Hello

I won't sugarcoat it. Pure blogging laziness and lack of interest is the excuse I am giving for my absence. It's been so long since I even thought about my blog that I thought maybe I should visit it before it totally vanished from my mind.

I am having some issues with being able to post on some of my fellow bloggers blogs and also hear that some readers are also having trouble posting comments on mine. I don't have a whole lot of time or expertise to troubleshoot the issue, but it is annoying when I want to comment on a blog and blogger insists on posting my comment as anonymous and my readers end up having to reply a comment via facebook or e-mail instead of on my blog.

Anyway, out of blog dedication here I am again....

Nothing major has happened over the past couple of weeks. I did have a birthday come and go. July 23 I turned 47 years young.

I am so grateful to have the friends and family that I do. They all made it very special with surprise visits, much needed new running apparel, and a wonderful day spent browsing plant nursery's topped off with a very potent margarita at Baby A's....and last but certainly not least an iPad from hubby.

They all must really love me. I hope they don't expect me to be quite so creative when it comes to reciprocating...lol.

On the weather front it's been hot as blazes..today was the 50th day in a row that we had triple digit temps. July was a record for temps and this year has been the worst drought on record since 1914. Quite honestly, I don't mind the excessive heat. It beats the alternative..excessive cold. What does bother me is the drought conditions associated with the extreme temps. I'm going on my 4th year of living in Austin and I think I have seen an actual rainstorm only twice. On the flip side you never have to worry about the rain ruining your weekend plans around here...

As far as my running goes, I am still running as much as possible. I run/walk seven days a week twice a day. I try to dedicate myself to exclusively walking at least one of those days but find that I have to force my legs not to take off. I'm addicted. I do still have bad days and good days. Some days I feel like I can hardly lift my feet up far enough off the ground and other days I feel like running for miles. Either way, I love it. Running has changed so many things about me...my habits, my routines, the way I think and feel. It's my new drug of choice.

Summer...although she has a few public schooled friends, we have gotten word that her best and one and only homeschool friend for the past 3 1/2 years will be by choice attending public school this year. In so many selfish ways it's so sad for me and Summer both, but I know from personal interaction that Jordan is a very bright and personable young girl with an amazing personality who will certainly be an asset to the public school system. I cross my fingers and wish her luck and hope the system will reciprocate and be all it can be for her too....

Despite the coercion from her public schooled friends, Summer has opted to remain homeschooled. She is older and more developmentally social now, so our agenda for the upcoming "school year" will be different from in the past.

And Toby, well, Toby is just Toby. He's our soft place to fall. Most of the time he is out of sight but certainly never out of mind. He's the one that enables our household to run as efficiently and comfortably as it does. He's a very important piece to our household puzzle and if we ever lost him we couldn't function as this family as we know it

Here are some random pics from the last couple of weeks...



Summer has a flair for creating artistic looking food arrangements. She also loves to create faux dinner parties for herself and anybody else that will attend.