Namib-Naukluft Park

I started some new training at work today so I'm feeling pretty overloaded and dumb at the moment.  Hopefully I can get used to all this quickly.  In the meantime, check out this photo of some dead trees in the desert of Africa.  I thought it was a graphic at first.  But nope!  It's a good ole photograph.  Amazing.

Today is Travis' birthday so we're having a little family celebration tonight.  Hopefully I'll remember to post about it later since I still haven't posted about this past weekend.  I'm sure it doesn't help that I've been bad about taking photos again...

Going well so far

Sagira is still living with my friend. It's been a little over a week and supposedly she's only had two accidents. Once was just like she did before and the second time was a stress-induced diarrhea. She got a bath and blow-dry. I PROMISE that Sagira wasn't a big fan of that. She may have been okay playing around in the bath (she isn't freaked out by water like most cats - it's a Bengal trait), but I'm SURE that blow dryer freaked her out.

Besides that, the new owner is enjoying her. Sagira is slowly warming up to her and her family. The owner's other cat still hisses at Sagira regularly, but hopefully she'll get over that soon. THIS COULD BE AWESOME.

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The wall is coming along smoothly. Well, sort of. I was painting on the stucco primer Sunday and we found two spots that didn't attach to the pressed board. We broke it off and Travis patched the large holes last night. I primed the rest of the wall and Travis caulked most of the trim. He's going to finishing caulking the rest of the wall tonight and he also plans to prime the trim. I will have to wait until next week to finish priming the stucco because the new patches need to cure completely.

Rain is in the forecast for Thursday, so we wanted to get the wall as close to air tight before then. We've done the best we can with fresh stucco on the wall. After the priming and caulking is finished, we will paint! We are painting the stucco grey, to match our house. I'm not sure what color to paint the trim. We were planning to do black to make the trim on our house, but my dad has been trying to convince us to choose a lighter color. He said we don't have to do a stark contrast to match the house exactly. I'm not sure what we'll do yet.

It's coming along!

Status Update that must be shared

Oh Facebook how you entertain me so...

When I was younger I hated going to weddings. It seemed that all of my aunts, uncles and the grandmotherly types used to come up to me, poking me in the ribs laugingly announcing, "You are next!" They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

Also funny? best of craigslist. It is a compilation of various ridiculous posts people have put on Craigslist. My current favorite:

I am looking for a person of athletic build to help me get in shape.
I hate exercising with passion so the plan of action is this: I ingest Rohypnol [you supply the roofies as I don't know where to purchase them] and you strap my body to yours [limbs to limbs using velcro] and take me along on a jog. Three nights a week. If you're capable and interested, E-mail me so that we can discuss the fee.

I tried running recently. It hurt. A lot. So I quit. I may have to put up a similar ad.

Time to slash something

A couple nights ago I had a dream so real that when I woke up I was seriously upset. I dreamt that I was pregnant with our second child. I gave birth and after the delivery the doctor said there was a problem. I don't remember what it was, but he said there are two options: Medicine that might not work or just do a hysterectomy. I was so worried about dying that I immediately chose the hysterectomy. After I'd had the surgery I was laying there in the hospital bed when I realized that I'd only had two children. I wasn't sure if I wanted to have a third child or not. With that decision taken away from me, I was panicked and upset. I couldn't believe that I'd thrown away that option later in life without even thinking about it.

Dream interpretation websites say this dream may represent the need to slash something out of my life, like a habit or something of which I need to let go. They actually used the word 'slash'. Eesh.

Scaredy Cat

Years ago, Travis used to like to scare me when I was in the shower. I would be minding my own business, rinsing my hair out in the spray, and when I opened my eyes, Travis' head would be peeking through the curtain. Scared me EVERY time. If I could've chased him safely, I would have whacked him on the head. I HATE to be startled.

Fast forward a few years. Aiden recently started getting out of bed in the middle of the night or early morning and coming into our bedroom. He used to come around to my side of the bed (he probably tried Travis at first but then realized that's like waking the dead) and get my attention. I would walk him back to bed and that would be it. Until an hour later, or maybe not again until the next night.

Now when I hear him talking or trying to open his bedroom door (it sticks really bad), I wake up and lay there waiting for him to come in. Yesterday morning I heard his door open, but Aiden never came around to get me. I sat up to look at the door and he was just standing there staring at Travis. Scared the living daylights out of me. Thankfully he ran back into his bedroom on his own and shut the door. Then my alarm went off. He got up one minute before my alarm went off.

