Our two-week vacation is in full swing–and here’s a video to prove it!

Here’s what we’ve been up to lately:

rocks and minerals

After working hard to excavate the two bigger rocks in the foreground, Jr and Daddy lined up all the treasures that Moozie and Paw-Paw sent from the diamond mine in Arkansas. Jr now wants to dig in our yard to find rocks like these!

Grubby

Our newest pet, Grubby, plays hard, then eats, then sleeps; sometimes at the same time. (Yes, his name is really Grubby, named via Jr.)

Veggie Tales

This was after the Veggie Tales show at Silver Dollar City. Jr was able to take a picture with Bob the tomato and Larry the cucumber and then squeezed Bob’s nose on the way out.

waterslide

Fun times on the waterslide after Jr’s t-ball awards ceremony.

dangerous!

This is dangerous (according to Jr) and shouldn’t be tried by anybody else!

summer monkey

Chillin’ during the summer.

And finally, a special collage of the bug episode:

bug in ear

One night when Moozie and Paw-Paw were visiting, we all started to watch an episode of Star Trek. Except for Moozie, who sat at the computer with the only light on. About five minutes into the episode we hear “help, help” coming from Moozie. A bug flew into her ear. Of course, the first thing I tell her is that it’s going to eat her brain. We spent about 2.5 hours and tried everything to get that bug out:  a syringe with warm water, tweezers, even sticking a blade of grass in her ear so it would latch onto it (it didn’t). Then my husband comes out with Jr’s surgeon hat on. The bug stopped fluttering when peroxide was poured into Moozie’s ear in the hopes that it would drown and float to the top. Maybe we would’ve had more luck if we could’ve just stopped laughing. I took Moozie to the town clinic the next morning, where about 4 squirts of a syring later a small nearly white moth came out. An expensive little moth, too. Which Moozie still keeps in a small bag in her purse. The moral of the story is: everyone should be a Star Trek fan or bad things happen.

Now that monkey moos is back home we’ve settled into a comfortable summer routine. Not much pressing going on here. It’s rather nice to spend time doing things we all WANT to do rather than schoolwork. Jr’s had his t-ball picnic on Saturday and received his trophy–pretty fun to watch! And his favorite part was the waterslide.

I have started my summer ritual of reading Jean Auel’s series of books again. Have made it through two so far. I also have some time to do some editing on a piece that I am going to submit for publication. It’s nice to have a care-free summer, and I plan to enjoy it b/c it will probably be the last one for me for awhile!

Here are a couple of pics from my parents’ visit:

bowling with Paw-Paw

mommy and Jr.

squirting Moozie

sweet corn

Sunday we drove six hours to the little town of Wilson, Arkansas, and met Moozie and Paw-Paw to deliver a visitor–Monkey Moos! He is staying with my parents for two whole weeks in Louisiana. And Mommy (and Daddy) miss him like crazy! It sounds like he is having fun, though:  he spent most of yesterday in the pool, played with LA lizards (which bite!), had green eggs and ham for breakfast, and attacked Uncle Chuckie with water balloons today. Some of the same things I remember doing as a kid (especially the lizard part).

We’ve enjoyed ourselves, as well, but in a mellow, subdued, manner. We went and saw the new Star Trek movie yesterday (2 thumbs up). I have also started studying for the LSAT (and am no longer over-confident…maybe not even confident now) and have created a spreadsheet for all my runs (yup, I’m a dork). Big J and I have started running twice a day–once in the morning and once in the evening; today’s grand total was 3 miles. That marathon may just be attainable in this lifetime. But it’s still too quiet in the house. I think even the cats miss Little J harassing them.

But we know he’s having a blast and so are Moozie and Paw-Paw! Here’s a few pics from our mid-way point in AR:

Paw-Paw, Little J, and Moozie

resting

family of three

That’s what we’ve been up to. We went camping with some friends over Memorial Day weekend (and it only rained on Monday). And we’ve been taking Jr. to the t-ball park to practice. Big J is the coach of a team and is holding his first team practice on Saturday. Jr. will miss the first two games b/c he’s going to visit my parents in LA. Here’s some pics of what we’ve been doing:

canoeing

camping buddies

at bat

base running

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