What a wonderful Christmas

Once again we had an amazing Christmas season. Beginning with my family Christmas on the 16th (so we can all be back in our own homes for Christmas Day), which was a wonderful gathering. The Ohio Kennemers were very much missed. One of the best things is seeing my kids playing with their cousins, who they love.

Christmas Eve was spent over at Jim's parents' house. We are lucky that our family traditions work out nicely without overlap; plus everyone is local so we are never required to travel for the holidays. I had to work early in the day on Christmas Eve (curse of working at a church), but it wasn't bad. I got to go to mass that morning, and got to see all the little kids I love up there. And Jim got to make sure our two were bathed and dressed for the day. Grace and Alex had more cousins that night to play with - nice for us because since the girls are older we really can say "Watch Alex for us" and don't have to be peeking around corners or through windows to make sure he's not destroying everything in sight.

And Christmas Day was exciting. Other than the hitch with the scooter, the kids were overjoyed by the presents (and Grace was very accepting of the "Santa's elf forgot a part" explanation). I get to enjoy myself by cooking the big holiday meal for our family and Mom, Dad and Luella. Beef tenderloin again this year, with mashed potatoes, peas and glazed carrots. Plus I took a stab at making homemade rolls - maybe not beautiful, but they seemed to taste okay. My big accomplishment of the meal was dessert - Irish bread pudding with caramel-whiskey sauce. Yummy!

At the end of the day I just was able to revel in the beauty of the season. Grace declared twice (once at Grandma and Pawpaw's house and once Christmas morning) that "This is the best Christmas I've ever had in my whole life!" I was able to cook a wonderful meal and have other hands cleaning up in the kitchen, which is my most-hated part of it. New toys were strewn all over my house, but we were all still full from the food and wine of Christmas dinner so we didn't care. Just hanging out on the couch that evening as a family, kids crawling all over us, was the best place to be. Alex zonked out on top of me on the couch, and Grace quickly fell asleep after a couple of books.

And in case anyone was wondering, I got up this morning to hit Target at 7am and found a replacement Princess scooter at the second store I went to. Stuck the box under the tree with a big bow on it. Grace discovered it a couple hours later. So she has her scooter only one day late, and now I get to make a trip to Target again to return the first one and get names for writing my complaint letter.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Damn damn damn

11:45pm on Christmas Eve and we discover that the Princess scooter Jim is assembling is MISSING THE REAR AXLE.

Yep, the most-wanted Christmas gift of the season in our household is incomplete. So we've written the letter from Santa explaining that the elves made an error, and I'll probably go hit a Target at 7am on Tuesday morning to try to find a new one.

Stupid Target. Probably didn't check the package when it was returned the first time before taping it up and sticking it back on the shelf. I'm writing a letter...

All I want for Christmas is...

everything, which will change next week if you ask a 4-year old.

Last year was easy to sway Grace's Santa requests to match what had already been brought. But this year she sees a commercial targeted to little girls and something new pops up on the list. The latest is a scooter. Originally a Barbie scooter (don't ask me where that came from). But of course everyone is sold out of the three-wheeled Barbie scooter. But I discovered a Disney Princess scooter, which once I mentioned it has now shot up to the top of the list. So Fairy Princess Dora is in the back of the car waiting to be returned to Target.

Alex is a bit easier. For the longest time you'd ask him what he was going to ask Santa for, and his response would be "toys". Now he's changed it to be "monkeys, dinosaurs and toys". So I'm going to have to run out one last time on Thursday (when both kids are at a special drop-in day at school) to try to find some monkeys and dinosaurs for the boy.

Family vacations are fun!

