Bummer....(Day 7)

Broke these a couple weeks ago. It wasn't too big a deal since I have two other pairs. But these are my good ones. I finally remembered to take them to get repaired today while I was out running errands. I keep this pair in my purse. I have another pair I keep on my desk and the third pair I keep in the kitchen. Exciting post today, I know.

I "caught" Rachel re-reading one of her Twilight books. She's read the first three in the series several times each. I haven't decided if I'm going to allow her to read the fourth one yet. It deals with a little more mature subject matter. It's not detailed, but it's there. She informs me every day that so-and-so in school is allowed to read it. Every day it's a different name. One girl is even reading it secretly, without her parents knowing. So what am I to do? She's told me she is not reading it secretly at school, and I believe her. She knows what chapter has the questionable material, because friends have told her. So do I have "the talk" with her and then let her read it, at home only? Or do I tell her in no uncertain terms that I don't want her reading it and trust that she won't borrow a friend's copy without my knowing. I trust her, but I know how badly she wants to read it. Bella and Edward get married, after all! She is mature for her age, so I think she could handle reading it (after I talk to her about it), but is it appropriate to allow a 10 year old to read it? I'm so unsure what to do about it. I wouldn't be surprised if she comes home from school and says someone told her what's in Chapter 5 anyway. I guess it's time for me to have that talk with her whether I let her read the book or not.

Monday in our house.....(Day 6)

...means tumbling lessons. Rachel takes a tumble-for-cheer class, so when she starts cheerleading again she'll have more of the tumbling skills. She's currently working on her back handspring. She's doing pretty good with it, and I hope by the time this 9-week cycle is over she'll have it. Tonight she did a couple of them without a spotter into a "pit." They have a tumble track, which is like a long trampoline in the floor, at the end of which is a soft pit to land in. She stands on the end of the trampoline part and does the back handspring into the pit. She does it with a spotter on a "cheese mat" which is a mat shaped like a wedge of cheese.

This first picture is the beginning of a round-off rebound. She does a round-off and jumps out of it at the end to get ready to go right into a back handspring. Her toes should be pointed here. :)This one is the end of her round-off. I love that I caught her completely airborne!

She's working on her handstand, too.

A Beautiful Palm Sunday (Day 5)

We went to church today for Palm Sunday. We attend Gloucester County Community Church, though we aren't officially members. Yet. I really enjoy it there. It's contemporary, so they have a full band and play contemporary Christian music. Growing up in a home where church/religion wasn't the norm, my knowledge of religion is limited. But I can understand the sermons at GCCC. And the Pastor has a great sense of humor during service. Children 5th grade and younger go to Sunday School. This morning I signed Rachel into the 5th grade class. She's in 4th. Oops. I didn't even notice until I went back to pick her up. She was in the 4th grade class, and no one said anything to me, so it must not have been a big deal.

We did get our palms this morning. Wanna know the best thing about getting palms?

Free cat toys!

This? Almost never happens. Either the dog is chasing the cats, or the cats are hissing at the dog, or the dog is trying to (playfully) bite the cats' tails, or the cats just run away when the dog gets near. But this time Violet and Ferris had their eyes on the same robin. That and they were enjoying the beautiful day.

It's days like this that make working from home so hard. Weekdays are one thing, although there are plenty of distractions then, too. But nice weekend days I just hate to stay inside. Ferris feels the same. He enjoyed his popsicle outside in the sunshine.

Slurp!

The Ice Cream Man Cometh (Day 4)

Spring is officially here when Mr. Softee shows up! This wasn't our usual Mr. Softee dude. No complaints, though. This guy was kind of cute, in a bad boy kind of way! Last summer Mr. Softee had some competition come around our neighborhood a few times. We'll just call him "Red Rabbit" (wink, wink). One day Red Rabbit supposedly decided to follow some girls down the street, riding real slow behind them. The girls got a little creeped out, told someone about it, and the cops were called. Red Rabbit hasn't been around since. That's okay. We like Mr. Softee better.

Right before Mr. Softee showed up, Fred was teaching Rachel how to upload pictures from her camera onto the Macbook. Look at the concentration on her face! LOL....

April Showers (Day 3)

Heavy rain/thunderstorms today were followed by lots of sunshine. And then the clouds started to roll in again. The picture below was taken at 6:11 p.m.

The next picture was taken at 6:38 p.m. looking in pretty much the same direction, just slightly to the left of the prior picture.

Then the Queen Bee said "Take my picture." So naturally I did.

I learned a lesson today in Philly. I parked in a different parking garage because of where my job was and because it was raining. If I'd rode the train or parked in my normal garage I would have had to walk about 6 blocks in the heavy rain. (I'm a baby, I know) I was prepared to park at the crown plaza and pay $24. Crazy, yes. A block before I got there I saw a sign for another garage that said "Early Bird Special, In By 9 AM, $14." Great! It was only 8:50. Now, I've parked in lots of different garages, but the ramps in this one were the narrowest I'd ever seen. Somewhere around level 4 they decided to make half the garage "Reserved Spaces Only." Fine, but I didn't notice that until I'd gotten to the next ramp, which was blocked by a big 'ol Lincoln. (This garage is part of an apartment building) So I had to back up and go up another ramp. Then I made the same mistake on the next level. My own fault, but it's still a stupid design. The next level had a valet guy. So I let him park it because I wasn't able to make the turn to the next ramp because of how narrow it was and I was getting dirty looks from people. Went to my job and was back at the garage by 10:40. Scanned my parking ticket and it asked for $24. I went back and rechecked the early bird sign. In tiny little print at the bottom it says "Out between 3PM and 6PM." So to save $10 I would have had to stay there an extra FIVE hours! I have never seen a restriction like this in any other garage in the city. You can bet I will NEVER go back to the Kennedy House Parking Garage again!

Rockin' Robin (Day 2)

Tweet, tweet.

April Fool's Day! Day 1

I kind of thought April Fool's Day made an appropriate day to start a blog, and this seems like an appropriate picture! Am I a fool for taking on another project? Probably. Oh well! At least it's a fun project.

Happy Birthday to all the April Fool's Day babies, including my Goddaughter Emma, my sister-in-law Karri, my soon-to-be sister-in-law Amanda and FERRIS! Ferris is 4 years old today, but he's only been with us for a year and 2 months. We had a little celebration for him tonight.

Presents were given.

He even got a birthday Krimpet.
He's such a good boy, and we're so lucky to have him. Too bad the cats don't agree.

Ferris came to us by way of Karri, who had a co-worker who had a daughter who needed to get rid of a Boston Terrier. Karri knew Rachel and I always wanted a BT. So last February, for Rachel's birthday, his previous owners brought him to us. I can't imagine why anyone would get rid of this sweet dog. I know they were moving to a smaller place and wouldn't have room for him to run, so I don't fault them. We are actually his third (and last!) owners. We were told his first owner may have abused him, and we tend to believe this because Ferris is scared to death of Fred. He's gotten a little better over the course of the year, but he's still afraid of him. It's only Fred -- not all men or anything like that.

Ferris is not perfect...he's a bit of a, um, puker. Sometimes it's random. It always happens if he drinks a lot of water. I won't go into what he's been known to throw up. You don't want to know. Trust me.

So for those of you wondering what the 365 stands for in the name of my blog, a Project 365 is basically taking a picture a day and posting it on a blog. I like to take lots of pictures, though, so it'll be interesting to see how many posts actually have only one picture. I originally tossed around the idea of a blog to keep family updated when we travel to China this summer, but then I saw other Project 365 blogs and thought it looked like fun. Hopefully it will be for me and anyone who decides to follow along.