Category: Updates about Andrew

Did you know that I love sunflowers?  I really do.  And this year, I’ve got a big mess of them growing in my back yard.  Here are some pictures to brighten your day.

The sunflowers – yellow and brown – are full of American Goldfinches – yellow and black – and of bumble bees – yellow and black.  It’s like a moving, chirping, buzzing work of art.  In the picture below, there are actually four or five birds but all abut two are hiding.

Continue reading “Sunflowers”

What a lovely Thursday!  The morning was rainy and cloudy, but the sun in shimmering through the trees right now.  Sylvie is napping, Andrew is off fishing with our neighbors (Jenni and Kaysi), and I just created a Facebook page for my photography business.  Look me up!

I’ve worked on my photography website the last few nights, and I’ve got to a place where I think I’m going to be “releasing it” by doing more promotion.  Check it out at Althea Dotzour Photography.  Let me know if you have suggestions or problems navigating it.  I’d love to hear feedback from friends before future clients really dive in.

This morning Sylvia had her 18-month doctor’s appointment.  She got three vaccinations, the poor dear.  The whole appointment, she really wanted to leave the room.  I’m glad that we’re done with shots (except flu vaccines) until she turns 5!

Andrew’s last swimming lesson was this morning.  He had such a good time!  I’m really glad Jessica suggested it!  Andrew loved playing in the water.  He seems really comfortable hopping around in the shallow end, blowing bubbles, etc.  He’s been announcing to everyone that he’s bobbing his head underwater.  In fact, he’s only going under up to his eyebrows, but it’s progress, and it’s great to see him so delighted with himself.

I’m going to American Players Theater this evening to see Henry V.  It’ll be like my sixth APT performance of the summer, and I can’t wait!  I’m going out with a group of my mom friends, and I still have to get the ingredients for my part of the potluck.  At least I have three hours.  Until I should be there.  Showered.  Hmmm. Maybe I should get going on all this.

Sylvia’s wonderful pink Cruiser tricycle came in the mail today.  Andrew helped me put it together, and Sylvia already loves it.  Photos will come soon.  It’s a very photogenic tricycle.

So I made a bit of a parenting judgment error this morning.  Andrew and Eli were playing in my car, and I thought they were fine.  They looked fine from out the window.  And they were fine, if fine includes putting my change in interesting cracks in the interior of the car.

I spent a while out there with a needle-nose pliers, tweezers, a thin-bladed knife, and tooth picks.  Many quarters, dimes, nickles, and pennies have been removed.  However, two batches of them are giving me trouble.  There’s five or more coins in one of the vents.  They rattle like a piggy bank.  Not sure if they’ll slip back into the fan or if they’ll just hang tight where they are…

The sad one is that a couple coins are stuck in my tape player.  I have an iPod tape in there, and it won’t play or come out.  I can’t actually see the coins, so they must have fallen down into the mechanics.  I looked online and saw some suggestions for putting duct tape on the end of a chopstick to get coins out of a tape player (good to know this happens to others!), but at this point the tape is blocking the area.

Oh well.  The boys now are clear on the concept that coins should not be put anywhere unusual and if they have questions on that, they should ask an adult!

Any suggestions for removing my extra change are welcome!