Yes we did it. Rented the RV and hit the Texas state parks last week. Despite the fact that I was sick the first couple of days (including on Thanksgiving the day before we left - great), Grace was sick in the middle of the trip and Alex picked it up at the end, we had a great time. Had to patronize WalMart twice and discovered that the stores in small towns are much nicer than the ones in DFW. Stayed at Ft. Parker near Mexia the first night simply because just about every other park in the state was booked the Friday after Thanksgiving. Then two nights in Garner State Park and two nights at Pedernales Falls SP. We were going to spend a night at Dinosaur Valley SP, but decided to just make that a stop on the way home after having two sick kids for the past few days and realizing the cold front was coming in that night. Originally planned on reaching Big Bend, but changed our route after the first night when we realized we wanted more park time and less drive time.

Our sweet ride.

Alex adopted this weird stance for a while when throwing
rocks into the river at Garner SP.

Grace said "Throwing rocks in the river is more
fun than...ANYTHING! Even Coloring!"

Checking out the recently deceased butterfly next to one of the
biggest trees we'd ever seen (Garner SP).

The butterfly.


Helping Alex navigate the rocks at Pedernales Falls SP
(to get to a good spot to toss them into the river, of course).


Not only could we throw rocks, but we could stick our
feet in this river while we did it.


Helping Grace cross back across.


Grace shows off hers (and my) bedroom. Alex and Jim shared the
MUCH more comfortable bed in the back.


Alex and the smudges he helped decorate the entire RV with.


A sunset at Pedernales Falls.


Me watching the deer roaming through our campsite. Not much fear in those guys until you really make a lot of noise. We also saw feral pigs (from a distance - about 4 adults and a mess of babies), rabbits and numerous cool birds. That was the live animals. If you count the roadkill you can add a lot of raccoons to that number - there was a stretch of road from Garner to Pedernales Falls where we saw one probably every two miles.


Picture of the family taken the last night using the camera on the computer.

Fun in the Fall

The leaves are really starting to come down, especially in the front yard. I don't know if our ash tree out front just loses leaves before all the other trees on the street, but I know we always have a time every Fall when you look down our block and all the other yards are fairly clear but ours looks like a tree exploded on it. Grace and Jim raked a big pile today and had lots of fun with it.

Whew

Well, I just finished one of my busiest months ever. So here's a few updates (for anyone who cares).

1. The Lakewood Home Festival is OVER!!! If you are not aware, I have volunteered tons of hours to this for the past couple years. It is a great cause - raises lots of money for one of the local elementary schools. And honestly the main reason I worked on it was to try to get a little leg up in getting a transfer for my kids into that school. But after I'd committed to being the Underwriting co-chair for the second year, all the school boundaries were changed. And this particular school went from one allowing lots of transfers to a true "neighborhood" school, with no room for transfers AT ALL. Since I'd already committed, and this particular position is pretty important and pretty hard to fill, Jim and I decided that I should ride it out and go ahead and do it. Over 100 hours later, I'm almost finished with it all. Just some follow up, getting books straight, tax letters sent in January, then hand everything off to the next person. Yay!

2. My catered speaker dinner I hosted at church is OVER. Occurring last Friday, the same night as the beginning of the Home Festival, both events together almost caused my head to explode last week. But the dinner went off great, and the speaker was awesome. She's coming back to do a Lenten women's retreat that I am for sure going to attend, and will probably try to convince Mom to attend with me.

3. I missed Halloween with my kids due to a nasty 24-hour stomach bug. Luckily Jim was already coming home early that day, because I couldn't do much of anything other than lay on the couch. He took the kids over to a friend's house and the dads took the kids out to get candy. I'm sad I missed it, because apparently once Alex figured out how the whole trick or treat thing worked he was all over it. He was wide-eyed excited when they came home that night. And now I have a big bag of candy we didn't hand out at our own door because I couldn't get up to answer the phone, much less hand out candy.

4. Cousin Amy's baby shower was Saturday, and she looks so cute all pregnant! Wonderful time catching up with aunts and cousins. I got to make some of my yummy appetizers and Audra's punch recipes. And Grace loves the baby doll I won in one of the games. She's already christened it Ava and carries it around all the time.

