Spring Break begins...

English muffin pizzas and mango/blueberry/banana/orange juice smoothies

With cookies 'n cream pudding for dessert--with a candle mind you!  As Little Miss said, "For no good reason!"  Except that we had Lolly for the afternoon.  There was much trampolining, a puppet show, block building, the above gourmet meal, cousins in a tub followed by the great detangling/braiding adventure.  Then hopscotch.  Nothing like hopscotch right before bedtime.

And then a story from Molly before she and Lolly went back to her house.

It's been a busy Spring Break, friends.  And it's only MONDAY!

Sunday the McKinney crew came to Molly and Papa's.  It was the sixth anniversary of our Road Trip to Santa Barbara and Back.  And Trey and Sunny's wedding, of course.  We worked on Easter pictures...

Funny bunnies.

Lolly has a secret in this one...but I'll never tell.  I'm just that great an auntie!

A lovely spring vignette, yes?

Doing the bunnyhop.

Papa and Lolo found the AnnieBunnie quite entertaining.

To think that six years ago, none of them were here...we must have been soooooooo bored/boring back then!

Saturday was full of excitement as well.  We were out of the house by 9:30am!  We were off to Lowe's...

to make tabletop basketball hoops!  They have these make and takes every few weeks.  They're free and fun...

And educational in a skills-building kinda way.  I love how she's holding Loverboy's thumb while hammering away.  Little Miss was not overly thrilled with the noise level, but she was quite pleased with the outcome...

AND she got a completion certificate AND a patch...the aprons are on back order LuAnne at Lowe's said, but when we go back to build our next masterpiece at the end of the month they should be in...and she'll get another patch!  She seems to like the patch thing...maybe a future lure into Girl Scouts?  MMmmm...Girl Scout cookies...but I digress.  We went to the courthouse square to see Molly, who was working at the hotel.  We stopped by a shop next door first to peruse the marbles and bricabrac.  We left Loverboy there--he was SHOPPING.  I've never seen the man browse before.  A little distrubing really.   After visiting Molly and trying to track down the skunk smell in the hotel, we went to our beloved county library.  We also continued our Spring Break Burger Project--but that's a later post!

Which brings us back to Friday--the start of Spring Break '10.  It was a half day at school and then off to the Country Peddlar Show...except Molly realized that it's not until next Friday...luckily before we left.  Undaunted, we picked up Mimi Debbie and all headed for JoAnn's for some craftiness...and to try on seasonal headbands..

A nice day for it.

There were ballloons, static electricity, and foam swords with which to play...

And bouncing...

And bouncing...

And bouncing on this lovely, spring-y day. 

With her ever vigilant bff never far away.

I'm lost...

There are only nine more episodes of Lost left--ever!!--and, I gotta tell ya, it's not getting a whole lot clearer for me.  Widmore's coming to the island in a sub...Ben is a good guy in the flash sideways, but certainly wasn't in the original...Sayid--what's happened to his redemption story?  Ought to be a packed nine episodes.

Somewhere, I've seen a recipe for a peach crisp that used oatmeal as the crisp.  I've wanted peach crisp for days now.  And now I can't find the recipe, or even one like it on the internet.  But I did find a tasty substitute.  Only the peaches needed to be doubled, at least!  Adapted from allrecipes.com:

Super Easy  Peach Crisp

2 (15 oz) cans sliced peaches, drained--I used peaches in juice, and, again, I'd throw in at least one more    
                                                              next time
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
pinch of salt
2 t cinnamon--I like a lot of cinnamon
1 t ginger--peaches and ginger--YUM
1 c. butter, right out of the fridge

Preheat oven to 350.
Dump peaches in 9 x 13 baking pan.
In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and ginger.  Slice the butter into chunks and mix it into the dry ingredients until it's all crumbly in pea-size chunks.  Spread it over the peaches.

Bake 35 minutes, until lightly golden and smelling so good you can't wait one more minute.

