MoMo and PaPa are on Their Way!

They are finally on their way here. They drove to Albuquerque, N.M. to catch a Delta flight. My Dad is a retired Delta Pilot and the only close hub for them is Alb. Anyway, they fly standby and made it on this morning bright and early. Arrived in Atlanta a little bit ago, and made it on the list for the final leg into Washington Reagan! Wayne went up to work today, and will take the metro to the airport and drive them home in the rental. So much easier, and hopefully they will miss the rush hour traffic. The good news is that they can use the HOV lanes with 3 in the vehicle. So we have a busy week planned with my parents here. We are planning on taking them a few places to sight see, eat some fantastic seafood, and celebrate Carson's birthday on Monday. We also plan on just hangin out and enjoy each others company too! Well I gotta get my rear in gear and clean this house.

Selected as Vice President

I come back from a meeting a little while ago and see the message light on my office phone is lit. I dial in to check the message and it is from Kari who is off getting her haircut this morning she leaves me a message to call her. I return her call and was informed by Kari that she has been chosen to be the Vice President of Carson's School PTA. Let it be known that my wife is now a VP (like soon to be Sarah Palin) the funny part is that she signed up at the Open House at the school a couple of weeks ago and has yet to pay her $10.00 fee and she is already VP - so does this mean that men in black will be shadowing her around? Will she get special access to the school bunker? Carson will want to know if she will be able to fly on Air Force Two - he knows all about the President and Air Force One. So please send her congratulations and donations to her non existent campaign fund will also accepted.

This message was NOT approved by John McCain or Barack Obama but it was approved by Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton.

Congratulations Babe - Love you.


Updated... I am not the VP...Wheeew! I am helping anywhere I can though... I really need to step back and learn a year first.

Hummingbirds!

Last weekend Carson and I purchased our first hummingbird feeder and hung it up on the front porch. This morning, while waiting for the bus I noticed a lone female drinking from the feeder. From what I can tell she is a Ruby-Throated Hummer. We also get the Rufous Hummers and the Allen's Hummingbirds here. I really did not think that we would get any, as my neighbor has a beautiful yard full of fragrant flowers. They seem to be very attracted to all of this.They are always four or five at her house, pretty much any time of day. I have some pictures I took at my neighbors.
Look closely at the next couple of pictures.... Can you spot her????

I finally got some pictures of the little girl visiting our house. Unfortunately, she would take off every time I went outside, so I took these from inside the house.
One thing you need to make sure if you want to attract hummers.... is to NOT use the premade RED nectar. They have discovered that there is an increase in cancers, and decreased fertility in the hummers over time when fed the nectar with the RED DYE in it. Hummmm wonder if it is Red Dye # 40. We make our own, so so simple and way cheaper too. Just use a cup of sugar to 4 cups of water. I boil it quickly and cool just to have a nice syrup instead of sugar crystals. Keep the extra in the fridge for about a week.

Check out my sister's blog here She has an interesting post about Hummingbirds and Praying Mantis.

Hey Follow Me!

Blogger FINALLY got the kinks worked out to allow you to follow certain blogs... so if you are a follower of mine... join in on the right hand side... and Follow Me.... I am looking for more blogs to follow myself... so join me... and FOLLOW along!

Hanna has Come and Gone.

We survived... Had a ton of rain and if the numbers are correct we had about 7 inches of rain. Wind was nothing compared to a good ole Texas thunderstorm. Our sump ran, and is still running about every 30 seconds...and so far seems to be keeping up. We woke up this morning to rain and it got progressively worse until about 4 p.m. Then the clouds lifted and cleared. Now we get to look forward to wonderful humidity.

Kindergarten is Kickin his Bottom! & Hanna....

I guess Carson was seriously just tired yesterday. Yesterday afternoon, he fell asleep about 5:00 p.m. Woke up for a few bites of supper, and was back asleep in 20 minutes. He did not wake up until about 6:45 this morning. He was totally wiped out and begging to go to bed.

He came home from school in a good mood, still doesn't want to tell me about his day, but his teacher assured me that all is well. He is just really, really tired. Most likely things will even out once he gets used to the schedule.

In other news, the National Weather Service issued a Tropical Storm Warning for our area. I am not worried about the winds or anything like that...after all I grew up in Texas. We live in the tidal portion of the Potomac River, and the Rappahanock. So they are also predicting higher tides. The concerns that I have is that they are calling for 6 plus inches of rain in less than 12 hours. We have a sump pump in our basement, and I know it works. The main concern that we have is that this area is notorious for power outages. The neighbors all said that when hurricane Isabell came through in 2003, the power was off for over five days. Living without power is not a fun thing... but I am worried that if we do lose power for any length of time, the sump won't work. Then the basement can flood.