Side note: Aiden used to sleep in until an hour after my alarm went off. I can't tell what's causing this new earlier wake time. It's either Travis' new alarm that sounds like a fire detector going off, or the excitement of getting to watch TV. He started waking up so early that he would get bored before I was done getting ready, so I started letting him watch TV. Now I think he's so excited to watch TV that he's getting up earlier than he should. Time to nip that in the bud.

So! Aiden scares me when he stands silently in our dark room. He also scares me when he quietly comes out of his bedroom and stands in the doorway of the bathroom where I'm getting ready. I don't know why, but him getting up on his own startles me every time. I think I've seen one too many scary movies with little creatures running around. I'm used to seeing an adult closer to my height walking around the house.

Mickey the Mommy

Aiden has recently begun calling us Tabis and Mickey. We would prefer to go by Daddy and Mommy, so we were contemplating on how to handle the situation. We came up with the following resolution: 1) Start calling each other Mommy and Daddy all the time. 2) Ignore him when he calls us by our birth names.

Yesterday I picked up Aiden from daycare and we were only a couple blocks away when Aiden quietly says, "Mickey?" I wasn't sure if he said 'Mickey' or 'Mommy', so I waited a moment.

"Mickey?"

Silence from my end.

"Mickey?"

Again with the silence.

"Mickey?? Mickey??? Mickey?!?! MICKEEEEEEYYYYY!!!!"

Silence.

"Mommy?"

"Yes, Aiden?"

Step #324 complete!

The stucco is done!!!! Wahoo!!!

Now everything from here is a piece of cake. We just have to put up the trim, paint the wall, build the pergola, put in the lights and outlets, and then open up the chain link fence to connect the new fenced in area with our existing backyard. I know that sounds like a lot of work, but compared to what we've done so far, it's a cake walk. And I can help a lot more than I have so far. Actually, I am completely capable of painting without Travis' supervision, thank you very much.

The main obstacle left on our plate is the gate. We left an opening so you can get from the front door to the fenced in area easily. My dad priced prefab gates before he came down to visit us in July, only to find out that not a single store in the area sells prefabricated fence gates. Apparently that concept is more popular in the north. We CAN order them online, but they are so expensive. My dad was thinking about mailing us the one he found at a store near him. But it cost more to mail it than it did to buy it. The last two options available to us are bring it back with us on a plane when we go to Illinois in October, or have our friend Chris R. make one for us. He is a torch wielding artist that could probably make us a fabulous custom piece. We are currently weighing our options.

Last weekend while sitting on the patio, I saw a lightning bug. Lightning bugs are ALL OVER in Illinois in the summer time. I had actually completely forgotten about them until I saw that one floating over our house last weekend. I had a nostalgic moment when I remembered catching the bugs in a glass jar with my sister. Then when we went to bed at night, we would set the jar on our nightstand and watch the yellow butts crawling around in the leaves and sticks that we had so thoughtfully placed in there.

I was thrilled when I saw another lightning bug last night while we were working on the fence. It was walking on the ground, so I ran up to investigate. Right away I noticed that there were two bioluminescent dots on it's back. The lightning bug I grew up catching had an entire abdomen that lit up and then flashed intermittently in the night. In my teen years, I used to hate when one would smash on my windshield. As soon as I ran the wipers, I had smeared bioluminescence all over my windshield.

The bug I found last night was a creepy monster of a beetle. Nice try TEXAS.


I would like you to also note the ratio of dead to live grass in this photo. Now imagine that over 30% of my yard. Stupid drought.

Anyhoo, I did some research and found that these TEXAS lightning bugs are called click beetles. Wikipedia says that the lights shine constantly and then get brighter if touched by a predator. The one we found last night must be dumb because his lights dimmed and he rolled over on his back like he was playing dead. Weird. Apparently the eggs and larvae are luminous as well. Wouldn't that make them easier to spot by predators? Maybe all the beetles are dumb.

The Poop Debacle

The Sagira debacle has had further development this weekend. Last week I put out a plea on Facebook, hoping that SOMEONE would be interested in taking on our charity case of a cat. Thankfully, we had two bites. The second bite overlapped the first, so I told her to wait it out and see what happened with the first. Unfortunately the first bite never got back with me, so second bite won out.

