Thursday, July 28

Meek Peek

I feel like I had to tentatively peek around some corner to see what's going on in my own blog. I've been procrastinating/ avoiding posting an update here because I thought I would be overwhelmed. However, I realized this morning that if I kept that attitude up, it would be a giant mess eventually, lol. So let's get started!

I have been using the word: "terrible" way too much lately. I think I need a new adjective to abuse and right when I typed that, I mentally described by vocabulary situation as "tragic." I think I just found my new word. XD

I actually some sleep before my flight. Finished up taking care of the plants and animals before heading out. While the SO and I were saying goodbye before heading out, we realized that the family dog would not come to us. We round the the corner to find that she had grabbed one of the boy quails that had been gallivanting around the backyard earlier. Sadly, no matter what we did, she was determined to never let go of her prize, and finished it off before we left.

Flying went fairly smoothly. I was delayed at least a half an hour for all of my flights. I had run across the airport in Houston thinking that I only had a total of 15 minutes between getting off of one plane and the start of boarding for my connection. I make it there, completely out of breath, and find that it's was delayed for 30 min. *eye twitch* At least that gave me a chance to use the restroom and learn to breath again.

Tuesday night, my dad and my brother are there to pick up this hot mess and capture it on the family's new camcorder. Oh joy. Over the next few days, my brother and I have been running around the house cleaning and clearing everything, lol. The next two days, I was able to visit with a few friends and during that time, we tried to stalk and surprise another friend during a dress rehearsal for her show. It was a pretty fail idea from the start, but we had hoped to bribe our way in with fresh cookies. They were a hit. XD

My memory has been pretty hazy this whole week and I'm sure that it has something to do with the fact that I haven't slept much at all. Hm, I went to a new primary doctor... I was kicked out of two bedrooms and am now sleeping in the family room... my air mattress had a leak after the first night so now I'm on a leather couch... mosquitoes still suck... and Florida is still disgustingly humid! Lol. I can't remember the order of anything I've done without the help of my wonderful and very helpful little brother. He's taken a friend and I to three different comic-card-hobby shops around town and that was pretty fun.

I thought I had Monday-Wednesday to finish visiting with friends before all of the cousins arrived and we headed to Disney World. I was so wrong. One cousin was supposed to arrive at midnight on Monday-Tuesday. We finish getting everything around the house ready... and her flight was delayed for five hours. After booking a different flight out the next day, she and her family turned around and went back home. Then we realize that she's arriving at noon airport north of us at noon on Tuesday, while the rest of the cousins are arriving from Germany at one at a different airport the same distance south of us on the same day. Oh, yes. We also needed both cars for the second batch too.

My brother and I bring a family friend and our dog to pick up the first cousin, we arrive a few minutes earlier than her scheduled landing, and then find our her flight is delayed for 45 min. ... What? What has been with all of the raggedly traveling? Nothing too terrible at all but we kind of had somewhere else to be at that point, lol. Anyways, while my brother is waiting in the cell phone median with the dog in the car, us girls are inside doodling on a balloon we bought as a welcoming gift. XD It's came out pretty darn goofy. We head up to arrival gate and our friend is holding the balloon and hiding behind me (she's taller) and I'm trying to use the camcorder to record my cousin's arrival. Well, after several minutes, I decided to start the terrible footage over with a formal intro from our friend.

She has nothing to say and is all awkward like teenage girls often are and then starts giggling. I'm exasperated and confused so decide to turn the camera away and as I do, the lens gets a shot full of my cousin's eyeball and head. That confounded thing snuck up on me and I missed catching her arrival! The next five minutes were not of greetings but us arguing in between fits of hysterical laughter as I demanded that she walk back a couple of feet and we re-enacted the event for the camera. She, of course, as a teenager, refused. Kids these days. No respect! XD No vision of the future! We then booked it home to drop off said friend, meet up with our dad, and then flee to the other airport. We arrived 45 minutes after their plane landed, ran inside, turned on the camcorder to try to catch their arrival. After a few minutes of filming strangers arriving, we find out that we're in the wrong international arrival concourse. Not only that, ours is across the airport. O_o. So, we booked it on foot, with me trying to record the shaky view.

