noon on Saturday my nephew called and asked if I would pick him up so we could do some hiking. He lives about an hour and a half away from me. So, I headed out to get him, leaving home around one in the afternoon. As I was approaching his house I seen a very dear friend of mine outside of her house. She incidentally lives just a few houses from my nephew. Well, I stopped to say a quick hello, I've known her for 18 years! Of course it began with everyone giving me great big hugs. "Aunt" Lori! She has 6 awesome kids that I love dearly, and of course they just adore me! When Claire hugged me she was like "your coming a day early to help!!!!" um,,,, "help?" She replies "Yeah, with Jordan's graduation party!:" She had mentioned it to me a a couple times but never told me a date and I never received an invitation via mail like they said they were going to do. She was on her way to her grannie's 95th (bless her) birthday party so I said I'd stay the night. I went over to talk with my nephew about it and he was alright. Though his 15 yr old girlfriend had issues with him coming with me because of how my sister (his mother) is. He told her there's a reason I don't talk with my sis much! That I'm nothing like that. And of course the Aunt and Uncle my nephew is living with (meaning his father's brother) know me and were fine with allowing him to come. (LONG story I'll not bore you with details). But I was like "who does this girl think she is?"

So that's set there, so I called my son to ask him to come let Jade out of her crate BEFORE club. He said he would. I called around 6:45 to see if he was here, he wasn't.

After an afternoon with Nick, taking him and his gf to put put and just hanging out I went to clairs and spent evening mopping (a LOT of house to mop!) and fellowship, everyone finally went to bed around 1 am. I was sleepless... tossed and turned all night, calling the house every ten minutes from my cell, no answer! texting son to call, nothing. FINALLY at 4:15 am, thirteen hours after I had left home, he showed up at my place to let Jade out. I was NOT happy with him. He said he couldn't get his ride to bring him home before club... "ok, so what about after club, that ended at 10".... "had things to do" he said! I wanted to ring his neck! Poor Jade, she held it, but man she must of needed to go, not good for her bladder!

So Sunday, Clair and I started in the cooking (which she already had some of it done), cleaning, and shopping... went strong from 7 am up through 2:30 (party began at 2)..... we had her daughter in the ditches for cat tails for decorations on our way home from the store... I bought some water balloons for the younger kids... when I left at 5:30 I had seen at least 150 ppl there, and Jordan had told most his school friends to not show up till after 6, for the bomb fire! People were still coming when I left. He'd invited over 350 ppl! I apologized to clair that I couldn't stay to help with the clean up, but with the ride home I had to get going, with no sleep night before, I'm prone to fall asleep if I drive too late...

OH, HAVE to mention the cake! A lady from Clair's church made two cakes (biggest cakes I've ever seen!). One had a radio, two music sheets (that he loves music)... People, the radio (a decrated piece_) was 3D,. as were the music sheets... these things folded out of the cake, into the air, and down below, to the middle.! I have NO clue how she made either cake, but they were awesome... or as the kids would say "PHAT!"... the other cake was decorated with blue and red (the colors of his alma matter) and with 'pom poms"... both were just awesome, got lots of pics of the cakes they did!


So I picked up my nephew and came home. But not before asking the Barnums (clair's family) to join me next weekend for a hike! See, they have friends that I knew from when the boys were little, like 2 and 3, to come hiking with us, they are up from out of state! I showed the kids some sites of what is close to me and got the boys all excited to come! hehehehe (trouble maker).

OK, so why am i saying all this,? needed to vent about kid i suppose, and excited I got to see my dearest friend in the world, and have fellowship with her!

side note...Needless to say, my diet yesterday was NOT on track .