We brought Sagira to her new home Sunday morning. Her new house is twice as big as ours, with only ONE other cat. There is a dog, but he spends most of his time in the backyard. There are temporarily two extra people and two extra dogs (also in the backyard), but that is only until they get an apartment (daughter is home from college, with her boyfriend).

When the new owner saw Sagira, she was in love with her and HAD to have her. I hope she still feels the same way after living with the Poop Machine for a week. It took Sagira a week to start pooping at Ariel's house. Hopefully she doesn't even start it up in this new house. She has a cat house to climb in, a clean litter box and wet food everyday. That part was especially alluring to me since Sagira has lost some weight recently. I'm hoping it is just stress and that she will get over it soon.

The new owner knows that we will take Sagira back, should the pooping be overwhelming, or in the event that she does not get along with their other cat. They hissed at each other a little bit, but that is to be expected.

CROSSING MY FINGER THAT THIS ONE STICKS!!

Sometimes I wonder who Travis loves more

Do you see that silly grin? He's probably dreaming of Jack as well.

Ruby Girl

This past weekend, we went to a birthday party for one of Aiden's friends from the old daycare. Ruby was one of the first kids in the class whose name he learned. After a few months of Aiden being in the 1-year-old room, I ran into an old friend picking up his daughter, who turned out to be Ruby! I said, your daughter is Ruby?! He said, Ya! Your son is Aiden?! Apparently they were best buds.

A month after Aiden switched daycare, we invited Ruby to Aiden's birthday party. Sadly, she got sick and was unable to make it. I was stoked to get in invitation to Ruby's party for Aiden. It's been three months since Aiden left that daycare, so I wasn't completely surprised to find the old pals did not recognize each other. It was still a little sad.

Here's the birthday girl! (I am so bummed that I can't get this photo to show up horizontally.)

It was so funny to watch Aiden in a room full of pink toys, surrounded by girls. Most of our friends have boys Aiden's age. And the one girl (Kate) we see occasionally does not really do the whole girly-pink thing.



He still managed to find a bunch of trains and dinosaurs. And of course, he was glued to the TV when they turned on some dinosaur show (Dinosaur Dan, I think).

Travis found the grill and the beers and made himself comfortable. Here he is roughing the heat with Erik.

I used to work at a vet clinic while I was in college. Erik worked there at the same time as I did. Crazy to think we'd have kids at the same time!

After food and swimming (which Aiden refused to do - I would have gotten in that kiddie pool if I'd had my swim suit - the sun is out of control), we went out front to watch the kids beat up the pinata.

Aiden gave it a few good whacks and didn't even hit anyone else with the stick! They had to have an 11-year old boy come in and do the real damage. After a little prodding, we got Aiden to run up and grab some candy.

He came back with a sucker in each hand.

Tangled

A couple weekends ago, we went over to the Yeager's for dinner. We celebrated Zach's birthday with some yummy chocolate cake. Aiden was so excited about all of Luke's toys that he absolutely refused to eat dinner. Because of the heat, they have brought all Luke's giant backyard toys into the house: a trampoline, a play house, plus all his regular toys (chair, table, etc). Aiden's not one to turn down sweets and because it was a special occasion (he never gets desserts), we let him have a small slice of cake.

After we ate, the baby sitter showed up to watch Kenley while the rest of us, plus Scott, went to watch a movie in the park. This month's showing was the Disney movie Tangled. Luke wasn't very interested in the show and Aiden wanted to be wherever Luke was, so the boys ended up playing on the playground the entire time instead of watching the show. We had a lot of fun, but I still want to see the rest of that movie!

I think the guys were grateful that they weren't forced to sit through an entire Disney film.

I got bit by a fire ant that night, so I took a Benadryl before bed. Travis got up with Aiden in the morning so I could sleep off my Benadryl coma. Sadly, he found Aiden covered in the chocolate cake he must have vomited at some point during the night. Apparently sugar on an empty stomach, topped with running around in the heat equates to an upset toddler tummy.

Sagira

Well, Sagira's back. She crapped on every pillow in Ariel and Robert's house on Saturday night, then again Sunday morning. So she came back Sunday afternoon. It was worth a try! I have to admit, I'm bummed she's back. I was enjoying the lack of work in her absence. Cleaned the litter box less often, refilled the food and water less often, never cleaned poop off the beds or anything else for that matter (including the floor around the litter box). But now we're back to needy Sagira.

