What We're Up To These Days

So apparently my new blogging pattern is one post every two weeks.  How sad is that?  You'll understand when I tell you what we've been up to...

Our Easter was great.  Pictures will be posted as soon as I have a chance to get them off the camera.

We bribed the kids with lunch after church to get our annual bluebonnet pictures.  Pictures will be posted as soon as I can convince Ryan to help me coax them off the computer.

Both Sydney and Evan have their birthday parties coming up.  Poor Evan has never had a "friend" party before so I promised him that he could have one this year.  We're having five of his friends over for a play date on a Monday morning (the only morning they don't have school).  It will be Star Wars themed (of course) and thanks to the nice mothers who post pictures and ideas from their kids' Star Wars parties, I have plenty of ideas for games and activities.  Evan is most excited about turning pool noodles into light sabers.

Sydney's party will be a painting party.  We're hiring a friend to come over and show Sydney and her friends how to paint flower pots.  The part I'm most excited about?  (Besides hiring someone else to do the bulk of the entertaining.) The cake!  (Or the lack of.)  Again, thanks to nice mothers who post party ideas on their blogs, she's having flower pot cakes - chocolate cake baked into flower pots with flowers sticking out of them.

Both of these parties, in addition to the family party that falls between them, will be at our house so I am going crazy planning, getting supplies and hyperventilating.  Did I mention that all three parties will occur in an eight day period?

And, if that's not enough going on, Ryan and I are in the process of completely redoing our backyard.  The deck has been pulled up.  A new-to-us play set has been installed.  A pallet of grass has been laid down.  I still need to stain the play set and we need to take all of the wood from the deck that is currently living in our garage, cut it and place it in another spot in the backyard for a "new" deck.  All in the next three weeks.

And, our tenant is moving out so we're trying to get our rental house looking good again.

And, Ryan's dad has been very sick so we've been really worried about him.

Add the normal goings-on of homework, piano lessons, girl scouts, swim lessons and chauffeur duties (Ryan still isn't driving) and it's no wonder I'm exhausted at the end of each day!

Dreaming

AM over at Playing With Fire listed the things she would do if she won the giant lottery that's in the news today.  I thought it would be fun to do the same!

If we won the huge lottery, I thought it would be fun if we could.....

- hire an attorney and money manager to help us deal with the inevitable paperwork and confusion.
- pay off our houses.
- fill the kids' college funds.
- donate a bundle to the church.
- remodel our current house.  I sure would love to have a bigger/more modern kitchen, some hardwood floors and an office.
- take a huge trip to Europe and hire a personal chef to go with us to ensure that I could eat anything I want without worrying about food allergies.
- enroll the kids in any activity they'd like.
- finally get my teeth fixed once and for all.
- start a non-profit that provides high-quality subsidized daycare to low income families and single moms.  Wouldn't it be great if people could go to work and not worry about the safety and health of their children?*
- help support various medical research teams in developing therapies and cures for both asthma and epilepsy since both of those affect our family.
- let Ryan start the business he's been talking about for years - a crawfish shack like the ones we see in our hometown.  You might be able to take the boy out of the bayou, but you can't take the bayou out of the boy!

But all of this is dreaming since we don't buy lottery tickets.  It sure is fun to dream, though!

What would you do with all of that money if you won it?


* Not too long ago, the owner of a home daycare in the Big City near us locked all of the children she watched inside the house while she went to the store.  The house caught fire and all of the children died.  I can't help but wonder if the parents of those children used her daycare because it was all they could afford.  Such a sad, sad situation.

Cruise Director

So, yes, our Spring Break was in fact last week, as opposed to this past week, but I am just now getting around to posting about it.  I wanted to post earlier, but once again, I cannot access any of the pictures I took.  And please don't tell me it's "user error".  It is a "stupid, old computer" error.  Ahem.  Anyway......

I don't know about you, but the week of Spring Break is when I take on a whole new role as a mom.  I call it cruise director mode.

Most of our usual activities are canceled for the week giving us five (or nine, depending how you count it) days of total boredom freedom.  While I can usually count on piano lessons or a Girl Scout meeting to help break up the week, I couldn't rely on those and had to find a way to fill all of that lovely free and unstructured time.  I know a lot of people take trips during Spring Break, but it simply wasn't in our budget this year so we had to make due.

So I put on my cruise director hat for the three "entertain me because this is soooo boring" pint-sized residents of our house.  We planted strawberry bushes.  We went to the library.  We read lots of books.  The kids spent some time with both sets of their in-town grandparents.  We played a little Wii.  We tore up our deck and filled in the back yard in preparation for a new swingset.  Sydney practiced piano.  She also finished a project for school.  We went to see "The Lorax." We went out to eat at a fondue restaurant.  Sydney had a friend sleepover.  We made cinnamon rolls for said sleepover.

And probably my favorite activity of the week: pillow sumo wrestling.  I have both pictures and a video of this, but since my computer isn't cooperating, you will just have to trust me that this was the cutest thing ever.  I had each child put one of Ryan's t-shirts on over their clothes and then I stuffed two pillows between them and the shirt (one in front and one in back).  For over an hour, they rolled around on the floor, knocked each other over, piled on top of one another and had a blast.

