Update on the Gel Nails

Okay, it's been 11 days since I first applied the gel nails and not a single chip!  Amazing!! Here is a pic of my left hand (Bruce is out of town tonight so he couldn't help me with a two handed pic)...

If you look closely, you can see some nail growth, but there is no chipping or peeling.  I am going to try to remove it and apply it again-anxious to see how that process goes, but I'll have to see if I have time.  I'm afraid if I don't do it tonight or tomorrow, I won't have time for another week and half.  So far, I'm impressed with this stuff!

9/11 Remembrance

Vernon Elementary-where Savanna and Ally attend school-held a 9/11 Remembrance this morning.  Some of the 4th grade kids, including Savanna, sang a couple numbers and a few had speaking parts.  Here she is singing in the choir, she's wearing a blue shirt and khaki shorts-sorry I only had my phone.

Savanna was chosen to have a speaking part: "Your silent tents of green We deck with fragrant flowers: Yours has the suffering been, The memory shall be ours. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow"
She had it all memorized and spoke clearly into the microphone without walking away before she was finished speaking!  She did a great job!

The Mayor of Fate, Bill Broderick was there as well as a city councilman, John Stacy. The boy scout troop from our school did the flag ceremony and provided patriotic music while we waited for the whole thing to start.

There were also several police and fireman and some men from the Armed Services.  As a matter of fact, one of the men in fatigues saved a bunch of us from getting soaking wet from the sprinkler-he stepped on it with his boot and held it down until the ceremony was over.

It was a very moving ceremony and I'm grateful the school decided to have it to honor the memories of those who lost their lives on that horrible day.  Our world changed that day-it is important to NEVER FORGET!

Gel nails

I love to have my nails looking nice, but it seems like it only takes a day or two after polishing my nails, that at least one of them is starting to chip and by day five they look BAD.  A couple weeks ago, I received an e-mail about a nail polish that would last up to three weeks(depending on nail growth)-well, that caught my attention!! It required a special light and special products, but gave a nice manicure and didn't chip.  I contemplated whether it was worth it to spend the money, but after reading lots of reviews, I decided to give it a try.  I put my order in for this product along with one of these and tried it out last Saturday.  I've never tried a french manicure before so I figured this was a good time, plus I watched this youtube and she convinced me I could do it.  Anyway, I'm on day three and they still look great--I hope it lasts at least two weeks--but my nails grow fairly quickly.

What do you see??

This is Savanna's bowl of cereal--she sees an animal...do you??

For the first time!

 

Even during the drought we've had and the uncountable 100+ days, we actually had a green lawn this whole summer!  In the past, in an effort to kill weeds-and because we are impatient-we have had crop circles in the lawn from where we have tried to kill the weeds with round-up.  Then, by the time those start to turn green again, the heat has turned the majority of the lawn brown.  Well, this year, Blake fertilized, Blake pulled weeds a lot,the sprinklers watered 2-3 times a week and then we fertilized again (like every three weeks) and the lawn stayed a beautiful green the whole summer. We also had a wall put around the flower bed and put new plants in there-not the best time of year to do that, but with Bruce's extra care, they have survived and started to thrive.  We just hope the bushes in the back start to grow faster than the flowers so we can see them.

Vacation 2011 Part Three-Victoria, BC

Not sure why Bruce wasn't in the pic-beside the fact that he was taking it. This is right before we went into the Museum. It was fun to see all the artifacts of the area, but we couldn't take pics of anything inside. Bruce remembers there being a meteorite that landed in Nuevo Casas Grandes (close to his hometown) in the musuem from when he was young and went with his family, but they must have moved it because we couldn't find it. The kids could have spend about another hour or two in there looking at all the cool things, but there was more of Victoria to see before we left.

This is one of the views from our hotel room.  We somehow got upgraded to a suite which was SO nice.  It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen, plus a living room area.  Bruce and I camped out in "our" room  while the kids relaxed in the living room.  The kids thought they were on the Suite Life and kept asking how many stars the hotel had.


 

The kids and I again, this time standing across the street from the famous (to some people) Empress Hotel

This guy is one of the street vendors selling his wares along the waterfront in Victoria.  There were probably 50 people with different booths selling paintings, sculptures, jewelry, food items, among other things.

More street vendors

When Bruce and I were on our honeymoon, we ate delicious shrimp and avocado sandwiches.  We were really looking forward to having another one on this trip.  The kids had turkey and ham, while Bruce and I enjoyed the shrimp and avocado, we just wish that they had been as generous with the shrimp as they were in the picture below. 



The Clipper is the vessel we rode from Seattle to Victoria.  Bruce and I rode the Clipper on our honeymoon and enjoyed taking the kids on it-plus, it was the quickest way from Seattle to Victoria (that wasn't a plane) 

  While I was really sad to learn that the fun Christmas store was no longer in business, it was fun to take the kids to Victoria and for Bruce and I to reminisce about our past visits there.

First Day of School

This year is/was a very uneventful first day of school.  The kids are all going to the same school as last year, they know their teachers and not much of the routine is changing. While there were no tears on my part or theirs, there were still lots of butterflies. Here's a quick pic of what they chose to wear today.  Blake doesn't have much to choose from--black or khaki on the bottom, yellow, gray, white or black on the top.  I did request that Blake try to vary his color choices from year to year (not wear gray and khaki again this year), so as he continues through RCISD, all his pics of the first day won't look tet same-at least as much as possible ;-)
Blake is in 6th Grade at Herndon Intermediate, Savanna is in 4th Grade at Vernon Elementary and Allyson is in 1st Grade at Vernon Elementary. Next year, Blake and Savanna both change schools (yes, all three will be at different schools)--won't that be fun!!