Momma raccoon

No matter how big the city, we always have wildlife. Where we live, which has a population of about 1.5M folks, I still see a variety of wild animals in our yard. Plus the neighbor's weenie dog that slithers beneath our front gate to use our yard as his off-site toilet, but that's a whole other story.

Our ring cameras have become my own personal critter crams. I've seen foxes, skunks, squirrels, and even a ring tailed cat via video thanks to recorded clips in the middle of the night that are sent to my phone. And I can't forget the raccoons. I see them most frequently on my ring videos. One day last week, I noticed on my video that a raccoon was hustling quickly in front of the ring camera and took a closer look. Sure enough, she was carrying a baby raccoon in her mouth. The video time stamp was close to dawn, so I'm assuming she decided to move her baby at the last minute and was in a hurry. I took a screen shot of the video - see below - but it's a little blurry. 

90 is the new 80

Last weekend we traveled six hours, roundtrip, to celebrate my husband's Aunt Mary's 90th birthday for about four hours over in the Houston area. It was so nice that ten of the husband's cousins attended, most which I hadn't seen in at least 15 years. Now their kids are grown and they've all got grand babies running around.

The birthday girl is getting a little frail, and yet her mind is still sharp as a tack. She has been a wonderful example of a smart (Baylor Bear grad, y'all) and strong, yet kind Christian woman who raised a wonderful family with her husband of 60+ years, Uncle Mack (God rest his soul). 

Below are the three remaining siblings of the original six. In addition to Mary in the middle, currently the oldest, she is flanked by Sue on the left and my husband's dad on the right. The day was a bit tiring with all of that car time, but it was a wonderful opportunity to visit with all of the extended family.

Royally delicious

On Monday, the 18 yr old daughter and I went for a two hour session with our cookie lady Mandi who makes us the cutest and tastiest decorated treats, ever! We got to choose a theme, so the daughter selected the very on-trend llamas and succulents. Mandi explained the finer points of royal icing, including the various consistencies for outlining, flooding and writing. Lordy, y'all, it's so much harder than it looks. Our attempts may not have been super good looking, but they were really delicious. And now we're armed with recipes for both her cookies and icing so that we can start dabbling in our own baking/decorating sessions for the holidays. We've just purchased the essentials for me and the girls to give it a whirl on Turkey Day when we're celebrating the week in Asheville, NC, with them.

Lounge Cairns

In the mornings, before the thermometer starts its speedy ascent towards a triple digit reading, our dogs Ollie and Pepper like to lounge outside on the back patio. We've got lots of oak trees on our property, so there's shade and it's not too terribly hot. Yet. At least the old boy Ollie likes to lounge. His active younger housemate Pepper like to spend most of her outside time on the lookout for lizards and squirrels.

One down, three to go

Our grad student daughter has been sweating her four CPA tests this summer. She's taking a prep course at her university and got the first big one out of the way a couple weeks ago. I received a text on Wednesday to let me know she had passed the first scary monster one with an 88. The next three tests are nowhere near as long and laborious as that first one. She takes the last test in early August and I know she'll be super happy to get this off her plate. Then she's off to Disney in Florida for a few days of hobnobbing with her fellow big four accountants at some gig her firm hosts for all of the newly minted CPAs.

Ramming speed

Earlier this week, the daughter was out shopping with a friend and they got into a fender bender. The friend was driving and I zipped over there as soon as my daughter called to tell me what happened about two miles from our house. The airbags in the friend's car didn't deploy since they were hit on the right front side, but the VW bug who rammed into her car had an accordioned front end and limp airbags everywhere. I helped deal with the police, as well as the fire dept and ambulance guys who showed up in case someone was hurt. Which they weren't, praise Jesus. 

So the daughter's friend has been driving her rental SUV for a couple days now. She drove over to hang out with my daughter, pulling up to our front gate security system to punch in the code to gain entry. That's when a wasp flew in her lowered window.

Last year this same friend ruined her phone, dropping it into our pool when a bug landed on her arm and she freaked out. Yesterday, the wasp freaked her out to the point where she basically started doing some sort of Irish dancing jig in the car so that her foot lifted off the brake pedal and hit the gas. That's how she ran smack into the right gate post at the entrance of our property and destroyed it. At least the bottom 2/3 of it, as you can see in the photos above.

After dealing with the ensuing teenage hysterics, I sent a pic of the damage to the contractor I have on speed dial (that phrase dates me!) and he said he has a masonry guy who can put humpty dumpty back together for me. All of our nosy older neighbors have been slowing down to take a gander at the damage since it happened. I kinda feel like I need to send out a mass email to the ladies on our street who attend our quarterly luncheons and know me since I imagine enquiring minds would like to get the scoop. 

A symphony of locusts

It cranks up every summer around dusk time and continues throughout the night, the locust males singing their song for the lady locusts. This year they're so loud that I can hear them in bed when the AC isn't running. I saw my very first locust shell on the porch just yesterday. Why do the locusts seem even louder right after we've had a good rain? 

Low key

The high school senior didn't want a big to-do for graduation, just a couple friends and the grandparents for a meal at her favorite restaurant. And some good desserts. So on Saturday at lunch that's just what we did. 

I ordered the painted university letters, seen above, on Etsy back in February and had frittered them away as one of her custom graduation gifts I was collecting. Unfortunately, I had to take her letters back for a new GOLD frame this morning at the framing shop because her dorm room colors are white, light gray and gold. This was decided by the 18 yr old after I had taken the letters in for custom framing over a month ago. <insert DOH slap to forehead here> I couldn't convince my nitpicky offspring that the frame was just a darker shade of gray.

The Purge

I wasn't expecting such speedy cooperation. The high school senior finished her last class day on Friday, celebrated with family on Saturday and then announced this morning she's ready to start purging/decluttering her room in anticipation of heading out-of-state for college in August. I had announced we'd be doing this at some point during the summer. It just hadn't dawned on me it would be so quick. Our brand new high school grad also proceeded to tell me we'd be doing another shorter purge right before we depart on August 10 for the SEC/ACC road trip. So maybe all of my OCD, proactive and organized ways the past 18 years actually took root in our second daughter, too.

Happy graduation(s) to me

Oh yes I did. I decided to celebrate the high school senior graduating and leaving the nest, as well as the grad school student finishing up her second masters, by booking a lovely tour to Egypt and Jordan for next February. I've been momma-ing for the past 24 years and I think I deserve a graduation celebration, too. As luck would have it, the older daughter will be in-between the end of her schooling and her first job in the real world, so she'll be joining me on this 16 day jaunt. I've wanted to see the archaeology of Egypt and Jordan for as long as I can remember. Now that the region seems more settled again, it's time to make it happen.

Pomp and circumstance

Friday night we were kicking it old school, gathered in ye olde high school football stadium for my niece's graduation. Congratulations, Lauren Elise!

Shout out to our senior's best friend, Leighton, who graduated in the same class!