Ryan watched the video and commented on how creative of an idea it was.  It wasn't my idea.  I got it from this blog.  You should check it out if you're looking for fun ways to entertain your kids.  In fact if you scroll down through a couple of entries, you'll see her pictures of the pillow sumo wrestling.

Anyway, the week passed by more quickly than I thought it would, but I made the mistake of keeping them too busy because they now think they're going to get a whole summer of being entertained.  Little do they know that I  have traded in my cruise director hat for a teacher's hat; I've already started thinking about what kind of educational activities to bore them with over the summer.  Workbooks, flash cards and reading - oh my!

Friday Funnies

* Sydney has four potential songs for her upcoming piano recital: a piece by Mozart, the Star Wars theme, the Harry Potter theme and the Beatles' "All You Need is Love."  Quite an eclectic choice, I'd say.

* Every time Sydney plays the Star Wars theme on the piano, the boys grab their light sabers (or as they call them - life savers) and begin playing "Jedi battles".

* For the past few evenings, the kids have told knock-knock jokes at the dinner table.  After about five nights of hearing, "Knock, knock," I asked them to please stop.  About thirty seconds later, Evan said, "Ding dong."  Now they tell ding-dong jokes at the dinner table.

* I had to take Liam see the ENT for a hearing test since he failed the one he had at school.  Unfortunately, the office is just a few blocks away from the zoo and due to Spring Break visitors, we were stuck in some terrible traffic.  After sitting at one particular traffic light for ten minutes (I'm not kidding!), Liam declared, "What's wrong with these people?  Did they forget how to drive?"  Yes, folks, even five year olds get road rage.

* To celebrate my birthday (a bit early), we took the kids to a fondue restaurant last night.  Evan and Sydney chowed down, but Liam wasn't as thrilled about the meal as the other two.  When we asked him why he wasn't eating the main course (mostly meat and vegetables), he said he was just saving room for his favorite part - zedert.  In excited five year old boy language, that translates to dessert.

* After burning our forearms several times while leaning over the hot fondue pots to help the boys, I asked Ryan what he thought the appropriate age should be for a first fondue restaurant visit (as ages 3 and 5 didn't work out so well for us).  He replied that the ideal age for a first visit to such a restaurant was 25.  Sounds good to me.

* Sydney attended her first birthday party sleepover this past weekend.  When we picked her up, she told us that she stayed up until 1 am.  The next day, she told her grandmother that she stayed up until 2 am.  Two days later, she told a friend that she stayed up until 4 am.  I'm guessing that this is the 3rd grade version of a fish tale.

Outside the Comfort Zone

Homebody.  Shy.  Introverted.  I'd definitely use all of these words to describe myself.  When given a day off (usually Mother's Day when Ryan takes the kids over to his mother's house for the day), I like to lounge around at home in some comfortable clothes.  I might watch a snooty British movie or read a book.  I might give myself a pedicure.  I usually take a nap.  But unlike a lot of women, I won't use my "day off" to go shopping with a girlfriend or pay someone else to paint my toenails.  I'd rather be at home, by myself, in the quiet.

So when I scheduled a painting party at our house last month, Ryan was completely shocked.  It's one thing for me to host a book club meeting since I like to read, but for me to invite a bunch of people over to paint (something I don't usually do).....well, that's just weird.

One of my book club friends teaches painting and in January, she posted pictures of painted wine glasses on her Facebook page.  They were absolutely adorable and I thought it would be nice to paint some for my mom for Mother's Day.  So I invited several people to come over to learn how to paint wineglasses.   I invited my sweet next door neighbor and members of both of my book clubs, even the woman who called Santa un-Christian.  Sometimes it's really hard to be nice to people you don't like, but I try.  I really do.

So after some yummy desserts and a couple of glasses of wine to help us relax, we got started.  Two hours later, I was left with the following:






(My favorite part - the inside of the glass)


(The stem)


They don't look as pretty as the ones my friend posted on Facebook, but I think they look pretty good.  And I don't know that I'll give them to my mom after all, just because I think I could do a better job, but I think they're pretty darn cute.

And....I stepped outside my comfort zone, which is a huge deal for me.  It was obviously a huge deal for my kids, too, because they were just as shocked as Ryan, especially Sydney.  But I think it's important for my kids to see me do things that are out of my comfort zone so that they won't be afraid to try something new and take chances.  After all, aren't most of life's regrets chances that were not taken?

Another positive to come out of all of this is that I think Sydney has decided to have a painting party of her own for her upcoming birthday party.  Of course, I don't think she'll be painting wine glasses (after all, we live in Texas, not France), but I can't wait to see what a group of giggly nine year old girls will paint.  I'll be sure to post pictures of the pint-sized painting party, too.  If I can paint something halfway cute, I know those girls can!

