So much has happened since I last posted so I wil try to fill you in.

Mouse has gone over the rainbow.  It was soooo time.  It was said but needed to be done.

We moved off the Path and are on the Bend!  LOL  We moved to the West side of Round Rock and I LOVE our new house.  If you are on my facebook then you probably already know that.  We have a great new house and terrific backyard.  It is perfect for entertaining and as everyone knows that is one thing I love to do.  We have a beautiful pergola and I have a Bouganviella growing through the end trellis.  Perfect for sitting out on a nice warm night(two ceiling fans).  This neighborhood is more mature.  We have huge trees.  So large in fact that we weren’t able to get Direct TV.  We got Uverse instead.  No NFL Ticket so I am a little bummed.

Jungle Java is crazy busy.  It is amazing how much things have changed.  It has been one year now and we are a well oiled machine.  We have art camp at our place all summer.  Mrs. St. John from Cactus Ranch has set up camp at our place and we couldn’t be happier.  The 100 degree heat is also forcing people to come in.  As a result we have had a chance to get away more.

We went to New Braunfels for three days and visited Schlitterbahn Water Park and Natural Caverns Safari Park(watch out for those emus and zebras they are quite aggressive).  We are also going to Dallas to see the Tigers play the Rangers and spending a weekend at Houston to visit NASA and other sites.

We are having one of the best summers ever.  Man oh man I love it here in Texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Didn’t know what to name this blog and that was the first thing that came to my head.

First….a big hug to Baxter, Mouse’s boyfriend.  I hope you are feeling bette.  You didn’t need those stinky toes any way!!!!!  Less toes in your paw but the same amount of love in your heart.  You can still hug minus a toe or two.  An even bigger hug to Julie who I know is just beside herself.  I wish I were there to hug on you and tell you everything is going to be alright.  I miss you and Baxter.  I can’t believe he is ten already.  HOLY COW!  It seems like just yesterday you brought him home and he was jumping our fence to play with Mouse.  Oh the noise she would make when they would play.  I would love to see Mouse like that again.  AHH those were good times.  BBQ’s and Mike’s Hard Lemonade and of course Profiler before court tv went to shit!

This is going to be a random post, hence the title

Noah is stating his independence now.  The boy doesn’t want to cut his hair and he is starting to look like a hippy.  Today he even wanted to dress himself and I felt like I was taking a peasant to school.  I think back to my parents and what they allowed me to do.  They always said as long as I got good grades I could dress and look however I wanted.  My dad tried to give suggestions but I was dancing to a different beat.  I survived so I guess Noah will too.  It’s hard to let go.  He is too cute and too precocious.  We went to math night last night per Noah’s request.  I was quite happy being a math teacher and all.  He has always excelled verbally so it was nice to see his interest in math.  They played fun math games and we continued the math lessons at home.  He really loves to learn.  It is so nice and refreshing to have someone so interested in learning.  I work with kids who have failed the Math TAKS test and some of them could care less.  It is nice to come home and talk to someone who cares.  The other night he even brought up the civil war.  At one point in the conversation I had to remember I was talking to a kindergartner.  The funny loop was he asked me if “our” state was a slave state.  I told him Michigan was in the north and was not and then he replied NO I mean our state.  LOL, as much as I am getting acclimated to Texas, Noah is a Texan.  We had to make a few calls for the answer(it was and that is why its stateshood was delayed 10  years).

Cooper is doing well too.  He has a new teacher at school and really seems to like her.  Miss Rachel was nice too but Coop seems to be sweet on miss Sonya.  He knows his ABC’s even though l-m-n-o-p sounds like some obscure dialect.  He can count to 20 thanks to the hide and seek games we play.  The one thing he doesn’t like is to go to the potty.  He is obssessed with his WII games and computer games.  He would rather pee in his pants and wait for me to catch him than go to the potty.  That is a work in prgress but we are getting serious now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jungle Java is GREAT!!!!!!!!!  Oh my we are birthday central.  It is fun and rewarding.  I love our little regulars that I get to see everyday as well as those kids who are so excited to have a birthday.  Nothing is greater than to see their little faces light up when they get to the door and can’t wait to get in.  It’s like seeing a birthday for the first time over and over again.  It doesn’t get old.  I love kids and it is so sweet to see their happy faces.  If I had started earlier I would imagine I would have had a whole gaggle of children.  Alas I don’t want to pay for college in my 80’s.  So I get to live vicariously through the other babies.

