Bunny Love

Yesterday I fell in love. In the past we have owned two different bunnies as pets. Hunny Bunny was my beloved class pet for my kindergarten class in Florida. We bought him as a baby & he was raised by kindergarteners. He was the sweetest bunny I'd ever seen. He hopped around my classroom & played with the kids. At story time, Hunny Bunny would stretch out & prop his ear up so he could listen to the story. We'd also take him to the playground on a leash & let him hop & dig tunnels in the sand. When we moved away from Florida, we couldn't take Hunny Bunny with us. He stayed behind in a first grade class with some of the kids who had been in my room the year before.

Once we moved to Missouri, we missed Hunny Bunny a lot. We talked a lot about getting another pet bunny. Then a friend of mine that I taught with gave us a bunny. It had been her sister's & she couldn't keep it. We were so excited to have a new bunny to love on. Only problem was Smokey did not like being loved on. She'd tolerate Austin, but hated the rest of us. She ended up running away to live with the other wild bunnies in the neighborhood. After that I swore I'd never have another pet bunny. I thought for sure Hunny Bunny was one of a kind & I'd never find another bunny as sweet as him. Until yesterday...

Our neighbors rang the doorbell. As soon as I saw those little bunny ears my heart melted. They came inside & we banished Buster to the backyard. Cuddles, the bunny, hopped around the family room. He went from person to person giving out sweet bunny kisses. He licked my chin! I'm utterly in love with this bunny! Don't tell Austin, but I just might be reconsidering the ban on bunnies in the Roberts house.

Birthdays & Dylan

Last week Dylan mowed grass for the first time ever! He'll be 11 in June. Last year we taught Austin how to mow grass, so this year it was Dylan's turn. Austin is excited because this year we are going to let him ask the neighbors if they'd like their grass mowed. Austin has plans to be a millionaire by the age of 30, so he's excited to have a job at the age of 12. I'll get back to you on how the new enterprise turns out this summer. Dylan will have to spend a year in training cutting only the Roberts yard for now. Once he proves he's worthy, we'll send him out to the neighbors next year. We hate for Austin to monopolize all the business.




Dylan had to choose a science fair project this year. James has finally convinced Dylan to give baseball a try, so Dylan decided to incorporate his new found love of baseball into science. Dylan's project question was, "Does a baseball go farther when hit by a wood or metal bat?" He won Third place in the science fair! This was definitely a family project. James & Dylan went out to test the hypothesis that a metal bat would hit a ball farther. After he complied all his data, I helped him create table & graphs. Austin helped create the word art. It looked really good. Dylan did a great job putting everything together. He would have a made a 100%, if he would have listened to me about the controls. Oh well, he still made an A & had fun doing it as well!




April 9th was James' 34th birthday! Don't let him try to tell you he's 26! I was so excited to have birthday cake from a bakery again. We hadn't had a bakery cake since we lived in Nashville. I had to drive through the pouring rain & almost got lost to go get it, but it was well worth it. I can't wait for Dylan's birthday in June. I can already taste it - yum! James spent the day watching some of his most favorite movie (which just happened to be on cable that day) & playing online poker. We topped off the evening by visiting James' favorite restaurant, Bandanna's. The boys & I were so glad James got to be home with us this year for his birthday. It's just not the same when he's gone.

March - Wow!

March was a bit of a whirlwind in our house. I had two closings during March, which meant lots of paperwork & deadlines to meet. Most of the month, I felt as if I was hardly ever home. The boys had spring break last week. We had talked about doing something fun, but close to home. I had every intention of going to Springfield, Illinois to see all the Abraham Lincoln things, but we didn't have a chance. Looking back it's hard to remember where the time went.

Day one of spring break: James & I cleaned out the garage. I mean REALLY cleaned out the garage. We took absolutely everything out. Threw away tons of stuff that had accumulated over the past year. We swept & sprayed it out. I hung more things up on the walls to give the illusion of more space. The workbench & tools were organzied. Those of you who know me, know exactly how happy this day made me. I do have a touch of OCD. You would think James had given me a huge diamond ring because I was so happy! Then the garage was so clean, I didn't want to put my dirty car in there. So, of course I had to wash my car!