For Posterity

Not too long ago, Sydney asked me what I do all day while she's in school.  I think she thinks I watch TV and eat fun foods while she's slaving away at math and reading.  She never wonders where that pile of clean clothes comes from and she doesn't seem to notice when her bathroom is cleaner in the afternoon than in the morning (which, I guess, begs the question - why do I bother cleaning the bathroom at all if no one is going to notice? - but that's a different post altogether).  So I decided that for posterity's sake, I'd write down one day's schedule.  This is mostly so that when my kids read this blog way into the future, they'll know that I did more than nag them, eat forbidden foods and let my brain rot away in front of the television.

6:15 Wake up and get dressed
6:20 Make a pot of steel cut oatmeal
6:25 Make Sydney's lunch and boys' snacks/drinks
6:30 Prep and start crock-pot dinner
6:40 Wake up kids, prod Syd to get dressed
6:45 Prepare kids' breakfasts
7:00 Help boys get dressed, brush teeth, put on shoes and jackets
7:15 Leave for 4 mile bike ride to & from Syd's school
7:50 Hop in the shower
7:55 Get dressed, fix bowl of oatmeal
8:00 Eat breakfast, apply makeup, do hair
8:15 Check e-mail, Facebook
8:25 Prep boys' swim bag, nag boys to go potty and put on shoes
8:30 Put the rest of the oatmeal in the fridge
8:35 Leave for swim lessons
9:00 Sit through Liam's swim lesson while entertaining Evan
9:30 Get Liam dressed, sit through Evan's swim lesson while entertaining Liam
10:00 Get Evan dressed, leave for birthday party (boys eat snack in car)
10:40 Attend birthday party (eat lunch while there)
1:30 Arrive home from party
1:31 Tell boys they can't play Wii
1:35 Separate laundry, start load #1
1:45 Go through party goody bags
1:50 Make Liam do his homework
1:55 Clean out dishwasher, re-load with breakfast dishes
2:00 Clean/scrub stove
2:15 Start laundry load #2
2:20 Talk to Ryan on phone to clarify earlier e-mail
2:30 Clean kitchen counters, sink, breakfast table
2:35 Tell boys they can't play Wii
2:45 Sweep kitchen floor, wipe up spots by hand (not enough time to do a full mop job)
2:55 Mix ingredients for a loaf of bread, let rise
3:00 Fold laundry load #1, start laundry load #3
3:15 Check Liam's homework
3:25 Explain game to the boys
3:30 Check e-mail, Facebook, blogs
3:45 Check regular mail, wonder if there will ever be a day we don't get a medical bill
3:50 Take some ibuprofen to ward off oncoming headache due to goody bag noisemakers
4:00 Punch down, roll out and shape bread, let rise again
4:10 Clean up bread mess
4:15 Leave to pick up Syd and friend from choir practice
4:45 Fold laundry load #2, start laundry load #4
5:00 Ask Sydney to start her homework, ask boys to clean up their homework/game mess
5:05 Tell boys they can't play Wii
5:10 Put bread in oven, go over spelling words with Syd
5:15 Type up and post notes to the Sunday School internet group
5:25 Remind Syd to practice piano
5:30 Make a pot of rice to go with crock-pot dinner
5:40 Remove bread from oven and let cool
5:45 Make a fort with furniture and blankets for the boys
5:50 Fold laundry load #3, start laundry load #5
6:00 Set table, serve and eat dinner
6:40 Clear table, store leftovers in fridge, load dishwasher, wash pots
6:50 Fold laundry load #4, start laundry load #6
7:15 Read the boys a story, put kids to bed
7:20 Watch TV with Ryan
8:00 Fold laundry load #5
9:00 Take a shower
9:30 Set dishwasher, check on kids
9:40 Brush teeth, fall into bed, leave laundry load #6 in the dryer for the morning

Minus the birthday party, this pretty much describes my everyday.  There are slight differences, of course.  Some days we have to take Sydney to piano lessons or Girl Scouts.  On a very rare occasion, I get a break from cooking dinner and we'll go out to eat.  And on the days that the boys go to pre-school, you'd think I'd have time to rest, but I usually don't.  I'm either running to the library, buying gifts for upcoming birthday parties, cleaning something that doesn't require "help" from the peanut gallery or doing one of a million things on my ever-growing "to do" list.  Today, for example, I will spend my "free" time digging up some plants that have died and replacing them with some plants that have to be moved before Ryan installs our new deck this weekend.  Fun times.

I can't imagine doing all of this and having a job outside the home.  I have no idea how women/moms these days do it all and still have time to breathe.  And as much as I'd love to get a job once Evan goes to kindergarten, after reading the above list, I honestly have no idea how I'm going to have the time to do that.  But, at least I know that I can show this to Sydney someday and she'll have some proof that staying at home isn't a vacation from work!

The Aftermath

So it's been a week since the incident.  That's what I'm calling it now.  The words seizure, wreck and accident cause the kids to get that worried look on their faces so I'm trying to be careful with the words I use.  Sydney has stopped bursting into tears whenever it's mentioned.  I still get teary-eyed, but I'm guessing that's normal.