Tomorrow is Gregg’s birthday.  He will catch up to me in age so he can’t say I am his old broad(or lost in the tsunami).  Sunday we are planning on going to the Kite Festival with Mark and Mary and maybe Rachel and Brandon too.  The past two years we have had so much fun there.  This Sun. might be a bit cooler but hey today is 87.  It’s humid a bit too so it feels almost like a Michigan day.  I think it is suppose to be in the upper 60’s Sun.

Uncle Chris is moving here on Monday.  WE can’t wait to see him and get him used to the Texas way of life.  This will be his thrid trip to TExas in less than a month.  I’m sure he will be happy to set some roots now.  As I have said there are plenty of jobs here and if you are looking to get out fo where you are you couldn’t pick a better community than the greater Austin area.  They are hiring for all sorts of jobs.

I can’t believe Hosea won Top Chef.  I was rooting for Carla but she was lead astray.  I was happy when she was teamed with what’s her name for sous chef but I wish Carla would have told her that she had her own way of doing food.  She would have won had it not been for the sous chef.  I’m glad Stefan didn’t win.

Lost is still good.  I’m enjoying the twists. I knew when the guy said sorry about your friend that we would see him again.  It will be interesting to see how that crash plays out.  I’m guessing a few of them have been there before.

Survivor is not as good as they said it would be. Surprise!  I swore off th Trump shit but I might catch a glimpse or so because of the  disaster it may be.  I haven’t watched any yet but I hate the man so it might be hard.

Hope all is well with you and I will try to write again soon!

OK Guys are horn dogs….  THat has always been the case.  They are always talking about how hot a girl is regardless of age most the time.  Gregg having been in the radio business many, many, many (sorry hun) years there is always talk of who is hot and such.  I have always been appalled at older men oogling the much younger crowd.  Shoot, half the crowd I don’t even know.  Who the hell is Lauren Conrad and why should I care?  There are many others out there and perhaps I am showing my age by not knowing or caring who they are.  Back in the day you were someone if you had a talent and acted.  Then you would get your fame.  For all I know these people are on shows but if they are I don’t know what shows they are on.  I digress.  So as I was saying.  THe radio guys would always comment on younger girls and say things like, “hey they are legal.”  I found it disgusting.  THey were still children.  WE were in our upper 30’s then some in their 50’s(now we are in the 40’s lol) saying things about the 20 somethings.  Well I have to eat some crow now and be grossly disgusted with myself as I see myself for once joining them in the reverie!

Miss Sarah dropped off an US Weekly magazine to me today and I couldn’t help but see this one shot of a very cute and sexy looking young man.  My tastes for Hollywood celebreties run really only two ways, Johnny Depp and Matthew McConaughey(as long as he doesn’t speak, damn he is a hot piece of UT!).  Today I flipped to a page with really no description and thought damn that guy looks fine and then when I turned the page I wanted to PUKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was looking at a KID who hadn’t even turned 21 yet(tomorrow he will).  OMG. I started laughing at the irony and the sickness of it all.  HIs brooding pic kind of caught me off guard as It looked a lot like a Jared Leto pose(thought he was cute but too young in the day, yea he was 4 years younger than me).  The only thing I do have to say is that if he keeps pics up like that one then I’m sure he will free himself of the Disney pop curse.

OK enough Disney, 21 Jump Street, and My So Called Life Talk.  I have to take a shower!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh by the way it was Zac Efron.  This wasn’t the pic I was referring to but not bad.

OH am I procrastinating.  I have a bunch of work to do but I haven’t posted in a while.  I even watched some Wiggles with Cooper to get out of doing this(balancing the books).  I will get right on it as soon as I am done here.

Well it is a hot one here today.  Suppose to get up to 100 degrees.  I love it love it love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That’s not to say that it isn’t hot but it feels good.  It’s still spring so we get nice cooler nights.  The kids have been having fun in the pool that Aunt Jan bought them.  I think we are going to be playing in it again today!

