tomorrow there ought to be more exciting stuff to report

 

My online class (that I teach) starts tomorrow. Here's a picture from a trip summer of 2013....

If I lived in Texas

I would have to try to get this license tag.

Nice guy.

 

He was a really big lizard.

(also taken in the summer of 2013)

Reading

@ whole foods while mom shops
taken in the summer of 2013

Why

Why would you play on the nice sand when there are all these dangerous rocks? (From 8/16/13)

Basketball camp: Week 2

You can see the blurry picts from the first week here.

Silly girls

Driving a tractor in front of whole foods.

 

Happy birthday, Uncle Joe!

 

The past couple of years, Uncle Joe has visited us on his birthday.  This year, he's not and we miss him! We hope he can come for softball season (or sooner!)

Here are close ups on the pictures.  

 

Note the t's in their names. Also, in the top picture of the girls, you can see our calendar with Joe visiting last summer. 

Moths!

At the new house, we've seen some crazy moths!

First, Mothra... about 4 inches long.  We never saw the wing span.  It's a type of sphinx moth; probably a waved sphinx moth, but they are generally not west of the Rockies, so I may need to do a little more digging. Maybe it's a http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Manduca-sexta.

Then this cute little leaf-like moth.

I love the antennae. A friend in facebook said it looked like a "gunslinger" in the photo with the stance. 

After many web searches, I have determined that it's a Dichorda illustraria http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=7055 ... more web searching will be necessary to determine what it eats (or ate as a larva). Being a moth scientist is hard work.

Baby!

 

Kira gives a bottle to my friend's little boy.  He's 3 months old and one of the new twins. The link takes you back in time to when the first set of twins was little.

Dog!

 

The girls hung out with a friend who pet sits and they got to go play with this great Australian Shepherd named Oreo. They loved him. You know they are all happy when they are all posing.

Moving day (yesterday)

 
At our house from 2006 - 20013

 
The movers made a bridge from our outside steps across to their van.  It worked well and saved them some steps.

 
Getting the couch shrink wrapped and ready for freezing.

 
Okay, not really ready for freezing.

 
Nick and Nat put together her new bed in her new room.

 
Nat and Tia de-shrink wrap the couch.

 
And de-shrink some more.

 
That's a lot of saran wrap.

 
Coale likes the new digs.

 
Coale (L) and No-no like the bookshelf we cleaned off for them.

 
And the windows! Lots of windows at the new place. C (L), N (R).

Buddy loves Nat's new bed. I need some pictures of him, but he was very busy exploring. More soon.

I wish I would have organized the kitchen more. I may never find anything again. Boo. Also, we forgot to have the movers move our tomato plants. Double boo! Now we have to figure out how to get them over to the new house. We had asked them to move them but forgot in the craziness that was moving day. One of the movers likes to go so fast that he creates this whirlwind where you can't actually think.)  I'd put us at 90% moved, but the last 10% is the hardest.  Now we get to unpack.
 

Photoshoot

I went down to the place I teach and one of my students, a professional photographer, snapped some pictures of me with the wonderful ocean background of the University.  Here they are.

 

Nice view.  Beautiful campus. How does anyone go to class here?  

I think this could go on a professional page.

(I teach online!)

 

It was a windy day and my hair was wanting to be in my face!

 

Up close and personal at the beach looking at the ocean.   

A link for you

To the food blog...

Summer job

My friend has a new mother's helper.

Park fun on a Sunday afternoon.

We went to this great park a couple weeks ago for a birthday party. The girls declared it the greatest park ever, so we went again the next day. They built all kinds of castles and helped the (imaginary) people survive in this area. 

This park, the water and sand, are all great for their imagination. After the first afternoon, when we went home, they spent hours drawing and writing stories about the wonderful creatures that live in this park. #learning-can-be-fun-if-we-let-it