Quick Takes with a Dash of {PHFR}

It's been a while since I've done a quick takes post and I think the same is true for {PHFR}.  So I'm going to multi-task a bit.

~1~

Do you ever have moments where you sit back and say to yourself that something is so crazy off the wall that people will think you're making it up?  I don't know what it is about me, but I have so many stranger than fiction moments in my life that are 100% {real} and often very {funny}.  It's stuff I simply file under I can't make this stuff up.  So back in October my aunt passed away.  She lived alone and was a bit of a recluse when it came to interacting with family.   My uncle is handling the estate and is a bit surprised at what he's finding.  Now he lived a few states away from my aunt, but I spent 22 years living a block away from her, so my parents and other relatives who lived near by knew how she lived.  But, even when you know someone, you can still find some surprises.  Can I tell you that I spent quite a while laughing when my mom forwarded me this picture that my uncle sent to her of my aunt's back yard? 

That fine piece of life sized bovine statue was something my aunt picked up at an auction.  If any of you are interested in acquiring this piece for your back yard statue collection drop me an email.  My uncle is looking for a buyer.  I'd like to meet whoever buys it.  

~2~

I've spent who knows how long avoiding the supermarket.  I've gone to Sam's Club and Target but not to the supermarket since October or possibly early November.  I suppose at some point I'm going to have to break down and get to the grocery store.  Anyway, on Monday it was pretty clear that we were sort of running out of food options, so as much as I dislike going to end of season soccer banquets, I was quite happy to fill in for Bryan and go with Ellie so I could have my fill of so-so buffet food that didn't require me to cook or visit the grocery store.  Ellie was  very {happy} to get her soccer trophy.

~3~

I'm 18 weeks along today and I'm feeling {pretty} big even though everyone assures me that I'm not.  Usually I don't have any sort of baby bump until I'm more than half way though a pregnancy.  I already have people coming up to me asking when I'm due.

~4~

I feel so unprepared to have a baby boy.  I've known for nearly a month now that we're expecting a little boy and I just feel like I need to get everything in order NOW.  After three girls I just feel like I have no idea what I'm walking into.  Even selecting a name seems far more difficult.  I am pretty sure we're settled on the baby's name.  

See if you can guess his first name based on the picture above.  I'll be ordering this from Abbey Ceramics for his bedroom soon.

~5~

I'm realizing that my standards for grading Madeline's work for homeschool might be too high.  We submitted her first ever book report to Seton a couple of weeks ago and we got her grade yesterday.  The book report that I told her was probably going to get a C at best came back with a 95 on it!  She's thrilled and I'm starting to realize that perhaps Bryan is right when he says I'm expecting too much.

~6~

I have no idea how the display screen on my camera broke.  I had ordered a replacement screen but I really have no idea if we'll be able to fix it successfully.  Since electronics and small screws are involved I'm just going to leave that to Bryan.  In the meantime I decided to try and reduce my chances of cutting my nose on the broken glass by adding a layer of packing tape.  Yeah, it's about as classy looking as it sounds.  This is the before picture in case you're wondering.

~7~

I think I may have killed our paper shredder this week.  I was working my way through over two years worth of papers that needed to be shredded and this afternoon it made some sounds that make me believe that our shredder has seen the end of it's useable life.  Fighting with the shredder makes me wish we had a fire pit in the back yard or a real fireplace instead of our gas one.