It's My Life

The Short Chic came down with a pretty nasty case of strep throat back in April. So, when The Boy started complaining about his throat hurting about 12 days later, I was pretty confident that he had inherited his sister's strep. Instead, The Boy was diagnosed with a peritonsillar abscess growing on his right tonsil.  We had to immediately see an ENT  Physician who took a needle and drained the abscess. He removed about 5.5 cc of puss from The Boys throat.and then told us that once you have a peritonsillar abscess you were high risk to keep getting them. The Boy's tonsils were now compromised and needed to be removed.  We were told to plan for a two week recovery so we worked a surgery into our summer plans. Between family vacations, summer sports, and the beginning of school The Boy had his second surgery. A tonsillectomy.  Pre-surgery prepping went well. It must be nice to be young and have healthy veins for an IV! The Boy had lots of pre-surgery vi...

Traditions.  Happy times. Sad times. Uncertain times. Traditions bring a sense of familiarity to any number of situations. Most find it helpful to rely upon traditions to pull them through those situations. My son is about to begin his senior year of high school. I am excited about it but I am also very much in denial!  There is a hint of bittersweet in the air. I am relying upon traditions to pull me through this year. Hopefully the traditions that go along with graduating from high school will help me keep my center and enjoy some of his final chapter. Today we participated in one such tradition. Senior Photos. Selecting a photographer was not an easy task. I examined photography studio's; independent photographers, and friend's who have photography skills. A sitting fee is a standard cost of a photo session. They range in price from $30-$75 for a studio session depending on the number of outfits you have. If you desire to leave the studio, the cost go up. Senior pho...

I have been in a reading slump. Most people pick up reading in the summer but I find myself pulled in multiple directions with little spare time. Feeling guilty about this, I downloaded T he Pearl Diver byJeff Talarigo and started squeezing reading back into my life. I like historical fiction and this book promised me that.  As is typical of me reading historical fiction, I quickly found myself googling various pieces of history as the author weaves a fictional story.  That is what I love about historical fiction, I always end up learning something new by the end of it as well as I get to read an amazing story.                                               The Book: The Pearl Diver by Jeff Talarigo The story begins with a nineteen year old girl living in Japan. Her job is that of diver. She dives the ocean around her village daily to find sea ur...

Our third ride on The Katy Trail took us back to where we actually started: Sedalia, MO.  We have previously completed a 35.6 mile ride from  Sedalia, MO to Clinton, MO  and a 22.3  mile ride from  Booneville, MO to McBaine, MO . Since we skipped the 37.2 mile stretch from Sedalia to Booneville.  In planning for this ride, water and the temperature were two main concern. We would be visiting four total trail-head: Sedalia, Clifton City, Pilot Grove, and Booneville, MO. Each leg was approximately 12 miles apart and there would be no access to water at Clifton City and the temperature was projected to be 92 degrees.  We got an early start; well as early as you can get when you have to drive an hour and half to get to the trail-head. We biked the city streets until we found the trail. The streets were marked with a bike path clearly marked for the Katy.  The elevation was in our favor departing Sedalia and heading East. We dro...

I love bird watching. Some are hard to catch...with my lens. But I sure try.  I chased this woodpecker all over our campground at Table Rock State Park before I could get a shot of him.  This woodpecker thinks he is a hummingbird. I found him outside my kitchen door.  Every morning when this little bird shows up I smile. I can almost set my clock by her. 

If you have hung out here for any length of time you might know that we are biking The Katy Trail across the state of Missouri this year. We started over Memorial Day Weekend biking from Sedalia, MO to Clinton, MO. You can read about it  here .  On this leg of the trip as we approached our first little town after leaving Sedalia, The Boy was attacked and bitten by a dog. The dogs (there were two) ran up to him on the Katy Trail, chased him, ran him off the trail, and one of the dogs eventually bit him on his right ankle.  The whole exchanged happened in a few moments and as soon as the bit occurred, the dogs ran off out of sight as fast as they approached him.                                                            Being on bicycles we opted to not go chasing after dogs that were biting. We went to the local...

 We first visited Watkins Mill this spring for our first camping trip of the season. It was a quick trip and we did not have enough time to explore the entire park, so we looked forward to returning. We visited the same park over the July 4th weekend. We enjoyed a sunny mild day on July 4th. We biked five miles around the lake, gave The Short Chic a bike riding lesson (she can't bike The Katy Trail if she does not know how to bike),  and enjoyed the company of our friends. Saturday, July 5th was cloudy and rainy. The Boy was able to spend a few days with us before he left for a summer vacation with his dad.  So, we headed out to expose him to some history before he left. The Short Chic has to bring Elsa with us everywhere we go. We visited the Visitor Center and learned about the Watkins family and their farm and mill. We chose to do the self guided tour but guide tours were available as well. The rain passed over us as we were in the Visitor Center. ...

I am obsessed. I can't stop thinking about it. It is sorta like a drug to me. I am perpetually planning how to get more. I am not talking about a food. Or drink. I am talking about the Katy Trail State Park in Missouri. Over Memorial Day Weekend the family and I rode our first 40 miles. It was the longest I had ever rode my bicycle at one time. We hit the trail again the end of June for a shorter ride. Our goal was to go 23 miles; from Booneville, MO to McBaine, MO. The Boy was not able to go with us on this leg; it is his father's weekend. But a few new faces joined us on our journey. Our friends, Angie, Allen, and Mike were all geared up for their first ride on the Katy. Biking the Katy takes a bit of coordination. You either bike end to end, which I am not in shape to do. Or, you park at one trail head, bike to a point and turn around; or, you have car support (which we did last ride); or, you use multiple cars and leave one at the starting trail head and one ...