Unfortunately, I cannot get away from it.  I'm of the "it was a terrible thing for all of us to go through, but we're trying to get on with our lives" way of thinking, but every time I turn around, someone in our neighborhood or someone at church (also the boys' school) asks me about it.  Or worse, I hear little whispers as I walk by: "Oh, she's the one whose husband had a seizure and crashed the van with the kids inside."

I don't mind answering questions and accepting the heartfelt concern that everyone has.  I really don't.  The offers of help and sweet words have meant the world to me (both in real life and in the cyber-world).  However, like in any small(ish) town, there is a fine line between concern and gossip and I am most definitely not liking the feeling of being the subject of gossip.  I try really hard to not gossip about other people (to the extent that I've distanced myself from a friend I really like and get along with because she likes to gossip when we get together) and I wish others would do the same.  We purposely didn't talk about the incident on Facebook or publicize it on our Sunday School class's Yahoo group so that we could avoid being the center of attention, but here we are, right in the center anyway.

It will all blow over and in a week or two, someone else will have some kind of crisis and become the focus of the whispers; I already feel sorry for whoever that someone is.  I guess it can't be controlled, but I sure don't have to like it.

On a lighter note, I was able to finally meet the wonderful lady who stopped to help Ryan and the kids during the incident.  It turns out that she works at our favorite grocery store and for three straight days I tried to to catch her at work to say thank you.  Despite the feeling that the people at the service desk were about to label me a stalker, we finally caught up with her on Saturday and properly thanked her for all she did.  She and I both cried and I gave her the biggest hug imaginable.  I'm fairly certain the nearby customers thought we were both nuts, but I don't care.

On an even lighter note, I've been trying to focus on the humorous situations surrounding the incident such as:

* When the paramedics opened the van door to ask if the kids were okay, Liam informed them that he needed to go potty.  Well, they asked if he was okay, didn't they?

* When they asked Sydney if Ryan was allergic to anything (as in medications), she replied, "He's allergic to cats."  I don't know if they laughed or not, but how could they not?

* When Ryan asked Sydney how I reacted when I arrived at the scene, she told him that I was so upset that all I could do was talk really, really fast.  My secret's out:  I'm a fast talker when I'm nervous.

* Every time someone mentions what happened, Evan announces, "I didn't cry at all."  He's right.  He was the only one who didn't cry.

* One of the Super Bowl commercials we watched this past weekend showed a man having what appeared to be a heart attack in his car.  Sydney declared, "Hey, that guy's having a seizure in his car, too!"

 It may seem a bit strange to focus on the funny things, but it's a whole lot better than focusing on the "what if" things.  We certainly can't change what happened, but at least we can find enough to laugh about.  After all, laughter is the best medicine.

I'm Such a History Geek

Over the weekend, my mom let my niece go through several boxes of old family items for a project on WWII.  At the bottom of one box, she (my niece) found a really old leather wallet (as in hand-stitched) with the following note inside:

"This was hand-made by my grandfather, a Methodist circuit rider."

My mother recognized the handwriting as her grandmother's.

Sure enough, someone had written the name of my great-great-great-grandfather and the date April 1830 in some kind of super ink (to have lasted this long) on the inside of the wallet.

The wallet is almost 200 years old!  How cool is that?!?

This ancestor went on to have several children, one of whom moved to California during the gold rush and another that claimed land in Oklahoma during the Land Rush.  The former was unsuccessful in his attempts to become rich, but the latter was my great-great grandfather and our family still owned some of the original land rush land up until a few years ago.

Talk about having some true American history in your family!

I feel like I could compete with some of the celebrities on that show Who Do You Think You Are? for who has the coolest family history, especially since this is the same branch of the family that can trace its roots back to the American Revolution and to a specific county in Ireland before that.

Someday when I have time (so around 2030 when Evan's out of college?  :)  ), I'd like to do more family research, maybe even travel to Ireland and search their local records.  But for now, I'll have to be satisfied with the awesome work my mom has done and bask in my historical geekiness.

Harry Potter Drinking Game

One of the things I promised Sydney before her tonsillectomy was that we'd have a Harry Potter movie marathon.  She didn't forget about that promise, either.  We watched all eight movies over a one week period and while she was in heaven, the rest of us went a bit batty.

I got to thinking about a way to make such a marathon a bit more bearable for adults (not that we'll ever do it again).  I guess kids could play it, too, but with a soda.

So, here goes.

Take a drink every time:

1. Harry Potter's lightning bolt scar hurts him.
2. Hermione Granger answers a question or solves a problem that no one else can.
3. Ron Weasley says, "Bloody hell."
4. Draco Malfoy sneers at somebody.
5. Professor Snape says, "Potter."
6. Professor Dumbledore introduces a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
7. Lucius Malfoy complains about something.
8. Argus Filch tattles on a student.
9. Bellatrix Lestrange laughs maniacally.
10. Someone says the phrase "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
11. Someone says the word "horcrux."