We finally arrive at the right terminal area and try to see if there were a group of our relatives huddled together looking lost, confused, and abandoned. Luckily, we found no such thing. Again, even though some of their fellow travelers had disembarked, ours had yet to make it through customs. I recorded a few more minutes of strangers and then managed to miss half of their arrival! ARGH! I am horrible at this! T_T. We took plenty of pictures and made awkward conversation while trekking back to the cars. We rested at the house for the rest of the night and settled in with a few tours.

Yesterday, I had an medical appointment that I was not looking forward to at all but it went extremely well. My mother started her vacation and we took all of the kids to our big tourist mall. We traversed through most of it and then headed to the Chinese buffet where my mom proceeded to stuff more food in their faces. There's a tradition with visiting, it seems, in our culture. It involves eating a lot and constantly. Lol. I've finally paced myself and braced myself for this phenomena and have been continuously feeding my soul for days now. So much food, homecooked and junky. :D My brains are so scrambled right now, lol.

In the evening, we all went to a local beach. Swam in the warm but rough waters for a little while, were abused by the salty waves, and then rented group bicycles to pedal together. It was exhausting but funny. We played music from our phones, danced while pedaling, took pictures in motion, tried to overtake one another (one seated three while the other seated six but they put the little on in the basket in the front.

There has been a mixture of Vietnamese, English, German, and Pantomiming and every combination of them over the past few days. It's been incredibly awkward and interesting, lol. Disney should be interesting.

My brother took the boys to the movies to compare cinemas today and they enjoyed Captain America and McDonalds. My mother took the girls shopping at our local mall and then lost them for a bit. XD I tried to rest up at home and have company over. The boys came home and were pumped up, so they went out on the man-made lake for a quick spin. I walked after them with two cameras and a camcorder to catch them in action. Not the easiest when you can potentially fall into a lake. : ) We'll be heading into the Everglades later to try to see a gator or catch some fish.

Oye. I no 'member good. I'll see you soon! <3

Monday, July 18

Before Take Off

I thought that I would be too busy panicking and doing last minute things before my flight tomorrow, but I'm all packed aside from hygiene and electronics that I'll be using until I'm dragged away in the morning. I also have a little more time than expected on hand because my latest project fell apart. Terrible error on my behalf.

 Ms. Beary Valentina got a cute little bow glued onto her head.

After I learned how to crochet little bows, I found tons of free patterns I'm excited to try, and finally decided that I didn't like how the original bow came out. This was the good news.

That is my ginormous penguin head and way too small body.

Alright. The total doll should be about 6 inches tall. That head alone somehow turned out 3.5 inches tall. The white belly piece should be rounder and then I started doing the parent penguin's body from the bottom up. Well, at one point I took a break, ran errands, had some dinner, finalized a picture montage, created my iPod playlist for traveling tomorrow, and then came back to pick this up again. Tossed open to a page about penguins and got to work. Finished the section, sewed the belly on, and proceeded to stuff. Then I realize how horribly tiny they are compared to one another. As if the belly not fitting on the body was supposed to be any sort of clue. Maybe to someone who had half a brain. Not this gal! 

Turns out, that page I flipped to was the page after the pattern I was doing and I ended up finishing the body way too soon by using the baby penguin pattern. Oye. I have a bunch of people who were looking forward to meeting this penguin and I was planning to have them fight over it. Alas, there's no time for me to do the belly and body over and do the feet and wings on top of that and not get minimal sleep. I have determined that being a zombie around an airport is not beneficial to staying on track during my travels.

Bah!

The cat that was assaulting and assaulted by a scorpion is doing fine. No swelling, no more tripping out, and he's actually a bit more cautious when it comes to bugs. Good for him for growing up for... at least 24 hours. 

