My challenging Week

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins; not through strength, but through persistence."
Buddha

I took these shots in Dallas a few weeks ago. The girls have a lake full of birds and turtles right behind their house which was perfect for practising with my new telephoto lens. I like the above turtle shot. I watched the poor guy try to pull himself up for 15 minutes. I have felt a lot like the turtle this week, just barely keeping my head above water.

It's getting super busy at work. We currently have a 50% increase in enrollment over last year at this time. Before too long we will run out of anything to put them in which in some ways makes it easier but it's not fun having to turn people away empty handed either.

Of course, Mike has started his summer siesta. I'm trying really hard this year to not be resentful since he had to take care of me for 6 weeks this winter and do pretty much everything around the house. But it seems like the fates are working hard to keep me bitter about it. For example, I was driving home from work 2 days ago when I heard my brakes grinding and acting weird. I called Mike and asked if he could call somewhere and try to get my car in the next day. He said that he had a busy day and already had a tee time set up which just infuriated me for some reason.

He did manage to get it in for the afternoon but not without complaint. During the same phone call I was telling him that I had several really sharp pains in my foot again that day and that it was very tender. He interrupted me to tell me that I had forgotten to put cheddar cheese on the list that week so he wouldn't be able to fix dinner that night.

I pretty much hung up on him at this point. I know my problems aren't worse than many people in the world but I can pretty much guarantee that my brakes going out and my ankle pain is worse than his tee time conflict and a lack of cheddar cheese on his dinner.
I took this shot of my sister's dogs playing. I know it looks like they are fighting but they are actually good pals. Mike and I always kiss and make up before we go to bed and honestly I'm totally over it now but I just wanted to vent for a minute. We are supposed to go to the farm this weekend with the kids but a part of me really wants to just stay home and sleep. If my car is still not ready today that might be my excuse but I do hate to disappoint the kids.

Care Bear All Grown Up

My brother and I have always called my little sister Care Bear, her name is Karrie, and when she was little Care Bears were all the rage. My baby sister turned 30 this week and it is making me feel incredibly old. She was always my little pet when we were growing up and we had a very symbiotic relationship for a number of years until I went away to college. She developed into an amazing person and she is now someone I'm proud to call my friend.

She has her Masters from Tulane University and now runs a program for sex offenders and extremely behaviorally disordered boys. I don't know how she keeps her sanity with everything she has to deal with. She has an amazing sense of humor and a strong sense of self which I admire more than she knows.

I knew hitting 30 was going to be hard on her so I sent her a stuffed turtle from loves2docrafts.etsy.com. For years Karrie "collected" turtles. She would find them on the farm and write their name and a number on their shell and then set them free. My father found a few of them years later with her writing still visible. A few years ago she excitedly told me she a had very spontaneous thing planned for when her good friend came to visit her in 6 months. She was going to get a turtle tattoo on her back. I hated to be the one to tell her if she was planning it 6 months in advance it really didn't count as spontaneous but whatever made her happy.