I also worry about the freezers and stuff.... I went out and bought a couple of cases of water, and we have batteries and flashlights, so we should be ok. We have plenty of canned foods, and charcoal so we could cook out on the grill if we had to. Please pray that we don't lose power. Fortunately, Hanna is a fast moving storm so we should be out of the rain by Sunday morning.

Day Three....

Every day that Carson has come home from school, I have ask him how his day was, and what did he do at school....You know typical questions...nothing too taxing or straining..... I think. His response every day so far has been "I don't want to talk about it". No matter what I try I can't get him to tell me what is going on. I try not to lead him, but the more I question, the more adamant he is about NOT talking about it. His teacher has promised me to be proactive and we have an open line of communication. Anyway, it concerns me a little because he usually is such a talker, wanting to let me know all about something. He is coming home from school ravenous and exhausted...so maybe that is it. He does go to all day Kindergarten...so maybe he is just having a difficult time adjusting to the new routine. Just in case I am going to email his teacher and see if he has any suggestions. I just looked over and this is what I saw.....passed out cold on my bed watching Backyardigans.

In other news.... One week from today my parents will be here.... we are getting very excited. Carson's birthday is also coming up on the 15th, and we have lots of plans swirling around for that too.

I did get a hug today!

I meant to mention this earlier, this morning as the bus pulled up, Carson turned around and gave me a huge hug and a kiss..... he is my boy after all and I guess in all the first day excitement he just forgot or wanted everyone to think he is all grown up.

My first full day of Freedom???

Yesterday was Carson's official first day of school. Wayne had taken the day to work remote (they can work from anywhere as long as he has computer and phone access). Even though he was home, he had several conference calls and business "meetings" to attend. So while Carson was gone, I wasn't completely by myself.

So today I woke up, got Carson ready, fed him breakfast, got him on the bus and took a shower. In that order. I never realized how nice it was to not "have" to get ready to get my day started. Since I did not have to drive Carson to school I "could" have not even gotten dressed. There are two bus stops a house away from my front door. So in all actuality I can watch from the front porch to make sure he gets on the bus. Not that I ever would...but it is nice to know that I can. It all really depends on who Carson wants to sit with when he gets on the bus as to what bus stop we go too.

There are a million and one things I would like to get accomplished in the week before my parents get here....but I will be honest and say that I most likely won't get all of them done. So far, all I have accomplished today is two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed upstairs, and started the dishwasher. I have ZERO motivation. I am just relaxing and enjoying the freedom right now...tomorrow I will get it all done. Right???

First Day of School Pictures.

Post count..... two for today....

The morning started out great... Carson got up and ready in record time. I gave him plenty of extra time just in case... I did not want him rushed and over stimulated on the first day of school. I think I gave him a little too much time, because after breakfast...which he gobbled down, he was ready to go...we still had 40 minutes before the bus would get here. I wanted to take pictures of him out front... so I shot a few, some of Daddy and Carson and some of me and Carson. The typical stand in front of the front door shot, complete with backpack and goofy smile. Wayne worked remote today...which was good for both of us, and he got to see an important milestone.

All the kids lined up waiting for the bus.... The little one on the end was still in his PJ's...and was seriously upset when big brother got on the bus and he didn't. All boys at our stop.

So Excited.... anxiously waiting.

Here Comes the BUS!

This is one HUGE step for Carson

But he made it up.....and got checked off by the bus driver. I really wanted him to turn around and look at me...cry for me... something... some acknowledgement that I am his Mother...that I am going to miss him terribly...but he did not look back... no bye mom... no nothing...He was too excited... and I am secretly glad he didn't put up a fuss that a couple of others did.

I will readily admit that I teared up as the doors closed and my baby rode away without me. I was thankful Wayne was home with me because we followed him to school in the truck. We waited for him to get off the bus at school... we waited and waited and waited... he was the last one to get off the bus. The teaching staff at the school met each child and looked specifically for kids with the kinder tags on. They were all color coded according to class that they went into. Each child was also stickered with a number that correlates with the correct bus for them to get on this afternoon. I resisted the urge to walk him into class, (he already told me to leave when he got to the bus stop) so Wayne and I left and drove home. It has been four hours and no phone call....so that is a good thing...right?

I will have another post later I'm sure...with the afterschool pictures etc.