My plants are recovering well, but I actually will save all of the chronicling of their recent disastrous adventures for some other time. You are spared! Lol. I'll see you soon and probably from Florida! <3

Sunday, July 17

Oh No!

I am an awful plant parent. :( 

Things are not looking well at all!
Crossing my fingers that they recover.
I am a very sad and sorry panda now.

Attack Mode

I really wasn't going to update today. Especially since one of the big things I did today was remodeling my gardening corner yet again. I also made some burgers indoors (they were a hot mess but still edible) for dinner since we no longer have a grill here. I'm starting my packing for my trip to FL starting Tuesday so laundry is being done right now too.

What put really put me over the edge is the cousin kitty being stung (probably multiple times) in the face by a small scorpion. Oh, yes. I just telling my mother yesterday how we've been fortunate to only have seen one near the house this year. Me and my big fat mouth. Well, his big fat mouth. One of the boys noticed that cat trying to munch on a critter and we realized what it was. Out here, the more translucent and smaller of the species are the ones we need to worry about. I guess they inject more of their poison with much less abandon that the big black ones. After calling the 24hr emergency pet clinic for advice, we're just keeping a close eye on him as he starts having his pained tripping out. What is with this cat and wanting to eat something that's trying to kill/ maim him? His sense of self-preservation seems to extend no longer than his desire to eat everyone's food all the time. Sigh.

I did take pictures of his swelling cheek but won't be posting that. So here's a picture of him being fat and flat yesterday:

Sigh, you would be stung in the face by a scorpion. 

The boys are watching over him now. My bed is currently covered in suitcases and stuff that was being stored within them. Mostly my winter clothes and things that I needed to take a break from wearing constantly. I don't really have much more readily available in my room for more than two and a half weeks. Sigh, I'm planning on leaving one of the extra large suitcases with my folks because I somehow ended up with the family's biggest pieces across the country by myself. That also means I have to figure out another way to store my extra stuff. Roar. This hasn't been a terribly fun day but I've accomplished quite a bit. I guess we've both been on a bit of an attack mode.

This is the darling monkey girl that I finished earlier today. She has earrings that are buttons that were from an old jar a friend gave me. The length of her arms makes me giggle. : )

Alright, here's the green updates:

Before.

After.


The parsley were spread out in the middle pot.
Lovin' the shape of the tomato leaves.

Propped up the wonky seedlings with colorful toothpicks.

Most of the bought and split pet grass got their first trim today.
I read in a few places it helped promote health.
 (The stark difference by being in different areas of the house is funny, no?)

The big pepper plants are spending their first day outside. They have gotten a good and thorough soak and are enjoying their recovery. They were scary droopy this morning and I had a mild freak out that led to me gardening and doing stuff during one of the hottest parts of the day. I may post some comparison photos once I know they are really on the mend.

The family doggie seems to be back to normal now. The SO and I spent a nice chunk of time playing with her yesterday and she ran around like her hot mess self. There doesn't seem to be anything else but a small scab where the dry rattlesnake bite occurred now.

I'm starting to gain some positive steam about this upcoming trip. Not the best time, but helping out family isn't typically convenient, lol. *Looks around the room* Oof, I have work to do... I'll see you soon. <3

Thursday, July 14

Automatic

There's some level of sadness/ laziness/ pathetic-ness when you take pictures with the intention of sharing them and are sitting there wishing there was a way for your blog to literally type itself complete with photos. One of these days we'll be able to psychically update our internet shenanigans. The amount of sheer crap that will appear will be infinite and that's just from me, lol.

Oh! I have a warm cookie waiting for me. Brb.

Mmm... I am such a fattie at heart. It's a good thing that as I get older, my gut is striving hard to physically compensate for this discretion in my appearance. /glare. Thanks, belly! Thank you, good genes, even more.

