The Archie Casey situation.

I was waiting for the kettle to whistle when I stumbled across these adorable pictures of Casey and Archie from this weekend. Archie hero worships Casey, but any given weekend he can either be Casey's best friend or scared of his shadow. This past weekend he was all about being Daddy's boy.
They spent the first part of their day like this, snuggled up on the couch watching various shows.
And then the last part of their day they spent it like this, sacked out snoring.

I love my Casey and Archie boys.

A bad hair day.

I woke up this morning and realized that I really needed to wash my hair. It felt funky, it was only fit for a ponytail, and I wasn't in the ponytail mood. So I washed it and then looked at the clock and had another realization that I didn't have the time to properly dry it. So I loaded it with some mousse, flipped my head upside down and defused as much as I could in 5 minutes.
An hour later I discovered a HUGE rats nest on the right side of my head. It's like the defuser just knotted it up into a big old mat. So I spent my morning teaching Excel and picking out the rats nest strand by strand. Yeah that is what I got paid for today.

It was a bad hair day. I guess when you have two feet of hair, then a defuser becomes a deknotter.

Why I have to refill the water bucket so often

All day long they are doing this...
Where as the boy likes to just dig in the water, the girl sits her entire body in it and soaks.

Loads of stuff

I have so many pictures that I have been meaning to post, but alas my lazy butt got in the way. I moved my laptop downstairs to the kitchen again, and I left the camera cable upstairs, and it was just to far to walk.

Until today! I have spent my morning with yummy coffee, Bon Iver, many pups, the dawn, laundry, and homemade bread toasted. I can manage a short walk with all these fortifications backing me up.

Dawn, yet again.
I spy an Alex.
Baby pumpkins, we have so many hiding in there.
A baby watermelon. I actually have about 5 fist sized ones hiding in the bed that I didn't find until Sunday. I can't wait!
Casey played Sept. Santa. He was teaching in Irvine last week and he spent Friday night at Downtown Disney shopping up a storm for Alex and I. We brought home my favorite Basin bath bombs, Alex scored many many Legos, I also received more Dept 56 ornaments and this beauty...
A flashing eyeball light tower for our Halloween decorations. Casey knows our style so well, we look for anything that we haven't seen before. And here it is for this year. Love it.
And I leave you with a flappy Jenna. I swear every part of her that could flap, is flapping in this shot. Her collar tags, ears, tongue, tail, and all four legs.

First cuppa tea

Hmm tonight I had my first cup of tea for the fall season. I love that moment where I realize what I am craving is a cup of tea. It means the weather has cooled down, it means that Halloween decorations are in the works, it means that pumpkins are on my mind, it means that cinnamon brooms are showing up in the grocery, it means fall.

It means tea to warm my hands at night and to fill my belly with bedtime comfort. Bliss.

9pm Please

This week has we up early every morning so I can get done a boatload of chores and work things to make my evenings run smoothly. Things like laundry, answering emails, paying bills, budget work, dog care, kitchen duty, garage cleaning, trash duty, dinner prepping, and endless list making. I am working this week downtown, so my commute time has essentially doubled and that is without the possibility of traffic thrown in. I also have the two extra pups to care for and all the messies they can make.

So 5am it has been.

But it has also been 11pm.

Yea Gods, that late bedtime is kicking my booty. And its not like I have to be up that late, I just did it to myself because I finished the final book in a very long series and it was killing me to leave the last 40 pages for the next day. I am paying for it today, me tired, blurry eyed and waiting for the commute home all ready.

A Sun Shower

A cold front moved through our area yesterday which is bringing us a fabulous taste of fall temperatures as well as some rain! But not just your normal everyday rain, SUN RAIN!

We had lots and lots of rain all while the sun was shining so sunily and bright. Off and on all day we had bursts of showers. It was great!

Not only did the cold front bring us rain, but the rain brought us two stray little puppies. Who are currently adjusting to a household that is all ready brimming with pups, which brings our temporary number up to 7, yes 7 dogs. We have a sneaking suspicion that these pups come from the same mother/place that Jenna did. They have many similarities like their legs, eyes, and muzzle shape. Oh goodness they are SWEET too! I am currently trying to find their owners and or a new home, which shouldn't be too much of a problem cause they are such loves.

So I got up early this morning and opened every single window in the house to let in this cold front. With all of us being sick last week I really wanted to air out the rooms, and today is perfect because of the cool temperatures and brisk wind. Love it!

Ike Moon

Ike is making for a hazy moon tonight, as you can see we do not have any bad weather from him yet.
Unless you count haze and humidity.

Prepared, but not much expected

We are prepared for any weather that Ike might throw our way, mostly it will be winds gusting around 15-30 MPH and rain. Not too bad, some of our summer storms are nastier than that, but we shall see.

Prepared:

• Waters, canned foods, snacks.
• First Aid Kits both human and pup.
• Batteries and about 15 flash lights.
• Candles and lights all over the place.
• Laundry is done in case we lose power.

Have I mentioned.

• Casey is Sick
• Alex is Sick
• Nicole is Sick.

Ugh.

Thanks for the emails guys, at this point we are safe and sound. If Ike hits lower, more towards Corpus Christi than we would be very worried, but we look to be okay.

Be Prepared Nie Style

Late last month when I read about the Nielson's airplane crash I could only think of Stephanie's new school year theme, it was to be prepared. So we have adopted it as well for our school year. I have gone so far as to make an admittedly overwhelming list of everything that needs to be done so we are prepared for anything that might come our way.

With Ike literally lining up to hit Corpus Christi and plow right over us, all the models show that he is going to make a trip to the Alamo, I started having a mild panic attack last night. But this morning, after digging around on my emergency shelf and checking out the pantry, I can happily say that we are pretty well prepared for Ike and any other nasty weather to come our way. We only need to pick up some water and fill the cars with gas, and we are good to go! Yippy for a small step towards being prepared!

Eyeballin' It.

Um yeah I guess I have been obsessing over this, most especially since the model now show it making our weekend interesting. if it follows the black line, we are in for one mega show.

Scratch it.

I was challenged by Casey this weekend to use all those cookbooks that I love to collect and read. So I drafted a menu plan for the week, pulling from various Nigella, Betty Crocker, Lidia, and crock pot cookbooks. So far it has gone great, giving me the opportunity to do a lot of scratch cooking. Which I love love love! No boxes in this house!

Here is the scratch list so far:

• Pizza dough and the ensuing pizza.
• Bagettes
• Mashed potatoes
• Onion,Cumin, Wine gravy
• Chicken Fried rice

And for the record, my bagettes are AWESOME-ness in a loaf.

Right, so whats the plan?

So it's Sunday, what are we going to do?

First have a bit of spicy kettles...

And a bit of brew too...

Some paper to get the news and coupons...

And of course a British invasion from Nigella and Shawn...

Archie's worried face needs a snuggle...

And Betty just wants to chill on her couch...

While we bake up some homemade cheese pizza...

And let Alex inspect the Basil.

Right, sounds like a plan.

Garden Babies

I spent the morning in our garden, it was cool and clear outside and I happily watered, weeded, rearranged wayward vines and counted Garden Babies. This is truly giving a "face" to our food.

Pumpkin Blossoms, we have so many, hopefully in time for Halloween, surely for Thanksgiving pies.
Flower Full, a squash blossom.
A Tom Baby, our Roma's are doing wonderful. I expect to have a huge haul in the next couple months. Time for canning.
Watermelon Baby, we decided to experiment and see how far out we could grow watermelons in Texas. Seven blossoms so far for Sugar babies.
Bell Pepper Babies, potted when I ran out of box space.