There.  By the end of any (or all) of the movies, you should be completely sauced.  Or, in my case, asleep.  Either way, it will make the marathon more bearable.

Vegas, Baby!

Since we didn't do anything big for our 10th anniversary last year, Ryan and I decided to go on a quick trip to celebrate our 11th anniversary.  What better place to have some childless fun than Vegas?

It's too bad our anniversary falls in December because the pools outside our hotel room looked quite inviting:




We had lots of fun just sight-seeing.  We walked through most of the major hotels and watched the Bellagio fountain shows (during the day and at night) and the Mirage's volcano show.  We marveled at how big everything is, too.  After all, who needs to go to Paris when you can see the Eiffel Tower in Nevada?



And forget the real Venice when you can see the gondolas at the Venetian:






The Christmas decorations were phenomenal, too.  This polar bear at the Bellagio is made entirely of flowers (you can see the worker repairing his paw):




I even got Ryan to pose in front of these super cute penguins:




We took a half day trip to the Hoover Dam.  And, yes, since our dam tour guide encouraged us to take "all the dam pictures you want to", we did:




(The only picture we have of the two of us together!)


The highlight of our trip was the Beatle's LOVE show at the Mirage:




(The entry way to the show)


(I thought the cocktail list was cute.)

Ryan is a huge Beatles fan and I'd always wanted to see a Cirque de Soleil show so this was a perfect fit for us.  He really enjoyed the music and the symbolism involved in the show (which I totally didn't get because I don't know their music as well) while I was just awed by the whole thing in general.  Wow.

As for gambling.....well, we're not big gamblers.  Ryan broke even on the craps game he played and I lost one dollar in a slot machine just to say I gambled while there.  Other than that, we didn't even glance at the tables and slots.  The city of Las Vegas didn't get a whole lot of money out of us.

As always, we learned some lessons while there:
1. Keep your hands in your pockets so no one can hand you fliers while you're walking around.
2. Don't even make eye contact with the guys trying to sell you a time share.  Definitely don't talk to them; otherwise, they'll follow you and won't leave you alone.
3. Once you've walked through all the hotels you care about seeing, use the monorail or bus system to get around.  Save your feet.
4. Despite what the ads may say, don't take your kids to Vegas.  It is NOT a family oriented place.
5. If you do take your kids, don't let them take pictures with the people dressed up like Elmo, Hello Kitty, Disney characters, etc. that stand on the street corners.  We saw a few of them take their costume heads off and well, let's just say they're not the classiest people.
6. Vegas isn't just a tourist destination for Americans.  Don't be surprised if you start to think that there must be no one left in Japan when you're visiting.
7. There's no such thing as a cheap buffet in Vegas anymore.  That is most definitely a thing of the past.
8. Get your inevitable embarrassing moment out of the way as soon as you arrive.  If possible, get the same cab driver we did; he dropped us off at the wrong hotel and since we'd never been before and didn't know where we were, we looked really stupid trying to check into the wrong hotel.

Overall, it was a fun trip.  I don't know that I want to go back any time soon, but it was definitely memorable.

A Crafty Christmas

I've never been an artsy-craftsy kind of person.  I can follow a pattern to make something, but don't ask me to come up with some kind of cute idea all by myself.

None of the following crafty things were my ideas; all of them came with some kind of pattern, recipe or example for me to follow.  Feel free to steal these ideas for some of your Christmas gifts, too.  (None of them came from Pinterest, either.  I fear that I might get sucked into Pinterest so I'm doing my best to avoid it.)

First, a really sweet lady from one of my book clubs made these for all of us last year and I just had to steal her idea:




All of the candy can be found at your local dollar store.  They are inexpensive, easy to make and super cute.  I made these for Evan's classmates and I got quite a few "That is SO cute!" and "What a great idea!" exclamations from his teachers and the moms of his classmates.  His classmates, all of them three years old, didn't care about the cute factor.  That was fine with me.  I still got to look like an artsy-craftsy rock star to their moms.

I found recipes for the following on or through Crunchy Betty's blog:




Again, they were inexpensive, simple to make and cute.  I took this set to a friend who is recovering from hip surgery and is pretty much stuck at home for the next few weeks.  They seemed to brighten her day.  She really liked that the bath salts (which she will be using for a foot soak since she can't get in and out of the bathtub very easily) were candy-cane striped:




This last craft is a bit more complicated since you have to know how to cross stitch to make them.  It is also a lot more time-consuming, but the effort is completely worth it when you see the result:




I made Sydney's and Liam's stockings years ago, but just finished Evan's about a month ago.  The kids love them and I know that they're the kind of thing they'll hold on to for a long time.  Well, Sydney will hold on to hers; the boys' future wives will probably be the ones to hold on to theirs.

Of course, now that I have theirs done, Ryan wants one of his own since he claims that his stocking (that his mother made for him when he was little) doesn't match the rest.  Somehow my stocking (that my mother made for me when I was little) does coordinate with the kids' stockings.  But I don't mind the mismatch:

What do you think?

