Geeeeko!

A gecko snuck into my house as I opened the door to bring in a package on the way to put Anna night-night. Squealing and giggling on my hip, Anna delighted in this but I did not. I HATE geckos.

They move really fast and weird and it's like they have zero brains. Like little ADHD lizards. Those green standard lizards I can deal with. At least it seems they are thinking before they move.

Geeeeeko!Geeeeko! OK, Paul was not home. I had to do something. I couldn't very well leave this thing to squirm around in my house till he got home. I am the mama.

I bravely tried to catch it. Anna on my hip, giggling, squealing, GEEEEEKO!

I caught it! There it is in my hand, Anna do you want a good look? Oh look the tail is gone. Oops. That's means it's around here somewhere. Don't look...

...just throw the gecko outside. Say bye-bye. Bye-bye gecko. Then, as I turned to go back inside, there was the tail, ofcourse it's flip-flop squirming all around now without a body. Wonderful. It's at the foot of my stairs. Just go pick it up and toss it. You're a neuroscientist, you know what's going on here. No big deal.

No, I don't want to touch it. I use a piece of paper that was shoved into my doorknob as a flyer for something I'll never now know...trying to scoop it up...damn, did you know you can AGAIN cut that tail into two and BOTH parts will start flipping and squirming? Yeah, that's disgusting, and now two times to deal with. Crap.

Lots of scooting with lots of paper and Anna actually still on my hip giggling, the parts made it out of the house.

Texas. Ecchh.

...OK now we're under attack

...by more and more planes. It's cool and all, but um...just woke sleeping beauty from her nap. Guess we'll go outside and watch them fly over?!

Here come the planes!

One by one we can hear and see all the different types of planes coming to land at Ellington Field for the Wings Over Houston Airshow. This air force base is just right down the street from my neighborhood so we have front row seats to the fun every year. Anna is going nuts pointing them out all the time. It's non-stop and fabulous! Her head is going to explode (in a good way) when we take her to the actual air show this Saturday. We can't wait to see her reactions. And the weather should be beautiful.

She hearts airplanes, big time. How cool is THAT?

**

Today she didn't even cry when Paul left her at her classroom. Wow. When I picked her up, her teacher blew her a kiss bye-bye and Anna blew one back. As we left the room, she looked through the window, pointed at her napping buddy and said, "ocky, ocky, ocky". She said his name all the way down the hall. I am relieved because other than AS, all her other toddler buddies moved up to the next class in August. She used to ask for them but hasn't in awhile. I am glad she's found some new names!

Yes, I did tour a grocery store

Yes, people. This is my life. I actually went on a grocery store tour last night.

It was sponsored by the JSC nutritional office (we get free nutrition counseling here at NASA, which I might add, is actually pretty cool). We met as a group at the local HEB. We were there to learn how to read labels and just look for stuff to watch out for. I didn't learn anything new, to my surprise. So I guess I know how I'm supposed to eat. But what was surprising was the fact that HEB has a whole bigger selection than the Kroger I have shopped at the last 6 years. PLUS the organic/good for you versions of food are on the shelves right next to the crappy versions so I can find what I want without cruising the "organic/healthy" aisle only.

For example, I found some really yummy peanut butter that's kosher/vegan/organic/all-natural/no preservatives, etc (http://www.ilovepeanutbutter.com/) right next to the crappy Skippy we usually buy. So I bought the good stuff. And when I got home I was surprised at how GOOD it actually is. Everyone knows natural peanut butter isn't that great tasting. But this stuff had raisins and cinammon in it. And I also got the dark chocolate version. Hello, even the same calories, close price as the Skippy and zero trans fat.

I also didn't realize HEB = Central Market. So now I know there's a place that I can go when I need to buy "good for you" and "not-so-good-for-you" groceries all in the same place.

I didn't realize it was that easy to eat better. SCORE!

Am I really posting about a grocery tour? Sigh....

We are tired parents

Did all of this really happen in one day?

The girls' naps only lasted a little over an hour each, when we were counting on the usual solid 2 hours at LEAST. But we think they set their little secret alarm clocks to get just the minimal rest they need before they could get up and play again.

So on to the truck washing in the beautiful weather. Not my truck. Paul's. I don't see the point in washing the outside of a truck. They were meant to get dirty so I'll never be washing mine. I wash the INSIDE since that's where I spend most of my time...right?








To sum it up, more playing (including a slide in the front yard), more snacks, diaper changes, and then AJS went home. Then we went to drop off the recycling, ate dinner at Cafe Express, and topped it off with a Toys R Us visit before Anna started rubbing her eyes at around 7:30. Singing They Might Be Giants all the way home, bath, and night night.

Paul and I are happy to be chilling out right now. Whew.

OK, who left the cow on my keyboard?

Anna? How'd you get away from school and onsite?
I was only gone a second.