What's Up?

It's Wednesday and I can't think of a thing to say!  Ha!  This might be a good time for a Wordless Wednesday post.

But I'm way too chatty for that.

I'll just tell you that it's been American Heritage Girls all the time around here.  Copies, piles of copies, getting signatures, getting stuff in the mail, training leaders, training more leaders....

I'm happy to say that yesterday we trained our last 2 leaders!  Not at the same time, mind you.  We had to do the training twice, partly because of scheduling issues and partly because they're at different levels.  Not that the training is all that different....but...nevermind....  don't want to follow that train of thought to its frustrating conclusion!

It's done.

At least until we arm-wrestle ask another mom to be a leader.

So, after all that, today promises to be an "easy" day.  Or, at least a normal day where I know what to expect:  school, laundry, school, laundry, piano, library, and then (oh, bliss, oh joy) choir rehearsal. It's better than knitting.  (Although what raptures would I be in if I could sing and knit at the same time?!)

Tomorrow is our American Heritage Girls meeting, but I won't think about that now.  I'll think about that tomorrow!

Do you know what else tomorrow is?  It's the feast of  St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, and my Name Day.  I love my sweet friend who helped bring me into the Catholic Church, and who knows that I'd be lost without her Little Way to guide me, since I'm not capable of big things---like sticking to her Novena for a 9 days during a busy week.

St. Therese, pray for us!

It's a Zoo Out There!

Yesterday was our long-awaited field trip to the zoo!

The flamingos are right inside the gate, first thing you see. This pic doesn't do them justice, but they are such a pretty, shrimpy color.

I'd love to stay and watch them, but they smell worse than anything else I can think of at the zoo. Let's move along, kids!

This little guy was right outside the elephant enclosure. Do you think the elephant would have been scared of him?

We were looking at the aerial photos of the zoo on Google before we left, and we could barely discern the elephant standing there because they match the earth perfectly. Why is that? Because they spray the dirt over themselves to cool off?

Oh, hooray! A couple of new additions to the zoo! This is Parakeet Adventure---a little aviary that is simply bursting with these beautiful little budgerbriars. You can walk in amongst them, and buy ridiculously expensive "seed sticks" to feed them with. The kids loved it.

I kept thinking how my mom would have loved these little guys.

A couple more new additions, not nearly as exciting as parakeets: Warthogs and

meerkats.

The giraffes were beautiful and graceful, as always.

This guy was in the section with the lemurs, who were leaping all over the place. I don't know what his name is, but I really was that close to him. He was sitting right over the sign that had his name on it, so I just kept edging closer.

Gorillas are fascinating, but they make me hate the zoo. They just never look happy.

We had quite an education on this day. We got to see another gorilla go to the bathroom and then move upstream to wash his hands and face.

The tiger was very educational as well. And kind of horrifying.

He was pacing at the top of the hill and then came down to bathe, so we got a nice view of him.

Oh, he's looking over at us!

He's getting up and coming over to the glass! Quick! Get in front to get a picture! (Not just my kids, but there were several families there.)

And then.....

He walked right up to the glass and just as everyone is taking their picture he turns around, lifts his tail, and sprays the glass with his....er...secretions!

The kids all thought he peed, and I wondered where they go to school, because that's not how a boy tiger pees. Nor a girl, either!

Jerk.

Then, because we weren't already tired, the kids worked off some of their energy rock climbing. Even the Little Princess made it to the top twice, but the first time, she refused to rappel down and the zoo employee had to help her down. She got it the next time though!

Have a great weekend! And may all your tigers be polite!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. I finished the quilting on LP's quilt and I'm ready to start making the binding and sewing it on. Praise the Lord. I'm ready to be finished with this project, but mostly I'm ready to see something new on her bed.

2. Impromptu football game last night. One of our football games fell through because we're borrowing a field and the other team didn't want to play on a Saturday. So Coach found a team to play on a Thursday night. We beat the other undefeated team 40-19.

3. Yesterday we made our weekly Thursday run to pick up farm-fresh milk and eggs and then go to Trader Joe's. We generally stop by the community garden on the way back to check on our plot, and we hadn't seen it since the floods. The garden wasn't underwater, but the playground and basketball courts on the other side of the parking lot had been. Everything was fine until we started home and I forgot all about the speed trap while I was talking to Pipster. TMax wasn't there to remind me to watch my speed.

He's been dying to see the speed trap in action because I've told him about it----these 2 cops just stand in the left turn lane with the radar and then step out into the middle of the road to stop the speeders.

Yep. You guessed it. Snagged.

Okay, it sounds bad to be going 51 in a 35 mph zone, but you have to see this road. Hardly any cars. Perfectly straight. 4 lanes divided by a median. The speed limit could easily be 50 mph, but because it's residential on one side and a park on the other, it's only 35. Cross the intersection 1/4 of a mile up the road and it's 45. grrrr.

Embarrassing. Expensive. Crap, crap, crap.

Oh, and they pulled someone else over before I was out of sight. Big money maker, that.

4. I'm going to start re-reading all the Betsy-Tacy books, well, skimming them to find literary references, and read all the books and poems mentioned in the books. I think it will be fun. I think I'll even try to find recordings of the music they sang and danced to around the piano.

5. I didn't get my quick takes out this morning because we decided to go to the zoo. We were able to check out a family zoo pass from the library, after trying to get it for a year, and we decided to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak, since we're expecting more rain tonight.

6. The zoo was fun and I'll tell you more about it tomorrow and show you pictures, because I know you've never seen animals before.

I want to know....do all animals in zoos turn brick red, or is it just the ones that live here where the Georgia clay colors everything?

7. The flooding did quite a number on our church property. We enjoy our riverside property and have a beautiful Stations of the Cross out there, but it's not so nice anymore. All kinds of trash washed up; the water wrecked our benches and picnic tables, damaged at least one station, and covered the whole area with sewer overflow. It's yucky, to say the least. And now we won't be able to have our parish picnic out there anytime soon. I think there will be lots of cleanup parties instead.

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Stop by Jen's for more Quick Takes!