Magic of Christmas

I don't make a secret it of it that we do Santa in our house.  The kids write letters to him each year (Liam actually wrote his own this year!).  We have Sheldon, our elf on the shelf, who appears each morning in a new location and reports back to Santa on a daily basis.  We leave cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve and come Christmas morning, the kids are excited to see what three gifts Santa left in their stockings.  (We have a "if three gifts were good enough for Baby Jesus, then three gifts are good enough for you" tradition in our house.)

At eight years old, I'm surprised that Sydney still believes, but at the same time, I am thrilled.  She gets just as excited as the boys about writing her letter and looking for Sheldon each morning and I know that someday very soon, that little bit of magic and wonderment will be gone from her eyes.

I realize that many Christian households don't "do" Santa and I'm fine with that.  Really, I am.  Their house, their rules.  What makes me angry is when I get a "look" from someone at church or the boys' (Christian) school when I mention anything Santa related.  After talking about how much my kids love our elf on the shelf at a recent book club meeting, one particularly snotty woman looked directly at me and said, "We don't do Santa in our house because that is not Christian.  At all."  I wish I were more clever because I really wanted to say something snotty and rude right back to her about how being judgmental is not exactly Christian-like behavior, either.  But of course, I am not all that clever so I said nothing.

You know, it's not as if my kids don't know the real Christmas story.  We read books about it and they play with their little nativity set (all year long, I might add).  One of our traditions is to build a 24 link paper chain to count down to Christmas.  Each link of the chain contains a Bible verse from the Christmas story and each morning we take off a link, read the Bible verse and then hang it on the wall.  By Christmas day, we have the whole Christmas story hanging up for them to see and read.  We attend Christmas services at our church all month long, culminating in a candlelight service and communion on Christmas Eve.  And all three of them can practically hum "Angels We Have Heard on High" in their sleep after hearing Sydney play it on the piano fifty million times over the past few weeks.

We honestly don't see anything wrong with letting them believe in Santa for a few years.  They will grow up soon enough and learn the truth, but for now, we want them to enjoy their very short childhoods.

I'm perfectly OK with parents who don't "do" the Santa thing.  I honestly do not judge them for it.  I just wish they'd return the favor and not judge me for indulging my children in a sweet holiday tradition.

This is Definitely a First World Problem

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember George, our neighbor in The Big City. (I couldn't find an old post to link to - sorry!)

Four years ago, when we were trying to decide whether to stay in The Big City or move to The Land of Fruit due to our growing family, George mentioned that he was thinking about selling his house.  We toyed with the idea of buying it, tearing down his house and then building onto ours.  Ryan even had some paperwork drawn up.  And then George decided not to sell.  So we moved to The Land of Fruit.

Well, according to our tenant, George put a "For Sale" sign in front of his house yesterday.  He even asked her if we were still interested in buying his house.

We did a quick search to find out how much he was asking and found out that he's only asking for the price of the land since the house is in such terrible condition.

For a brief moment, Ryan and I thought about buying it.  We'd still tear down the house, but that would give us two lots, one for our rental house and one for a yard.  We wouldn't move back there since the kids are settled here in The Land of Fruit, but it would be a fabulous investment and it would give our tenant's son a yard to play in.  And it would give us a nice piece of land for building on when we retire.

But we just don't think we can swing it.  We're already paying down two mortgages and just don't think it's smart to take on another loan, even if it is a fabulous investment (our old house is a mere two miles from Downtown Big City).

So, George will probably sell it to a couple of childless yuppies who will tear it down and put up some kind of three story monstrosity that will bring down the value of our tiny little bungalow.

Sigh.

A Very Good Name

I had to take Sydney to the pediatrician today for yet another case of strep throat (her fifth bout of it since February, but who's counting?) and had to laugh at the receptionist.

She dutifully asked for the patient's name, but the waiting room was so crowded and noisy that she had a hard time hearing me.  Now, we've run into people who think Sydney's name is Cindy and that is completely understandable to me as the "d" and "n" are easily switched and the name Cindy is an actual name.  But the receptionist thought I called her Disney.  Really?  Do you know anyone who's named their child Disney?

And while I was still giggling about the Disney mix-up, the dad sitting behind me made me laugh even harder when he called for his son, Tres Bien.  I kid you not, that child's name was Tres Bien.  I've heard of Tres (or Trey) as a nickname for a child who shares a name with his dad and grandpa, but I'd never heard Tres Bien.  Of course, there could be some kind of official spelling for that name that I am not aware of, but to my ear, that poor child's name was French for "very good."

So even though my sweet girl is feeling icky and I was not happy about spending an hour in an overcrowded pediatrician's cesspool of a waiting room, at least I got a couple laughs out of the situation. It just makes me wonder if there really are kids out there named Disney.  Surely not, right?

She's Definitely Not in FFA

Actual conversation I had with the (still in high school) grocery clerk the other day.


Clerk:  You're like the third person I've checked out today who's bought a pork butt.  (Giggles)

Me:  Well, they're on sale and we can get several meals out of one.

