My Ho-hum Past Couple of Weeks

There is really nothing at all interesting to post about but I did feel the need to journal so here goes...

The past few weekends have been spent running errands and trying to get some Christmas shopping done. I really HATE to Christmas shop on the weekends but with Toby working during the week I can't very well get Summer's done with her with me.

I always remember what it is I dislike about the holiday season when I have to go into a store of any kind....that includes the grocery store.

We actually have been wanting to go camping for a while but with the drought there has been a burn ban for the past few months. Camping is just no fun without a campfire...plus I would freeze to death without it, so there goes that idea.

Hiking would also be a great idea but with Toby working so many hours I feel kind of guilty for asking him to trek around in the woods before he has to be home and go to work all night long....and after he didn't get home until the wee hours that morning.

I guess you can say we have been in a kind of slump lately. We stayed so busy when we first arrived in Austin because we had plenty of time then. Being the adventureous family we are I think we ALL miss going and doing things. I guess the honeymoon is over.....for a little while anyway. It's really kind of ironic the way life is....When you have money, you have no time. When you got time you have no money.

The highlight of our week was watching the Star Flight emergency helicopter take flight. We were coming home from the grocery store the other day and we passed by the Star Flight Command Center that's on the way home. We noticed the helicopter was about to take flight so we pulled in there and let Summer watch the helicopter take off. We were pretty close to it so we all got a good look at the take off.

This past Sunday we did have a fun day planned but our plans were squelched. We were planning on going to Austin's annual Empty Bowl Project.

Since we have moved to Austin we have started new holiday traditions. With it being Thanksgiving and us not doing our traditional Thanksgiving we were looking for something new to do. The Empty Bowl Project was the perfect idea.

Empty Bowl Project is a fundraiser that benefits the Capital Area Food Bank. It's a really big event in Austin......after all, Austin is a very giving city, as you can tell by all the overly aggressive homeless people (eyeroll).

Anyway, the process is you go in and pick a pottery bowl for $15 that has been handcrafted by area artists. Some of them are even signed by celebrities....which you have to bid on. After you pick and pay for your bowl there are several different restaurants that donate their time to filling the bowl with different soups. You get to keep your bowl. There is also live music to enjoy while you are eating your soup.

We were all very excited about it....especially Summer. Unfortunately, early Sunday morning Summer woke up throwing up. That's always fun to wake up to.

Fortunately, she threw up only a couple of hours. I felt so sorry for her though. All the while she was throwing up, in between heaves she was talking about going to the Empty Bowl Project. I didn't have the heart to tell her at the time that we would probably not be going.

We all slept extra late that morning. Summer woke up seeming to feel much better and even ate some breakfast. After she ate though she said her stomach hurt a little. Even though she never ran any fever and really didn't seem all that "sick" I didn't want to risk going to a public event and (a) spreading a potential illness or (b) risking her vomiting in a public place....been there, did that.

At all of our disappointments, we ended up not going. And of course, Summer seemed fine the whole day, jumping around and acting like her old self.....*sigh*, kids.

Since we were all dissappointed that our daily plan fell through, we were all cranky. To make use of the day Toby decided to re-format my computer which has had a virus for a couple of months now making it run very slow with pop ups out the wazoo. It's a day long process anyway so at least the day was somewhat productive.

The flip side of this was that all of my "favorites" were lost in the re-formatting. I just assumed that Toby would "grab" my favorites from off my computer. But no, he had the old disc of my old favorites from off of his computer from a year ago and used those. I had worked really hard this past year to gather up Summer's school websites that were very pertinant to our curriculum that we are using now.

I lost EVERYTHING that was important. I guess since the whole day was already going so bad this was just an added inconveniece at the time. This morning when I went to do school with Summer I felt like an arm was missing.

Oh, and when Summer and I went to Walmart today we saw something pretty strange. In front on Walmart there is a large park area (I know, weird huh)with a lot of trees. The grackles are always flocked in the trees making their odd grackle noise. When Summer and I walked through the park to the entrance of Walmart we looked up at all the grackles....then I spotted something green. There were flocks of parrots/mccaws all in the trees. They were acting like wild birds coming down and feeding and playing in the trees with the grackles.

I thought I had seen parrots flying around Austin before and landing on the power lines but Toby doesn't believe me. This week he wants to go with me to Walmart to see the "parrots". Hopefully they are still there. I don't know of any other green bird that it could be....

I am looking forward to things to get a little more lively soon. Maybe my next post will be a little more interesting. :-)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!