Jamie isn't feeling well

Glad we have a 3 day weekend. Jamie has a bad cold, and is content sitting and doing puzzles and looking at books and tv. She keeps coming up on the couch to lie back on pillow and snuggle with me or her dolly. Last night my mom came for dinner and got to snuggle with her too. She is only snuggly when she is tired, sick or has a fresh boo boo lately so we are all loving the snuggles.

We went to Aunt Cinda and Anders yesterday for a fun play date. They used apples to paint with and played with Anders toys inside and outside. Ander has such a nice backyard playground. Jamie calls it 'Ander's park'. Poor girl, we don't have much of a backyard playground, just the pool and one little tykes climber and a small sandbox. I will download photos soon and post some pics.

How is your Labor day weekend going? Don't forget to get some relaxing in!

Cone of Concern: Fay has left now here comes Hannah, and then Ike?

Yes I know I didn't mention Gustav but that storm is currently heading to New Orleans, and Fay is still causing storms and rain across the country but both are outside of our 'cone of concern'. This term is apparently only used by my favorite local Weather man Tim Deagan. I thought everyone knew what the 'cone of concern' was, but last week I queried several people here in my town and hardly anyone knew what it was, and it had me in hysterics. I know what's so funny about that? I guess you had to be there.

All Fay All Day and Day and Day

I think she may be gone...but wait was that a wind gust?! Fay has been with us all week, our power was out yesterday most of the day, the wind was gusting, the torrential downpours many...Mike tried to get our 2k+ generator going that we bought for the last F word storm that took out our power - Frances in 2004. The gas was still in there from 04 and gummed it up so it wouldnt work....Anyway after plenty of trys as it was getting dark, we hightailed out of here and got a motel room. We just cant sleept without air conditioning. I just don't want to do it. When we got home this morning we saw a few neighbors windows opened so we were crabbing and moaning and hoping we weren't about to be without power for 5 days again like in 2004 when Mike tried the garage door opener. Hurray!! We were never so happy to see that door raise. We came running in and started cleaning feverishly. Nothing like not being able to vacuum to put you in the mood for it!

Fay Go Away!

Well we spent the evening scouring the stores for batteries and bottled water. We came home triumphant with lots of D batteries (which were not easy to find!) gallons of water and smaller bottles of water, other batteries, and munchy type foods. Our mayor declared that this was serious at 6:14 pm, when he said school would be closed both tomorrow and Thursday. It's good that Mike is a teacher as Jamie's school is closed as well. I will go to work, but may take off a bit early and work from home. (if we have power) Mike will stay home with Jamie and stow the garbage cans, umbrellas and outside furniture. Also fill the tub, get chlorine for the pool,and wash some towels...Poor guy the list is getting longer as I think about it. Last time a hurricane came up the state and came through this area was Frances and she caused a power outage in our home for 5.5 days. It seriously sucked. How can anyone live without air conditining, not to mention internet, expresso makers etc. When we did leave the house it was treacherous as the traffic lights were out and we saw 5 accidents at the intersections...This time we will either stay in and stay safe (and hot!) or we will run for the hills. Or it could turn away from us in the night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the latter.

Mike is back to school so our vacation is over

Gosh it's been nice having a house-wife I mean husband. LOL - Mike had 8-9 weeks off this summer between last year and this year as he teaches High School and our district does not do year round classes. Though he did get hired at one of those learning centers, they couldn't seem to get it together to get him trained so Mike only worked about 3 days for a couple hours each time. Although it would have been nice to have the extra money it was also nice having him home. He took Jamie to daycare and picked her up every day, and in the mornings he was here while I was getting ready to get Jamie ready. He also got some things done around the house that didn't seem to be gotten to when he was working, like paint the spa cabinet, pressure wash the outside steps and sidewalks.

Now I am on my own in the morning as he leaves before 7am. How do you people do this!?! What do you do with a toddler while you are getting ready? I tiptoe around and hope she doesnt wake until I am almost ready but she wakes up most of the time about 30 or 40 minutes before I am ready to leave, in other words I am not ready when she wakes up. She doesn't want to be left alone on the potty even for five or ten minutes to do her business. I am trying to retrain her that this is the way we have to do things but there are fights and struggles every morning.

Any suggestions?!

Lantana gone mad

Wow we had fun today and got a lot accomplished inside and in the yard. I got several things tagged for the childrens consignment sale coming up the beginning of October, and the other night my mom helped me put some iron-on name tags on some of Jamie's clothes for her new school next week so I have about 20 items ready for her to wear. I still don't have the label maker I ordered for Walmart, the labels I used were in a kit with tape, stencils and a pen for $3.

I have a small garden back behind the pool that I have let languish since we got Jamie just over 2 years ago. I had it all spiffed up with zinnias and sunflowers alot of summers, but this year I let a Lantana take over most of it. If you don't live in the south you may not know, but a Lantana is a bit like a weed/bush that has a very cool flower. It starts off yellow and turns orange and than pink...or starts off pink and turns yellow then orange...hmmmm not sure which way it turns. I remember the first year I lived in Florida finding it out in a field blooming away, like free landscaping! The problem is it is invasive so a small 2 ft bush can spread 8 ft across and 6 ft tall in 2 years if you don't have a good frost to kill it back. Not only that but it has been raining here almost every day in July and lantana doesn't bloom when it gets too much water. Not to mention it's poisonous and the hairy leaves hurt your hands and they stink if you crush them (like cat pee!) So it had to go. I pruned it way back first and starting cutting the roots around it...The main trunk was as thick as my upper arm, and I left a good bit of it so Mike could grasp it, and now it is gone!

I planted some tomato plants that had gotten leggy and some purslane which needed to go in to the ground. Then we snuck next door to the neighbors back yard and cut back some lantana bushes and some thorny vines that were starting to creep over and under our fence. Our 73 yr old neighbor Lou, died 2 weeks ago and it doesn't look like anyone is in a hurry to get his backyard in order. Weeds are hip high and he has dozens of bins with crap in them, and empty soda bottles all over his yard not to mention his porch and garage are crammed full with crap. (And his house, I know, we are nosy, we looked through the window on the front door!)

Poor guy had a heart attack about a month ago, (he mentioned it to Mike in the front yard, so he was released from the hospital), then we didn't see him again. His car showed up with a dented front bumper, but he never came back. We saw some people coming into his house one day last weekend with bags, and alot of trash bags at the curb one day. So we looked him up in the online obits from our local paper, and sure enough, he died suddenly it said. We wonder if he had another heart attack while driving. We didn't have a very good relationship with him as he called the city on us for backwashing the pool when some water came into his yard. The weeds have been hip high for months, but we never called the city on him. As much as we wanted to - and we are glad we didn't now. Sometimes it's good to be nice, or not be mean anyway.

Mike is also working on our lights that encircle the pool and the spa has been wonderful, now that it is in working order. We just need to paint the cabinet again and it will look all right back there. Maybe we can have some people over for a nighttime spa and pool get together. It's hard to do in the daytime, not only because of the extreme heat but the every day rain showers. We get out there when we can. I love our yard.