The Dream Continues

How we closed June

With the last few wks being so brutal w work, it was nice to have some diversion. M and Gabby hung out in my office with me and we had a tea party as I worked.

 

Then M played "Mama, find me" ...ummm, yeah....maybe the squirmy moving giggling scrap quilt would be a good place to look, eh?

Then it was lunch time and Meizhi has learned? insisted? on making her own peanut butter sandwiches these days. So, supervised, we let her go to town w the butter knife and the peanut butter. It's cute when it works; it's not that cute when she has a complete meltdown because she put a hole in her sandwich.

 

Later, here's M and Gabby watching TV. Gabby is getting older and we suspect a large or at least contributing factor in that is Meizhi's constant attention to her. Sometimes, M is not as gentle as she could be. Gabby is by far the most patient loving dog ever. Gabby cries a lot more now as she gets up/shakes when she lies down, winces if you touch her wrong. A part of that is normal but, well, you know the thoughts that start to go through your head as your precious loved one starts to show her age. Gabby is 10, still middle aged for a greyhound. Its hard to ignore the aging though.

Haircut

We cut M's hair last week. Took about 3 inches off. Rich likes it shorter in the summer. Me, I was hoping it'll help w the knots but also, perhaps help it thicken more too. Meizhi was completely fine with it since we can still do her hair in a bazillion ways. However, she has stated she still wants long hair. I think we'll be growing it out now for the rest of the year.

 

Look! It's not a pink outfit! I love this outfit and M wanted it when I bought it on the computer clearance sale, but alas, its like pullin teeth to get her to wear it now. Between her dress kick of late and the color pink, it's nice to see a little variation.

Hallmark ornaments for 2009

They are coming!!!

 

The 2009 Family/Adoption ornament

 

The 2009 UNICEF ornament that benefits charitable work/orphans around the world.

Both ornaments will be available in October 2009.

Early summer fun

I love this time of summer...warm, not hot, not yet yucky humid either. Great weather! A few weeks back though we had a few of those late summer temp days though so M and I spent our lunch time outside -fun-in-the-sun style. The play items were on the grass less than 1 hr and they burnt the poor lawn! We are still recuperating from that. Its been about 2?3? wks now.

 

All the sun stuff is in the back room which looks, literally, like a giant warehouse of outdoor items- chair cushions, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, lawn chairs, the slip-n-slide, the bounce-house. I am so glad we have that back room! Meizhi did not like her slip/slide this day. I think she's honestly forgotten how to play on it from last summer and since my back was hurting this particular day, I wasn't about to run and slide on it to show her. It was OK though since she was off to another activity within 2.7seconds anyway!

 

 

Big bicycle summer so far for M too. She wants to prove she's big enough for the training wheels to come off. We are telling her when she can ride it straight in a line and not totter back-n-forth relying on those training wheels, then we'll take them off. She likes to ride her bike on the sidewalk each week when Rich does the yardwork. It's nice as it gives me some alone time in the house to do housework.

Fathers Day 2009

Our Fathers day last month was nothing glamorous but then again, that's exactly the way we wanted it...nice, calm, quiet, just us.  We hung out for the day, did some TV watching, ran some errands, went to church for the last time at our old parish and then went out to eat. Meizhi picked the place...of course, a Chinese restaurant!

Sprinkler park

Sorry folks, it was a bad work week last week. Bad bad bad. I have agreed not to say anything publicly but I can say the bad economy has forced changes at work. Can everyone read between the lines there?

Moving on...a little behind again. About 2-3 wks ago now, M and I headed out after friend Val got off work and she picked up Nic and Sam and all the gals headed to a sprinkler park. Same one we all went to last year. Forgot how far away the stinkin place was but M and the girls had a really fun time. Glad we went...and it was nice to remember that work doesnt have to be 24hrs a day for me...at least not everyday anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soon to be Pink bathroom

Yes, I have caved. I am about to do the one thing that I think everyone always told me I was not supposed to do: paint our bathroom pink. Well, Ok, it's Meizhi and her sister's future bathroom. The tiny hall bath, the 'main' bath as it were. It has no natural light(no windows) of any kind, just the light fixture so I already knew the colors' appearance would be a challenge. Even so, off we went to the hardware store one day for something else and I figured I'd let us each choose a color and try then all out, see whose looks best.

 

And of course, what child would pass up the chance to paint on the walls, right? So I let M do the honors and voila! 3 paint splotches on the wall.

 

The top left was M's choice and on the walls, it's actually purple due to the lighting. Oh, and remember, our woodwork has a cinnamon stain so there's loads of red undertones throughout the house so we have to compensate for that to get the right hue we want for wall color. Anyway, Rich chose the top right and it is nice, but verrrry pink. Like, Pepto-bismal exploded in the tiny bathroom kind of pink the bath is really small. Pretty but in that small space, WAY too much pink. At least for my taste. Remember, this is the girl's bath but also the main bath so I want it to be a compromise between little girl and tolerable adult/respectable color. The bottom one is Mama's and if ya looked at the paint chip, you'd almost think it was a shade of white but as you can see from the pic above, it's light pink. Once I get the free time to tape off the room and remove the hardware, Meizhi and I are gonna paint her bath.

Happy Birthday America!

Ready to celebrate the day at the zoo 

Cruising in the wagon 

Hamsters are soft 

Very interested in the whole tadpole concept 

Howdy! 

Explaining green algae versus a green polar bear 

Very active Brown bear during this visit. 

Stunning! 

No, not a one legged duck...just a sleeping duck 

The butterfly exhibit is open for the summer. M and I spent a looong time inside. I must have had 8 or 9 butterflies land on me this visit. M was jealous.  

I love this one...it's the Buckeye species. Not only is it beautiful but it reminds me of NiHao Kai Lan cartoons 

 

 

Ironically, the first visit during which we saw the Monarch species. Gorgeous, aren't they? 

We packed in our lunch to be economical and healthy. We had PBJs (M only the PB..still doesn't like jelly) , yogurts, water; M had two of few of her unique drinks(they had them in China and here in the states we find them at the Latino/Hispanic markets- they are kinda like juice, kinda yogurty...not really sure what they are.) In this photo, M was not happy with me. Can ya tell?

The penguins were back! 

I really like these blue frogs.  

I also brought some of these neat CapriSun waters I found recently. Super low in sugar, portable, and no problems with red dye. It's been a challenge for us, that whole 'no red'  in her foods/drinks. No fruit punch for her! It's also important that she drink a lot seeing as how she's still so skinny and dehydrates fast. 

It was a nice day at the zoo...we spent only $2 for parking and nothing else. I love that!!! And of course, every trip is different so its never boring. Today we hope the rain will stop and we can enjoy some outdoor fireworks courtesy of the neighborhood folks. Tomorrow, since its raining today, we will do our cookout. Rich is gonna smoke a turkey and we've got fresh corn-on-the-cob. Yummy!

Happy Independence day to everyone!