While in Michigan we traded in our minivan early.  We were already over on miles and weren’t due to turn it in til November.  Well they had some great deals and we got a new car for the same price.  I didn’t really get to drive it much til we got back here.  What a great car.  It is much better than the last model.  WE got the same Walter P Town and Country but it has so many more options.  I like the layout and Gregg loves the touch screen radio.  He loved being able to plug his Ipod into the stereo and download his stuff into the car.  It was nice for him when he had to drive home.  I LOVE the autostart.  I knew it would pay off.  Yesterday we went grocery shopping and we were able to cool down the car before we got to it and put in the kids and groceries.  Perfect!

I have a bunch to say aobut Lost.  I finally watched all 4-5 episodes in one sitting.  I have some thoughts but will share them later.  I still have thoughts on Aaron but we will share those later.

OK well I should get back to work.  I can find nothing to say all day here.  The JJ is moving right along.  I bet they are sanding the drywall as we speak.  We need to get up there.  We go once in the am and once in the pm.

OK gotta get to work.  

We had a nice Easter here on the path.  We all went to Carol’s house for a casual brunch.  The Sippel boys have taught me a new game, Blokus.  Fun game but I need to play more.  We also had a nice Easter egg fight in the street.  Love those confetti eggs.

We canceled our trip to Houston this weekend.  We were going to see the Tigers play but Noah bean has his first flag football game.  Woo hoo

I don’t know what made me think of this but last week I was thinking about some great music that I used to listen to.  I would jam out.  Then I realized that was the 90’s.  I went on amazon and found it super cheap.  Gregg is too funny.  Yes I have a zune but sometimes I just want the actual CD.  He doesn’t understand that.  Guess I won’t let go.  Anyway I was thinking of Afghan Whigs

God I loved this song

Dinosaur Junior  Ugh I loved to jump around to this song and freak out.  What a great beat.  This was a great dance song(by my standards).  I dated a drummer once and my cousin is a drummer they love these kind of songs.

Now I loved this guy so much, Mark Curry.  Most might remember him from Sorry About the Weather.  THat was his big top ten song.  This video is fromt he second album I have.  It is a great song.  I don’t think the video is complete but there isn’t much on him.  I saw him once in Ann Arbor and once in Detroit.  Boy did he look like he had a lot of fun in those two years.  He was absolutely fabulous live.  This video has that Kiefer Sutherland guy in it.

OK so this song is from the first album I have.  Not bad on the eyes.

I will have more to write later today.  There is so much to talk about and I have more pics.  Plus I have a big write up on Lost if you are interested.  I have been thinking about some theories the last few nights.

Oh I love Fridays!!!!!!!!!!  For one I have the day off and secondly the kids go to school.  That leaves the rest of the day for me, Lost, and Jungle Java.  We put a desk in our master bedroom and I have turned it into my office.  I have my little desk in my bay window cubby so I can look out.  I have one GREAT view from my office.  When I look up I see beautiful Egrets drying their wings on the side of the lake on hole 7.  Sometimes I see some cute little duck butts wailing around as they try to get to something at the bottom of the lake.  Oh and then I get back to work.  The view is a big distraction.  I might have to draw the blinds soon before I notice that it is sunny and 70 and I will want to skip out on my JJ duties.

I went to my first Pampered Chef party last night.  I know hard to believe.  I love cooking so much but any one I knew that did Pampered Chef stopped doing it when I met them.  It w as lots of fun and I bought a few pieces.  I got to meet some other people from the neighborhood too.  Shannon of course went and was a big help as she had sold Pampered Chef before and this was Katie’s first time.  I also met a ballerina from the Austin Ballet.  Oh and I also met 3 babysitters yesterday.  Two girls I caught getting off the high school bus in the neighborhood. and one girl from last night.  I will have to have these girls come over and meet the boys.  Noah already liked the older girls from the bus stop.

Wow so we made our reservations to come back to Michigan for our JJ training.  We will be back April 21-May8th.  This is nice as it is also at Cooper’s birthday so we can have a big family get together.  I know Gregg and Michelle wanted to have a big get together for all the listeners also when we come back.  He was thinking one West side and one East side.  Perhaps Novi the 26th and Royal Oakish the 3rd.  If you have any ideas of places of cities by all means respond here or email gregg.  After all we want the party to be where you will want to come(ps. I love Duggan’s in RO)

So we should get our final MEP plans back by Monday and off to the Permit process then.  In worker time I am thinking we will start construction March 12th ish(2 1/2 weeks).  Which puts us finishing June 1-15th window.  Noah’s bday is the 12 so I am hoping we can have a party for him on the 14th.  In the mean time there is so much to do so I should really get off this computer and get working.  I will post a new Lost blog entry later.