Clerk:  I just called my manager and asked him if he'd ever eaten a pig's butt and he said he hadn't.

Me:  Actually, this is the shoulder of the pig; they just call it pork butt.  Ham is actually a pig's butt.

Clerk (with wide eyes):  So when I have a ham sandwich, I'm eating a pig's butt?

Me:  Yes.

Clerk:  Ewwww.


I'm guessing she's not in her school's Future Farmers of America club.

That's just a guess, though.

Letters

Dear Mother Nature,

Please send us some rain.  Pretty, pretty please?  And while you're at it, can you lower the temperatures by about ten degrees?  We are baking to death and going broke paying our electric and water bills.

Drinking Gatorade by the Gallon,
A Summer-Weary Texan



Dear My Poor Lawn,

I have failed you miserably.  You are half dead and scraggly and you look just downright pitiful.  I apologize for not being able to keep you as lush and green as you're used to.  I have faith in you, though, and I know once we get some good rain, you'll be back to your healthy self.  Hang in there.

Apologizing Profusely,
Your Brown-Thumbed Caretaker



Dear Tenant,

Good for you that you grew up in a place without roaches.  However, you live in Houston now and Houston has roaches.  Big roaches.  The drought is making them come into the house to look for water.  The exterminator's been out.  Twice.  Ryan has sprayed both the inside and outside of the house.  I've offered to make some bug bombs for you and I almost took a picture of a huge roach I saw crawling around our back porch to prove to you that they are everywhere.  I'm sorry it grosses you out, but you're just going to have to deal with it until this drought breaks.

A Fellow Roach Hater,
Your Co-Landlord



Dear Swim Lesson Mom,

I know you have three young boys, but do you have to be so loud all the time, especially in a concreted room that echoes so badly?  Even my boisterous and loud four year old thinks you're a bit over the top in the decibel department.

With Ears Covered,
The Mom Sitting Next to You



Dear Crotchety Old Minister,

If you chastise the congregation one more time for applauding after the choir's special music instead of saying, "Amen", I am going to stomp up to the altar and yell "AMEN" as loud as I can into your hearing aid.

It's Time to Retire,
A Fed-up Congregant

Dear P@t R0berts0n,

Haiti deserves a devastating earthquake for making a deal with the devil and the east coast gets an earthquake and then a hurricane because God is mad at them for being too liberal?  So you can read God's mind, can you?  Wow.  Arrogant, much?

Disgusted,
Someone With Compassion

Versatile

Sydney started 3rd grade last week (how am I old enough to have a 3rd grader?) and since, at least here in Texas, 3rd grade is deemed the "Year of Homework" due to stupid standardized testing, she's already had a few assignments.

One of her first assignments was to learn some vocabulary words.  Because I'm type A a former teacher, I have this thing about making her go a step further than her teacher expects.  All the teacher wanted her to do was study the definitions; I made her come up with sentences using the words to show me that she understood them.

One of her vocabulary words was versatile.  My example sentence for her was, "Tortillas are versatile; they can be used for fajitas, enchiladas, tacos and sandwich wraps."  (Don't make fun of me.  We live a few hours' drive from Mexico; we eat a lot of tortillas around here.)

Sydney's sentence was, "Mommy is versatile; she can cook, clean, do laundry, grocery shop and read a lot."

I don't know whether I should laugh or cry.  On the one hand, I'm glad she's aware that I do a heck of a lot around the house.  On the other hand, I want her to know that women can do more than just take care of a house and family.

Maybe it's time to seriously think about what I want to do once Evan starts kindergarten.  Then maybe she can add "have a career as a ______" or "make money to add to my college fund" to her definition of how versatile I am.

Definitely something to get me to thinking, that's for sure.

Randomness

- I ate my very first Lean Cuisine meal this week.  It may have been lean, but it was not cuisine.  Someone should scold them for false advertising.

- I think that new "Cowboys and Aliens" movie looks so stupid, but I'm the same person who took one look at "Dancing with the Stars" several years ago and said there was no way that show would make it past one season.

- While painting my kitchen the other day, I had Pandora music playing.  During the course of the day, it played several Amy Winehouse songs.  She really was a talented singer.  Such a shame.

- My dad mowed our lawn last week while Ryan was on a business trip.  Sydney asked me how much I was going to pay him.  (Just in case you're wondering, I pay him in food.)

- I dropped the kids off at Ryan's mom's house for a few days so that I could some stuff done around the house.  Sydney said the best part of staying there is that she doesn't have to make her bed.

- I finally started working on Evan's Christmas stocking again.  Poor boy is coming up on his fourth Christmas and it's about time he had his own personalized stocking like his siblings.

- I bit the bullet and paid somebody to come out and clean our carpet.  Wow!  Between that and newly painted kitchen I feel like I'm in a whole new house.

- The kids found a baby gecko in the toy room last week.  Liam asked if we could keep it.  I politely told him "no" as I captured the scared thing and put it outside where it belongs.  Maybe it's time we get some kind of pet....

Found: One Backbone

I knew it was coming.  Really, I did.  I just didn't expect it to come so soon.