5. I start work tomorrow! I'll be the new nursery coordinator up at church, mainly in charge of making sure any nursery needs for church meetings or events are adequately staffed. Not great pay, but half price tuition for my kids school which makes it worthwhile. And finally now when Jim complains to me "So are you getting paid for all that time you spend up at church?" I can say "Yes I am!".

6. Lastly, I made a tasty chicken noodle soup out of the last of my homemade chicken stock last night. Mmmmm! Not a cold day, but overcast and a little rainy, so the soup was a good fit.

Even with the job starting, I feel like I finally have a little breathing room in my life again. Aahh.

Birthday party pics

Here's a few pictures from the birthday party last weekend. Despite the rain, it turned out pretty good. It would have been nice to have everyone play outside, but since it was just family and a few close friends it was manageable inside the house. It was hard to find ANYTHING having to do with robots for the party theme, as you will be able to see by the homemade aspects below.

Alex waits patiently for his birthday brownie.


Blowing out the candles.


Brownie robot-man Grace and I created for everyone in lieu of a birthday cake. Didn't look real pretty but sure tasted good.


Opening presents.

The birthday robot made out of two Pampers boxes, aluminum foil and various things found at Elliot's Hardware.

Alex holding his robot's hand.

Alex with two of his favorite toys from the day.


My two kiddos, after the party with cute but dirty faces.

Visiting the baby

I took Grace out to visit Kim and baby Gabriel a couple weeks ago. Grace will be happy I finally posted these photos.

I think neither one of them was very comfortable when this photo was taken.

This is the picture I love.

This is the one Grace wanted posted ("Mommy, I really like the one with the baby crying in it").

Couple of things

Tomorrow we are throwing Alex's birthday party, though he doesn't turn two until Wednesday. Of course there is an 80 PERCENT chance of rain, so there goes my plan of having the kids run wild outside. Just friends and family coming over, but that extra space sure would have been nice. And Jim will probably end up outside standing over the grill with an umbrella over his head. Too bad we didn't do the party today - it was absolutely beautiful outside.

On another topic, I'm so proud of my sis and her exciting new political group she has helped create. Go here to check it out. Jim thinks she should run for political office, since she's so good at getting her point across and seems to really know what she is talking about. So once her youngest gets a little older, maybe we can get her moving on that. School board? Hell, if Rick Perry gets elected again maybe I can convince her to run for governor.

Howdy Folks! I'm Bi-i-ig Tex.

Fun day at the fair yesterday. Hot, but fun.

Jim thinks Alex looks like a farmer here, checking out his pygmy goats.


The petting zoo was back this year. They had all these little shovels tied to the fences to feed the animals with. I guess that is part of the changes to appease the insurance company.


We sucked it up this year and paid an arm and a leg for the family to ride the Ferris wheel. Grace, Alex and I had a wonderful time. I'm not sure Jim did...


Alex and me on the wheel.


Grace liked the Ferris wheel, but this is the ride she most enjoys. The dragon roller coaster in the kiddie area. Jim got to partake in the fun - Alex was being too clingy so I had to sit it out.


In addition to the roller coaster, this is Grace's other favorite thing at the fair.


After Alex ate an entire Fletcher's corny dog he proceeded to eat an additional half corny dog that his sister didn't finish. We fear for our grocery budget when he reaches puberty.


Grace looking cute at lunch.


Alex worshipped at the altar of Clifford the Big Red Dog yesterday. He was at the Women's Museum, and we got there for the last half hour or so of his appearance. The kids got on the stage to partake in the story time, but while Grace sat there nicely and listened, Alex couldn't keep his hands off the guy in the Clifford suit. I'd tell him to sit down, which he would do for about 5 seconds, then he'd be up again caressing the red suit.


You can see Alex's hand on Clifford as he ignores the poor woman reading a story.


They had photo ops after the story time was over. Alex went up there probably four times to say hi to him.