Oh and I am also going to a meeting tonight about a charter school opening here in Round Rock that will have the IB program.  Is there anyone here from Michigan who goes to Country Day, Cranbrook, Andover, IA or even Lone Pine Elementary?  How about anyone involved in it in Round Rock at Westwood, Grisham, Anderson Mill.  I know nothing but good things about the program in Michigan so I am very excited about this meeting.  It is all the buzz in the school that I am tutoring in.

OH and a bigggggggggg HUG to Curly.  I saw on Carol’s Blog that Colin took a header into a wall/basketball pole.  Hey but blue stitches are really cool and you have to love that the ER waiting time is only 7 minutes here!  Take care sweetie!!

Man it is cold here.  The high is 45.  Not much of a Friday Family Fun night tomorrow.  Last week we played in my house.  It is cold but it is cute how the people here over react to it.  It’s funny because everyone who is here moved in when we did.  Only we moved away for a year to only come back.  Now they are all accustomed to the heat and their blood has thinned.  It’s funny because even Tiffany who came from CA is chilly whenever there is a dip in temp.

Even our friends in Atlatnta are a bit chilly now.  Oh I can’t wait til it lifts.  Our friends in Philly were having a hard time.  OUr old street was shutting down because no one could get up the hill. 

Oh Philly was so cute with all the elevation.  I don’t think anyone knew that there was such an elevation.  But oh my I always said whenever we went up and down our sub my ears popped.  today I read on our local message board that people could not get up the hill.  This is so steep that they had to park down where the townhomes were and crawl(almost crawl up) to our houses.  This is a VERY steep slope so I am sure peolpe had a hard time.  The horrible thing is that one of the  Street Sweepers actually ran into one of the cars that were stranded on the street.  It still is such a beautiful sight but I must agree that I prefer the warmer temps. and all that go with it>

Oh what a meal.  The dinner was as perfect as was the conversation.  We have plenty of leftovers!!  I sickened Carol and Shannon with my turkey deconstruction technique.  They eventually took the bird from me.  My mom would have been so disappointed with the amount of meat they made me leave on the bone.

We had such fun today, always silly when Jessica is around.  It’s gold when Gregg and Jess go at each other.  Everyone had a great sense of humor and lots of double intendres were flying.  At one point my side hurt.  The kids were a dream.  We didn’t have one single episode all day.  It is so nice when they ll get along and no one get hurts.

We are suppose to walk over to the outlet mall later tonight.  The Polo store is open at midnight.  We were thinking of taking our Baileys and hitting the Starbucks at the mall and ”pub crawling” for some deals.  Yeah, right now Jess and I are the only ones ready but we still have 2 1/2 hours to go.  Our party is dwindling, or is passing out the more PC thing to say? 

So far the deals I have seen in the circulars are not that great.  Please if anyone finds any great deals tomorrow please tell us.  I almost think this is an urban legend.  Now I can vouch for the day after Xmas sales.  Neimans and Saks are some places that you can get SERIOUS sales the day after xmas.  Of course I was always shopping for baby clothes.  I can’t remember the last time I bought something for myself that wasn’t for attending a wedding.  Can I get an Amen from the other new mothers!

I hope everyone had a GREAT thanksgiving.  We just want to say we are so thankful to be back in Texas and back with great friends(not that any friends in Detroit sucked but hey come visit us already!).

Hey here we are!  Shannon is cooking away LOL!  Carol is watching and I am trying to find my drink.  Jessica is along for moral support.  We are having a blast here talking and cooking.  I think the Lions are losing but we are really ready for the Cowboy game.

The kids have been a dream.  They are soo good and quiet ahhhh.  And the guys aren’t bad either.

It is nice and chilly.  Of course I say that tongue in cheek(hate the cold).  We had a cold front come in last night.  At 2 it was 84 degrees and at 5 it was 50 degrees.  BRRRRRR

I hope all is well in Detroit.  I miss the Wednesday night at Union Street and watching the parade set up.  I especially miss running around the parade course and climbing on the floats.  Amatuer night downtown was one of my most favorite memories.