I mentioned a while back that I was in charge of our church's Vacation Bible School curriculum this summer.  It wasn't all that difficult or time consuming, especially since Ryan took the kids out for an entire afternoon so that I could finish it without interruption.

Because it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, I went ahead and volunteered to make copies of it for all the teachers.  I even put together a supply list based on the curriculum just to be helpful.

And because I did my job thoroughly and went a little above and beyond, I got the call.

What call is that, you ask?

Well, it was the "Since you did such a great job as curriculum coordinator, I was wondering if you'd be interested in being my co-director for all of Bible School next year" call.  (The term "co-director" is also the code word for the following year's head director.)

My internal response?  "Heck no."

My actual response?  "I am so flattered you'd think of me, but I really don't think I can devote the time to it that it needs."  I went on to tell her that Ryan's work is asking him to travel more this year (true) and that he's gearing up to start a master's program at a nearby university (true) and that I'd be a single mom for much of the next couple of years (also true) thanks to the first two reasons.

She was very understanding and sympathetic since her husband also travels quite a bit, but sad.  She asked who I thought who would be a good person to ask and I told her that I'd think about that and I'd get back to her (and I will because I already have a couple of names in mind).

I'm feeling guilty about it because I know it's a hard job and it's a lot of work.  I also feel guilty because the person who asked me was co-chair this past year and still managed to work full time as a high school science teacher and keep her two children fed, clothed and loved.  I honestly don't know how she did it all and I don't want to find out, either.

However, I'm a big believer that you should volunteer with a happy heart.  If you do it out of obligation then you won't enjoy it at all and people will be able to sense your resentment and neither of those are good things when it comes to dealing with over 400 children and volunteers.

I always joke with Ryan that I inherited my mother's inability to tell people "no", but I guess I didn't.  I suppose I've just learned how to do it politely and with a smile on my face.

Summer = TV

So, um, yeah.....it's been a while since I posted.

There's no excuse for it other than the fact that I had nothing to say and didn't really feel like writing.  While Seinfeld may have made a fortune with a show about nothing, nobody wants to read a blog about nothing.  It's not that we haven't done anything, I just didn't have anything to say about it.

We've attended two week long camps at church, spent a week in San Antonio with my parents, done some swimming, played in the sprinkler, played games, read lots of books for the library's summer reading program, gone to see some movies and since it is so hot outside (and by hot, I mean HOT - and I'm from Texas so I know the meaning of the word), we've put our Netflix streaming to use.

For the kids, this is the summer of "Phineas and Ferb".  I'd heard parents rave about it but never actually sat down to watch it before this summer.  It's about a couple of boys who spend their summers using their imaginations and inventing things and irritating their tattle-tale older sister who can never seem to convince their mother that the boys are up to no good.  The fact that the plot hits close to home for us may factor into our newfound love of it.

Ryan and I are making our way through the 1980s series "Thirtysomething" an episode or two at a time in the evenings.  I'm telling you, take away their giant shoulder pads and give them some smart phones and the characters could be anyone you know.  There's a stay at home mom who's struggling with having to give up her career, a couple of husbands trying to make ends meet, a divorced couple and all of their single friends whom you can't help but feel a bit jealous of and a bit sorry for all at the same time.  Sound familiar to anyone?

When I get a spare hour to myself (ha, ha) or have a bout of insomnia, I've taken to watching episodes of  "Roseanne".  I watched it as a teenager and it was funny then, but now that I'm the same age as the parents and have kids of my own, it is an absolute riot: the pranks they pull on their kids, the sarcasm, the coining of new phrases such as "fiduciary Esperanto" when doing their taxes.....it's all ten times better the second time around.

While in Florida, I caught a couple of episodes of "Ice Road Truckers" and got hooked.  I usually can't stand reality TV, but I honestly find this one fascinating.  There are lots of bleeps over the bad words, but I'm fairly certain that anyone driving 10 tons of expensive cargo over frozen roads and lakes would probably drop a few bad words here and there.  And while some people think driving those trucks is the hardest job in the world because it so cold and dark, I'm thinking that the poor people filming it all probably have it even worse.  The truck drivers are in their heated trucks; the cameramen are outside in the forty below zero temperatures filming it all....I'm just sayin'.

I've had fun watching some hoity-toity BBC/Masterpiece Theater movies, too.  I'm a sucker for any kind of historical fiction set in Europe so this is right up my alley.  Just last night I watched "A Room With a View" and got the giggles seeing a young(er) Maggie Smith with a pile of blonde hair on her head and a 19 year old Helena Bonham Carter before she met Tim Burton and turned into a weirdo.  I found myself wondering if the makeup person for the movie had ever heard of tweezers or if they were trying to be historically accurate by giving the younger characters eyebrows that would make Frida Kahlo jealous.

So now that I've given you the impression that all we've done this summer is watch television, I will tell you that we've also done boring stuff like work on multiplication tables and practice handwriting.  But, hey, it's summer and everyone needs a substantial break from the grueling school year schedule, right?