I guess I have a bit of a cranky side to me tonight. My way to try to cope with it while on the internet? Blast music that I love and sing along at the top of my lungs while pwning faces in game (or trying... /cough) or doing anything else with my hands. If I'm not singing along- I'm cussing like a sailor. I don't even think I'm that bad even when I'm mad. There's just something about the atmosphere and genre that it's kind of accepted and expected. Then there's the matter of getting mad at the pixel faces I'm trying to pwn... then... I try to sing harder and maybe even dance in my seat a little before I drop kick my laptop out the window or something equally regrettable and expensive.

Where was I again? I took a bite of cookie and felt warm fuzzies inside that took a little off of my edge, lol. To reward you for all of the ranting, I have more pictures to show you! If I can find them all... I sorted them all into their respective storage folders before posting this and now I have to make sure I get them together again. >_<

*Twenty minutes and a giant cookie later* Alright! I've got it. Today, FMIL left to visit family out of state, so we had the boys gather at the house yesterday for dinner together. We made the sibling to our chicken bake: the taco bake. These are just unattractive dishes no matter how hard I try, but they are so yummy.

That's before you add on the typical dressings for tacos like lettuce, tomato, salsa, and/or sour cream. 

Let's play a game of zoom in!
Can you tell what I'm looking at?

This Gambel's Quail! He's taken a liking to patrolling the backyard fence everyday. Just strutting around, doing his funny hoot, and wiggling his dangly thing. Okay, I looked up the name of said dangly and they only call it an ornamental plume or crest. "Dangly" is a pretty good made-up word to describe it.

Let's play that game again!
Can you tell what we're looking at?

It's a gecko! Probably a type of Western Banded but I don't feel like researching any further than that, :P.

Do you recognize this children's book character?
It's Flat Stanley! A recent rendition. A quick potential-teacher-of-elementary-students synopsis of the story is a little boy who is squished and then make adventures out of everyday tasks because of his new stature and is sent in an envelope to visit friends. Schools have made and sent Flat Stanley's to other kids in other states or countries, take pictures and write letters back of their adventures together. It's so great!

For FMIL's trip, I made a few new Flat Stanley's for her to bring and make a scrapbook out of for the upcoming school year. It's been a tradition in her class.

 Complete with reversible expressions.

I also made a few for myself for my upcoming trip to Florida.

Mine have slightly different faces for a few ideas that I have and this project was made so much easier thanks to my beloved Cricut.

I was actually working on those while the taco bake was, well, baking. Lol. I also recently finished this funny-looking guy.

It's another critter from my book. The Daddy Puppy pattern.

There's no way that mine can sit up on its own like the author's did.

Now, to yet another update about my little gardening corner!

I seem to have a little supervisor in the morning now.
I actually think he's working his way towards harassing the pet grass I've been growing. Stinker.

The back three are the hybrid cherry tomatoes while the ones that are trying to touch you through the screen are parsley.
What a funny shape the tomato leaves are starting to get! There's no visible progress in the pellets that have yet to sprout. :(

Red-Green snail plant is 13 inches tall now! Whoa. That's Lucy still recovering and hiding from kitties in the background.

This is Brown-Pink snail's plant that had the breakage. I'm a little worried about how traumatized the plant may have gotten from suddenly losing so much. It's just about a foot tall now.

This is Yellow-Teal snail. The lower leaves are being super droopy and I'm not sure why. It's generously 11.5 inches tall now.
This is Orange-Purple snail's little plant being all wonky. I think it's 5.5 or 6 inches.

This next part has been mind-blowing, so here's a summary of the pet grass's growth.

 Day 0- Saturday, July 9.
Two tablespoons of soaked seeds are planted at 11pm.

(Day 1 & 2) They were like this inside the pantry and then the bathroom cabinet in the dark.

Day 3- Tuesday, July 12.
At 8am, I saw a dozen pale sprouts shoving up chunks of dirt and seed husks. So, I put it in my gardening corner to get some sunlight...
 
