Nest to Let

Okay, I just found out after I had typed out the post title, that "to let" meaning "for rent" is mainly British. BUT SO WHAT, I grew up in a country that spoke British English.  Nyeh.

Anyway, I was getting rid of some mistletoe from one of our mesquites and found a nest in the tangled mess.

It appeared to be empty, but hey, who knows what might happen later on in the season, aye?

On A Chilly Evening's Walk with Mah Boys

Blooms

The Earth wakes up with much splendour :)

Snowmageddon 2015

It took a while, but here it is.  Proof that Abilene was actually part of Snowmageddon 2015.  We may not have been hit by anywhere near what the folks in the North East got, but this was a whole lotta snow for these here parts.

All that snow was interspersed with freezing rain, which is never fun.

The following photos may necessarily be in chronological order, but it was all in the span of about 4 days or so.

I was really glad we had gotten a pair of high tech water proof thermalblahblah gloves for the little boy because he would never have lasted very long out in the snow without them.  I think I got them at Dittos for Kiddos for a very very reasonable price.

Who cares about clothes that get covered with snow when you can make snow angels!?

We spent some time building snowmen, forts and castles,

And managed a very short game of soccer while we were outside..

When you are a little boy of 5, there are endless things you can do with snow.
We adults tend to forget how to be kids after a while, so having one around is highly educational :)

We took walks and pretended to do some ice fishing,

and even roped Jasper in as a sled dog.  HE had amazing fun, and was crazy strong!

We marveled at how the muddy puddles had the consistency of slushies.

We also found some animal tracks .

We had to go out to town at one point, and everywhere was just white white white and more white.

When it finally thawed some and refroze, we had crunchy crispy snow and ice to play with.

It was fascinating to see all of it thaw - of course, I was no fan of all the mud it left behind, but what a marvelous time we had, and we sure needed the moisture.

Family in February

Jaidon turned ONE!

An outing at the Mall with the cousins and Mamo

A rare Taco Tuesday with Mamo and Uncle Jim

February to be revisited soon.

I was just going through my photos, and I know I had been tardy getting some of them on here, but I didn't realise there were more than I had thought there to be.

ANYWAY, slow and steady does it. No need to panic.

Good morning from Brigadoon

It seemed quite apt what with St Paddy's coming up and all, that this was the scene that we woke up to.  AccuWeather calls it "Dense Fog". I call it Magical.

A Visit to the Doctor's Office

It was fun to go down memory lane and look back at how times have changed.

When we were at the doctor's office with the hubs 3 1/2 years ago ( ??!!!! ), the little boy was a squirmy inquisitive lovable little bundle.

This year, he is still squirmy, inquisitive and lovable, but without the under-the-chairs-commando-crawling :)

There isn't much that has changed about the office.  The Jigsaw Puzzle Corner/Table is still there, and this time, where were a couple of ladies working on 'em 1000 pieces types.

There were several people who had waited so long, they were actually audibly dozing.

Okay, that lady on the screen seemed nice and all, but the volume was way too loud for a waiting room, and so we had to turn her down a little bit.

We didn't have very long to wait, but we came armed with entertainment :)

And air hockey is always good for passing time at the same time :)

I need to be more like a child

The little boy and I read a book last week, and indeed, it would do us all good to have the innocence and purity of children.

Having said that, it has been raining all day long - this after I had just semi recovered from a 24 hour migraine, complete with frequent head-in-trashcan phenomena, and I am feeling like..

while the little boy, on the other hand, is feeling THIS way.

He makes me thankful that I have a little boy who reminds me of the more important and beautiful things in life.

Happy Last Day of the Lunar New Year

It is a bright sunshiny day.  There are now very few traces of the snow that fell last night, having melted away to reveal the bright green grass underneath.

And it has been 15 days since Chinese New Year.  So, as the little boy and I reviewed in school this morning, today is also known as.. The Lantern Festival, Yuan Xiao Jie, Chap Goh Meh & Chinese Valentine's Day among other things.

 

We have had our lanterns up for a while in the RV.  I got them for a song on ebay, and they remind me so much of the ones I played with when I was a little girl back in Malaysia.  These ones don't have a little doohickey inside to hold up a candle, but I suppose it is way safer to just put in one of those LED tea lights instead. 

I just hung them up under the lights so it looks like they really ARE lit up from inside.

Anyhow, I had forgotten to post the photos from when we brought the little boy to the Old Jail Art Center in Albany for their Chinese New Year celebrations last month.

There were booths/tables stationed outside for crafts and face painting.  The little boy eagerly did the cherry blossom craft, but was less crazy about the face painting.

When we got inside, there were more craft stations with volunteers waiting to help out the little ones.

For a little town, the attendance was quite impressive.

We did a scale craft, which was added onto the community dragon project

and then basically did the rounds. :)

There was some pretty good grub :)

and of course, the Japanese drummers from Fort Worth ( I think )

and last but not least, the Pinata....

For the past few years that we have been attending this, we had never stayed long enough for the pinata bash.  This time, we were late getting there, and so we stayed on a little later too. 

The pinata was pretty tough and unrelenting, and so the lady had to actually break it apart with her hands.

I like to think we ended up with the prized catch. :)