Catching Up

Just a couple updates from this week in the Austin world...

Student Driver: We went to a birthday party for our nephew Colin (the stockcar racer). He's 15 now. Soon he'll be old enough to drive! Isn't that something? Racing "real" cars for 3+ years now and finally he's getting close to being "street legal"? I bet his mother is concerned about his lead foot!

Sweet Nothings: And what's a birthday party without cake? Those who know me well know that -- neck and neck with my love for all things mint -- I have a weakness for cake with really, really good frosting. Birthday cake is the best. I'll take a corner piece, please. Or an edge one. The middle ones are hardly worth the effort (or guilt). So yes, that means I had cake AND a Shamrock Shake (hubby's Fat Tuesday treat for me) in the same week. I'm sure I'll burn off the calories cropping this weekend.

School Days: We finally heard some more school news for our senior. He had been on a waiting list for La Crosse but now has been accepted at 3 other state schools. That's a relief. Stepson #2 is still going to school regularly, thank God. He did have a bit of a setback this week when he injured his foot somehow in gym class. Nothing is broken, but now he's gotta wear a special boot of some sort. Not enough to keep him home, hopefully.

Baseball, Hotdogs and Candy Bars: We signed Carter up for baseball this week. Even after the Bad News Bears experience last summer, Jim has agreed to coach again. He knows now to eye up the pitching talent first. Should be interesting. Our first order of business was selling the box of candy bars for the league fundraiser. Thanks to my ingenious marketing campaign (ha, ha), I had 40 of the 50 sold in one day. I only bought one, honest.

Tooth Fairy: You'd think the Austins had stock in the Tooth Fairy business. Carter had his second visit from the winged wonder this week. "Now I've got hillbilly teeth!" he said. Nice. We both go for our 6-month checkup and cleaning today. At the rate we're going, our dentist will have a new SUV before long.

Perfect Game: I'd like to give a shout out to our friend Mike, who bowled a 300 this week! I've done that before, too, but it's taken me 3 games (combined) to get there! It's not often we have a brush with greatness, so we stopped by last night with a congratulatory 12-pack decorated with bowling stickers. Good job!

Stitch in Time: Not to ruin my reputation as an undomestic goddess, but I was actually domestic on demand this week. Of course, it was bedtime when Carter thought to show me a big tear in the jeans he planned to wear the next day. "Mom, can you knit these for me?" Well even I know you can't knit jeans. But I do have my little sewing kit and I was able to stitch the tear. I suppose I should mention that because I was sewing in dim light while watching the president's speech, I didn't do the best job. The stitching just about held up for a school day, but not quite. There, now my reputation is restored.

Winter Wonder-what-the-? Is it too late to change my mind about giving something up for Lent? I think I'd like to give up Winter if I can! On Wednesday, we got hit with freezing rain/sleet in central Wisconsin. Today's forecast: 6-10 inches of snow. I wish I was kidding. Looks like I'll have to snowblow myself out tomorrow morning before I head to scrap camp!

Pack Mule: I have been working in my "free time" this week to get my crop together. Oh wait, I really did mean crap that time. Lots of prep work goes into this weekend. I'm getting excited though and can't wait to get going. I have Friday off so hopefully, depending on the weather, I can hit the road by noon and give myself 3-4 extra hours of scrapping this year. I should have no excuses not to reach my goal of finishing my 2007 book and getting a good start on 2008. I know, it's 2009 already so it seems like I'll never really catch up. But then what would I do with all my time?