Almost Christmas: April 2014

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Sunday, April 27, 2014: Fightin' Fox!

Daddy gave Fox a chance to try out one of his boxing gloves.

The champ!

Right hook to the jaw.

April 26, 2014: wedding of Hannah and Charles at the House on the Hill in Westlake, Texas

We attended the wedding of Hannah and Charles on Saturday. Hannah is our former sister-in-law Jan's stepdaughter. Jan, of course, did spectacular decorating for Hannah's wedding. We told Jan that if we ever have a big event to plan, we're hoping she'd help us out. She's a master planner!

So despite the dire predictions of a weekend of tornadoes, the weather was beautiful for their outdoor wedding.

Raising monarch butterflies

We ordered caterpillars from Insect Lore to watch them turn into monarch butterflies. The process took about two weeks. Fun to see the caterpillars get fatter and fatter, climb to the top the habitat to spin their cocoons, then burst free as full-fledged butterflies.

We released the butterflies next to the passion flowers in the back yard (safely away from the grackles in the front yard, we hoped). We'd seen monarchs around the passion flowers before. But our monarchs zipped right past the passion flowers high into the sky and over the fence. Wonder if they'll be back?

Before releasing the butterflies, we gave them an orange slice to feed on. Hard to see in the photo but the butterfly has its proboscis out, drinking from the orange slice. We hope the orange juice gave our little guy or gal a good start in life!

After leaving the cocoon, we'd give the butterflies a day in the habitat before releasing them to make sure they could fly to the top with no problem. This butterfly is ready for the great outdoors!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Happy Easter!

We spent Easter morning at a petting zoo. Here is one of the Easter Bunny's offspring!

Duckling with Jade and Amon's hand

Donkey or burro? Is that the same thing? A burro ran away with me on its back when I was 4 years old. He run under a low-hanging limb and knocked me right off his back!

Jade chased this duck all around the pen before catching him. Love his Easter pompadour!

Jade and Daddy with a hen.

Baby chicks and ducklings

Fox and Wilbur say "Happy Easter!"

Running Otis: April 9, 2014

Thanks for the photos, Lawanda (darn autocorrect! Won't let me spell La Wanda's name correctly. GRR!). Here's Lawanda's note: "Hey Mia! Your grandson ran 12 laps for Run 4 the Arts on Wednesday. Run 4 the arts is a fund raiser for art in portland public schools. 2 times around the park block where they're playground is equals 1 lap, so he circled it 24 times in 30 minutes. WOW!!! Every lap is marked with X on the arm. Otis was so proud he didn't want to take a bath because he wanted to keep the X's on forever."

That's our Otis!

Great job, Otis!

Easter lunch in Shreveport: Saturday, April 19, 2014

Visiting in the kitchen

Sista Donna brought a giant loaf of French bread from New Orleans. The New Orleans' contingent, below.

Sista Martha. I was 7 years old when she was born in Talara, Peru. I remember Daddy coming home from the hospital and telling me I had a little sister. I knew I would. For months I'd been using the fairy godmother chant from "Cinderella": "Bippity, boppity, boo, make it be a girl!" I called her "Tita," short for "Martita," until she started school. She called me "Sissy" when she was little. (Charles wanted to name her Rapunzel.) For many years now she's been "Martha" and I've been "Sharon."

Mom was so happy to have all of us home. She can't believe she'll be 80 in November. I can't either!

Fixing lunch together. Sista Donna brought the long loaf of French bread and garlic butter. So good! Daddy's opening the ham. I'm about to empty Mexican corn into the bowl.

Martin and I looking over our passports from the 1950s, when we traveled to and from Peru. Spent a few days in Panama on one trip, but the passport isn't stamped for Panama. I know for sure that we did stop there because we have home movies of us watching ships travel through the Panama Canal.

Needed caffeine before lunch after a very long trip to Shreveport. Got to mile 306 of our 317 mile trip in about 6 hours. The last 11 miles took 5 hours. My heart goes out to the family and friends of drivers involved in the collision that shut I-20 down for hours: Jaguar stopped behind a semi while police investigated a minor accident was hit from behind by another semi. Tom finally cut across the grass median to go back west after we'd gone only 6/10 mile in an hour. Several miles west, we saw police routing traffic off I-20 onto an overpass to turn around. We ended up traveling back roads into Shreveport which led us through Oil City (derricks rising in the mist, silhouetted in the moonlight); a casino in the middle of nowhere, lit up like a winning slot machine; through Shreveport's casino district; and finally to our Days Inn at 1:30 a.m.

Sistas!

Daddy, Martha, Donna, Destry, Colton, and me

Lube Idol competition: April 11, 2014

Quaker Steak and Lube in Waco is holding a singing competition to name its Lube Idol. Emma and Al were among the competitors on April 11. Semi-finalists will compete on May 2. Waiting for Emma's turn: she was #8.

Emma performed Adele's "Rumor Has It."

Al was the Big Bopper, performing "Chantilly Lace"

Joyce won the bucket of dollar bills at the end of the competition.

Catching up with friends: April 14, 2014

After the Los Lobos ACL taping, Sharon and I joined Tom, Amon, and Jade at a get together to see old friends Jack, Viv, and Julia who were visiting from NYC. Here's Jack's cousin Jordan, who lives in Austin, and who was breaking up a blueberry muffin for Jade.

Jade and 12-year-old Julia hit it off.

Jack and Tom

Tom and Amon. We stayed until 1:30 a.m. I had work the next day! Yawn . . . .

Jim spends an afternoon with us: Sunday, April 13, 2014

Jim spent Sunday afternoon with Jade and me while Sarah and Kirk attended an aquaponics meeting. Sounds like an interesting way to provide food! In a closed loop system, you have fish like tilapia living in water in which plants grow, no soil necessary.

Hangin' on the front porch

Jade wants a hug. Jim isn't so sure.

Sarah helps Jim down the front steps.

Ninja Turtle Jade

Jade requested a headband so she could be a Ninja Turtle. I think she's Donatello here, even though none of the Ninja Turtles has a yellow headband. And she's enjoying toast instead of pizza.