The last greeting Alex gave him was one of his "big" hugs, which if you've ever received one you know involves running up with arms outstretched, ending in a big bear hug. I love how Grace is laughing behind her hand at this one. I wish the photo had turned out a little better, but I'm glad we caught it even if it is a little fuzzy.

A very fun, but tiring, day.

Preschool Field Trip

Grace went on her very first field trip last week. We took the kids on a trolley ride and then ended up down in the West Village for ice cream before walking back to the church.

This is Grace's class. She's standing between two of her boyfriends. Two girls and seven boys in the class.

Grace and Dalton eating ice cream.

A few other classmates with their ice cream.

Busy week

Ugh - it's been over a week since I posted. I feel like any of my computer time this past week focused almost exclusively on my hellish volunteer work. I keep reminding myself that it is good that I didn't leave the group in the lurch when I discovered there is no way in hell I'd be able to get my child transferred to their school next year. I'd already committed to doing this big board position that would have been REALLY hard for them to fill had I dropped out. But I still can't stand working on it.

In better news, I got to go hold little 6-day old Gabriel last Monday! What a beautiful child. Almost made me want another, but not quite. It did make me stop complaining in my head about lack of sleep. The next morning when I was standing in the shower, groggy from having gotten up twice with one kid and once with the other the night before, I suddenly realized that I may be tired but it was nothing compared to what Kim and Jav are feeling these days. Having a newborn in the house wanting to eat at all hours (and not always going right back to sleep when done) makes a person tired to their bones. So I figured I just needed to turn the violins off in my head, suck it up and go downstairs and have my morning coffee so I could continue my day.

Last bit of news for the day is since the State Fair opened on Friday, we decided to skip church and head over there first thing tomorrow. Yay - corny dogs and funnel cakes here I come!

Hooray for babies!

I am SO happy. One of my very best friends finally had her baby. I can remember back when Jim and I weren't sure if we wanted to have kids. One of my bosses who I'd known for ages (all of us quite drunken at a bar in Houston after the company Christmas party) was feeding me the line about how you can't know how wonderful it is to have kids until you actually have them. Well, it's true. I try to not spout that opinion myself because I know people who don't necessarily want to have children, and I know Jim and I would have had a very different, but happy, life without our urchins. But we had no idea how wonderful things would be or how much we would love those little guys until we had them. And now Kim and her husband will be able to discover that same thing, which I think is wonderful.

Also, I'm finally reading a book loaned to me by my good friend Christi. It's called "Operating Instructions" by Anne Lamott. It's based on the journal she kept during the first year of her son's life. It is absolutely wonderful. She has some great observations (any woman who has birthed a boy I KNOW has had some of the same penis thoughts - hey, we don't have them so we are a little freaked out by them; plus her comments on the yucky umbilical cord stub are dead on). She also is just an eloquent writer and has some great thoughts that make me smile:

"They took us all to my room, Sam and Pammy and Steve and me, and I nursed the baby for the first time. None of us could take our eyes off him. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. He was like moonlight."

"His hands are like little stars."

And I loved this line, talking about how a friend of hers described how insane it is having a newborn baby around: "He said that even with a mate, it's like having a clock radio in your room that goes off erratically every few hours, always tuned to heavy metal music."

I'm off to Half Price Books next week to find a copy for myself.

Face painting fun

Grace finally experienced face painting this weekend. In the past when the opportunity arose she would always say "No, not today" when I asked if she wanted it done. Yesterday was done by teenagers at our branch library's LibraryFest, so it was not too impressive. But today was at the 20th anniversary party of our neighborhood Whole Foods (the only Whole Foods still in it's original building) and they had one of those really cool face painters there. It was a girls-only afternoon at the party and we had a good time. In addition to her face painting Grace got a balloon animal, we got to taste a ton of different foods, and I won a $25 Whole Foods gift card!

All the other little girls in front of us wanted butterflies, but Grace was determined to get a rainbow.

A better picture of the face art. She also had a little rainbow eyeshadow on the other lid, and until she ate the anniversary cake she had pink glitter lipstick on too.