Day two of spring break: We got a new refrigerator. Our old refrigerator stopped working a few weeks ago. I took all the food out & put it in the garage refrigerator. Two days later, it started feeling cool again. So, I moved all the food back into the old refrigerator. Then a couple of days later, it was hot again. Can you sense my frustration? So, we thought, why not put the garage refrigerator into the kitchen. No can do! It's too tall! Frustration!! So, we decide to go out & buy a new frig. I had just won $300 at work. We searched on Craigslist, hoping to get a nice used one. James & I drove all the way into scarey Saint Louis to an old junk shop. My mother will tell you I have expensive taste, always have. So, I can't find anything I want to buy for $300. We end up going to the Sears outlet & got a really cute stainless steel frig for $600. Twice as much as I really wanted to spend, but it was $300 less than what it would have been at Sears!



Day three of spring break: I get a call from a For Sale By Owner wanting me to come list their house for sale. I had dropped off a packet back in January. They finally decided they needed some help!




Day four of spring break: Paint the fireplace - finally! When we first walked through our house with our realtor, I said I'd paint the fireplace. Well, three & a half years later, it's painted. James has been putting up a protest for 3 1/2 years. I kept asking everyone who came to our house to tell James it needed to be painted. But no, James loved the RED BRICK! I don't really know if James changed his mind, or if I just drove him crazy. He helped me pick out the color. I spray painted the mantel white. I nearly killed us with the fumes. Mental note, when the can says paint in well ventilated areas, they don't mean the family room. Anyhow, it looked great 5 coats & a few hundred brain cells later. Then I went to paint the brick the gray color. It looked white! So, back to home depot we go to get the paint a little darker. Much later that night, with a cramped up right hand, I could see the fireplace I had imagined 3 1/2 years ago!


Then over the weekend, I took some buyers out to look at condos. We found one he really liked & VOILA, I sold another house! Then Wednesday I sold my Lake Saint Louis Listing! So, two houses closing in April too. It's going to be another busy month! And Dylan starts baseball soon! Can I clone myself? PLEASE??!!

Duck Tape

Who would have ever thought someone could get so much enjoyment from duck tape? Austin has discovered that he can make just about anything out of duck tape. You can even google "How to make duck tape..."!

His first creation was a folder. It took him hours to make it. He was so excited when it was completed. He went to put a piece of copy paper in it & it wouldn't fit. He had measured notebook paper when starting his creation & didn't think about copy paper being wider. He so wanted to cry, thinking he had wasted so much time & precious duck tape! But no, he moved onto his next project.

Next Austin made a wallet. It actually looked really cool. Did you know duck tape comes in all different colors now a days? Well, Austin's wallet was black & red. He even made a letter A for the front of it. He uses it & everything. I should have looked for it & took a picture for this post. Austin probably doesn't even know where it is right now.

He's been working on his top hat for awhile. He started it after he finished the wallet, but ran out of duck tape. I refuse to fund his duck tape hobby, so he had to wait until he got some more money. Thanks to the abundance of snow we had a couple of weeks back, he had $35. He shoveled driveways in the neighborhood. James took him to get more duck tape while I was at work. I came home to find him working on his top hat with one of the neighbor boys, Bailey. I do have to say, it's a pretty sturdy hat. It's amazing how creative he can be. Now he's branching out away from google. Last night he started making duck tape shoes without any instruction. It's fun to watch his little mind work out all the problems.

I wonder what his next duck tape creation will be!

What a WEEK !

Imagine me sitting in my family room. I had just turned off the DVR recording of Ellen & this is the image I see. My heart stopped as I gasped. Immediately I started thinking, "Where's James, Where's James?" I'm sure he had just told me the night before, but I can never remember! With the plane submerged like this, I couldn't tell where the engines were (this is the only way I can differentiate between his planes & the big ones). Then they start talking about 150 something people. I thought that's what I heard, but maybe I subconsciously put in the one hundred (his planes hold 50 something). Finally they say it's an A320. I know this isn't his plane. With relief came tears. Why didn't I cry when I thought it could be his plane in that water? Then my poor mother in law calls. I thought she probably had seen the news, but I didn't want to alarm her if she hadn't. She was so calm, "How are you doing?" "Where's your husband?" Immediately I knew she had seen the news, "It's not him. That's not his plane." I'm so glad I had figured that out before she called, or I think I would have broken down on the phone & totally freaked her out.

Six years ago when James decided to become a pilot I had fears. But throughout the years I've pushed those into the back of my mind. I'm so glad he's found a career doing something he truly loves - something he's good at! This week brought those fears back up to the front of my mind. I'm so glad he's home until Wednesday. We'll see how well I do when he leaves again. Hopefully by then I'll have repressed the fears once again.