I decided to make muffins this morning, blueberry and apple cinnamon. As I stir the batter with a nine and six year old by my side I remember back to when I was little. I spent many weekends at my aunts house. My cousin and I would wake up early to make breakfast for everyone. We loved to mix the stawberry and blueberry mix. He would always let me have the spoon when we finished filling the pans. While the muffins baked we would make coffee for my aunt. He would add a little cinnamon and cocoa to spice it up a bit. After the muffins finished baking he would take them out of the pan and we would butter them, then they were ready to serve. We are now 30 and 33 this year. So much has changed in our lives. We have families of our own, made our mistakes, and childhood muffin memories are just that…memories.

Today was the first day this summer that I have spent doing absolutely nothing of value. I didn’t teach school. I didn’t do laundry. I didn’t clean carpets. I didn’t run errands. I didn’t pack for a trip. I did nothing of worth. I got up this morning…only because it was necessary to not mediate from the bed all day and Tiki chose to do laps around my head…very difficult to sleep with a small dog pouncing. I had coffee, of course. I watched news and searched the web, then I created my T13 for the day. That was more time consuming than I anticipated. I then decided it was time for bubbles and a good book. That is usually an evening routine, but who cares? I played chess with our youngest, watched the paving of our road, and played with the dog. There were a few net games in there too. Yes, I was a bum.

After Djembe came home I DID cook dinner…I’ll have to post a pic tomorrow. It was pretty and good! LOL. Chicken quesadilla’s with salsa. Yum!

Before dinner we talked with our new neighbor while the dogs played. They have two mini-doxies too! Tiki was so excited. Little dogs, just like her! All of her playments outweigh her by 50-70 pounds so it was great to watch her romp with Reeces and Snickers.

All in all…I do not feel too good about the day. I feel lazy, but it was good to relax.

Found this article at The Blinking Cursor.

Puush for simpler speling perzists

They even picket the national spelling bee finals, held every year in Washington, costumed as bumble bees and hoisting signs that say “Enuf is enuf but enough is too much” or “I’m thru with through.”
Click here to read more.

It is ridiculous to me that there is an element within society that proposes to dumb down education. What is wrong with holding students to a standard? I know NCLB. Yes well, let’s face it…NOT ALL PERFORM AT THE SAME LEVEL! I’m not saying let those who struggle fall, I’m saying push those who can do more! Challenge them! Not make things easier. Think about it, which path are you going to choose? The one that has been cleared for you or the one where you are going to have to fight back the weeds and prickly plants? Some of us would choose the path of adventure and see where the road less travelled goes. Others do not feel it is worth their effort to pursue the harder path.

Hello, my name is Kontan and I watch a reality TV program. UGH. I can’t believe it, but I admit that I have watched this program since it started. It is dumb, but addictive.

It’s Big Brother 7 time….All Stars. BB7 from here on out. BB7 is an all stars version. I can’t stand most of the cast. My favs are Kaysar and Janelle. James and Marcellas are OK too. I can’t imagine that Kaysar and Janelle will stay in the house long. Most of the house is pushing for Kaysar to be out. Fortunately Janelle is an HOH (head of household) this week. Danielle and Allison are on the block. I don’t care who goes. Either will be good. I wonder what other twists will be in store this season??? So far the HOH twist, two instead of one. We’ll see what else.

We had a wonderful vacation, but it is really great to be home. For the past several years we have vacationed on Dauphin Island. Due to destruction from Katrina…and every other gulf coast hurricane… we chose to visit a different location. First we stayed the Fourth in Mobile, visiting the battleship, USS Alabama, and enjoying fireworks. It was a decent show and the weather was great. I really enjoyed the flight displays. The next day we drove to Fort Morgan.

Fort Morgan is a lot like DI, very quiet with not much to do other than the beach. It is a really great way to relax. We stayed at a pretty nice condo complex, Gulf Shores Plantation in this condo. It is a small two bedroom, but we were very comfortable. With the beach, several pools, tennis courts, putting green, golf course, and games there is plenty to keep you occupied. We chose to spend our time at the beach or pool. We did experience some rain while there. Once a thunderstorm where we had to use the indoor pool, and again just rain with sunshine where we were able to remain at the beach. If you check out the pics you can see the girls had a blast with their “boogey boards”. OK, so did I!!! I love body surfing. Tweety has no fear and had to be watched closely to prevent her from going too far out. She caught on to the surfing deal really quick. I would hate to see her try surfing for real! Froggy is a little more timid. She is not fond of critters. We did not encounter ANY jelly fish (SHOCK!) but there was a good bit of seaweed at times. She mostly feared creepy crawling crabs and the little fish that like to swim in the shallow waters of the gulf. She overcame, for the most part, and joined our surfing adventures. When the saltwater started to bother them we headed toward the curvy pool. Going from 1 1/2 - 5 feet, it was the best for the girls. There were other children to play with, but the girls really loved it when we were their playmates. I wish I had half the energy that a six year old has! All in all, not much to report. I took lots of pics, of which 60 or so are loaded on flickr.

My favorites are pasted below. Thanks for reading and hope you had a wonderful week as well.

I love the lighting of this one.

This was an accident. A few days ago Carmi asked his readers if you ever got something unexpected when taking a photo. This is one of those. I thought the lens was foggy so I was taking pictures to test it. I expected this to be very blurry as I was waiting for the camera to adapt to the outside temp. I love it.

The girls love lightsticks. This is our last night on the beach with them glowing with joy.

I love it when they’re being silly!

Here’s hoping everyone has a great day! Have fun, stay safe!

Beach bound in just a few hours!!!!! Have four books to keep me busy. Balcony beach reading, can’t beat it.

We spent the weekend in the pool. Wonderful to visit family from overseas. I’m looking forward to a few more days before they have to go home. Took Tiki to the Bed & Biscuit. Hated to leave her, but she isn’t as self-sufficient as the big dogs, or the cat. Headed to the beach in the morn. Neighbors are kind enough to look after things here. Alli, as usual, is stressed by the site of packing. She tries to stay visible. I think she fears that we will pack up and leave her behind forever. I also suspect she is really enjoying having the house to herself. She can walk through without Tiki chasing her. I certainly hope Tiki is having a good night. I took her blankets and her favorite Rufus doll…she stole it from the girls Kim Possible toys. As I sit here and worry about my little dog it is appropriate that my Rhapsody rotation pulls Chris Rice, Everything’s OK. *sigh* I’m sure it is. Doesn’t make me like it any better. Next year…pet friendly condo.

Have a great week! I’ll be in and out…maybe.