Finley Friday

I have a confession to make.  Yesterday I chose to play in JulieWorld rather than edit last weekend's photos of Fin.  Sorry.

I do have two short video clips that I'd like to share.  For some reason I could not get them both embedded into the body of this post so please follow the links below to view them on YouTube. They are both quite short.  Twenty seconds each, give or take.

A little background...

Two weekends ago when Meg and I were visiting their place we noticed that Fin had two distinct sounds that he made quite often.  I captured the first one during breakfast that weekend.

Breakfast


I had been unsuccessful in capturing his second unique sound on video so I was delighted when I received this clip from Jay yesterday.

Brains


Fin vocalizes both sounds numerous times throughout the day.  The first one, what I call his panting noise, comes out when he gets very excited.  The second one, his gutteral zombie, doesn't seem to have any sort of trigger.

His parents were clueless as to where/how his noises originated but I have a fairly good idea.

He's imitating Marley, their border collie.  *smile*  Now Marley isn't a growler but when she plays she makes a low sound extremely similar to the one Fin has adopted.  (Trust me, we heard it all weekend when she and Bitzy were chasing each other all over my house.  LOL!)

What do you think?  Am I right?  :-)  

On the Move

Many apologies for my absence.  It's been a hectic few days around here.

We had a wonderful weekend with The Fin Man and his parents.  With three dogs (our Jasmine, the new pup Bitzy, and their border collie mix Marley) plus little Fin we did a lot of wrangling and chasing.  (Think four on all fours. LOL!)

I will have plenty of weekend photos to share, however the last three days of subbing at the elementary school have left me too worn out to even think of doing any photo editing.   For now though, here's a video clip that Meg took last Friday.  While the majority of his time was spent on all fours, you'll see that it won't be long before he becomes totally bipedal.





Watch out world, here he comes!

Another Proud Mommy Moment

Here in Florida they recently did away with the highly controversial FCAT exam (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) in lieu of what's known as the FSA. (Florida Standards Assessment.)  Umm....I really don't understand why the FSA would be deemed any better but it's not like the students get a choice.

You may remember my recent brag about Meg's score of a 5 on her most recent science FCAT, the highest level on the 1-5 scale.  (Yes, very confusing.  They gave out the FSA for reading and math last spring but kept the FCAT for science. ???)  I am still so very proud of her for that accomplishment.  Well, the FSA scores for last spring's exams were just released on Friday.  To add to the confusion, their preliminary scores are based on percentiles rather than the numerical 1-5 scores which will come out in January.  (Don't even get me started on the "WTF?" with respect to the state's untimely response.) *grumble, grumble, grrrrr*

But moving on....

Meg ranked in the 63rd percentile on her reading exam which is no big surprise. Reading has never been her strong suit.  (Neither was it for Jay or I.)  She scored above the state average and I'm definitely okay with that.  (I'm guessing that this will rank as a 3 on the 1-5 scale.)

She also received her math scores.

Do you see that says?????  She ranked in the top 4% of the state!  (The maximum score possible is a 99.)  HOLY F'in SCHMOLY.  Keep in mind that this is the same girl who has received a score of 2 on her last three FCAT math exams.  This will most definitely be a score of 5 when the numerical scores come out and we could not be more proud. (And had we received these scores last summer she would be in honors math instead of on-level with the unsavory kids this year.  Thank you so much, State of Florida.)

She started out slow but Baby Girl has made gigantic strides these last two years.  WTG Meg!  We are sooooo very proud of you!!

Finley Friday

At this very moment, a very handsome little guy is on his way to visit his Grandma.

I know we're biased, but we still think he's the cutest little baby ever.

While his parents enjoyed a much deserved day/evening of adult fun, the three of us had some kid time at their local park.  

I just love these next photos, not because I'm in them, but because Meg seems to have a natural knack for photography.  Much more so than her mama.  In fact, she enrolled in 2D art this year primarily because it's a prerequisite for photography 101 at her high school, a subject that she really wants to learn. I've already promised her my camera when the time comes.

She captured the light and the background so beautifully.   Definitely a natural.

So tonight Fin will be spending his first night away from home without his parents.  I've no doubt that he will do great.  Grandma, however, is sure to exhausted come bedtime.  :-)

This Young Man ...

... takes very good care of his Aunt Julie.

For example, he always makes sure there is coffee in the house when I visit.  He also dutifully monitors my consumption during family margarita happy hours.   (This is done at my request. Tequila and I have a not so pretty history....just sayin'.)  And he is always on the lookout for cool things for my scraproom.

A couple of nights ago he sent me a link to this 3D laser printer called Glowforge. Take a minute to watch the video.  It's pretty incredible.

At $2000 it's definitely pricey but like most technology, I imagine that price will go down significantly over the next 12-24 months.  And yes, Clay, it is positively something I would LOVE to have.  And when that time comes, I know just the guy who can show me how to use it to it's full potential.  *wink*  

Look Up in the Sky...

It's a bird!
It's a plane!
No.....

It's Marty McFly, Doc and Jennifer!

In case you weren't aware, today is the day that the three time travelers will be arriving via their DeLorean to save Marty and Jennifer's future son from making a huge mistake that will ultimately ruin his life.

Naturally Meg had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned this little tidbit of information last week.  I did a quick search on my streaming channels to find that only Amazon had the movies. They were not included in Prime (i.e., free) so we passed.  Jeff Bezo's must have read our minds though because on Monday there was an email in my box announcing that in honor of Back to the Future Day, all three movies were free with Prime this week.  :-)

Meggie and I have watched one movie an evening for the past three days.  She was skeptical at first (how could she possibly like a movie that I liked?) but she was hooked almost from the start.  I mean, c'mon!  Is there anyone out there that didn't enjoy at least the first Back to the Future movie?

While we don't have flying vehicles or self drying jackets in 2015, it was so fun to see all of the changes from 1985.  I also found it quite educational.  In the final movie where they went back to 1885, Doc breaks up with Clara and then heads to a bar to get sloshed,  He mentions that she was "one in a billion, one in a googleplex."  What????  I immediately googled googleplex only to discover that it's spelled googolplex, the term for 10 to the 100th power. Ok...explains a lot Larry Page and Sergey Brin.  Am I the last to figure that one out?????

With that, I urge everyone to take a moment this afternoon (4:29 PM, Pacific Time  *wink*) to look up into the skies for a glimpse of the ever famous DeLorean and pay homage to one of the best movies ever made.

More Meg

After posting Meg's school photo yesterday, my mom called to say how both she and my dad couldn't get over "how grown up and confident Blondie has become."  (Blondie being the nickname my dad gave her as a baby.)  This is very much true.  Meg went from being an extremely outgoing toddler to an overly meek tween.  In the last year and a half though she has started to come out of her shell once again.  However, lest anyone think she's lost all of her childish silliness, I wanted to share a couple of photos from last week.

Here she is the night of my birthday trying to 'beat her record' with respect to her tallest Oreo ever.

Oreos however can only be as tall as will fit in one's mouth.

Mission accomplished.  :-)