Pilling her Prozac was horrible. She scratches and freaks out. If anything, that stressed her out even more. I've been reading up on Bengal cats. Apparently they get bored easily. So that's probably what her problem is. I don't feel like turning my entire house into a kitty playground, so we're debating letting her outside. Travis is all for it. I'm terrified. There are big, scary dogs in our neighborhood and Sagira doesn't have any practice running away from dogs. If anything, she has always tried to play with the dogs that have come into our house. That spells disaster for a cat who has lived her life indoors. We also live on a fairly busy street. Again, Sagira does not have much experience with motorized vehicles.

I'm kind of hoping we can let her out in the back yard in the evening and then let her back inside before dark. I don't know how well that will work though. She'll probably leave the yard, or hide under the house.

UGH. I dunno.

Dysfunctional Art

An artist asked a number of factories to make their product for him, but with one abnormality that would render the item useless. I thought it was fun to go through and notice what was wrong with each product. Some of them are more obvious than others...

The Art of Factory

Minus One More

I have spent months complaining about having too many animals to my family. As you remember, we sent Callaway home with my dad last month. We were hoping to give a cat to my mom whenever she came to visit, but she was unable to come this summer. A month ago, Ariel offered to take Sagira off our hands. I felt bad sending Sagira to live with her, and honestly I wasn't sure if she was serious. But when she offered it again last weekend, we took her up.

As of right now, it's just a trial period. Sagira is known to be the culprit of eliminating her bowels on our bed EVERY SINGLE DAY and I really didn't want to put that stress on my sister and Robert. So far she hasn't continued that habit at their house. She did pee in their room after a day of staying there, but we both think it's because she was too afraid to leave the bedroom in that first day. She has since made many trips downstairs to the litter box she now shares with their other cat Junipurr.

I'm crossing my fingers that this continues to work. We no longer have a need for the baby gates. We've kept them up for months, only for the animals. Aiden can get through them if he really wants, so they don't work for him any more. A couple days ago we took down the gates and our house seems so HUGE now. It's insane how much space those little white things took up. Aiden ran through the doorway in the morning and paused for a moment when he realized he didn't have to jump over anything. I thought it was funny.

I haven't taken the tarp off the guest bed yet, JUST IN CASE the other cats decide to drop a deuce in remembrance of Sagira. We haven't had to change the duvet cover on our bed a single day since she left. I'm about to put the comforter IN the duvet cover. I haven't done that in months!

I'm sure part of the reason the house feels huge is that we are minus two at the moment. Eek!

The Sweetest Thing

I had another 4 o'clock wakening this morning, but this one was a lot different than yesterday's. I've been using a sleeping mask at night for a few months now. So last night, when I thought I heard something next to my bed I started to pull up my mask. It was only up an inch when a small child flopped on top of me.

Aiden snuggled into my neck for a hug and just laid there. I was so exhausted that I didn't say anything and I just laid there as well. After a moment, he rolled over into the crook of my arm and stayed there for 30 minutes. At that point, he got out of our bed and I asked him if he was going back to his bed. He put up his hand, I took it, and walked him back to his bed and Mr. Lion.

I don't know why he came in to visit me. Perhaps he had a bad dream? Perhaps he woke up early, but decided he wasn't ready to wake up just yet? No matter the reason, it was the sweetest thing. Aiden does not cuddle. Unless he is sick, he likes his own space. As long as he has been strong enough to push me away, he has never been a fan of cuddling. He's his own little person, with his own personal space. If it never happens again, I will be happy with that moment. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll cross over to the dark side eventually.

Travis, The Amazing Rocket

At 3:45 this morning, I woke suddenly to Travis catapulting himself out of bed and running from the room. He had thrown the comforter over me and scared the wits out of Phage (our cat) as well. Phage had been laying by my feet on the bed and was now standing on the floor hissing in the direction Travis had just run. My heart was racing and I assumed that he had heard someone trying to break in and went to check on it.

When he didn't come back immediately, I had a moment to ponder what the hell was going on. Generally, if Travis thinks he hears someone outside our house, he looks through the windows first. And that usually wakes me up so I'm aware of what's going on as well. Since he had so quickly propelled himself from our bedroom, I thought it might be something else. As I strained to hear what he was doing, I thought of fire, or maybe the cats were getting into something they shouldn't?

