Some Pics

Some of these aren't actually very new but they are new for the blog. And you will see the future teenager coming out in that last one.

I can't believe I forgot to tell you

Our daughter has been begging us for a fish for quite some time now. We have been putting it off since JC has the 55 gallon tank that he plans on setting up whenever the house gets started finished. Well, thanks to some Divine intervention, she has a fish. At Church Sunday all the children caught their own fish (these are goldfish, etc. people, let's think nets not rods) and got to take them home.

So she received a "free" fish. Seventy dollars later, we had a 20 gallon tank (which JC actually already had stashed in the basement), air pump, gravel, chemicals, food and 6 MORE FISH. My child is very happy about her new pets, Fast Herman , Madeline, etc. etc. (I have to admit I don't know if they all have names or what they are if they have.)

We did have a discussion on how fish don't always stick around a long time, how cats do eat fish if they can get ahold of them and not to blame the cats if that happens because it's just their nature.... Wanted to cover all bases in case someone went belly up. I'm actually expecting that to be one of the cats when they go fishing in the tank. Either they don't know that they are there or the fish are too small for them to worry about. I'm guessing they haven't figured out that they are there yet.

They will be discussing pet heaven in Church next week.

Okay, a little too resilient?

The mother of our nanny, Cynthia, passed away recently. Katie loved "Grandma Ola" and was constantly writing her cards before she passed. We went to the services on Saturday and today Katie is with Cynthia and some family as they are cleaning out Grandma Ola's apartment.

And today I found out that my daughter is one of THOSE family members. You know the ones that go through everything after someone is gone and take whatever they can? The kind I complain about whenever the subject comes up? Apparently there is a specific "cat pillow" that Katie has loved since Grandma Ola purchased it. Today Katie said, Grandma Ola's not around anymore, she won't know ... or something to that effect.

Ugh.

I've noticed that it's harder to pull one over on Katie these days. Last year when I wanted her to come in in the evenings all I had to tell her was that the mosquitos were coming out. Yes, I'm not ashamed that I used her fear of mosquitos for my own purposes.

However, last night when I tried to use that same line on her I got this response "Can't I just use my mosquito protection?" (Off) I told her that she was getting too smart for me.

She's also aware that my reason for her going to bed on time (8:00) is over. She's no longer in school so she wants to stay up late. Last night I told her that we have changed her bedtime to 8:30 for the summer. Hopefully she will be happy with that. I need some down time too! lol

Trying to keep a couple steps ahead of her is making my brain hurt. I don't remember debating this much with Mom & Dad, was I just dumb or is she just more outspoken? Okay, well I KNOW she's more outspoken. I blame JC's family for that.

(By the way, if you haven't seen it there is another post below this one. Just wanted to warn anyone who hadn't caught up yet.)

Hellooooo out there!!!!!

I think this blog might end up being more for Katie since I'm not posting that often, but I am going to try to post a bit more so I have something to show Katie. When I realized that I haven't posted since February I felt bad.

Just to give you a rundown of what has been going on with Katie lately...

She is amazingly glad to be enjoying summer vacation. Really, should they be so happy to be out of school at her age? I mean, she hasn't even started full time yet. I can't wait for that rude awakening.

I am also glad that summer vacation has started because now I can monitor when my child is around boys. Yep, boys. Isn't it too early to have these issues? We have already had discussions of a) you don't tell boys when you have a crush on them; b) you don't need to hold hands with boys at this age; c) you DEFINITELY don't need to be kissing boys at this age. Now just in case you think I'm being proactive... I'm not... I'm being REactive. All of this has taken place including my child asking one of the boys in her class to go out to lunch with her. His mother's reply to this when she found out was to send me a message telling me to call her so that she could have Katie over for a "Lunch date". Um, no, I'm not encouraging this. Apparently this is not the first girlfriend for this little boy.

She was also in another dance recital at the beginning of the month, but is done with dancing and very happy about that much to my mother's dismay. She wants to take classes in clay instead. Much rather get dirty right? .... Hopefully there won't be any boys in the class. Ugh.

The highlight of the last few weeks though has been the cicadas. For those of you, if there are any, reading this not from the area, we were hit with the 17-year cicadas recently. Katie has been catching them daily (and releasing them). I will have to look for a picture, I think I may have one that Cynthia took with her phone. I kept meaning to take pictures before they died off, but kept forgetting and now they seem to be disappearing. At least right by us. If we go a little farther south they are still flying around like butterflies...actually I don't see that many butterflies.

And now Katie is currently trying to figure out how she can have as much fun as possible this summer. She cracks me up. When I get home I will try to find some current pictures, or at least some new pictures, to post.

Edited to add: Roddy, no change in eating habits.