August was a month of getting things back to normal. School started for the kids. Planning was done. Things were said. Driveways were cut in. Parties were had. Stuff, just kinda happened! We visited the Balloon Festival in early August and we also scoped out the scary, abandoned Metro North Mall. The Scouts had a workshop at one of the local groceries and we celebrated Jason’s birthday with family a little early this year. (Yes… the Big 4-0!)

So there’s no real theme to these images. Just a mismatched group, kind of like our month!

I ordered my 23&Me kit last month and it came! So, of course, I sent it back out the very same day. Results were pretty quick (3 weeks or so in total, but small pieces were coming within a week (I think) of the box’s arrival back to their facility.)

Results were interesting… Some of it wasn’t all that surprising. (Markers for MS were higher than average. Go figure!) More surprising areas were that I really didn’t have a lot of markers for anything that most people I know have. Sure, higher chance of a few autoimmune disorders (Crohn’s, MS, etc.), but no higher probability of diabetes or breast cancer or anything normal like that. So, I guess if I end up there, it’s all due to what’s been done to me or what I’ve done to myself, not my genetic inheritance!

Ancestrally, I discovered that beyond the genetic pull toward the Northern European, which was there to be sure, my maternal line also had some Asian markers! That was kind of interesting/exciting/new. Makes me wonder how that happened since no one has ever mentioned anything about such things and my gram used to be quite into genealogical study.

~

Early in the month, we went to the balloon festival. It was pretty cool. (Although the weather was hot as Hades that day!)

Jas tried to take the girls up in one, but they didn’t get in line in time. Maybe next year?

~

Being the good leader I am (or try to be is probably a more apt way of putting it!), I scheduled the girls to finalize their Brownie Snack badge at a local grocery, where a licensed dietician taught them how to make a few healthy snacks, sent them on a scavenger hunt, and quizzed them about the good and the bad in the grocery aisles.

This particular treat was a sort of chocolate-cherry smoothie that the girls thought was tops! They also made a sort of banana/honey/nut butter wrap that looked pretty alright, but I would have left that tortilla right out!

In the end, fun was had by all, learning took place, and badges were received. Yay!

~

Jason turns 40 this year. I have said in the past that if anything is going to happen, it should happen to him first and I guess that includes getting older! We have plans to celebrate with the other side of the family this weekend — It should be fun!

~

Dry ice can be so much fun! We’d used some to transport ice cream to a party, but the real fun was after… walking through clouds of fog and feeling so very mysterious. The girls thought I was suddenly the most magical person they’d ever met!

~H

I see you walking away from me, every agonizing step calling out as if I could somehow save you from the inevitable force of your future.

~H

Me, being reanimated after death as all Cylons are, lol!

My darling daughter singing her heart out…

The cover of one of the books given to the girls at Christmas… This one, called Alive, is all about the systems of the body, replete with audible heartbeat and flashing neurons

I snapped this pic of the Virgin Mary grotto just outside of downtown Independence, MO, on my way home… Thought the colors of the sunset were really pretty.

After stopping by the doctor’s office to get an antibiotic prescription, I checked in with Jason, who was at his house trying to clean up after the basement flooding. I was horrified at the state of things there (including and not including the flood disaster). I had many pictures I could have chosen, but I thought that this pic of the mobile I’d made for my children when they were tiny that now hung in a house full of destruction, disgust, mess and broken dreams was statement enough.

Stumbled across these gents after I dropped the girls off at school. I figured they would be the most interesting fellows I was going to come across since I was home sick the rest of the day.

This shot was accidental. I had intended to just take a pic of the injection site with the pol of blood being held by cohesion. However, the droplet (about 3/8 inch across) decided to make itself into a rivulet of blood right as I took the pic (making it blur at the end).

Discovered this in a parking lot and thought it was really interesting… reminded me of a horse, in an odd, abstract sort of way.