That's when I heard Travis lift the toilet seat in the bathroom. I hopped up to go see what was going on.

"Oh I think I had a dream that I needed to hop out of bed really quick."

Huh? I'm laying in the bedroom having a heart attack and you just had a bad dream? What the deuce?? Eh, well as long as I'm up I might as well use the bathroom.

Funny thing is, every morning when he sleeps in through all the snoozes on his alarm and I go into wake him up, that's how he gets out of bed. It's like he's been prodded with electricity to get him going. Hilarious. Every time.

Sanguine

Last year, Travis, Aiden and I visited David, Stephanie and Wednesday in New Orleans. While we were there, Stephanie mentioned that she couldn't wait to watch the next episode of True Blood. They bought Seasons 1 and 2 and were watching the episodes consecutively. Stephanie was trying be a polite hostess and not pull out the DVD's while we were there. I told her to go ahead because I had heard good things about the show. If we liked it, then maybe we could catch up as well.

Turns out, we both liked it! They loaned us the first season so we could get started. Since they live so far away, we were barely able to return Season 1, let alone go get Season 2. Instead, I got the second season from a friend right here at work. So when Season 3 started a few weeks ago, I was thrilled to get a standing invitation from my friend Michelle to watch it at her house. True Blood is aired exclusively on HBO - a channel we do not get. Michelle got HBO only so she could watch this season live. I was totally on board.

It's been going pretty well so far. The only downfall is that the show starts at 8pm, which is when Aiden usually lies down for bedtime. To help make up for this new late bedtime on Sundays, we let him sleep as late as he wants during nap time that day. There was one day that he refused to take a nap and that ended in a complete fiasco at Michelle's house. At one point Aiden started head banging. On his own.

It's pretty fun going over there though. We bring food and/or drinks. Last week, another girl from work came over as well. We talk a little and Travis even seems to enjoy himself, despite being the only guy present (aside from Aiden).

Saturday evening I got another fire ant bite. This time I've take a few countermeasures to help prevent the extreme swelling I had last week. I've tried to stay out of the heat as much as possible. When I am outside, I try to keep my foot up and iced. I took a Benadryl at bedtime the first night I got bit and I've been taking Ibuprofen a couple times a day to help control the swelling. It has gotten a little more swollen every few hours, but nothing like it was last time. The worst part is that the bite is exactly where the sandal strap lays on my foot. So I can't wear regular sandals. I have a fancy pair of Greek sandals that I wore all day Sunday. I felt overdressed the whole day, but at least I didn't want to scratch the skin right off my foot.

Daily Levitation

I came across this website where the auther posts a daily photo of herself "levitating". It doesn't look like she's posted for a while, but it's just as entertaining to go through her archives. There are also shots of her cat thrown in that are not quite as interesting.

Yowayowa Camera Woman

To levitate, she sets the timer on her camera, runs to the target and jumps. Apparently it takes more than one shot. I'm impressed with her lack of grimace. If I were jumping repeatedly (hell, even once for that matter), I know my face and limbs would be tensed. Also, I am incapable of getting my feet farther than two inches off the ground. This girl is IMPRESSIVE. There is a running joke in the family - every time I jump, someone yells, "Credit card check!" Meaning, 'Check to see if you can fit a credit card between her feet and the ground!'

Two Different Choices in an Instant

You're going 30 mph down a road in town. You are three car lengths from the light when it turns yellow. Do you gas it? Or brake?

I gassed it. The other guy braked.

I don't know why it struck me as so strange. On the way into work, I was driving along side another car going the same speed. We saw the same thing and had completely opposite reactions in the same moment. I guess that's what makes us human.

More from Luke's party

I mentioned it in the last post about Luke's party, but our friend Katie brought her giant new lens and camera to the party and took a bunch of pictures. She finally got through editing them all and passed them along to Linsey and Zach. They in turn, forwarded a few to me and then I forwarded a few along to others. Katie did such a great job. We need to have her take some family photos for us. That would be really interesting with Aiden the Irritable. HA.

Nadya, Kate, Aiden and I

Enjoying the A/C: Kate, Nadya, Alexa and Aiden

Cake time!

