Friday Night Photos

Yay--Friday night! I actually have to (try to) get to bed early tonight. Tomorrow morning is going to be busy; I'm babysitting Luke and Riley and I have to leave here a little before 6:00 AM. Brian and Becky are going on a date night (in Chicago!) tomorrow and their flight leaves pretty early. I picked out a few Pinterest-inspired crafts to do with the kids, and I'm excited to hang out with them :)

Speaking of, I'll let them start off my Friday Night Photos. This was on their first day of preschool:

Becky said that Luke wants to be a pilot like his dad, but he keeps calling it a flight attendant. Hahaha!

And speaking of nieces and nephews, I'm going to be an aunt for the fourth time now! Remember at the beginning of August when I went with Laura (Jerry's sister) to her embryo transfer appointment? I watched on the ultrasound screen as the doctor deposited my little niece or nephew into the uterus. Then we just had to hope that it worked. And it did!! It's so surreal to think about the whole thing--and I love that I was there :)

I heard a loud thud on the living room window and I knew it was a bird. It happens about every month or so (that I know of, anyway). I always go check to see if the bird is okay. This little guy was lying on the ground, stunned, in front of the window. I picked him up and inspected him to check for obvious injuries. He sat on my hand for the longest time! He even fell asleep for a little bit. After about 20 minutes, he just up and flew away. (It reminds of the bird that visited me on election day in 2016.)

This is from when I brought my dad his birthday pecan pie. He turned 70 this year! (My "decade" birthdays match his--when he turned 50, I turned 20; when he turned 60, I turned 30; and now in January, I'll be turning 40.)

I thought I got more pictures, but I guess I didn't--this is my newest project! Jerry and I have been wanting a dining table for six rather than four (when the kids have friends over or something, I'd like to have more seating at the table). I found this oak table with a leaf and six chairs on Facebook Marketplace. For $25!!

It needs a lot of work, though. I have to remove some of the spindles from the chair backs and re-glue them. It also needed some very serious cleaning. I mixed up some TSP and water and scrubbed every little nook and cranny of the table and all the chairs. It took me two days just to do that part! I have to rest my hands a bit because my carpal tunnel (or whatever it is) flared up last night. Once I'm done fixing everything, I'm going to paint it.

I made this cat hammock in the summer for a "catio" I was building (the cats didn't care for it, so I ended up taking it apart--ugh). Last week, I came across the hammock and looked for a spot to hang it and see if the kittens would be interested. They weren't. But I put a cat bed in there for some stability and Estelle loved it!

Eli took Joey down to the lake when he went fishing and he took this picture--I think it's my favorite picture of Joey!

I've mentioned before that I have a neighbor who has an amazing garden and she gives me vegetables and herbs pretty often. Well, she asked me if I wanted to try some peppers and I said sure--I love peppers. I forget what this red one was called, but she gave me this and a handful of small chiles. I told her how lucky I am to have a neighbor to grow stuff, because I sure as heck can't grow anything as long as Chick and Duck are around! (Remember the seedlings I kept attempting? The kittens always ate them within days of sprouting so I finally gave up.) Anyway, I set the peppers on the kitchen counter for later.

A little while later, I noticed that the red pepper was gone. And Duck was sitting nearby--I just KNEW it was him! I looked all over the place and finally found it on the floor in the pantry. If I was a forensic dentist, I'd say those were most certainly Duck's tooth impressions. ;) 

When I was out in the garage, I noticed a huge bug on the screen (those aren't spiderwebs, just FYI--they are those cotton things that float in the air and get stuck on everything in our yard). When I looked closer, I saw that it was a praying mantis! I only see them about once every five years, so I'm always interested when I do see one.

I was late putting nuts into the squirrels' lunchbox on the back deck one morning and that was clearly unacceptable, hahaha. It was hilarious how she stared me down while I took a picture of her! (She got a handful of walnuts afterward)

And that's all I have for this week. Have a great weekend! xo