Mongoose Mayhem

A nice refreshing dip in the pool instead of running around chasing a ball. The weather is gorgeous today thanks to a front that rolled in middle of the night. Actually, it wasn't that great since I had to get out of bed at 3am to take down the patio umbrella that was about to fly off. But, this morning we were blessed with California-style weather.

Jimmy had a riding lesson at 9am and the weather was perfect - very different from last week's hot, sticky, and dusty. I pulled out my camp chair and parked under a tree while the instructor took him on a trail ride.

He's doing so well that she wants to move him up to a more energetic horse, an Arabian named Peyton. I really like how she is ready to challenge him and keep it interesting.

After the lesson, we had our good friends over for some relaxin' around the pool. Suzan and I got to chat for a while, which was half our reason for having an impromptu playdate.

Today was a nice reprieve from the busy-ness that seems to be our lives at the moment.

Great-Grandpa's "fruit of the month" gift arrived the other day and was so pretty I had to take a picture. Harry & David does it right!

Not sure whose "hot" idea is was to run around in 100 plus degrees and feel like throwing when you done... but here we are!

Last night, Mike had soccer practice so Jimmy and I decided to head to the shady trail along the the park's edge.

We listened the cicadas in full-force, looking up their images on my phone when we tried to identify one big bug that crossed our path.

We also talked about what SATs were and how when I took mine there was a cicada invasion. They were flying everywhere while I desperately waited, outside the locked school, for my ride home to arrive.

Along the way, I snapped photos in the different lighting since there were so many contrasts between the shadows of the woods and the glare of the sunset of the open fields, with the flash, without, etc.

In the process I got some images of Jimmy that I LOVE!

Doesn't he look just look the part for a cowboy? It is so fun that he's still young enough to enjoy "dress up" AND let me take a picture of him too! I didn't expect that extra.

This "duster" he is wearing was from one of my friends. She thought it might fit Jimmy but it was too big and he wasn't that fond of it anyway. But Mike? Mike was thrilled with it so I decided "what the hell, you're only a kid once" and cut it down to his size.

Not exactly sure why he went with the cowboy theme yesterday but you can see he's holding something in his hand. It's a real arrow quiver (from Merima) made from leather, cowhide, feathers and even horsetail. He's got some old Civil War documents and maps tucked inside.

Sweet, huh?

We stumbled upon these little ones on Monday, when we drove to Bonham to pick up our raw milk.

Pat had them in a plastic bin and was feeding them the cow's milk since the mamas had abandoned them.

The boys were amazed at how something so tiny could be so loud!

Of course, they begged me more than once to bring them home so they could nurse them into kittenhood and then find them a home. I sympathized but firmly said there was no way I was going to risk making the other two cats mad and having behavior issues.

Later at our pickup point, I heard from another milk person that said their kids got ringworm after playing with the older cats on site at Pats. What?!

We all took soapy showers when we arrived back home.

Has anyone heard of this group before? I've been stumbling upon their unique grave markers at older cemeteries. This isn't a very good example but it's the fifth one I've seen lately. Google says they've been around 100 years and are mostly insurance related.

Last Saturday evening Jim and I joined several friends for a birthday celebration. The birthday girl wanted to go Salsa dancings so we were looking forward to the fun. A new restaurant in Frisco, Tijuana Grill, was advertising it so she made reservations. However, when we arrived we learned that they had cancelled it because there hadn't been enough interest (WE just found out about the place so maybe they should promote it better!).

We did stay for dinner and the $5 margarita pitchers but all of us headed down the road into Addision to Gloria's and hit their dance floor. Boy, it was like dancing outdoors in Cancun. Haven't they heard of A/C? I'm sure someone in our group has some VERY sweaty photos of us since I saw flashes periodically from our group - thank goodness for waterproof mascara. LOL

Gloria's had a live band so that made it quite authentic. I wonder if being deaf for the next 24hrs is being authentic too? :D I don't think my ears were right until Monday morning!

Jimmy finally had his second lesson. Poor Monica was sick the previous week so he had to wait longer than he wanted to get back in the saddle.

Another hot TX day, so both Jimmy and Red were a bit mellow, but it was amusing at the same time to see their "energy" be so compatible.

There is a picture of us after all. This isn't from our "party" night but is on our official date of 6/29. The two of us went to Bob's Steak and Chophouse to enjoy a romantic evening. Jim looks like he enjoyed it a little too much LOL But this was the only pic the server took so that's what we using!

Find some shade, I guess!?

The kids needed to get away from electronics and were kicked outside. I tossed out some rope and sheets and suggested they create a fort since I didn't think they were going to bother running around in the middle of the hot afternoon.

The plan worked pretty well and they even used the patio mister underneath, along with a blanket and some chairs. It's still out there so perhaps the dog is enjoying it now LOL

Merima came for a nice visit the past two weeks. We didn't manage to do much fun stuff since the day schedules were pretty hectic with camps and other stuff, but we still enjoyed just being together.

Especially, snuggled on the recliner, while watching scary ghost stories on TV...

One of our latest Mom's Night Out was themed on our childhood. We all brought our favorite Saturday morning sugary cereals, Nesquik chocolate milk, and so on. Then we also watched cartoons upstairs on Suzan's projector. It was so much fun to hang out in our PJs, see a bunch of Bugs and ScoobyDoo, and ge hopped up on sugar!
Sorry, I can't post the pictures of what words were made using Alphabits... ;D

Jim and I celebrated 18 years of wedded bliss on June 29th, 2009. We wanted to do something extra special to commemorate it so we invited some of our favorite friends to meet up with us for dinner at Buca Di Beppo.

Somehow we managed to NOT get a picture of ourselves taken LOL Maybe one of our friends will turn up with one in a few...