That's Zach's mom in the flowered shirt and Linsey's mom in the red top.

Me with my gimp foot (unable to proplery watch the candle blowing)...


Skylar and Daddy

On a side note, I totally have body dysmorphic disorder. I don't obsess over it and I am by no means anorexic (I'm too hungry for that), but I am unhappy with my body. But then I see photos like this and I am ten times thinner than I imagine in my head. Why do I do that?

The New Stuff

Day 3 in the new lab. I'm still doing work for the old boss and I'm still doing training, so there's been a lot of running around. It's going to take a little getting used to this new building. And I think I need to get a new parking spot. It takes me 15 minutes to get to my car from here! I know half of that is just trying to get out of the building, but it's just too much. 30 minutes of my daily commute is WALKING. It's silly.

I'm also really digging this new car. I love that I don't have to get grossed out about finding someone else's dirt in the car. That always freaked me out. My biggest struggle with the car is the lack of space in the back seat. It's so cramped when I try to get Aiden in and out. He is completely capable of getting in and out on his own, but he's a stubborn, hard-headed child. Reverse psychology works wonders on him. As long as he thinks it's his idea, he'll do just about anything we ask of him.

My dad said Callaway is doing really well in Illinois. He was more clingy than normal in the beginning, but apparently he's gotten better. He has had trouble dealing with the thunderstorms. I guess they upset him as much as the pellet gun next door bothered him here. My dad is learning all of Callaway's idiosyncrasies. Like you can't leave him tied up to anything with a cloth leash. He WILL chew his way out of that. And he always has to be in the same room as everyone else. He will whine for hours if he is locked in a different room or outside. My poor dad. HA.

Travis and I got more stucco done on the wall Monday night. We developed a system where I mix the stucco and he applies it. Pretty much by the time I'm mixing one bucket, he's ready for another. Travis thinks we have four more nights of work. I'm not sure that I feel the same way. I have a feeling that moving the cyclone fence is going to be a pain in the fanny. I do, however, feel that we are in the home stretch!

What a difference 9 years makes

I came across these photos within a couple days ago and couldn't help but notice the similarities. The first is taken at a party in high school, circa 2000. The second was taken Thanksgiving 2009. That means we had graduated from college, gotten married, owned a house, bought a dog and our son was four months old.

The spacing in this post is driving me mad

We bought the car! They finally agreed to it Friday night. Travis went up after work to sign his life away. Again. Why does it feel like we're always signing our life away? I guess that's what happens when you buy stuff on credit. Eh.

We had to put $500 down to get the Mazda. It wasn't hard for us since we had that money set aside for the Murano payment anyway. The great news is that we have a brand new car with no current problems. If any problems do arise, hopefully one of our warranties will cover it. Here's a list of all the things I can forget about having to fix now that we don't have the Murano:

• 
  
  Replace windshield - there was one giant crack and 5 holes threatening to spiderweb.


• 
  
  Replace 4 bald tires - that's something we probably would have had to do again in 3 years since the alignment is so bad in that vehicle.


• 
  
  Fix the A/C - it only works when the car is in motion.


• 
  
  Power steering flush - recommended every so many miles. We had reached those miles.

Not only do I not need to worry about spending that money, but I also don't need to worry about taking the vehicle in and being without a car. If anything goes wrong with the Mazda and they need to keep it over night, they will give us a loaner car. AWESOME.

After Travis got home Friday night with our new vehicle, I left with it. Ha! I met a few of the girls from work for drinks at the new rum bar in Galveston. I've been wanting to go since they opened up. Travis did all the electrical in there, so I had heard about some of the decorative details in that place. I drive by it all the time and it looks like so much fun. I was right! I stayed until 1 in the morning without even realizing it was so late. I'm sure it helped that I downed a coffee right before leaving the house.

The point of the get-together was to commemorate my time at that lab. But the new lab I'll be working in is in a different building - the building where most of my friends work. So I'll actually be seeing all of them more often now. SCORE.

This photo cracks me up. The brunette in army green is Ariel The tall blond in black is my co-worker Ashley. She is a foot taller than Ariel. I know Ashley is tall, but it always surprises me when she stands up.

Since we were at the Rum Shack, we all ordered drinks containing rum. Nadya's sister surprised her with a drink in a melon decorated with fruit to look like a monkey! Although, they forgot about the ears...