Strawberries

Yes, we have no strawberries! We have no strawberries today!

(I don't know why I typed that. It was just running through my head so I thought I'd use it.)

Here are some pictures of "the world's most perfect strawberry" grown right here in our very own backyard! We have had plain strawberries, a strawberry pie, and strawberry shortcakes this week. We re getting spoiled. VERY spoiled.




These pictures were taken using Jim's "light box" or "light tent" that he built. He uses it for pictures he wants to post on the internet (i.e. ebay and such). Doesn't it look neat?

Beta

Beta had a big weekend this past weekend. Sorry I'm just now getting around to posting about it.

Friday night was her dance recital. She takes dance on Monday mornings at her preschool. She gets to take ballet with all of her friends.

Here are some pictures of her in her costume:


Here is a video of her first dance. She is third from the right. Towards the end you will hear laughing. This is because the girl on the left end just decided she was done about halfway through and walked off the stage. :)




Then on Monday evening, Beta "graduated" from preschool! It was soooo cute! They had little caps and gowns and everything!



Did I cry? A little. I was fine through everything until they had the slide show. We were all asked to bring a baby picture of them. Seeing her 6-month old picture right next to her picture at preschool a few months ago really got to me. Seeing her in the cap and gown didn't bother me much. Sure, there is a lot of foreshadowing, but when I'm telling her to stop running because she's going to trip, I don't get the same feelings that the mother of a high school graduate gets. I just thought they were all cute!

So what you're saying is.....there's a CHANCE...

Yesterday was Alpha's 8th birthday! I can't believe it's been 8 years since I became a mother. They said the time would go fast and they would grow up quickly. I believed them. I just didn't realize how FAST and QUICK time really would go.

We had a good little family party with presents and ice cream. (no cake, per her request) She got some Hannah Montana sheets, iCarly pajamas, Girl Tech Sugar Cubes jewelry (which is really pretty cool), and her beloved Polly Pocket Designables Mall! She connected the two Designables to it and they all light up together! Joy! She also got a new bike, as you can see in the picture.

But the absolute BEST part of her birthday......was when she won THE CRANE!

We were at Toys R Us buying her bike. While I was checking out, she was looking at that infernal crane machine. You know the one. It has "the claw" outfitted with the smoothest metal pinchers you've ever seen, and lots of round-headed stuffed animals. She asked me if, since it was her birthday, she could have 50 cents to do the crane. I said ok.

SHE WON!!!!!

The first and only time she has ever tried the crane and SHE WON!! She got a flourescent orange mouse that she named "Whiskers". She was so excited on the way home. She ran to tell her Daddy when he showed up. To top things off, today at school they had to write a paragraph describing their favorite toy. What did she write about? The orange mouse! That's right! All the birthday presents, all the toys, all the expense and hunting and deciding. And her favorite toy is some 50 cent stuffed animal she got out of a carnival machine! ARGH!!!!

But at least she's happy. :)

Rain Rain Go Away

It is raining. Still raining. It has been raining most of the time since early last week sometime. I've forgotten when it even started raining. It has been rainy and drizzly since Friday. Tonight, we have thunderstorms! Just when you think it's rained enough, MORE rain comes! Where is it coming from????? (the sky....oh haha)

.............

It rained in the trunk of our car last Saturday. It was an accident, of course. Well, the car had a funny smell on Sunday. And Monday. So last night I asked Jim to try and figure out what was smelling.

The lining of the trunk was still WET! Everything in the trunk was WET! The smell......I'm glad you can't smell smells on the blog, b/c you would not have wanted to smell this! We had to throw away everything that we had left in the trunk. I washed some clothes I had stashed in there for emergencies. They don't smell now. But the trunk still does. BAD. And it's not like we can air it out.....it is STILL raining. We put some baking soda in pie plates and left them in there. Hopefully that will help.

.............

I got a package from the state board of accountancy today. I turned in the first part of my application back in January, and I had not heard anything else. Well, turns out, today they sent me the 2nd part of the application! I have to have 2 background checks, 3 character references, AND get fingerprinted! You know, I'm just working with money on paper here........I'm not applying for Ben Bernanke's job. So more forms to fill out....But at least it wasn't a rejection letter!

...............

Alpha cannot hear. For the past week and a half, she has had trouble hearing us even when we are just a few feet away. At first, I thought she just wasn't paying attention. (She is a lot like her father, and they both get "in the zone" where they don't hear you talking to them.) But this was more frequent. And it usually happened at the supper table, where she was not engrossed in something else. She has not complained one iota about her ears hurting or throbbing or marching or anything.

So I was surprised tonight when the doctor told me her left ear was full of thick, yellow fluid, and that her right ear had some fluid and was red. He said her left ear looked chronic while her right ear looked acute. She is on antibiotics. We'll go back in 3 weeks to have her ears checked. He said if she keeps having chronic fluid, he'll refer us to an ENT. She avoided tubes about two times. I wonder if we should have gotten them? No doctor ever recommended them. She had a lot of ear infections, but not quite enough to suggest tubes. I am going to push for a hearing test once this fluid is cleared up. I'd like to know just for my own peace of mind. In the meantime, please remember her as she swallows 1.5 teaspoons of Augmentin twice a day. Yuck!