But you probably should.  We let it cool about 30 minutes--bath time--then enjoyed with vanilla ice cream.

Delicious with a Snuggie...

or equally delightful without.

Who knew?

We are bathed and ready to head to bed!  But Mama needed a picture for the post tonight--so here you go!  I've had to wear my glasses today waaaaaay more than I usually do.  I wasn't sure, but I thought the opthamologist's appointment might involve a little dialating of the pupils, so I brought them along.  Glad I did.  It was hard enough driving home with my sunglasses shoved on top of these.  Doing it without glasses would have been impossible.  I can't find my way to my car in the garage if I don't have my contacts or glasses.

The prognosis, you ask?  Not exciting at all.  Occular migraine.  Who knew?  If I had a headache thrown in it would have been a plain ol' migraine.  As I described what I have taken to calling "the event" she kept smiling and nodding her head...so I figured it wasn't fatal right away.  A textbook description of an occular migraine apparently.  Right down to the graph of Depression-era unemployment.  I believe her words were, "Congratulations.  You've had your first migraine."  Which indicates to me the distinct possibility of more of these "events" in my future.  I'm going to add a moderate case of the vapors and take the day off school next time.

Beggars can't be choosers

When Molly got her fancy-schmancy leather recliners around Christmas, her LaZBoys were supposed to be whisked off to LaZBoyland for repairs, then returned to live with us.  Until the furniture store "misplaced" them.  These little babies had been abandoned (or upgraded on) by someone at the furniture store,  so a substitution was made.  All's well that ends well.  Although it does all sound like some hospital/baby mix-up storyline on a soap opera.  Frankly, these, while not exactly my choice if had any choosin', are more comfortable than Molly's.  So, if Susan Lucci comes around here in a few months wanting to swap our "babies" back, no deal.

I realize I'm reaching with a recliner post here.  It was TAKS test day.  And the next two days are benchmark tests "with a TAKS feel" schedule.  Then our social studies benchmark is during class time next Tuesday or Wednesday.  And I've got to squeeze in an actual test for my class next week.  And have the kiddos look like they're doing something worthwhile because our evaluator has decided to do our annual reviews next week.  And next Friday is an early release day.  And I've got morning duty all next week...

Is it any wonder I thought I was having a stroke--or at least an "event"--yesterday at the end of 7th period?  Seriously.  After a day of covering EVERYTHING on my walls for the TAKS test and a class of listening to some awfully weak roast/toasts of New Deal events/figures, I glanced up at a kiddo asking me a question and all of a sudden saw bright lights,  squiggly lines, and a jagged line that looked suspiciously like a chart of Great Depression unemployment figures.  This is what my last glimpse of sweet life is gonna be?  I didn't die, but I did freak out as soon as the bell rang.  Because the weird lights and unemployment graph were not going away.  So I hoofed out to my car--yes, I drove.  I am a Texan.  And called Loverboy, who called my doctor, who, of course, was gone for the day.  The office told him to tell me to go to the ER, which is where I had just arrived--it's basically across the street.  And I could see to drive.  And I wasn't numb, or droopy, or in pain.  Just FREAKED out and panicky and diabetic.  Tip if you're ever in the ER and want to go to the front of the line but don't want to fake labor or a heart attack--say diabetic and feeling weird.  Sorry little crying kid with a fever so high you're glowing--Mama Nockinbird's on the triage fast track!  To continue dragging out a long story, blood work (including a pregnancy test--like I need that kind of bad juju Ricky Bobby), EKG and CT scan--the one where they just stick your head into the super magnety donut thing,  I think that's a CT...what's a CAT?...I know it wasn't an MRI.  I remember having one of those when I had a torqed ovary--the size of a basketball that one!  That's another good way to get some face time in the ER instead waitroom time.  Barf up saliva every sixty seconds and experience so much pain it makes other people hurt to just LOOK at you...my, I do have an interesting medical history.  Anywho, back to the story.  I'm okay.  Brain's good.  Heart's good.  Sugars were okay.  NOT PREGNANT (wasn't worried about it until they brought it up!).  The ER doc referred me to an opthamologist and Loverboy, dear, persistent Loverboy snagged me an appointment for tomorrow afternoon.  No more flashes, graphs of WWII munitions production, nothing at all today.  I do feel like I've over-reacted a bit.  But the diabetes--I'm not messing with that.  I'd like to keep my sight.  And my life, thank you.  Blindness, heart attack, stroke--let's not forget nerve damage, infection, amputation...Want to know more?  Click here.  It's become quite easy for me to turn down the box of donuts in the teacher's lounge. 