Of course Alex wanted his picture taken too. Lately he almost always winks when he poses, so we get a lot of pictures like this one.

Little late in posting this

Here's the picture of Grace's first day of school this year with Miss Andrea and Miss Bettina.

Farewell Ann

I couldn't have said it any better than my sister did.

Goodbye Dell; Hello Apple (Help Me Everyone!)

Got a call today from the Dell service guys up at the mall to tell me that NONE of my info on my hard drive was retrievable. So that, combined with the crazy bad service I got from Dell (and the fact that my new computer wasn't going to ship until Sept. 20), made us decide to suck it up and pay the extra to just go ahead and get me a Mac. So I called up the Dell sales number at the store, waited an unbelievable amount of time because they couldn't find my order I'd made THROUGH THEIR STORE, and finally cancelled the new Inspiron Laptop.

Went to the mall after Alex woke up from nap, walked into the Apple store, and walked out shortly after with my brand new computer. I'm now a proud owner of a groovy little white MacBook. Yay!

Here's where I need the help. Since no data was retrievable off the old laptop, I have NO email addresses. So I need everyone to send me an email so I can rebuild my address book. You don't even have to write me a message - just a blank email I can pick up your address off of would do (but I might email you back to get more addresses if I know you have them). Thanks everyone!

Slave to Dell

Well, we discovered today that my stupid Dell Inspiron laptop is apparently disposable. I was informed by the service guys at the new Dell store at Northpark (which I have to admit is terribly convenient) that the hard drive is totally crapped out. To replace that, restore the operating system and recover and transfer my data would run anywhere from $575 to $650. I hop online to find a new Inspiron pretty damn close to what I had (even a little bit better) can be had for $649. And I'm told that my data can be transferred for free if I purchase another Dell (saving me about $200). So much to Jim's dismay, we are now waiting for that new computer to show up - because for some insane reason you can't actually PURCHASE the computer at the store, just place your order and it's shipped in from Austin.

But the new one has a cd burner, which my old one didn't. I'm going to be vigilant about backing up that data every so often, so when this new one dies on me 3 to 6 months past the warranty (which seems to be standard for the ones I get), we actually WILL become a total Mac family.

AAAGH

I got the "blue screen of death" on my laptop last night. I've been up since about 430am listening to poor Alex cough and freaking out about losing everything on my computer. I'm hopping on Jim's computer to check email, etc., but of course all my passwords (including the one for the blog) pop up automatically on my computer, so I'm having to do some serious guessing to get back in to some of my websites.

Mom, I'm calling you this morning to find out who you and/or Christi use now for servicing.

But it's only been a week...

I hate going a week (or longer) between posts.

I've been a little busy lately with my volunteer stuff (church, that my heart is into; and elementary school that my daughter will now NOT attend, which my heart is definitely NOT into). We're enjoying the wonderful holiday weekend; the kids and I are very happy that Jim has an extra day with us. The weather today was awesome; we decided we don't care if the sky is gray if that means the temperature stays in the low 80s. We're looking forward to a visit tomorrow from former neighbors Kevin, Ashley and Izzy. And Grace starts her final year of preschool this Tuesday - Alex starts his first real day of Mother's Day Out on Wednesday - so it should be a pretty exciting week.

Rain!

Hooray - we finally got some rain today. Only 3/4 of an inch, but hopefully more to come tonight and tomorrow. The whole family ended up on the porch to enjoy it. Grace pulled out her umbrella, which hasn't seen much use lately, because she couldn't wait for the rain to stop before she hit the puddles. Alex soon followed. The break in the heat was wonderful. Tomorrow is supposed to have a high in the low 90s. How sad that I get excited about that.

Not too long after this photo was taken, Alex decided to sit on his butt in the puddle. 

Grace looking sassy in the rain. 

Alex was happy to finally get his hands on Grace's umbrella. Guess I need to get him one of his own so he has one a little more manly than Care Bears.