  ... and this is what I come back to at 3pm! What is going on?!

 Day 4- Wednesday, July 13th.
Are you serious? This is at 8:20am!

Look at how much they are loving the sunlight! Holy cow.


Day 4- Thursday, July 14th.
Well, this is how they look today at 8:20pm. I have such good timing, lol. :P Stunning!

I cannot believe how fast this was. One of the brothers and I were talking about how that kind of makes sense with how grass lawns typically are mowed on a weekly basis. I guess you really forget that when you live in the desert. XD

I need to get back to making a monkey of/for myself. Can't wait to show you that either! I'll see you soon. <3

Sunday, July 10

Prolific

I'm starting to understand why plants are babies for some people.

They are providing daily entertainment while refreshing our sense of wonder for a few moments each and every day. I cannot wait to share with you the latest additions and changes we've made in efforts to improve my gardening knowledge.

Before we get to that though, let's digress, shall we? Lol. Hooray pictures!

Another Chicken Bake. Yum.

It really does look like a Like-Like from Zelda games.

Full of chicken, bacon, mayo, mustard, and tomato goodness. 
(Even if it's not the most attractive thing on the inside.)

Another batch of the perfect chocolate chip cookies!

We used an egg white to brush the chicken bake and used the yolk with a whole egg for these cookies to add to the chewy factor! It's like we planned that or something (we really didn't, :P).

Now for the not so appetizing.

This sucker was so big, the SO thought it was a tarantula at first glance.

Brave FMIL put her hand near it for scale reference.

Nope, it's not the biggest cockroach you've ever seen, but a Palo Verde Beetle.
It has an awkward gait and was almost crab-like because it was going sideways.

These suckers can get 6-8 inches long! Keep moving please.

As grubs, they eat at the roots of the great Mother Tree, the Palo Verde.
As adults, they can fly!

*Shudder* Onto something much nicer: the plants! More seedlings have sprouted!

I'm still not sure what each are. I really should have marked them but was too busy mopping up the mini flood I had created.

I took the ones that have yet to sprout and put them in a dark place covered with plastic wrap like they originally should have stayed before some of their siblings went all sunlight crazy.

The latest addition is pet grass! After soaking the seeds for more than six hours, one pot was planted for now. We have two other pots because they encouraged us to stagger planting to always have some grass readily available for the pets.

They are organic wheat and organic barley seed in organic potting soil made for edible vegetation. :P I'm sure that our little kitty will love this project if it turns out well. He loves rabbit food just as much as his daddy. XD

This dark spot at the bottom of the pantry is its new home until it begins to sprout. I feel a little weird about keeping it all locked away. Like a princess in a tower, lol.

FMIL had been the one to go to the local organic food market to find these seeds after I did the research and had seen them selling grown pet grass for half the price of the fancy pet store! It looked fuller, was grown locally, and was certified organic. So this morning we went and bought two cups. 

We came home, sawed them into sections and put them into old yogurt cups.

Weighed them down with a few rocks.

We could not even keep him away long enough to lightly water them all. Mr. Fuzzbutt wanted to eat them all at the same time.

We spread the six cups all around the house, like by the kitchen sink:

In each of the bedrooms with cats, and on the dining table (that we hardly use, lol):

We now have one of the happiest plant-eating kitties in the whole world. What was funny is that he actually woke me up because he missed having a fresh plant to eat. He was super nice to me for cuddles and comfort, but when he then proceeded to try to eat whatever plant/ dirt he could around the house for some crazy reason, he got pissed at me for dragging him away. Such a pouty boy! That was the last straw for FMIL and I, so we embarked on our little adventure and kitty is so excited now. I can't wait for ours to start sprouting. Various sources say we should have some of our own in no time at all.

I'm going to go poke around them some more. My pepper plants aren't looking as perky as they normally do and I'm a little worried that the tomato plant food is backfiring on me. :( I'll see you soon! <3
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