Farewell, February. Hello, March.

It was a Barnes' Cultural Enrichment Saturday.  We started the day off at the Kimbell.  Little Miss was mildly impressed with my favorite pottery figure--the Japanese courtesan.  She's quite plump, has a crazy hair-do and wears slippers that look amazingly like bunny slippers.  What's not to love?  I think many of the figures in the permanent collection were a little too...scary for Little Miss. She did spend a lot of time studying the six-armed Indian statue of a Hindu god I've probably at one time known the name of.   But the stairwell beckoned and up we went.  And then she saw the doors leading out the back and into the park.  Out we went...catch ya later fine art!  I'm not sure if the above pose was inspired by the artwork, but it showed up often Saturday.

Like here.  Loverboy admired the building, Little Miss was ready to explore the outdoor environs of the museum. 

Will Rogers Coliseum tower in the background.  I love Fort Worth.  Not the least reason being it's the birthplace of my Cowtown Annie.

Outdoor sculpture-schmulture.  There were railroad ties to be walked.

Let it be known the installation in the sunken garden survived the Barnes' visit...despite our greatest attempts otherwise.  I'm happy to report she knew better than to try this inside the museum.  In fact, she was relatively well behaved.  Relatively.  I think they'll let us come back.

All the world is a playground.

She stuck the landing.

You can visit by clicking Kimbell.  But it won't be as much fun without us! 

Doing the splits...because she can.

I'm calling the visit a success. 

The next stop was the Amon Carter Museum.  I had high hopes for this one.  The art seems more accessible for a five year old--all the horses and cowboys.

My tactile two were impressed before we made it inside.  There are a lot of fossils in that limestone!

I think we should have snacked before museum number two.  We went through very quickly.  Not even impressed by the dogs we found in photos and paintings.  There was a group of children, homeschooled by the looks of 'em, quietly sitting in front of paintings, coloring their own masterpieces.  Oh, I have hope for the future.   Next time we'll strike a better balance between museuming, frolicking in the park, and noshing.  I did lose my "let the child explore and appreciate at her own pace" patience once, ONLY once, and drug her off to Parson Weems' Fable.  I was about to get all "teachy" and launch into a history lecture when she screwed her face up and asked why the little boy looked so old.  Mission accomplished.

Mama (?) Nockinbird bid us farewell.

And we wrapped up Cultural Enrichment Saturday at Olive Garden.

Topped off by hot fudge sundaes at Sonic.  True cultural enrichment.

Sunday was a more laid back art experience.  We painted our saltdough alphabet.  I think we need to make more letters.  She had fun spelling with them, but ran out of e's,  n's, etc.  Maybe a project for this weekend.

Then it was a Playground Sunday.  A ridiculously cold Playground Sunday.  But sparkly pink leggings apparently make one impervious to the cold.

Loverboy had good clearance for his swing leap.

I'm glad Little Miss displays caution...occasionally.

I have NEVER had a dog that could go off a leash and ALWAYS come as soon as you called her name.  I do now.

Molly made dinner tonight, clearly in a celebratory mood to welcome March.  Since it may well be the only time her oven is on this month, we skedaddled on over. Chicken pot pie AND homemade banana cake!  Yeah, she's done for the month.  Papa is doing well with his new knee.  Or at least doing well with the pain medication.  He starts physical therapy tomorrow.  Ouch.