the month's almost over, hooray

I put the fuss-butt back in bed a few minutes ago. Way too much fussing was going on too early in the day. When she wakes up before 7:30, she's not really ready to be up yet.

Well, my brother made it to China in one piece. All is well over there, he reports that he has two roommates, one from Scotland and one from England, they are in a good size apartment with everything but an oven and access to Facebook. Gasp! How will he survive if he can't properly socially network? He starts teaching Monday at a good school with 2000 kids. I am guessing that is small by China standards.

Over here in Texas, a foreign country of it's own, the biggest news is that I am feeling fat and pregnant. My feet are always sore, I took my wedding ring off the other day because my fingers are always feeling puffy, I am at the point where I have to start pushing myself off the couch because my abdominal muscles don't want to pull me up anymore. I've got that annoying side effect of itchy, scaly, peeling palms, though some days are worse than others. Heartburn is a daily occurrence, more than once a day too. Which is not a good thing to have happen when you eat as much curry and other spicy stuff as I do. The jumbo bottle of Tums is my friend. I always have a pulling, heavy feeling in my gut, and I am starting to not sleep through the night. I wake up a million times and turn over.

But lest you think all I do is complain, there are the good parts (well, part) too. I love feeling Caroline move around in my tummy, and she does it alot. Sara was an active little critter too. She still is.

The other day my dogs got out of the yard. I didn't even know they were gone for a while until my neighbor called and told me she saw them running around down the street. They must have been gone for an hour or so. Elsie came back first walking VERY s-l-o-w-l-y up the street. I have never seen her walk to slow in her entire life. She must have been tired. Oscar came home about 25 minutes later. I noticed also that when Elsie came home she had a big gash on her leg, around back by her butt. We didn't take her to the vet until the next day (this is a definite sign of the times, where the dogs have taken a back seat) It was probably a javelina. At first the vet thought that her vulva was torn. Ick. But after a shave and closer inspection, it was obvious that it just missed it. So she's got staples in now for the next two weeks, and we are trying our best to keep her from ripping them out.

Here's some pictures. Adios for now.

Sara on the Window View Trail. It takes a lot longer to walk .25 mile when Sara is setting the pace and stopping to point out EVERY flower and piece of grass along the way.

Chowing down on Mommy's birthday cake, an experience she didn't have on her own birthday. Better late than never.

Impulse purchase: rubber ball in the checkout lane. She loves it though. This is the second rubber ball. The other one met it's demise at the jaws of Oscar.

Pointing out the dog. The collar Elsie is wearing does not work. She can still reach.

Staples. If it was stitches we wouldn't have to drive ALL the way back to Alpine to have them removed. Just another pesky part of living in the middle of nowhere.

P.S

see that BLINDINGLY white thing in the top of the picture. That is my pasty white arm. But white is better than skin cancer.